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So I finally read The Hunger Games. It only took several (several) months of friends telling me, “You have to read this book!” for me to decide I didn’t want to read the damn book. Plus, there was the movie tie-in. I wasn’t interested in seeing the movie. Why would I be interested in reading the book?

I admit it was my pride. I don’t like reading books that are all the rage. My friend, Sam (who, by the way, is certifiably insane for The Hunger Games trilogy) refuses to read Fifty Shades of Gray for this very reason. Well, I read Fifty Shades of Gray, long before I realized it was “hip” to do so. Now that it’s so insanely popular, I’m kind of embarrassed to say I read it on our honeymoon. Regardless of my admitted affiliation with Christian Gray, I still didn’t want to read The stinkin’ Hunger Games.

Here’s how it happened: I was in the library the other day, because I love being in libraries. I was browsing through the young adult section, because Jake’s brother, Zach, got me on this gay vampire series and I wanted to see if I could find the third book. Instead of my gay vampire book, I found three copies of The Hunger Games. My fingers twitched when I saw the dog-eared paperback cover. I glanced to my right and left. I felt guilty—guilty to even consider going back on all I’d said about not wanting to read this Suzanne Collins trilogy. No one was looking, so I grabbed the stupid book and ran out the door (after checking out, obviously).

What happened next? I read the book in three days. Now, I know this is nothing to some of you who read the book in eight hours (Sam). But hey, let’s agree this isn’t Harry Potter. I could read a Harry Potter book in eight hours. I am certifiably obsessed with HP, which is why I’ve dedicated countless hours of my life to reading and rereading Rowling’s magnum opus in its entirety. I do not carry the same affinity for Collins and her games, but I did already pick up the second book, and I am avidly following Katniss and Peeta back through the woods.

I’ve had nightmares the past couple days—bloody ones, where people get killed in horrible ways. I had one where I had to say goodbye to Jake because I was one of the chosen tributes, and I knew I was going to die in the forest. I haven’t slept well at all; I blame The Hunger Games. It is an all-encompassing story. It has guts, gore, love, and revolution. I enjoy all these things.

Even more enjoyable, the writing is better than expected for the young adult genre, but as I’ve noticed, YA is no longer written for teens. I believe many YA authors are now targeting adults, and for that, I love them, because young adult literature is so honest—so black and white. There are good guys; there are bad guys; pick your side. If only life were so simple. In YA books, life is that simple. Hoozah!

Will I complete this trilogy I once dreaded? Of course. Like I said, I’m already almost finished with book two, Catching Fire. I blame my friend Sam. She’s the one who talked this book up, and she’s the one who went absolutely bonkers when she heard I was reading The Hunger Games. We had a deep, at-length discussion over dinner this past Saturday night about Collins and her characters. It had been a long time since I really delved into a work of literature with a good f

So you’ve written your magnum opus and you want the world to beat a path to your door. You’ve heard so much about Google Ads and decide to try it for your book. This article shows you how.

First a Warning: 

Running Google Ads is an activity that is fairly involved. If you don’t know what you are doing, you could land up spending a significant amount of money with little to show for it. I once ran a campaign with advice and help from experts for an online yoga course that I had co-created and spent over $2,000 before realizing that the campaign was not working. So be careful or get the help of a professional. Use this article simply as a method to understand what is involved in running Google Ads. Also, please don’t draw the conclusion that I’m recommending that you run Google ads. With all these things in mind, let’s get started!

Understand Why You Are Running an Ad Campaign on Google: 

Ask yourself why you are running ads on Google. Is it to help with your book launch and perhaps break into a best seller list on Amazon? Is it to help build up a mailing list of users? Or is it simply to make money by selling more books? Whatever the reason, it is important for you to be clear about why you want to run ads. As Lewis Carroll said, “If you don’t know where you are going, every road will take you there.”

