10 May, 2014

Debdatta Dasgupta May 10, 2014 0

#BookReview :: Prisoner, Jailor, Prime Minister by Tabrik C.

India has a new Prime Minister but is Siddhartha Tagore the product of his genius or of his dangerous mind?

India is on edge, as a subversive internal revolt against the Constitution and the threat of Jehadi terror of an unthinkable level, are looming on the horizon. Ringing Shivas damaru in and out of Parliament, a sudden turn of karma catapults outsider Siddhartha Tagore - a conflicted genius, music maestro and prodigal son, with forceful views on China and Pakistan into national prominence as the head of the Opposition Alliance and finally as the newly elected Prime Minister of a disturbed nation.

But buried secrets are being resurrected and threaten to expose the past. Twisted within the double helix of menacing politics and hidden lust, Prisoner, Jailor, Prime Minister is a scorching account of Siddhartha Tagore's fascinating journey from Harvard to 7 Race Course Road.

The book chronicles the life and journey of Siddhartha Tagore, an aristocrat from Calcutta, a believer in education, a musical maestro and also the Prime Minister of India for a short period. As he becomes a man in power with a bold personality and a man with a vision for the nation, there are people who would love to bring him down. With a ‘past’ to hide, Siddhartha faces all the challenges that are thrown at him. But is he strong enough to maintain his position in the shadowy world of politics?

The first thing about this book that catches a reader’s attention is its plot. It is not every day that IWE churns up a political drama for us to read. As such, I was personally intrigued by the book blurb and decided that this book would skip the queue. I may not be a fan of Indian Politics but this book not only captured my attention but also kept me engaged throughout. The flow of the story is smooth and the twists and turns that Siddhartha’s life takes are intriguing. But the stronghold of the book is the character of Siddhartha himself, a bold and dynamic personality that has many shades. I have no doubt that if he was a real person in the Indian political arena, I would be getting in line early in the morning to vote for. The supporting characters in the book do a bang up job to add flavours to the story. It is safe to say that all the characters in the story were well fleshed out.

Also, I have to point out that the book doesn’t seem like the work of a debut author. Instead it has the feel of a maturity in the writing style that usually comes from years of storytelling. Beautiful language, awesome narration and brilliant descriptions complements the plot and its characters.

All in all this is a ‘different’ IWE that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and would recommend you to give a try.

08 May, 2014

Debdatta Dasgupta May 08, 2014 1

#SpecialFeature :: #Excerpts from The Fragile Heart by Ankit Jaiswal

Now Presenting:

*** SPECIAL FEATURE - May 2014 ***

Jai, a sensitive, emotional and an introvert guy, is speechless when he sees a girl in school for the first time. He is mesmerized by her charm and beauty. He sets on a roller coaster ride along with his two friends and classmates, the dependable Raj and the adorable Rahul to find out her name. Rahul comes out with a master-plan which enables Jai to find out the name of his dream girl. Destiny favours Jai as he not only finds out her name but also gets to meet her. Fleeting moments, some coincidental and some anticipated, spent with her make Jai overcome his inherited conservativeness and he decides to propose her. But he still lacks the courage to convey his feelings orally and he resorts to communicate in a way he is excellent in: the magic of his words! He puts his heart out in the letter which he writes to propose to Geeta. Jai is awaiting her response, craving for his proposal to get accepted, but she disappears. He comes to know from a common friend that she not only leaves the school but also the city. Jai shatters; his fragile heart is broken into pieces. Destiny plays its tricks again when Jai discovers Geeta’s letter in a book in library. Geeta superficially throws light on her limitations to accept his proposal and chooses neither to disclose him the true reasons behind why and where she shifted to. Jai is devastated and with solitude as his lone companion he sets for an objective to get admission in a decent engineering college and leave behind his city, Kolkata, which became synonymous to Geeta for him.

