You are here: Home / Archives for Website

New Year’s Resolutions 2017

December 30, 2016 1 Comment

sparkling trails of light drawing out the numbers 2017 in glowing light to welcome in the new year
Since I just finished reflecting on my progress on my goals for last year, I decided to write about my New Year’s Resolutions for this blog for 2017.

  • Finish the reading challenges I signed up for. This might be a recurring goal for every year. This year, I signed up for 7 challenges, and of course, I’ll also participate in the Goodreads reading challenge again, totalling eight. I’ll keep track of my challenge progress here.
  • Add covers of the books I received for review on my Facebook page. Also, keep track of the books I reviewed on Facebook. I didn’t do this last year, not the year before that, although I had it on my goals list.
  • Put the latest reviews in the sidebar of my blog. I’ll add the covers and then have them link to the review. Last year, I did this for about two months before I gave up, but it was a good way to show the latest books I reviewed, so I want to start doing it again.
  • Set up more original posts. This could be discussion posts, tutorials, tricks, anything.  I haven’t written any of those in forever, and they’re so much fun.
  • Keep my monthly routine in check. At the end of every month, I add all my reviews to I Heart Yearly Reads, where I keep track of the books I’ve read each year, and also update the review index with the new books. I want to keep doing this, and also update the Facebook page with the new covers.
  • Keep up with my weekly routine. Each week, I send out a weekly newsletter, check my mailbox, and add all reviews for the past week to Amazon, Goodreads and Barnes & Noble. It’s a good routine and I want to keep doing this next year.
  • Keep more in touch with the book blogging community. I did rather well on this last year and want to keep up the momentum.
  • Participate in more memes. I usually participate in about 4 memes every week, which is enough, but I just need to keep going at it, and not give up for a month and then go back to it.
  • Read over 200 books. I read about 200 books last year, and I think that’s a good number for next year as well.
  • Host more author interviews, guest posts, excerpts. Last year I hosted mostly reviews, and I want to bring some more original content to my blog.
  • Host a monthly or bi-monthly giveaway to get more followers. I’m thinking of giving away books, or maybe Amazon gift cards on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to get more followers, but I haven’t thought about the details yet.
  • Be more active on social media, and talk more to other book bloggers. This is self-explanatory. I need to get out there, and communicate!
  • Read and review my old ARC copies. Make a list of the paperbacks I received for review prior to 2017, and then make a spreadsheet or work out some other way to keep track of them, and review as many of them as I can by the end of next year.

What are your goals for your reading / your blog in 2017?
 

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: , ,

A look back on 2016

December 30, 2016 Leave a Comment

In general, 2016 was a crappy year for me. It had some ups, but a lot of downs, in particular my grandmother’s passing, struggles with decisions I had to make in regards to my career, one of my publishers calling it quits, and a lot more. But in terms of writing, and this blog, 2016 was pretty okay.

Back in January, I wrote a post with my New Year’s Resolutions. Let’s take a look at how I did.

  • Finish the reading challenges I signed up for. I signed up for 8 challenges, and I successfully finished 5 of them. Two I nearly completed, and one was a big fail, but overall, I’m happy with that progress.
  • Add covers of the books I received for review on my Facebook page. I didn’t do this at all. Bad blogger!
  • Put the latest reviews in the sidebar of my blog. I did this for a while, but then gave up on it halfway through the year.
  • Set up more original posts. I didn’t do too good on this either.
  • Update the review index. The review index is updated, and all reviews are on there. YAY!
  • Keep more in touch with the book blogging community.  I did quite well on this goal. For a while, I posted on about 10 books a day (Monday-Friday), and did it pretty consistently. I’ve lapsed now with the holidays, but I plan to pick it up again in January.
  • Use the mailing list, send out weekly email. I did send out a weekly email for almost all the weeks of the year (really, I only missed a few when I had an emergency or something else come up) but I didn’t really manage to expand the mailing list.
  • Participate in more memes. I started out great, participating in memes almost daily, then lost track for a few months, then picked it up again. I think I’ll have to start scheduling these beforehand.
  • Read over 200 books. I read 199 books this year! But I also read a bunch of books that I used in mini-reviews, so I do consider this a win.
Filed Under: Website Tagged With: , ,

New Year’s Resolutions 2016

January 1, 2016 1 Comment

2015-12-15-1450164883-1061198-2016yay

Each year, I come up with some brand new goals, and this year is no different. I didn’t do too bad on my goals for last year, but I didn’t do amazing either. I did manage to read about 250 books, so not too savvy.

