Monday, February 28, 2022

5 Effective Ways to Promote Your Book on Social Media

5 Effective Ways to Promote Your Book on Social Media

 

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Social media has made it much easier for people to promote things. Nowadays, you no longer need hired help who would go to people’s doorsteps to advertise your product. All you need is access to the internet and you can promote anything to customers around the world. Additionally, there are several social media platforms you can use simultaneously and reach out to your target audience in a more effective manner. 

The majority of promotional social media campaigns are successful, for the reach that social media provides is unparalleled. A self-published author needs to have a social media presence for all the promotional activities. That said, in order to effectively promote your book, you need to keep a few things in mind. Here are five tips on how to form a reliable strategy to promote your book hassle-free on the internet. 

 

1)    Thoughtful promotional content

The first thing you may need to consider in order to boost your reach is a well-written promotional post. Interacting with fan pages or reaching out to people in DMs is not enough. The content that you use to interact with your audience should be crisp, thoughtful, and engaging. It is challenging for many writers to create promotional content for digital marketing. You may write a bestseller and at the same time not know how to write content for promotional purposes that may create awareness among readers. This is often referred to as social media writer’s block. In such cases, you may want to opt for professional content writers to do the job effortlessly. Make sure to check out The Writing Money and get all the support that you need with writing services. Outsourcing content creation can be the key to success.

 

2)    Use hashtags

There are several benefits to using hashtags on social media. Not only does it help in building brand value, but also creates a collection of posts having the same hashtag. You may decide on a unique hashtag for your book, which could probably be the name of the book itself, and ask your followers to use it when posting stories, photos, or anything related to your book. However, it is equally important that you see hashtags that are relevant to your post because too many meaningless hashtags can decrease the influence of the post. It can also distract readers, so it is always better to use hashtags that are trendy and relevant to your post. 

 

3)    Share photos

One of the key strategies to promotion is to have people share their experiences and pictures with your product. You may want to do the same and get your readers to post photos with your book as well as their reviews. By doing so, it will help in creating a buzz around your book. You may then repost, share, or otherwise leverage customer testimonials on your social media accounts. This is said to be the most effective way of advertising a product for absolutely free.

 

4)    Share a free chapter

In both fiction and non-fiction books, offering a free chapter can be a really great solution to attract readers. A free chapter is telling of the entire content of the book and creates curiosity among the readers. Before putting out a free chapter from your book, do mention it on your social media accounts. Moreover, you can also send an email containing the free book chapter to your followers.

 

5)    Use Instagram 

Presently, many people are using Instagram for business. On Instagram, one can find a plethora of pages about books and an army of people looking for book recommendations. Some reasons why you should invest your time in promoting your book on Instagram are:

      Instagram is the perfect place to be for book readers and authors. 

      You can create a separate page to promote your book or just promote it on your existing Instagram account and post aesthetic pictures of your book, share excerpts, and post reviews as well.

      There are many good features of Instagram that you can use to your benefit to promote your book. Be it Instagram stories or reels, they allow you to reach a wider audience. 

      You can also consider adding posts frequently on Instagram for maintaining the reach. 

      One is allowed to post up to 10 photos at once along with a caption, and this can be a great way of promoting your book to your followers. 

 

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The Bottom Line

The above-mentioned tips can help you achieve your goal of successfully promoting a book on your social media. With the growing technology, it is easier than ever to advertise your new book to everyone worldwide. Social media provides great opportunities for people looking to promote their products. You just need to maintain a decent social media presence and be consistent with posting about your product. It is time for all the authors to use social media and benefit from the wide range of its features free of cost. 

 

Author’s bio. Jessica Fender is a professional writer and educational blogger. Jessica enjoys sharing her ideas to make writing and learning fun. You find her on Twitter.