Do the Math:

The idea behind every campaign is simple. To get more dollars than you are putting into the campaign. In other words, if you are spending $100 on ads, ideally you want to get at least $101 for the campaign to make financial sense. With this in mind, ask yourself a few questions:

• How much is the cost of my book? What is the proportion of money I make with each book I sell after paying my publisher, my agent and Amazon?
• What percentage of my visitors do I expect to purchase my book (the “conversion rate”)?
• What is the cost of running ads to bring in one person to my book page?

Fix a Budget:

Even before you run the experiment with Google ads, set up a budget. Know how much you are going to spend and set your expectations for the ad campaign realistically.

Have a Landing Page Ready

A landing page is where your visitor lands when she clicks on an ad. There is evidence to support the argument that a landing page with a single call to action (such as “Buy the Book” or “Sign-up for my Newsletter“) is better than a busy page with too many things for the visitor to do.

When visitors click on your ad, think about where you want to take them. Do you want to take them to a specific blog post (where you talk about your new book) or a page on your author site. Make sure that the place where your visitors arrive after clicking on the ad is clear, well thought-out and most important, has a call to action as described above. You may even want to experiment

The kidlitosphere was hopping this weekend with news, reviews, and commentary.  Here are some of the gems we uncovered while reading through our blogroll:

• Lee Wind at I’m Here, I’m Queer.  What the Hell Do I Read? went to the SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles and shared some of his favorite quotes.  I loved this one from Donna Jo Napoli: “Any civilization is built on empathy. If dreadful things happen to you, you learn empathy. …And for the protected child …the safest way for them to develop empathy is through a book.”  Yes.
• Oh, Roger.  We adore you.  Thanks so much for sharing your criticisms thoughts on the strike-through trend.
• Sarah’s YA Movie News posts on her blog GreenBeanTeenQueen are some of my favorites!  She mentions the Hunger Games movie stills many of us have seen – I’m not a fan, I have to admit.  Katniss and Peeta are fighting for their lives so why do they look so pretty and stagnant?  And what do you make of the upcoming Snow White movies?
• Chicken Spaghetti shares a great list of picture books about New York.  I’d also love to add SUBWAY by Christoph Niemann, which is one of my recent favorites that captures the energy and vitality of New York’s iconic subway system.
• Kiersten White’s blog is one of my favorite things – she is just completely charming and hilarious and silly.  Sure, her book PARANORMALCY just got a director…but what Kiersten is really excited about is Saved by the Bell’s Mr. Belding tweeting about it!  I would be too.  I mean, it’s Saved by the Bell!
• It’s been all over the web but, just in case you haven’t seen it, these minimalist posters of children’s stories from Flavorwire are a must-see.  Do you have a favorite?  This is mine:

Check out the first photo of Jennifer Lawrence (in her role as Katniss in “Hunger Games,” bow and arrows and all. This may not be enough to silence her critics, but we hope the movie will be) (MTV) - Netflix accounts for nearly (30% of... Read the rest of this post

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins caught my attention quickly and held it fast throughout the rest of the book. The cliffhanger ending prompted me to buy the next two books without thinking twice.

A book like this makes you think about your situation as it is today and the direction everything is going. It is clearly set in a futuristic United States, but it's no future any of us (hopefully) would ever want. It has a corrupt government in every sense of the word. People nowadays may not be happy with the way things are going, but at least we aren't publicly whipped or shot if we want to speak out against things that are happening. We still have so many freedoms that The Hunger Games shows us we should be thankful for.

Who could live in a world where "games" are held every year pitting people–teenagers–against each other in a battle for their lives? Aside from that there is a constant fear of starvation or a fear of things getting worse than they already are, though that is hard to imagine. This government has torturous ways of dealing with difficulties that keeps everyone terrified.

One girl, a hunter who just wants to keep her family alive, especially her little sister, is faced with what she considers no choice. She enters the hunger games to save her sister from having to go. This sacrifice leads her down a road she can't turn away from. Her hunting skills and ability to out-think her opponents–and the government–are the only things keeping her alive. For now. But will the government let her truly win the games?