Readers' Favorite

March 2, 2013

Bloggers Needed! Young Adult Tour

Join the whirlwind tour for Schledia Benefield's latest young adult contemporary novel

Wildflowers


Have you ever feared what may be hiding deep within you?

Darkness often skulks in the blood of unsuspecting victims, but Aster McGrath is acutely aware of the violence coursing through his veins. After all, he is the son of a murderer, and everyone in the town of Bayville, Mississippi says he will end up just like his father.

When Susan Blackman moves into town, Aster has already embraced his brutal nature, but her gentle spirit draws him in and slowly melts the icy exterior of his heart. Taming his savagery, she professes her love, but will the good within him be able to overcome the evil lurking deep inside? Or will the fiend break free of its fetters and seek blood?





A GWR Publicity Tour paid for by the author.
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March 1, 2013

Jennifer Loiske: The Book That Wasn't Suppose to be Written



Today I’m gonna tell you a bit about the book I wasn’t supposed to write or better yet, let the main character, Samantha Green, enlighten you as to what happened to her and how she felt about it. So here you go, CLUB NUMBER FIVE, a vampire story that I had sworn not to write and which somehow became the first book in a trilogy called Immortal Blood

This is so typical! She always makes me do the hard work. Oh, well, here goes, all or nothing. My name is Samantha Green. Or Sam as my friends like to call me and a while ago I woke up with two nice fang marks on my neck. So rule number one, do not ever follow a guy, no matter how hot he is, down a dark alley in the middle of the night. Yeah, you guessed right. That would be me who broke that rule and look where it got me. That particular night I followed a guy name Jonathan Blake, as I wanted to make sure he would know that I actually existed. And yes, before you say anything, I promise, you would’ve followed him too.

Jonathan is a bad boy with a body I could die for. Oh, yeah. His clear blue eyes, slow smile and almost six and half feet body covered in black leather makes my knees wobble and butterflies flicker in my lower belly and I can’t even start to describe how annoyed he made me by totally ignoring me. I mean, how hard would it be to say “hi” and give me one of his rare smiles? But no. He just sat next to me, went to the same classes and pretended I did not exist. So, did stalking and following him do me any good? Nope. He had disappeared into this mysterious club and I was left alone in the dark alley. And seriously, I have no clue what happened to me. Except that someone or something had bitten me and since then I started to eat my meatballs raw and drink something that definitely is not strawberry juice.

Okay, now you think I’m a whiner as there sure are some benefits in being the top of the food chain. Immortality for example. That is if you don’t run into the fire or bump into the devious hunters who want nothing but to chop you up and stuff you into the burning oven, which, by the way is a good possibility as I’m packed with bad attitude and a habit to get in trouble. And definitely my new posh looks. I hadn’t been any ugly duck before, but now I look like one of those Victoria’s secret models whose bodies I had always secretly been jealous of. So no wonder that I have to shoo guys away with both my hands. But and this is a big but, there is always a down side too. Like my best friend turning against me. Okay, that was only temporarily, until she came around and offered to be my snack, but it still sucked. And the fact that I discovered Jonathan has fangs too but obviously he’s not the one who bit me. So, who did? No idea. But, his highness does talk to me now and you’d think I’d be all aahs and oohs, but no. That would be too easy as I discovered that Jonathan is not the only fish in the sea and some of the other fishes are, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes, some of them are even hotter than him.

So, if you want to read more about my twisted love life and be a part of my new world, full of secrets, smoking hot guys and me being chased around the city, only because I have fangs, feel free to download my story or grab a copy and curl onto the couch with it. I hope you enjoy it as much as my creator did. And no, this time I’m not talking about that douche who bit me but the woman who wrote the story.

