… Blinded by ambition, he only slipped deeper until it was too late. And then, Allahabad came to rescue once again… Allahabad, the holy Hindu city situated at the confluence of three rivers - sacred Ganga, mighty Yamuna and invisible Saraswati, hosts the largest gathering of humans ever - the 'Kumbh Mela'. It has a sizable Muslim population (Allahabad - place of God) and is known for producing disproportionate number of prominent politicians. Born and abandoned helpless during Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, Balu found himself through Gods, religions and ambition, and went on to lead a high life of crime and politics. Defining himself as both Hindu and Muslim, he ruled Allahabad through drugs, love and acumen. Efforts to quit the life of crime took him to Asia, Europe and the USA but to no salvation. Described as an incredibly well researched novel, The Boy From Allahabad, is the perfect fiction read for non-fiction lovers. A captivating, well crafted story, Ruchir Verma will impress you with his unique talent and inspired view of the world. Available to buy internationally through Amazon here; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boy-Allahabad-Ruchir-Verma-ebook/dp/B07F1YL4NV/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1531692755&sr=1-1 Paperback Cost; £13.30 Avaliable as an eBook. ASIN - B07F1YL4NV #Promotion

A collection of romantic Love Poems intermingled with passages of spiritual enlightenment, Love Poems promises to take the reader on a sublime journey of both written imagery and visual artwork by the author, guiding them to the truth behind what Love is and how it connects us all. Love Poems is a beautiful collection of light reads, perfect for this Summer, and worth a read. Dr. Beizaee proves himself not only a talented poet, but an inspirational artist, with his beautiful illustrations featured throughout the book and helping to bring the poems to life. Love Poems is only available as a Kindle Book, ordered through Amazon. Biography; Tony B. Beizaee, D.M.D., is a passionate innovator who has held multiple roles through his life, from dentist and entrepreneur, all the way to abstract artist and author. His unwavering dedication to philanthropy has earned him the reputation as an ambassador of positive change and compassionate community leader. Ultimately, Tony is driven by five key principles: integrity, spirituality, growth, love, and compassion. His ultimate aspiration is to create a legacy that will continue positively impacting people for generations to come. ASIN: B07F5RMRW4 Buy Love Poems Here; https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F5RMRW4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530489358&sr=8-1&keywords=dr+tony+beizaee #Promotion

What did you think of Silence? In making this short YouTube series the overall goal was not to kick start a YouTube channel, which certainly is not happening, but to get people more interested in my collection of short stories Cliff-Hangers . I was advised to attempt this, and though the YouTube videos are being watched, they have yet to result in any sales of the book. Which is a shame as I had hoped to sell at total overall of 20 issues, either on kindle or print, by August of this year, a goal it seems I am not going to reach. When making YouTube content being able to grasp an audience is key. If i were an artist or any worth I would have illustrated these stories and put the narrative over like an animated short. This style may have had a better chance at grasping viewers and potential readers, but alas was not in my skill set. What are your stories from promoting you self-published book? Leave in the comments below! #CliffHangers #YouTube #AudioBook #ReadThrough #BookPromotion #HonestIdeas

It's terrifying. A few weeks ago I was looking into literary agents and came across a site that gave the advice that just because you have a way with language does not mean you can tell a narrative, and therefore may mean you cannot write a good story. At that moment I realized that I have no way to know, within myself, if my book is a good story. Obviously I am proud of it, it is unlike anything I have ever written before, is the longest piece of work I have ever produced, and it is my first ever, full length, novel. However, my pride in it, does not mean that it is a good story. It is because of this realization that I decided to ask people on Facebook to read my book. I made the public post, thinking whole heartily that no one would respond to it, and prepared a list of friends who I thought might read it over for me to contact personally later. What I did not expect was the flood of people who offered to read it. I sent them each a PDF, asking for complete honest feedback, and left it at that. Currently I'm waiting for any one of them to get back to me and it is making me more nervous than anything in my whole life. As I said before this book is unlike anything I have written before, meaning the people reading it may not consider it as my normal style and could be surprised by the story and narrative. What I'm worried about is them being surprised badly. Reader feedback is incredibly important. If I can contact an agent and say that 10+ people read and enjoyed it I can immediately indicate a preferred readership for the book, but also can provide honest references from readers on why they enjoyed it. On the other hand if people get back to me and tell me it needs work this will give me the opportunity to consider changes, and if they get back to me and tell me it's terrible then I can avoid the embarrassment of having it as my first entry in a literary agents docket. Though my logical mind knows all of this my heart has been left racing. I find myself on the edge, waiting for feedback either good or bad, praying for good while readying myself to accept and act on bad. If it is at all possible to have people read over your work take it, but know that it takes a lot of patience and faith while you wait to hear back from those readers. #Whatif #Book #Feedback #Literaryagent #Writing #selfpublishing

