A guide for writers with or without published work. A comprehensive resource that every writer should have in their library in order to learn how to publish, promote, and market themselves on the Internet.
Is your book project ready for the next E-Revolution?
Facebook Pages (also known as Fan Pages) look similar to personal Profiles, but they are designed for business use and they are a terrific way to promote yourself and your business. You can create a Page for your business, book, or even a character in a book. People join your Page by clicking the "like" button at the top of the page. (That button used to say "become a fan.")
Facebook Pages have several advantages over personal Profiles: read more at: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2010/09/7-reasons-you-need-a-facebook-fan-page.html
Dana Lynn Smith, author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides, has a degree in marketing and 15 years of publishing experience. See her media page for more information.
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.Name:Fictionaut Quick Pitch: A social network for writers that doubles as a crowdsourced literary magazine. Genius Idea: Fictionaut is a budding online literary community for writers and admirers of short fiction, where writers can upload and gain recognition for their work — mainly short stories, but also novel excerpts, creative non-fiction and poetry — in addition to connecting with their audience and collecting feedback from the community.
The stories that receive the most “favs” from users appear in a “Recommended Stories” feed on the front page of the site alongside the most recent submissions, the latter ensuring that new work also gets plenty of attention. Visitors can also browse by Most Read, Most Discussed, and tags like “flash fiction” and “fantasy.”
Fictionaut emphasizes the importance of all members in the community — not just the writers — allowing other users to discover and connect with new users and frequent commenters. Members can also form groups based on mutual interest, post on the site’s forum, follow other users and create an extensive profile.
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: A social network for writers that doubles as a crowdsourced literary magazine.
Genius Idea: Fictionaut is a budding online literary community for writers and admirers of short fiction, where writers can upload and gain recognition for their work — mainly short stories, but also novel excerpts, creative non-fiction and poetry — in addition to connecting with their audience and collecting feedback from the community.
The stories that receive the most “favs” from users appear in a “Recommended Stories” feed on the front page of the site alongside the most recent submissions, the latter ensuring that new work also gets plenty of attention. Visitors can also browse by Most Read, Most Discussed, and tags like “flash fiction” and “fantasy.”
Fictionaut emphasizes the importance of all members in the community — not just the writers — allowing other users to discover and connect with new users and frequent commenters. Members can also form groups based on mutual interest, post on the site’s forum, follow other users and create an extensive profile.
Ah, writing ebooks. I love it! These tips will make ebook writing and publishing easier, especially if you want to write a nonfiction ebook (but these tips apply to writing fiction ebooks, too). I’ve written two ebooks about writing and making money blogging, and have learned a lot along the way.
Here’s an excerpt from a review of my second ebook, Quips and Tips for Successful Bloggers:
“Most of us who spend a lot of our time blogging would like to be able to make some money from our efforts,” says George, over at Tumblemoose. “You can spend a lot of time scouring the internet for monetizing tips, or you can get Laurie’s E-book and save yourself a lot of time and hassle.”
If you want to write an ebook but don’t know where to start, you’ll find How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days helpful. And, here are my tips to make ebook writing easier…
Despite all the new and more or less established collaboration and sharing tools, the one I use most of all is Google Docs. Yes, it is still buggy but I have found it to be the fastest and the most reliable. Besides, on the plus side I never need to login to it (as I am always logged in to my Google account) and it has exactly the set of features I need (no extra ones and almost no missing ones).
If you are using Google Docs regularly (or plan to start), here’s my personal take on it – feel free to share yours!
Promoting through online social media is the hottest trend in marketing today, embraced by everyone from solo entrepreneurs to major corporations. A recent survey shows that authors and publishers are anxious to leverage the benefits of social media. An overwhelming 94 percent of respondents said they plan to use social media to promote their books and themselves in 2010. Here you'll find a wealth of resources to help you harness the power of social media to promote your book.
Nearly $2 billion worth of books are purchased by U.S. libraries each year and the education market is just as lucrative. Use these resources to learn more about these important book markets.
this is from the dummies guide website which i find just as interesting and wonderful. i would love to collect all of their books just because I'm nosey enough to want know everything!