Sunday, February 27, 2022

#BookReview - Through the Soul Into Life by Shoushan B


Through The Soul Into Life
By: Shoushan B
Published by: Atmosphere Press
Publication Date: December 2021
ISBN: 978-1-6398-8132-1
Reviewed By: Amy Lignor
Review Date: February 22, 2022
If someone asked me a few months ago, I would have said that I am definitely not a poetry enthusiast and I never was. However, in the past three months, I have been given about ten poetry collections to read and review. And, oddly enough, I feel some strange need for them now. Some of these artists’ literally dive into their souls to put their own heartfelt emotions on the page; others write from a more obstructive point of view about emotions we all feel, extending from very real anger to hatred to love to beauty to the ability to see life while standing in someone else’s shoes.
In a world that is so at odds (still, after all these decades), these poets are able to write the words that, if we take the time to read them, help us better understand and accept our neighbors, communities, and the best and worst life has to offer. When it comes to Through The Soul Into Life, the author has not only dedicated it to “the experience of life,” but went on to split the poems into sections – from the spiral into the abyss, to questioning the authoritative figures who wish to impose their belief system on the rest of us, to the power of the female, with tributes to the inner self, our dear mothers, and so much more.
The focus of this collection, per the author, is a female’s questions. Her endless conundrums, and her journey to search for answers while reclaiming and loving herself and her own personal power in the process. This is an earnest, devout look at a soul suffering through the negative issues life provides, and redefining themselves in order to take away pain or alleviate it to the point where freedom can finally be felt.
One of the greatest sections that personally appealed to me was when the author dove headfirst into human normalcies and reexplored them. Shoushan B spoke about how religion got somehow twisted in this world and we ended up living in guilt, as if we continue to carry the cross that Jesus lifted, instead of looking at the cross as it was meant to be – a symbol of hope and enlightenment. The writer takes on the generations, how negative or frightening things were taught to our children as they grew. Then, the writer goes on to discusses societies and why humanity can fail when a time of poverty becomes the “norm.” The focus of these words are dead set on the fact that we have to learn we are judged or measured by our self-worth and not the value of our pocketbooks.
In another area, speaking about the female power, I ran across one poem that will be set in my head for a long time. Speaking about mothers, Shoushan B talks about the harrowing and brilliant experience of bringing life into the world. How a woman generates super-human energy that has her surpassing all normal physical limitations in order to be humbled when her child is placed into her arms. All I could think of was my daughter while reading this poem, and better understood after all these years the absolute trust females must own in order to yield their bodies to nature in such a frightening way.
Both the complex and the kind are addressed in this collection, and the poet offers spirit and a love for life, for the positive and the negative, that practically jumps off the page and into your own mind like an electric shock. It’s another title that makes poetry a new, exciting path for a reader like me, and I’m grateful for the experience.
Quill says: Through The Soul Into Life presents in-depth, beautiful poems that bring dark subjects into the light and make you rethink, and give thanks, to life itself.

#BookReview - Demons, the Great White North and the Blind Detective


Demons, the Great White North and the Blind Detective

By: Shawn Adair Johnston
Published by: Atmosphere Press
Publication Date: January 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-6398-8145-1
Reviewed By: Amy Lignor
Review Date: February 22, 2022
This was my first experience where this author is concerned and, I must say, I was floored!
There are many instances out there, in reviews, where the reader states that they are looking or hoping for a new idea. This happens a great deal when it comes to mysteries or suspense. Why is that? To put it simply, the plotlines of mysteries have been done...a lot. From the whodunits to the missing relics that if not found could bring about the end of the world, etc., these ideas have been regurgitated. Some authors have created titles that make the reader gasp in surprise at every page (ie., Christie, King, Dan Brown with The DaVinci Code); yet there are many who attempt a “new” way to murder that does not produce a gasp in the least. Well, I have to say that if you are one of those who longs to experience a tale you’ve never read before, then this is the book to pick up immediately. Now, the cover won’t jump out at you; in fact, it’s very plain. But when you open that cover and begin, in the first five pages you are introduced into a world that currently exists – the Arctic coast of Canada – but is completely unique because it is the year 2080, and you see things like flying cars being utilized for a whole new mode of transportation.
Beginning on the porch of a shaman by the name of Akaga, readers sit with him while he rocks in his chair and stares out at the dark blue water of the Arctic Ocean. He’s upset, to say the least, as he grips a thousand-year-old ivory statue depicting the Inuit peoples’ primary protector, Sedna. This shaman knows that something is coming towards him...ready to take out both him and the village he loves. And whether the goddess of the sea can reappear and save them all, like she has in the past, is something that’s more than doubtful.
Thousands of miles away is Watson. This “special” golden retriever’s master is Peter Straw, the blind detective. They are a team that has gotten a lot of praise for their work, becoming the most famous blind P.I. and augmented canine detective agency in the entire world. Yes, Watson is an intellectually augmented dog who works with a computer and who’s on his way to becoming the first ever canine to achieve a high school diploma.
But canines are not the only augmented animals in 2080 Canada. We soon also meet Aristotle Jones, an augmented chimp, who is being transferred from the Canadian Mounted Police in Quebec to the Yukon territory with his boss, Billy Fenwick.
Let us just say that all of these incredible creatures end up playing huge parts in a murder mystery that is beyond belief. Various Inuit villages have been attacked; unbelievable brutality has been brought down on these families and (unfortunately) their sled dogs and caribou. There is more than one suspect, as well, when it comes to putting these villages and their occupants in danger, and these suspects are from the past and the present and come from a pool of both human and in-human demons.
A small village on the Arctic called Inupiak suddenly witnesses this agony first-hand. This is a place where the idea of an ancient demon stirring is prevalent. However, the reader is also introduced to a person “walking through town” who has nothing but revenge on his mind, lives in a cave, and is not remotely frightened of wielding his chosen murder weapon.
Peter Straw and Watson come in to help law enforcement and attempt to unveil what or who is creating all this bloodshed; or, perhaps, if an alliance has been made by an ancient evil presence with a soulless human in order to bring about complete destruction. Add in Aristotle, the transferring chimp and his boss, as well as a cast of colorful characters and tyrants, like a Lt. Colonel stationed at a Space Force Base who’s beyond offensive, and you have a mystery with a plotline that has definitely not been written before.
I commend the author immensely for his imagination, dry wit, and the ability to weave very real topics of worry into the story, like how the world could look in 2080 because of global warming issues happening right this second. Each chapter brought about a new character for me to study, and with interesting scenes and intense thrills and chills, he most certainly drew gasps from this reader.
Quill says: Demons, the Great White North and the Blind Detective, has a unique storyline that will keep you guessing, while bringing up subjects that will make you rethink life and the choices we make.
For more information on Demons, the Great White North and the Blind Detective, please visit the website: theblinddetective.com/

