How to Read a Book

Unsure exactly how to read a book? Wondering what you should do if you ever come across a one? Worry not, dear friend, I will make you a reader in no time with these fail-safe instructions for how to read a book.

The definitive guide on: HOW TO READ A BOOK.

Keep your eyes open

1. Step 1 - Hold the book in front of your face

   Do not expect the book to hover in front of your face. It won't. Do not let the book drop into a puddle or lie on the ground. Stop refusing your book guest or gift. Do not be afraid of it. Allow the book into your home and life by unclasping your fists, reaching your hands out towards the book, and taking it between your fingers. Maintain a steady grip. If you are lying face down on the ground, you will be unable to hold the book in front of your face. Please lay supine.

2. Step 2 - Keep your eyes open and stay in the light

   Don't tape your eyes closed or wear a blindfold. You will need to keep your eyes open and wear glasses (if you own them and need them for reading).

   It is hard to read in the dark, so stay in a lit space. Turn on a light, light a candle, or get out of your cave and climb out into the sun. The bright, fresh air will do you good, and books are robust enough to be taken outdoors.

3. Step 3 - Become acquainted with your book

   Look at the book with your eyes. Don't try to look at it with your feet, a pickle, or a sprig of rosemary. Keep holding it between your fingers. Manipulate it. Turn it over. Use all of your senses. Run your fingers over its edges. Admire its beauty. Hold it up to your nose and inhale deeply through your nose. Listen to the sound as you flick through its pages and rub them between your fingers. Lick its spine. Allow the feelings and sensations to pass through you.

4. Step 4 - Allow your relationship to develop

   Admit what you find pleasing. It's okay to find its girth intimidating, but don't allow that to turn you off altogether. Keep the book with you. Bond with it. Remember Step 2 and keep your eyes open and stay in the light. Move your eyes across the outside surface of the book, and when you feel brave enough, you can thumb the cover and spread the book open to reveal its inner pages.

5. Step 5 - Move your eyes across the symbols on each page

   Continue to move your eyes across the surfaces of each page, viewing every symbol on the paper. Allow your mind to recognise the meanings of the symbols, then understand and interpret the messages they convey to you. Moving your eyes across the scenery around you or rubbing your eyes across the objects surrounding you will not help you to read a book. Moving your eyes with your fingers is not recommended. It is easier to move your eyeballs with your eye muscles than to keep them fixed and move the book around instead. Blink regularly to keep your eyes moistened. Keep holding the book in front of your face, keep your glasses on if you wear them, and keep thumbing through the pages one after the other.

6. Step 6 - Give the book your time and attention

   I know how tempting it is to rush off or allow your attention to be diverted, but keep showing your book that you care and maintain your focus on it and only it. Allow the minutes to pass while you concentrate on your book and its pages and symbols. Keep clocks out of sight, unless you have an appointment coming up. If you need to urinate or defecate, you may take your book with you; you may find that this makes urinating and defecating a more enjoyable experience.

7. Step 7 - Avoid the temptation to cry

   I understand that this is an emotional process, but crying blurs your vision, and it will be harder for you to focus and engage in the act of reading.

8. Step 8 - Allow the book to take you away

   The book wants to grip you, take you over, and snatch you away. Let it.

   The book wants to abduct your brain and seize your desire to participate in life outside of your book. Allow it to do so. Stay with it and travel with your book to distant places. Meet new people together. Most people find this an extremely enjoyable experience.

9. Step 9 - Interpret the book's symbols and messages

   Do not allow others to convince you that there is an incorrect interpretation of the symbols on the book's pages. It has conveyed its messages and secrets to you and you alone. Your relationship with the book is sacred and not the same as other people's relationships with their own books or books that look like yours. Your book is speaking to you. Other people may not understand. This is okay, they don't have to. Do not argue with your book or with other people. Do not throw your book into a river. Do not deface your book or set it on fire.

10. Step 10 - Continue moving your eyes over the book's pages and symbols until there are no more pages or symbols left

    Maintain focus, keep your eyes open, and continue to give the book your time and attention until you have run out of pages and symbols to interpret, clarify, depict, and understand. Often, books contain unexpected twists and revelations that will only become apparent to you if you continue to engage with their contents to the end.

11. Step 11 - Cry if you wish

    Now that you have finished reading your book, you may cover your face, close your eyes, sit in the dark, and/or cry. It can be a devastating moment when a book that you have forged a strong relationship with and enjoyed is over. You will never get that first readthrough again, and those feelings will likely never be as strong or vivid. Allow yourself to cry and mourn for your characters and for yourself. Do not wipe your nose on your book.

12. Step 12 - It is okay to disagree

    Books are not perfect, and neither are people. It is perfectly normal and completely acceptable to object to your book's contents and its conclusion. This conflict creates emotion, which is a good thing when it comes to reading and book relationships. Do not smear your book with peanut butter, use your book as a plate, or tear out its pages to use as toilet paper; it's uncomfortable, unhygienic, and unsatisfying.