What did you think of Beth? I was advised when I started out with promoting Cliff-Hangers to try a YouTube series. This is part two of that series. So far I have learnt that making YouTube videos is hard work. From lighting, to using a basic camera to the do shots, and finally trying to edit the piece together. As you can probably tell from this video I have a lot of kinks to work out. I have not found as of yet that YouTube is making a huge difference to the promotion of Cliff-Hangers, but this is only the second video, so I'll be keeping you all updated on whether it begins to pay off. Please comment below with your own promotion attempt stories. #CliffHangers #audiobook #BookPromotion #YouTube #selfpublishing

The thrill of finishing my first ever full length novel was incredible, but I did not realize how exhilarating it would be to finish the first edit of that novel. Completing writing a lengthily piece of work of any kind feels both wonderful and terrifying. When I finished writing 'What If' I first danced around my home, then I sat down and panicked. Before me now sat the task of reading my own work. I was consumed by painstaking fear that I would read it, and hate it. I was worried that I would begin editing it only to discover I had wasted months of my life. It is because of these fears that I was left overwhelmed with joy when I finished my first edit of 'What If', and found that I had actually enjoyed reading it. Obviously we as writers are our own biggest critics, and therefore enjoying our own work is both rare and concerning. I now have a complete novel, a good first edit, and am filled with a sense of "Hey, this is good", all of which could be torn to pieces in a second. In the competitive world of writing it is very hard to get published, it is even harder still to find a group of people who feel your work is original, clever, and enjoyable. It is for these reasons I cannot allow myself to feel too much joy at enjoying my own work, I cannot let myself believe that 'What If' is truly good because I do not want to be disappointed if or, should I say, when I get a multitude of rejections. These are rather sober topics though, and that is not what this blog post is about. This blog post is to simply tell you that editing should not be a scary process. It is incredibly important, though the end is near and the temptation to get people to read your work is huge, a good edit, catching as many errors as you can, could be the difference between you getting published and not getting published. That's why I'll be doing a second edit on 'What If' before I let anyone else read it. Although I know that rejection letters and emails are inevitably on the horizon for me, no one can take away the feeling of having read and enjoyed my own work. Of having printed and then hefted the pile of pages that showed, in this physical realm, the sheer size of my effort. When you finish your first work, no matter the length or style, take the opportunity of a first edit to simply enjoy your work. Take pleasure in your efforts, your style, your story. Save the fine-tooth-combing for your second edit, and remove the stress of getting it perfect in the first. While working through my first edit I kept a 'bible', taking notes on every character and plot line I had in the story. This 'bible' will be key in my second edit, allowing me to ensure that there is continuity throughout the book, one of the most important things in good story telling, and is one of the best pieces of advice I have for anyone about to tackle their own edit. I wish you all the best of luck with your writing, and editing, and hope that you shall embrace the opportunity to privately enjoy your own work before anyone else can pass judgment upon it. #FirstEdit #Writing #WhatIf

I am trying to promote my self published book by giving people a chance to hear some of the stories from the collection by reading them out and publishing the videos on YouTube. I'll be keeping you updated on whether this works as a promotional method. Please leave comments of your own experiences and methods below, alongside of what you think about this technique. I, and everyone else reading, would love to hear all your tips. #YouTube #selfpublishing #CliffHangers #audiobook

