Ask Me Anything - Converting PDFs by Emailing them to your Kindle

Today's questions is one I am asked all the time.  It's asked several different ways so I'm not quite sure what the best way to word it is. Something like this...

How can I convert a PDF to a Kindle readable file? How to I email a review copy to my Kindle?

This is so easy to do and yet I've found so many bloggers don't have a clue that it can even be done.  Many ebooks I received are in PDF format.  I won't read them on my computer and reading them on my Kindle in PDF format make me crazy.

Thankfully it is so easy to convert them to a Kindle readable file.  All you have to do is email them to your Kindle email address with a subject line: CONVERT

Finding your Kindle Email Address

When you are logged in on Amazon.com place your cursor over Your Account near the top right of the screen.

When the box pops up click on Manage your Kindle.

Now look in the left hand column and find Mange Your Devices.

Click on it and you will see your Send-to-Kindle Email Address.


Now all you have to do is email the PDF file to that address.  The subject line of your email needs to be: CONVERT

The next time you turn your Kindle on by your wireless internet access point your document will automatically download to your Kindle.



TIPS

In order to receive a Kindle document via email it must come from an approved email address.  To add email addresses simply click on Personal Document Settings in the left column.

You will see a list underneath Approved Personal Document E-mail List where you can add & delete approved email addresses.


TIP
While there be sure to set your Maximum Charge Limit for Whispernet Delivery Options to $0.00.  You definitely don't want any surprise charges on your account!




Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Scheduled Links AKA Permalinks

Today's questions is one I am asked all the time.

If I schedule a post how can I send you the link ahead of time?  What is a permalink?  

First what is a permalink?
It's a "permanent link" that goes directly to a specific post on your blog.


Example:
If you click this "Permalink" it will take you to my very first blog post:
http://www.iamareader.com/2010/06/i-am-reader-not-writer.html


In the past there was not an easy way to grab a permalink in blogger before a post was published.  It was easy for those who used wordpress but blogspot users didn't have an easy way to generate one.  Thankfully that changed last year.


Why bother with Permalinks?
I often schedule posts ahead of time and want to send the link to an author or blog tour host to let them know.  Once a post is created I erase it from my calendar so I'm horrible at remembering to send as link once the post actually goes up. If I grab a permalink and send it at the time I create the post I don't have to remember to send it once it is published.


How to Generate a Permalink:

-When you are editing your post simply look in your right column.

-Find the word Permalink and click on it.

-You can then grab the permalink that is automatically generated or you can create a custom permalink as I did with this post.  

The automatic permalink for this post would have been: http://www.iamareader.com/2013/01/ask-me-anything-schedule-links-aka.html

Instead I created a custom permalink: 
http://www.iamareader.com/2013/01/Permalinks.html

Easy as can be!  Although I rarely create custom permalinks I just let blogger automatically generate them.

Tip:

You need to be aware that permalinks are based upon the title of your blog post.  If you change the title of your blog post before publishing it the permalink will change.


Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Backup Your Blog & Custom Domain Name

One of my friends just had her blog removed by blogger because they labeled it as spam.  It's a good reminder to me to back up my blog!

There are lots of sites online that easily explain how to do it.  It is so simple to do in blogger.

Go to your blogger dashboard
Click on Settings
Click on Other
Click on Export Blog
Click Download Blog

If you are in wordpress I can't help but a simple search will show you lots of sights showing you how to do it.

Also I did purchase a custom domain for my blog through blogger. I may choose a different domain name eventually but for now this is what I have:

http://iamareader.com

I didn't want my full blog name because it is too long so I just used the first part of it.

There are a few things on my blog that are not working properly yet such as the Search gadget but hopefully soon everything it will all work.

Still unsure about how it works but it's something I've been going to do for a long time and finally did since blogger has made it so easy and so cheap to do.

For now http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com still works too!

Ask Me Anything - Cutting Costs on Giveaways

Today's Question comes from Natalie @ Literary Rambles

Do your ads cover your postage and book hop giveaway costs? I give away a lot of books and don't want to stop but wonder if there's a way to cut costs.

At this point yes my ad revenue does cover the cost of postage and the gift cards I giveaway.  However that has not always been the case.  The first 2 years I had this blog I spent a lot of money on shipping and giveaways.  It wasn't uncommon for me to shell out $50-$75 a month sometime more.  Reading & blogging are my hobbies. People pour a lot of money into their hobbies be it exercise, scrapbooking, movies, skiing, going out with friends, shopping, etc.  As I don't spend money on most of those I'm willing to invest both time and money into reading and blogging.