Here are my goals for 2016:

  • Finish the reading challenges I signed up for. Last year, I successfully finished the five challenges I signed up for (after drastically limiting the number of challenges from the year before, when I signed up for about 20…oops). This year, I’m taking on a slightly higher number, seven.
  • Add covers of the books I received for review on my Facebook page. Also, keep track of the books I reviewed on Facebook. I didn’t do this last year, although I had it on my goals list.
  • Put the latest reviews in the sidebar of my blog. I’ll add the covers and then have them link to the review. Last year, I did this for about two months before I gave up, but it was a good way to show the latest books I reviewed, so I want to start doing it again.
  • Set up more original posts. This could be discussion posts, tutorials, tricks, anything.  I haven’t written any of those in forever, and they’re so much fun.
  • Update the review index. I think I last updated it around August 2014 or something, so not all my reviews are up there.
  • Keep more in touch with the book blogging community. Another goal from last year. I did quite well…for about a month. Then I stopped doing this again, although I have no clue why. Interacting with others is so much more fun than feeling like you’re shouting nonsense into cyberspace.
  • Use the mailing list, send out weekly email. I want to work on expanding and updating my mailing list, and sending out a weekly recap email, probably on Monday.
  • Participate in more memes. I started out great last year, but lost track halfway through the year. I want to participate in It’s Monday, what are you reading?, Teaser Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, and maybe more memes if I find some that interest me.
  • Read over 200 books. I read 300 in 2014 and 250 in 2015, but I don’t want to push myself, and frankly, I think 200 is more than enough for next year.

 

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: , ,

New Year’s Resolutions 2015

January 1, 2015 Leave a Comment

2015 New Year celebration

It’s a brand new year, so it’s time for some brand new goals for this year. Last year, I kept things relatively simple, and focused mostly on organizing stuff. Since I finished most of those goals, the simple approach must work! This year, I’m keeping it simple too, but instead of struggling through the TBR pile (which has been significantly reduced by not accepting so many ARCs, limiting my Netgalley picks, and reviewing most of the books I had on my reading list on Netgalley), but instead on community and forming friendships.

Here are my goals:

  • Participate in more memes. I started out great last year, but lost track halfway through the year. I want to participate in It’s Monday, what are you reading?, Teaser Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, and maybe more memes if I find some that interest me.
  • Finish the reading challenges I signed up for. This worked for me last year by keeping the number of challenges limited, so I’m using the same approach this year, and only participating in five challenges. Hopefully I’ll be able to reach my goals again.
  • Less reviews, more other posts.  I put a lot of time and effort in writing reviews, and basically reviews are the core part of book blogging, but last year I wrote over 300 reviews. I’m exhausted. I stopped reviewing for a while (only reviewing books I had to for tours) and when I wrote my first review in about a week yesterday, the review was so much better than the ones I’d written before during my review slump. So I’ll cut back on the reviews, and instead host guest posts, promos and interviews, because I hardly post those.
  • Come up with a meme of my own. I’m thinking something along the line of cover wars. I just want to come up with something original for my blog.
  • Expand my mailing list. I’m not even sure if the mailing list still works. I find them so complicated! If anyone knows an easy-to-use mailing list ,preferably that automatically sends out one post a day or per week (like a recap post, or a post of my choosing), please let me know.
  • Keep more in touch with the book blogging community. The toughest thing about this is keeping track of blogs without having my email box spammed. I used to have a feedreader, but I haven’t opened that things in years and it looks like it could explode any second. I’ll have to come up with a strategy here. I want to take thing slowly – like follow 10 blogs for a week and comment on their new posts, then add 10 more the next week, and so on.
  • Add covers of the books I received for review on my Facebook page. Also, keep track of the books I reviewed on Facebook.
  • Put the latest reviews in the sidebar of my blog. I’ll add the covers and then have them link to the review.
  • Set up more original posts. This could be discussion posts, tutorials, tricks, anything.  I haven’t written any of those in forever, and they’re so much fun.
  • Update the review index. I think I last updated it around August or something, so not all my reviews are up there.
  • Revamp the website. I still like the design, but I might change a few small things here and there. Plus, I have to check the links to see if any are broken, the sidebar needs some CSS recoded, as does the newsletter sign up form, and overall, it could use some tweaking. My bio probably needs updating too.

