Month: April 2022

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A Paradox Of Dreams by Harshali Singh

April 27 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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A Paradox Of Dreams was my first read of any of Harshali Singh’s books.  Part three of the Havel series, A Paradox of Dream is not dependent on its predecessors and can be read independently, exactly what I have done.

The Blurb (as on Amazon)

Dreams are mystical wonderlands that can be traumatic and yet shine a light on the hidden depths of our consciousness.

Charu, the blind third daughter of the Sharma family, uses her psychic abilities to find victims as part of an SIT headed by Ravi, her lover. Back into the fold of the Haveli, Charu wakes up from a horrific dream to answer a phone call from an old friend, Prithvi Chauhan, the suave Minister of State. He asks Charu to help him locate his kidnapped younger daughter Myra, for old times’ sake.

Like a Matryoshka doll, Charu and Ravi uncover the nefarious intentions behind the polished lives of the Chauhans even as Charu battles with dreams that claw at her psyche and memories.

Review

We have Charu Sharma – the third daughter of the Sharmas who had lost her eyesight at the age of 11 due to retinal detachment. Along with the main plot of the story, we also travel through Charu’s life which is divided into two parts – before blindness and after blindness. Because Charu did live with perfect vision for some years, she was aware of things around her yet was currently living her life as a visually impaired person. The house they live in is Anwar Haveli and Charu shares a close bond with the house itself.

When Charu lost the vision in her eyes, she gained a sixth sense. She grew up to assist the police department’s special investigative team as an important team member and worked directly under the Commissioner of Police. In a Paradox of Dreams, we see Charu help solve a child’s kidnapping and open a pandora’s box about the lives of most people involved in this story along with her own past.

Also Read: #BookReview: Young Blood by Chandrima Das

Ravi Nair is Charu’s partner in work and in personal life. They have been together since a while now, and they understand each other well to the level of knowing what their silence and mute actions also mean. They both, along with Reeti, another team member, are summoned by minister Prithvi Chauhan to find his kidnapped daughter.

Prithvi and Charu grew up together and the story hints at them being in a relationship as kids. The relationship ended when Prithvi disappeared without keeping in touch and after some time, even Charu moved on in life.

But the morning that Ravi proposes to Charu, she gets a call from Prithvi. He is a minister now and has moved to a bungalow two houses down the lane, and wants Charu and her team to solve the case without involving the police formally.

Also Read: 5 Things Every Entrepreneur Must Avoid

Prithvi’s daughter Myra had been picked up from her crib and disappeared into thin air while there were four other adults in the house. Everyone was a suspect and there were no visible clues. A lot depended on Charu’s sixth sense and power of observation to unravel the mystery and bring back the child before she came to any major harm.

Other characters in the story that we keep seeing come up are the nanny, Prithvi’s wife & mother-in-law, his guru, his cousin Manik who comes around to the house to teach his older daughter Sia, and the servants & guards. Only the family including Manik are allowed to the second floor of the house where the family resides so it was evident that it was an inside job. Everyone was a suspect, and everyone had a motive.

Nothing had prepared Charu, Ravi, and Reeti for the spine chilling revelation that resulted from their investigation. In between, Prithvi posed as a distraction, reminding Charu of the past and tried to pull her back with him, while she fought hard to not allow him to become a blind spot.

Also Read: Brand Yourself As Authors Before Your Book Launch

A Paradox of Dreams is not just a book about a crime investigation. It is also a class of emotions and personalities, a peep into the darkness all the characters lived with, the compromises they all had to make to just survive, and the wicked evil that resided inside some of them.

Harshali Singh is a skilled story teller and this book kept me rooted to its pages till late into the night until I could find out what had happened actually. A page-turner, the story has many subplots which keep the reader’s attention on alert so they don’t miss anything important. The characters are well-developed. What I loved most is the sensitivity with which Charu’s visual impairment is handled, and how her sixth sense and its plausibility is explained. While reading the book, I spotted a tweet by Harshali where she explained how she did this.

 

But the book: A Paradox Of Dreams

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitter at @samarpitadotin.

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Read my ebook WRITE. EDIT. PROMOTE. to learn the basics about becoming an author – from writing your own book, to editing your first draft, and to promoting your book yourself! You can also read my ebook How To Write A Story Effectively and learn some valuable lessons about how a story can go from average to extraordinary. This book is part 1 of the series.

In fiction, I have two short stories for children in an ebook called Bedtime Stories.

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5 Things Every Entrepreneur Must Avoid

April 25 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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While the idea of entrepreneurship is not new anymore, being a founder still does hold a level of novelty to it. To dream of owning your own business, making a brand out of it and monetizing it, seems rosy but there are some very obvious things which if not avoided can crash your business before you can blink your eyes!

Here are five things you must be very careful about; they are small but go a long way in ensuring that your business  sustains.

