Ah, the monkey wrenches life throws our way. I started this blog site with the best intentions, wanting it to be only book reviews and author interviews. I love to read and have really enjoyed meeting the authors that worked with me to do the fun, skit style interviews for my Talk Radio with NO Radio show. Alas, changes are needed in order to keep up with the volume of work and still have some kind of a personal life off the internet. I think that if I change the format to include more things that take less time then I can contribute more to supporting indie authors, continue to post reviews as I can complete them, and still manage my business and family commitments.
First, I must apologize to each and every author that has not yet received a review after sending their inquiry. I started out with a great schedule that I believed I could accomplish but things happened and I’ve had to put a family matter ahead of this project. The site also grew in popularity so quickly that I became overwhelmed with so many requests and it would literally take me more than a year at 1-2 books per week to catch up. First change – I am no longer accepting requests for book reviews. I will continue to work through the pile and eventually get everyone’s books reviewed. Those reviews will be posted here and on up to 3 sales pages of the author’s choice (provided I am a member of the site and they will allow it without having been purchased from them) and I will send out tweets for quite sometime to bring attention to the reviews and help authors with as much publicity work as I can with this site.
Next, I do intend to keep the Talk Radio with NO Radio show going. That actually doesn’t take nearly as much time to accomplish as a book read and then review does and the response to those posts were excellent. This is not open to requests just yet though, I will continue to work through the commitments already made and open the studio lines as soon as I catch that up. At some point, I hope to move to a live audio show…who knows?! It could happen!
In the meantime, new material will begin to appear here this week and stay tuned for what is being dubbed “The Biggest Blog Tour of All Time” coming soon with special guest star Simon O’Kill for the release of his new book Luna Sanguis.
Lastly, I would like to open the site up to different types of posts that are helpful to the author community and just not as time consuming as the reviews. Blog tour hosting, cover reveals, release announcements and general creative and informative postings will begin to appear and I am opening the gates for requests as of July 1st for that. I will be working on a page that will display a calendar on the site and will show open dates for scheduling events like that. You can request a future spot by simply emailing mrsdlhartmann@gmail.com and put the event type in the subject field and plenty of details in the body.
Please feel free to comment and make suggestions about posts you would like to see or recommendations for types of events that I could include in the schedule. Making a difference and helping promote the work of our wonderful independent author community is still my goal…it just needs a little rearranging to be manageable. Thank you, followers and readers for your understanding and your support. ~~~~~~Debra L Hartmann