That’s it for me! What are your goals for 2015?

Oh, and if anyone is interested in my writing goals, you can find those here.

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: , , ,

2014 in a nutshell

December 31, 2014 Leave a Comment

goalsIt’s December 31st, and I can’t believe 2014 is…gone. Just like that. The year went by so fast it’s almost impossible to grasp. Before I start working on my reading resolutions for the new year, I wanted to focus on what I accomplished in 2014, in terms of reading.

According to Goodreads, I read a total of 401 books. That’s not including some books I couldn’t review on Goodreads because they weren’t on there (a small number, but still). Over 400 books. That’s a huge improvement from last year, and to be honest, it’s still a little surreal. Of course this includes some books I read before 2014 (say about 50) but that I didn’t get around to reviewing until this year. Still. 400+ reviews. I need a life, LOL. I’d started with a goal of reading 150 books, then I went up to 200, chose 250 by July, then had to go up to 350 again in September, and now surpassed even that goal. Wow.

This year, I participated in a bunch of challenges. The first one, the Netgalley Reading Challenge, was a huge success. I wanted to read 22 Netgalley books and ending up reading at least three times as much. I didn’t even keep track of the challenge the last few months, since I’d already won. You can see my progress here.

The second challenge, the horror challenge. God, I love horror books. I’d picked the maximum goal, 16+ books, and I think I must’ve read at least a 100. I started keeping track until about 40. You can find my progress here.

Next up, the 100 books a year challenge. Yeah…you can say I kind of shattered that goal. Hehe.

The dystopia challenge proved to be the hardest, but I still won that one as well. I read at least 11 dystopia books this year, and my original goal had been 7. See my progress here.

The last challenge was the YA reading challenge. I went for 30 books, and already surpassed that goal in June. Again, I didn’t keep track of it afterward, but I’m guessing the total must be around 60. My progress for this challenge is here.

 I took a little trip down memory lane and tracked down my resolutions for 2014. The ones I completed are scratched through.

  1. Read and review at least 200 books.
  2. Keep track of progress on reading challenges I signed up for.
  3. Write monthly round-up posts at the end of each month.
  4. Crosspost reviews on Goodreads, B&N, Netgalley and I Heart Yearly Reads.
  5. Add covers of reviewed books on Facebook.
  6. Add covers of received review copies on Facebook.
  7. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 50%.
  8. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 60%.
  9. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 70%.
  10. Organize my Goodreads shelves.

So I didn’t get all of them, but I still got  quite a few, and I’m pleased. Guess the Facebook covers will have to switch over to next year’s goals. My Netgalley ratio went up to 92% even!

Filed Under: Challenges, Reading Challenges, Website Tagged With: , , , ,

Bloggiesta Spring 2014 March 27 – March 30

March 27, 2014 4 Comments

Bloggiesta1S141-150x150

It’s time for Bloggiesta! This is my first time participating, and I’m totally psyched about it. I might even participate on two of my blogs, just because I’m crazy like that.

Anyway, if you want to participate in Bloggiesta as well, then head over here and sign up!

Here’s my goal list for this spring Bloggiesta, which runs from March 27 – March 30.

  • Write and schedule five reviews for April.
  • Add page with my books, and links to my author website.
  • Sign up for some more blog tours I got invites to.
  • Upload all blog tours promo posts for April that I signed up for, so far.
  • Make progress on Netgalley. Get five reviews scheduled for Netgalley books I read a long time ago, but never got around to reviewing.
  • Start setting up Month in Review post.
  • Update reaching challenges.
  • Visit 20-30 participants in the Bloggiesta challenge.
  • Update review archives. Add reviews for March.
  • Add reviews March to I Heart Yearly Reads.
  • Cross-post March reviews to Amazon, Goodreads, B&N and Netgalley.
  • Add album on Facebook page with book covers for March reviews and links to reviews.
  • Do the same for January and February.
  • Reply to emails for the last few weeks (I’m terrible at this, and keep forgetting to check my email for this blog).