About the Author:

Jennifer Loiske lives in Finland in Naantali, which is a small sunny town on the southwest coast. She has written five books and four of them can be found on Amazon worldwide. She has three different series, Shape Shifter series for YA readers, Immortal Blood series for Mature YA readers and McLean Twins series for Teen/YA readers. The first book of McLean Twins series, BLACK DIAMOND, was just released on January 2013. Jennifer is a workaholic author who is always writing. If she’s not writing blog posts to her own blog, guest post to other blogs, articles to the magazines or her novels she can be found in the forest with her two dogs or surprise, surprise…reading PR stories. She’s also very keen on charity work and a big part of her royalties goes to the charity; mainly to help families with epileptic children but also to the epilepsy units in the hospitals. She has also just published a charity book (all profits go to charity), THE TALES OF AN OLD WIZARD with four other writers.
website  *  Goodreads  *  blog  *  Facebook  *  Twitter

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Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. The views, beliefs, and opinions expressed by guest post authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Girl Who Reads.

February 28, 2013

Book Blast, Blog Blitz, Sponsored Give Away

Whatever you call it, it is all advertisement.

An author is always looking for the best way to reach the most readers with using the least amount of resources. Book Blasts, as they are most often called, have become THE tool to reach the masses on a tight budget. GWR Publicity has recently begun offering Blog Blitzes and Book Blasts (I'll explain the difference as I see it in a bit). Even after just a few events, I've already seen what is working better than others. I've also ran across a few bloggers who are confused what exactly a book blast is and what their role is in it.

Let's start with what is a Book Blast, Blog Blitz, and Sponsored Giveaway?

At the most basic level, a book blast is an advertisement. It is much like the Book of the Day you see at the big book sites. However, Book of the Day listings are often pricey and have a back log months long. To get the same impact (and arguably more) authors have turned to book blasts. They enlist a group of bloggers (typically 50 - 100, but could be more) to run an advertisement as a blog post. It may be in the form of a cover reveal or other promotional content. For bloggers, the posts are usually formatted in html for easy posting.

A Book Blast can range from your standard cover or summary reveal to Sponsored Giveaways (usually gift cards and book swag) to a full blown Blog Blitz (a mini one day tour where at least a few bloggers receive extra content in the form of an interview, guest post, etc.).

A number of factors determine how successful each of these advertisements will be.

Let's turn now to what makes a Book Blast successful? (both for bloggers and authors)

Tip #1 - Determine your goal
Authors may be saying the goal is to get people to buy the book. While that is the ultimate goal, there may be intermediate goals you also wish to achieve. Driving visitors to your website, making people aware of a special promotion offer, or brand awareness in general are examples of intermediate goals. These goals are stepping stones that lead to achieving your ultimate goal.

For bloggers, goals include providing content of interest to their readers, increasing traffic to their blog, sales through affiliate links.

Tip #2 - Determine which blogs to target
Authors: depending on your goals, you may want only bloggers in your specific genre or you may want to reach readers who don't necessarily visit book blogs.

Bloggers should ask themselves is this content relevant to my readers and how can I promote it will be relevant to my readers.

Tip #3 - Determine blogger incentives
If you are doing a sponsored giveaway, it is customary to include social media links from bloggers as entries into the raffle. Some authors also do a separate giveaway just for participating bloggers.

Book Blasts with a sponsored giveaway are a great way to increase the number of followers you have on Facebook or Twitter. Depending on how closely relevant the product is to your readers, you typically see a 1 - 10% unfollow after the conclusion of the giveaway.

Tip #4 - Determine type of event
Book Blast (with or without a giveaway) - all participating blogs post the exact same information. Your target is book blogs and may be more focused on your genre. Make the post visually appealing and textually concise.

Blog Blitz (with or without a giveaway) - at least some blogs will receive extra content. Many blogs share readers in common so being able to offer an "extra goodie" can increase traffic to your blog.

Sponsored Giveaway - Prize is valued at $50 or more and typically includes a gift card or paypal cash. Giveaway, sweepstakes, deal focused blogs will also participate providing a wider audience to see your advertisement. Require participating bloggers to advertise 4 times a week through the giveaway period (this is a standard request among the big giveaway/sweepstake blogs).

