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Amazon Kindle, Books

An Exciting October Surprise in Books

Mona Alvarado Frazier

Hello October! Hello, overcast skies and cooler weather. I missed you!

The first two weeks of September in California were miserable. Too darn hot and sticky, especially without central air conditioning.

When the media promoted pumpkin spice latte’s during the heat wave, I thought they were unusually cruel. All I could think of was chilled drinks.

But I had a fantastic following two weeks of September because I traveled overseas. More on that in the October newsletter.

Because of jet lag, I woke up super early today. Catching up on email led me to my Amazon page.

Look what I found. An October surprise:

Amazon Ranking

#1 New Release in Teen and Young Adult Hispanic and Latino American Fiction eBooks.

I don’t know how that happened, but thank you for taking the time to pre-order. It’s an act of faith, and I appreciate your support.

I’m grateful to each of you who ordered the novel.

The advanced reading copies may be available in the next couple of months. I’ll list the dates in the newsletter and where they will be available.

And speaking about the newsletter, I hope you found my library link to free e-books helpful.

Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels.com

My newsletter listed children’s books for Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month (HLHM) Since HLHM isn’t over until October 15th, and for me, it’s never over, here are a couple of more lists.

The top 50 Hispanic/Latinx books from GoodReads.

The New York Library’s top Adult, Youth, and Children’s books for HLHM.

October is a great time to fill up the Kindle, laptop, or iPad, snuggle up with a hot beverage, and read for hours.

Happy reading, and enjoy the cooler weather.

“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.” 

Oscar Wilde
Blogging, Writing

What a Blog Makeover Taught Me

Mona Alvarado Frazier
Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com

After several years of blogging and now transitioning to shorter posts and a monthly newsletter, I thought it was time for a website makeover.

If you’re a new author, most of the marketing advice is to have a website with a home page to display your book or books, a biography, a photo, a blog, and an event/news page.

I had one of the above.

After a few hours of trying to add pages and create a new banner. I became very frustrated. I already know I’m not much of a techie, but this experience had me feeling like the dumbest person to power up a computer.

So, I decided to hire someone to help me because my attempts were too time-consuming, and I’m supposed to be writing.

But, before you hire someone, I suggest you do the following:

  • Create a vision for the website. Decide on a theme, colors, pages, and fonts.
  • Before selecting someone, have a look at their previous work.
  • Define what is essential.
  • Decide how you’ll communicate: email, phone, instant messaging.
  • Agree on the price beforehand
  • Be willing to delete the unessential parts of your blog if needed.

I had a great experience with Sandra Proudman, a fellow writer, and graphic artist.

After a discussion on the points above, we agreed on the vision for the website. Sandra then created banners and pages.

The colors in the header reflect the book cover of THE GARDEN OF SECOND CHANCES, while the hummingbird and flower are symbolic. (I go into more detail in the newsletter).

On my home page, you’ll find the book cover and an area to sign up for the monthly newsletter.

A makeover can be easy if you keep it simple and if you’re good at graphic design. If not, know your limitations and get help. You’ll save yourself a lot of time, energy, and frustration.

Thanks for stopping by!