Tag: tips

New Resource for Book Review Bloggers

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

From time to time, I have shared how bloggers can get books from publishers in exchange for a review. I try to maintain a list of publisher-sponsored book review programs here for the benefit of my readers.

Today, I want to point out another resource for those who are looking to do book reviews in exchange for a free book. My former business partner, Shaun Tabatt, of BibleGeekGoneWild.com has relaunched CrossFocusedReviews.com as a new site connecting book review bloggers and available books for review. He has three titles available for review so far, from Christian Focus Publications and The Good Book Company. And knowing Shaun’s success with the 12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway, I’m sure there will be many more titles in the months to come.

Consider signing up for the Cross Focused Reviews email list, or submitting a request to join one of the upcoming blog tours.

“Money and Marriage: A Complete Guide for Engaged and Newly Married Couples” by Matt Bell

~ Bob Hayton

Money and Marriage: these two words go together for better or worse. Now as ever, more marriages fall apart over money than for almost any other reason. Even for those Christian couples who are determined to not even think about divorce, money adds an incredible amount of stress and pressure onto their new life together.

My experience is similar. We started out our marriage with a debt problem that got worse, and many of our trials have been related to financial pressures. By God’s grace, we have grown through the years and have not allowed money to drive us apart. Today we are financially stable, but looking back, I believe we would have been better off had we read a resource like this new book by Matt Bell, Money and Marriage: A Complete Guide for Engaged and Newly Married Couples published by NavPress.

Bell’s book is packed full of wise advice and practical tips, but it is so much more than just a self-help book. Systematically, step by step, Matt Bell explains how to think about finances and your new life together as a married couple. He gives a crash course on budgeting, frugality, credit, debt, housing, insurance and more. His book is flexible enough to be useful in a variety of ways as he advocates an approach to money more than any one strategy. Sprinkled throughout the book are Scripture verses, teaching applicable for Christians, and personal anecdotes. It is clear that this is a Christian money book, especially when the book concludes with the importance of finding a life purpose that fits in with God’s purposes for your life.

This book was easy to read and chuck full of useful pointers and resources for more study (chief among them being Matt’s personal blog, MattaboutMoney.com). I found the Scripture quotations and other quotations interesting and appropriate. Occasionally they were downright funny, providing comedic relief from the serious topic of conversation. For instance, Matt shares Mark Twains’ important insight about investing: “October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.” Humor aside, the book offers sound (not trendy) advice and covers a wide variety of situations, such as when a prenuptial agreement may or may not make sense, even for a Christian.

Newly weds, engaged couples, and those who are still young marrieds will benefit most from the book, but everyone will find some sound financial advice. The “take action” steps, numerous charts, and the personal stories help the reader apply the principles to their own situation. If you know of any young couples, consider giving them a copy of this book. And those of you who haven’t hit middle age yet, you really need to get this book. I highly recommend it.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher for review. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

You can pick up a copy of this book at Amazon.com or through NavPress, direct.

Bob’s Blogging Tips: Instapaper’s Read It Later Bookmarklet

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

Over the years, I’ve covered quite a few blogging tips. I’ve been meaning to blog about this one for quite a while.

As you find time throughout your day to surf the web, I’m sure you make the rounds to a few of your favorite blogs (like mine!), or check out your Google Reader. If you are being swept away by Twitter, like I am, you probably find quite a few interesting articles or links shared by your Twitter contacts. Invariably there isn’t time to finish reading everything that seems worth reading. What are you to do?

I’ve found a tool which helps me keep track of what I’m interested in reading. Instapaper has a “read later” bookmarklet. Once you sign up for a free account, you can drag a button to your favorites toolbar. Then when your browser is open to a page you want to read later, you just click the “read later” button and it is saved to your Instapaper account.

When you login to your account, you see a list of all your unread links. You can read them, save them, organize or delete them. I’ve found this quite helpful when I want to blog on something but don’t have time right then and there.

There may be other tools similar to this, but I find this one extremely easy to use. Let me know if anyone else uses this or has some other option which might be as good or better.

Blogging for Books part 2

~ Bob Hayton ~ 8 Comments

Last week I started sharing how serious bloggers can get free books to review on their blogs. I shared how Reformation Trust and Thomas Nelson, both have book review programs that bloggers are free to sign up for. Today I’ll share how to get books from other publishers that don’t have such programs.

It’s really quite simple. All you do is ask. Let me illustrate this for you, by sharing my story.

My Personal Story

A few months back, I was reading some blogs and other sites online and I came across an interesting discussion on the Biblical flood. In it I found out about a book called Beyond Creation Science: New Covenant Creation from Genesis to Revelation. I looked at the website for the book, and got interested in it. I’m interested in the creation debate and prophecy, and I thought I’d like to check this book out. (Note, I’ll be reviewing this one soon.)

