Book-Reviewer Interview I: Tina Chan

Writers need quality reviews to help sell their books. Readers depend on honest reviews when trying to decide whether or not they should invest in a book. During recent years, more and more bloggers have joined the business of reviewing books, traditionally or independently published. Maybe I shouldn’t call it a business since the majority of them receive no compensation except for a free copy of the book. “There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence.” (Samuel Johnson) Whether their reviews are professional critiques or personal opinions, they play an important role in the literary world and we ought to be grateful for their valuable time and insights.

Having worked with several of them, I’m highly impressed by what they are capable of accomplishing (it’ll take me at least two weeks to finish a book, assuming I don’t abandon it halfway). If you are interested in knowing a little bit more about them, here are some reviewer interviews you may enjoy.

Reviewer Interview #1: Ms. Tina Chan. The Book Landers.

1. What made you decide to build a book-reviewing website? What are your favorite genres?
I decided to run a book review website since I love reading and already post several reviews on Goodreads, so starting a book blog seems only natural.  Also, as an author myself, I know how valuable honest reviews can be.  I read a huge variety of books, but my top five favorites are: YA dystopian, mysteries, sci-fi, YA fiction and steam punk.

2. How many requests do you receive weekly or monthly, on average? How often do you post your reviews? How do you arrange your reading and reviewing time?
On average I receive about 3 review requests; less on non-busy weeks and more on busy weeks (up to 10 a week!)  I try to post a review every 3 days, though I admit I have been lagging lately with my posts.  The order of the books I review usually follows a first come, first served basis; I might make an exception for hard copy books--they might get bumped up a few spaces and get reviewed faster.  I read whenever I have free time--commuting, before bed, in the morning.  I try to save 1 hour a day to read; I would happily read 6+ hours a day if I could!

3. Do you feel the pleasure of reading being hindered when the author has a deadline or keeps bugging you?
It is almost impossible to devoid me of my pleasure when I'm reading a good book.  I know authors have deadlines as well so I do my best to meet them and as for authors bugging me about getting a review posted--well, that hasn't happened yet!

4. What criteria do you use in selecting the books you want to review? Do you also consider existing editorial or customer reviews?
I dislike giving bad reviews, so I aim to pick books I think I will enjoy reading. I may read some existing editorial/customer reviews, but they don't affect my decision whether I do or do not read a book that much unless the reviews are overwhelmingly positive or negative.

5. Do you only post good reviews (e.g., do nothing about a bad book or send the author a private note)? Have you ever received “hate emails” after you turned down a request or published a negative review?
I post honest reviews.  I always try to look on the positive side of things; I believe 99% of the books have something good about them.  If I don't like something about a book, I will state it but I won't bash a book/author.  Bottom line for all my reviews: honesty.  I haven't received hate mails yet *fingers crossed* :-)

6. How do you think about self-published books in general? Do you find typos and grammar issues often? Are they getting better?
I treat self-published books with the same respect I treat books published via the traditional route; whether an author chooses to publish through a publisher or self publish doesn't change the fact he/she spent their time and effort into penning the writing. I do find that self-published books have a bit more grammatical (usually spelling) errors, but it's enough to distract me from my reading.  Also, I understand that getting a book professionally edited is very costly (could be well over $1000 for a full length novel) and you average person just doesn't have $1000 lying around (I know I don’t!)

6. Would you like to tell us briefly about your background and day job (if you have one)?
I currently only have a part time job at a restaurant, but during my free time I love volunteering at the library (planning programs, organizing book shelves, etc.) I also love to run and look forward to my third half marathon :-)

7. Do you have anything to say to authors/publishers who would like to send you review requests in the future?
Like I mentioned before, I have a very wide interest in all types of books.  I encourage authors/publishers to send me their works to review and even promote.  I love hosting author interviews and discovering new favorite authors.

Thank you so much, Tina, for helping authors get their books discovered! We look forward to reading your future posts!

Visit the website: The Book Landers

Dirty Tips for Goodread Giveaways

There are many good tips out there and I don’t want to repeat them. Below is what I found useful.

1. Don’t waste the “book description” window

When readers browse through the giveaway lists, they only see a tiny portion of the whole book description, and many authors waste it by repeating “Join and get X copy/copies of XXX”. Well, the title is already above the window, and it is very clear how many copies are offered on the right side of the window. You are simply wasting your best chance of talking about the book. 

