Reviewing Books

In recent times, I have been asked by other authors to review their books. It is an honor for me to do so.

As an author, I like to be part of a writing community of authors supporting and helping each other. What better way to build a network of like-minded individuals than to help each other grow? Reviewing is one such process.

There are a few things to keep in mind when reviewing a book:

1)What kind of book review is it - do they want an extensive review or just a blurb?

2)Where will the review be submitted to? - on the author's website only, or on Amazon.com, etc?

3) There may come a time when reviewing an unpublished book in pdf form that you might see errors. It is all right to approach the author and ask if they'd be interested in having you make comments in the pdf file. If they agree, just click on the comment icon and it will open up on the side of the page. Type your comment, then click the x. It will store the comment. Then save the pdf file under a revised name.


Besides helping the author with your review, when you sign your name at the end of the review (your name and the name of your book), that is an easy way to promote yourself and your works.

Nobel Prize Winner dies at Age 103

Nobel prize winner, Dr. Rita Levi Montalcini recently died at the ripe old age of 103. She was very active into her 100s, working in science, and later in politics. She was born in Turin, in 1909, and never married.

Due to the war, she moved around with her family, changing their name. Eventually, she came to the United States and worked in research.

To read more about this wonderful woman, please click the link below:

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/scimedemail/la-me-rita-levi-montalcini-20121231,0,4732404.story

10 Tips to Promote, Promote, Promote

Occasionally, I get asked by another Greek American author about promoting books, and I thought I'd compile the steps I took in promoting my books to the Greek American market. If you're not catering to the Greek Market, you might consider organizations that revolve around your market:

1) Make sure you have a website (or wordpress, or blog) that includes your bio, your books, and where to buy the books. An online presence is critical in this time of social media. Update it regularly. Check out my site as an example: http://www.pattyapostolides.com

2) Join Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Make a Facebook Fan Page. If you want to attract likes on your page, go to http://www.worldlitcafe.com  to sign up for more likes. Become active. Get a following.


3) Sell your books through a Greek American organization like AHEPA or Daughters of Penelope (DOP). It would help if you're  a member, too! You can start by sending a book to the AHEPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., like I did, and ask if they'd like to read/review for their AHEPA magazine. Also, the DOP have a book club, and you might want to contact them, too.

4) Contact all the Greek churches in the states with a flyer describing your book. Include ordering information. You can go on the archdiocese website (http://www.goarch.org/parishes/) to find parishes. Ask them to post the flyer on their bulletin, or give to their Philoptochos society.

If your book does not have offending material in it, your chances are better, you can even ask if they'd be interested in buying books for their library. I have sold many books through these outlets. I have also spoken through several church and Philoptochos events this way (NJ, PA,NY).


5) Contact your churches in your local area to see when they'll have their church festival. Sign up for the festival and be there to sell your books! Expect to pay a small fee for your table. You'll need a white table cloth, books, flyers, and a willingness to talk for hours at an end. Also, your local church might have a book club, or over fifties club, or even a cultural group you can talk to. I did book signings at all these groups at my church.

 6) Contact your local community newspaper. Send them a book and ask for a book review. Do the same for local magazine. They're always looking for new material.

7). Contact the Orthodox Observor, a newspaper of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese (http://www.goarch.org/news/observer.) They do post community events, and when you publish your book that is a community event! Also, you can place an ad in there, I did a few times and got sales that way, too!

8) Mail order : This one's a tough one, but if you can get a mailing list, and send flyers to individuals, your rate of sales goes up dramatically. I still get Christmas cards from readers who I've maintained contact all these years. A reader just sent me a Christmas card asking me "when is your next book coming out?" Isn't that wonderful?

9) Contact your local library -  they typically have rooms where your can sign up to do a talk and booksigning. You can list this event in the newspaper and community news.

10) Contact your local bookstore - I left this one for last because they've given me the least book sales, but they do give sales.

Did you notice that the word "contact" has shown up several times here? This is a proactive situation. You need to be very active in promoting your books, and if you don't make that "contact" then your books will just sit there in your closet, collecting dust.