*Remember Google penalizes for duplicate content. For Book Blasts, send extra info and/or graphics to allow blogger to customize their post or if it is part of a larger tour, encourage bloggers to mention their stop in the post. Blog Blitz provides for more original content while still focusing on the main message of your advertisement. Bloggers participating in sponsored giveaways should add a couple of lines of original content.

Bonus Tip: Advertising the post as a $50 giveaway will get more traffic than titling it Book Title Book Blast.

Tip #5 Best way to recruit bloggers
Post a sign up form on your website/blog and send out through social media. Ask participating bloggers to post about the sign up for an additional social media link in giveaway or other incentive. Giveaway and sweepstakes bloggers are use to this requirement and will often yield bloggers outside of your normal circle. When doing a sponsored giveaway check out the bloggers listing giveaways at PicketFenceBlogs.com and contact them. For Book Blasts and Blog Blitzes make announcements in Goodreads, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc groups that are relevant to your genre.

I found these tips to work for me and I hope you have great success, too. I leave you with 2 questions.

Authors: Do you have other tips to share? 
Bloggers & Readers: Do you like Book Blast type posts?

If you are looking for more information on blog related media, check out my ebook Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour. 


From the publicist who introduced the world to Fifty Shades of Grey, Donna Huber is now revealing her secrets to successful blog tours. She shares tips and tricks learned through organizing over 30 tours, blasts, and promotional events for nearly 50 independently and traditionally published titles. Secrets revealed in this quick read include,
Planning stage decisions, Different types of tours, Recruiting bloggers and keeping requests organized, Best practice communication tips, Tricks to making a great guest appearance, How to organize a fun (and legal) giveaway, Actions to take during the tour, Next steps once the tour is complete, Virtual tour and other promotional opportunities, When to hire a professional
In this easy to follow manual, Donna does not stop there. She spills even more of her blog tour secrets to help authors get the most out of their events by providing,
Tour checklist, Tour invite tips, Step-by-step guide to creating tour graphics, 10 broad guest post topics, 25 sample interview questions
Amazon  *  Smashwords  *  Kobo

February 27, 2013

Rochelle Jewel Shapiro: Stories Don't Come Easy, Even to Psychics

Since in real life I’m a phone psychic like Miriam, the heroine of Kaylee’s Ghost, you’d think that the book would just be channeled to me like a psychic reading. Some scenes definitely were, but I had to work hard at organizing everything, refining, and making choices over many drafts (and I don’t mean of beer). Initially I knew that Kaylee’s Ghost would be a story about life here on Earth and after we've passed on as well as a domestic drama spanning five generations, a tale about forgiveness, letting go and discovering who we are meant to be, no matter how unusual.

It took about a year of writing to nail down the plot and here it is:

Grandmother Miriam, thrilled that her granddaughter, Violet, seems to be psychic, wants nothing more than the chance to mentor her the way her own Russian grandmother had done with her. But Cara, Miriam’s daughter, a modern businesswoman who remembers all too well the downside of living with her psychic mother, digs in her heels. As things become more fractious in the family, Violet, a brilliant and sensitive child, is torn between her mother and grandmother, until Miriam’s gift backfires, bringing terrible danger to those she loves. Can Miriam put things right in time, or is it already too late?

Through Miriam, I show how visions arise in a psychic’s mind.  While Miriam mentors Violet, she also mentors the reader.  

This is what Dana Kennedy, MSNBC correspondent and New York Times contributing writer said of Kaylee’s Ghost:

“A real-life psychic, Shapiro paints an unforgettable picture of a wife and mother who inherited her "bubbie's" gift.  Filled with characters so memorable, you expect them to come to dinner.”

Hope you read Kaylee’s Ghost during breakfast, lunch, and supper.