He migrates to a new life in Bangalore where he finds a friend-in-need in, the flamboyant Arun and an untrustworthy Ashima, who also happens to be Raj’s girlfriend, for company. Though he continues to battle against the trauma of the mysterious absence of Geeta, life takes a quirky turn in his second year when his junior, the cherubic and bubbly Riya bumps into his life. She tries to fill in the void in which Jai had survived so far. Riya and Jai bond over time but both are reluctant to initiate things further. Jai is in a situation where Geeta is in his heart but Riya is in his mind. But the mishap when Jai is bullied by a secret admirer of Riya on the eve of fresher’s day exposes their feelings for each other. He comes out of the tangle of emotions, encouraged by Arun, and eventually surrenders himself to Riya, who also overcomes her reluctance for a relationship. He feels emotionally-employed. Raj snaps his ties with Jai thinking that he intentionally kept him in dark of the developments between Ashima and Alok, a classmate of Jai.

Riya and Jai continue to sail nicely in their relationship before Jai gets a job in a bank in Mumbai. Jai gets a friend and manager in the eccentric Partho Da, who also happens to hail from Kolkata. They connect well due to their Bong connection. Things start to take an unexpected trajectory when Partho Da invites Jai for Holi celebrations at his place. Destiny reintroduces him to Geeta who happens to be the niece of Partho Da. The mystery behind Geeta’s absence starts to unfold when Ritwika, cousin of Geeta, narrates what made Geeta disappear so abruptly. It was due to her mother’s cancer treatment that her family shifted to Mumbai. Her father tried all he could but couldn’t save her mom. She explains how Geeta too was concerned for Jai. Despite of being under so much constraint she was bothered whether Jai would have got her response letter. But when things started to fall in place she tried to approach Jai, but only she could find out from Raj that Jai got into another relationship in college. Raj plays spoilsport, most probably avenging Jai, as Jai wasn’t yet in a relationship that time.

Jai feels very guilty to discover the harsh reality of the past. He decides to meet Geeta personally one last time to conclude things between them, exchanging apologies for their unforgettable past. But Riya’s possessiveness does not allow him to move ahead. He manages to eclipse his strained state of relation with Riya when he comes to know from Partho Da that Geeta’s family is in search of a match for her. But Jai’s planned encounter rather than turning out to be an apologetic settlement started to dig out his unsatiated desires, as they shared their secretive past and the feelings they possessed for each other. Jai realizes how Riya has been just a compensation for his void on rediscovering Geeta in his life. He realizes he does not feel for Riya the way he feels for Geeta.

Geeta disregards Jai’s reasoning citing the presence of Riya in his life and her own constraints. She leaves but not before hinting that she still has feelings for him. Jai is left in a tangle when Riya breaks apart from him when she comes to know about his meeting with Geeta. He realizes his selfishness and sacrifices his resurgent desires to bring back Riya in his life. But Riya momentarily reappears in his life only as an angel and unites him with Geeta as she realizes that Jai was never hers. She also mends his relation with Raj, who acted as the cord of communication between Riya and Geeta. Jai could not believe when Riya tells him, “Geeta is not only the cause but also the cure of your fragile heart. I tried hard to cure it but I was unsuccessful, Jai!”

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Excerpts

Chapter-5:

I didn’t know how to react at that time. In front of me was standing the most beautiful girl in my eyes. And guess what, she was dressed in a beautiful saree. Oh god, she was perfectly dressed for the occasion! She looked heavenly. She wore the saree in typical Bengali tradition. Her red with black stripes saree complimented her fair skin very well. Her bindi seemed to be the epicentre of her charm and beauty. Her eyes with eye-liners were magnetic, asking me to fall for her even more. The dimples on her cheeks when she laughed would submerge me in them. She was wearing high heels and she was looking even taller than me. The lip-gloss on her lips was reflecting my love for her. My feelings for her got another dimension that day- I wanted to kiss her lips at that time. I was never so close to her before. I wanted to hug her.

Chapter-21:

But then, twists and turns have always been an integral part of my life. The showers were left open and it was time for rain dance. She held me for a while in excitement. I also responded with a fractional delay. We paired to dance on the tune of “Rang Barse…” We, along with the group danced insanely for the next few minutes or so. I spent one of the loveliest of times dancing with her. At times, we forget our constraints in life and tend to enjoy life to the fullest. But sometimes such acts are characterized by fleeting happiness and eternal agonies. But something else was in store for me. The showers started to splash us hard. The recurrent flow of the rain shower had the intensity to peel off our true identity which had been disguised till then with some fugitive colours, and they did. Slowly and gradually, the rigidly put colours on us started to fade. I was astounded for the next few moments. I faced the harshest of reality. The girl in front of me was none other than Geeta. I couldn’t believe that she was standing in front of me after so long. I also couldn’t believe that I failed to recognize her for the last half an hour. She also recognized me. She too, was speechless. As always her eyes revealed how stunned she was to face me. Those were moments of utter abstraction from the entire world.

