Vijai Kumar Sharma
Q.1 Please introduce yourself - Where are you from? How long have you been blogging? What’s the name of your blog? What made you decide to start a book blog?
A. I am presently living in Jaipur, the pink city of India, although I have lived in several cities of India and have widely traveled almost all over the country and visited 17 countries during my six visits abroad to USA, Europe, Bulgaria, and Egypt. I have worked earlier in a Govt. industrial organization in full time managerial capacity. My profession is Mechanical Engineering. But my contribution has also been in academics (visiting faculty, trainer, examiner, and assessor), professional organizations and writing (freelance writer, author, book-reviewer, abstract writer, blogger, interviewer & translator).
Although I have been writing articles
etc. in English and Hindi, from my school days onwards, I have started blogging
from 2012 onwards only. My first blog was posted on Jun 14, 2012, on VijaiKSharma. The pressure from one of my young relatives
to start writing blogs made me take initiative in this direction. He reasoned
out saying that you are already writing through the medium of articles,
book-reviews, and abstracts etc., so you will definitely be successful in this
field too. I made a beginning, just for the sake of starting, but then with my getting
interest and pleasure in it, I continued and enlarged the scope also. I express
my thanks to my young relative for the pressure exerted on me at that time. I
am writing blogs on five websites, and the total number of posts is around 60.
Q.2 What is your favorite genre and book?
A. I have been writing technical books in English. Six technical books have been jointly written and published, but two other jointly written technical books could not be published. Presently, two more books in English are under preparation. First one is a self-help book based on general experiences in my life for young persons. The second one is being jointly written and is based on discussions of a group of persons over a long period.
However, my writing activity also
includes around 185 articles, book-reviews, abstracts, blogs, interview blogs,
case-studies & translations etc. published or posted, in India and/or
abroad besides, 24 radio talks broadcast from 3 stations of All India Radio.
All of these writings are on a variety of technical and general topics and in
English and/or Hindi. I am one of the recipients of the “Writers of the Month Bonus” for Jan 2007 on www.shvoong.com. I have
tried my hand at writing stories and poetry also, but I was not much
successful.
Q.3 What one piece of advice do you wish
you’d had when you first started book blogging?
A. In my opinion, for taking up any new activity, big or small, broad overall
guidance and advice of an experienced person are essential and advantageous.
Plenty of information is available on the Internet about blogging, which needs browsing,
sifting, assessment and judgement and still, in my opinion, in spite of use of
such information, one may or may not get the desired results. This guidance
required is for initial spade work, field to be adopted, training for writing, approaching
people, organizing, making a good presentation, marketing and getting good
comments etc. My contributions are at
present scattered in several places and there is no one single website, where the
readers can see my entire set of writing activities/data in a consolidated
manner, at a glance. I wish I could have had such an advice, before my commencing
writing of blogs and other activities.
Q.4 What piece of advice you would like
to give to other bloggers?
A. Like in any other activity, the
bloggers should select a role-model first, seek guidance and make a proper plan
of action for their own blogging activities. Amongst various suggestions are studying
the activities of other bloggers
especially the active and famous bloggers, carrying out individual brain
storming and selecting ideas for implementation, selecting proper topics, joining and becoming active on several social sites,
getting feedback from the readers, carrying
out revisions in content and
presentations where required, contacting and collaborating with admirable bloggers/persons, carrying out
promotion of blogs wherever possible, reviewing periodically and chalking out
future plan of actions. But above all, we should write blogs every day and also
write guest posts for other blogs, where possible.
Q.5 How many books are actually on your
bookshelf/shelves right now?
A. I had more than 500 books in my
bookshelf, but then I have donated most of them to a library and my present
stock is just about 50 numbers. But this statistics, which gives the true
picture at present, is of no consequence, since, when required, I can borrow
the book(s) at any time from this library or from other libraries nearby.
Q.6 Is blogging your profession or just
a hobby? Does your family support you? What’s their take on this?
A. Blogging and for that matter writing
has never been my profession, but just passion. There is contribution and
progress in this field, since I get pleasure in this work. Yes, my family is
definitely supportive of my writing including blogging activity. My happiness
is considered as their happiness too. Sometimes I also get suggestions from the
family for such works. I express my gratefulness to my family for the patience
and understanding, during the time I am busy in writing work.
Q.7. What do you think is the best
strategy for getting more visitors to a blog?
A. There is a saying figure speak for
themselves. Therefore, in my opinion, if the blog is excellent it will draw
visitors to itself, on its own strength. But still there can be several ways to
get more visitors to the blog. The blog should
be interesting, on topical and current topic, not too long and having excellent
presentation. Also the readers should be motivated to participate in some
activity involving the blog. But if we browse the Internet and obtain the strategies
to increase the traffic we can find many strategies for success in a saturated
environment. I am reproducing only some of these points here - writing
more and better, promoting on social media, including photos,
incorporating links, re-tweeting past content, inviting guest contributors, adding
video, conducting giveaway events, write guest posts, inviting readers to
leave a comment, etc.
Q.8 What are the top 3 characteristics
you look for in a good book?
A. The characteristics required for a
good book can be many and the choice of characteristics will vary from person
to person and also as per the type of the book. As per my opinion, a technical book should have utility value by way
of coverage of the essential points of the subject within reasonable length of
the book, should have simple language, should be easy to understand and
pleasing to read. However a good novel or story book should have an engaging plot, should have
clarity in dialogues or descriptions, should have the ability to make an impact
on the reader by identifying with the characters and make difference in the
life of the reader.
A few words for our readers and Books Charming -
I have gone through a substantial portion
of the work done and many services being provided through the web site of Books
Charming. First of all, the title Books Charming appeals to me a lot.
Secondly, in addition to her own work for book writing and blog writing, Mrs. Aakanksha allows other bloggers and authors to present their views on
her web site. In my opinion, this is very helpful and motivating to the new
bloggers. She appears to be following the policy of taking along, others especially
the new and young bloggers. For this admirable policy decision by her at such a
young age, I congratulate her. Thanks to her for inviting me to participate in this interview. Thanks to the
readers for going through this interview blog. I wish that all readers should
continue to read and also write a lot, should be happy, should remain happy and
all should take care. Also, I convey my best wishes to Mrs. Aakanksha and the
readers, for their continued success.
Share your Social account links -
Blog - www.vijaiksharmaspeaks.blogspot.com,
www.vijaiksharmawrites.wordpress.com, www.vijaiksharma.webs.com, www.sthavir.blogspot.in,
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/vijaiksharma/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/vijaiksharma11/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/vijaiksharma4/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijai-kumar-sharma-74b17229/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9tZpkrU86J0gV5D4emx42Q
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/45127212-vijai-k
Pinterest - https://in.pinterest.com/vijaiksharma4/_saved/
I express my thanks to Books Charming.com for giving an opportunity for this interview to me. In my opinion excellent service is being rendered by Books Charming.com in this field and I wish continued success in future too. Best wishes.
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