Authors, Awards and Holidays, Oh My!

I had my first author visit here at Time Out - very exciting for me! David Lubar, author of Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie and Goop Soup, stopped by one of my armchair BEA posts. How cool is that?

Lisa at Bibliophiliac has given me an award! This weekend just keeps getting better!

If you are given this award you must first accept it by leaving a comment on the post you were nominated on. Then copy and paste the post and add it to your own blog. Make a list of the last 5 books you read and pass the award on to 5 other bloggers (no backsies!). Please also identify the blog from which you got the award and don't forget to tell your picks that they have a blog award!

My past five reads are: Smile, Incarceron, The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To, This Book is Overdue!, and Tithe.

I am passing this award on to, in alphabetical order...
Community Bookstop - I found this blog through the Book Hop last Friday and I enjoy the short tid bits and book reviews found here. So far I've seen paranormal type books and a few movie related posts.
Emily's Reading Room - Mostly a YA reader, Emily does great reviews and is a very active blogger. She even helped with the armchair BEA which was a lot of fun for those of us who could not go to BEA.
The Glittering Burn - With an affinity for Tea, there's definately a British vibe here (though I'm not certain where she's from), the Glittering Burn has a great sense of humor and posts on Books, music, movies and more.
Lions and Men - I've been enjoying Nick's posts on science fiction, fantasy and horror. He recently posted on his adventures at Book Expo America with some great pictures of the event.
You've GOTTA Read This - Sandy's blogs is one of the first book blogs I found and I have been following her ever since.

Happy Memorial Day everybody! I'm chillin with my veteran husband today, playing video games and eating lots of yummies! Remember our fallen heroes and give your veteran loved one a kiss!

Smile by Raina Telgemeier: Another Great Graphic Novel

I am usually a read-one-book-at-a-time type of reader. But I could not resist that cover. It begs to be picked up. I ended up reading the book straight through.

When twelve year old Raina loses her two front teeth – her permanent teeth – it seems like the end of the world. Through years of braces, headgear, retainers, middle school and high school Raina learns who her true friends are and how to be happy with herself.
I’ve yet to read a graphic novel I haven’t liked. And Smile by Raina Telgemeier is no exception. It has such an uplifting message for young girls and is an enjoyable read. Telgemeier is not only a great writer but a great artist. The pictures are all in color and do a nice job of capturing the emotion of each moment. There were some funny moments when I chuckled and some tender ones when I teared up. From experiencing your first crush to worrying about pimples, there’s something in this book for every girl. In a time of life when girls feel pressured to mature quickly, I appreciated how Smile portrays an innocent who’s happy to be that way. Raina realizes she doesn’t have to follow her friends into makeup and kissing if she’s not ready. As you likely noticed, the character and author’s name are the same. That’s because this is a true story which makes it even better!
Publisher: Scholastic, 2010     Pages: 218
Rating: 5 Stars     Recommended Age: 10 and up     Source: IC Public Library

Marketing Your Blog: Post Two on Visibility

PART TWO: This post is intended to give ideas to book bloggers who want to increase their readership using methods of marketing. I will be writing from my personal experience. Although I am not an expert, I figure I can pass along some things I wish I had known a while back. Much will be obvious but some maybe not so much. Use what helps you, forget what doesn’t! This is post two of three.

Making Your Blog Visible: Marketing involves actively pursuing your audience. The key idea here is being active. A little extra effort can go a long ways towards gaining readership.

Post frequently – especially if you want to increase your readership. Once you’ve established the readership you want, then slowing down your publishing rate isn’t a terrible thing. But posting frequently keeps you visible to search engines and your followers/subscribers’ blog reader. At the very least you won’t lose readers because you don’t post often enough to maintain their interest.