When two souls connect,

They converse in a common dialect,

The language of expressions,

And which need no translations... Page 159

I haven’t read about love, but I have loved you!

I haven’t been more than a yard closer to you, but I have hugged you!

You still haven’t been mine, but I have missed you!

I don’t believe in fate much, but I have wished for you! –Page 22

Ankit Jaiswal hails from the city of Joy, Kolkata, from where he has done his schooling. He did his graduation from BCREC, Durgapur. He is currently working as a software professional in Bengaluru. He is an engineer by profession and an artist by heart. He is a movie-maniac and actively follows cricket, football and politics. He is passionate about writing and has been writing poetries since his schooldays. Most of his poetries fall under romantic genre. 'The Fragile Heart', the title which also shares its name with a series of romantic poems written by him, is his debut work in fiction. Best of his works are available on his Blog.

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Giveaway

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07 May, 2014

Debdatta Dasgupta May 07, 2014 1

#GuestPost :: Girls, Math, and History by Nandini Bajpai

In the ancient city of Ujjayani, the planets align to decide the fate of two starcursed lovers. Born under the curse of Mars, brilliant and beautiful Leelavati, daughter of the famed astronomer Bhaskarya Acharya of Ujjayani, knows she can never wed. But when her childhood playmate, the handsome and rich Rahul Nagarseth, returns from sea, their attraction is rekindled under stormy monsoon skies. As Leela, forced by fate to relinquish Rahul, tries to find solace in teaching at her fathers observatory, a fleeting alignment of the stars is discovered that can help overcome her curse. But Rahul is called away on a war to defend his kingdom. Can he return in time or will she lose him forever to the will of the planets?

Set in turbulent twelfth century India, against the backdrop of the savage wars waged by Muhammad of Ghor and his band of Turkis, Starcursed is a sweeping tale of science, romance and adventure that will transport its readers to another world.

Guest Post by Author Nandini Bajpai

Girls, Math, and History

Thanks for having me on your blog, Debdatta. And thanks also for hosting a review tour for Starcursed!

In my novel Starcursed the main character's name is Leelavati. I have a really strong emotional connection to that name because my grandmother’s name was also Leelavati and I've always loved it.

The incident that inspired me to write the book also has to do with this name. It started with a trip to the Museum of Science in Boston. I live in the Boston area and we take our kids to the Museum of Science quite often because it’s a nice Museum (in spite of what I’m about to say next, it IS a nice museum!)

So they have a really massive Mathematica display which shows the history of mathematics. It takes up a whole wall and one of the entries they have is about an Indian mathematician called Bhaskaracharya. This is what it says:

A page from Bhaskara’s Lilavati

Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary algebra of his predecessors Aryabhatta (the first) and Brahmagupta. His book Lilavati, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers but does say the square of a negative is positive. Bhaskara’s one word proof of the Pythagoras theorem was known to the ancient Chinese though his clever way of generating solutions to the Pell Equation – rediscovered by Euler - seems to have been his own.

This is a pretty dismissive write up about a mathematician who deserves much more credit, but this display was probably made in the 1960s, when people were still in denial that the number system was even Indian, so I was like okaaay.

What really caught my attention though was the name of the book!

As I said earlier, this was my grandmother’s name, despite the different spelling, so just think how it read to me. It might help to imagine reading the same text with her name replaced by a name we can all immediately recognize as a woman’s name.

For example, Caroline. It would then read (please imagine a professorial tone here!) thusly:

1114-1158 AD

A page from Bhaskara’s Caroline.

Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary blah blah of his predecessors blah. His book Caroline, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers but does say that the square of a negative number is…etc.

Doesn’t that immediately make you stop and wonder who Caroline was and why on Earth he’d call his book on math Caroline?

Or try Susan. (Again, the professorial tone.)

