Good News: Reading Is Still Popular

When Free Isn’t Really Free – Guest Post by, Jaq D Hawkins…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

One of my pet peeves in marketing is when someone offers something for free, but it isn’t really free. For example, recently I clicked on a free sample for a cosmetic, only to find that after getting your address details, they ask for a credit card because to get the free sample you have to subscribe to receiving a jar of cream every month and according to reviews, trying to cancel it is a nightmare! I closed the window and moved on.

In the realm of book sales, giving away free books has been a legitimate tactic since the indie publishing culture started. In the early days, free sales on Amazon would bump your sales figures and bring your book into that coveted top 100 where full price sales would follow. Amazon changed that so that the free books don’t affect the paid sales figures, but many authors still do…

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How to Connect With Your Readers

A Writer's Path

by Meg Dowell

The writer-reader connection is delicate.

Possibly one of the biggest challenges new writers face is figuring out how to create a bond between themselves and people they may never meet face-to-face.

How do you connect with someone in such a way that they feel you’re speaking only to them?

How do you make a stranger feel like someone, finally, GETS IT?

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Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Summer #Sale – #Free Books – Olga Nunez Miret, Paul Andruss and Sally Cronin

Book Giveaways in 2018

chrismcmullen

Image from ShutterStock.

BOOK GIVEAWAYS

Two of the most popular methods that authors and publishers use to hold contests for book giveaways have changed.

• Amazon Giveaways have undergone a series of changes.
• Goodreads Giveaways changed significantly as of January, 2018.

So 2018 is a good time for a new post regarding how to host a book giveaway.

WHY HOST A GIVEAWAY?

A giveaway is one tool that authors and publishers utilize to help with book marketing.

Following are the main goals for a book giveaway.

• Help create buzz and initial exposure for a new book release.
• Give the author a chance to call attention (in other forms of marketing) to a contest, rather than always calling attention directly to the book.
• Hope that some of the winners will write book reviews.
• Hope that the winners love the book so much that they help with word-of-mouth sales.

When a book is…

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Darkness Defines the Light – Guest Post by, Tina Frisco…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Image courtesy of Ningren

Without darkness, light would have no definition. Without evil, good would never be challenged to expand. Without definition and challenge, there would be no growth. Without growth, our spirits would not evolve.

Many indigenous peoples say the Earth is a schoolhouse and we incarnate here in order to learn. This makes sense only if we view the spirit as separate from the corporeal. If we do, then advancing to higher consciousness and an elevated spiritual plane holds great promise for human transcendence.

The Earth is a bipolar planet. Since all matter converts to energy, we can infer that our lessons will be of a bipolar nature. Darkness and evil are not, in and of themselves, our enemies. When we set up something as the enemy, we constrict and lose all prospect of growth. When we see adversity as our ally, our growth potential expands and accelerates.

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Let Us Keep Our Hearts Open – Guest Post by, Tina Frisco…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Figure 1 Courtesy of Lucie Stastkova

It is easy to close our hearts; not so easy to keep them open. Or so it seems …

When we experience emotional pain, a common human response is fight or flight. Become angry or shut down. Neither of these reactions solves anything, and both can cause serious health problems if sustained over time.

Fear is the culprit in any action or reaction that is not love-based. It obscures awareness and keeps us ignorant of its deleterious effects. It constricts our bodies, imprisons our minds, catapults our emotions, and darkens our spirits. When trapped in fear, it is impossible to keep our hearts open.

If we close our hearts to one, we close them to all. Open is open and closed is closed. At one time, this was a difficult concept for me to get my head around. I thought I could open and…

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Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Update – Malia Ann Haberman, David Lawlor and Geoff Le Pard

Keep Your Kids Reading! Reading is a Good Thing!

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Negative Self-Judgment – Guest post by, Tina Frisco…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Image courtesy of Ningren

The people we tend to be hardest on are ourselves. Some folks are an exception to this, but it seems to be true for most of us.

While I was in Pennsylvania helping care for my mother, I fell into judging myself… harshly… a lot.

I should be doing more. I should move back to Pennsylvania in order to help my sisters meet my mother’s needs. I should not feel guilty that my nephew gave up his bed for me and is sleeping on the couch for five weeks. I should not be afraid to drive a (huge) van for the first time in my life, down unfamiliar winding roads, and over freeways and across bridges under construction. I should be able to stick with my dietary regimen and exercise program, even though I am constantly on the go and thoroughly exhausted.

How often do we…

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