Resources

Free tools, tips and links from SPR on writing and selling your book

A Spotify for Books

I’ve been using Spotify pretty religiously recently, and it’s amazing.  So amazing that it sort of seems like it should be illegal.  What is Spotify? If you’ve ever used iTunes, it’s like that, but with access to everyone else’s iTunes library at once – including your own.  Yep, it’s like having access to all of the world’s music for free.  Yes, it doesn’t have everything, but it has plenty.  Unless you’re the type of person who needs to physically own an album, you can have access to it immediately, whenever you want.  I used to be that person – […]

2011-08-15T14:13:31+02:00August 15th, 2011|Categories: Features, Resources|

Smith Publicity: Marketing for Self-Publishers

I don’t have any direct experience with Smith Publicity, but it’s nice to see this as part of their manifesto:

Over the last ten years, self-publishing has evolved from what was stigmatized as amateurish endeavor to an increasingly accepted and exciting form of publishing. The industry has enjoyed a revolution of popularity and gained credibility via front-page articles about self published books in publications such as the New York Times and mentions in TIME magazine.

Today, self-publishing is all about providing opportunities to authors whose self published books who otherwise might never have their book see the light of

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2019-02-03T09:03:45+02:00July 14th, 2011|Categories: Resources|Tags: , |

How to Format a Kindle Ebook

If you’ve got a blog, you’re probably familiar with what it takes to format for the Kindle.  If a tag like <em> is totally unfamiliar to you, it’ll be a bit harder to get up to speed, but HTML code is actually not as complicated as it looks – especially as it pertains to a Kindle book, which doesn’t need a huge list of formatting commands.

It should be noted that it may not be entirely necessary to do this at all, but if you’re interested in a pro-quality Kindle book, adjusting the code is the best bet.  Otherwise, you […]

2020-02-21T03:45:56+02:00July 13th, 2011|Categories: Resources|Tags: |

Book Rooster: Get Amazon Reviews

Interesting new review service.  It’s brand new, so no word on the quality of these reviews, and you can’t get a sense of who comprises the pool of reviewers when sending in your money.  But here it is:

How BookRooster.com Works:

1. Reviewers sign up to receive review copies of novels in their favorite genres. BookRooster.com reviewers are expected to review a reasonable proportion of the books they receive, and we read every review they submit to keep an eye on review quality and objectivity.

2. When you request distribution of review copies of your novel, we extend invitations

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2011-06-16T14:02:15+02:00June 16th, 2011|Categories: Resources|

eBook Self-Publishing: A Simple Guideline and Some Tips on Taking Those First Steps

Baby Steps First
Starting to self-publish your ebook or even thinking about it can be a daunting task. A little help before you start will save you time and help you in publishing your ebook in all the right places.

When I published my first book, I had no idea where to go or what to look for. I thought I would walk you through some of the steps you will need to take to get self-published.

This is a major topic and could easily fill a large book and there are many good books on this topic already out […]

2020-02-21T03:38:43+02:00June 16th, 2011|Categories: Resources|Tags: |

40+ Free Tools for Authors

This post is designed to give you a concise, yet comprehensive preview of most important free tools you can pick up to publish and promote your e-books. I hope it will help you discover those which best  fit your author profile and personal needs.

This list is planned to be a one-stop place with all what’s available for free and worth getting your attention. For info about updates of this post, please follow or add me to a list on Twitter.

The most obvious choices, like blogging platforms or social media networks, are not included. I wanted to focus […]

2011-10-13T00:21:37+02:00June 8th, 2011|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|

How to Effectively Publish and Promote Your Books to iPad and iPhone Users

Users of devices with Apple’s iOS mobile operating system (iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch) are a very attractive group of potential readers. There are two major reasons:

1. iOS is a very versatile system, allowing the author to distribute books via different sets of tools and channels.
2. iOS users are more willing to buy the content – due to convenience (in-app, one-click purchases) and the nature of iOS ecosystem – a huge offer of apps, many of them for free or sold in a freemium model.

That’s why many authors want to find and define the best way to […]

2017-03-23T12:50:40+02:00June 8th, 2011|Categories: Resources|

How Authors Can Use Kindle for the Web

In September last year Amazon introduced a new tool, Kindle for the Web, which allows users to read and share first chapters of books without leaving a web browser.

In addition to a good-looking preview interface, there are two useful features: sharing and embedding. The latter one is a very good, yet underestimated tool which can be used in many ways by authors who publish their books at Amazon.

Before I’ll list benefits and explain how to embed the preview in a blog, I’d like to point out to one very important fact. Despite the name, Kindle for the […]

2011-06-08T15:28:28+02:00June 8th, 2011|Categories: Resources|
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