Worries about his parents arguing make it hard for him to sleep, and so he ventures out – only to come face to face with the friendly Aoleon The Martian Girl, who is busying herself with making a crop circle in her flying saucer. As Gilbert makes first contact with […]
“Hollywood celebrity stalker Ray Tompkins prowls the underbelly of Los Angeles, his new target is A-List Actor Tim Griffith, and Ray’s going to see this one through to the star-studded end. This Noir thriller set in pre-Internet 90s LA […]
A flurry of nervous blog posts about “the dangers of paid book reviews!” and “Google Penalties!” drove me to dig deeper into exactly what FTC guidelines mean for sites like SPR. Here’s the upshot of three months of advice and research.
I contacted the FTC, and spoke to an officer about paid book reviews. It is about time we all had it from the horse’s mouth.
Here’s the take-home:
The FTC Guidelines that the doom-n-gloom bloggers have been banging on about (with Matt Cutts of Google quotes akimbo PENALTIES! BOOKS BEING REMOVED! SHOCK! HORROR! SIX-FIGURE FINES! YIKES! END OF THE […]
Often authors ask, “Why am I not selling any books?” after spending time, and often money, on pushing their books like crazy on self-publishing them. Here, we take a look at why that happens, and what you can do about it if you are in that exact situation.
1. Niche means niche, and if it’s niche…
Issue: A niche subject has a finite market, whatever you do.
Solution: Think of a new angle to market your book to a broader market. But accept that if you wrote a book about a real niche interest, such as coin collecting, corset making, […]
Humor is hard. Pathos is much easier. Show a character being chased by a monster, and if you’re good at your craft, readers will sweat and squirm. Show poor orphaned children dying of hunger, and you may draw tears from your readers even if you aren’t that good. But make a joke, and who knows? A sense of humor is like taste in food. What appeals to one person might repulse another. How do you feel about fried chicken livers? See what I mean? So I always admire an author who writes humor, especially the kind of humor that you’ll […]
It’s time for more Common Editing Mistakes from indie book editor Cate Baum!
1. Thru/through used randomly
2. “An” and “a” before vowel-beginning nouns
It might seem like “an” needs to go […]
We’re giving a loving gift to all of you who create romance, love, passion and titillation for readers everywhere by offering a checkout code especially for romance writers! All you have to do is buy a review, marketing package or editing package for your book, and use the code HEART15 at checkout!
When you want to publicize your website or book, where should you share it? How do you share it? What is the etiquette? How do you get people to buy your book?
Let’s get a quick rundown on each social network and what they are intended for.
A listing service that is free to use, and vote up or down on links. Used by a lot of young “native digital kings” for being critical and snarky, but many people are curious and active on the site and it can be a good way to get links out there.
Best […]