A lot of authors put editorial reviews or blurbs written by another author there. I’m currently running a giveaway, and below is what’s showing for mine.

“A fast, entertaining read that feels a bit like a roller coaster, pulling you along at breakneck speed through twists and turns. - San Francisco Book”

Okay, the last word “Reviews” was chopped off, but it got most of the juicy part.

2. List it for a period slightly longer than a month

What determines the order of books in the “Ending Soon” list, which is most frequently visited? Just take a look and you’ll find out that the longer the giveaway period is, the earlier a book will be placed in the queue. Since Goodreads suggests listing for a month, assuming most authors follow that rule, by making yours longer than a month, you’ll get a higher chance of being placed on the first page of the list. If you set it to 3 months, your book may be the top one.

3. Don’t set up the giveaway too early

Yes, the common advice is to set up your giveaway a few days before the starting date so that the Giveaway staff can have enough time to approve it. The argument is, if your book gets approved midday, you’ll miss the early half of the day. If you follow that advice, however, your book will show up at the BOTTOM of the “Recently Listed” list, several pages down. For my present giveaway, I sent out the request on the previous day, only three hours before midnight (pacific time). My book appeared on the first page, but there were still several titles above mine. Those authors probably sent out their requests on the morning of the starting day. Yes, their book would stay on the list for < 24 hours, but how many people check Goodreads at 3am? It’s worth it!

4. Don’t specify that the copy is “autographed”

I know, this is against common advice. I admit that, by putting AUTOGRAPHED COPY in that small golden window, more people are likely to join the pool and even add your book to their “to-read” shelf. However, more is not necessarily better! Without the AUTOGRAPH, if a reader adds your book, even thought he may not like it enough to ever buy it, he is showing an interest and probably will read it. If somebody adds your book only because the AUTOGRAPH, he either likes collecting signed books, or hopes to sell your book at a high price one day you become famous. In other words, recruiting participants who will never read your book only reduces the chance of having your book fall into the hand of a reader who’d love to read or even review your book. Think about it! And you can always sign it before you mail it out.

And speaking of the “to-read” shelf, I know it feels good to see that so many people have added your book, but it seldom means anything. Every time I saw a reader having three or four thousand books on the to-read shelf, I wanted to ask, “Do you realize that if you read one book every single day, rain or shine, it’ll take you 10 years to go through your shelf?”

And a final conclusion: This is why everyone should’ve gone traditional publishing. Those self-promotions are wasting our precious time that could’ve been used for writing our next books!

Being a writer

Being a writer is like being in a relationship---never pretend to be someone you are not. If we don't say what we really want to say, we are just wasting everyone's time.

How to make an effective book trailer (Part II)

We talked about choosing the right words for your book trailer. An equally important aspect is the display of the words.

1. Size and font

I would generally avoid overly large font sizes that result in multiple lines. For example, compare

Unless you make the second screen too small to read, generally speaking the first example takes more effort to read. I personally hate having to generate multiple visual saccadic movements within a short time (I study neuroscience).

About choosing the right font. You could follow the guidelines of choosing the font for your book cover. For example, you certainly shouldn’t use an elegant font for a horror, unless you intend to create the contrast and it works. In general, I would stick to simple and clean fonts like Arial for the ease of visualization. The best font is the one that the audience doesn’t notice what font is being used.

2. Pacing

When you write the book, pacing is manipulated by choosing the desired sentence lengths, adding or omitting descriptions/actions. You can’t control how fast the reader physically reads each word. With a video, you have a lot more control, and you should take advantage of it. Without hindering readability, you could customize the appearance of each word/clause/sentence, rather than setting up a fixed pace for the whole presentation. When done well, it can help achieve great effects. The book trailer for INTO THE VAST is one of my favorites, even though it doesn’t have fancy images.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWD86W6c7SI

In the first half, the words appear at a slow pace, building up fear and an eerie feeling. It speeds up during the second half when it introduces actions. The music is also a great help, but let’s talk about that later.