  • Profits should not be your only focus. Yes, your business needs to churn out profits soon enough but keeping only profit as your target will only delay the process. A little investment in customer services, fancy  packaging, freebees, and specially, on marketing, would show big benefits in some time. Cutting costs in the product that you are delivering is never a great idea because once your customers are unhappy with your product, there is no way they are coming back to you.
  • Never ever ignore a single feedback or forget to reply. Treat customer feedback as a bible. As a customer to many other products apart from your own, I am sure you will agree that one has special fondness and loyalty for brands which listen to their buyers. Have a dedicated team or time set to attend to customer feedback, reply to them and attend to the complaints, if any.
  • Don’t try to micro-manage. Take help. It can get overwhelming if you are trying to grow the brand single-handedly. Not only that, it can take a downward slide rather than reach the heights you dreamt of. No shame in taking help, in fact it is better that you let the specialists of each department do their things and move together towards a common goal.
  • Never shy away from learning. There is no age to stop learning so never tell yourself – I know enough. You do not, because honestly, you cannot. The realms of business are ever-changing and a lot depends on trends which are evolving every single day. To take your brand up amongst the top players, never stop being a learner.
  • Don’t assume you will be successful immediately. Be prepared to face failures. Big or small, they will knock at your doorstep. And trust me, it is better to fail first and climb the ladder to success then to achieve success by fluke and then fall of the ladder when you are quite content with how things are progressing. Anything new has a teething process, so stay patient and don’t let failures disappoint you. Learn from them and turn them into chapters of your success story.

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitter at @samarpitadotin.

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Read my ebook WRITE. EDIT. PROMOTE. to learn the basics about becoming an author – from writing your own book, to editing your first draft, and to promoting your book yourself! You can also read my ebook How To Write A Story Effectively and learn some valuable lessons about how a story can go from average to extraordinary. This book is part 1 of the series.

In fiction, I have two short stories for children in an ebook called Bedtime Stories.

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The Ultimate Guide To Hiring A Beta Reader

April 21 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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I am a professional editor and a beta reader, but today I am going to talk to you about only beta reading. Self-publishing has been on a rise and for mostly the right reasons. And when you are the all-in-all in the process of your manuscript getting published, there are aspects you need to be critically careful of. Like, editing. There are various stages of editing out there and every author will have their requirements.

Self-publish or not, your storyline needs to be perfect. There cannot be loopholes in the plot, ill-defined characters, or aimless rambling that will prove to be a turn-off to your agent, publisher, and readers. Ideally, an extensive professional edit will take care of everything that needs to be, in your manuscript. However, it is a fact even I cannot deny that not everybody might have the budget for extensive editing. Beta reading helps in such cases. Getting proper direction for the story will elevate it and increase the readability of your story.

Also Read: Four Things Everyone Who Wants To Be An Author Must Do

 

Who is an alpha reader?

Alpha readers are people who are reading your manuscript while it is being written or just after it’s been completed. They read it in the stage where it hasn’t been edited, even by you. It’s the raw manuscript that they read and give you their feels. They usually are not experts in the industry, but as readers they can give you valuable feedback based on their reading experience. Alpha and beta readers are not to be confused. A beta reader reads your work after you have worked upon the feedback given by your alpha reader(s).

Who is a beta reader?

A beta reader could be a professional, or your author friend, or even your sibling who reads. While the first will charge you for the work, the services of the latter two would be free of cost. A professional will, of course, give you your money’s worth, there are no two ways about it. But what is your money’s worth?

Also Read: A 5-Step Basic Guide To Editing Your Own Manuscript

 A beta reader will:

* Assess your story for loopholes,

* Find all time, event, and character mismatches, and drag them out,

* Separate the wheat from the chaff, and tell you what you have done right, and what you need to get rid of, and

* Act as the floor test for your book and give you an idea of how it will work with actual readers.

What is the best way to find the best beta reader?

Two of the best ways to find a beta reader would be either to dig through your social media network or talk to your author friends. Most of my clients come to me from word of mouth. If an author recommends an editor/beta reader/proofreader they have worked with earlier, you can take their word. Connect with the person and find out what their deliverables are. If the beta reader is also an editor, check if they have any service where beta reading and editing are together. For instance, advanced editing that I provide includes extensive editing as well as a critique of the manuscript.

Also Read: The Why & How Of The Oft Dreaded Self-Editing

Working With Beta Readers

If you have hired a beta reader, there will be deliverables from your end and theirs, apart from the financial aspect.

Your deliverable:

You will be giving them the manuscript in their desired format. Usually it’s in .doc or .docx formats. What you need to remember at this point is to not  send your beta reader the first draft. The first draft should be read by nobody other than you. After you have finished writing your manuscript, step away from it. Come back to it a week later, and perform the first edit. This step is very crucial because this is where you will be noticing things you don’t want to remain in the city, make changes, even probably add something.

Your first draft has been about putting your ideas to papers. Now comes a time for you to refine the story and present the best you can at your end. Of course, it wouldn’t be properly edited yet. When your beta-reader gets your manuscript, it needs to be the version you are the happiest with.

Also Read: 7 Reasons Why Every Book Needs A Good Editor

 

Beta-reader’s deliverable:

The beta reader will read your manuscript from cover to cover and make notes while reading it. I’ll tell you what I do. While reading, I make notes at two places. One, on the document, in comment boxes. And, the other in my notebook. The former has observations that occur while reading. These are reactions, questions, etc that might arise while reading. Some of them get answered while I read ahead, while a few others remain unanswered. I delete the comment boxes I have found answers to and leave the other behind for the author to see and address.

The notes I add to my notebook are the ones I elaborate on and send back to the author. These are observations of loopholes, character development, unnecessary babbling, etc. So in short, my authors get two levels of feedbacks.

But, remember:

Don’t take the feedback personally. Firstly, you asked for it. Secondly, there might be the feedback you don’t agree with in which case, discuss it with your beta reader. It’s quite possible that what was pointed is your blind spot since you have written the story. Happens to the best of us! The very idea between getting your story critiqued by a beta reader is so that publishers and readers don’t deliver the same critique and reject your book. The criticism is of the manuscript and not you, so remember to keep your sentiments aside and take the feedback constructively.

