There is a big change coming my way. My wife is pregnant with our first child. It’s a boy! The name is being kept under wraps until he’s born – which can be any day now. She is full-term (and very uncomfortable) so we are just playing the waiting game.

Once our little bundle of joy enters the world, I’m not sure what my posting frequency will be like. Obviously, our baby takes priority over everything else. If I have a spare moment, and not completely exhausted, then I’ll try to fit a post or two in. I just can’t promise anything.

Rest assured that Brad’s Reader is not going anywhere. Think of this as a temporary sabbatical.

However, you should still be able to keep up with me and my musings on literature, ebooks, publishing, writing and so forth on Twitter. If you’re not following me yet, now is the perfect time.

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However, lately I’ve been feeling like I’m posting links from the same sources over and over again. In other words, things are getting stale. The blog posts and articles I link to are still great, I just need some “new blood.” Also, searching out links from new sources is very time consuming, making it very difficult most weeks.

This is where I need your help

I want you to share your links with me. If you have an interesting blog post that you wrote, or have found something you think is of interest, I want you to send it to me. Here are the topics I need links for:

• Ebooks
• Writing
• Publishing/Self-Publishing
• Books/Literature

I know there’s a lot of great stuff out there, I just need your help finding it. However, there are a few ‘rules’ to follow:

1. All links must be for the current week. For Friday Link Love, my weeks usually run from Saturday to Friday. If you send me a link from last month or last year, it won’t get posted.

2. Sending links to your own blog post is great and I encourage it. Just make sure your post relates to one of the above topics, has substance and a good headline.

3. No spam/advertising/marketing links. They won’t get posted, so don’t even try.

4. Not every link sent to me will get posted. It doesn’t mean that your post/article is bad, it just means that I didn’t think it’s a good fit for that particular week. Don’t take it personally.

How do I send you a link?

It’s easy! Just go to my contact page, fill out the required information and you’re done. Be sure to include your email address so if I have any problems with link you sent, I can contact you.

Thank you in advance!

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Other guests on tonight’s program include authors Zetta Elliot and Christopher Hertz, Todd Rutherford of Yorkshire Publishing and book reviewer Joe Pinkney. This is a great lineup of guests from across the publishing world and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

You can also join the conversation through chat by following this link The Business of Books, or by calling in at 347.426.3645.

And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for updates, interesting links and more.

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So, in order to reduce the time I spend dealing with spam, I’m going to start implementing a few changes that probably won’t affect the majority of legitimate visitors who want to leave a thoughtful comment.

Here’s a list of what I plan to do:

1. Install a stronger spam filter. This should prevent a lot of spam from entering my queue, which means I won’t have to manually delete the spam. My only big worry is that it will block legitimate comments, but I’ll deal with that issue as it arises.

2. Disabling comments for Friday Link Love after one week. Generally, the Link Love posts don’t generate a lot of comments. And the legitimate ones Link Love does get appear within a day or two of being posted. My popular Friday Link Love appears to be a magnet for comment spammers.

3. Last resort: Disable comments on all posts after 60 days. Most spammers target the older posts. The only problem with this is that some of my most popular posts (in terms of comments) are the older ones. I don’t want to discourage anyone from sharing their views so this option might be a little harder to implement.

Like I said before, most of you won’t notice any of these changes. And as always, if you are a first-time commenter and you don’t see your comment approved within 24-hours, please contact me, it might have gotten flagged as spam by mistake. In order to reduce the chances of your comment being flagged as spam, please take a quick gander at my comment policy.

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Back in April 2009 I posted my comment policy, which is pretty straight forward. But I should probably highlight some of the main points again.

- Stay on topic: Keep your comments on the topic of the respective post you are commenting on.

- Avoid generic comments: If all you write is “Great post” or “I love your blog” you have a high chance of your comment getting marked as spam. And if your generic comment is accompanied by a link to your affiliate marketing site or a website selling Viagra, then it will get marked as spam.

- Have fun and comment often! This goes without saying.

When you leave your first comment on Brad’s Reader, I will have to approve it. After that, your comments will show up right away. If you are leaving a comment for the first time and you don’t see it within 24 hours, please contact me and I can manually post your comment (as long as it’s not spam).

Also, if you are outside the United States and are having trouble leaving a comment please contact me as well. I’ve heard from a few people recently whose comments wouldn’t post because of the country they are in (don’t ask why, I don’t even know).

In closing, keep your comments coming. They always make my day and I love seeing what people have to say.

