BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

A Message from K-Space


One of the problems of being a one-topic weblog is that it means that every so often we enter into these lull-periods in which I don't know what to say, so I have nothing to add. This creates a vicious cycle in which there are no updates, so readers don't check it out. And when readers do come, they come less frequently because the updates are less frequent.

So, here's what I'd like: I'd like a chance to touch base with my readers. I'd like to know what you would like in terms of features; IE, if I'm not updating often enough, what writing-related topics could I post about in order to have a more regular update? What features/links would you like me to add/remove from the links section? What can I do for YOU?

Now in order to make this worth YOUR while, I'm going to offer the only thing I can: A signed first-edition copy of The Unearthing. I'll even pay shipping and handling.

Now obviously, I cannot afford to give each and every one of you a free copy as much as I'd love to. So instead I'll draw five names from every one who replies to this post to offer me advice on how to improve the site. The people whose names I draw will recieve the following gifts:

One person will recieve both a signed first edition copy of The Unearthing and a PDF version of The Unearthing on CD.

One person will recieve a signed first edition copy of The Unearthing, and three people will recieve The Unearthing in PDF format, on CD.

I'm going to assume you're over 18 and don't need anyone's permission to visit this site.

The draw will not be supervised, notarised, photographed, authenticated, commemorated, mimeographed or televised. I assume no liability for lost, damaged or stolen merchandize. Once it's mailed, your beef is with the post office. Although the book will have a cover price, this is not a contest and therefore has no cash value and you cannot ask for cash instead. This is me giving you a free copy of my book, entirely at my expense and without any obligation to you other than taking the time to answer the above questions. You only have to supply your email address; if I draw your email, I will contact you to tell you you're getting one of the gifts. Once you get it you can do what you want with it. Sell it on ebay if you're that hard up for cash.

The draw will not happen until after I have recieved my first shipment of books. Therefore this is, for now, open-ended. When I have more details about when the book is going to press I'll revise the deadline accordingly.

If you don't want to reply to this post with your email but would still like to offer your suggestions and have a chance of getting a present, email me. My contact info's around here, somewhere.

Thanks, guys. Your help is going to make this site a better place.

Steve Karmazenuk,

The Keeper of ){-Space

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll give you some feedback for free, I'm not really bothered about being in a draw I just want to help out. Although I'd be interested in reading your novel ^_^

Things I'd suggest to help keep people coming back -

1. need to be more interactive, try polls, discussions on ideas and research for your work, get people talking abut anything and they'll become more of personal friends rather than the audience to play to, they'll come back because they want to see how you are doing as a person not just an author.

2. Be more personal, what are you feeling, experiencing, wanting, planning. Its great knowing what you are doing, have done, or are going to do but what does it make you feel like. At the moment a lok of your posts read like articles from a magazine or so on more news than feeling, a little more feeling would be good.

3. Go off topic once in a while. Talk about things outside the box, what you did today, something amazing you've seen anything. Gives it a more personal touch.

4. Find out for yourself. For ages I loved reading Neil Gaiman's weblog, I haven't read it for a while because I had no internet for a while and I've got a busy life then I forgot about it. Take a look and see how he does it, and how others do it too and take some hins from their blogs. Neil's blog was really cool because he was down to earth informative and wrote a lot of his his blogs as anecdotes from his life.

4. change the scheme every now and then. Seems a bit clutered right now, can you HTML your own page and use the blogger code to run the blog? If so it would be much cleaner and less cluttered with links all down the side and boxes and ads and so on. Make it simple and easy to read.

That's a few tips there, hope they inspire. - Paul