A beta reader is there to help make your book better. Work as a team and improve the story based on the feedbacks you receive. Accepting every feedback is not a compulsion, the beta reader could be wrong sometimes. But I would strongly suggest that you consider every feedback and have conversations around what you don’t agree with.

All the best with your book! Let me know in the comments section if you have any other queries on this topic and I’ll update the reply on this post.

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitterat @samarpitadotin.

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Read my ebook WRITE. EDIT. PROMOTE. to learn the basics about becoming an author – from writing your own book, to editing your first draft, and to promoting your book yourself! You can also read my ebook How To Write A Story Effectively and learn some valuable lessons about how a story can go from average to extraordinary. This book is part 1 of the series.

In fiction, I have two short stories for children in an ebook called Bedtime Stories.

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Writing For Children Is No Child’s Play

April 19 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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Children are the most difficult audience to please. Their choices are simple, but they know exactly what they will like. And if they don’t like what you give them, they will not mince words or emotions just to make you feel good about your work! This applies to food, clothes, and….books! Anyone who has been enthralled with wonderful tales all through their childhood, knows now as a grownup how difficult those stories are to create.

Growing up, I have been so smitten but the books I was reading, that I knew I wanted to write stories like those when I grew up. Specially, like Enid Blyton. (Don’t tell me they were problematic. We find them problematic now, back then they were just for reading pleasure and nobody really learnt to discriminate after reading Blyton’s books, did they?)

Over the years a lot of people have asked me how do they get their children to read. It took me a while, but I soon realised that all the people asking this question, were non-readers. Well, children pick up from what they watch their elders doing. Very rarely do children whose parents don’t read, read themselves. A couple of years ago, I had written this post about Tips To Get Your Children To Read and not surprisingly, it has been read more than 30k times. If you are in a dilemma, this post might help you too.

So, if you are a non-reader, will your child never be someone who loves to read? Not necessarily. While teaching your child to read, maybe you can teach yourself too, for first. Nothing bad comes out of this habit, except of course a regular dent in your bank account but libraries can solve that problem. So, pick up something light and start reading. Here is a list of 100 BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF ALL TIME curated by Time magazine. Maybe you can pick something for your child from here. I would also like to stress on one very important thing here – despite having been a hardcore reader all my life, I want parents to remember that reading is not the only hobby a child can have. Some people don’t have the mind for reading and that is okay. If your child is sporty and outdoorsy, let them be. Please don’t force them.

I have so many memories of my childhood revolving books. My father buying me books, my uncle taking me to a book shop and buying me my first Enid Blyton, my father reading me story books when I had not even learnt to read, me raiding my mother’s childhood book stash which stood taller than me, and my mother telling me about her library visits with my grandfather every Sunday and how she would finish reading the book in the bus ride back itself and then have to wait an entire week to go to the library again.

I realise I have been a more enthusiastic reader as a child than as an adult. My analysis of this is that books written for children do more than just capture attention – they take the reader to a parallel/alternate world where the reader becomes one with the characters of the story. Now, we read them as stories, knowing they are works of fiction. Back then, despite knowing that what we are reading is made up and not true, each one of us would become one with the stories and their stories.

Now in my 40s, I hope to get down to writing for children. I have no idea what children like, I don’t live with any. I literally have no notes to consult, but something tell me that should not be an excuse I can use to run away from writing what I have wanted to all my life. I hope next year, today, I would be updating this post with information about the stories I have written for children. All the best to me 🙂

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitter at @samarpitadotin.

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Read my ebook WRITE. EDIT. PROMOTE. to learn the basics about becoming an author – from writing your own book, to editing your first draft, and to promoting your book yourself! You can also read my ebook How To Write A Story Effectively and learn some valuable lessons about how a story can go from average to extraordinary. This book is part 1 of the series.

In fiction, I have two short stories for children in an ebook called Bedtime Stories.

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Five Reasons Why Every Freelance Writer Should Have A Blog

April 15 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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The job profile of a freelance writer is highly ambiguous even in 2020, specially in India. The fact that almost every creative professional can be a freelancer, is also lost to many. Most believe that a freelancer is someone who writes. Well yes, mostly. But! Photographers, marketers, analysts, coders, stylists, name it and you’ll find freelancers in the category! So firstly, if you cannot write yet wish to freelance, don’t fret. Think of your day job and it will lead you to what you can freelance in. And/or, your hobby. I have coder friends who freelance as illustration artists, or medico friends who freelance as writers! We are in 2020, who said you can earn your income only from what you studied academically? Experiment, go all out, see what works for you.

However, this post is about freelancers who write. Rather, writers who are freelancers or wish to. I get asked many a times if someone who wants to establish themselves as freelance writer, should be a blogger too? My answer is always a resounding YES.

Related: A 5-Step Basic Guide To Editing Your Own Manuscript

Your blog is were you build your brand.  It is an indirect investment you make towards your career as a freelance writer. Your blog will be your virtual visiting card. Let me explain in five simple reasons how having an active and relevant blog will help your career as a freelancer.

1. A blog is the best way to practice writing. To be a freelance writer, your writing skills need to be top of the class. And there is no secret in the fact that good writers are good at it, because they write everyday. Practice makes one perfect and while you could write offline as well, writing online brings in accountability. Knowing that people will read it, makes us aware that out writing needs to be good, relevant and enjoyable. Additionally, your mind will remain sharp with constant inflow of ideas.

