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Words for every writer!

Geri Clouston
  Word so true to every writer- "What I know for sure is that if you want to have success, you can't make success your goal. The key is not to worry about being successful, but to instead work toward being significant - and the success will naturally follow... If you do work that you love, and work that fulfills you, the rest will come. And, I truly believe, that the reason I've been able to be so financially successful is because my focus has never, ever for one minute been money. Would you do your job and not be paid for it? I would do this job, and take on a second job just to make ends meet if nobody paid me. That's how you know you are doing the right thing."

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Words of Wisdom

Sea Witch – Helen Hollick

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Helen Hollick I would like to introduce Author Helen Hollick, the winner of the B.R.A.G Medallion.Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Helen, I would like to begin by asking you about your reading interests. What was the last truly great book you've read? The last book I read from cover to cover without much of a pause was Elizabeth Chadwick's Lady of the English. I was fascinated because, although I know a little about the war between Stephen and Matilda, I had absolutely no idea that Adeliza, widow of Henry I had even existed. It was a great thrill to read a beautifully written novel, and learn some accurate history at the same time. Have you ever read a book and afterward wish you'd never read it? Yes. I used to plod on, hoping that something would get better, but I now rarely continue reading books that have not grabbed my interest by page 50 – my sight isn't so good and I have too big a "to be read" pile to waste time reading something that has not enticed me into the story. What is also disappointing is to read a good, exciting, novel only to find the end…

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Authors' Chat

Booker Prize shortlist turns its back on ‘readability’

Geri Clouston
Last year's head judge, Dame Stella Rimington, was pilloried for saying she prized books that "people would read and enjoy". Her fellow judge, the former Labour MP Chris Mullin, added that he liked a novel to "zip along". The chairman of the 2012 judging panel, Sir Peter Stothard, has loftier ideals. "I felt very, very strongly that I wanted to avoid that thing where people say, 'Wow, I loved it, it's terrific'," he said of the judging process. "I'm afraid quite a lot of what counts for criticism these days is of that sort: how many stars did it get? Did I have a good time? Would my children like it? It is opinion masquerading as literary criticism," said Sir Peter, who is editor of the Times Literary Supplement.  To read full article: Our Thoughts: Let me first state the obvious - we are not in competition with the Booker Prize! We also do not wish to suggest that what they do is invalid. The Booker Prize means that the winners will become best sellers and yet are often not very "readable". Although we only work with self-published books, we have developed a system just the opposite of what this esteemed group of critics aspire to. Self- published books are often looked down upon as unworthy of traditional publication which we have proven, I believe, to not always be the case. We have readers located around the globe who read books for us and give us one determination –is this a book you would recommend to your best friend? When all the readers have provide their decision, we honor the book with our B.R.A.G.Medallion only if it has received a unanimous "Yes". In this way we are finding books that "readers" feel are worth your time and money. After all, most of us read to be amused, thrilled, titillated and, yes, educated. We hope to encourage readers who want to find a great book to visit our website and support books that are good but probably will not reach the glorified heights that one with the title of Booker Prize Winner will inevitably reach. www.bragmedallion.com

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Charlotte – Karen Aminadra

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Karen Aminadra I would like to introduce Author Karen Aminadra, the winner of the B.R.A.G Medallion.Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Karen, what book had the greatest impact on you that you have read? What book made you want to write? I don't think that any one single book made me want to write. I've always been a storyteller and loved to write as a child. As a child, I loved a couple of books in particular; When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr and The Amazing Mr Blunden by Antonia Barber. Both of them are historical and they blew me away, I've read them over and over again, and still love them today. Of the books you've written, which is your favorite? Well, Charlotte is my first book that was published, so it's my baby, but Relative Deceit was the first book I actually started writing about 10 years ago. So, my answer is that both Charlotte and Relative Deceit are my favourite. What book is on your night stand? Now I am reading El Rey by Ginger Myrick. I don't have a lot of time to read, at the moment unfortunately. I have too much…