About the Author:


Articles have been written about Rochelle Jewel Shapiro’s psychic gift in such places as Redbook, The Jerusalem Post, the Dutch Magazine, TV GID, and the Long Island section of the New York Times. She’s chronicled her own psychic experiences in Newsweek (My Turn), and The New York Times (Lives) which can be read on her website at http://rochellejewelshapiro.com.


Her first novel, Miriam the Medium (Simon & Schuster) was nominated for the Harold U. Ribelow Award. Besides her psychic practice, Shapiro teaches writing at UCLA Extension.
website  Twitter

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Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. The views, beliefs, and opinions expressed by guest post authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Girl Who Reads.
 
 

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February 26, 2013

Review: The Journey (Northwest Passage #2) by John A. Heldt

Have you ever wished you could go back in time with all the knowledge you have now and do things a little differently? For Michelle Preston Richardson that wish, whether she wanted it or not, came true. In The Journey by John A. Heldt, Michelle finds herself transported back to 1979 and coming face to face with her younger self at a life defining moment - senior year of high school.

What follows is a sweet story of self-discovery for both Michelle and Shelly. For Michelle, it is about creating a new life for her 49 year old widowed self along with a slightly new identity in 1979. Part of that new life is righting the "wrongs" she had lived through, which set many on a different path.

In Heldt's first novel in this thematic series, The Mine, the main character was careful not to alter the past any more than his mere presence already had. Michelle is not concerned, though she does question what might result, and actually is intent on making changes.

What would you do if you found yourself thrust into the past and not sure you could ever return to your time?

Answering that question is part of the fun of reading Northwest Passages. Heldt's characters are realistically crafted and ordinary enough that readers can put themselves in the character's shoes. And for readers who are a bit of a history buff, there are interesting historical facts sprinkled throughout.

There is nothing over-the-top or super outstanding about The Journey, but it is a solid story providing great entertainment. Spring Break is around the corner and if you are looking for entertaining reads, The Journey should be on your list.

Book Info: ebook, published November 2012
Source: Author
Read: February 2013

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Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. A free book was obtained from the source mentioned above in order to provide an honest and free review.

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February 25, 2013

Bloggers Wanted: James & Syvok Adventure Prize Pack Giveaway

Want more fans?
Want to offer your readers a chance at an awesome prize?

Children's author Wendy Nystrom is sponsoring a A James and Syvok Adventure prize pack Giveaway March 13 - April 3

Prize Pack: (valued at $50)
1 signed Helga Returns print book
1 signed James Saves the Moon print book
3 book marks
4 silicone bracelets
1 troll
1 $25 dollar amazon gift card

To participate in this free event, sign up on the form below. Each participating blog gets one social media link (Facebook Fan Page* or Twitter) listed on the giveaway Rafflecopter. A promotional post will be sent to you prior to March 13 for you to post on your blog announcing the giveaway. 




A GWR Publicity paid promotional event sponsored by author Wendy Nystrom.

*Each Facebook Fan Page will be listed individually on the Rafflecopter in compliance with Facebook TOS regarding giveaways.

Meet the Author: Brandi Megan Granett

When I was a kid, everyone called me weird. At first this stung, and then later, I accepted it, wore my weirdness as a badge of honor. I wore crazy clothes, had pink hair, and liked punk rock music in the age of grunge. I wrote stories on paper and in my head. I took spelling tests as creative writing assignments; I worried my favorite English teacher.
And then in college I discovered creative writing and the world of the short story. I read, Because it is Bitter, and Because It is My Heart by Joyce Carol Oates and Self Help by Lorrie Moore and Crash Diet by Jill McCorkle and suddenly, I found that I wasn’t so weird. Or that maybe if I was, writing presented an opportunity to invite people into my world, so they could see things through my eyes. If you are in charge of the fictional place, it can’t be judged or ridiculed, it exists as you created it.

