Holiday Reminder

I thought I would just post a reminder that I am on holidays until September and I will not be posting regular book features (Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays) until then.

And to mention as well, that Authors Promoting Authors is changing the format and how it works, but if you are really curious as to what to send and how it worked, it can be found under the FAQ (left tab, gray bar).

I am posting various items during these off months, as I make changes and as not to leave the blog blank for that period of time.

Re: Crazy Comment Contest, there are a few snags with this idea so its on hold for now, but it is something I am thinking of including (allowing the author to give away a book in their book post) when Authors Promoting Authors resumes once more.

Hope everyone enjoys their summers and thanks once more for all the incredible support this project had received.

As usual, feel free to state your complaints and compliments but I tend to respond more favorably to compliments.

New Promotional Opportunity, Authors By Authors

The weeks for summer on Authors By Authors are not filling up as quickly as they did in the spring, I fear.
So, I wanted to put out a request for some individual Authors By Authors “reviews/critiques” to post on the empty weeks.
If you have read a good story recently, these would be very easy to write up. Or, do one for a story you have been dying to read. Please ask the author’s permission before doing the work. This should be done professionally and for the benefit of both authors. You could easily forward this email to the author you are making the request of.
Format to follow:
1) Book Blurb
2) Your personal “review/critique” of the story from an author’s point of view. Think – what did this author do really well? Was it creation of characters, vivid descriptions, a well-created world of their own imagination, etc.? I want to see more technical and creative reviews. These are not to tell whether the book was good or bad, but to explain what the author’s gift is.
3) Up to three links for this author (would be best to ask them which they would like you to use)
4) Up to 3 links for yourself
Just send the completed review to howell (dot) kiki (at) gmail (dot) com with a cover image (request from author) and the authors email (again request from author) so I can notify you both when it is posted. As far as obtaining the story, if it is one you have not previously read, I would say use your best judgment. You could boost the author’s sales or kindly request a copy explaining your intentions.
Great exposure as the followers from both blogspot and the networked version of the blog on Facebook are growing slowly but steadily.
I have a few books I hope to do myself soon. I think it will be fun!
Thanks!
Kiki Howell
Author of Magical Erotic Romances
http://authorsbyauthors.blogspot.com

4 Love of Canines All Breed Dog Rescue and Adoption

Please visit: http://www.4loveofcanines.com/to learn more

4 Love of Canines:

We are a group of Ontario based volunteer rescuers who have been saving lives and promoting responsible pet ownership for over 25 years.

We are a humane, all breed rescue that provides quality foster care to homeless and owner surrendered pets until we are able to match them with suitable pre-screened adopters, and place them into loving and permanent new homes.

4 Love of Canines All Breed Rescue is a no-kill, not for profit organization that is run by volunteers and funded by donations.

Our Mission is to cater to the best interest of our canine companions while maintaining the highest quality of service to both pet owners and adopters.

What We Do:

4 Love of Canines associates are responsible for maintaining any number of dogs that we may currently have in our programs, promote pet responsibility and awareness, offer consultations on a variety of pet related issues with pet owners and adopters, liaise with other rescues and shelters, and maintain the web site.

We accept homeless and owner surrendered pets from anywhere within Southern Ontario, and from shelters or private rescues throughout Canada and the USA.

With our many years of dog related experience and our dedication to promoting the happiness and security of companion animals, our goal is to educate pet owners on matters of breed specifics, health, obedience and general canine care and to help them understand that making the decision to own a dog requires a life time commitment to the pet. At times, the support and training offered to pet owners is enough for them to continue working with their pets thereby alleviating the need for placement.

Once a dog is accepted into our program it is placed into a loving home environment where it will receive any medical attention needed, basic training, and TLC.

As some of the dogs are coming from an institutionalized environment they gain skills and abilities that enable them to become respected and capable companions.

Evaluations provided by foster parents throughout a dog's stay track the progress in regards to physical health, temperament, vices and specific needs. Along with our in-depth screening of potential adopters, we are able to ensure every placement is a good match for both the pet and the adopter.

After placement our interest continues and every adoption is followed up to ensure the pet is positively integrated into its new home. As well, we contact the previous owners to give them closure and peace of mind knowing that their decision to place their pet with 4 Love of Canines has helped to ensure the future happiness and security of their pet.

Big Cat Rescue

Photo Credit-BigCatRescue.org

Big Cat Rescue, a non profit educational sanctuary, is devoted to rescuing and providing a permanent home for exotic (i.e. wild, not domestic) cats who have been abused, abandoned, bred to be pets, retired from performing acts, or saved from being slaughtered for fur coats, and to educating the public about these animals and the issues facing them in captivity and in the wild. All of our animals are registered with the International Species Information System (ISIS).
And we do not breed any of the cats.


