The Wall

The Wall Im in my room in Senior House (which, before you ask, is not just for seniors) right now. My walls are an uninteresting shade of white. I arrived on Saturday from Florida, where I was spending time with my family for the holidays. I had other plans for break, but they fell through, so I decided to come back here a little early to go see an AMAZING concert and spend New Years in a place that I wasnt allergic to. (No, really, Im convinced Im allergic to Florida. Ive never had allergies anywhere else. They started when I arrived and were gone hours after arriving back in Boston. Too bad it turns out that Florida is a pretty cool place, despite the heat. I really like how much nature is accessible there.) As I was saying. The walls. My room. I have a single, and strangely shaped though it may be (there arefourteen corners in my room, but its still pretty much a rectangle. Have fun figuring that one out), I quite like it. I have a view of the Media Lab and of the construction next to the Media Lab, which was great for waking me up at 5am back in the fall. My single is in a suite. This can mean different things across dorms I think Burton-Connor suites make up different floors and have kitchens or something like that but in Senior House, this means I share a lounge with three other people. Normally, its several more something like five or six, but my suite is somewhat of an architectural anomaly within Senior House. One of the cool things in this dorm is that were allowed to paint the walls (and have cats and smoke, if youre into that). As a result, there are a myriad of cool murals and interesting decorations in Senior House. One of the not so cool things is that recent renovations resulted in a lot of walls being painted over and murals lost. Anyway, Im still new here and dont know for sure whether my suite was ever painted. But at this very moment right, you remember. Uninteresting walls. My suitemate and I considered painting in the beginning of the year, but we were far too lazy and decided to leave this endeavor for IAP, which youll hear more about as it occurs. Now January is fast-approaching (actually, its here. Oops), and I have to decide whether this is something I really want to do. Interesting walls do not make a person, and the money could honestly be put to better use on a lot of things, but at the same, well, I love color. The point Im trying to emphasize here is that I really appreciate the fact that I have so much freedom to choose what I do here. I can paint the walls, I could have a cat (theoretically. But only cats. And fish), I could live in a double or a single or a suite, I could paint a mural on the walls. Just another thing to think about when it comes time to choose your living groups (because, you know, its only eight months from now ;) This has to be the most awkwardly timed blog entry in the world. All of you have finally submitted your applications and probably celebrated the coming of the New Year, and here I am talking about my walls. I have a lot to say about the end of first semester, and I plan on actually saying it soon because I have time now, instead of thinking about saying it but actually falling asleep like Ive been doing for the past month. Of course, by I have time I actually mean that I have more time than I did before, which was none, so its not actually saying much because I still have an Arabic final a week from now, but Ill still have plenty of time for you all, my pretties. (Harvards finals schedule does not correspond with ours. Which, if I were you, would be a huge deterrent for taking classes there. But dont worry, thats changing soon, so it wont affect you much.) Anyway, the time that I have happens to be running out for tonight because I still have a lot of studying to do. I hope you all have a relaxing break, and a great start to your last semester of high school. :) Post Tagged #Senior Haus #Senior House

Malcolm X vs. Dr. King Passive vs; Aggressive Essay

Africans were brought to America by Europeans, not of their own volition, but in chains, without the knowledge that over the next several hundred years, generations and generations of our people would be brutally and unjustly treated as nothing more than property or animals. The era during which slavery flourished, Africans were bred, overworked, beaten, lynched, and stripped of any positive identity or self respect. When slavery was abolished in 1865, Africans, or former slaves, were left without a â€Å"place† in America. Where did they fit in? What was the role that they were to play as, so called, American citizens? Some, undertook the role of â€Å"leader†, and preached and taught what they felt was the best process by which, blacks could†¦show more content†¦Dubois also preached that blacks should not depend upon whites for anything. During the Civil Rights/Black Power movement in the 50’, 60’s, and 70’s, two essential leaders emerged, and undertook the roles as leaders of the non-violent/passive and armed/aggressive movement that would ultimately give Blacks their â€Å"freedom†. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X aimed toward a similar goal for blacks. Both wanted it to be realized by blacks and whites than blacks were not inferior to whites in any way. King and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (The name Malcolm adopted after his visit to Mecca) respectively employed non-violent and aggressive (which is often times termed as violent) methods to achieve the common goal. King is associated with the Civil Rights, non-violent, passive leader in the struggle. Malcolm X is linked to the Black Power, armed, â€Å"By any means necessary† aggressive solution to the race/class problem, which gave black a sense of self worth and empowerment, which would be lost if complete integration was achieved . nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Dr. Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 into a middle-class family. His father was a well respected minister and businessman in the Atlanta, GA area. King was blessed with a life unlike the common black family in that time period, though that does not mean that he did not sympathize with the poverty stricken majority. King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, and subsequently Crozer TheologicalShow MoreRelatedManagement Course: Mba−10 General Management215330 Words   |  862 PagesTheory X and Theory Y Several studies after World War II revealed how assumptions about workers’ attitudes and behavior affect managers’ behavior. Perhaps the most inï ¬â€šuential approach was developed by Douglas McGregor. 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The Hidden Truth About Essay Topics on Camus the Stranger

