Respecting the Reader

There’s a stack of unread books that moved to New York with me that I’m determined to get through, one way or another. Some are titles I bought for myself; some I picked up because they were free or cheap at library sales; a few were gifted to me, or handed to me because the owner didn’t know what to do with them. Not all of them look interesting to me, but because my parents and I went to the trouble of boxing them up, driving them across the country, and lugging them into my new life, I have resolved to try each and every one of those books (sooner, rather than later).

Announcing Story Stork

This is a big week for me because it is the launch of Story Stork, the newsletter that delivers great books! If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve probably seen me post about it before. Here is a little more about the venture:

My friend Rachel Waxman and I came up with the idea for Story Stork early in 2013 when we were sharing war stories of compiling lists of book bloggers, drafting submission letters, and getting headaches from trying to organize book review tours for the various authors we work with. Book bloggers play an important role in reviewing books, sharing titles with readers, and overall improving awareness of an author and their book, but when you are a one-woman publicity team, it can be hard to actually reach those bloggers.

Part of the problem is that bloggers are inundated with requests. To manage their slush piles, they tend to select Big 5 publishers rather than take a chance on indie books. After all, when you only have 52 weeks in the year, you don’t want to waste several of those weeks reading and reviewing a book that sounded good but hasn’t been through a proper edit.

Enter our solution: Story Stork, the newsletter that simplifies review requests for authors and bloggers alike.

Each week, we send out a newsletter to our blogger subscribers that features three indie books we think are amazing. From the newsletter, bloggers can find out what the book is about and what kind of posts the author is interested in–reviews, interviews, giveaways, and/or guest posts. Authors get their titles in the inboxes of over 100 bloggers, and bloggers get quality indie books that are easily added to their blog schedule.

In developing Story Stork, Rachel and I have continued to be amazed by the huge network of bloggers out there who run up-to-date blogs entirely because they love books so much. As we launch our newsletter, we hope to support that network, help all the talented self-made authors out there, and be a part of the new generation of book publishing that is of the people and for the people.

Our first newsletter went out this week. Check out our featured books–even if you’re not a blogger, we recommend reading them because, well, they’re swell!

Find out more about Story Stork on our website, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for book reviews, book news, and our featured books!

A book, an interview, and a giveaway!

Today is a very special day because it is the release of Under the Gun by Hannah Jayne! This is the fourth installment of an urban fantasy detective series featuring the human Sophie Lawson, vampire Nina, and the Underworld Detection Agency, around to help your neighborhood monster keep from disturbing the neighborhood. It’s part Buffy the Vampire Slayer, part Stephanie Plum, and a lot of marshmallow pinwheels as Sophie and the gang rush to save their boss, their friends, and maybe the world once again.

To celebrate the release, I interviewed author Hannah Jayne about just what her secret power is:

These Things I Know Radio Interview

Last November, the wonderful Jessica Karbowiak stopped by Northwestern for a reading, and we popped over to Chicago Public Radio for a quick interview with Vocalo. There are multiple reasons why this is cool, including the fact that CPR’s studios are home to radio people like Ira Glass and they are in the depths of Navy Pier, which is basically an amusement park in the middle of Chicago. We were practically celebrities as we ignored the fun house and went through the back door to go up to the studios. And then we got to sit around and discuss art. Life doesn’t get much better than that.