Saturday, February 26, 2022

#AuthorInterview with J.T. Tenera, author of Erift's Journeys: Secrets of The Sealed Forest

Today, Feathered Quill reviewer Katie Specht is talking with J.T. Tenera, author of Erift's Journeys: Secrets of The Sealed Forest.

FQ: Can you talk a bit about the inspiration behind the story of Erift’s Journeys: Secrets of the Sealed Forest?

TENERA: At its core, Erift’s Journeys is the Hero’s Journey but with a video game and anime shell. Games such as Final Fantasy have such an amazing cast of characters. They begin with rather simple plots that expand into something much greater and I wanted to show that same sort of style without writing a LitRPG novel. I wanted to tell a story that featured an epic plot with characters that grow throughout the journey. It’s an adventure for the sake of having a great adventure.

FQ: The main characters, Joseph and Eric, share a special bond. Are there people in your real life that you modeled these characters after?

TENERA: Joseph and Eric were actually based on me and another friend I had growing up. We shared a love for video games and always wished those sorts of adventures could be real. We even attempted to think of a way to build our own airship, which of course, never happened. Many other characters were inspired by people I knew as well, many of which will be seen later in the series.

FQ: The progression of this book has spanned many years and undergone many revisions and editing. Can you explain this timeline and the events surrounding it?

TENERA: Erift’s Journeys began as a school project in 8th grade, simply titled The Strange Journey. I got 110% on the project and was told I was very creative. By 2004, the first incarnation of Erift’s Journeys was published, where it sat until 2016, where it was heavily revised and updated. However, it was my first 2-Star review mentioning a lack of editing and structure that made me start taking things seriously. So in 2020, the book was revised again, sent through multiple editors and proofreading. I wanted it to be the best it could be once I started a serious marketing journey.

FQ: Will there be a second book in the Erift’s Journeys series, and if so, what can you share about it?

TENERA: There will be a second book for sure. In fact, there are currently five books planned for Erift’s Journeys. The second book, The Dark Messengers, takes place a year later and is set to release late 2022. The plot takes a more serious turn, more characters are introduced, and the arcs of Joseph and his friends are further developed. Ryan and Professor Thessit are especially central to the plot in the second book.

FQ: Professor Benjamin Thessit is a rather interesting character. How did you develop his character and all his idiosyncrasies?

TENERA: The older mentor is a common trope in many video games and anime. They often start the hero’s journey by telling them a prophecy, offering equipment, or training them. I wanted Professor Ben to fit that role, but to be MUCH more involved in Joseph’s progress. The character and his behavior was heavily inspired by Robin Williams, who also had a passion for video games.

FQ: You have expressed that you never wanted to become an author, but rather wanted to produce video games. What altered your life path?