The Hidden Truth About Essay Topics on Camus the Stranger All men are same when it has to do with sex. Females will take some time for them to attain their climax. Growing male breasts is by no means a simple job, but a lot of men have done it which demonstrates that it's possible to do. The Benefits of Essay Topics on Camus the Stranger Wonderful work was done to compose our The Stranger essay that's presented below. In part 2, the trial functions as a review of what occurred in the very first portion of the novel. And this isn't the close of the story yet. Sri Krishna's life is fascinating and extremely entertaining-even children adore the stories. Feel the passion allow it to take you over. Sex is such a huge portion of our lives and ought to be enjoyed. Meursault is extremely content with his present life. Definitions of Essay Topics on Camus the Stranger If you don't have the pure inkling to participate in small talk, practice. Process essay can be found benea th an actual gmat exam. Better ejaculatory control is, however, something that you can achieve with very little practice and energy. A tiny practice can cause you to understand your entire body and its rhythms more accurately so you can judge when to stop. A completely free person isn't anxious about anything. You should relax and attempt to consider something else that could make your partner enjoy your time together. They spend time with each other, make love at night and begin a relationship. Excite your partner more than attempting to excite yourself. It's very tough for everyone to participate in the real friendship however if one get it become very lucky in a huge crowd. Although it's a negative feeling in a conventional perception, it's anyway a source of strong emotions. In a world where truth is regarded as the maximum type of goodness, an individual must be mindful not to become fixated on a single view of the truth, for there are a few advantages to the notion of foma. The basis of existential motives on the broadest scale can be found in the attempts to obtain the significance of life, to put it differently, the feeling of being. This notion of spreading love to everybody, as opposed to loving only 1 person, is comparable to the notion that nobody truth is totally right. Not this, it may also depart from your woman dissatisfied and disappointed. Every man would like to perform as a stud in bed. Everyone is a member of a karass, but nobody knows to which one they belong or what they're supposed to do. It is a good idea to stay away from such products because you can't be sure of what it is that they contain. Custom the stranger by authors you find it possible to legally visit. It is simpler to kick off the little talk when you have knowledge in a number of topics that will interest others. Broaden your understanding of a large array of topics. The lies that satisfy them also function as a reminder that truth depends upon the circumstance, and therefore there is not just one definite truth. First an evaluation is required to help work out the origin of such troubles. There's, however, plenty of evid ence it can hurt! Says he'd never adhere to the thing is far more about albert camus.

Analyzing Race and Its Influence in your Community Free Essays

Racial influences rely on a number of factors depending on a place’s history and location. It may include racism according to color, racism according to social status, and racism based on religion and ethnicity. But regardless of its foundation, racism indeed has interesting effects on people and the society at large. We will write a custom essay sample on Analyzing Race and Its Influence in your Community or any similar topic only for you Order Now Racial differences in our community are not in terms of color, but of religion and ethnicity. Actually, it is between Muslims and Christians. Anywhere in the world today, the root cause of conflicts can be attributed to religious and ethnic diversities. The unsolved barrier amongst Muslims and Christians has always resulted to misunderstandings, discrimination and worse, wars which end up to loss of lives and more prejudice and hatred. Personally, I believe racism only puts the clashing parties at losing ends. Culture and traditions between Muslims and Christians are different. It can be said that Muslims are more conservative and secluded compared to Christians who are more or less Westernized. From clothing to behavior and practices, both beliefs have little similarities. In the community where I lived in, Christians often criticized the Muslim way of life. Basic is their manner of clothing. Muslim women are sanctioned to wear veils and not a single strand of hair should be exposed in public. The head should be totally covered. No skin should be seen so women always wear long-sleeves and long pants and skirts to cover their arms and legs respectively. Talking or hanging out with men is prohibited as well. Islamic laws require that women should remain traditional and well-kept in order to be respected and clean in the eyes of Allah, the Muslim term for God. Some Christians often make rude and impolite remarks in front of Muslim women and stared at them head to foot which is a sign of disrespect and indifference. Apathetically, some Christians cannot really hide their emotions in that they want their strong message to be really imparted in a cruel manner. They utter comments such as â€Å"Muslims are born traitors† which is for me, a nasty thing to say. It is making the gap farther and harder to patch up. Drinking alcohol