Hal Eisenberg's Blog

Thanks to the 1100 avid readers that registered to win a copy of Overnight Sensation of the last 3 days!

I greatly appreciate your interest and will do another give-away soon. If you don't want to wait, go ahead and get your own copy on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Overnight-Sensa...

Available in paperback and ebook, and for the right price, I'll come over and read it to you by candlelight.
(Airfare, accommodations, food, suntan oil, house on the beach extra.)

Through this Sunday, March 9th, you can register to win a signed copy of OVERNIGHT SENSATION along with some pretty cool swag including guitar pics and signed bookmarks! And if you act now, you'll also receive...
just kidding, there's no new car or lifetime supply of licorice (yech!) but please do enter to win a copy of my book and best of luck to ya!

Hi All,

I hope all of you in America had a fantastic Thanksgiving! In my house, Thanksgiving means having the entire family over while overloading on casseroles.
What kinds you ask? Well, this year there was green bean casserole, cabbage casserole, broccoli casserole, asparagus casserole, chicken casserole, squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole... I'm sure left out a few. Oh, and don't forget the homemade macaroni and cheese, cornbread stuffing, carrot salad, english peas, butter beans, cranberry sauce, watergate salad, an entire ham, two turkeys, and a half dozen pies and cakes. Tomorrow, I plan on blowing up.

Hi All! I want to say thanks to all of you that entered my latest give-away (over 900) over the 3 day period and congrats to the winner! I plan on doing this again very soon and in the meantime, if you really, really want to read Overnight Sensation, you can go to Amazon.com
or Barnes & Noble.com and get one for your very own. I thank you, my family thanks you, and my 33 year-old African Grey Parrot named McCartney thanks you. Really, he can. He's got a vocabulary of over 2000 words and can put them into coherent sentences. Not sure how he does this... maybe I'll use him as my editor for my next book.

A huge thank you to the over 900 people that entered my book give-away over the last two days and the over 1100 that added to their "to read" list!

I wish everyone of you could have won however, I plan to do another one within a month or so so please keep a watch out.

In the mean time, please wander over and check out my
OVERNIGHT SENSATION BOOK SITE!

Hi Everyone, and by everyone I mean all ten of you that actually read my posts. I just realized that if everyone that added my book to their "to read" shelf actually purchased and read it, I'd have a lot more reviews. And in addition to the reviews, I could probably buy three tanks of gas for my car. Either that, or one Starbucks Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino - I think the costs are the same.

I'm guessing when people put books on their "to read" shelf, and you see that they've got 500+ books on said shelf, the odds are they're not going to read it or even remember it, at least not in this decade. But it's nice to see that they thought enough about my book to add it at that moment. Kind of like making a to do list and then burying it under a pile of other to do lists.

Either way, to all of you goodread people, or goodreaders, or people that are on goodreads and like to read good - whatever - I challenge you to actually READ my book. Preferably after purchasing it online vs. buying it from some scraggly looking dude on the street who's also got a box full of genuine Rolexes....

A MESSAGE TO WRITERS (AND BLOGGERS)

Hi All! In case you stumbled on this blog, my name is Hal Eisenberg and I published my first young adult, contemporary novel, OVERNIGHT SENSATION, about 6 months ago. During this short period of time, I've been fortunate to get some great reviews and ratings and thought I'd share some of my observations with both writers as well as bloggers about them.

The fact that someone would actually take the time to read my book and then write down their thoughts is amazing to me. Especially since it does not follow the path of what's popular. For example, you won't find any shape shifters, demons, ghosts, or hunky vampires in love:). Instead, it deals with the real world and in particular, the real world's obsession and fascination with fame by asking the question, "What would you do if you suddenly became famous but didn't deserve that fame? Would you come clean? Or would you try like mad to hold on to that fame?" And it does it in what I hope is a clever, funny way.

I find it very gratifying to read the reviews of my book as they trickle in, even though it has not been out very long. I'm also amazed at the wide variances of opinions in those reviews.

For example, while some reviewers have praised Overnight Sensation for its mystery element, describing how they had no idea how it was going to end, what an intense imaginative ride it was, and how the plot twists surprised them, others have written that it was predictable.

And while some have written about how they couldn't put it down and how it made them want to keep reading, others have felt compelled to focus on some grammatical errors rather than the story itself.

Overnight Sensation has a lot of dialogue because it surrounds four teenage boys who are best friends that hang out together in school, in their homes, at parties, with girls... in other words, they do what many teenagers do. After turning over the first draft to my first editor, she said, "Instead of having the main character describe what is going on, you should have more dialogue between the boys, but refrain from using too much "I said" or "he said", as it becomes repetitive. If they're following the story, the reader already knows who's speaking." This made perfect sense to me, so I went back and added dialogue while pulling out many of those phrases. Still, some reviewers have stated that there's too much dialogue while others stated that they had trouble figuring out who was speaking...

Then there are reviews praising the accurateness of the dialogue saying things like how I must have teenage boys or how I must have consulted with teenagers because I nailed it, while another wrote how the dialogue seemed off and that teen boys don't talk like that. Well, the truth is out on this one - I do have teenage boys who are with their friends at our house all the time and I did consult with them on terminology and phrases, so let me assure those in doubt, that dialogue is as real as it gets!

So, if you're a writer and reviews of your book start to come in, I urge you to keep in mind these things when reading them:

You can't please everyone and you never will. However, if you keep at it, you will please some, and when that happens, when a reader clicks with your story and gets it and writes about it, it will put an extremely wide grin on your face.

If you write young adult fiction, or any genre for that matter, realize that there are millions of readers out there from age 12 to age 90 and their take on your book will be as varied as their age and experience.

And finally, when you get a review that makes you groan, go pick out some of your favorite books or authors of all time and read their reviews and look at their ratings. Know what you'll find? That your reviews and ratings are not far off from theirs. Sure, they may have a best seller with thousands of reviews, but it all comes down to the same thing. The joy of writing comes from pulling a story out of your brain and sharing it with the world and that's really all you should focus on because that's all you can control. The rest is up to interpretation.

TO MY LEGIONS OF FANS, the millions who have requested, dare I say, demanded another give-away - it's here!


Oops. For a minute there I thought I was Amanda Hocking.

Well, I'm still having a give-away and it ends
in about 2 days so... stop reading this and enter!
Seriously. There's nothing more for you to read here. Actually there is one more thing. In addition to a signed copy of my book, I'm also giving away some great swag including 4 signed bookmarks, 3 pearlized colored guitar picks, and a brand new Chevy Camaro!
Okay, I'm not really giving away a Camaro, but for a second there, didn't that sound totally awesome? Now go and sign up.

Hi All!

I want to thank everyone who entered my give-away and especially thanks to the avid readers who added Overnight Sensation to their "to read" list.

Congrats to Betty who won a signed copy!

I plan on having another give-away very soon, so if you didn't win, there will be more chances. Plus, the next give-away will include some swag...

Thanks again! It's readers like you who make me want to continue to write.

Hey everyone! Please check out the indie spotlight as they have chosen Overnight Sensation as their featured book today along with an interview.

Here's the link: http://www.theindiespotlight.com

A big thanks to Indie Spotlight for the plug!!