Author JT Tenera

TENERA: I played a lot of video games as a kid and thought it would be amazing to make them when I got older. However, making a video game isn’t what my young self thought it would be. There’s a lot more to it than simply having a good idea, which is why I shifted to writing. I read a lot of books and it seemed like a great way to tell an epic story without needing to learn coding, 3D design and many other things required to make a game. In a way, video games and books are very similar, as they can both tell an amazing story, but require a lot of work to get to that point.

FQ: What are your plans for authoring more books in the future?

TENERA: Erift’s Journeys will be my main focus in the near future. I want to wrap up the series before I move on to other projects. One of those future projects will be an adult horror novel titled Within An Echo and will be a cross between paranormal and psychological horror.

FQ: You have shared that some of your inspiration behind Erift’s Journeys: Secrets of the Sealed Forest was based on video games. Was there a particular game you drew your inspiration from, or was it a conglomeration of several games?

TENERA: The biggest games to inspire Erift’s Journeys were Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda. Both have a tendency to feature a main character that gets pulled into an adventure or objective that is WAY over their head at first. They struggle at first and often fail throughout their journey. However, they learn and grow each time and either gets stronger by obtaining new skills or meeting new friends to help them. I wanted Erift’s Journeys to reflect that same feeling of watching a hero grow throughout their journey, while at the same time allowing the reader to see the growth of other characters within as the series progresses.

FQ: The character of the robed, hooded girl is a bit of a mystery. Will she make an appearance in any subsequent Erift’s Journeys books?

TENERA: The hooded girl is a VERY important character to the series and reappears in book two. While she communicates to Joseph mostly through his dreams, that barrier is eventually traversed later in the series so she can not only assist in the main plot, but to also overcome her own arc. Spoiler, but she has a tiny pet dragon named Evvy that will travel with her.

FQ: The final epic battle takes place in the Sealed Forest, which is depicted as a magical, powerful land with many barriers for the friends to traverse. Does this setting resemble anything from a game you have played, or was it purely developed from your imagination?

TENERA: The Sealed Forest is a location that will be visited many times in the series and will always show a difference face. Its biggest inspirations were “The Moore Forest” seen in Final Fantasy 5 and “The Lost Woods” seen within the Legend of Zeldaseries. These locations change appearance not only across their respective series, but also within the same game. Both places also offer the hero and their friend’s powerful items, or hold an ancient power that is sealed away.

#BookReview - Erift's Journeys: Secrets of The Sealed Forest


Erift's Journeys: Secrets of The Sealed Forest

By: J.T. Tenera
Publication Date: December 2021
ISBN: 978-1737682707
Reviewed by: Katie Specht
Review Date: February 24, 2022
From rising new author J.T. Tenera comes his debut young adult novel, Erift’s Journeys: Secrets of the Sealed Forest. Tenera’s novel is an adventure of magical proportions, inspired by video game fantasy.
Erift’s Journeys: Secrets of the Sealed Forest follows the escapades of high schooler Joseph Erift and his best friend Eric Castis as they embark halfway around the world following the promise of an exclusive video game event. On the last day of school before summer vacation begins, Joseph returns home to discover a puzzling invitation waiting for him. In a plain brown envelope labeled with his name and address he finds a very odd letter. The letter explains that, due to his special skills and talents, he has been carefully selected to participate in a professional demonstration of a brand-new video game that is still one year from its release date. Also enclosed are two plane tickets to the Murean Islands—one for himself and the other for Eric—and a CD demo of the game to be reviewed. After some quick internet research to verify that the information is legitimate, Joseph runs to Eric’s house to share the news. After some initial skepticism, Eric is on board, and they make plans to meet up later that night to ride their bikes to the airport.
The adventure that awaits them when they reach the Murean Islands is one that they never could have imagined. It is as if the video games that they love to play have come to life. Neither Joseph nor Eric ever thought magic actually existed. However, after witnessing ships that fly, magic spells that create fire, slow time, and heal others, and a rock giant welding an ax, they find themselves true believers in the existence of magic.
Tenera has achieved an entertaining read that combines fantasy, action, adventure, magic, and heroism. The young protagonists in this story will appeal to young adult readers in middle and high school. The subject itself, that of video games and anime, is one that young adult readers often clamor to read. By crafting his story around this topic, the author has achieved a must-read for this age group.
Tenera’s writing is simple and succinct, while still being expressive. Though the writing may be too juvenile for adult readers, it would be perfect for young readers from approximately ages 12 to 16. As the reader witnesses the growth and development of the main characters, the narrative that accompanies this is engaging, thought-provoking, and full of surprises. Some aspects of the story did not quite definitively conclude, instead being left open to be resolved in a potential future book in the series.
Quill says: Erift’s Journeys: Secrets of the Sealed Forest is a thrilling story of adventure that will allow you to travel to faraway supernatural places without ever leaving your home. With this tale of best friends Joseph and Eric, the author has achieved the beginning of an epic magical journey that is sure to both astound and delight its readers.
For more information on Erift's Journeys: Secrets of The Sealed Forest, please visit the book's website at: eriftsjourneys.com/