is a taboo for Islamic submitters. They should abide by the five pillars of Islam including pronouncement of faith in Allah (shahadah), praying five times a day (salat), fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadhan (saum), giving alms to the poor (zakat), and pilgrimage to Mecca if possible (hajj). Some Christians also laughed at the manner Muslims pray. During Ramadhan, some non-Muslims express negative interpretations by questioning the significance of not eating and not drinking anything the whole day. On the contrary, Christians are more carefree and liberated though there are some conservative families as well. But more often than not, they can do anything under the sun. Discipline and control are still instilled upon them but their behavior is often unlimited. Muslims also criticized Christians for being too modern especially in the way they dress. Some women wear very suggestive clothing, showing a lot of skin. These women are often disrespected and insulted by Muslim men and even Christian men for being too showy and vulgar. But Christians do not mind these comments thinking that they are up-to-date relative to the popular trends as seen on television and in the Internet. Most young Christian women nowadays are free to hang out anywhere; some even drink and smoke in public. If public display of affection to a boyfriend or girlfriend is illegal for Muslims, Christians often welcome it. Muslims usually practice arranged marriage and exclusiveness in marriage between Muslims alone while most Christians can choose whoever they want to be their lifetime partner regardless of religion and culture. As long as the couple loves each other, they can marry without obstacles from the woman’s family. This is very prevalent in the community where I live in. Muslim women who occasionally end up with Christian men are often disowned and as a result, the family of the Muslim woman takes revenge not only to the Christian guy but to his entire clan as well. Some cases unfortunately end up in killings or total disowning of the Muslim woman by her kin and family including relatives and other blood relations. How to cite Analyzing Race and Its Influence in your Community, Papers

Realism in Huckleberry Fin free essay sample

In every great novel of society†¦. what counts is the reality behind appearance† (Kazin, 1981, 287). Though hard to distinguish, reality behind appearance is a central theme in many novels. It makes you look past what they convey and take deeper insight. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain about a southern wild boy Huckleberry Finn and his internal and external struggles as he travels along the Mississippi river with his buddy Jim. The novel Impulse by Ellen Hopkins is a dramatic story of three misguided teens, Vanessa, Connor, and Tony, whose fates intertwine as they meet in a mental institution known as Aspen Springs after their suicide attempts. In both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Impulse we see a reality behind appearance as the authors ask us to look deeper behind the text. Miss Watson and Vanessa both look to be well ordered on the outside but on the inside struggle between right and wrong. We will write a custom essay sample on Realism in Huckleberry Fin or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn starts we meet a woman named Miss Watson. She is Huck’s guardian, Widow Douglas, sister. Huck and Miss Watson are polar opposites. Miss Watson is very religious and has many rules. As Huck recalls them as, â€Å"‘Dont put your feet up there, Huckleberry’; and ‘Dont scrunch up like that, Huckleberry—set up straight’; and pretty soon she would say, ‘Dont gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why dont you try to behave? ’† (Twain 2). This drives Huck Finn insane. We learn later on that Miss Watson owns a slave named Jim. But this makes us think how a woman so holy and domestic could do something as inhumane as owning a slave? The reality behind appearance there is that Miss Watson is not all that she claims to be. While she means well, she does not practice what she preaches. In the novel Impulse we encounter an unconventional beauty named Vanessa. She appears to have it all together, but in reality she hides her addiction: cutting herself. She recalls, â€Å"So I gave myself to knife, asked it to bite a little harder, chew a little deeper. The hot, scarlet rush felt so delicious I couldn’t stop there† (Hopkins 107). She struggles to find what is right and wrong. In the mental institution Aspen Springs she attends regular mass and prays for help. Vanessa fights with the demons. As her past catches up with her, she cannot help but to fall deeper into her blue depression. Her mother was an erratic woman, struggling with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Vanessa tells why she cuts, I cut when I think I hear a baby crying. When I think I hear Mama calling. Knowing those things are impossible but hearing them just the same. And that’s something I’ll never break down and admit to anyone but myself. Bipolar crazy is one thing. Schizophrenic is another. Could I have inherited both? (200). Vanessa cannot seem to find an alternative to harming herself until she finds the love of Tony. Both Vanessa and Miss Watson are stuck in bad habits. Both Jim and Connor have a tough exterior but in reality are begging for love and understanding. Miss Watson’s slave Jim has had his challenges in life but always comes out on top of things. When he is the prime suspect in Huck’s fake death, he runs away and that is where he meets up with Huck. Though being separated from his family, Jim is still one of the kindest characters in the book. He respects and cares for Huck. When Jim says, ‘No! Wy, what has you lived on? But you got a gun. Oh, yes, you got a gun. Dats good. Now you kill sumfn en Ill make up de fire’ (Twain 42), he shows that he has a profound friendship with Huck and they work well together. Through Jim’s character Twain references slavery and racism, saying that even though Jim is a slave, he has a higher respect for human life than most other white people. Huck