There is nothing quiet so hard as self-publishing. For most people who have a great passion for reading, writing your own book is an easy next step, however getting it published and then noticed is a difficult climb. I always loved making up and telling stories, long before I found a passion for reading them. Recently I decided to make my own small leap and publish a collection of story shorts I have written over the past decade. A collection I am pleased to say I am quiet proud off. Like many people with little funds and not much experience, I turned to amazon to publish my book, and am now fighting to get it noticed. Since publishing around two months ago I have sold a grand total of four issues, two of which were to myself. I have tried a number of things to be noticed. I have done the one-a-day-Tweets, created a Facebook page singularly for the book, run Facebook boosted posts, did an Amazon countdown deal lasting 10 days, have blogged, advertised personally and even paid just under £30 to have the book promoted by a freelancer through Fiverr. So far none of these things have caused a boost in sales. The two sales that were not from me came back with Five star reviews and wonderful comments, but still no one else is biting. It is because of this I am now going to attempt YouTube, which I will be posting here, alongside with regular updates about the self-publishing game. Obviously I cannot give you immediate, foolproof advice on how to self-publish a book and actually make money out of it. However, my hope is that by bringing you on this venture with me we could both, maybe, learn something about how this is done. If you have any advice on getting a self-published book noticed please leave it in the comments below to help me out and to help out anyone else reading this. #selfpublishing #advice #trieditall #book #CliffHangers

With the one exception that is the great Derek Landy, who performs live author interviews like a comedian does stand-up, seeing authors live is not something I enjoy doing. For years I got extremely excited whenever I saw an authors name on an event schedule near me, and took to going to see authors as often as I could afford to. However, amoungst all the excitement of seeing the people who created some of my favorite worlds and characters in the flesh, I could never quiet get over the underlying disappointment. My first piece of advice would have to be not to go and see two authors at once. I've made this mistake a few times now and found that whenever their are two authors on the stage at the same time their is an uncomfortable jockey for the spotlight. Adding to this obvious discomfort between the two authors is the preference of the interviewer. I once saw such a live author interview where the interviewer was evidently more interested in one of the two authors over the other, knowing every book one author had written and none of the others. This added to the fact that the crowd was made up of people mainly interested in one author, rather than both like myself, meant that the spotlight was entirely on the 'more interesting' author and the other was nearly completely ignored. Another issue I have with going to see authors live is the number of ignorant questions coming from the audience, and occasionally from the interviewer. Though I do not blame people or want to discourage people from asking questions at any time, it can be extremely grating when a member of the audience asks a questions that has already been had, or that would have been answered if they had actually read the book. Then you have the book signing. Most live author events end with a book signing. A chance for you too que for a very long time, usually in an area not designed for housing long ques, your favorite book in hand waiting for the opportunity to personally speak to the author, and if you're lucky snap a picture with them. Though this is incredibly exciting, it often ends in discomfort and disappointment. If the author in question is particularly popular you could be queuing for an hour or more, only to finally reach a very tired human being who is under growing pressure to complete the signing and leave. By this point you yourself have sore feet from the slow edge forward you've been doing for endless minutes. At this point, your question prepared and your excitement building the author takes your proffered book, signs it, thanks you and you get moved along. Leaving with, yes a signature, but rarely a photograph or any meaningful exchange. Although these things have amassed to put me off the venture, they are not what has made me stop going to these live author events. Sadly the thing that has put me off seeing authors live is the bubble popping. When I have taken a particular liking to an author I cannot help but begin to formulate ideas about who this person is. Sadly, on too many occasions now, my bubble has been burst by seeing the person in the flesh. Though I still love their work, my interest in them is suddenly seriously harmed, and against my best attempts the image I had created and the reality are too opposite to not change my overall view of them and in turn their work. This I know is a selfish disposition. We can not expect the people we admire to be exactly who we picture in our minds, nor can we ask them to live up to those ideals. Yet somehow, when added to all the other issues I have with seeing authors live, remaining behind the pages of their works has become my favorite place to be. #Authors #Live #Shows #Events #Booksignings #bookfestical