Yes giveaways can be expensive however there are ways to cut costs.  I wrote a post last year about some of the things that can be done to offset the cost: The Price of Blogging.

The ideas in that post are still valid.  The only thing I have added is accepting ads through blogads.  For your blog to show up on blogads' sales page you need to have at least 3,000 page views a week.  It is kind of hit and miss.  Some months I sell ads and get a check others I don't.

Don't forget to always use media mail if you are shipping in the US.  I couldn't afford to do many giveaways if I had to ship first class or priority.  Nothing says you have to give away brand new books.  Some of my first giveaways were books from my own shelf or books I had found at garage sales or library sales.

Blogging doesn't have to cost any money. Giveaways are not a requirement. The library has free books and there are tons of free ebooks to download. The market is so saturated with new books that there are tons of authors desperate for reviews.  Many of them are willing to offer a giveaway or send you a review copy that you could then use for a giveaway.

The world of books & blogging is changing quickly.  I never would have guessed how quickly ebooks would become the norm instead of the exception.  I imagine within the next year we'll see a huge decline in printed ARCs and see we'll more and more books that are available only as ebooks.  More and more giveaways will be for ebooks only and that will remove a lot of the current cost of giveaways.


Now that I have rambled and gone off on a tangent I ask you - 

Do you have any other ideas on how to keep costs under control?  

What is your opinion on giveaways?  

What do you think of the prominence of ebooks? 

Do you think the blogging and book markets are saturated?

Where do you see the future of book blogging and reviewing headed?



Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Blogging, Word Verification & Spam Comments

Anyone else getting spammed by annoying comments?  Blogger is really good at catching them so they never actually show up on my blog but I get an email sent to me anytime someone comments on my blog.

Here are a few recent spam comments I've received.

This one cracked me up:

Amazing! This blog looks just like my old one! It's on a completely different subject but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Wonderful choice of colors! Feel free to visit my web site:

Since I have a custom designed blog I don't think it could possibly look anything like her old blog.

Here's another one that was on a post that didn't have a video:

Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to read? Also visit my web site:

Write more?  The title of my blog is I Am A Reader, Not A Writer!

Personally I really dislike word verification/captcha so I don't have it enabled on my blog.  I get quite a bit of traffic on my site and haven't had too many issues with spammers.  I get a couple spam comments each day but they go right into my spam folder.  To be safe I have my settings so that comment moderation is enabled on all posts over 14 days old. Even still Blogger catches nearly all spam comments even on newer posts and they end up in my spam folder instead of being published.

Do you have many problems with spammers commenting on your blog?

Do you use word verification on your comments?  If so why?  Have you tried turning it off?  If so what happened?

Do these comments actually do any good and make it through to actually be posted anywhere?

Ask Me Anything - The Price of Blogging

Today's Question is one I am asked all the time.

How do you afford to do so many giveaways and buy so many books?

Please be aware that this is just my personal opinion and experience... I'm not suggesting anyone follow what I did... just sharing some ideas that have worked for me.

1. Pay for it Out of Your Own Pocket.
When I first started seriously book blogging I paid for everything I did out of my own pocket.  I bought books for giveaways and paid to ship them or I gave away books that were sitting on my bookshelf. Once I'd been blogging for a while I had piles of review books sitting around and being someone who rarely ever reads a book more than once I decided to start giving them away. (Soapbox - Personally I don't think it is honest to sell a book I receive for review so giving them away to others seemed like the best thing to do). It wasn't uncommon for me to spend $50 to $75 a month on gift cards, books and the cost of shipping.   I justified the expense of so many giveaways because I wasn't buying the books - I was receiving review copies for free so I thought nothing of paying $3 or $4 to ship them on to another blogger or a giveaway winner.  However over time I realized just how fast these expenses were adding up.  When I hit $100 in one month I realized this was not something I could afford to keep doing so I looked for other ways to finance my reading/blogging hobby.

2. Have Giveaways Shipped by Authors & Publishers.
One of the first thing I did was to start asking authors and publishers to send the books directly to the giveaway winners instead of to me.  Prior to that review & giveaway copies were being sent directly to me.  By not having to ship them out myself it cut my expenses drastically but didn't completely eliminate them.  I still wanted to giveaway books. I run a lot of giveaway hops and I don't end up with enough time to ask authors & publisher to provide books for those hops so I provide the books myself.  I needed a way to fund these giveaways.

3. Use an Amazon.com or another Rewards Credit Card to Earn Points.
While shopping on Amazon they had a deal where you could save money off your purchase if you opened an Amazon.com Credit Card. Since I love Amazon and use it way too often is seemed like a good fit for me.  I started using my Amazon.com Credit Cardfor groceries and miscellaneous expenses. I paid it off in full every month so there were no interest charges and I started to rack up a lot of points that I could then use on Amazon.com for books.