is the only one to see that. Just like Jim, Connor is misunderstood and ignored. Connor is portrayed as a tough jock with a perfect life. Handsome and smooth with the ladies, he is held to high expectations but he is probably the most sensitive character in Impulse. Under the pressure of his stone cold, perfect family’s expectations, he cracked and attempted suicide. After he failed at that, he became even more of a failure in his mother’s eyes. His mother is a prime factor in his intense depression. Connor says, I dont believe in God, dont believe in the devil. Unless you want to count my mother. She might be Satans sister, I suppose (Hopkins 203). Connor’s past memories contribute to his eventual jumping off of a cliff and finally ending his pain. He just could not live up to his mother’s expectations so he decided not to live at all. Twain references Romanticism with the Grangerfords. As Huck’s adventures continue down the Mississippi River he encounters a family called the Grangerfords. After Huck makes up an elaborate story about how he has been orphaned they take him in. Huck is fascinated with them and their romantic atmosphere. The Grangerfords are very â€Å"haughty taught†. They hold themselves to a high standard. Huck describes their home as, â€Å"It didnt have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in town. He admires Colonel Grangerford, the master of the house, and his supposed gentility. A warmhearted man, the colonel owns a very large estate with over a hundred slaves. Even though the Grangerfords are supposed to be exceptional human beings, the reality of their barbarian characteristics come out when they encounter a Shepherdson. The Grangerfords have been feuding with their neighboring clan, the Shepherdsons since they can remember though they cannot remember why. They have a Montague and Capulet relationship. Their appearance is upstanding citizens, but when it comes to their feud, they become roughneck criminals. Connor’s family is much like the Grangerfords in their appearance. His family is like glass: perfectly formed, expensive, cold, fragile, and millions of tiny cracks nearly imperceptible individually can be hidden, but left untreated; they eventually lead to a complete breakdown. It consists of his demanding mother, timid father, and twin sister Cara whom Hopkins discusses in another book Perfect. His mother is the ring leader. Connor refers to her as the â€Å"ice princess† (Hopkins 127), says she gives â€Å"ice kisses† (127). When he attempted suicide the first time all she was worried about was the blood staining her white Armani blouse and never shed a tear. She gets into his head, her voice pushing him to meet impossible expectations. His father is usually quiet except for when he pushes Connor in football. His twin sister Cara is the golden child. She is beautiful, smart, all around perfect. She is Connor’s competition but it really is not competition at all because Cara always wins. As Conner commits suicide, he recalls his family, â€Å"I take a deep breath, a final taste of sweet mountain air. I conjure Leona, Emily. Move my feet closer. Closer. Theres Grandma One, Grandma Two, and their spouses, waiting for me. I see Dad. Cara. Mommy. I screw up my courage, step over† (Hopkins 653). Although it is terrible to look at Connor’s suicide like this, in a way Connor’s family pushed him off the cliff themselves. The Grangerfords and Connor’s family both put up a fancy appearance but in reality they are cracked. Huck and Tony are both struggling with society’s judgments. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is based on the young, confused, Huckleberry Finn. Huck is stuck between many conflicts; should he follow religion, or follow his gut instincts? Obey his father, or obey the Widow? Listen to Tom, or to the Phelpses? His moral compass is a little off because he follows the beliefs of his society, but he is usually pointed in the right direction. On the outside he’s just a mischievous, lying hooligan but in some twisted way he tries to do the right thing, Huck does not figure out exactly how until later in the book. He is conflicted. After a series of unfortunate events and elaborate lies, Jim is sold to the Phelpses and Huck writes a letter to Miss Watson telling her where to find Jim and make up for the wrongs society tells him he’s made. â€Å"It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: â€Å"All right then, I’ll go to hell†Ã¢â‚¬â€and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming† (Twain 214). This is the moral climax for Huck. He appears to be a carefree, childish boy, but in reality he spends a lot of his time thinking of ways to please others while still taking care of himself. Tony is much like Huck in the aspect that he is very confused. He struggles with memories of being molested by his mother’s boyfriend, and from this, he believes he is gay. The only way he can escape those memories is through pills. He has spent much of his life in juvenile prison and homeless. Tony has a strange outlook on life. He is very at home with his condition and often stays doped up on his prescribed medication and lives in a sub consciousness. He is accepted the fact that he’s crazy. He says, â€Å"I mean, if youre gonna purposely lose your mind, you want to get it back some day. Dont you? Okay, maybe not† (Hopkins 460). On the outside Tony looks like a messed up gay drug addict but internally he’s a good, strong person, who wants to be accepted. Tony and Huck both eventually find their way through society’s judgments. Actuality and our perceptions are two totally different concepts that we need to be able to distinguish between. The appearance is our judgments and what we see on the outside. The reality is what’s really there. Authors Mark Twain and Ellen Hopkins ask us to take a second look at the characters and themes. Twain and Hopkins write of racism, religion, status, and morality witch we see in most everyday life. If Twain had not written of these hard hitting subjects, Hopkins would not be able to write as freely as she does now. Both authors show us appearances and dare us to look beyond.