Once I knew I was interested in the book, I emailed one of the authors (whose email was visible on the site). I described my blog, how many visitors I get on average, and who my target audience is of my blog. Then I simply asked if they had review copies and promised to do a review if they would furnish one. Very soon I had a positive respone, and a week or so later had a free book at my door.

Later once I met Shaun Tabbat and we compared blog notes. I soon realized he was using this same method to get books from respected publishers like Crossway, IVP, Kregel and others.

I decided to try and see if I could get some books to review on my blog from them. So I sent out my requests, either via a form submission or email, to various publishers. I tried to pick books interesting to me, that would fit in to my overall blog plans. I honestly expected to get some “no”s; so I wasn’t prepared for the response. I’ve asked 13 publishers to date, and have received free books from 12 of them. The last one hasn’t responded. Besides smaller private publishers, I’ve gotten books from IVP, Kregel, Crossway, Fortress Press, Harvest House, Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, Thomas Nelson, & Reformation Trust.

Given my success, I thought I’d share this strategy with my blogging friends. Many of you, like me, are strapped for funds and can’t get these exciting new books you hear about. This might help you like me to enjoy some good books, and then review them on your blog.

Answers to some common questions:

How many hits do you need to average to be able to do this?

I’m not really sure how many hits one has to have to be considered. The main thing is knowing your audience and describing your blog well.

Is this just a cheap way of getting a free book? Isn’t this sort of dishonest?

Not at all. In today’s world, especially, more and more books are bought and promoted online. Recently I posted a review of one of my personal books, in the comments someone shared that they actually went on to purchase the book as a result of my post. This is the benefit we bring to publishers. Their product will be talked about and publicized. And the cost for them is negligible. It’s inexpensive marketing. As long as you pledge in good faith to review the book, and you actually do follow through, there is no dishonesty. A publisher will easily be able to tell if you don’t follow through and won’t honor requests for more books.

Where do I find publishers’ email addresses? How do I request books?

I recommend Googling for Christian Publishers and just go to each publisher’s website and look around. Often you’ll find a contact form, or a media submission form. Sometimes, as with Crossway, IVP and Fortress you’ll need to register with them as a media outlet. In the comments section you clarify you are a blogger and give your request.   You can look for contact us, or about us pages on most publisher’s sites.

One other tip would be to look for smaller independent book publishers. These people are more likely to say yes as they don’t have the large marketing budgets other publishers have. A list of small Christian publishers can be found here (compliments of Christian Small Publishers Association).

Any other tips for getting them to say “yes”?

I’d recommend having a book in mind when you contact a publisher. Tell them why you’re interested in the book and that you think it will interest your readers. I try to stick to books that I’d be glad to blog about on my blog, and that would fit into my existing blog themes.

Also, be sure to mention you will post your review on your site as well as on Amazon.com or some other site like that. Posting the review on Amazon helps publishers have a voice in the largest bookselling site out there. Reviews on Amazon consistently influence shoppers, so this is a great help in a publisher (actually the publicist or marketer) deciding to accept your request.

You can also save the review in pdf format so you’ll be able to email a copy of the review to the publicist. There are a few free pdf creating programs online, I use Open Office.

Be timely with your reviews and stay in touch with the publicists. This will help build rapport. You can get to the point where they let you keep extra books to give away on your blog, or they can work with you to help sponsor give-aways on your blog to promote traffic for you, and interest in their products.

So now that the secret is out, get to it. Let’s use this avenue as a way to grow spiritually as Christians, and become better bloggers along the way.

Update: More and more publishers make book review blogging easy.

Following Comments with Co.mments

~ fundyreformed ~ 7 Comments

From time to time, I like to post blogging tips. Today is one of those times 🙂 .

If you are like me, every once in a while you put your toe into the discussion area beneath a blog post. And yes, at times I jump in with both feet. Now commenting can be fun—and with fundamentalists, sometimes it’s outright scary! Hey I’m a Calvinist so debating shouldn’t scare me, but it can and does zap me of energy and will power, every once in a while.

So if I happen to forget about some discussion I was having, a day or two could go by without me responding to a response to my comment. Or I may have enjoyed reading the discussion and wanted to follow it, but with the hustle and bustle of life, I’ve just simply forgot about it. Or worse, I can’t remember where I said that, or what it was that I was reading.

I’ve been looking for a tool to help with this problem for some time. I know with certain blog types, I can subscribe to the comments of a particular post. but I wanted all my current conversations in one place.

Well recently, I stumbled across Co.mments. And I found my solution!

Co.mments lets you easily track conversations on just about any blog. You can add a button to your browser toolbar, and just click “Track co.mments” when you are on a post you want to track. It doesn’t seem to work with forums as well, but it works great with blogs.

You receive email updates with the comment(s) already in the email. Plus there is an option from within the email to remove the conversation from your tracking page. The only drawback is that you will always get an email with all the comments that were there before you started tracking new comments. Perhaps they’ll fix that ultimately. It’s still a great tool, regardless.

So check it out. Start tracking co.mments today!