I made a lot of book sales over time using the above methods, and if you are a Greek American author, or even an author interested in different avenues of promoting, I hope you do well, too!

Languid Thoughts

Sometimes I see something beautiful in my life, like this evening sky from my backyard. How wonderful it was to capture the moment with the camera! The colors in the sky were amazing and I wrote a little poem to go along with it.

Our thoughts can reach many heights, and when we capture them by writing them down, anything is possible. Poetry is one avenue of capturing thoughts.

Dare to dream, and you open the door to life.
Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated our Thanksgiving by beginning the day with a prayer of thanks. There are so many things to be thankful for, our health, our loved ones, the roof over our heads, etc. It's not only on this day we should be thankful, but every day of our lives. I consider each day to be a blessing. Having gone through so many losses in my life, particularly through the departure of loved ones, I do not take anything for granted.

After our morning breakfast, the family went and played tennis at the nearby tennis courts. The weather was in the mid-50s, sunny and lovely. It was fun running around hitting and catching the little balls. Afterwards, I prepared the meal while everyone watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on TV. It was a joyful occasion with nice music and dancing. There were several public schools involved and I enjoyed watching all that young talent on the screen. I particularly liked the elves.

In the evening, after the Thanksgiving meal, we played a board game followed by watching a favorite movie, "Sense and Sensibility." I chose this 1995 movie because it has influenced me in so many ways when I was writing "The Greek Maiden and the English Lord." Emma Thompson did a wonderful job in weaving drama, humor, and music into this wonderful, wonderful story by Jane Austen. One of the humorous  parts of the movie, were  the "F Major" theme. In addition, there were several  dramatic parts, or highlights of the story: when Elena realized her sister was dying, when Marianne walked in the rain the second time and stood looking at the mansion of Willoughby, when Elena realized Edward was not married, and so on.  The acting was fabulous and my favorite actors were Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson. How did all this influence my story? Read my story to find out! It is available FREE until January 2013 at the following site:

The Greek Maiden and the English Lord

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop Coming November 21!

Greetings!

I recently joined what's called The Next Big Thing Blog Hop! I have never done one, and was excited to have been tagged by Maria F. Karamitsos, associate editor of the GreekStar newspaper in Chicago and author at https://fromthemommyfiles.wordpress.com/
and I look forward to participating in it on November 21!

The way it works is like a chain letter, one author answers several questions about themselves and about their writing, and at the end of that session, list five other authors who will be answering their own questions and "tag" five other authors, and so on.

It is a great way for an author to gain exposure, as readers move from one blog to another, reading about their favorite authors as well as learning about new authors....isn't that great?

I hope you return next week to read more about me and get a chance to see what other wonderful authors have to say about themselves and their writing!

See you then!!

Tips for Authors

 Tips for Authors: 

This is what I learned from the book "Stand Out Social Marketing" by Mike Lewis -
 
Social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, push content away from the viewer very quickly. In the first hour after you post something on these sites, only 34% engagement was observed in 10 days, as compared to other sites like Flickr, which earned 82% engagement in 10 days. Also, Youtube, Flickr and WordPress

experienced upticks for the first 24 hours, while Facebook and Twitter, dropped dramatically in the first hour of publication.

The best way to get your work out there is to build a landing page (website, blog) and drive traffic to it to maximize exposure. You can sign up for a free blog through Blogger. Directories such as Digg, Reddit, and Stumbleupon help drive additional views to your content.

Also, use Video (Youtube) and Photos to share with your readers.

One of the things that we often encounter in life is our being treated like everyone else - we go to school like other students, we work at a job like other employees, we shop like everyone else, we all have social security numbers. This can feel demoralizing at times, as we search for our identity. But we are all unique, and even though we feel different at times, remember that there is no one in the world like you. Even twins have differences.

God created each and every one of us to be unique and loved just for ourselves. We deserve the best that life offers.

Do not underestimate your worth.

This poem was written as an uplifting and inspiring moment by Ipatia (me). Enjoy!