Okay, I love my Kindle

I swore a very long time ago that I would never EVER get a Kindle or any kind of e-Reader. Mostly because I enjoy the physical feel of paper and book board in my hands. I like the smell of book glue and ink.

But I have to admit that I love my Kindle. I love, love, LOVE it.

True, it's an old first generation that I got from a friend, but I don't need it for games or anything like that. All I need it for is reading. And this makes it so much easier for me to read eBooks that are sent to me for reviews. I can take it with me and catch up on reading as I go through things. And it doesn't mean that I have to carry a laptop with me everywhere to read on my Kindle App on my computer.

I suppose I'm old fashioned. Mostly because I've grown up with physical books, and I want to die with physical books. But I guess e-Readers aren't so very bad. Especially when the only format I have the books in is digital.

There's nothing fancy about my e-Reader. And that's just the way I like it.

Second Blog Tour Update

The next blog tour is coming up quickly since the second book is about to come out in a few months. I'm getting ready for the next blog tour, trying to figure out which blogs are going to pick it up and how I'm going to promote things this time.

It seems like things are going much more slowly this time than for the last time. Maybe it's just because I've been so busy with my new job. But I'm going to get to work and bring in a few more blogs before the tour kicks off at the end of May. It'll be fun.

I'm looking forward to this tour and the second book launch. In honor of it, I've opened up the book on Smashwords. And the second book will release on Smashwords on the day of the release as well.

Reading on a Deadline

Reading has always been a passion of mine. So I suppose that's one of the reasons why I wanted to be a writer... I wanted to give the world stories that I thought were interesting. I wanted to put something out there for people to read. And I guess that's also why I decided to be a book reviewer. Simply because I love to read, and I love to suggest books to people I know.

But one thing I hate about being a book reviewer is having to read on a deadline. True, it's a self-imposed deadline, but still. When I have a stack of books that go from the floor to halfway up my desk, I have to read quick. Especially when a lot of those books belong to the public library and there are other people who want to read them.

It's hard to read on a deadline. Mostly because it's something that means I won't have the time I'd like to digest and understand the story like I normally would. I have to get through the story and make a decision about how good or bad it is based on a day or two worth of reading. Given, I can read pretty fast if I'm given the time off to go through a book. But that doesn't mean I want to tear through them that fast.

I have to read fast and make quick notes about things I want to put in my reviews. And it's just hard to keep up with everything that's going on in the story when I'm plowing through fifty pages at a time. That's the only way I can get through a book as fast as I need to for my deadlines. I have to read fifty pages, take a break, and hit another fifty pages. The book gets finished pretty quickly that way.

I can't wait to get to a point where I don't have to read so fast. Where I can relax and enjoy the novels that I've chosen to read and review. I think that's what I miss the most--being able to enjoy the books. Take my time and savor the words that are written on the page.

Not that I don't do it now when I'm reading for reviews, but I just don't get to enjoy and savor them as much now as I did before.

Becoming a Legitimate Reviewer

I've always been a reader. For as long as I can remember, books have been my best friends. I could curl up in a book and forget my problems. And I've always been one of those people who tell my friends about great books and things like that.

So it seemed a natural progression for me to be a reviewer. To build a book review blog and read books in order to give my opinions on them. That's why I built Ley's Library. Why I decided to take on a massive amount of reading and put my name up on review sites in order to garner books to read and review.

And maybe for some free books, just because those are a perk of the job.

I've gotten a bunch of requests for reviews, mostly for historical novels (which I love) and things like that. Most of them--all of them in fact--have been eBooks, which are okay but take me longer to read because I have to read on my computer. But today I got my first review request that will provide a paperback.

I feel like a legitimate reviewer now. Maybe I should get my own PO Box. Just for the blog and things. I wonder how much that would cost?

Hmm... apparently not much. But I don't get that much mail for the blog just yet. So maybe it isn't an expense that I can justify right now. Who knows? Maybe I'll get to the point later where I have to get one. It'll be interesting.

I feel like I'm getting to be a legitimate reviewer. And that's an amazing feeling.

I Need to Read Faster

My to be read pile is getting bigger and bigger, especially since I put my blog up on a reviewer website. And I finally realize how hard it is for reviewers to say no to some of the projects that are pitched to them. I feel bad saying no to people, but I have to be honest when there's something that doesn't seem to work very well for me.

And I've realized that I have a few pet peeves that I never realized, and I can see why reviewers are very specific in their review policies. I found that I hate it when people send me a book with the expectation that I'm going to read it without even telling me what it's about. Especially when they don't even read my bio.

I wanted to be able to take on a lot of reviews so that I could build up my blog and make it a little more popular. And I wanted to support individual and indie authors by reviewing books like that. But it's going to be hard to take on a lot of reviews when I have so much other stuff to do.

Maybe there's a simple solution.

I just need to read faster.

Learning to Format

Self-publishing is teaching me a lot of different things. How to negotiate things (seeing as my blog and graphic designer is a pretty tough negotiator) as far as price goes. How to understand marketing and social media presence. How to blog! And how to format documents for eBook files.

My first novel, The Forest's Heir, is already available on the Kindle through Amazon. And right now I'm working on formatting it for the Nook through Barnes & Noble. It's an interesting process, and I'm learning how to figure things out and how to put things in the right place. It's taking a lot of time and giving me a new appreciation of all the things that a real publishing house does for an author. But I think I'm a bit more appreciative of the people who are buying my novel now that I've actually been the one who's put the work in to get it out there. Not that authors who go through publishing houses aren't.

It's going to take hours to do this. Possibly days, so the Nook version won't be coming any time soon. But that's okay. It's a goal for the new year. Getting things done correctly, making it look right and getting my book out to a wider audience.

I never thought that I'd learn so many new skills when I started out on the road to self-publication. But I'm so very glad that I have.