So I set out to tell more stories, to write about people that face life in new ways, ways people could call weird, but in my fiction, it’s just called life. Then I learned how to teach other people how to tell stories so they too could create their own worlds and share their own points of view. If more people told their stories,  both real and imagined, the world would be a lot closer to tolerance and understanding. I believe that story telling, the long tradition that enable humans to learn and retain knowledge through generations, is still needed to bridge gaps between people and heal the fracture of our time.

So, I still like crazy clothes, have blue hair, and listen to both punk music and grunge, and I still write stories, hoping to share my little slice of the world with you. So thank you for reading, and it was nice to meet you. If you want to tell me why you write, I would love to hear about it on Twitter or Facebook or the comments below.

Twitter  *  Facebook



The characters of Cars and Other Things that Get Around span all ages and genders, yet each faces the same question: where do I go from here? There’s Marilyn and her boyfriend waiting for the ovarian cancer screen results, Vita waiting for Joe to notice their long time friendship was really the first step toward something more, Samuel, an Amish man, waiting for his wayward son to come home, Helen facing the dawning realization that dementia is bearing down on her, and Delilah waiting for Markus to love her instead of the money she makes for them turning tricks.


Cars and Other Things That Get Around is the first collection of fifteen stories by Huffington Post blogger and author of My Intended (Eagle Brook/Morrow, 2000) Brandi Megan Granett.


Buy the Book! Amazon  *  Smashwords

Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. The views, beliefs, and opinions expressed by guest post authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Girl Who Reads.

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February 24, 2013

Featured Book: Four Paws by The Quillective Project

Cover Release and Book Blast!

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Four Paws - Quillective Project 2013

The Quillective Project's mission is to turn the power of the written word into an instrument of compassion, hope, and generosity by putting that power directly in the hands of organizations that share our principles.
The 2013 Quillective Project is Four Paws, a poetry anthology featuring bestselling authors Scott Morgan, Ben Ditmars, Amber Jerome~Norrgard and Robert Zimmermann, with a "fourward" by Russell Blake.
100% of all proceeds from the sale of Four Paws will benefit The Dallas Humane Society's no-kill shelter, Dog & Kitty City. Your purchase of this book makes a difference.
The project collection goes live on February 24th, 2013 on Amazon.com. For buying information check on The Quillective Project website.
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The Quillective Project began as an idea as a poetry collaboration between myself and Robert Zimmermann, and not long after, it expanded to include Ben Ditmar, Scott Morgan and Kriss Morton. Originally slated to be released around Christmas, that idea was changed when Ben suggested having all the proceeds go to benefit a charity. And an idea was born. Why not make 100% of the proceeds benefit a worthy cause, not just for this one book, but for future collaborations between Amber and other authors? Why not start something that has nothing to do with anyone in particular but using the combined voices of many and the power of the written word the Quillective Project can benefit those who are not as fortunate.
Even if someone sees this poetry book and doesn’t buy it, if it inspires them to go out and make a positive change in the world, no matter how small, that alone is priceless. And this isn’t just a one time benefit. As long as the organizations that are chosen as beneficiaries for The Quillective Project’s yearly collaborations are in existence, they will benefit. Every time a book is purchased, whether one week, one year, ten years, one hundred years from now? It's still going to benefit each organization.
Please support the project and make a difference in the lives of the animals of Dog and Kitty City.

100% of all proceeds will benefit www.dognkittycity.org

MORE WAYS TO HELP: The Ellen Degeneres show highlights Acts of Kindness and paying it forward. Please go to: http://www.ellentv.com/be-on-the-show/682 and tell them about The Quillective Project’s 2013 Anthology, Four Paws. Include the links www.dognkittycity.org and www.quillectiveproject.org.
For more information, please visit the following sites. If you are interested in helping out, signup for more information HERE:
Humane Society of Dallas County - Dog & Kitty City Shelter

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Quillective Project | Four Paws - The Book | Dog & Kitty City

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