Tag: help

I’m a Fake Romantasy Reader – Recommendations Needed!

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I’m a Fake Romantasy Reader. It’s a popular genre right now. I’ve dipped my toes into the genre with Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series. However, my read and readalong of that series is very quickly going to come to a close. I’m reading the last book now, so the question is… what next? 

So, I’m here to ask your help. I want to try more of the genre, but I confess there are elements of Throne of Glass and others I am less keen on. If you are a huge fan and are well-read in the genre, I would love a recommendation from you on what to pick up next! 

What I’m Looking For

I find books that are too character-driven and lack action don’t engage me. I like there to be a REASON a character is going on their journey. Likewise, I don’t like a book that is too busy. I’ve DNF’d fantasy books in the past like Gardens of the Moon because it jumps around too quickly and we don’t get any chance to invest in any character or subset of characters. 

What I’d Like in Romantasy 

  • Plenty of action to keep the plot moving and exciting
  • I love magic systems and complexity to a fantasy world
  • Characters to spend time with and get invested in
  • The more epic the fantasy, the better. Think multi-perspective, action spanning the whole map kinda deal
  • Overlap with another loved genre would be great – historical, sci-fi are examples

What I Wouldn’t Like in Romantasy

  • I’m not a big romance fan or reader, something light-touch on the romance would be preferred
  • Reading anything to explicit or graphic will make me cringe – it will be a reason I DNF a book
  • I’m not hugely fussed on Fae/supernatural character types, though not a deal-breaker

So… give me recommendations! 

Do you know a book that fits this brief, wholly, in part, or a book that you think might challenge my perspective? 

If so, drop me a recommendation in the comments and tell me why you think I’ll enjoy it. I’m open to try and push my boundaries, so let me know what I can read to reverse my fake romantasy reader status! 

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Three Things Noone tells you about going self hosted

Three Things no one tells you about going self-hosted

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Migrating a blog hosted via WordPress (wordpress.com) or Blogspot to a self-hosted site is a rite of passage. At least, it felt that way for me anyway. It’s a huge step for bloggers alike, but it comes with added responsibility – and a bit of work to get it there in the first place.

I spent a lot of time researching how to migrate a blog before I took the plunge and found plenty of information out there. Confident I knew everything there was to know, I took the first step to make my blogging dreams come true.

A common expression is that you don’t really learn to drive until you have passed your test… and I found this process to be much the same thing. Each and every one of us will have a different experience. In my research, I was never really told what to expect once my blog was successfully migrated. If you are looking to find out a little more on that subject, then you’ve certainly come to the right place!

My experiences are written from the perspective of migrating a site from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. Whilst one the points I am going to make you aware of is exclusive to WordPress, I think the other advice is non-platform specific. I hope it is of some use to you. 

 

Transferring a domain is not an overnight process

Throw laptop frsutration
Source: GIPHY

Whilst this piece of advice is certainly out there, I was stubborn to accept it. I tried everything I could to try and get my website live once the transfer of my domain had been processed. The transfer in itself took a couple of days to process, during which time my blog was still live via wordpress.com. Once I had authorised WordPress to action the transfer, however, I had to wait a couple of days for the DNS server to update before my domain would show as a live website.

There really is no way around this. Believe me, I tried. Try to set up your website before these settings have updated and you’ll find yourself up against a brick wall. Sure, it’s new and exciting and OH MY GOSH… but you’ll have to rein it in for a day or two.

I repeat. No. Way. Around. This.

Patience, friends. I wasn’t and the temptation to make my laptop pay the price was unreal.

 

WordPress Import software is flawed

Anger, frustration girl
Source: GIPHY

Finally, your website goes live. It has no content, but, FINALLY, it is live. Once you have installed the necessary software to get your blog up and running, the next step is to export your old blog or website. Once you have the export, you are going to need to import that file into your new dashboard.

But there’s a catch. I referred to numerous sources when encountering the glitch personally and it appears to be a long-term problem. I found that the WordPress importer software didn’t import ANY of my media files. So, I had to import them all again manually.

Doesn’t sound like too much of a problem, until you realise that all your blog posts are trying to link to media files that are no longer located where they used to be. Thankfully the WordPress dashboard has a means of detecting broken links, and this monitors everything for you. After my initial import failure, I had just over 300 broken links to fix. I still have just about 200 left to fix. It’s not a small task, but it isn’t difficult either.

My advice, set aside time for unexpected IT technical issues. Even if you don’t particularly have the know-how, the internet is a wonderful thing. The greatest commodity you can have in the first few days of setting your new site up is time.

 

Spam Comments

You’re going to start noticing lots of comments. Great, right?

Not necessarily. A lot of these (and I really mean a LOT) are going to be spam. Thankfully, there are some great plugins that can filter out the vast majority of spam comments. Some are still flagged in your spam box, so you will have to review/delete them yourself.

By way of example, in two and a half weeks since going self-hosted, this is the number of spam comments I’d had:-

 Akismet Spam Comments

Realistically, I’ve only had to manually review and delete a further 12-15 or so comments, so a lot of the hard work is done for you. At present, I am only using the free version of Akismet, but depending on your blog content, you may have to opt for a paid subscription to cover you. If you are looking for coverage yourself, as ever the best thing to do is shop around. There are plenty of options out there.  

If you have had an issue that I haven’t mentioned above, or any other advice, please let me know in the comments! There are so many different sources out there; it can be difficult to know where to turn.