Are you participating in Bloggiesta? What are your goals?

Filed Under: Bloggiesta, Website Tagged With: , , ,

Goals for 2014

January 1, 2014 Leave a Comment

goalsLast year, I went a little overboard with my goal list. I reached quite a few of them, but I also failed an almost equal amount. Here are last year’s goals. I crossed the ones I finished out.

Reading and Reading Blog

  1. Keep a review schedule. Review a book maximum one week after I finished reading it.
  2. Finish blog schedule for upcoming month by the end of the previous month.
  3. Read and review 150 books.
  4. Keep track of my reading challenges on I Heart Reading Challenges.
  5. Keep track of all books I’ve read and review on I Heart Yearly Reads.
  6. Get through my backlist of review copies.
  7. Update the website design for I Heart Reading.
  8. Crosspost all reviews on Goodreads and B&N.
  9. Make a balanced blogging schedule of working on the blog maximum 1/2 hours a day consistently.
  10. Write monthly round-up posts at the end of each month.

So, as you can see, I didn’t do all that bad. The reading challenges failed (no wonder, I participated in 20 challenges!) so this year, I’ll keep track of them on the blog, and I only signed up for five. I’ll post about my progress regularly, and add the progress in the sidebar. As you can see, I added those cute little progress bars for the challenges in the sidebars, and I hope they’ll help me keep track.

I failed the monthly round-up posts as well, although that’s definitely something I want to incorporate here.

As for a balanced blogging schedule – I’m getting there. I write down five items each day on my to do list for my blog (and five for studying, book tours, writing, etc) and most days, I manage to do most, if not all, of them. But I’m still lagging behind. I want to get about a month head start on my post – which means I’d be writing reviews now for February. Unfortunately, not the case, which leaves me little breathing room. Oh well. Better luck this year!

And here are my goals for 2014 (reading-wise, if you want to see my writing goals, visit my author website).

  1. Read and review at least 200 books.
  2. Keep track of progress on reading challenges I signed up for.
  3. Write monthly round-up posts at the end of each month.
  4. Crosspost reviews on Goodreads, B&N, Netgalley and I Heart Yearly Reads.
  5. Add covers of reviewed books on Facebook.
  6. Add covers of received review copies on Facebook.
  7. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 50%.
  8. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 60%.
  9. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 70%.
  10. Organize my Goodreads shelves.

So, there they are. What are your goals for 2014?

 

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: ,

Goals for 2013

January 1, 2013 1 Comment

buttonWith 2013 just around the corner, and since we survived that dreadful approaching Apocalypse on December 21st, I decided to start working on a list of goals for 2013. I divided them into several categories. Some of these are related to my book blog, so I decided to post it here and on my writing website.
Writing

  1. Write 60,000 words a month, or 2k words a day. To inspire myself, join JanNoWriMo, FebNoWriMo and other events.
  2. Write the first draft of the second and third book in the Allegro Academy series.
  3. Finish writing the first draft of Ghostslayer.
  4. Edit and revise Ghostslayer until it’s “submittable”.
  5. Edit and revise Allegro Academy – Andante until it’s “submittable”.
  6. Start making weekly writing goals and post updates.
  7. Start making monthly writing goals and post updates.
  8. Write a book for middle graders.
  9. Write a chapter book.
  10. Edit my children’s picture books and promote them after publication.

Reading and Reading Blog

  1. Keep a review schedule. Review a book maximum one week after I finished reading it.
  2. Finish blog schedule for upcoming month by the end of the previous month.
  3. Read and review 150 books.
  4. Keep track of my reading challenges on I Heart Reading Challenges.
  5. Keep track of all books I’ve read and review on I Heart Yearly Reads.
  6. Get through my backlist of review copies.
  7. Update the website design for I Heart Reading.
  8. Crosspost all reviews on Goodreads and B&N.
  9. Make a balanced blogging schedule of working on the blog maximum 1/2 hours a day consistently.
  10. Write monthly round-up posts at the end of each month.