Rule #3. Don’t make the audience work too hard. If you choose to build a slideshow typed trailer with a set of photos, I would say, try to limit the number of photos and have words on each photo. Why? Let me give you an example. Say you have three photos. The first one shows a plate of fruit. The second one shows a dog sitting in front of a house. The third shows a woman looking at a mirror. This will make the audience wonder what message you are trying to convey here. Is the woman afraid of getting old or fat, so she eats healthy food? Does the dog at the door resemble her longing for a visit from someone? In fact, all you want to show is an ordinary housewife’s life. So do not leave your audience wondering. You are not making a full-length movie here. You are advertising for your book. Tell them explicitly what you want to say.

To be continued...

How to make an effective book trailer (Part I)

What’s the best way to market your book? No, the answer is not “to make an effective book trailer”. The answer is --- do everything, and work hard! I can safely say so, because if you were an established author who got a team working for you in a major publishing house, you wouldn’t be reading this post. You are most likely a self-published author, just like me, waiting for those bloggers to write book reviews for you. Their reviews can help you a lot. However, just like anything else in the world, it’s always good to rely on what you can do. There is always something you can control.

I know you wrote a masterpiece, but I don’t know what it is. Neither do millions of readers who may enjoy it. No, wait! Don’t go ahead and make a book trailer and publish it on Youtube. Hold on! Don’t try to reach out to the readers unless you’ve studied them carefully. They are all different, but there are common traits.

Rule #1. They are called “the modern impatient readers.” The best length of a book trailer should be 30 to 60 sec, roughly. If you are someone I know, I’ll watch through your 2-min trailer. Otherwise, I’ll most likely quit in the middle, even though I know the best stuff is usually kept at the end (Is it?). Don’t blame me, or the other million readers like me. The Internet has so many goodies. One minute is a long time.

Rule #2. Readers are overwhelmed with their choices. Your trailer has to be strikingly different from or better than other trailers in your genre. Why? Because otherwise, why should they read your book instead of someone else’s? You are likely to have five to ten sentences in your 1-min trailer. There should be at least one sentence/idea that is completely unpredicted, and it’s better to be the ending sentence. The rule varies with genre, but ideally, every sentence should be unique, impressive, or unpredicted. I’ll use my trailer as an example. Sorry, you’ll have to bear with my self-promotion if you want to finish this post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxAJSrX8AwM

Here are the sentences that appeared in the trailer:

“An agricultural country in a modern war.” This adds contrast. It wouldn’t have worked if it were “An industrial country in a modern war”.

“Two brilliant men and one manipulative woman.” A-man-and-a-woman implies something. “Two” provokes interest. (Don’t get me wrong. I don’t write erotica.)

“Old wisdom vs. advanced technology, which wins?” Another contrast, but this one is quite common.

“Failure vs. truth, which is more unbearable?” I like this one a lot. It makes you wonder what kind of truth it is.

“Death is neither the worst nor the end.” I don’t need to comment on this one, do I?

The words in the trailer serve as a pitch. They don’t need to cover the major story. They don’t even need to be accurate! For example, the woman is not just manipulative. Above all, she is a sweet, smart, upright, and powerful woman. However, these words are not as “interesting”. The sole purpose of the wording is to HOOK. To make the readers want to read the book. They’ll have plenty opportunities to find out about the woman later. Hook! But of course, the words need to be relevant; otherwise readers will feel cheated.

To be continued …

Author Interview – Fiona Rawsontile

By Terraverum

Having an interview with us today is newly published Fiona Rawsontile, author of ‘The Starlight Fortress’.  I enjoyed this interview so much and I’m really grateful to Fiona for giving her time to give us a little glimpse into her story and world. Her views and writing process really intrigued me and not only did my imagination expand with her answers, but my inner writer was inspired as well.

What caused you to want to write this particular story?
I had vivid dreams about war even as a little kid. It’s a topic that always horrifies and fascinates me. When my father was in the navy, he sometimes took me to those veteran retirement parties. I remember watching those big men hugging one another and weeping. The smell of wet metal and the sea. I knew one day I’d write something about war. That was inevitable.

Was there a specific thing or occasion that inspired you to begin?
Nursing, hehe. I began writing the book after I gave birth to my son. He nursed a lot, and I spent hours lying in bed every day, my mind filled with all those characters and voices. In fact, the story was initially about Geneva and Charlie, the perfect gentleman. Then Geneva hired her military assistant, Sterling, a smart but otherwise ordinary guy, and I said to Charlie, “Sorry, you are not my hero anymore.”

Read More …