4. Join MyPoints
I have been a long time participant on MyPoints.  It's a rewards program that gives you points for reading emails.  I joined the program back in August of 1998.  Since then I have earned over 50,000 points and regularly redeemed those points for gift cards.  Once I started blogging I switched from getting Olive Garden gift cards to getting Amazon Gift Cards so I had the ability to buy books and gift cards.

5. Try Swagbucks
Another way I earn Gift Cards is through Swagbucks.  Honestly I find Swagbucks a little annoying and I don't use it very often but it's an easy way to earn $5 Amazon Gift Cards.  You can complete offers or use their search box or search toolbar and earn points.  Once you have 450 points you get a $5 Amazon.com Gift Card.  It's easy and they do send the codes out.  Of course you can earn lots of other things from them too but I've stuck to Amazon.com Gift Cards.





6. Become an Amazon Affiliate
The only place where I am an Affiliate and have actually earned something is Amazon.com. Most affiliate programs have such high thresholds before they send you a check or gift card that is is nearly impossible to hit the minimum and actually receive something from them.  I've tried several of them but Amazon.com is the only on that I have actually earned something from on a regular basis.

You simply place banners or links on your site and if people click through and purchase you earn a small commission.  They don't have to purchase the item you are featuring.  Anything they purchase after having clicked through from your site counts. I got lucky one month - someone bought a Wii and a printer through a link on my site so I earned over $20 that month.  The next month I only earned $2.50.  Commissions carry over each month so if you don't hit $10 one month you might the next.

Once you hit $10 they will email you an Amazon.com Gift Card.  If you earn larger amounts they will send you a check.



The commission earned is small. Usually just 4% to 6% but overtime it can add up.

*Whenever you shop Amazon.com use an affiliate link to shop.  Whether it is on my blog or another blog you enjoy it's an easy way to help someone out.  You don't have to purchase the item they are featuring, any purchase you make will help support that site.
Edited to Clarify: Amazon will not pay a commission to you if you purchase through your own link.

What is Amazon’s policy for Associates placing orders for themselves?

You may not purchase products during sessions initiated through your own Associates links and will not receive referral fees for such orders. This includes orders for customers, orders on behalf of customers, and orders for products to be used by you, your friends, your relatives, or your associates in any manner.

7. Adsense
If you have a blogger blog it is really easy to enable adsense ads on your blog.  This places google ads in your sidebar & under your posts.  The threshold for payment is high - I think it is $100 so unless you have a lot of traffic to your blog it will be a long time until you see a payment.  The funds roll over to the next month and I think in January I will finally see a payment come my way.  With Adsense you earn money by impression & by click throughs. As tempting as it may be you can't click on any ads that show up on your own site or you will be disqualified from your earnings, also you can't encourage others to click the ads or have a friend click them for you or it will disqualify you from receiving a check.  Adsense tracks IP addresses and if the same address shows up multiple times it red flags your account.  I will occasionally click on ads on other blogs but I'm cautious.  I know it is a way for bloggers to make money but I make sure the ad is something relevant that I'm really interested in before clicking on it.



So those are my suggestions to help offset the cost of blogging.  Of course blogging doesn't have to cost anything.  Books from the library are free (as long as you don't rack up late fees - have I mentioned how much I hate late fees!) and giveaways are not a requirement of blogging.


How about you? Do you have any suggestions for how to pay for blogging & giveaways? What has worked for you?

Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Social Media Share Buttons

Today's Question comes from ME!  I know I know a little odd but I learned a great trick I want to share!

How do you get the social media buttons to appear below a blogger post like you have on your blog?

I searched for at least a half hour trying to figure out how to get social media share buttons below my blog posts.  I found several sites that had the buttons I wanted but I couldn't figure out how to get them to appear on my blog.  I found one site that was easy to use addthis.com.  I just didn't love the way the buttons worked.  I finally emailed three different sites asking how they got the buttons on their site.

If you are wondering what I'm even talking about here is an example of what I wanted.

I heard back from 2 blogs who both told me the same thing. They had no clue. Lori from Imagination Designs did their blog and she got them on there. I had to laugh because the 3rd person I had mailed asking was Lori. I heard back from her and it was so simple I can't believe I spent so long trying to figure it out.

Here is how you do it. Log into your blogger dashboard and click on Design.  Find the box in the middle that says Blog Posts and Click on Edit.