1114-1158 AD

A page from Bhaskara’s Susan.

Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary blah. His book Susan, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers…etc.

I mean, you have to be completely without curiosity or imagination not to wonder who this woman was, right? But apparently no one who made the Mathematica display wondered about it. And by the way I should mention that this entire Mathematica display did not have one single woman in it. Not even Ada Lovelace and definitely not Hypatia.

Since I am neither without curiosity nor imagination, whatever my other faults, I did wonder about it. I looked it up and here’s what I found.

The book Bhaskara wrote was very popular. It was the standard math book in India for ages, and it has math questions in it that are directly addressed to a girl, sometimes called Leelavati. There’s also a story, in a Persian translation, about Leelavati being Bhaskara’s daughter. It tells an amazing tale (not to give too much away...) about a wedding, and a bad horoscope, and a water clock that gets blocked by a jewel dropped by Leela herself. In other words, lots of material for a brilliant story.

Someone should write about that, I thought. Someone should really, really write about that! And I kept on thinking that for years until one day (just like the quote from Lily Tomlin!) I realized that I am someone.

A still from a documentary about Lilavati. Click to see the episode, though it's in Hindi only. Also, she's much younger in this version than in Starcursed.

Being a fiction writer and not a mathematician or historian I did not write a math research paper or a non-fiction history book, I wrote a novel.

It's taken some time and effort (gross understatement alert!) to find a publisher for this book since the usual reaction, I imagine, is something like: You've written a story about WHAT? Girls, Math, and History?! But for every good story there's a great editor who believes in it, and I was lucky enough to (eventually) find Sudeshna at Rupa Publications. So, happy ending!

One final word to readers who may have read my YA novel Red Turban White Horse. I know that Leela’s voice is very different from Mini’s voice in RTWH. That’s because Mini lives in the 21st century in Massachusetts and is into fashion, and Leela lived in the 12th century in Ujjain and was into math!! But they are both smart, confident, capable girls on the threshold of their lives and I really enjoyed being in both their heads—I hope you do too.

And also—this is important—there's Rahul! :)

Buy Links:

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About The Author:

Nandini Bajpai grew up in New Delhi, India, one of four sisters and many cousins, in a family that liked to read. Although she dabbled in corporate finance, business analysis, and fostering shelter animals, her first love is writing. Her novel Red Turban White Horse: My Sister's Hurricane Wedding was published in 2013 by Scholastic India. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, kids, their dog Yogi and cat Rakhan.

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Tour Schedule

26th May

Samarpita @ Words' Worth By Samarpita

A'ishah @ Inksugar

27th May

Nikita @ Njkinny's World of Books

Namrata @ Redpillows

Victoria @ Deal Sharing Aunt

28th May

Stephanie @ 100 Pages a Day

Nicole Hewitt @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

29th May

Jenn @ Book Reviews And Giveaways

Maniparna @ Scattered Thoughts

30th May

Sudeshna @ Proses, Verses and Conversations

Sanchit @ Musings of Immortals

05 May, 2014

Debdatta Dasgupta May 05, 2014 1

#CoverReveal :: Love Undone by Diana Nixon

Love Undone

By Diana Nixon

COMING OUT JUNE, 3^rd 2014

What would you do if all your memories were gone?

One day Kassie wakes up and realizes that her life is nothing but an endless emptiness…

One tragic incident takes away everything that she has ever cherished and loved: family, friends and all the best moments that she ever lived through.

Now everything seems unknown, including a beautiful stranger,

whose mere look makes her heart beat faster.

Who is that reckless and mysterious man? Is he just an old friend or an enemy? Sinking into the vortex of indescribable emotions, they will give in to the most irresistible temptation ever,

just to fall in love with each other, again and again...

