Hey Everyone!
I recently started a new section on my website for reviewing indie books. I hope you check out my article about indie books. Also, if you are an self-published author, I would love to hear from you! I want to read and review your work and promote it to my followers (all 30K of them!).
Email me if you’re interested! author.mbkeen@gmail.com
Indie authors are the hidden gems of the literary world. Here’s why you should read their work: www.mbkeen.com/read-indie-books/
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic noir, mystery novel by James M. Cain. First published in 1934, the book became notorious for its graphic sexual and violent scenes, thus becoming banned in Boston. It’s a fast-paced and engaging read which became the bases of several movies and the inspiration for Albert Camus’s novel “The Stranger”. Read my review about the two things I liked and the two I didn’t quite enjoy about The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Happy almost Friday! I’ve been talking about starting a bookclub for a while and a lot of my followers seemed to be interested, especially those with tight schedules and who don’t always know what book to read next. If you would like to join my bookclub, welcome aboard! 📖✈️ Bookclubs are an awesome way to stay motivated to read and meet likeminded people, even just virtually.
Joining is easy: simply like my FB page: http://www.facebook.com/authormbkeen
There I’ll be posting the book of the month and weekly discussions 💬📝
Go to my website http://www.mbkeen.com/keen-bookclub/
or Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/authormbkeen/
for the link to buy the book and the weekly reading schedule. Let me know if you have any questions.
Happy Reading!
Crafting the perfect story is a delicate and time-consuming art. But how much time exactly should it take you to finish writing your story? Read my take on this subject: https://mbkeen.com/long-write-story/
In a town along the Caribbean, during a time when the Cholera epidemic had not yet fully abated, Florentino Ariza, a simple young man who works in the post office, and Fermina Daza, the daughter of a suspiciously wealthy man, fall in forbidden love. But their romance is short lived. After Lorenzo, Fermina’s father finds out about the innocent letters exchanged between his daughter and a common boy, he forbids the relationship and does everything in his power to prevent it from flourishing including marrying his daughter to the wealthy doctor Juvinal Urbino.
Read the full review on my website: http://www.mbkeen.com/review-love-in-the-time-of-cholera and please subscribe to my newsletter 🙂
Before I start, I would like to thank you all for the constant support. My writing journey has been winding and arduous, but your encouragement made it all worthwhile.
As I mentioned in my previous post, having a free WordPress blog is a great way to start blogging and building an audience but it’s not a functional way to monetize your website. Having a self-hosted website and installing WordPress to it is the best bet. That is what I did when I started my new blog www.mbkeen.com
I use the self-hosting service Bluehost. It’s slightly more expensive than GoDaddy but they offer services and customer support that makes it worth it. Check them out!
Disclaimer: The links used above for BlueHost are affiliate links. It’s no extra charge to you if you purchase, but BlueHost would throw a few cents my way as a thank you.
Given that I haven’t been active the past two years, I’m sure many of you have lost interest in my content. I am sad to see some of you go, but I am excited for the new chapters in my life and all the opportunities and challenges they are bringing to my personal and writing life.
In 2014, personal circumstances rendered me bedridden with depression. During that period, my only solace was my writing and that was when I wrote the the first book in the children’s book series I’m currently working on. The novel is about a young boy living in a dark town who is forced to hide his talents from his family and society for fear of being prosecuted. It follows his journey of growth and understanding as he tries to find a way to escape the oppressive society he lives in while also trying to make a difference in it. But with the perils surrounding the town, the only thing more dangerous than staying is trying to run away. I’m currently writing the second book in this series.
Countless rounds of edits, a couple of rejections slips, and a disappointing indie publishing attempt later, I am back to blogging with more rigor and experience than ever. In my new blog I will be sharing tips on novel, script, short story and article writing, as well as editing, proofreading and marketing your work. I will also be posting book reviews, handy products and software for writers, writing resources, and much more.
Check out my latest post: 9 Ultimate Sources for Writing Ideas
I hope you find my content useful. Please subscribe to my newsletter at http://www.mbkeen.com to receive notifications of new posts. Hope to see you there! What have you all been up to? Comment below. I would love to catch up with all of you!
“Wow, it’s been a long time since we’ve heard from her,” you say.
Yes, I heard that. And, yes, it has been a long time indeed. Yes, yes, I missed you too, believe me. Unfortunately, I can’t say I’m back for good. If you’ve read my previous post, you’d know that I intend to start a new blog on a website independent of WordPress for reasons I mentioned before. Until then, however, please be patient; know that I am working on some amazing things– fingers crossed; and enjoy this informative guest post by Patrick M. Greene.