Then check the little box by Show Share Buttons

It's that simple to get these Social Media Share Buttons to show up below your post. They allow people to easily share your post on Twitter, Facebook, +1 on Google, email or blogger.

Thank you Lori for the great tip.  Be sure to stop by her book blog or design site.   I love her work!!

Please take a minute and get these added to your blog!  There are many posts I would share if the blog had these buttons in place to make it simple to do.

Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Social Media - Twitter, Facebook & Triberr

Today's Question:

How do you use Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites?

I am actually fairly clueless when it comes to most social media sites.  I have mainly used facebook and twitter. I have the RSS feed from my blog sent to my facebook page and my facebook feed get sent to Twitter. It's been set up that way for a long time. To figure out how to get this set up I simply did a google search for "how to import a blog feed to a facebook page" and followed the instructions on a site I found. Since facebook is constantly changing I'm sure they way I did it is now obsolete. I did a similar search and fed my facebook page to twitter. I'm sure there is an easier way but I don't know it.  I think there are sites out there that will do this for you.  If you know of one that works well please share.

Whenever I put up a blog post it automatically appears on my facebook page and then as a tweet on twitter. If I post something on my blog's facebook page it will then automatically be turned into a tweet and appear on twitter. Pretty handy for people like me who don't have enough hours in the day to spend time on my blog, facebook and twitter.  The only thing I don't like is that sometime the wording of the tweets appear a little odd.

In the past I used facebook quite a bit but haven't used it much lately. It keeps changing and I feel lost every time I visit.

Recently I was invited by a fellow book blogger to join her Twitter Tribe on Triberr. It has forced me to finally start to figure out and use Twitter and I'm really liking it. I've seen a big increase in my Twitter following in just the few days I've actively used Triberr. I currently belong to 4 tribes on Triberr. A Tribe is a group of individuals who have something in common. I belong to 2 Book Blogger Tribes, a Young Adult Lit Tribe and an LDS author & blogger tribe. Your tribemates retweet some of your tweets for you. It only takes about 5 to 10 mintues a day to look at your tribe's stream and approve tweets to be retweeted.  It has made twitter much more fun for me because it now seems like a group of "friends" I'm interacting with and following.  If you are interested in trying out Triberr send me an email and I'll send you an invite.

There are lots of other social media sights out there. I have a an account on Klout, and Google Plus but haven't learned to use either of them effectively yet. There are lots of other social media sites out there as well.  I just haven't had the time to learn about them and use them yet.

So tell me. What are your favorite social media sites?

Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Comments

This question comes from Sandra at The Musings of a Book Addict.

I have difficulty getting people to leave comments. Besides asking a question on each post, what other tips do you have for getting people to leave comments?

I hear you and honestly I'm clueless on how to get people to comment.  Obviously requiring a comment to enter a giveaway is one way but I'm pretty sure that is not the answer you are looking for.

I for one an not really a "commenter".  I read a lot of blogs but don't comment very often so I don't expect to get a lot of comments on my blog.

I've tried several things but never with a huge amount of success.  It seems like posts where opinions are shared seem to bring out more comments.  But it is not very often that I make a post full of my opinions.

One suggestion I do have is turn off word verification for comments.  It discourages people from commenting.  If you are getting spam then change the settings to require comment moderation on posts older than 14 days.

And make sure you have enabled comment notification so you receive an email whenever someone comments on your blog.  You can then comment on the post as well or stop by their blog to leave a comment.

These steps are easily taken in your blogger dashboard.  Click on Settings and then Comments.

Do you have any suggestions for how to get people to comment?  Please share!


Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Time Spent Blogging

This question comes from cyn209:

How much time do you spend on your blog, & going through other blogs??????

And this one from Carol Wong:

Do you ever feel that the blog is too much work to maintain? I am curious but I don't think I would ever have enough energy to do what you do.

The amount of time I spend on my blog varies from day to day and week to week. I usually spend at least an hour each morning getting posts ready and answering emails and then I regularly check email and visit other blogs throughout the day.  When I sit down for lunch or just need a break I post a giveaway.

There have been days I've spent 4 or 5 hours working on my blog to get caught up. This morning I had tons of giveaway winners that needed to be chosen and it took me a couple hours to get that done. Monday I'll spend most of the morning working on the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop linky to make sure everyone has their post up.  Then of course there is all time I spend reading. Reality is I spend way to much time on this "hobby".

There have been times when this blog has felt like too much work to maintain. When my son got sick earlier this year I cut way back. I went from over 100 posts a month to just over 50.  I blog because I enjoy it. If it ever becomes a burden or too much work I'll cut back.

Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Reader Demographics

This question comes Milla (a happy brazilian girl) =D

Considering only the people that follow the blog by GFC, how many are from overseas?
How many are from Brazil? Because I know that brazilian people visit a lot of international blogs. I am one!

I can share some demographics about my blog but I don't know of a way to figure out where just my GFC followers are from.

In my recent reader survey one of the questions was Where Do You Live?

Here are the answers that were given:
795 US
53 Canada
37 Australia (I spelled it wrong on the survey, one person answered with it spelled correctly)
38 United Kingdom
14 Philippines
12 Brazil
11 Malaysia
7 Mexico
7 India
6 Romania
5 Czech Republic
5 New Zealand
5 Spain
5 South Africa
4 France
4 Germany
4 Indonesia
4 Singapore
3 Belgium
3 Italy
3 The Netherlands
2 Ireland
2 Finland
2 Venezuela
2 Denmark
2 Bulgaria
2 Europe
2 Hungary
2 Puerto Rico
2 Norway
1 Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Trinadad and Tobago, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Suriname, Pakistan, Iran, Morocco, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Israel, Chile, Austria, Fiji, Greece, Honduras, Estonia and Croatia.

If this is an accurate picture of who reads my blog then 75% of my blog readers come from the US & 25% live outside the US. 1% of my blog readers come from Brazil.

If I look at my all time pageviews in my Google Stats this is what I see:

Do you have a question for me?  Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything: Blog Buttons

This question comes Shelby @ Lost in A Book

How do you get the blog button URL when using Picasa photo editing?

Honestly I'm the wrong person to ask!  I am not that familiar with Picasa.  My skills when it comes to photo editing are basically non-existent.  Lori Lawson from Imagination Designs did the graphics for my blog.  I have a really cool snipping tool that allows me to easily crop any image on any site and save it as a new picture.  Other than that I can't do much when it comes to graphics.

I can't find anywhere on Picasa to grab a URL so I don't use it.

When I need to create a button or graphic I just upload an image to photobucket.com and edit there.  Photobucket is easy to use and simple.  The image is hosted on their website and I grab the URL code off that site.

Blog Buttons:
As far a creating an actual button again I'm pretty clueless. I found a tutorial once that taught me how to do my first one.  Now I just copy and paste the code I used from one button into a new HTML/JavaScript window and then change the link to go to the correct place on my blog and change the link for the picture.

This is what the HTML/JavaScript looks like for my current Spooktacular Blog Hop Button in my sidebar.

All of the above probably makes little sense to anyone but me so please check out these links for a better tutorial on how to make a button.  They really are very simple and a great addition to your blog.

Make Your Own Button for Blogger: Oikology 101
Blog Button With Text Code: A Heart for Home
How to Make a Blog Button: Amy Lynn Andrews
How to Create a Blog Button: Savvy Blogging

Do you have a question for me?  Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Author Interviews & Giveaways

This question comes from Erika @ One a Day Y.A.

How do you set up your author interviews for books you are also reviewing? Do you wait until after you read the book or send them the interview beforehand? How long does it usually take for authors to get back to you with their answers? What is the best method you've found for getting authors interested in participating on your blog?

Perhaps I should rename my blog.... I am a Rambler, Not a Writer... Warning... Long Rambling Reply Ahead!  And an apology... I don't intend to post these Ask Me Anything posts this often but I hit publish before scheduling this for a future date.

In all honesty my reviews and interviews are typically separate and not connected. The only exception is if I am participating in a blog tour. The way I do things has changed over time so what I do now would not be the same thing a blogger who is just starting out would do.

My turn around time for reviews is not very fast and I have to turn away most requests I receive for book reviews.  I hate to turn people away so instead I feature the author's book by doing an author interview in conjunction with a giveaway.  I know some bloggers aren't comfortable doing this and won't feature a book unless they've read it, but my philosophy is different.

In my recent reader survey I asked the following question:

I feature a lot of first time & self published authors on my site - what do you think of this? Part of the reason I do this is because I feel everyone deserves their 15 minutes of fame and I know it's hard for unknown authors to get their books out there so I like to give them a chance.

This was an optional question and I was surprised by the answers I got.

1055 people filled out the survey - 948 left a comment to answer the question.  I read through every answer and there were only a couple dozen people who didn't like that I featured self published authors. I honestly thought this number would be a lot higher. Their reasons were that often the books are poorly edited or that they just don't read self published books because they don't have time or hadn't had good luck with them.

The other 900+ responses were along the lines of - Wonderful, I love it, Great idea, awesome, amazing, thanks for doing this, etc.  Looks like I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

So here is how I set up my interviews & giveaways.