Related: A 5-Step Basic Guide To Editing Your Own Manuscript

2. Your blog will be read. Personally, I am strictly against creating a tribe and reading everyone’s posts and compulsory commenting but it works for a lot of people. I suggest you read who you love to and topics you enjoy loving, leave comments and a link to your blogpost you wish they’d read. That, not only increases your circle but also introduces you to bloggers out of your own territory. More people know about you. Your credibility increases i like minded bloggers and you are no more restricted to being a known name only amongst the small circle you are friends with. Share your posts periodically on relevant pages and groups. Let people read you. Let people know what you write and how. 

3. Blogging also helps a lot in self-branding. You will be the brand and your blog will create it.  I have been increasingly noticing new bloggers-cum-freelancers who want to write about a minimum of five topics which more or less includes every major topic out there. Sit back. Do you want to believe that your are a jack of all topics and master of none? I hope not! Create your niche. Restrict your blog to 1 or 2 topics and write on them. (e.g) maybe travel & breathing, or say, art & craft.

Related: How To Market Your First Book

4. Until you have a solid portfolio, your blogposts are what will work as samples of your writing. Write on the topics you want to make a career in. I always suggest that fresh samples are not written, instead prospective clients are pointed towards blogposts which might interest them.

Related: How To Earn More And Secure Your Earnings As A Freelancer?

5. And when a portfolio of blogposts has been created, you are ready to pitch to brands and agencies you would be interested to work with. In your pitches, your blog will work as what level of content you are capable of providing. This sets expectations with the clients and they too know who they are getting into a work relationship with. You blog and its subscription number could be your major tools while presenting your pitch to a potential client.

So, while blogging won’t get you freelance assignments directly, they are enablers which help you scout for assignments.

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in
I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitterat @samarpitadotin.

 

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Basic Yet Underrated Things To Remember While Writing A Manuscript

April 14 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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You are bound to have a lot in your mind when writing the first draft of your manuscript. The story must be in a hurry to get typed, and you too must have a lot on mind. While typing, your first draft isn’t a time to go back and keep correcting errors. The priority at that time is to get the story from your mind to paper. Or, as it is these days, on MS Word. That brings me to the first point.

Use MS Word

Might seem extremely silly to most people reading this, but believe me when i say this, you’ll be surprised to know how this isn’t a basic for everybody. I have lost count of the number of people who have written their entire manuscript or even article/blogpost/thesis on Notepad, and then copy-pasted the entire thing to MS Word. What’s the big deal, you ask? Formatting becomes a nightmare and a lot of time is wasted correcting the document while typesetting. Please open a MS Word document and start typing your manuscript. All the best 🙂

Also read: The Hows & Whys Of Blogging For Your Business

Run a spell check

Again, a very basic piece of advice. Once you are done writing a chapter, run a spell check. You can also do this after the first draft is ready, but this step is crucial. Neither you, nor your editor should be wasting time in correcting basic spelling mistakes. A lot goes behind writing a book, and every minute counts. Spending hours correcting spellings will just tire you/your editor out.

Also read: Five Reasons Why Blogging Is Beneficial For YourBusiness

Know the use of basic features of MS Word

MS Word is one of the most important tools you will be using during the process of writing and editing your manuscript. It is important that you are aware of how to use the program, if not at an expert level, but at least at an intermediate level! I have known people who are unfamiliar with usage of options like track changes and comment box. These two are extremely crucial and your editor will expect that you know how to use and interpret them.

Also read: What Every Entrepreneur Must Know Before Starting On Her Own

Plan your chapters

Not a compulsory step, but it doesn’t hurt to do this. Sit and create a rough outline of your story and individual chapters. It is okay if you don’t know how the story will end. Begin slowly. Write outlines of the first five chapters and see how they expand. Accordingly, write outlines of the next five chapters before you begin writing the sixth chapter. This would help you stay focused and not lose track of the plot terribly.

Also read: Five Reasons Why Your Business Needs Content Marketing

Read what you have written

This is a constant suggestion I keep giving. Once you have written your manuscript, abandon it for 5-7 days and get it out of your system. Then, come back to it with a fresh mind and read it as a reader.  Not as the author of the story. Read it as a critical reader and mark all the places the reader in you hated, loved, and also areas that you wanted to trash. Pay special attention to all three of these places, believe me, you’ll be seeing your story through a new pair of eyes!

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in
I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitterat @samarpitadotin.
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How To Handle Negative Book Reviews

April 12 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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From the time you had dreamt of writing a book, to finally writing it and getting it published, you have treated your book only with love. And of course, you’ve wanted that everyone does so.

But, when you are sending your baby out in the world, for readers to devour and enjoy it, be prepared that it will be dissected and torn apart as well. Figuratively, of course.

Dealing with authors and manuscripts day in and out, I wanted to understand how an author perceives book reviews. I spoke to Shuchi Singh, author of Done With Men and I am Big. So What!?, and she has a very clear take on this. “If someone offers genuine and constructive criticism, I definitely make a note of it but I don’t pay much heed to brickbats. Everyone has different tastes in reading and you really can’t please all, no matter how amazing a writer you are.”

