Tag: social networing

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Guest Posts

Author Tips and Tricks by Andrew Hess

In the nine years I have been writing, there have been many hiccups and bumps in the road. One of the things I have been thankful for have been the great authors I’ve had the pleasure of learning from along the way. I am happy to pass that on to others.

  • The first thing I recommend to all authors and aspiring authors is to read. Read everything you can get your hands on whether it’s a free book or costs you money. There are a few books I recommend if you are starting out. The first is called “Plot and Structure” by James Scott and “Inside the Story” by Dara Marks. Both books will help give you the basic foundation for your stories and put you on the right path. After those, start searching for books that help you write in your genre of choice or other authors that have been writing in that genre so that you see what works and what doesn’t.
  • The second thing I will recommend is to start using the social networking sites. No I don’t mean going on Facebook and talking to your friends and family. I mean using twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Google Plus to seek out authors, bloggers, promoters, and book reviewers and establish relationships with these people. They are the ones you can learn from and build a network of like-minded people that have goals very similar to yours and know what you are going through.
  • Thirdly, ask the people closest to you for help in Beta testing your book. Have them read it over, ask for their opinions, suggestions, what they liked best about it, what they disliked about it, and what they would like to see more of. Typically I would choose a friend who will be completely honest with you or another author that you have become very close with.
  • Lastly, learn marketing strategies. Whether you decide to pay someone to do the work for you or you decide to do the work yourself, there are many options out there to help promote your book and will need to research. Promotions I suggest are; Virtual Book Tours, Virtual Launch Parties, Cover Reveals, Book Signings, and Table Events.
  • There is only one more thing I would strongly advise for all authors and/or readers. Remember to rate and review the books on Amazon.com and Goodreads. Everyone has a voice; let it be heard.

CAM00384Andrew Hess is a resident of Long Island New York who likes to spend much of his time traveling between Long Island, New York City and the Dutchess County areas. In 2011 he debuted with his first book Chamber of Souls, a small book of free verse poetry which depicted the struggles of a man who thought he had everything in the world only to feel like he lost everything after a rough break-up. In 2013, Andrew debuted his novel The Phoenix Blade: Project Justice; the first in The Phoenix Blade series.

Andrew is also a blogger at TheWritersRevolution13.blogspot.com where he interviews and promotes other authors in order to assist indie authors get more exposure. Andrew is also a frequent guest on the Anthony Charles Podcast, a show dedicated to creative professionals as they give insight into their works and the lives they lead; guests have included authors, comedians, musicians, stuntmen, actors and producers.

Purchase link: Amazon.com

Social Media Links
Amazon Author Page|Twitter|Facebook:TheRealPhoenix13|Facebook:ThePhoenixBlade

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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About Toi Other

Happy 2nd Blog Anniversary! – An Interview, Part 2

anniversayGreetings readers, bloggers, geeks, and authors. It’s my anniversary and I thought I’d interview myself and share it with you. I’ve come a long way as a writer, blogger, reviewer, and interviewer and I’d thought it would be nice to share some of the things I’ve learned and tell you a little about myself, in case you don’t already know.

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What inspired me to travel to the land of The ToiBox of Words?

I had played around with blogging for two years before I thought of starting The ToiBox of Words. Up to that point all my blogging efforts were focused on writing and promoting my first novel, Eternal Curse. At some point it hit me that I had so much more to offer than simply obsessing over my first book. I wanted to be able to connect with people, especially others in the book industry, and I wanted an opportunity to show people that I’m a real person, not just a writer trying to sell them a story they may or may not want to read.

So what would I say is this blog’s content rating?

www.wearemoviegeeks.com

I consider myself to be much more diverse and flexible than I actually allow my blog to be, and in all actuality, I’d like to think that The ToiBox of Words is pretty diverse. However, I won’t pretend that I don’t set limitations. I cater to an adult audience, but I know that my nephews, nieces, and their friends may stumble upon my blog at random intervals. For that reason I do not allow my content to reach beyond a teen appropriate level. For the most part, my blog content is PG, but because I am catering to adults, some of the themes can be mature.