When an author contacts me for a book review that I can't accept I reply with something like this:

I am currently behind on my reviews and not accepting anything new at this time.
If you are interested in having your book featured on my site details about doing an interview & giveaway are below.
I have put together a list of Reviewers who are accepting books: (I include the link to my spreadsheet).
Thanks,
Kathy

I then cut and paste my Interview/Giveaway information in to my reply.
For the interview I send a list of 50 questions and ask them to pick their favorites. Currently I require a giveaway in conjunction with an interview unless I'm the one approaching an author.
For the giveaways I host the giveaway on my site and then send the author the winners information.  I ask where they are willing to ship to and which format of their book they are giving away. I ask them to attach pictures, their bio, book cover & summary, links to their website & social media sites, etc.  I also ask about their target audience and the rating they would give their book (G, PG, PG-13 or R) and why.  I include the following:  (Please be aware that I do not read or promote books full of strong language, graphic sex or gratuitous violence).

Once I receive their response the interview/giveaway goes into my "Ready to Post" file and I post interviews & giveaways in the order I receive them.

If the author has filled out all the information and included everything I need it doesn't take me long to get a post up.

Approaching an Author to do an interview or giveaways:

You are probably thinking... that is all great but I don't have authors emailing me asking for book reviews.  How do I get started?

First - Make sure your blog is established. Unless you already have connections (perhaps your family member works for a publisher) you need to have an established blog that you have been posting on consistently.  If you aren't there yet then work on your blog by posting reviews, connecting with other bloggers, building a following... There are no numbers that say your blog is ready... each blog is different.  I was contacted by authors before I started contacting them.  It doesn't have to be the same for you.

Next - Start small!  If you think you are going to email Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks or some other big name author and get an interview you are probably going to have your dreams dashed.  I still get ignored and rejected when I ask for things.
If you start with a lesser know, first time author you will have better luck.  So find a new author whose book interests you and read their book. It doesn't have to be self published but you'll likely have better luck if it comes from a smaller publisher.

Then - Contact the author. Tell them you just read and loved their book and would love to feature them on your site by doing an interview.  Share a link to your blog or review of their book.  And then go find another book and try again. Don't be frustrated if you don't hear back.  Just move on to the next book.

I'm not sure I even answered the questions Erika asked...

How do you set up your author interviews for books you are also reviewing?
Typically my reviews & interviews are separate.  I'll often do an interview & giveaway without doing a review or post the interview and giveaway now with my review being several months in the future when I finally read the book.

Do you wait until after you read the book or send them the interview beforehand?
Usually I don't contact authors for interviews unless I've read and loved their book. If I contact an author I will do just an interview.  If they contact me I will do an interview/giveaway without reviewing. In the past I have contacted many author who I knew were trying to promote their book and asked if they would like to do an interview/giveaway or have their book reviewed.  At this point most of the authors I feature have come to me.

How long does it usually take for authors to get back to you with their answers?
Most authors get back to me within a week.  If I don't hear back I assume they are not interested.

What is the best method you've found for getting authors interested in participating on your blog?
I send them a message telling them I enjoyed their book and would love to feature them on my blog.

Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Saying No & Negative Reviews

This question comes from Liz @ Fictional Candy

How do you say "no" to an author, publisher, editor whose book you don't want to read? Or even harder, after you've started reading and realized you aren't going to want to continue, or can not give them a positive review?

Saying "no":

When I first started getting requests to review books I accepted all of them and read all of them even if it was a book I would not normally choose to read.  I was thrilled just to be asked to review their book and found some wonderful new books & authors.

Unfortunately it didn't take long before I could no longer keep up this practice because I had too many requests.

I wish I could still say yes to every request but I don't want to waste an author's money by having them send me a book I don't have time to read and review.  I've become very selective in the books I accept.  Unless it is a book I am planning to read I usually reply that I am currently at least 6 months out on reviews and not accepting anything new at this time.  There are a lot of books I would love to read that look appealing but I can only read so many books each year.  So more often than not I have to turn down a request for a book I would like to read.

I do want authors to know that it doesn't hurt to ask!  Currently I usually only accept books from authors and publishers I have worked with in the past but once in a while a book jumps out at me and I agree to review it.

I maintain a spreadsheet of readers who are accepting books to review. (See Post HERE).  Whether I accept a book or not I include a link to that spreadsheet so they can find other reviewers who might be a good fit for their book.

If it looks like I book my readers might enjoy I include information about having the book featured on my site by doing an interview & giveaway.