Exactly, everyone has different tastes. Every one doesn’t need to like your book; in fact it is humanly impossible. There are people who don’t like Rowling’s works, you know? No kidding! While you cannot do much about the reviews which come from readers who have bought your books, you can try to use a little method while sending your own books out for reviews. Now this can be a little tricky, but if you are short listing reviewers to send your books to, do the following:

  • Make a list of possible reviewers.
  • Go through their blogs. This is important because there is no point in sending a chic-lit to someone who reads mythologies or thrillers only. Or, vice versa.
  • Once you have shortlisted reviewers who read books of the genre your book belongs to, rate their blogs based on hits and digital media exposure. Don’t send your book to every reviewer. 10 well-written and genuine reviews are worth fifty casual reviews.

What happens when you select your reviewers wisely is that your book is going specifically to those who read the genre. In the market also, that is how books will be bought, mostly. Rarely would a historical fiction lover go buy a sci-fi unless there are rave reviews about it, right?

Remember that such reviewers will only be a handful. Most of the reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Flipkart, as well as on blogs, are by readers who have bought your books. Appreciate their feedbacks; they pay for your words.

“I haven’t received too many stinkers for DWM but going by reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, there have been a few readers who didn’t dig it too much. And that doesn’t affect me one bit. As long as most people who read my book like it, I’ll continue to write the way I do,” added Singh. This is yet another point an author must remember. There are bound to be people who don’t like what you write. You need to focus on their ratio to the readers who like your books. As long as most readers have loved what you have written, relax. Read the criticism and find out more about them. If someone has written a negative review out of spite or just for the sake of it, it will show anyway.

So, calm down. Take a deep breath. Your book is going to do great. Get ready to write an even better story!

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in
I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitterat @samarpitadotin.
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Four Mysterious Places You Must Visit Soon

April 10 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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Travellers come in all types. Some want to touch all the world-famous places, while many others look for offbeat destinations not polluted by frequent tourist footfalls. When we talk about offbeat destinations, mysterious or spooky places form an entire segment of rarely visited or talked about places.

Lepakshi

Located in the Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh, Lepakshi has a brilliant architecture that will garner interest from even those who don’t care about beautiful things of the past. Each stone here has a story to tell, and one cannot pass by the town after only staying for a day. There is this small hill called Kurmasaila on this there is the Lepakshi temple. There is a huge sculpture of Nandi very near the temple. The temple has shrines of Vishnu, Shiva, and Veerbhadra. The temple has about 70 pillars, one has a mystery.

While pillars everywhere are built from the ground up and stand ON the ground, this one pillar appears to hang from the ceiling.  Called the Akaasa Sthamba, this 70 feet tall pillar has a distinct gap with the floor. Legend has it that it was dislodged by some British engineer before independence in a vain attempt to understand the secret behind the pillar’s gravity. Historians have dated the hanging pillar to the era of Ramayana. Lepakshi is a location of deep historic relevance and a slight to behold. For lovers of history and culture, there is a lot here to keep them mesmerised. However, the hanging pillar and the mystery behind it stands apart. Who knows, you could be the person who solves the mystery!

Also read: Fantastic Ideas To Make Your Solo Trip Exciting And Interesting!

Talakadu

A small town in the left bank of the river Kaveri, Talakadu  exists in the Mysuru district of Karnataka. The town has an unaccountable amount of sand, so much that it gets a desert-like look.

Legend has it that the queen had jumped into the river Kaveri here, along with her jewels. And that she’d cursed the town of Talakadu to turn into sand. This is the curse that was given along with the one according to which kings of Mysuru will never have their heirs. The curses are said to have been given about 400 years ago, and they are still as strong.

Talakadu also has five temples which are said to be the five faces of Shiva – Mallikarjuna, Arkeshwara, Maruleshwara, Vaidyanatheeshwara, and Pathaleshwara.

Chamoli

If you are planning a trip to Uttarakhand, check out Chamoli. A district frequented by trekkers and curious travellers, Roopkund in Chamoli is a picturesque location. Very close to the bases of Nanda Ghunti and Trisul, both Himalayas peaks, Roopkund is also known as the mystery lake or the skeleton lake.

While the mystery has been claimed to have been solved now, travellers flock the place even now because of the legend and the story that goes with the phenomenon. The lake is about 2 meters deep and is infamous for human skeletons bordering the lake. While the lake freezes in winter, when the snow melts, skeletons can be seen at the bottom of the lake too.

There had been a lot of curiosity and theories floating for years about how so many dead bodies ended at the same place. Extensive research has suggested that there had been in a violent hailstorm many centuries ago leading to this spectacle.

Sundarbans

The Sundarbans in West Bengal are extremely popular for many reasons, the royal Bengal tiger being one of them. One reason that would most definitely interest travellers who searched for ‘mysterious places to visit in India’ and landed on this article, is the mystery element. As is known, the Sundarbans happen to be the largest mangrove forests in the country.

Most of the forest is in Bangladesh, with a good stretch in India. Amidst all the natural beauty and the tiger, there is a mystery of a ghost. What began based on a photograph taken by a tourist of another, the person who was getting clicked gave a loud scream.

A couple of days later, the man became mysteriously unwell and died soon after because of a heart attack. Later, the photograph that was clicked on the fateful night was developed and it showed a woman in white standing next to the now dead man.

Legend has it that years ago, a honeymoon couple had visited the place. The entered the forest despite many warnings from guides and other travellers. Here they met a royal Bengal tiger who attacked and killed the man, but didn’t touch the woman.