More and more people try to become writers and create their own book nowadays. Singers, politics, dancers and average citizens have a strong desire to add their names to the history of literature and that is why they produce tons of papers which have no use and value (quite often) and reach no success. In some cases, these people give up soon after starting their novels. Sure, this is not a great loss for literature and readers. However, it sometimes happens with young but talented authors who can bring some new trends and ideas into belles-lettres. It is a pity because public loses a great chance to read a masterpiece and maybe become witnesses of a birth of a new bestsellers’ writer. Thus, everyone is interested why these well-skilled authors give up quickly and cannot finish their novels. Sometimes even famous, well-known writers become the victims of this issue. They simply stop working in the middle of a book and may even feel depressed because of it. Why does it happen?
For people who are far from writing and have never tried it, the lack of inspiration seems to be a minor problem. However, it is impossible to produce something wonderful without this abstract thing. No one knows exactly how to get it and not to lose it in the process of work. Why? The ways of getting it are different for everyone and there is no common scheme. Sure, you can write a book without inspiration but it will be banal and probably have low quality. Thus, it is better not to create such a terrible novel at all. Your task is renewing your energy and finding your personal and effective way of getting inspiration. It may be anything you like from visiting museums to listening classic music. The main point is that these things should influence you and propel you to continue writing.
Sometimes a person cannot see through hard times because he or she has no reason to continue working. You have probably had a kind of encouragement at the beginning of your writing. However, it could be easily depleted soon after the start. There are lots of conditions which influence your personality and make your earlier goals look minor and useless. As a result, a young author is not motivated to continue creating his novel and decide to give up. In some cases, the problem is the absence of a certain great target. For example, it can be winning a certain award after publishing this book or selling a record amount of its copies.
It happens that young writers cannot finish their novels because of the lack of time. It seems to be a banal reason but it is widespread. Usually, they have bad time management skills and simply do not dedicate enough hours to creation of a book. It is not enough to do this activity only 20 minutes per day. In such a way, you will quickly lose motivation and become discouraged. Moreover, it is very important to organize the daily schedule correctly in case you have a full-time job and writing is just a hobby. Remember that the longer you postpone the process of writing, the less motivation you will have. As a result, the lack of time is one of the most common reasons why people do not finish their books. At first, they find excuses and then simply cannot urge themselves to do anything to complete this work.
It is true that young writers often encounter huge disappointment while creating their first novel. They might expect that it is a quick and effortless activity and they will produce a perfect manuscript after one attempt. However, things are not that easy as a rule. Sometimes, people who review the work of such an author may leave some negative remarks and criticize this paper. Sure, it often has a great influence on young writers and can even make them quit literary efforts. On the other hand, they can decide not to complete a novel after bad comments about it in someone’s revision of the first variant of a manuscript. In some cases, writers do not appreciate enough the part of a book which they have already done. As a result, they are disappointed and think that there is no reason to continue this work.
It is true that many young people who try themselves in belles-lettres very quickly start underestimating their own skills and talents. This is a typical problem of authors who have never published their books and do not know on which public’s reaction they have to expect. As a result, they find themselves worse than others and are too shy to present their works to the readers. It may become the reason why these writers give up their novels in the middle. Sure, it is very unpleasant as in the most cases these talented people simply need more self-confidence and courage to publish their books.
The next question which appears is how to urge yourself to continue writing and do not give up in the middle of your way. Sure, it is not easy but it is possible to do for everyone. Keep in mind that a writer’s career is full of challenges from the lack of inspiration to angry publishers who refuse to release your books. You have to be ready to these issues and do not become depressed after several minor problems. This is the only right way to fame.
Probably the first thing you have to learn is how to stay always disciplined, especially if you decide to build a writer’s career and have no full-time job. It means that your income depends on how quick and effective your write. Discipline is an essential thing for being productive and release texts regularly to satisfy your publisher and meet deadlines. How to cope with this? Set a certain schedule and decide how many pages you have to write per day. Keep in mind that you cannot break these limits in any case. After several weeks, you will develop a habit and there will be no need to urge yourself for writing.
Of course, without any doubts, it is important to have a certain plan of writing and the majority will advise you not to break it in any case. However, it is necessary sometimes if you feel that your plot is in the dead-end and make you get bored. Thus, you can completely change your story. Such unexpected things may encourage you and greatly improve your productivity as it is much more interesting to improvise while developing your story. You can be sure that readers will be amazed because of such turns of a plot.
It is a pretty good idea to read some novels of the same genre with your book in case you feel the lack of inspiration. Such stories can make you write better and bring you some new ideas. Sure, you should not plagiarize any elements of these books. However, reading some classical novels may improve your knowledge of a genre at all and make your work easier. For example, if you think that you break some requirements of style, you have to make sure that everything is normal and reread its examples once more.