You can make your blog’s appearance truly your own, by designing and customizing it to convey the image you’d like. If you have your own blog designed for you or if you create the presentation yourself, seek ways to make your blog stand out from the rest.
If you’re a business, make sure your logo is on your blog. If this is a personal blog, try to incorporate some photos. Even if you use a default template, you may be able to put an identifying graphic or element on the site that differentiates you from other blogs.
The average blog has four distinct areas, each with a specific purpose, in which to place and customize content:
*Logos: Clean, crisp logos can hold a visitor’s attention long enough to get him interested in reading your blog. Typically, a logo is located near the top of each blog page. Many logos include an illustrated element and a special font treatment of the blog name. *Headers: Located at the top of blog pages, the header of any blog contains the name of your blog. The title should explain what your blog is about or who you are as the main writer of the blog. The header might also help your visitors find their way around and provide them with quick links to special areas that you want highlighted on your site. On many blogs, the logo is also contained in the header. *Sidebars: Sidebars usually become a major focus for the site and contain things like navigational links, special highlighting graphics that point to social networking sites, lists of blogs you read (blogrolls), archive links, or anything that you want to share with your visitors outside the context of a blog post. Sidebars are usually included on every page of your blog and are consistent from page to page. *Footers: Footers live at the bottom of each blog page and sometimes feature only a copyright message. More advanced bloggers have been expanding the use of footers to include links to content within their sites.
Settings you can customize in your publishing interface are the easiest things to change because you can simply point and click to make your choices. If design customization is important to you, you might even want to choose your blog software specifically for the customization features available in the control panel.
Here are some of the items blog software lets you tweak via the control panel:
*Flare: Flare is anything that people jam onto their blogs and Web sites that blinks, flashes, and attracts a reader’s attention. Flare is typically placed in your blog’s sidebar.
Some flare is great, but avoid overwhelming your readers with too much. Including animated graphics just because they’re cool isn’t a good idea.
*Color and spacing: Some blog software allows you to change the background and text colors on your blog, as well as the size of your text and the font that is used – quick and easy ways to change the personality of your blog.
Keep an eye on your blog for readability, especially in the size and color of the text in your blog posts. Your blog posts should be the easiest text to read and shouldn’t blend in with the background of your blog design. Space out the text sufficiently to keep it readable and distinct from other elements on the page.
*Photos and clip art: Graphics add visual interest to your blog. In fact, including a great photo with each blog post might be an easy substitute to redesigning your blog. Photos should add value to your posts and be formatted attractively. Add a border around your images for even more impact.
*Link colors: Lots of blog software lets you set the color of your links in three different states: a link before it’s clicked, as it’s clicked, and after it’s clicked. You can give your blog personality by using a cool link color, but make sure that the color is recognizably different from other text colors and stands out. Always consider links in any design you choose.
Test what the printed version of your blog looks like. Your visitors may want to print your valuable blog posts!
Thursday, April 29, 2010 from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (ET)
All Paid Participants will receive a resource CD that will be packed full of information for beginnings, intermediate and advance bloggers and also a certificate of completion.
"A blog is created every three seconds," according to Google 2006. According to E-Marketer.com: "E-marketer estimates that in 2009, 96.6 million internet users in the US read a blog at least once a month." In 2013, e-Marketer estimates the number to increase to 128.2M or 58% of all US internet users.
Knowing what a blog is and how to set up your platform will give you the advantage with these readers who could quite possibly become your consumers!
With the success of blogging do you really understand what it takes to have a successful blog? Would you want to learn how to generate traffic? Get return traffic? Make money from your blog?
Trash Proof News Releases is a tool designed with one specific goal – to get you publicity in your target media that achieves a return on investment that rivals and even exceeds your best marketing. It offers media everything they need to run with the story using you and the resources you’ve arrayed and meet their needs in today’s fast paced environment and ever changing technologies.
Review by: Dana Lynn Smith on Nov. 22, 2009 :
Paul Krupin knows what it takes to appeal to the media and deliver value to readers, and he shares his wealth of experience in Trash Proof News Releases.