The woman sat by her husband’s body and kept crying. People have claimed to see her crying there for days to an end. While few people say that she left shortly afterward, few others say that she killed herself there. Which explains the story of her spirit wandering in the deep corners of the forest.

 

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The Hows & Whys Of Blogging For Your Business

April 5 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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Hey there, business owner! You are doing so well. You have a great sellable product with a tangible business plan. There is no stopping in. Go, tiger!

But, does your business plan have a blog? Did you know that a blog section in your website has the potential of increasing your business? Not only does your business get spoken (or read, shared) about, a blog also puts you and your business at a place of subject matter expert. In a time of fast changing social media rules, what will remain with you forever, is that website and the content you share on it.

Also read: Are You Looking For A Manuscript Editor?

I know reels are in trend now and that is where all the publicity and the marketing happens. But you see, content that you share on platforms owned and governed by others are not reliable. Apps and websites can get banned, or just close down. What do you do then? Take your content to another platform? Or perhaps, share your content on multiple media hoping they wont all shut down at the same time? Let’s be honest. That’s not feasible.

Your website is your own until you decide you don’t want it. All the original content you share there will always be yours. It is also a one-stop destination for your existing and prospective clients to go to for anything about your business. The buzz word from time-to-time is that blogs are dead but look around, content sharing apps keep coming and going, and the ones that stay change their algorithm constantly making it difficult for your content to get the visibility it needs and deserves.

But before a blog, the website itself requires unique and attractive content.

So what does one do? Start blogging? Well, yes. Let me tell you the advantages your business will have because of a blog that has strategically planned, created, and curated content.

Also Read: A 5-Step Basic Guide To Editing Your Own Manuscript

1. Helps drive traffic to your website

When your business has a blog, potential customers become aware of your brand and the product(s) long before they make the actual purchase. This will drive traffic to your website and many of these people shall end up exploring the rest of the website. Your hits increase, as does brand awareness.

2. The same traffic can be converted into leads

When potential clients land on your website, they do more than increase hits. They become acquainted with your products/services, and with time, have the potential to convert to direct customers.

 

Also Read: The Why & How Of The Oft Dreaded Self-Editing

3. Establish yourself as an expert

The content shared on the blog section of your business website holds the power to establish you as an industry expert. What you have to say and how you say it will leave a lasting impression in the customer’s mind. And when they have to recall a product to buy or suggest to somebody, its your brand that will come to their minds.

4. The blog’s content can be repurposed for social media

The content that is shared in blog posts on your business website would be at least 500 words long, each. That is a lot of information which can be broken into pieces and repurposed to share in social media with the link. So not only on your website or through google search, you can establish yourself as an industry expert even on social media.

5. Develop new sales funnels

This is most interesting and still a lot unexplored. Once you have established yourself as an industry expert, you can develop new sales funnels that you can introduce to loyal customers.

Read this: A Writing Coach Could Help You Finish That Book!

6. Search Engine Optimisation

Clever and correct usage of SEO will place your product/services on the top of Google search results, making your website the obvious link to click on for potential customers.

7. Encourages Interaction

Blog posts aren’t just words you write and let go out in the world. They invite comments and thus have the potential to begin conversations between your brand and a potential customer. Once the interaction begins, your content team would strategise on which direction to take it to so that it reaps benefits for your business.

In short, blogging also helps:

  • Grow online traffic.
  • Nurture and convert customers.
  • Keep current customers engaged.
  • Differentiate you from other similar businesses.
  • Grow demand and interest in your products or services.

Why does your business need a blog?

  • Blog/website will always belong to you until you decide otherwise. Insta/FB can be shut down or banned any day, or they might decide to change their rules.
  • Keep your audience updated on your business
  • Great for building long tail and driving traffic
  • Improve internal linking
  • Educate customers about your industry/product
  • Easy social exposure
  • Grows your email list
  • Can generate leads
  • You can repurpose blog content for social media

Does the idea of a social media presence scare you? Truth is that your brand/business needs to be online but the process doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You can hire our services for assistance with this. Drop us a line and ask for the different ways we can make social media easy for you.

Drop me a line at editor@samarpita.in to begin a discussion about creating content for your website blog.  Follow me on Instagram at @samarpita and on twitter at @samarpitadotin to learn more about the content industry.

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitter at @samarpitadotin.

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Read my ebook WRITE. EDIT. PROMOTE. to learn the basics about becoming an author – from writing your own book, to editing your first draft, and to promoting your book yourself! You can also read my ebook How To Write A Story Effectively and learn some valuable lessons about how a story can go from average to extraordinary. This book is part 1 of the series.

In fiction, I have two short stories for children in an ebook called Bedtime Stories.

 

 

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Five Reasons Why Blogging Is Beneficial For Your Business

April 4 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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Blogging is one of the most clever ways of marketing your product or services. While you will find arguments galore on why blogs are dead, I will tell you one reason why a blog can never die – that website belongs to you and only you can stop it from existing.

I have a content-related business and this is my business’ website that you are reading this post on. And this post was written purely to market my business, in case you haven’t guessed that yet? How? I will explain that at the end of the post.

Seriously? Blogging?

Remember how the yellow pages used to be for businesses till a few years ago? Gen Z readers, the yellow pages were like the telephone directory of all businesses that were owned by all telephone owners. Now, we have websites and social media presence.

Also Read: What Exactly Is Sustainable Living?