Comment Frequently: 

• Fellow book bloggers are a valuable resource. They can give you ideas and answer questions you may have about blogging. In order for them to get to know you, leave a thoughtful comment on their blog. Engaging in conversation increases your visibility. Finding book blogs with similar tastes as your own and leaving comments there increases the chances that their readers will become your readers. We all like comments so, give some to get some. 
• No matter where you comment on the Web, leave your blog’s URL attached if the commenting system asks for it. Leaving an unsolicited URL in a comment is a bit tacky. And I freely admit I’ve done so. But now I know better. It especially looks disingenuous when you do it on several blogs. Bloggers and readers will notice copy-and-paste tendencies! We are a community and read many of the same posts and comments. So, be good to each other by giving the kind of attention you want to receive. 
• Participate in Memes and Challenges: A great way to advertise your blog is by participating in the Book Blogger Hop on Fridays hosted by Crazy-for-Books. Again, you give in order to get. With the Hop, the more blogs you visit and comment on the more visits you are likely to get than if you remained silent or didn’t visit any of the participants.
• Social Networking Sites – like Facebook and Twitter can help you get going and maintain readership. By clicking the “share” button at the top of Blogger you can make an announcement to, for example, Facebook friends, telling them you have written something. I highly encourage you to open such an account if you don’t have one and start following, fanning and tweeting away. Blogging is a part of who you are now and you should share it with people you care about and vice versa. Other sites to consider: Goodreads, Shelfari, Library Thing, My Space, Book Blogs.
• Utilize Key Words to attract search engine results – Understanding a little about key words can help increase your visibility. For instance, I find it’s not always effective to simply use a book title and author name in the post title. Use the book title and author name within the body of your post. For whatever reason, Google picks up on this and makes it easier for people to find your post through  search engines. Check your Google Analytics to see which key words searchers are using that are the most effective (i.e. they remain on your site for more than 2 seconds). Try to determine why a keyword is/is not effective and use that knowledge to your advantage. See, I told you Google Analytics is useful!
• Ping the Old Fashioned Way – if you can’t find yourself through search engines. Try manually adding your blog URL to Google’s index and sites like BlogBuzzer. A ping is sort of like leaving a message for search engines that says “I’m here!” Participating search engines will then add you to their inventory of searchable blogs. You may need to do this for each post (or at least the ones important to you).
• Giveaways and Contests– Even if you’re not a fan of the “must be a follower to enter” idea about giveaways, let’s face it, it works. Also, giving extra entries for those who post on social networking sites or their blogs about your giveaway can also generate traffic. Not every giveaway needs be run this way, for sure, but it does help your stats if you feel your blog is being neglected. Understand that many readers will not enter because of the contingencies. And just because a person follows you for a prize doesn’t mean they intend to read your posts. But many will participate if the giveaway is generous or interesting to them. Even without contingencies, you can still snag readers with a good freebie. Post giveaways on websites like Book Blogs in addition to your blog.

So, you’ve targeted your audience and actively pursued them. What’s left? Creating your own brand is hugely important and keeps your blog from falling into bloggy oblivion. Stay tuned to Time Out for Part Three!

Books, Blogs, and Lots of Hopping

It's Friday and time to check out all the other book  bloggers participating in this week's Book Blogger Hop over at Crazy-for-Books! Add your link to the list and get hopping! Here's a few blogs I've found last week (or two) that I enjoyed: The Mother/Daughter Book Nook, Book Love, and Reader Reads. If you're hopping by say hello!

Remember to check out what's going on at Armchair BEA! Lots of great posts!

Armchair BEA/BBC Post on Marketing Your Blog

PART ONE: This post is intended to give ideas to book bloggers who want to increase their readership using methods of marketing. I will be writing from my personal experience. Although I am not an expert, I figure I can pass along some things I wish I had known a while back. Much will be obvious but some maybe not so much. Use what helps you, forget what doesn’t! This post is part one of three. For "the gist" of a paragraph read the bold and  italicized portion.

Understanding Your Visitors: If you haven’t already, begin using Google Analytics as soon as possible. There are other free analytic applications (that a Google search will bring up) but I will focus on Google’s since I use it and am happy with it. A key to successful marketing is understanding your audience. Using Analytics is a good step towards gaining that knowledge.

