foodvlog

Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click here to learn more or sign up.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Any amount I make goes towards my dream to host a book fair in Hampton Roads, VA. Please see my About page for more details. Thank you for your support.

Optional Monthly Question: Have any of your books been made into audiobooks? If so, what is the main challenge in producing an audiobook?

None of my books have officially been turned into audiobooks, but I have published, on YouTube, read-along, “story time” videos of some of my children’s picture books (click here if you’d like to see them). I’ve looked into the process of audiobook production and know that it’s definitely something I will be seeking down the road for some of my other publications.

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IWSG BOOK CLUB ON GOODREADS

Member Spotlights

#iwsgbookclub

The books we’ve chosen to spotlight in the month of April are Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary by Liesbet Collaert (Amazon.com & Bookshop.org) and BETRAYED (Renaissance Vampire Vipunin 1) by Denise Covey (Amazon.com). Please check these out and consider giving one or both of these a read this month. If you’re not up for reading them, no worries, you can still help spread some love for these publications and or participate in the book club activities.

In honor of her spotlight, Liesbet Collaert has decided to discount her ebook for a limited time to $3.99. And, Denise Covey has just released an update to her book. Hope you try and enjoy both of these.

Feel free to share this image on social media to help spread the word.

My co-mods and I have done a lot of research into the books written by IWSG members to help facilitate the current direction the book club is taking. In the process, I’ve learned about how readers find and don’t find books by our members. So, I’ve put together some, hopefully, helpful tips I like to call…

Ways to Make Your Book(s) “Findable”

…and increase their chances to be featured and discovered.

8) Get on social media. I am not advocating for you to try out every platform that’s available. I encourage you to try one or two that you feel comfortable with and connect with people. Don’t just promote and spam all the time. Really connect with people. I’ve had several people discover me through social media, and some weren’t even looking for my books. They were interested in my videos and other things I’d done only to find out that I also write. If you are on social media, make sure the links for each platform are directed to your profile. I came across several blogs that linked to Twitter.com or Facebook.com, instead of someone’s actual profile. *Make sure readers have a way to reach you if that’s something you are interested in. I’ve tried to contact several of the featured authors and never got a response back.*

Reminder: Here’s our spotlight schedule.
IWSG blog list 1-50 = Feb, Jun, Oct
IWSG blog list 51-100 = Mar, Jul, Nov
IWSG blog list 101+ = Jan, May, Sep (IWSG Anthologies)
IWSG Registry = Apr, Aug, Dec

Remember, if you are not currently on the IWSG blog hop list and don’t plan to join, the registry is the only way for your books to have a chance to be spotlighted by the book club. If you are on the blog hop list, please don’t join the registry. We want to be fair and give everyone an opportunity to be featured, which means some of us will have to wait our turns, including me (the book club admin) and the co-mods.

Please click this hyperlink to fill out the form to be added to the IWSG Book Club Spotlight Registry, and please help us spread the word.

Now, on to the personal updates.

I am so excited to announce that I’ve signed up for and have been accepted as a Bookshop.org affiliate. After seeing this amazing post (What is BOOKSHOP.ORG?) by Chrys Fey, I had to jump on this. I love the idea of being able to offer readers an alternative to Amazon when it comes to ordering print books online. While many people I’ve met face-to-face refused to buy my books unless I could prove they were available on the mega-site (I know, what’s their problem), I know that others are looking for alternatives. I hope to announce an alternative ebook affiliate soon, but one step at a time. For now, I’ll stick with the Zon and the Shop as the source of my promoted links.

I was putting off announcing this for a while but since it’s happening, I decided to go for it. I have been taking a very slow path to redistribute my ebooks wide. It’s a process and I’m just getting started, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while. When I began my publishing journey, I was widely distributed but became exclusive with Amazon because it was easy to manage. My writing career has shifted many times and while the future is unknown, I’ve decided to put the extra effort into making sure that I’m offering readers good options and aren’t placing all my eggs in one basket. You will not see me bash the Zon on this blog despite every justification to do so on many levels. Yes, I wish they were better in many ways and used their influence and power to be more helpful than they sometimes are, but I don’t ignore the fact that the Zon has provided me and so many other writers opportunities and a source of income when no one else could or would. I guess you could say I have a “Love-Hate” relationship that’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Lastly, I’m so excited about how much writing I got done in the month of March. It was my biggest word count in a long time, though still not much in comparison to others. Still, I’m happy with it. Plus, I’ve also hand-illustrated 13 pages in a book I’ve been working on about my rescue dog, Margie.

Here’s the latest on my YouTube series, The Read Local Show (Hampton Roads, VA, USA) and The Read All Over Show (global). I’ve been having so much fun with this. I’m so excited to have a chance to interview one of my all-time favorite authors, later this month.

If you’re interested in being featured, check out the Read Local/All Over Sign-up form here.

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Do you listen to audiobooks?
Have you tried audiobook publication?
What are your thoughts on going wide?
It may take some time, but I promise, I will eventually stop by your blog. My response time has gotten slower but I’m still making my rounds.

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Joylene Nowell Butler,
Jemima Pett,
Patricia Josephine,
Louise – Fundy Blue, and
Kim Lajevardi!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #31).

The Trustee in the Toolroom by Nevil Shute

I give this book a 4 (and a half, if I did halves).

I really enjoyed this story when it wasn’t making me angry (more on this later), but then I just have anger issues to begin with. This is a really simple and sweet clever story about a man who’s willing to go to great lengths to keep his word- and what’s not to like about that.

The story of Keith Stewart describes the rare instance of a man finding true peace and contentment in his life, career, and relationships. For Keith, the whole world revolves around his workshop and the work he does there writing for a magazine, but he’s no hermit. The one thing he finds that’s more important to him than his work is his word and his love for his family. When Keith finds himself the new guardian of his young niece and the trustee to her would be inheritance, he makes it his life’s purpose to secure a fine future for his new charge, despite not having the means to do so (here’s where I get angry).

As wonderful and miraculous as this story is, Keith’s adventure never would have taken place if someone living comfortably above his station had simply acknowledge and compensated him for what he was truly worth…that’s all I’ll say about that.

The story is told with almost manual precision, but the author’s style and flare with words keeps you pulled into the story. It’s not a fast pace action packed chronicle of a great adventure, but it is indeed a great adventure. Keith literally goes on a journey around the world trying to retrieve a modern-day treasure. He ends up traveling by bus, train, plane, boat, ship, and even helicopter while encountering a great number of interesting characters along the way. To help Keith along on his journey is his forever honest and cheery disposition, his masterful mind, and his unexpected fame. This is a different kind of underdog story where there is no real favorite, just one man with a purpose fighting against a plethora of obstacles. The reader has no choice but to root for Keith all the way home.

This was a wonderful book to listen to, perfect for my drive home. There is a lot of technical engineer talk that may or may not be interesting to readers (or listeners), but I don’t feel it took away from the overall story. Though I can’t imagine a child or teenager having the temperament for this kind of book, I’d recommend it to anyone else.

This review has been posted to GoodReads. If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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