Overall, how would I say I roll with all the punches of blogging?

Wikipedia

Blogging by itself can be a passion, an obsession, a job, or a way to escape. For me it’s all these things. It’s also just another form of social media so I have a love-hate relationship with it. Blogging consumes my time and my mind. Without it I feel lost, useless, and out of touch. With it I feel overwhelmed, inadequate, and sometimes invisible as a lone speck in the vast blogosphere. But…The ToiBox of Words has become my home on the web and I feel safe here.

Any comments on blog comments?

I get the feeling that most bloggers want comments, but fear what they’re going to get. I’m no different. It makes my day when I get a comment and it’s something positive, but I’m always wary that it’ll be something negative.  So far I’ve been pleased to either not get comments or receive very nice ones. I don’t stress over a lack of interaction because I know people are busy, and I know sometimes I want to leave comments and don’t because I’m just so busy. In any case, I do welcome comments, nice or negative.

They say everyone’s a critic, how about me?

I thoroughly enjoy talking about a movie I’ve just seen, a book I’ve just read, or an album I’ve just heard, but I’m still figuring out this whole reviewing thing. I don’t read as much as I’d like, but I’ve started to set aside time just for that. My next step will be to set aside time to review what I’ve read. I’m so bad with reviews. I do them, but it’s usually months after I’ve read the book. I’m not an overly critical reviewer simply because there are more than enough of those out there already. I am however honest. I even realize that while I may not like certain things, I try to keep an open mind to the possibilities that others will.

When I do a review, I do so because I either want to support an author’s work or because I want to share my experience. I do my best to keep pressure and animosity away from my review experience by not reviewing books I have no interest in. I hope to try doing movie and music reviews down the road.

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Okay readers, bloggers, geeks, and authors, that’s all for today…unless you have a question you’d like to ask me. 😉

Thank you for sticking with me these past two years. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for part three of this interview and hopefully enjoy some more of my insights.

This has been a

interviewpic-toibox

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

Categories
Books

Review: Ghost in the Wires

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker
by Kevin D. Mitnick, William L. Simon, Steve Wozniak

I give this book 3, almost a 3 ½.

Okay

This is the story of a computer hacker, but not just any hacker. Apparently this is the story of the world’s most wanted computer hacker, Kevin Micknick. The story is told from his point of view and is quite relatable to the modern trend of popularizing average people and making them seem larger than life. I do, however, feel that Kevin Micknick is so much more than average, but I got the feeling I was watching his reality show the whole time I listened to this book (I got it as an audio book).

There is a bunch of “stuff” to be learned from reading this book, but unless you have a keen interest in: phone & communication systems, computers, internet traversal, file sharing, and even a bit of legalese, this book isn’t going to keep your interest. I am actually fascinated by these kinds of things so, for the most part, I really enjoyed this book. Aside from all the technical talk, this book does tell the compelling story of one man’s life-long struggle with hacking and all that comes and goes with it.

I think the main reason I didn’t give this book a higher rating was because I didn’t care much for Kevin in the long run. His story is amazing and his level of almost genius hacking and manipulation skills are impressive, but he’s kind of a jerk. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that he’s a bad guy, he simply does a lot of annoying and silly things (I know a guy like him. He’s a friend, but still a jerk). Most of his problems he caused himself, and even after learning of the injustices he had to face, I still feel like he went through it all because there was no other way he was going to learn his lesson. I think someone who’s more of a people person than I am might not hold Kevin’s personality against the rating of this book, but since he’s telling the story, I find it difficult not to be swayed by my reaction to him as opposed to simply his story.

I think this book is a real eye-opener to all the people who think their identities are so secure and would recommend it for that reason alone. Who knows, someone else may really be in to Kevin’s personality. I don’t see many moms diving into to this, it’s not good for kids, some teens might like it if they’re into tech, but there is profanity present. This one’s for the guys.

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