Watch book trailer

Read TEASERS

http://www.pinterest.com/diananixon96/love-undone/

DON’T MISS THE RELEASE OF CHAPTER 1 – MONDAY, MAY 12^th !!! – will be available on Diana Nixon’s official page: http://diananixon.blogspot.com/

Other books by Diana Nixon:

Love Lines (LL, # 1)

Songs of the Wind (LL, # 2)

From Scratch (LL. # 2.5)

Diamond Sky (LL, # 3)

The Souls of Rain (Heavens Trilogy, # 1)

The Prisoners of Dreams (Heavens Trilogy, # 1.5)

Hate at First Sight (A contemporary romance)

Grab a copy of the book you’d like to read here:

http://diananixon.blogspot.com/p/buying-books.html

Follow Diana Nixon on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Diana-Nixon/203165316483322?ref=hl

On Twitter

https://twitter.com/DianaNixon9

On Pinterest

http://www.pinterest.com/diananixon96/

On Goodreads

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5814368.Diana_Nixon

Debdatta Dasgupta May 05, 2014 0

#CoverReveal :: Nature’s Unbalance (The Chosen #2) by Andrea Buginsky

Nature’s Unbalance: The Chosen, book 2

New Edition! Finally re-releasing with a beautiful new cover!

Synopsis:

During a time of celebration for The Chosen, a mysterious force appears on Phantasma, threatening to destroy Nature and all of her creatures. Will The Chosen find and defeat this force and save Nature before it’s too late?

Excerpt:

Suddenly, as if someone had cast a freeze spell, everything stopped. The musicians ceased playing. No one moved. No one spoke. As everyone looked around, they saw the shamans and druids gather together nervously and look up at the sky. Everyone else focused their eyes upwards to see what had captured their attention; chatter and screams could be heard as the sky suddenly darkened. Day became night in an instant. Now in a near panic, everyone shouted out assumptions. “It’s Gastle! He’s back!” “That’s impossible! This must be a new monster.” “Perhaps it’s Gastle’s descendants seeking revenge for his death.” “Or an old enemy trying to replace him on the throne.” “Everyone, please, stay calm,” Striker spoke up. As the head of The Chosen, he normally took command, and it was accepted by those around him. “Let’s try to get some answers before we make assumptions.” He turned to the druids and shamans, who talked animatedly with each other while they pointed to the dark sky. “Red, any idea what this is?” “It’s definitely not Gastle, or any other creature in Phantasma. There’s something off with the elements. Whatever caused this is a natural entity, and comes directly from Nature herself. There is a definite shift, and it’s unbalanced. We can all sense it.” “Any idea what it could be?” “No, but the strongest feelings we received are coming from the North, in the Polard region. We need to go there and see the situation for ourselves.” Halli glanced at Queen Laurali who stood nearby and listened to the conversation between Striker and Red. The queen came toward the group, and Halli knew what she would say. “I know this is a day of great celebration,” the Queen said, “but under the circumstances, I think it would be best if The Chosen headed out at once to seek some answers.” She turned toward the bride and groom. “Halli and Silvor, I will send a replacement healer and mage, of course, so you two can start your honeymoon. Until we know more, there’s no reason for you to cancel your plans.” But Halli and Silvor wouldn’t hear of it. “We go with our family,” Silvor said. Halli nodded in agreement. “We can celebrate our honeymoon once we know what’s happened.” Queen Laurali bowed her respect to them. “Very well,” she said. “The Chosen, in its entirety, will head out right away toward Polard to see what you can find out. You may change in my tower while your horses are prepared.”

Coming soon from Amazon

Andrea Buginsky is a freelance writer and author. The Chosen, a middle-grade fantasy novelette was her first book, and was followed by My Open Heart, an autobiography about growing up with heart disease. Andrea released Destiny, the first book of her New Avalon series, in 2013. She is currently working on more books in both series. You can find Andrea on her website. Her books are available at Amazon. Remember to sign up for Andrea’s newsletter to stay up-to-date on all of her exciting events.
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03 May, 2014

Debdatta Dasgupta May 03, 2014 0

#BookReview :: Hereafter (Afterlife #1) by Terri Bruce

Why let a little thing like dying get in the way of a good time?

Thirty-six-year-old Irene Dunphy didn't plan on dying any time soon, but that’s exactly what happens when she makes the mistake of getting behind the wheel after a night bar-hopping with friends. She finds herself stranded on earth as a ghost, where the food has no taste, the alcohol doesn’t get you drunk, and the sex...well, let’s just say “don’t bother.” To make matters worse, the only person who can see her—courtesy of a book he found in his school library—is a fourteen-year-old boy genius obsessed with the afterlife.