What does Google Analytics Do? It tracks daily visits, visitors, average time spent on your site, unique (new) visitors, bounce rate and more. And it puts this info in a snazzy chart that is easy to read at a glance. Google Analytics also tells you, percentage wise, the type of web browsers your readers use, the country/state/city they are reading from and the pages/posts getting the most hits. It tells you key words used to find your blog as well as how many hits are generated by referrals, search engines and direct traffic. There’s more but for the sake of time, I’ll move on. This application is free and easy to copy and paste into the html of your blog. Don’t worry. There are lots of instructions on how to do this! Here's a guy's homemade video I found very helpful should you need more help.

Why bother with an analytic application? The numbers generated give you a precise understanding of how many people are reading your blog. It also tells you which days have more hits. This is invaluable info. With this knowledge you can infer what posts are popular and when a good time to publish your content is. For instance, my highest hit day is Saturday. So, if I’ve worked really hard on a post that I want the most readers to see, my best day to publish is Saturday. Ever make a change on your blog and wonder if it’s helping? Google Analytics can help answer this question. For instance, I just changed the layout of my blog. I will check my analytics’ stats to see if this change makes any difference in hits in the coming weeks. Also, if you plan to solicit ARC’s, publishers often like to know your blog’s number of absolute unique visitors. So, you will want to get this number counting up ASAP by implementing an analytic program.

Google Friend Connect (Followers) is an easy way for readers to “bookmark” you and get highlights about your posts. Even if you are not using Blogger, I know the application works for Wordpress and likely works for others. You can get to know your public followers by clicking on them, visiting their blogs, and saying hello. Having Friend Connect is a great way to build community. I don’t revisit many blogs which don’t offer Google Friend Connect. I’m sure there are others like me so take advantage of this free widget.

Taking Aim: Targeting Your Audience – People like to compartmentalize and put things into categories. It’s just the way most of us are wired to think. If your blog is all over the place in terms of content, your readership may falter. If you want to blog mostly about books, keep a blog just for that. If you like to blog about your daily life quite a bit, too, keep a separate blog for that. Getting the drift? You can advertise your posts on your different blogs, no problem. But I highly recommend specializing each blog so it has a distinct feel. You can go further by choosing a particular genre to review. Highly specialized blogs, say ones that focus just on historical fiction or predominately YA, tend to do very well in terms of followers. Personally, I want to target readers with vast interests which is why I post on several genres. But my readership remains small as a result. I understand I may not get many readers right away because of this decision but I’m OK with that. Take a moment to decide who your audience is and what you’re willing to do to get their attention.

Speaking of attention getting, tomorrow’s post, Part II, will be about Making Your Blog Visible. Stay tuned for more tips on marketing your blog! This post is part of the Armchair BEA Book Blogger Convention Roundtable.

Signed Books: An Armchair BEA Post

In the spirit of Armchair BEA I am posting my favorite signed books and telling who I'd make a bee-line for if I was actually at the Book Expo.

First off is Last Man Out, a biography of Glenn McDole, by Bob Wilbanks. McDole is a survivor of WWII and was a prisoner of war in the Pacific Arena. This is a great story about survival. McDole retired in my  hometown and passed away recently and so I treasure my copy that he signed. For a video of McDole check out Iowa Public Television's website.

Next, is A Season On the Mat, a bio about Dan Gable, by Nolan Zavoral. Dan Gable, another Iowan, won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in 1972 in wreslting. He coached wrestling for many years at my school, The University of Iowa. I've heard him speak and met him. He's incredibly inspirational. He signed the book to my husband.

Here is my signed copy of The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I loved this book (check my review page) and was thrilled to go to her book signing a few weeks ago.

Now, if I was at BEA I would want to visit David Lubar. His new book is called Goop Soup which I have not read though I did read Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie last year and really enjoyed it.

In the Works: Upcoming Events and Posts

This week is the Book Expo of America (BEA) and the first Book Blogger Convention (BBC). I and many others are participating from home via the Armchair BEA/BBC. When I’m not reading the excellent posts by other bloggers, I’ll be doing some posting of my own. Topics I may cover this week are: marketing your blog, writing great content and my favorite signed books. I encourage you to check out the Armchair BEA event as there are a lot of giveaways and great topics. It’s going to be fun!