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Authors' Chat

Writing As Your Legacy

Geri Clouston
  There are seven billion human beings on earth as I write these words; a mind-boggling number that is difficult to grasp. One way to look at it is that if Bill Gates, the richest man in America, were to distribute his enormous fortune equally to every person in the world, we would each only get $9.42. Hardly worth the effort, so relax Mr. Gates we won't push for income redistribution. Out of that teeming mass of seven billion people very few of us will ever be rich or powerful or famous. Most of us will be born, live, and die without ever having made any impact upon the world whatsoever. An exception, perhaps, are those of us who have been blessed with children, thereby helping to perpetuate the human race―a critical if not noteworthy accomplishment. Lest you become overwhelmed by the futility of our shared existence, take heart. There is something you can do to help ensure that your footprints are etched into the bedrock of history, rather than blown away on the sands of time: namely, write a book. Yes, you. Conventional wisdom says that 80% of us feel we have a book inside us. But unless you take the time to commit it to paper, or even better, to an electronic file, your name will soon be forgotten after you're gone. The same holds true even for those of you who have children. If don't believe me, ask yourself this question: what are the names of your great grandparents? My case rests. So stop making excuses; stop procrastinating. Find the time to write that book bouncing around inside your brain. There has never been a better time to do this. The relatively new and rapidly expanding world of self-publishing has given you the opportunity. Seize it! Once you have written it, have it professionally edited, and then release it to the world. Even if it is not a best-seller, it will live on long after you have shuffled off this mortal coil―and someday, somewhere, someone will read it and know that you were here. Robert                                                                                                                                          indieBRAG

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The Black Banner – Helen Hart

Stephanie Hopkins
  Author Interview: Helen Hart I would like to introduce Author Helen Hart, the winner of the B.R.A.G Medallion.Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Helen, I'm delighted to be interviewing you. Thank you! I would like to begin by asking you questions about your reading interests. What are you currently reading? Thank you for having me on Layered Pages, Stephanie. It's a genuine pleasure to be here. Reading is a real passion for me and I can so easily lose myself in a book. I have a fairly 'magpie' approach to the books I choose - if I like the look of it, I'll read it! I return regularly to historical fiction (Bernard Cornwell does this so well) and historical romance (I'm a big fan of Sergeanne Golon's 'Angelique' series which was so popular in the 60s and 70s). Interestingly, until recently I would have said I don't read a lot of fantasy novels but I've been completely swept away by the world created by George RR Martin and his 'Song of Ice and Fire' series (which TV viewers will know from HBO's 'Game of Thrones'). What do you plan on reading next? I'm working my way through George RR…

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Authors' Chat

Ashford – Melanie Rose Huff

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Melanie Rose Huff I would like to introduce Author Melanie Rose Huff, the winner of the B.R.A.G Medallion.Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Thank you Melanie for the pleasure of this interview. I would like to ask you questions about your interests in reading. What was the last truly great book you have read? I would have to say The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. Beautifully written and meaningful. What were your favorite books as a child? Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, The Jolly Postman, The Phantom Tollbooth... I also loved fairy tales and pretty much anything with Arthur Rackham illustrations. What is on your night stand? Lamp, Kleenex box, clock, lip balm, several books, tonic water, a sweatshirt, and, of course, a notebook and pen. It's kind of a mess. What do you plan to read next? I just ordered my copy of Victoria Dunn's Alice Hearts Welsh Zombies. Zombie books are generally pretty low on my reading list, but I've been following Victoria's blog, Handmade by Mother, for over a year now, and I'm a huge fan of her writing style and snarky sense of humor. What's your favorite literary genre and why?…

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Authors' Chat

Promoting Wisdom from Stephanie!