The narrow mission of Big Cat Rescue is to provide the best permanent home we can for the cats in our care. We do this by building enclosures in a very natural habitat with foliage and shelter on our 45 acre site, by providing the best nutritional and medical care possible, and by having active operant conditioning and enrichment programs to provide for their physical and psychological well being.
The broader mission of the sanctuary is to reduce the number of cats that suffer the fate of abandonment and/or abuse and to encourage preservation of habitat and wildlife. We urge people to behave in a way that will support these goals by teaching people about the plight of the cats, both in the wild and in captivity. We accomplish this through educational guided tours, educational programs for young people, and by maintaining a website that we believe is the world's largest and best resource for information about exotic cats.

Learn more please visit: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/

Makindu Children's Program

To learn more about Makindu Children's Program, please visit: http://www.makindu.org/


Makindu Children’s Program (MCP) is a charitable 501(c)3 non-profit organization headquartered in Brownsville, Oregon that operates a day resource facility called Makindu Children’s Centre (MCC) in a rural region of eastern Kenya. The Centre provides nutritional, medical and emotional support, access to basic education, and opportunities for vocational training for over 400 destitute AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children. The children live in guardian homes in the community, and can come to the Centre daily for food, recreation, bathing, and laundering facilities, emotional support, and crisis intervention.


The asphalt lanes of the Mombasa highway wind over three hundred parched miles from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. About a third of the way from Nairobi is a truck stop called Makindu, whose residents eke out a living tilling the red soil and serving the trucks that roar by endlessly. It is a poor place, with few reliable resources. The poverty is further complicated by lack of food and jobs, with many unable to access education or medical care. People die daily (especially the children) of preventable medical illnesses and diseases. AIDS flourishes, leaving many orphans.

In 1996, Oregon paramedic Winnie Barron volunteered as a medic in Makindu and met the hungry, sick and dying orphans the community could not find ways to support. With a local teacher, Dianah Nzomo, she planned a children’s center, and with the help of friends in Oregon, founded the Makindu Children’s Program in 1998.

Initially, many Makindu residents questioned Winnie’s intentions, wondering if hers would be another ill-conceived project that would raise expectations and then disappear. The problems facing the orphans were greater than a lack of food or education. “What are you going to do with the children after you have educated them?” they asked. Without prospects for work, “they will become educated thieves.”

Barron and her supporters reconsidered their approach and decided the Program would succeed by going one step at a time, following the suggestions of the community. Instead of maintaining an orphanage, the children are placed with foster parents (typically grandparents, the poorest in the area who are receiving no other aid). During the day, the children come to the Program center, a simple concrete building, to receive food, to bathe and to wash their clothes. They receive periodic medical checkups, have their fees paid at local public schools, and receive job training. The children are also taught nutrition, HIV/AIDS awareness and learn agriculture at the Project’s shamba, or garden, where they grow high-protein crops for food and to help defray expenses. Recently, the Program financed a well to provide the shamba and the Centre with water. By operating in this way and teaching the children to support themselves, the Program serves and educates the larger community as well. And community support for the Program has soared.

Today, 315 children (expanding to 400 by the end of 2008), from infants to 18-year-olds, are served at the Centre at an annual per capita cost of about $300. The staff is hired locally and cooperates with other international aid agencies. Winnie Barron’s vision has taken root and celebrates the success of many of its children, who have completed education and are now self-sustaining citizens giving back to the Makindu community. But the problems afflicting Makindu and Africa persist, and effective grass-roots operations like the Makindu Children’s Program require continued support from aboard in the form of money, time, effort and participation.

In terms of human misery, Africa often appears to be a kind of black hole, where things go from bad to worse and vast amounts of aid disappears or lines the pockets of local kleptocracies. What would be the point of giving to yet another aid program? It may be useful, however, to recall a time and place closer to us where poverty was rife, disease was prevalent, and the rate of illegitimacy and child abandonment was high.

This was the American frontier in the 1740s, into which immigrated a quarter-million people from England's northern and western borders violently driven from their homes. Despite the robust growth and revolutionary success of America, the problems of the place persisted and Appalachia became synonymous with misery. It takes a long time and long effort to rectify old problems. Africa is a modern human frontier and Makindu is a small place on the road. The Makindu’s Children’s Program offers hope. It could use your help.

Consider donating to the Makindu Children's Program

Shadow Forest Authors

http://www.shadowforestauthors.com

A call to all authors,

Shadow Forest Authors is a fellowship of authors for charity. Our mission is to get authors from around the world and from all genres to unite with SFA and participate in donating books and e-books to selected beneficiaries, literary foundations who fill a much needed void in books around the world.

Unbeknown to many, illiteracy issues cost billions a year in higher consumer prices due to the cost of recruiting and training functional illiterates, mistakes and inabilities in the workplace, for juvenile delinquency and crime directly related to illiteracy. In addition; social stigma, medical and pharmaceuticals with high rates of depression and suicide. Illiterates suffer self-worth, relationship, unemployment and social issues. Worldwide, this massive problem receives little funding or attention and as stated, costs billions.

SFA invites authors to get listed and participate in this worthy cause. All we ask is that authors donate a copy of their title to a SFA beneficiary of their choice: The Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation - Australia, Book Aid International - U.K, Got Books Inc - U.S.A, Adult Reading Assistance Scheme - New Zealand, The World Public Library - U.S.A Read Between the bars, Tucson's books to prisoners program, The Women’s Prison Book Project - USA, Mission Australia Prison Book Program - USA. Books To Prisoners - USA

We are also adding more beneficiaries each month.



