About Me

For those of you that want a short bio – My name is Shayna Gier and I like to read and write books.

 

Ok, so that doesn’t tell you much about me.

 

Well, as I said my name is Shayna Gier and I like to read and write books, which is why I put this website together. Originally, it started out as Shaynagier.com- the official home of Shayna Gier- author of Stuck in Estrogen’s Funhouse. This was shortly after I finished my first novella and had many plans to finish several other books, of which you can still read short summaries on my novels page.

Unfortunately, or in some instances fortunately, shortly after I finished Stuck in Estrogen’s Funhouse and got it published, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and had to go on short term disability from my work due to too much stress and not being able to function. Shortly after that, and this is unfortunate in every way, my paternal grandmother of whom I was very close to was diagnosed with lung cancer stage 4 and died two weeks later. The effect this had on me, basically guaranteed I wouldn’t be returning to work any time soon, and it also put a stopper on my writing ability.

So instead of writing, I decided to turn to my first love before I even knew how to hold a pencil- reading. On January 10, 2012 I had just finished my 8th book of the year and thought to myself, “I’ve got to keep track of what I read. I’ll use my blogspace to review what I read, and while I’m at it I can help other authors by reviewing their work too.” So I opened up Shayna Gier’s Book Reviews and with a little bit of help from a few already-established bloggers, the requests for reviews started trickling, and then flooding in.

It didn’t happen overnight, but by the end of the month I had at least 20 books lined up to read, and I started thinking about what I thought the other blogs out there were missing when it came to help promoting self-published books- or even small-pressed books. Book promotions, I’ve learned, is not easy and authors can use all the help they can get. So I clicked around various blogs, and asked myself, “If I could use their blog to promote Stuck in Estrogen’s Funhouse, what would I use? What are they missing?” And I sat to work with trying to implement as many of those features as I could. What are some of these features?

Features of ShaynaGier.com- The book review and publicity site

1- While my reviews are based off my personal opinion, they are also rated in such a way that as long as the writer does their work, they are practically guarenteed a 3-star review. Even if it isn’t my thing.

2- Every review lists things that I *Loved* and things I didn’t like- this way if someone has different tastes than me, and they see that I “Didn’t like” that there was a lot of gore and the book is rated a “3″ and they love thriller/gory books, well then they can use that information, and not just my base score, to decide if the book is for them or not.

3- All 4/5 star ratings get labeled so that they will randomly show up in the sidebar so long as this site runs, 3 links at a time per rating. This gives added  visability to what I consider the best of all the books, or could-be-the-best-but-just-isn’t-my-thing.

5- Ads that can be bought at a price you set to promote your book

6- Fast 24-hour guarantee e-mail response. No waiting to see “if” the blogger got your request or not.

7- Separate “blogs” for my personal information and Book-review/publicity-related information so that readers can access both, but aren’t bombarded by information on my book, when they want information on a book I reviewed a week ago. Also, my information remains visible so that those that wish to find out about my book can, without digging through tons and tons of reviews and interviews and such.

8- Sub-blog for Author Interviews- More added visibility. Interviews post on the Book Reviews blog, as well as their own sub-blog so that they are easily accessed no matter how long it’s been since the interview was posted.

9-Excerpts, Interviews and 4/5 Stars posted to Pinterest on their own board depending on the post- Again added visibility  beyond just my blog.

10- Only one post a day- unless a blog tour, and in those cases it’s only posts for that tour- meaning that book and author- that is posted that day. This way, no matter if it’s an excerpt, interview, review or guest post, your book/name gets maximum visibility for a full 12 hours (at least) before it begins the process of being buried under newer posts.

 

As I hear of newer technology and better blogging ideas, Shaynagier.com will continue to grow and change in the best way possible to make sure that authors, readers, and myself all get exactly what they are looking for when they come here.