This is our first video, looking at my top five reads from the past twelve months; The White Rose, by Amy Ewing Breath of Frost, by Alyxandra Harvey The Shepard's Crown, by Terry Pratchett Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J. Maas Mortal Gods, by Kendare Blake If you agree with my list or think there are other books I missed then let us know in the comments or email us at thereadersguide@outlook.com #TheWhiteRose #BreathofFrost #TheShepardsCrown #QueenofSHadows #MortalGods #AmyEwing #alyxandraHarvey #TerryPratchett #SarahJMass #KendareBlake

While book sales have been falling across the board there has been a rise in the past five years in digital book sales, a most noticeable change for the commuter. Since the launch of Amazon Audible, in particular, we have seen a rise of audio-book sales, and a rise in listeners, with many choosing the audio-book for travelling. In 2014 the American Association of Publishers announced a growth of 28% in audio book sales. With 2016 editions of magazines, such as Glamour, noting the new trend in an article as a new fashion for commuters. In comparison to the eBook however, audible sales have a long way to come. Since 2012 we have seen a steady drop in physical book sales, with a fall of £200 million worth of book sales across the board between 2012 - 14, with physical book sales falling the fastest where digital books are filling the gap. This change to digital reading platforms however is hitting the British high street, with a major reduction in book stores across the nation. Today major book retailers Waterstones owns just 275 stores in the UK, with WH Smiths owning an amazing total of 1,300 stores UK wide. Meanwhile private book retailers have suffered huge losses in the past five years with only -- stores in the UK in 2014. With digital books becoming all the more available and with a considerable difference in price saving people money we are seeing a resurgence in novels. #Waterstones #WHSmiths #Amazon #AmazonAudible #AmericanAssociationofPublishers #eBook #Glamour

For those of us who are naturally nosy the kindle has taken away one of the best commuter past-times. No longer can we sit on the train and guess at people personalities, likes and dislikes based on the books they read. The grey slate has taken it all away. When I started commuting by train the Kindle was there, present in every carriage, but as was our friend the printed book. I enjoyed the thrill of noticing someone reading the same book as I was, the moment of wondering where they are in its many chapters, if they've read the bit about the thing yet. I enjoyed being able to silently scorn, laugh at or applaud people based on the book they carried. It sounds judgmental but on a train in the early hours of the morning with no seat available, judgment is a friend who keeps you awake, and ensures you don't degrade after months of the same journey. The kindle destroyed this past-time, it stole the ability to note what someone was reading with it's sleek grey exterior, disguising all it's contents. But it's bookish quality's made it not an enemy to the paper-back but a slightly uglier friend. However today, when I get on my 6am train, it is not just the kindle I see, there are people reading of their mobile-phones, their too bright tablets, others are on their compact laptops. It is here that I have complaint. Where the kindle compliments the book in every way possible for a piece of technology to do so, the mobile phone turns it into boring, small paragraphs of text, interrupted by texts, creating a platform not for the true reader but for the person who enjoys saying they have read. The tablet, a brightly lit assailant in the early morning, has a habit of being over-sensitive. Creating a carriage full of people who curse a swear every-time the train sways as they flick through countless pages with the simplest of touches to over-sensitive screens. All the while one must ask how much reading are these people actually doing? Between the distractions of messages, emails and updates which are appearing in a near-constant stream on the pages of their books, are they really escaping to the world inside the pages? Although I have a kindle, a useful tool when travelling far, or when the bank account is dangerously low on funds, I will admits, it is a rare partner on my commute. I will never stop loving the published book, the colour of the spines on my books shelves brings light into my home, the crinkle of the pages and the bends in the spine, constant reminders of my favourite chapters, my most read novels. This beauty shall never compare, to me, to the grey shell of technology, and no grey box shall ever bring me as much joy as a beautifully crafted cover and soft pages. #kindle #tablet #mobilephone #paperback