Today, a business blog does the same job differently. My business might have a website but how do prospective clients find that website? This is where content and SEO come into play. Imagine I am looking for humidifiers for my home. I will run a google search for the best models, and after the sponsored posts, what I will see are the top ranking posts. SEO helps the post rank on top, but just that much is not enough. Your prospective client needs to be wowed by some expert-level content once they click the link.

Yeah, right. I see you reading, though I also see you unconvinced. You have buyers. You post on social media every single day and you get enough queries and sales. That’s good. But tell me, for how long do you want to labour over establishing your brand over social media every single day, and how great exactly is the return of the investment that you are putting in laboriously?

Business blogging, today, is an elite niche and an important part of brand building. I understand that there still exist many small and medium businesses that are hesitant towards accepting the benefits of business blogging. The fact remains that there exist people out there who understand marketing via blogging and can miracles for your business through your business blog. An investment towards this would be one of the best marketing expenditures you make.

In this post, let me share five ways by which blogging can benefit your business –

Grow Online Traffic

Gone are the days when people headed over to stores and depended on the sales person to explain the products to them before they made their purchase. Now, online shopping has increased manifolds, specially in the last two years. More Internet businesses have sprung up than ever before and what is fantastic is that most of them are working out.

Also Read: How Sustainable Is Sustainable Fashion Truly?

How? Firstly, buyer behaviour has changed. Secondly, the Internet has given the buyers great power – of doing thorough research before making a decision. So today, even people who are averse to online shopping, do spend some time researching the products they intend to buy.

Content consumption has changed. Reading articles, watching reels, sharing memes – are all part of the content industry and what our consumers consume before they make their purchases. In such a situation, it is only wise to make content favouring your brand available for them to consume.

If I google about PCOS acne, for instance, and an article talking about natural, sugarfree drinks I can consume to clear my skin will attract my attention and there one what will happen, I don’t even need to explain.

The wonderful thing about blogging for business is that it takes related content and unleashes it on the Internet for like-minded, prospective buyers to  find your business. Footfall on the website increases because over time, readers start identifying with the content shared and start depending on the website for information on that niche.

Brands with blogs are known to have significant benefits compared to brands with no blogs or infrequent posts.

Nurture & Convert Customers

When readers keep stopping by your website to read the blog posts, a lifelong relationship is forming. They are starting to trust what your brand has to say, they enjoy reading your content, and they share that content within their circles.

And trust must be cherished. Trust must never be broken. So the content you share now much be top-notch, topic-specific, and always to the point. By now you would have formed a brand language and your posts will stick to that.

This is where you have the opportunity to nurture and convert customers. Your posts will have CTAs at the end and they will lead to your products. People who have started to trust your brand and the information you share will convert into customers with a slight nudge.

Also Read: Ways Simple Life Adjustments Can Lead To A Sustainable Lifestyle

Reading this might seem like the process is easy, but it won’t be. The content you share will require elaborate planning, strategising, and implementationtion by someone who knows their task well.

Keep Customers Engaged

Why should I buy something from you when at least 10 sellers have the same or similar products at about the same price, sometimes cheaper? Blogging for business helps create loyalty amongst customers because, at the end of the day, nobody has said that effort sucks. The effort your brand puts into its blog will go a  long way in impressing your customers and keeping them engaged.

While it is the job of your product team to ensure that the best quality reaches your customer, it is the job of your content team to let your customer know that. Customers like to know what goes on behind the scene. They enjoy reading about or seeing snippets of the production process, or even how your team relaxes after a hard day. Customers today like to connect with brands and the humans behind the brands, and there is no reason not to give them that.

Get An Edge Over Customers

In a world where competition is cut-throat, and even the most offbeat industries have the same things sold by hundreds of sellers, what will give you the edge is how engaged you keep your customers.

Blogging for business not only establishes you as an industry expert but also creates a place on the Internet for your customers to stop by to consume content. Believe me, when I say this, my conversion rate through my blog is quite high, and who knows, one day you could be one such converted customer!

Increase The Interest In Your Product

It is no secret that every product has variations and multiple sellers out there on the Internet. The more we write about ours, and that it is what buyers should buy – the more interest it will garner from the prospective customers.

Words have the power to change buying preferences and a large chunk of the buyer demography resides on the Internet at any given point of time. While targeted ads have the potential to turn them off, blogging for businesses has an increased potential of catching their interest and converting them into customers.

If you are a small/medium business owner looking to create written word content in the form of a blog, drop me an email at editor@samarpita.in to begin a conversation. I also create website content, social media strategies + content, and content for marketing materials.

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitter at @samarpitadotin.

***********

Read my ebook WRITE. EDIT. PROMOTE. to learn the basics about becoming an author – from writing your own book, to editing your first draft, and to promoting your book yourself! You can also read my ebook How To Write A Story Effectively and learn some valuable lessons about how a story can go from average to extraordinary. This book is part 1 of the series.

In fiction, I have two short stories for children in an ebook called Bedtime Stories.

