Jennifer is a Junkie

Jennifer is a junkie – a book junkie.  She runs a book review blog called ‘Can’t Put it Down‘ with close to 1,000 followers.  I love this lady – although I may be a little bias considering the glowing review she gave for both ‘Water‘ and ‘Gleaming White‘.  Find out for yourself what all the hoopla is about:

Q:  To start off, would you mind regaling us with the story of how your blog came to be?

Back in June, I had sent a message to author Tim O’Rourke on Goodreads regarding one of his books. After I had written a review he sent me a message that he had been following my reviews and that I should start a review blog. I was a little hesitant at first because I had tried keeping a blog for my family life but had a hard time coming up with anything to write about that family didn’t already know from my Facebook posts! I gave it a try and with almost 8,000 page views I haven’t looked back since!

Q:  Tell us more!  What’s in it for your blog followers?

Blog followers get sneak peaks into upcoming books.  I run lots of giveaways, and of course the scoop on the best books out there!  I also try to make things easy-peasy for my followers so I include the purchase links to the top three e-book vendors (Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords) and have just started including the purchase price!  There are also come cool events I will be apart of coming in 2012, but I’m not saying anything more about that 😉

Q: Give us a little insight as to what it is like to be a book review blogger.

Being a review blogger is hard work, to be honest. It is like having a second job but instead of earning a check, I get paid in free books! You have to keep up with your reviews and events. I have so many books on my TBR list that I feel bad because I can’t get to them quick enough! I also receive requests daily from authors to review for them. I have met some amazing and talented people, some who have become great friends!

Q: Coffee or tea?

Eh… coffee if I have a choice between the two but you better have lots and lots of sugar and creamer, and none of that sugar in the pink packets either, give me the good stuff!  What I would rather have is a Vanilla Bean Frappe from Starbucks or a Mocha Frappe from McDonalds! I am a total junk food junkie. Take me to the fanciest restaurant in the world and I’m scouring the menu for a well-done burger and fries!

Q: What are some of your all time favorite reads?

When I was younger I was all about the Baby Sitters Club books. I have almost all of them still, most the covers are barely hanging on from being read so many times. Ramona the Pest is still a fav. Right now, my favs would have to be the Kiera Hudson vampire series by Tim O’Rourke, Forsaken by Andrew Van Wey (if you want to be scared read Forsaken!), Believe Like a Child by Paige Dearth (this author has a touching personal story), and of course Water (tapping my foot impatiently for book two btw!) and Gleaming White! I’m a big fan of Amanda Hocking’s My Blood Approves series too!

Q: Tell us more about indie authors – where to find them, how they have changed the industry, and the pros and cons to buying indie.

Before starting my review blog, I didn’t even know what an indie author was. I was more into reading the Frankenstein series by Dean Koontz, Simon Holt’s The Devouring series, and anything I could get my hands on by Karin Slaughter. Then I start this blog and there is a whole world of unknowns out there just waiting to be discovered! How lucky can a girl get??  One of the best places to find indie authors is on Goodreads.com. If an author is NOT on Goodreads I suggest they join right away! I support indie authors 100%. All but one of my top 10 books read this year would be by unknown authors, with the exception of Gregg Olsen. Indie books are generally cheaper than best-selling author books. You can usually find them for free or from 99 cents to five bucks. I highly suggest Indie authors keep their prices low. Once readers get to know and love their work, they won’t have a problem paying a little more.

I’m a stickler for grammar and punctuation when I read so you sometimes find quite a few reads with some errors. Unfortunately, I’m the kind of person that once I find one I am looking for the next. I’ve started a sister site to help solve that problem. It’s called Extra Set of Eyes and I offer basic editing services.

I love finding that person who has written a great story and helping to get their name out there! Indie authors are changing the way readers read one book at a time. They are depending on bloggers to spread the word because a lot of them don’t have the money to spend on pricey advertising.

Q:  What’s next for you and your blog?

As I mentioned before, there will be lots of great events (giveaways, hops, book tours) coming in 2012. WordPress is a hard blog to get followers with because it doesn’t have the GFC like Blogspot does but I would love to get my follower number up! I’m also a Facebook junkie and can’t wait to reach that 1,000 ‘like’ mark (I’m almost at 700 now) on my blogs page. I’m excited for the new year to bring more book reviews and introduce more great authors to the blogosphere. I’m always open to suggestions and comments from my readers and authors!