Unfortunately, what waits in the Great Beyond isn’t much better. Stuck between the boring life of a ghost in this world and the terrifying prospect of three-headed hell hounds, final judgment, and eternal torment in the next, Irene sets out to find a third option—preferably one that involves not being dead anymore. Can she wipe the slate clean and get a second chance before it’s too late?

I picked this book up wanting a break from Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies and it was a good choice too.

Irene, our protagonist, is stranded as a ghost after she had been in an accident. Well what do you expect to happen when you get behind a wheel after a night of bar hopping? But it takes her sometime to catch up to what had happened to her. It was only when she ‘bumped’ into a fourteen-year old Jonah, who is obsessed with anything to do with death and afterlife, that she is given a crash course on her new ‘life’.

Sounds interesting or mundane? I suppose it depends on your take of ghosts, and for me it was interesting to take the ride with Irene. Finding out the rules that even ghosts have to follow and why humans cannot see ghosts were some of the interesting theories that this book presents to its readers. Irene is a pretty interesting girl. She doesn’t do anything halfway – not even getting drunk. To watch her struggle with her new form, getting used to it or even trying to find better options was actually kind of fun. And what do I say about Jonah. He is so obsessed with death that it made me wonder if he was a bit abnormal. Yet he too is a quirky character that I enjoyed reading about. Putting these two together, their dynamics is a hilarious one even though I thought Irene was being outright rude to Jonah towards the beginning.

The plot is simple and straightforward and because I haven’t read a similarly themed book before, I couldn’t really take a guess at what the author might throw at me next. It was fun finding out though. The narration style is simple and flows smoothly. The mix of dry humour and lots of one liners woven into the plot made it much more fun to read.

Overall, an entertaining book that provided me with a good change and couple of hours of complete enjoyment.

02 May, 2014

Debdatta Dasgupta May 02, 2014 0

Book Reviewer Yellow Pages $100 Blast

Are you trying to promote your books? Are you a writer, publisher, or agent?

Promote your book with this bestselling author's reference, the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages. Make your book promotion easier, and get the publicity you need from book reviewers. Learn how and where to submit your book for review. There are hundreds of new book reviewers listed in this book. Each listing details the individual book reviewer's:

Contact information,
Pet peeves,
Preferred genres, and
Submission guidelines

Reviewers are rated for quality and influence. This new edition includes several blog tour sites and their submission guidelines. Learn how to get the exposure that your book deserves! Authors and book reviewers can sign up for alerts at: http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net

*Note: This book is enrolled in the Kindle MATCHBOOK program. If you purchase the paperback from Amazon, the Kindle edition is free. The paperback has a genre index, which makes searching for accepted genres easy. The Kindle version has clickable website links (which is impossible to do in a paperback), so you can click directly to the reviewer's site and contact page. The publisher of this book recommends purchasing the paperback and then downloading the Kindle edition for free using Amazon's Matchbook program, and using both versions to maximize your promotion efforts.
PROMO TIP: This is a reference book with active hyperlinks in the e-book. It is easier to view and use the Kindle edition of this book on a computer using Amazon's free Kindle app. That way, you can use the full screen to check genre preferences and submit your query right from your desktop.

Purchase

Barnes & Noble * Kobo * Amazon

Interview with Christine Pinheiro, Editor, Defiant Press

The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages is a bestselling author’s promotional reference, designed specifically for authors who need book reviewers for their books.