How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon Our Method for Free Book Reviews

How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon Our Method for Free Book Reviews How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon: Our Method for Free Book Reviews Book reviews are what make or break you as an author and since Amazon is the leader in book retailers, getting reviews on Amazon is even more important.As scary as it can be to leave your own fate in the hands of others, its true especially if you publish through Amazon.As a self-published author, having a portfolio of authentic positive Amazon reviews, right from the beginning, can skyrocket your book launch and make your book stand out in your market. And yet it is one of the hardest things to get.For any Amazon product, positive or negative product reviews can be the difference between success and failure.Heres how to get amazon book reviews:Learn Amazon book review guidelinesBuild a launch team for book reviewsContact Amazon top reviewersApply to book review sitesInclude a reminder in your bookRelaunch your bookDeal with negative reviewsGo through the Amazon book review checklistTheres nothing more painful after going through the blood, sweat, and tears of writing, publishing, a nd launching your book, to get very few to no sales because of your lack of reviews.But where do we start to get Amazon reviews? Who do we ask? How do we get reviews that our audience will respect? How many people should we have on our launch team to guarantee a certain number of reviews for setting up promotional sites?How many reviews is enough?We will look at the ways to get legitimate Amazon reviews for your book so that you can reap the benefits of turning your book into a thriving long-term business.NOTE: We cover everything in this blog post and much more about the writing, marketing, and publishing process in our VIP Self-Publishing Program. Learn more about it hereHow to Get Amazon Reviews and the Review ProcessWhen you publish a book, there are essentially 6 things that score at making your book a bestseller. They are:A great book cover design.An irresistible book title.An amazing book description.Stealthy keywords.Targeted book categories.And†¦ Book Reviews.When Amaz on ranks your book, the ranking is based on the volume of downloads your book gets and, the amount of reviews stacked on the book’s review page.Amazon’s system is designed to take notice of books that are getting steady traction when reviews get posted.This is why it is critical that when you launch your book you set everything up to get as many reviews as possible to get momentum going, increase organic traffic, and drive your rankings in the search engines. This means a higher percentage of people writing reviews for your book, not just at launch, but for months (and years) down the road.The bottom line is, reviews carry big weight in the form of social proof that can drive your book to a bestseller and continue to bring in healthy passive income every month.Why do book reviews matter?Because of Amazons algorithm, maintaining a steady income of new book reviews is vital for your book to rise in the rankings. Meaning that if you want your book to continue to sell, you need to obtain real and fresh book reviews.This is a breakdown of why book reviews matter:The more reviews you get, the more visibility your book gets. This means more sales and potential organic reviews.You create a stronger relationship with your readersA boatload of reviews adds credibility to your book and brand.Book reviews for your book on Amazon are one of the defining factors that determine if a potential reader will click the BUY NOW button or not. In fact, if your book has less than 10 reviews, there is a strong chance that your book will get passed over.People want validation before purchasing, and the best way to make that decision is on the front of the product page: reviews. Amazon Reviewer GuidelinesYou can find everything you need to know about posting reviews on Amazon right here under the Community Guidelines.Amazon has tightened the ropes on reviews and as an author, you have to be aware of the tactics that are prohibited.Here is what not to do when it comes to g etting book reviews on Amazon:Pay someone to leave a review. This not only goes against Amazons terms, but it could get your book removed from the shelf and your account banned.Offer a free ‘gift’ in exchange for a review. No gifts allowed. This is still considered payment for a review.Join Facebook groups offering book review swaps. These sites are bad news. Amazon prohibits review swapping and is considered gaming the system. The Amazon algorithm can easily trace reviews back to these sources.Offer an Amazon gift card after a review has been published. It works like this: â€Å"You download the book and leave a review, and I will send you a gift card.† Again, this is against policy and is considered paying for a review.Leave a review for an author, then contact that person requesting they leave a review in return. This would be a form blackmail or trapping the other author into guilt. But this doesn’t work and if you receive any such email, inform the ot her author that you don’t work that way. I did this once and they just removed their review.Most of these fall under the label of incentivized reviews, as there is a form of compensation in exchange for a review by Amazon sellers. Amazon has made it their mission to crack down on these on their platform.Whats the Difference Between Verified and Unverified Book Reviews?According to Amazon,an â€Å"Amazon Verified Purchase† review means theyve verified that the person writing the review purchased the product at Amazon and didn’t receive the product at a deep discountProduct reviews that are not marked â€Å"Amazon Verified Purchase† are valuable as well, but we either can’t confirm that the product was purchased at Amazon or the customer did not pay a price available to most Amazon shoppers.Verified reviews are favorable and are social proof that the reader did in fact buy the book and has potentially read through it before posting a review. A verifi ed review shows up as a yellow banner that says â€Å"Verified Purchase, as seen in the example below:For unverified reviews, in most cases, the reviewer received an advance copy of the book and was possibly on a launch team to support the book’s release.While this is still a legit practice for garnering reviews for your book, if the majority of reviews are non-verified, this could affect your potential customer’s decision to buy or not.HowtoGetMoreAmazonBookReviewsThere