Supportive Blogger Extraordinaire Contest!

The support and encouragement from other bloggers is wonderful. All the people who left comments regarding M. Pax’s book on Monday; those who responded to my request for quotes for my book; the bloggers who have helped with my past book launches; etc. Sometimes we don’t always get full support in the real world, but online, it is everywhere.

Who has supported you? Who encourages others? Who goes out of the way to notice a fellow blogger? Who champions others? Who is a positive influence in the blogging world?

I aim to find out!

This contest is two-fold. The first round will be the nominations. Tell me why the blogger you are nominating deserves to win. I will select the three most compelling arguments for three different bloggers and those will go up for a vote.

Supportive Blogger Extraordinaire Contest Rules:

1 - July 27 - August 5 - Nominations open. Leave a compelling comment - why does the blogger you are nominating deserve to win? What has that person done? What is that person’s character?

2 - The same blogger can be nominated more than once. (Just make your argument more compelling than the previous person’s.)

3 - Nominations open to everyone, but the person you nominate must be a blogger.

4 - I will select the three most compelling comments for three separate bloggers.

5 - Voting will open August 6 and run through August 11.

6 - Winner announced August 13.

7 - Prizes!

The three people making the most compelling arguments will receive a $10 Amazon gift card and that person’s choice of free ebook from my titles. (The Circle of Friends series and Overcoming Obstacles with SPUNK!)

The winner of the voting round will receive a $25 Amazon gift card and that person’s choice of free ebooks of all my titles OR two print copies. In addition, the person who nominated the winner also wins that prize package.

Now it’s up to you - who will you nominate?

The Backworlds Book 2 and Industry News

The Backworlds Book 2 is Out!

The sequel to The Backworlds is now available. Craze and his friends continue their adventures in Stopover at the Backworlds’ Edge. See what role chocolate plays in the galaxy this time.

The interstellar portal opens, bringing in a ship that should no longer exist. A battleship spoiling for a fight, yet the war with Earth ended two generations ago. The vessel drops off a Water-breather, a type of Backworlder thought to be extinct. She claims one of Craze’s friends is a traitor who summoned the enemy to Pardeep Station. A betrayal worse than his father’s, if Craze lives to worry about it.

Available for all ereaders from: Amazon Amazon UK Barnes & Noble Smashwords
iTunes and Kobo will be available shortly.

If you haven’t read The Backworlds yet, it’s available as a free read from many outlets. See HERE for links.

Inspiring the words M. Pax writes, Mary spends her summers as a star guide at Pine Mountain Observatory in stunning Central Oregon where she lives with the husband unit and two loving cats. She write science fiction mostly and has a slight obsession with Jane Austen. Mary blogs at M Pax Author


In other news:

The social site DIGG was recently sold for a mere half a million dollars. It was once valued at $164 million. Read about DIGG’s fall at Publishing Executive.

E-books now lead in adult fiction sales. Read the full article at PI World.

People trust FaceBook less than Amazon and Google when it comes to personal data usage. Read full article at Bloomberg Businessweek.

Those facts about DIGG or FaceBook surprise you? Or that e-books are selling so well?

What Would You Tell a Writer or New Author?

Now that I have my manuscript back from my critique partner (thank you, Karen Walker) I can finally finish my publishing and promoting book. By finally finish, I mean get my own butt in gear and get ‘er done.

I’ve a few more things to add, plus links to hundreds of websites. As I’ve said before, if the publishing industry would just stop changing for a week or so, I could finish.

As with my Overcoming Obstacles with SPUNK book, I intend to include some quotes from others in the book. Just little tips and suggestions sprinkled throughout the chapters. I have many people to email this weekend, but I’d like to open it up to my followers, too.

If you are an author, book blogger, or publisher - what would YOU tell a new writer or author? What words of advice would you impart? What I’m seeking are short, 1-3 sentences of wisdom from those who’ve been there, done that. All contributors get a by-line and a link to their site.

If you are interested, leave a comment and include your email address if it’s not located on your blog or in your profile. I’d like this to benefit as many people as possible.

Karen’s comments were wonderful and I really hope How to Publish and Promote Your Book Now helps a lot of people!

Love of Animals, Writer's Organizations, and Unique Book Video

I have a guest post over at Jo on Food, My Travels, and a Scent of Chocolate

It’s a little different from my normal publishing and promoting tips, as I venture into the area of animals, vegetarianism, and beautiful animal photos. Please stop by Jo’s place if you love animals.

For those of you looking for a specific genre writing organization:

Mystery Writers of America
Sisters in Crime
Romance Writers of America
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Horror Writers Association
Historical Novel Society

I also found this video of a book warehouse - and what the stockers do with the books is incredibly creative!