Participating authors receive a mention on the SFA site and the chance to sell further books via our unique supporter program.



Get listed now on Shadow Forest Authors.

Be part of the mission to stop illiteracy worldwide.

Help SFA be one million strong in 2009



http://www.shadowforestauthors.com



P.S We would appreciate you passing this invitation onto other authors and readers, every little bit helps.

SFA is also on myspace, please come join us.

http://www.myspace.com/shadowforestauthors

Books For Fiji

To learn more about this great project, please visit Books For Fiji Facebook Group


A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.

Bob Dylan

My name is Morgan Hayton I am 16 years old.

I have spent my winter school holidays for two years in Fiji volunteering at local school as part of my schools mission team. We visited a very remote school that is struggling and has only few books in the whole school, the teachers there can only dream of starting a library.

Have you ever wanted to change the world? But think it is impossible because we are just one person, me too.

But then I came up with this idea. We are going to build a library together

One person, one book at a time.

One person can't build a library but if everyone that gets into this group gets a book from their bookshelf (they don't have to be new) and posts it to Fiji we can do it together.

Head Teacher- Laisiana Tabilai
Namara District School
Box 415
Nausori FIJI

(Crazy?) Comment Contest

The biggest criticism I receive about Authors Promoting Authors has to do with comments.

Authors complain that not many people comment on the book features. Readers complain that when comments are left, authors don't respond, or they don't leave comments because they aren't sure if an author will read them.

I do not think comments are indicative of how many people read this blog.

And I can't force people to comment.

But...I have a proposal which will only work if enough interested authors are open to the idea.

After the week of the May 10th, what if each week, I feature an author and their book. And what if an author gives away a copy of their book to a commenter of their choosing?

Thoughts? Suggestions? Feedback?

The New Authors Promoting Authors

What better way to start off changes to Authors Promoting Authors than with a new look?

Here is the new look.

What do you think?

As with everything that has to do with Authors Promoting Authors, it is a work in progress.

Any comments, feedback and suggestions are most welcome.

Friends of Authors Promoting Authors

Need An Artist or Illustrator?

http://manyfacesart.weebly.com/

Promote Your Book With Book Blurb Radio

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/blurb

Plant A Tree For Every Book You Read:

http://www.ecolibris.net/

More Book Promotion:

http://bookcoverlovers.blogspot.com/


http://amusedauthors.wordpress.com/


Need A Book Trailer?

http://www.tribepictures.com/

Great Advice:

http://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com/

http://rejectionroad.wordpress.com/

FiledBy:Online Marketing Platform for Authors, Illustrators and Readers

http://www.filedby.com

FiledBy launched in March with over 1.8 million pre-assembled author sites. It provides every published author in the US and Canada with a free, hosted, search engine optimized and e-commerce enabled site. Any published author can easily update and enhance their sites as well as individual books. FiledBy provides a central location in which authors can be easily found on the web and the tools in which to promote themselves and their
books.
Additionally, FiledBy offers readers the ability to connect directly with authors who are active on the web site. Readers can create an account, build and collect favorite authors and books, write reviews, rate books and authors, and add comments through wall postings. They can search for new books by author, title or subject of interest, as well as interact with each other by creating groups and recommending titles.

Need An Illustrator?

Image Copyrighted By Christopher Chamberlain. http://manyfacesart.weebly.com/


Are you an author in need of conceptual artwork to promote your latest manuscript? Perhaps you’ve already completed a book and are in need of final illustrations. Are you a reader or collector who enjoys new and different artistic impressions of their favourite characters? Could you be looking for that perfect gift for a beloved child or family member – the sort of thing that hangs with great love on the wall to be forever cherished?

Maybe you are all of the above or someone altogether different. Either way, you can contact Christopher at Many Faces Art for all of your illustration needs. Whether it is in black and white (which is kind of his specialty) or full colour (which he enjoys immensely), concept, or finished, Christopher is the artist to take care of you and your work. Art is not merely a job for him; it is a passion, one that he truly takes to heart.

As a special incentive to all the fine people who visit Authors Promoting Authors, Christopher is extending an offer of a very special 15% discount of his already very reasonable rates to all readers and subscribers of this wonderful site.

To learn more about Christopher Chamberlain and to request his services, please visit:

http://manyfacesart.weebly.com/

Online Event Authors Promoting Authors-Cares!

Many also know, that I used to feature not-for-profit organizations and charities on my personal blog.

I think as authors and artists it is important to use what we have and do what we can to help our broader communities.

During the week of May 10th, each day, a not-for-profit organization or charity will be featured.
I ask you to drop by and learn about these entities who work so hard to make a positive difference out there.

If you are a charity or not-for-profit organization and you would like to be featured, or if you know of an organization that could use a shout-out, please email:

apasuggestions@gmail.com

-Tina-Sue