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10 Ways To Repurpose Your Content

April 2 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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At a time and age content is constant how much can you keep creating? And what about the content that is old and nobody is reading it now? No brainer here – we repurpose old content to create new content, and take it to wider audiences. How, you ask? It’s all pretty simple to be honest!
While I write a detailed blog post on how you can do this and why regular repurposing of content is always a great idea, take a sneak peak at the 10 ways you can do it:
Also Read: 5 Hacks To Have A Productive Day At Your Writing Desk
🌼 Host webinars or create video tutorials: Don’t let the sound of this scare you. Facing the camera might not be your thing and that is perfectly fine. But if you think you can, take a deep breath, and try to dip a toe in the strange waters and see how it goes. Both these options not only allow your to repurpose content, they also take you to newer and wider audience, building your  business and/or personal brand further.
🌼 Take old blog posts and turn them into guides: I love this, personally. You know how Instagram allows you to club reels that are on related topics and create albums? You can do that with your blog posts and create guides which you sell or supply free of cost, as you wish. 
🌼 Turn your posts into ebooks: A slightly different option to the above point, take related blog posts and put together an ebook with them. Not only does that take your content to a different audience, it also projects you as an author, a subject matter expert incase of non-fiction.
🌼 Share to @Pinterest: Are the pics in your blogpost shareable? The must be, mainly so that the pics can be shared to Pinterest. The platform is still unexplored by many and the audience Pinterest will bring to your website can actually surprise you!
🌼 Turn to @Quora Q&A: Quora has been another under-explored website by many content creators to repurpose and share their content. Strongly suggest that the platform is explored.
🌼 Create infographics out of the content of your post: Blog posts are long and there are people who wouldn’t click on the links because they don’t have the patience to read! Hence, an infographic as below.
Also Read: Five Reasons Why Blogging Is Beneficial For Your Business
🌼 Repost and reshare on your social media accounts: Your blog posts or instagram posts MUST be shared on other social media platforms at regular intervals. Now, Instagram allows tweets to be directly shared in stories making it an excellent way to crosspost and gather more followers.
🌼 Repurpose a post by creating a guest post for another blog/website
🌼 Tweet sections/statistics from your post along with the post link
🌼 Turn your posts into podcasts
I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z
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5 Hacks To Have A Productive Day At Your Writing Desk

April 1 , 2022 Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma
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As productive content ninjas, the Internet is our best friend. It is also our worst enemy. Well, not really but it is more convenient to blame it, haha! Well we cannot deny that as people who write, most of us spend hours on the Internet, and not completing our word count for the day. Productivity suffers and if you are like me, you’d be hyperventilating by the end of the day and stressing yourself about the word limit not being met.

Most people have their own hack which we’ve mostly come to through intensive trial and error. When I was a newbie freelancer, I would sit to work at 9 am and would be working till as late as 11 pm and sometimes even later. Not because I had a lot of work right from the beginning, but because I’d start researching on a topic and this would lead to that. Few hours later, I’d have watched baby videos, stalked my ex or some old friend I am no more in touch with, read about the weirdest of topics, checked out recipes I never intended to make … you get the drift. And when I’d started freelancing as a writer, I didn’t know anyone else who was already established doing this. So like most of us, I learnt my ropes slowly.

In this post, I am sharing a few hacks which work for me with the hope that if you are a newbie reading this, you might find the help you are looking for.

 

Use the Pomodoro Technique

Developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, most authors and writers swear by the Pomodoro Technique today. The idea is to divide work into short durations using a timer, and the timer in question was originally shaped liked a tomato which explains the word Pomodoro which is Italian for tomato. A simple kitchen timer does the task here where we set the timer to certain durations, say, 25-minutes, during which we work without any distraction and once the timer rings, we take a short break to tend to our distractions.

There is reward involved in the form of a short break after every short duration of work and psychologically that does the job intended.

Also Read: Five Reasons Why Blogging Is Beneficial For Your Business

Learn to Say NO

This is specially for the self-employed, the freelancers, the authors, and everybody who works from home, pandemic or not. Others have a problem understanding what your work hours are and how they cannot encroach into it.

A relative might call or visit just to chat, a friend might expect you to show up for mid-week lunch, or your family might expect you to sit for mid-meals when you actually need to be on a meeting or are on a deadline.

Say NO. A firm no. Your work is important, it involves money and requires high accountability from you. Explain how your work hours are to be treated as office hours and you are not to be disturbed. At times, even though we complain, we choose not to be firm with this NO because it gives us an excuse to wiggle out of work sometimes.

But when productivity takes a hit, who has to work overtime? Us, who else?

Implement the Two-Minute Rule for Quick Tasks

According to the two-minute rule, when we start something new it should take less than two minutes to do. Let me give you a live example – my husband and I have decided to read before bedtime every night from today. So for how long do we read tonight, it will be the first night of the experiment? One page. Of course, we can continue reading after the first page, but one page must be read. That is how there will be a solid chance that tomorrow again we shall read.

And that’s how the habit will begin…

Use Website Blockers for Distracting Content

Let’s not pretend for one second that the time we spend procrastinating our work, we are doing anything other than scrolling through the same 5-6 social media sites and sharing the same memes everywhere. Because that is exactly what we are doing. So to be productive, the obvious thing to do is use website blockers.

Also Read: Reasons Why You Need A Professional Beta Reader For Your Manuscript

Access social media sites only from your phone or tablet, but not from the device you use to work from, which is your laptop in most cases.

Listen to Productive Music (or Sounds)

Most freelancers work while instrumental music plays. My personal favourites are – the Harry Potter theme song, and sounds of rain. The audios are all easily available on the Internet and happen to be immensely calming.

Playing music while working can be dicey if the music is distracting which is why it is important to select productive music. Youtube has an elaborate segment of productive music. Take your pick from here. Such music not only helps focus, but also relaxes our senses and drives away distractions.

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z

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