are many ways to get reviews but searching for reviewers to review your book is a time-consuming process. You could waste precious time chasing bad leads and end up with nothing for your effort.So where do you get reviews without spending hordes of time?No matter how you do it, remember that it isn’t just about quantity but quality as well. While we can’t control what reviewers will say about our work, we can stay focused on writing great content that adds value in order to increase our chances of getting positive reviews.To get Amazon reviews for your next book launch, or to add reviews to an existing book, consider taking action on these following strategies:#1 Build a launch teamThere are many ways to hunt down reviewers for your book. As we have seen, you can contact the top reviewers, target free book review sites, or reach out to book bloggers.These methods, while they may get you a handful of reviews, is time intensive and a lot of work. I have found, after running over two dozen book launches, that the most effective way to get reviews fast on launch is through setting up a launch team.Your launch team is a group of people who have agreed to read your book in advance and follow up with a review immediately after the book is live.When it comes to building a launch team, it is about building relationships over the long term. This is why, in order to run an effective launch team, you should focus on the relationship with your early-bird reviewers.Here is a st ep-by-step process for organizing your team:How to Set Up a Launch Team1. Start building your relationships early. Launch teams don’t just happen. They take work, months of outreaching, and asking the right people if they want to help launch your book when the time is right. You can generate interest by posting snippets of the book on Social media, sharing chapters of your work with your list, and promoting your cover to people.Share your content and advertise your brand. Communicate with people in person and through online channels about your writing. Keep in mind the purpose for this is to make genuine relationships with people and not to just add them to your launch. And most importantly, to make friends with people who read in your niche, so that your book gets recommended alongside the other books they’re reading.2. Create your list of potential reviewers. As you build these relationships with your fanbase, start making a list of people who express interest in joi ning your launch. If you have multiple books and have been through the publishing process already, take note of the readers who have left reviews already.Contact them closer to the launch of your next book to get them on board. Set up an excel spreadsheet and keep track of the names of people who sign up.Action Step:Contact people directly and invite them to the launch team. Keep track of early-bird reviewers in excel.3. Set up an email template through your email server. Add everyone to the list. If you aren’t using an email server yet you can check out Mailchimp, Convert Kit or Mailerlite. Make it as easy as possible so you aren’t wasting time searching for contact information.Send out a welcome email with a link to your book in PDF or/and Mobi form. You can create a folder in Dropbox and just include the link to a shared folder. Make it easy for them to access the material.Action Step: Import your list of emails onto an email server list.4. Send out the Welcome emai l. Ideally you want to send out your book at least two weeks before launch. This gives people enough time to read it through. In the welcome email I include details for the launch date and any other expectations. At this stage the book isn’t live yet so you will send another email on that day with the link.For the book delivery, you can upload a PDF version as well as a Mobi version of the book. To create a MOBI, PDF or EPUB file you can check out the Calibre ebook management software.Heres the difference between EPUB vs MOBI vs PDF so you can choose which to use.After you have all the files ready, you can create a shared folder in Dropbox and share the link with your team.If any top reviewers agreed to leave a review, you absolutely want to message them to follow up.Action Step:Create a welcome email template. Send out your welcome message to the team. Include a link to your book content.5. Send out your ‘Take Action’ email on launch day. Your book is live and i t is time for people to step up. Contact the team on launch day as soon as the book is live. After publishing a book it should take 12-24 hours for Amazon to get it posted. In the email, include a link to your book. More specifically, a link to the review page so that team members can go straight to the page with one click.6. Day 3: Reminder email. I wait 3 days and send out a reminder email. In this email I thank everyone who has left a review and thank people in advance who are still working on the book and haven’t posted yet.7. Final Call: This is the last email I will send out. Similar to the previous email, reminding people the book is live and is ready for a review whenever you are. You can remind your team that book is at a special discounted price if you are launching it at 0.99 or it’s free.8. Contact Your List: If you have a list, this is gold for getting paid downloads and possible reviews. You should contact your list on the first day the book is live and l et people know that the book has just launched. Then, several days later, email them again asking if they had a chance to get into the material. You could add something of value here just to show subscribers how much you value their support. This is the email where I include a ‘leave a review’ invite.These are the steps I use to communicate with my launch team. Generally speaking, if you want 100 reviews for your book, you should aim for at least 200 people.That is a lot of emails but, what I have experienced is that, on average, you are batting a 50% success rate. What happens to those other 50% who don’t review?Heres why some people wont review your book:They didn’t like the book.They forgot to review altogether.They didn’t read the book.They couldn’t be bothered to review.If you can get 20+ reviews on launch after one week you are looking very good. This is enough to get momentum moving and the Amazon algorithm will see that your book is d oing well.