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I also plan on getting a lot of writing done. I have two fiction projects I desperately want to finish so I can make them available on Smashwords (aff link) as soon as possible. These two works will be available for free so everyone can sample my fiction without forking over your hard earned cash

Have a great holiday over the next few days and please stay safe. I’ll back to my usual posting schedule either this weekend or early next week.

- Brad

P.S. There will be no Friday Link Love this week.

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To keep your comment from being flagged as spam, please use the following guidelines:

- Write something more than “Great post.” Comments like that instantly send up a red flag. Keep your comments relevant (and specific) to the post’s topic.

- If your URL has anything to do with viagra, fast cash loans, work from home schemes and the like, your comment will probably get flagged as spam.

- If you have a request (i.e. wanting to use a post as a reference, etc), send it to me directly using my contact page. Using the form sends your message directly to me. Unfortunately I’ve seen some of these requests/questions get flagged as spam.

- If you left a comment and it did not show up on the post within 24 hours, it could have been sent to the spam bin. Please contact me and let me know so I can correct the issue.

I encourage everyone to leave comments on anything I post and I’m pretty liberal about what comments I allow (even if they are borderline spam). If you’re a first time commenter I have to manually approve your comment before it shows up. I’m pretty fast at approving comments (thanks to my iPhone and cool Wordpress app), but sometimes it can take a while. All comments are always approved within 24 hours.

I always encourage comments, even if you disagree with what I said in a post. As long as your respectful, I welcome your dissent.

Keep them comments coming!

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/janetgalore/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

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If you don’t win today’s contest, don’t worry, there will be at least one more this month. I’m not saying what the prize will be or even how you will enter – you’ll just have to stand by.

Thanks again for all your comments. I enjoyed seeing what everyone is reading and will be adding a few of these titles to my growing reading list. I hope you visit Brad’s Reader again and write more comments, it always makes my day!

Good luck!

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I’ll leave the comments open on this post for 24 hours, after that, no more comments will be accepted. I will then pick a comment totally at random. This means I take the number of comments from first to last and use a top secret, highly complicated random number generator to pick a number. Once the number is chosen, the corresponding comment will be the winner.

The Fine Print

1. One comment per person please. I’ll be checking. Let’s keep this fair for everyone.

2. No prize substitutions.

3. Prize in USD (US dollars) only.

4. Comments not answering the question: “What is the best book you have read in 2009?” Will be disqualified.

5. No spam (that goes without saying).

6. The chosen winner is final and will be announced after winner has been notified.

7. Amazon gift card will be sent via email to winner.

8. Please use a valid email address! This is the only way I’ll be able to contact the winner.

9. If you have any questions regarding this contest, please do not leave a comment! Rather, use this contact form to send me your questions.

I hope this is fairly straightforward. I did a contest like this in the past and it was a success and I got really good feedback.

My 2009 Book Selection

Since I’m asking what was the best book you have read in 2009, I’ll start. For me, the book is The Terror: A Novel (aff link) by Dan Simmons. The book is a tale about two Royal Navy ships that get stuck in the ice of the arctic. The sailors must endure extreme cold temperatures, lack of food, scurvy and a mysterious creature on the ice killing sailors one by one. You can read a more detailed review I wrote of this novel here.

Alright, this post is open for comments! Good luck and thanks again for all your support over the past 3 years.

Comments for this post will close on Thursday December 3, 2009 at 3:30pm Central Standard Time.

Picture Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ficken/ / CC BY 2.0

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3 years later Brad’s Reader is growing more and more each month and has become self-sustaining – the ad revenue this blog generates is starting to pay for the blog upkeep. More importantly, however, I really love maintaining this blog. I still get giddy every time I see a new comment. And sitting down to write a post is my favorite part of the day.

The success that Brad’s Reader has achieved so far is because of all of you. Everyone who reads my posts, makes comments and subscribes to my RSS feeds. Without you, my blog would be in an abyss of obscurity and I would have thrown in the towel a long time ago.

Brad’s Reader 3 Year Giveaway

On Wednesday December 2, 2009 I’ll be having my first giveaway in celebration of 3 years. I’m not going to say what the giveaway is going to be, but I’m sure you’ll all be pleasantly surprised. Details will be posted on Dec. 2. If you miss out on this first contest, don’t worry, there will be more.

Thanks again to all of you who have made Brad’s Reader a success. I plan on continuing to grow this blog and I can assure you that Brad’s Reader will be around for a long time to come.

Picture Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sleepishly/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

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