In addition to walking readers through the crucial steps in planning a publicity campaign and writing an effective news release, the book is packed with real-life examples. I especially like the tips and examples for specific types of releases, such as events, book announcements, and hard news.
Trash Proof goes a step further with an appendix featuring frank quotes from journalists who share their thoughts about working with authors.
This updated version of Krupin's earlier book also includes advice on taking advantage of new media opportunities."
—Dana Lynn Smith, author of The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Successful Social Marketing, www.SavvyBookMarketer.com
Review by: Vanilla Heart Publishing on Nov. 14, 2009 : (no rating)
Fabulous all encompassing guide to writing press releases that make sense and garner more media attention! Highly recommend, in fact, we've suggested this book to all our Vanilla Heart Publishing authors, encouraging them to take a proactive approach to their local media. Thanks, Paul!
As we prepare to get into selling books on the Internet, there's a lot of details that need to be address.
I get a lot of questions as to how to format and produce the ebook product itself and here is a great video in particular on how to insert images into an ebook
Click here to view more details If you haven’t heard the name Darren Rowse before then now is the time to listen. He’s a very popular blogger who makes 6-figures a year on his Problogger site and definitely knows his stuff. A while back he put together a month long series called “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” and it was such a hit, he decided to turn it into an e-book.
This downloadable e-book is designed to help you jump-start your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will turn your blog into the powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of. The great thing about Darren’s e-book is that you can do it at your own pace and in your own way. Set a goal of reading a chapter a day and take notes. I usually dog ear and highlight the important pieces and come back to them later.
The workbook uses a great approach to teaching and is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic blog but you’ll have actually done something with the knowledge.31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for virtually bloggers at different stages of their blogging which includes:
Those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
Those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
Bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration
I was actually in a Borders bookstore the other day and saw a published version on the shelf and couldn’t help but pick it up. I first started thumbing through the chapters but soon realized I was reading it word for word. The book was addicting and I learned some things which I apply to my blogging today.
The cost of this e-book is only $19.95 and there’s even a money back guarantee. Darren is one of the best known bloggers in the world. All of his works are top notch and his latest offering is no exception. If you want a better blog, you can have it in the next 31 days. Buy it today and you’ll be able to start reading it in minutes. Trust me, it pays for itself!
Click here to view more details If you haven’t heard the name Darren Rowse before then now is the time to listen. He’s a very popular blogger who makes 6-figures a year on his Problogger site and definitely knows his stuff. A while back he put together a month long series called “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” and it was such a hit, he decided to turn it into an e-book.
This downloadable e-book is designed to help you jump-start your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will turn your blog into the powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of. The great thing about Darren’s e-book is that you can do it at your own pace and in your own way. Set a goal of reading a chapter a day and take notes. I usually dog ear and highlight the important pieces and come back to them later.
The workbook uses a great approach to teaching and is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic blog but you’ll have actually done something with the knowledge.31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for virtually bloggers at different stages of their blogging which includes:
Those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
Those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
Bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration
I was actually in a Borders bookstore the other day and saw a published version on the shelf and couldn’t help but pick it up. I first started thumbing through the chapters but soon realized I was reading it word for word. The book was addicting and I learned some things which I apply to my blogging today.
The cost of this e-book is only $19.95 and there’s even a money back guarantee. Darren is one of the best known bloggers in the world. All of his works are top notch and his latest offering is no exception. If you want a better blog, you can have it in the next 31 days. Buy it today and you’ll be able to start reading it in minutes. Trust me, it pays for itself!
Facebook Pages (also known as Fan Pages) look similar to personal Profiles, but they are designed for business use and they are a terrific way to promote yourself and your business. You can create a Page for your business, book, or even a character in a book. People join your Page by clicking the "like" button at the top of the page. (That button used to say "become a fan.")
ONLY $5!
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Ah, writing ebooks. I love it! These tips will make ebook writing and publishing easier, especially if you want to write a nonfiction ebook (but these tips apply to writing fiction ebooks, too). I’ve written two ebooks about writing and making money blogging, and have learned a lot along the way.
If you haven’t heard the name Darren Rowse before then now is the time to listen. He’s a very popular blogger who makes 6-figures a year on his