#2 Contact Amazon Top ReviewersThere is a list of top 1000 reviewers on Amazon. These people review everything via the Amazon vine program, although certain reviewers target books specifically. If you can get an Amazon Top Reviewer to look at your book, this is well worth it.Check out the Amazon Top Customer Reviewers list. This is a time-consuming process but, if you can get 2-3 reviewers to agree to a book review, you’re all set.Heres how to get more reviews on Amazon with top reviewers:Go into the reviewer’s profile and check the books they have reviewed. To be specific, you want to check for books in your genre. If you wrote a book on weight loss and the reviewer has written most of their reviews for romance novels, it’s a good indication of what they favor. Target the reviewers interested in your topic.Check for contact information. Due to the large volume of spam and requests for reviews, most top reviewers have removed their personal email. If they have a website set up, you can send a direct email to request a review.Wait for a reply. Most reviewers, from my own experience, did not reply. I would recommend targeting 20 reviewers and wait one week. You can then resend the request again.This is a time-consuming process but, if you get a top reviewer to agree to a review, keep that person’s contact information in an excel file. Then, when you launch your next book, you can reach out to them again and again.#3 Book Review SitesThere are a number of sites out there that will find reviewers for your book. This is not the same as buying reviews for your book which, I’ll restate again, goes against Amazon’s review policy and should be avoided.In fact, Amazon has taken action against over 1000 sites on Fiverr that were selling incentivized reviews and fake review services. Yes, avoid.Review services, however, can speed up the process and find reviewers for your book. One of my favorites is BookRazor. It is a paid site but they promote a system of honest reviewers for your book by providing a contact list of potential readers.There are many other sites you can check out as well, and many of them are free while some are paid:Kindle Book ReviewRainbow Book ReviewsKO’s Stuffed ShelfThe Kindle Book Review#4 Include a reminder in your bookHere is a tactic that works well. Did you know that you can include insert a request in your book for readers to leave a review? It’s a great way to invite people to review your book.I have a page at the back of my books that looks like this:What Did You Think of [Your Book Title Here]?First of all, thank you for purchasing this book [Your Book Title Here]. I know you could have picked any number of books to read, but you picked this book and for that I am extremely grateful.I hope that it added at value and quality to your everyday life. If so, it would be really nice if you could share this book with your friends and family by posting to Fa cebook and Twitter.If you enjoyed this book and found some benefit in reading this, I’d like to hear from you and hope that you could take some time to post a review on Amazon. Your feedback and support will help this author to greatly improve his writing craft for future projects and make this book even better.You can follow this link to [Book link here] now.I want you, the reader, to know that your review is very important and so, if you’d like to leave a review, all you have to do is click here and away you go. I wish you all the best in your future success!When you do this, you want to have a link directing customers right back to the review page on Amazon. Make it so easy for them that it requires as little effort as possible.Many authors will include a cute ‘cat photo’ or even pictures of their kids begging asking for a review. This strategy can work well if you sell a large volume of books during the initial launch phase.But remember it takes reader s time to go through your book and so, if you don’t see the reviews appear in the first week, you might get them trickling in weeks or even months later.#5 Relaunch Your BookYou can relaunch your book if book sales drop and the reviews stop coming in. When you relaunch your book, you can put together a new launch team, and even add a new chapter to the book to generate a renewed interest in your book.I have tried this strategy several times in the past year and, by relaunching the book, adding new value to the content, I put together another small launch team of 30-40 people. This brought in another 20+ reviews for a book that was suffering from lack of sales and poor rankings.It happens, so we have to stay on top of keeping the book active.How to Deal with Negative ReviewsGetting positive reviews on your book is a great feeling. In a perfect world, we all want to have just the good stuff when it comes to our review platform. But alas, there will always be that dissatisfied reader that was expecting something much different than what your book was offering.Readers will leave a negative review for various reasons, and in most cases, there is nothing we can do.But first of all, receiving a negative review isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it can lend to a book’s credibility. Look at it from a reader’s perspective. If a book has 100 positive 5-star reviews, although the reviews may be legitimate, we know that not every book is perfect.Having a load of good reviews and nothing that is under three stars could create doubt for the browser, just as having a book with only a handful of reviews turns browsers the other way.While negative reviews aren’t all bad, there are steps we can take to reduce the amount.So how can we prevent our book from getting a lot of negative reviews and turning away potential book sales?Here are four areas to pay attention to:Book quality: the single biggest reason a book will get panned by negative re views is poor quality. This is credited to sloppy editing. A book that is not up to the quality expected by readers will get hit with a high amount of bad reviews. Then, it could get pulled off the shelf by Amazon until the author upgrades to better quality. Make sure your book is up the high standards people expect. Always respect your readers. The book business is like any other business, make good products, and your customers will love you.Inaccurate description of the book: make sure that your book description, title and cover all point towards the theme of the book. If your book is titled, â€Å"How to become rich in 21 days† and, after reading through the book the reader isn’t rich, well, they bought the book because of the promise you made. So, if reading a book delivers a negative outcome for your audience, someone is going to shout about it in a review.Your book is a sales pitch for your other products. If there is one thing that readers don’t like, it is being hit up with offers and the push to check out other