Negative Reviews
I rarely write a negative review.  If I can't get through a book I usually stop reading so a review never gets written.  This hasn't happened very often but when it does I just email the author and say this book wasn't for me so I am not going to review it.

Here is a couple of examples of email I've sent:

Thank you for asking me to review your book.  Unfortunately I didn't love the book so I'm going to hold off on reviewing it for now.  I'm sure there is an audience who will enjoy your book but it just wasn't for me.  If you would still like a review posted I will go ahead write one.

OR

Thank you for asking me to review your book. Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me and I was unable to finish it.

You can add more details if you would like but try to be as kind as possible.  Authors put their heart and soul into their work and even though they try to have "thick skin" negative reviews hurt.

So what do you do if you have to post a review of a book you didn't love?
Try to find something positive about it. I don't claim to be the expert at doing this.  I'd much rather skip a review all together but there are times I've had to post a review because I agreed to do so for an ARC tour or Blog Tour.

Here are a few example of reviews I wrote on books I didn't love or couldn't finish.
Compulsion
Slayed
My Journey

I hope that helps a little.

Please leave a comment if you have any ideas on how to say no or what you do when you have to write a review for a book you didn't like.

Do you have a question for me? Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Types of Blogs

This question comes LuAnn from Reading Frenzy.

What do you think of book blogs that also feature other items in the reviews, such as household products, clothing, etc.?

The answer that first came to my mind came from Doris Day...



Que Sera, Sera!
Whatever will be, will be.

There are so many different types of blogs from personal blogs to business blogs, blogs about music, travel, movies, politics, blogs that focus on giveaways, mommy blogs, review blogs and of course book blogs.

I would say that if a blog is not focused mainly on books then it would more likely be classified as a "review" blog instead of a book blog. If a blogger who focuses mainly on books decides they want to feature something else on their blog more power to them.  That the great thing about blogging... you can make your blog into whatever you want it to be.  I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do things, just different ways.  And thank goodness for differences or this would be a very boring world.

Do you have a question for me?  Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.

Ask Me Anything - Followers

Today's question comes from Larissa at A Three Way Tie.

How do you get SO many followers!? I would love to have like a third of your followers, lol. Anyway, any networking advice you can give to a blogging novice would be nice!

First off - Don't judge a blog by the number of followers.  I have a lot of follower, I'm grateful they have been to my blog and found a reason to follow.  HOWEVER I know that many of them have only been here once and followed simply to enter a giveaway.  They have never come back and never will.  A blog may have tons of followers but there is no way to know how they gained those followers or if they have ever come back again.  There are also many other ways to follow a blog besides Google Friends Connect.

In my recent reader survey I asked how readers followed my blog.  Here are the results:

Those who checked "other" most often said RSS feed.

Although GFC is the most popular way my blog is followed there are other ways people follow it.

Current Followers:
2662 Facebook

1212 Email Subscribers

4998 Goodreads Friends

829 Networked Blogs

2894 Twitter

5280 GFC

Like I said before I'm grateful for everyone of my followers but personally I think my "stats" are a much more accurate view of my blog. If your blog is hosted by Blogger you can view the stats for your page views.

If you want more information about those who visit your blog I recommend you install a free widget from a site like Statcounter.com.  It is a hidden widget that those visiting my blog don't see but it gives me a lot more information than what is available in Blogger.

Even page views are not even an accurate account of how many people read a blog.  If someone reads a blog in google reader you doesn't actually visit the blog they won't be counted in your page views.  Email subscribers often read your posts in their email and don't actually visit a blog so again, no page view.

My point is simply this... Don't be overly concerned with followers, the numbers are not always an accurate picture of a blog's true following.

Now on to answering the actual question... How did I get so many followers?

First off I must confess if I had things to do over again I would probably do them a little differently. But as they say hindsight is 20/20. Like most people when I started blogging I was fairly clueless and did some things that seem silly to me now.  For my first 1,000 followers I cared about the numbers.  I had a goal to hit 1,000 followers and the numbers mattered to me.

So knowing that follower numbers are not all they are cracked up to be here are some suggestions for ways to gain those followers.

I think many bloggers have a "Field of Dreams" mentality - "If I build it, they will come". The reality is there are thousands upon thousands of book bloggers out there.  You could have the best blog around but if no one knows about it they aren't going to visit your site.

So here are some ideas for getting your blog out there.

Follow my Blog Hops
Parajunkee.com & Crazy-for-Books.com host weekly blog hops that have a goal of helping you grow your following and connect with other book bloggers.