Friday, February 25, 2022

#BookReview of Randy & Ron & Cindi and Zeke


Randy & Ron & Cindi & Zeke

By: Keith Thye
Published by: Classic Day Publishing
Publication Date: December 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59849-319-1
Reviewed By: Amy Lignor
Review Date: February 21, 2022
I want to begin with the fact that I love books where one of the characters is a canine. I have no idea why; I just do. So, I will say that Zeke (who just happens to be Ron’s dog) is one of my favorite characters! My own dog, Sinatra, is a crooner who definitely needs to star in his own tale really soon. But don’t let the beginning of this review fool you; this is a story set firmly in the genre of suspense. The thrills, the chills, the mystery – all of it is here – and the author has done an excellent job piecing the plotline together. Enough so that I guarantee the reader will not be able to put it down once they begin.
Taking us back to the 1950s, we’re placed in the setting of a small town where kids are riding their bikes; there’s no ‘darkness’ or ‘creepiness’ in their world; homes are happy; parents are loving; and, basically, all is right with the world. The small town we’re transported to is Oswego. It is here that three teens named Randy, Ron and Cindi come together.
Each of the kids have their own quirks. Randy Kenney is a typical young boy who liked his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. He gets in trouble at times, when he does silly things with his friends, but for the most part he’s a good kid. The only problem he has comes in the honesty department. In fact, while doing a dumb experiment one day, he ends up harming Tabby, the family cat and his brother’s pet, and he becomes abysmally sad. His brother grieves, their relationship gets strained, and Randy has to learn a valuable life lesson about lying. Hopefully, he won’t ever do it again. It is in 1953, when Randy turns ten, that his father is transferred to Portland, Oregon and the family ends up purchasing a cabin in need of renovations on the lake in small-town Oswego.
Living in a rental not far from the cabin while it’s being fixed up, Randy meets Ron and his big, black Labrador Retriever, Zeke. After leaving Portland when Ron was four, he and his family took up residence in the lake area of Oswego, and he and Randy soon become close friends. They swim, play on the dock that Ron’s dad builds for his really cool boat, and talk about how they’ll be entering fifth grade together when school starts up again. It’s when the boys enter seventh grade, however, and turn thirteen that they meet up with a new student who has just moved to Oswego from Colorado named Cindi.
As plots move in various directions, the trio (plus Zeke) end up spending a lot of time together. One summer night they actually camp out in the backyard only to be revived by the precious Lab who goes crazy licking their faces at two-thirty in the morning. Turns out, something has gotten Zeke excited. When the gang hears voices coming from the lake, they investigate, and spot two couples who are skinny-dipping. Embarrassing? A little. But the sun rises the next day and life goes on.
After only forty-eight hours, however, the local newspaper announces to the residents of the town that a woman’s dead (and naked) body was discovered in the lake. And when no clues are found, and no one appears at the police station to file a missing person’s report, the future changes for the three teens, knowing they may just be the last ones to have seen this woman before her untimely demise. Was she one of the women skinny-dipping that night? Did she drown...or did someone make sure to drown her? Randy, Ron and Cindi won’t stop until they help bring the truth to light, and soon their once calm and quiet world turns upside-down.
The author has done a brilliant job drawing readers into this tale by providing a perfect locale, great characters with interesting backstories, and a dog that everyone would just love to have in their own backyard. Very visual, the reader can close their eyes and literally see and feel Oswego because the details are that good! It even made me miss my small hometown…except for the snow. “5 Stars!”
Quill says: Randy & Ron & Cindi & Zeke is a great thriller you don’t want to miss, that would look positively stunning on a movie screen.
For more information on Randy & Ron & Cindi & Zeke, please visit the author's website at: https://keiththye.com/

The Last Batch of Winners From the 2022 Feathered Quill Book Awards

More award-winning books from the 2022 Feathered Quill Book Awards. Check them out! Learn more at
#bookawards #featheredquill






























Another Look At Some Fantastic Award-Winning Books!

More award-winning books from the 2022 Feathered Quill Book Awards. Check them out! Learn more at

#bookawards #featheredquill