13. Step 13 - Discuss the book's contents

    This step is optional, but discussing the book's contents can help you gain insight into other people and their relationships with their books. Please keep your voice calm and at a regular volume. Screaming is unpleasant for the listener, as profanities may be too. Please be aware of your audience and their needs and tolerance levels. Do not throw the book at your librarian or attempt to throw it back to God as it may come back and hit you on the head. If you do not wish to use your voice at all, then you can use the internet and search for your book and what other people have said about it, but you MUST remember Step 9 - Your interpretation is your own and there is no right or wrong, despite what other people say. I am an author, so I know these things. Although I may have had something different in mind when I put the symbols on the paper than you did when your eyes and mind consumed them, it is perfectly okay for readers of books to come up with their own meanings; in fact, it is strongly encouraged and beneficial for everyone.

Lay supine rather than prone

TIPS

• If you are unable to interpret any of the meaning within your book, please seek help from another human or an internet resource. A dictionary or thesaurus may be useful.

• If reading your book becomes painful or unpleasant, then you may take a break. Do not allow these unpleasant feelings to stop you from completing your book read-through. These unpleasant feelings can contribute to your overall book reading enjoyment. You will understand this later.

• If you are deriving no enjoyment whatsoever from reading your book and feel nothing at all, then you may close your book, wrap it up, and give it to someone you don't like. Never think of this book again. If someone else mentions it, retch quietly and out of sight.

• Once you have finished reading your book, it is recommended that you immediately begin to read another book to maintain Peak Flow Reading State (PFRS).

• If you enjoyed reading the book that you just finished and the book is in a series, then it is recommended that you pick up and continue to read the next book in the series; this will maximise your PFRS.

• If you enjoyed reading your book, it is recommended that you attempt to identify the appealing features of your book; either genre, author, theme, trope, or subject; then attempt to look for similar features in your future book selections. This will also maximise your PFRS.

• If you have no idea where to start your reading or do not have a book to read, then start HERE with a novella called, The Silver Maid. This novella is free, and it will help you identify appealing (and non-appealing) book features for future book selections.

Good luck and happy reading!

Much love,

Marley x

Yes, I wrote "she reads to travel" twice. Good job paying attention. Now, try it with a book!

57 FREE Books! Group free book promotions: What are they and why do them?

Freebie

I wrote a novella called The Silver Maid. It is 89 pages, approximately 26,000 words long, and you can get it for FREE through a group free book promotion. This blog will take you through what a group free book promotions is and why I choose to do them.

Approximately 3 times each year, I sign up to participate in a group free book promo. I use BookFunnel, pay them a fee, then through their website, I get to create and join group book promos, like this one:

Click on the graphic to check out this free book promo, but be aware that it only runs from 18/06/2025 to 19/07/2025

BookFunnel ensures that reader email addresses stay private and secure, help authors stay compliant, and manage the delivery of free books to readers (which should be immediate).

What is a group free book promo?

• This is where you join a group of other authors whose books have something in common, like genre, theme, or main character.

• Each author provides at least one free book.

• These books are all listed on a single landing page.

• Each book can be downloaded for free by anyone who visits the landing page

• Every participating author promotes the same landing page to all of their subscribers and social media followers.

• Readers can download as many or as few free books as they like during the promotion period. Most frequently, a group promo will run for four weeks.

Why do authors participate in group free book promomotions?

• All group participants (indie authors) work together to promote the same landing page and every page visitor will see every available free book. This helps indie authors get a lot of extra exposure by having lots of pairs of eyes looking over our books.

• These promos help connect readers with books they may enjoy. In author land, we call these books that we give away for free our "reader magnets" because we hope that they will attract new readers.

• To download a free book, readers must provide an email address that subscribes them to the author's mailing list. Readers can unsubscribe at any time.

There is no catch. If you want to, you can unsubscribe from the mailing list as soon as you receive the free book, then never be contacted again.

Participating authors hope that you enjoy their free book enough to,

a) Stay subscribed to their mailing list

b) Read more of their books

c) Want to tell other people about us and our free book.

The following group free book promo runs until the 19th of July 2025.

After this time, you will no longer be able to download any free books via the link. These promos are time-sensitive. That's why when we are promoting, you'll hear us say things like "get in quick" and "for a limited time only" (because it's true!).

This particular promotion includes 57 different books by 41 different indie authors (who self-publish their books and are not signed by a publishing house. Read THIS BLOG if you're unsure what an indie author is).

Click on the following graphic to browse the books on offer:

So, what happens when this particular free book promo is over?

How can you still get your free copy of The Silver Maid?

Right. So if you miss out on the above free book promo, you will miss out on the 56 other free books, but you can still download my free book by subscribing to my mailing list.

You can do this 2 ways:

1. Visit my website: www.marleybetts.com, and complete one of the subscription boxes. They look like this:

1 subscribe box...

2 subscribe boxes

2. Head to the landing page for The Silver Maid and click 'GET MY BOOK':

Click on the picture if you want my reader magnet once the above group free book promo has ended

Too easy, right?