services or products in the book. This could come across as spammy and devalues the content that the readers paid for. While your goal may be to use the book to attract customers for your online business, you want to avoid any sales pitches in the book.How to Write and Submit a ReviewWriting a review for a book you like is a great way to drive potential readers to the title. If you read a great book recently and you want to tell people about it, you can take a few minutes to write up a positive review.Writing a review is easy. Just go to the book’s front page and, under the heading Customer Reviews, you will see a button for write a customer review. Click on that and you will be taken to a page set up for ‘Your Reviews’ where you can write reviews for your purchases.What you do is:Select the rating of the book from 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best score.Write your book description in the box provided. Ke ep in mind that if you leave this page before submitting your review, you’ll have to start over again. I would recommend writing the review first in Word or Evernote and then copy and paste.Create a headline for the review.Hit submit. Your review will go live within a couple of hours, although it could take up to 24 hours.One point to note here is that, with Amazon’s policy for posting reviews, you have to have an account that has made a purchase of at least $50 using a valid credit or debit card.Checklist for Getting Amazon Book ReviewsIf you follow these steps, youll be able to get more book reviews and in turn, sell more books.Set up a launch team for your book. Send your team a PDF/MOBI/EPUB file and follow up with email right up until launch. Follow up with several reminders after the launch.Include a ‘Review Request’ page at the back of your book. Insert the link taking customers directly to the review page. Make it so easy they don’t have to search around for the book on Amazon.Contact Amazon Top Reviewers. Send a personalized email to each, targeting the people who review books similar to your genre. Wait at least two weeks before following up.Contact people in your business. This doesn’t include friends and family. Contact professionals in your field who would be willing to read the book with the possibility of leaving an honest review.Hire a site that specializes in finding honest reviewers for your book. I recommend BookRazor.Relaunch your book. Add more content, a new book cover, or make it appealing for people to join your relaunch of an existing book. You can relaunch a book as many times as you want.There are a lot of strategies out there to get reviews for your books, most are legit, and some are not. As an author, make sure you are aware of what Amazon considers to be authentic reviews when it comes to gathering reviews for your next book, and steer clear of anything it considers to be incentivized revi ews.If a site promises to get you positive reviews in return for cash, stay away. It isnt worth it, trust me. Keep hunting and adding reviews to your book.Book reviews are the secret sauce to adding value and credibility to your work, boosting sales and making your book stick on the bestseller lists. Dont skimp out on them.Its Time for Your FREE TrainingOne of the easiest and most natural ways to get good book reviews is to write a book worthy of them.Heres how you can learn to do that.

How to Identify a Shakespeare Comedy

How to Identify a Shakespeare Comedy Shakespeares  comedy plays have stood the test of time. Works such as The Merchant of  Venice. As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing are among the Bards most popular and most often performed plays. However, even though we refer to about a dozen or so of Shakespeares plays as comedies, theyre not comedies in the modern sense of the word. Characters and plots are rarely laugh-out-loud funny, and not everything that occurs in a Shakespearean comedy is happy or light-hearted. Indeed, the comedy of Shakespeare’s time was very different from our modern comedy. The style and key characteristics of a Shakespeare comedy are not as distinct as the other Shakespearean genres and sometimes determining whether one of his plays is a comedy can be a challenge.   Common Features of a Shakespearean Comedy What makes a Shakespeare comedy identifiable if the genre is not distinct from the Shakespeare tragedies and histories? This is an ongoing area of debate, but many believe that the comedies share certain characteristics, as described below: Comedy through language: Shakespeares comedies  are peppered with clever wordplay, metaphors, and insults.Love: The theme of love is prevalent in every Shakespeare comedy. Often, we are presented with sets of lovers who, through the course of the play, overcome the obstacles in their relationship and unite. Of course,​ that measure isnt always foolproof; love is the central theme of Romeo and Juliet but few people would regard that play as a comedy.Complex plots: The plots of Shakespeare comedies have more twists and turns than his tragedies and histories. Although the plots are convoluted, they do follow similar patterns. For example, the climax of the play always occurs in the third act and the final scene has a celebratory feel when the lovers finally declare their feelings for each other.Mistaken identities: The plot of a Shakespearean comedy is often driven by mistaken identity. Sometimes this is an intentional part of a villain’s plot, as in Much Ado About Nothi ng when Don John tricks Claudio into believing that his fiance has been unfaithful through mistaken identity. Characters also play scenes in disguise and it is not uncommon for female characters to disguise themselves as male characters. Shakespeare’s comedies are the most difficult to classify because they overlap in style with other genres. Critics often describe some plays as tragic-comedies because they mix equal measures of tragedy and comedy. For example, Much Ado About Nothing starts as a comedy, but takes on some of the characteristics of a tragedy when Hero is disgraced and fakes her own death. At this point, the play has more in common with Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s key tragedies. Shakespearean Plays Generally Classified as Comedy Alls Well That Ends WellAs You Like ItThe Comedy of ErrorsCymbelineLoves Labour’s LostMeasure for MeasureThe Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merchant of VeniceA Midsummer Nights DreamMuch Ado About NothingPericles, Prince of TyreThe Taming of the ShrewTroilus and CressidaTwelfth NightTwo Gentlemen of VeronaThe Two Noble KinsmenThe Winters Tale