It is important to take a break if you want to give up and quit writing at all. Maybe, it happens because you are under stress or too many emotions are accumulated inside you. Thus, you have to rest as much as you need. There is no wonder why some writers become depressed. They write during days and nights and have no relaxation at all. Sure, it negatively affects your mental and physical heath. As a result, a person may even start feeling ill, have headaches and lose motivation to do anything. It is vital to protect yourself from tiredness and remember about breaks in work.
It is a pretty good way to motivate yourself for writing day by day. For example, you may decide to write 50 pages per week. After achieving this target, you can reward yourself with something pleasant: even a delicious ice cream may encourage you for better work. The common mistake is setting too big and far goals which demand a lot of time to reach. In such a case, you can lose your desire to write very quickly as there are no clear aims.
To sum up, there are lots of reasons why really talented young writers give up writing and decide to pick another activity to do. They simply cannot cope with all the challenges which this career has. Unfortunately, no one is guaranteed to be successful after publishing his first novel. Moreover, many famous authors who are appreciated by everyone nowadays have been poorly read and had no positive revisions on their books. It is a part of writer’s life, and you have to be ready for this in case you choose this kind of job. Sure, it is possible to create something after your full-time work. However, it means you will always suffer from the lack of time on this hobby and probably reach no good results. Anyway, it is worth trying, and the fame of bestseller’s author is really attractive.
Author Bio
Patrick works as a contributor at EssayTwist. He is a former editor of a small town newspaper publishing. He is an avid fan of social media, and runs his own page for writing enthusiasts for his college. With the rising clamor for healthy living, Patrick immersed himself with water sports.
I’ve been planning something special for you guys for a while now. You know I’ve been blogging for some time and I had very positive reviews on my writing tips. So I thought I would compile my blog posts, add a few articles that I haven’t published yet and release a free e-book for you guys to enjoy. I collected the articles, wrote new ones, edited them, set up a photo shoot to add some cool images to the book, but once I started looking at the logistics, I had to take a step back. Suddenly, I discovered that my WP blog gives me very little room to achieve the things intended from this e-book in particular and my blog in general. And once I started adding up the cost of services I needed to buy to achieve those goals, I discovered the hidden costs behind a “free” WordPress blog.
Now, this article isn’t written to attack WP or dissuade anyone from joining. I have been on WordPress on and off for six years now and it has given me the opportunity to reach thousands of people that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity of reaching otherwise. So if you are a novice blogger, looking to learn and connect with a few people, then WordPress is a great platform that provides you with a small outlet for your talent. However, if you are an experienced blogger who’s looking to take their blog to the next level and start generating income from it, then a free WordPress blog is not such a great idea.
The reasons behind that are simple: WordPress does not allow you to advertise on your blog, the themes it provides are either too basic or too expensive, it does make it easy for you to create an email list, and its services are very limited when it comes to SEO.
So what’s the alternative? You can purchase a premium theme, upgrade your blog on WP, and transfer it to WordPress.org. But that will cost you somewhere between $300-500 and that is, of course, not to mention the recurring cost of the theme and the upgrade or any SEO services. Or, and that’s what I’m going to do, you can find a webhost that does the hosting for you.
What does a webhost do? They run your website basically. They manage the traffic, provide SEO, give you the option to have and sell ad space, some even have marketing services for small costs. Self-hosting your blog will give you the option to sell products on your website, create an email list, and even have tutorials and webinars on your blog. I recommend BlueHost. Their pro kit is around $3 a month (12-36 months due upon sign up), it hosts up to 10 website and they give you a domain name for free. You can transfer your website into WordPress and have everything WP has to offer while also enjoying all the services WP does not provide.
The downside of self-hosting a blog is that you’ll lose your WP followers. And when you post, your blog posts won’t appear on WP reader and you won’t be able to reach the users on that platform. But there is a way around that. Personally, I’m going to keep this WP blog and create a new one website. I will be posting on my new website and linking people from my old blog to my new blog. Once I know that all my friends know where my new virtual address is, I can close the old blog or leave it with all its posts and have a redirect link to my new blog.
So if you are on basic WP plan and struggling to make money out of your blog then no wonder! Look into self-hosting. BlueHost offers a discounted price if you follow this link. Follow this link and get your discounted price on BlueHost and start making revenue doing what you love.
I hope you guys enjoyed this post. What other problems are you facing with WordPress? Please leave a comment and share this post if you liked it. Thank you!
Hey, guys! I just posted a few videos on my 5 Day Book Writing process on Snapchat. Add me via Snapcode by saving the photo below:
Here’s a preview of what you might see.
Hope to see you there!
I can’t believe I pulled this off. I have no words, I mean it, I used them all up. I’ll just leave you with this video.
Add me on Snapchat (screenshot photo below then add via snapcode) 👇🏼
Words of Margaux 