What does subscribing to your mailing list get me? Why would I want to?

Good question! Subscribing to my mailing list means that you will start receiving my monthly newsletter, Books, Colour & Chaos:

Can you see my "reader magnet"? Yep, there's The Silver Maid ^^^ 3rd book from the left.

In my monthly newsletter, you will usually find:

• A comic or two (as well as write books, I also draw comics)

• Reviews of the books I have read during the month

• Links to all of my blog posts

• Info about what I've been working on (personally and creatively)

• Sometimes, I also share my poetry and art

It's fun! I hope you'll join me by downloading your free copy of The Silver Maid and subscribing to my mailing list.

Do you need another link? Of course you do!

Any other questions? Please ask, I'd love to hear from you!

Much love,

Marley

Reading Indie: How to tell if a book has been written by an indie author

Would you like to know how to tell if a book has been written by an indie author? Do you need help determining if a book has been self-published? Look no further, reader friend! This blog is going to tell you how to quickly and easily find out.

Following my blog post titled, What is an Indie Author? (check it out if you aren't sure what an 'Indie Author' is), I thought it would be timely to write a post about how to tell if a book has been written by an indie author.

Okay, great. You've read the blog that tells you what an indie author is, and now you're interested in reading indie. So, how can you find out if a book has been self-published by an indie author? Let's look at a few different ways.

How to identify an indie book

• Check the Cover

  The bigger publishing houses like Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and MacMillan will probably be easily identifiable. They have logos in prominent places (like on the spine) and want readers to know that books are theirs. These books are not written by indie authors. A book without a logo on its spine is more likely to be indie.

• Do your research

  Search the author name, head to their website, look the book up on Amazon or Goodreads. If you can see a publisher on the front cover, then do a quick Google search for them. You will most likely find the information quickly and easily.

The Silver Sheep - Independently published. Information easily found on Goodreads

Also under 'Product Details' on Amazon

• Turn to the Copyright Page

  If the copyright page does not list a publisher and says something like:

  'Copyright (c) 2025 Author Name'

  then it has most likely been self-published. If it lists a publisher, then you can look them up. Here's a random example:

  

  DreamWarp Publishing?

  A quick Google search tells me that DreamWarp Publishing Ltd has 6 works that are all written by the same author. Self-published.

• Find the publisher

  This leads on from the previous three points. Look for the publisher. It may be listed on the book cover, spine, copyright page, sales page, author website, or somewhere else.

  If the author is listed as the publisher, the book is self-published.

  However, a book can list a publisher that sounds legit, and still be self-published. For example, the author may have made up their own publishing house. Refer back to the previous points and do your research. Look them up.

• Look for an ISBN

  

  ISBN with barcode on the back cover of a paperback

  An ISBN is an International Standard Book Number that will be on the book cover and most likely on the Copyright Page as well.

  If there is no ISBN, then the book is independently published.

  Now, I am an indie author with a self-published book, and my books still have an ISBN. This number can be broken up into parts to identify the product and provide details about it. Part of this number identifies the publisher. According to Self Publishing School, this is the '35' (I think?).

  

  Publisher Code: 35?

  This is all well and good, but when I tried to look up the Publisher Code, I came up with nothing. So instead, I entered the whole ISBN into an online ISBN search tool and BAM! It told me that the book was independently published. Hooray!

  

  Results from an ISBN search

  So, moral of the story: Don't bother trying to break down the ISBN to find the Publisher Code, that's tricky (can anyone enlighten me in the comments?). Instead, use the ISBN search tool and enter a whole ISBN to help you determine if a book is independently published.

• Ask

  Ask the shopkeeper, bookseller, librarian, or whoever/wherever. Don't be shy. It's not a stupid question.

• Use context

  If you're at a market and the author has a table set up trying to sell their own books, they are most likely an indie author. If the author has a handwritten sign in your local shopping centre, then they're probably a self-published indie author. But still, why not refer back to the previous point and ask? I bet the author/stallholder/tableperson will be keen to chat!

  
  

Deliberately seek out indie books

Instead of finding a book and then determining whether it is indie or not, why not be proactive and deliberately search for books by indie authors? You will likely find markets, events, shops and websites specifically for indie books by indie authors, like House of Prose, an online bookstore for Aussie indie authors (I only just found them. Remind me to find out how to get my books in there!).

Indie authors do not have the financial backing and marketing support of a large publishing house. The majority of us are on a pretty tight budget and celebrate every. single. new. reader. (we can see every page read of our Kindle books and can track every sale).

So, not only can you bring joy by choosing to read indie, you also get to discover some brilliant hidden gems that you won't find in the big stores. It's like a secret club for awesome readers!

Welcome to the club, friend!

Much love,

Marley

P.S. Want to read indie and not sure where to start?

Click here to find out more about my book, The Silver Sheep. I have used this book as an example in most of the screenshots throughout this post.

Happy reading! x