Where did you get the idea for the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages?
At first, I did it purely out of self-interest! I wrote a nonfiction book in 2007, and I had a very difficult time finding book reviewers. It seemed like an impossible task. All of the regular outlets were closed to me—where do you go when you can’t get a review in the New York Times? Where do the “little guys” go when they need to promote their books? So I started the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages out of my own frustration. At first, the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages was just a big list on a simple website. I added to the list when I had spare time. Book reviewers started seeking me out, and asking to be put on the list, and it just grew from there. In 2009, I published the first “Book Reviewer Yellow Pages,” and the rest is history. The list just grew organically. Now we have hundreds of book reviewers on our list, and thousands of authors subscribe to the newsletter.
How about the book reviewers themselves, what do they get out of it?
Many book reviewers just do it for fun, and they get the benefit of free books and ARCs (advance review copies). Quite a few of them also earn money, either from sidebar advertising, blog tours, or other author’s services. There are so many self-published authors out there right now, trying to promote their books without the help of a traditional publisher, so there’s a lot of little business ventures cropping up to serve them.
Many reviewers list their “pet peeves,” is this something that the authors really want to know? Yes! It’s the most popular part of the questionnaire—all the reviewers have their own horror stories. Sadly, many authors have terrible etiquette when they request book reviews. Many don’t take the time to even spell-check their queries, or find out if the reviewer is a man or a woman, so they can address them correctly! I used to review books myself, and it’s amazing how many times I’ve gotten a review request with nothing but a link to the book. No signature, no salutation, nothing! Why would I review your book, when you aren’t even willing to take a few minutes to send me a proper review request? We also added an “author etiquette” section to the front of the book, and that seems to help a bit.
Do Book Reviews really help sales?
They’ve helped my own book sales tremendously, and I know hundreds of authors who would say the same. Look, everyone knows that book promotion is boring work. Contacting dozens of book reviewers is time consuming, and you have to deal with rejection, but the payoff from a positive book review is enormous. That’s been the case in my own writing career. Reviews really help sales, and it’s nice to have a public testimonial that customers can refer to when they purchase. On the flip side, many of the reviewers accept ARCs and also work as beta-readers, so if you can get a few good reviewers to read through your manuscript before publication, they might be able to give you valuable feedback. I found a big plot hole in one of my novels that way—a reviewer found the problem, and I was able to fix it before the book went to publication.
Do reviewers ever drop off the list? Can authors get updates?
Yes, on our website. Reviewers get added and removed on a regular basis—and the list goes through a complete overhaul once a year. I do a formal update every April. That’s when we put out a new edition of the book, as well as update the reviewer list on the website. The abbreviated list on the website is free, and authors and publishers can sign up for updates to the list here: http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net. The newsletter is also free.
Do you have any advice for authors?
Be polite to book reviewers, always. Not everyone is going to like your book, that’s just the nature of game. But publishing is a business, and it pays to be professional. It’s just like any other creative business. Reviewers are our critics, and they give us valuable feedback that we need to improve. One of the best reviews I ever received on the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages was mildly negative. The writer gave me tons of feedback on how to make the book better. I followed his advice, and the book has been more profitable since. Book Reviewers really want to help authors—I’ve never met a single book reviewer that was interested in just tearing an author down. We are all in this business together!

For more information visit: The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages Website * Facebook

Blast Giveaway $100 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 5/31/14 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. a Rafflecopter giveaway

01 May, 2014

Debdatta Dasgupta May 01, 2014 0

#SpecialFeature :: Introducing #Author Ankit Jaiswal

Under "Special Feature" every month I feature a Special Author.

During this month I put up 4/5 posts about the Author/Book, including Interview / Review / Excerpt / Guest Post / Author Bio / Fun Facts or whatever else we can come up with. Also on the first day of the month we will launch the Giveaway contest along with the first post and will announce the winner on the last day of the month.

So be sure to check out my blog every 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of every month for something new :)

Now Presenting:

*** SPECIAL FEATURE - May 2014 ***

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Jai, a fun loving guy, puts his heart out in a letter to propose to the love of his life, Geeta, while in the high school in Kolkata. But destiny has different plans for him. What he discovers in response is a letter which superficially throws light on her abrupt disappearance. He is shattered, his fragile heart is broken into pieces.

But you know life doesn't stop for anyone and same was the case with Jai. His world takes a quirky turn when Riya, his junior, bumps into his life in college in Bangalore. She tries to fill the void, in which he had survived for so long. They overcome their constraints and get in a relationship, Jai gets emotionally-employed.

But Jai bears the blunt of tough times when he starts to work in Mumbai and rediscovers someone whom he never expected to meet.

What will Jai do when he is bound to struggle between his past and present? Read out to find this exceptional and heart-touching journey of Jai and how he manages to keep moving after being bombarded with the twist of his life.

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Giveaway

Want your own copy of The Fragile Heart? Enter the Rafflecopter below if you are an Indian Resident

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