Exercising

  1. Exercise for 30 minutes a day.
  2. Exercise for one hour at least two times a week.

Enchanted Book Promotions

  1. Make a new website design.
  2. Set up new email addresses to use.
  3. Expand to marketing as well as book tours.

Secret project

  1. Set up a website for the secret project.
  2. Start promoting the secret project.

Other

  1. Get my driver’s license.
  2. Pass my last year of Law school, and get my degree.
  3. Write one tutorial/guide per week for The Over Achiever.
Filed Under: Website Tagged With: , ,

InkSpell Publishing Launch Party

January 1, 2012 Leave a Comment

ImageHandler.ashx_

Drumrolls. Trumpets. Confetti. Flowers. We have launched!
This is a very momentous time for all of us at Inkspell Publishing. We’re very excited about this year as we embark on a journey that promises to be memorable. With a lot of enthusiasm, we are out in search of enchanting books that will spell bind you, our readers. Each story we bring to you is nurtured with care and made of the same stuff as dreams. We sincerely hope you enjoy reading them.
We plan to publish 20 books this year, each with its own flavor. Our first two books, Always You by Shilpa Mudiganti and Truly.Madly.Deeply.You by Cecilia Robert release in March, 2012

Check us out on:
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/inkspellpublishing
Twitter: www.twitter.com/inkspellpublish
But, where’s a party without some fun? To celebrate we are having a “Be Enchanted” contest starting today until 10-Jan, 2012.
Fill out the form below and enter to win free Amazon gift cards! And wait, there’s more…the first three winners will win enchanting Inkspell swag too. See it here! – Click Me!
The rules are simple.
Use the following 3 words in one sentence: Ink, Spell and Enchant (in any form). Ex – The ink cast an enchanting spell on us.
Like our FB Page (+1)
Follow us on Twitter (+1)
Mention us on Twitter (+1)
That’s it!
And the prizes are:
1st Winner: 25$ Amazon gift card, and an Inkspell Swag
2nd Winner: 15$ Amazon Gift card, Inkspell Swag
3rd Winner: 10$ Amazon Gift card, Inkspell Swag
4th Winner: 10$ Amazon Gift card
5th Winner: 10$ Amazon Gift card
6th Winner: 10$ Amazon Gift card
7th Winner: 10$ Amazon Gift card
8th Winner: 10$ Amazon Gift card

So, what are you waiting for? Visit InkSpell Publishing and fill out the form to win one of these prizes!

Filed Under: Giveaways, Website Tagged With: , ,

Resolutions for the New Year + Changes

January 1, 2012 1 Comment

button

Every year, I try to keep a set of resolutions in mind. I hardly ever keep them longer than a month, but I think it’s a fun and intriguing tradition, and I don’t want to give up on it this year. So, here we go with a list of resolutions for 2012 and possible changes to I Heart Reading.

  • I will try to post every day. This doesn’t have to be a review every day, posts can also include giveaways, memes, author interview or even guest posts. But I aim to post at least something on I Heart Reading every day.
  • I will try to read and review 150 books during this new year. Last year, I nearly made it to 100, although I’ve read over 100 books, I just didn’t review all of them. This year I’m upping the challenge. Wish me luck!
  • I’m participating in over +20 other book challenges. I will post a monthly progress post (some twice a month or more) over at my challenge blog, I Heart Reading Challenges.
  • I will keep track of all the books I receive and all the ones I review on my blog, I Heart Yearly Reads. I will post at least two times a month on this blog.
  • Additionally, I will try to post a review at least once every two days. I think this will probably be the hardest part. I read enough books, but I don’t review all of them. Time to change that!
  • Because GFC is dissappearing in March 2012, I want to raise the number of RSS and Email Subscribers my website has. Therefore, I’ve decided to create a monthly contest for email subscribers only. They will be able to choose from three books reviewed that month on I Heart Reading. There will be no additional way to gain entries – simply subscribing by email is enough.
  • On top of that, I also want to increase the level of visitor interactivity here on I Heart Reading, so I’ve decided to also give out a monthly prize to that month’s top commentator. The person who left the most comments – no spam comments though – during that particular month, will win a book that I have reviewed on I Heart Reading during that month. I hope to increase user interactivity this way.

Oh, and please check out the new and updated features pages!

I’m also going to try and host one special event per month. The event planned for this month is a The Immortals Theme Week, running from January 11th – January 17th.

Happy Newyear, everyone!

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: , ,

To the Top