Geri Clouston
indieBRAG: If you are a BRAG Medallion honoree, congrats! Now it's time to get to work. Share with the world that you have been honored! Not only will promoting that you are a BRAG Medallion Honoree get your book out there, but supporting indieBRAG in everything they do will help as well. Share indieBRAG's website to other sites. Talk about them on facebook, twitter and share to any writer's group that you might belong to. You want indieBRAG to work for you and they do as well, but they need your help. indieBRAG Virtual Book Tours: We are excited about this new venture and want to encourage our authors to participate. Several times a year we will select authors and will be contacting you regarding this book tour. I encourage you to take full advantage of this. What a great way to promote your work and indieBRAG. www.bragmedallion.com Layered Pages: I have had the honor of working with indieBRAG on several projects. The first project is interviews, promoting indieBRAG and finding them readers to read your wonderful stories! If you are interested in an interview please contact me at, layeredpages@yahoo.com. Also, indieBRAG and I are starting a new project that I think you all will be excited about. indieBRAG Virtual Book Tours! If your interested in this project and would like to participate, you may contact indieBRAG or Layered Pages for more information. This is another great way to promote your book! If you would like to see how the interviews are conducted, please visit www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Goodreads: BRAG Authors, it is so important to utilize Goodreads. 1. Make sure your profile is compete. Don't be afraid to brag about yourself on there. Add a link to your website, blog, and the BRAG Medallion site on there as well. 2. Everytime you post on your website, create an event for it on Goodreads. It's so easy to do and very effective. 3. Encourage people to write reviews of you work and to post it on Goodreads. 4. Be active on Goodreads as a reader. Members like to see authors who are big readers like them and they are more likely to add your book "to read" if you are active. 5. Hold giveaways on Goodreads about three months before you publish your book. Then hold another one on the publish date and repeat every three months. 6. Hold discussions on your profile. It's a great tool! Facebook: Facebook is another great tool for promoting/networking and to meet other authors and readers. Every time you add a new post to your website, link it to Facebook. Also, you can create groups and pages on there about your work. Share other authors work as well, get involved. Sharing written reviews about your book on this site is wonderful! And most importantly its okay to do a little shameless bragging about your work! Twitter: Tweet about your work and others. Re-tweet other authors work as well and reviews, and blogs you like. This is another great tool. Stephanie,

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The Self-publishing World , , , ,

indieBRAG Reaches Important Milestone!

Geri Clouston
   We are proud to announce that in the first six months since indieBRAG, LLC launched our website 400 self-published books have been considered as candidates for the B.R.A.G.MedallionTM. Of this total, 50 books, or over 12%, have been awarded our medallion indicating that they were judged by our readers to be books they would recommend to their best friend. We are delighted that this acceptance rate is over double what might have been expected based on industry experts who estimate that only 5% of self-published books are well written and properly edited. We believe the reason is that the vast majority of these books were nominated by their authors and there is a degree of self-selection occurring, whereby only those authors who are truly proud of their accomplishment choose to have them judged by our impartial reader group. Accordingly, we are careful to advise those authors whose books were not chosen that this should not be interpreted as disparagement of their work or of them as authors. It is simply a function of the rigor that we apply to our process. Furthermore, we do not make public the titles of books which have been reviewed but were not selected to receive our medallion, or the names of their authors. As I write this nominations are pouring in and we expect to quickly reach the 500 mark and beyond! And the reason for our amazing acceptance among the rapidly expanding world of self-publishing is that we provide enlightenment of the readers, by the readers, and for the readers of self-published books!

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“Sock Puppeting”!

Geri Clouston
                                       Do you have any idea what "Sockpuppeting" is? Well, here it is: When a person creates email addresses in order to hide their identity and uses these email addresses to discuss themselves or their work on online discussion groups, comment on blogs or give very high ratings to their own work. Why does it matter? In the case of book reviews on many of the biggest online book seller sites and discussion boards, it matters a lot!  Many unscrupulous writers have created numerous email addresses which permit them to post glowing reviews on their works that are "fake" and, up until recently, we fell for them!  And even worse, they are using these addresses to malign the competition- and there is little you can do about it. In recent days several bestselling authors have been accused of this nefarious behavior and have been "outed" by authors who they have attempted to damage. It has not be a secret to those in the industry that many of the glowing reviews given to some books are posted by proud family and friends – some who also are sockpuppeting with numerous email addresses- making it hard to really evaluate a book through reviews. And then there is B.R.A.G.Medallion!  We do not post reviews. We ask our reading teams to unanimously decide if a book is one they would recommend to their best friend. The readers remain anonymous to the authors and they have no contact and no vested interest in the book they are reading. When posting on sites such as amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and Goodreads, we give the book a 5 stars and announce the book is the recipient of our medallion. This tells a reader that this book is well worth their time and money. No tricks and no gimmicks. Our reading teams are located in 10 countries and read only self-published books. We are hard at work finding books readers will enjoy and shining a light on ones that are well written, thoroughly edited and properly formatted. We offer great books in almost every genre and there is something for everyone. Chose your next book at www.bragmedallion.com and feel confident that it will be a good read!

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