These are "You follow me, I'll follow you" hops.  My suggestions is to look over the list and find blogs that are similar to yours.  Visit their site, follow them and leave a thoughtful comment about their blog with a link back to your blog. My hope was that for every 2 blogs I followed I would gain 1 new follow on my blog.  Many of these blogs are just starting out and are looking for followers for their blog and are willing to follow you if you follow them.  If I had it to do over again I would have been a little more discriminating in the blogs I followed. I participated in these weekly hops for a couple of months and that is where my first followers came from.

Memes
There are dozens and dozens of book memes that you can participate in.  First off what is a meme?  Most of what book bloggers participate in are not true memes but it's the term that we use (click here for a definition of memes).  An example of a popular meme is In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren.  Each Sunday Kristi posts a message that shares all the books that she's received that week. She then allows bloggers to leave a link to their In My Mailbox post.

Find a couple memes that you like and participate in them weekly.  A future post will be dedicated to all the Memes that are out there.  Don't make the sole focus of your blogs memes, rather choose a few that appeal to you and take part in them each week. Visit the other sites that participate and leave a thoughtful comment on their post with a link back to your blog.  A comment like "I follow you, please follow me back" is not thoughtful.  Share something you like about their blog or a comment about something they said in their post with a link back to your blog and they will likely visit your site.  If they like what they see then they may follow you.

Giveaways
Another way to gain followers is by hosting a giveaway.  A giveaway does not have to be expensive.  You can giveaway a used book you have and ship it via media mail for less than $3.  Many of my original followers came from my Nearly New Books for You Giveaways.  This is something I haven't done lately but will be bringing back starting tomorrow.
My personal philosophy is different from most. I believe it is better to share books than have them sitting on a shelf unread. Most of my books never get reread so I prefer to pass them on to others and let them enjoy them.  I've learned that there is a "shelf life" for books since most of my books from childhood are now brittle, brown and falling apart.  So instead of keeping books I give them away.
When I am giving away one of my books and paying for shipping out of my pocket I don't see a problem with asking for someone to follow me to enter.  I know opinions of this vary and I don't believe there is a right or wrong, just different ways of doing things.

Most of the giveaways I now host are shipped directly from the author or publisher so I don't ask for someone to follow me but instead have optional entries that promote the author or publisher.

If you do host a giveaway make sure you spread the word.  You can have the most amazing giveaway but if people can't find it they won't be able to enter.

Got Great Giveaways on my site is one place you can share your giveaway but it's not the only place.  
Try some of these:
Link a Contest Thursday @ The Book Monster
Full to the Brim - Kids Book Giveaways (Fridays) @ Brimful Curiosities
Fish For a Free Book Friday @ Lori Calabrese
Saturday Situation @ Candace's Book Blog
There are groups on goodreads & bookblogs.ning for sharing giveaways.  Tweet about them with the hastag #giveaway, etc. Get the word out!

Social Media
Another way to build followers is through social media.  Personally I'm not a huge facebook or twitter fan, I just don't have the time.  But I have a facebook account and a twitter account and my blog feed automatically posts to both sites.  These are a great way to build a following and many people have had great success using them.

Goodreads
Personally, I think goodreads is the most underutilized tool for book bloggers.  Goodreads is a social media site for book lovers.  What is the best book you have ever read?  Find that book on goodreads and then look for people who love that book too.  Check out their shelf.  If they have similar tastes then friend them. When you post reviews at the end leave a line that says something like:
"As reviewed on I Am A Reader, Not A Writer: http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com".
This will let them know you have a blog and if they like your review they will likely visit your blog.

Connect with Similar Blogs
Find blogs that review books similar to what you review and comment, comment, comment.  Bookmark their site and visit often.  Leave comments, ask if they want to swap buttons, interview them on your site, etc.  Visit the sites of people who comment on their site, visit the blogs they link to, etc.

Giveaway Hops
Finally try participating in a giveaway hop.  I host a lot of them and I join most of the ones hosted on other blogs.  Again you don't have to spend tons of money.  You can giveaway a used book with media mail shipping within the US only for just $3.  A $10 amazon.com gift card draws a lot of entries on my blog.
I would suggest keeping your giveaway as simple as possible.  Many people are turned off by a long list of things they must do to enter a giveaway.  I get the most entries when I simply say "please follow this blog at least one way (goodreads, GFC, twitter, facebook, email, etc.)" and then have them fill out a form to enter.  My form giveaways always get more entries than when I ask people to leave a comment with contact info.

I hope these ideas help.

What do you think?  I'd love you hear your thoughts.  What is the best way you have found to gain follower?

Do you have a question for me?  Send me an email toobusyreading(at)gmail(dot)com or fill out the form below.