Next week I will be reviewing A Room with a View which is set in Italy during the early 1900s. This week marks the one year anniversary of my five-year delayed honeymoon to Italy (my husband was in the Army when we married and quickly shipped to Iraq). But was it ever worth the wait! I'm feeling nostalgic so, I’ll be posting pictures of our trip to the Italian Alps and Rome along with my thoughts on E.M. Forster’s novel.

Currently my mom and I are visiting local libraries, admiring their architecture, chatting with librarians and finding out how each library meets its patron’s needs. We call it our “library tour.” We saw four today and it was very interesting and plan to visit more tomorrow. So, expect a post and some pictures on that at some point.

Phew that’s a lot but I wanted to let you know what’s going on here at Time Out. Is anyone else keeping up with Armchair BEA or posting about the BBC? Well, I hope you’re all enjoying the last of spring! Ninety degrees here today. I thought I was going to melt.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

It’s hard for me to believe this book took three years before it emerged in the U.S. market. But I’m glad it’s here now. I hope it gets popular because I enjoyed this story and want to hear more about what other readers thought.

Claudia has prepared all her life to marry the prince. But as the wedding day approaches, the aloofness of her father, the Warden, and certain rumors spur Claudia to action. Questions must be answered. Finn, a cell-born without father or mother, scared and alone, is released into the world of Incarceron – a vast prison system, dark and dangerous, a great experiment gone wrong.

I totally read for plot. It usually can’t be helped but this time I became engrossed by the all the elements of plot. The exposition, setting and intro material about characters, etc, pulled me in. This is hard to accomplish. I usually can’t wait to get to the middle of a story and become worried that I’m wasting my time. There’s a lot of action and intrigue in the first few pages so I had no problem getting into it. The raising climax was nail biting. Where is the prison? How is it controlled? How is it that no one gets in or out? The climax is fairly predictable. We’re set up to know what to expect. And then, for the most part, it happens. But the resolution was great. I wasn’t sure about the prison’s location but at least one of my theories was in the ball-park. And I didn’t see the last bit coming (I don’t want to give anything away but it was a gasp moment). I am so excited I won a copy of the sequel, Sapphique (available this Dec. in the U.S.), because I am really intrigued by the futuristic society and the prison. I want to see how Claudia and Finn attempt to achieve their goals.

Let’s talk prose. Fisher uses third person narration in Incarceron and it works very well as she alternates between the two worlds. I enjoyed the “quotes” at the beginning of each chapter that were bits of Incarceron legend or the gossipy private letters between characters that are full of intrigue. This story is set in a technologically repressed future (creating a "high fantasy" feel) and a couple times I found the dialog sounds a bit too “today.” But it’s not a big deal and is probably just me being picky. However, there were some times I got lost. The descriptions can be hard to interpret. With a re-read I usually got what was going on. This is the only real drawback to this book. Nonetheless, I didn’t find they stopped me from wanting to continue. Incarceron is a fast read that reminded me of The Hunger Games. Both are fantasy set in the future, they feature a good dose of violence and action but, oddly, remain very innocent. I think the story is ok for younger readers but they may have difficulty with some of the tricky descriptions. But that doesn’t mean younger  kids (or adults) wouldn’t enjoy Incarceron. I sure did!

Publisher: Dial, 2010 (originally in G.B. in 2007)     Pages: 442
Rating: 4.5 Stars     Recommended Age: 12 and up    Source: IC Public Library

Signed copy of The Giver by Lois Lowry

Win a signed copy of The Giver (my review) by Lois Lowry from the Super Librarian! I really liked this book. It is a Newberry Medal recipient as well. So hopefully you will sign up for a chance to win, too!

From the Super Librarian: "To enter:
Leave a comment here with your e-mail address.
You will receive an extra entry if you mention the contest on your blog - leave a link in your comment. (Edited to add: Tweeting will earn you an extra entry too. I forget about Twitter sometimes because I have not yet signed up!) ..." Contest ends May 23, 2010.