on Just Publishing Advice:

Vanity book publishing has a bad reputation, and it is no surprise why this is so.

If you are a new author, beware of publishers who offer to publish your book.

Also be just as wary of publishers you discover that say a lot about publishing your book, but almost nothing about how much it will cost or how they will help you market your book.

There is a very big difference between vanity book publishing and self-publishing.

Continue reading HERE

 on Just Publishing Advice:

Yes, all authors know that an Amazon Author page is a very good idea.

However, there is a new way to create a beautifully designed author page that will add to your discoverability.

Draft2Digital (D2D) has been a breath of fresh air for many self-publishing authors. It’s easy to use publishing service has increased in popularity over the last couple of years due to its feature rich publishing options.

The feature that stands out the most is the automatic updating of all the back matter on earlier titles. This makes publishing a new title very easy, as all the back matter and the new title is added to all previous titles.

Find out more HERE

Last week I was bleating about the new catchy catch-all genre moniker of ‘Up-Lit’ – following in the faddy tradition of ‘Grip-Lit’, right back to the grandmother of it all, ‘Chick-Lit’ and all those other Lits in between (or what I like to call ‘Really Fecking Annoying Names For Things Which Really Shouldn’t Be Grouped Together Because They Have No Fecking Connection Really’).

One of the consequences of the explosion in self-publishing is that more titles are loaded onto virtual bookshelves on a daily basis than any databank could reasonably be expected to handle. It’s the publishing world’s version of Big Data. And as we all know, Big Data is meaningless without analysis.

The problem with analysis is that results will always be produced, even when there are no tangible results. I know this, because I also deal with Big Data for a living. Analysts are sent forth to find patterns and…

What is a Hashtag?

A hashtag, put simply, is a label or category that allows others to find something within a specific theme or content and are primarily used on Twitter and Instagram. Once you have copied a URL or used the share button on a post, hashtags can be used to direct your post towards the people you want to read them. On Twitter you can use a hashtag for everything – #cats, #dogs, #football, #sandwiches – but as a blogger the main focus is to use categories that will gain interest in your content and grow your readership and traffic.

Using Trending Hashtags

Trending hashtags are the most popular things on Twitter at a particular moment in time  and at several points in the last few years I have written a post about a topic while it was trending, with immediate effect on my traffic once it was…

Photo by Edward Leonard, Clarke Daily News

The last page of your favorite mystery novel probably offers this brief, final mystery: “Printed and bound in Berryville, Virginia.”

Just where is Berryville, you may ask. A question that can only grow when you learn that a town of some 4,000 people is responsible for producing some 140 million books a year.

A Trappist Monastery And A Printer

As Andrew Madigan of The Washington Post reports, Berryville is the seat of Clarke County, five miles from West Virginia. Buildings of note include a Trappist monastery, a soldier’s home and a very old pie company. With a population of 4,185, Berryville has a healthy, ironic sense of its own obscurity.

And yet, the town’s only major printer, Berryville Graphics (BVG), became in 1998 the nation’s No. 3 book manufacturer with a brand-new patent for its Duratech binding technology. This was a…

Okay, folks … I want you to be sure that you are sitting down for this one.  Sitting?  Good.  Now, take your left hand and firmly cup your jaw so that it cannot fall to the floor.  Ready?

Facebook had plans to take health records – such as a patient’s age, prescriptions and number of hospital visits – and link it to their Facebook data. Facebook had already approached hospitals and health organizations with the idea, touting that it could (somehow?) help improve patient care.  “For example, the Facebook data might reveal that a patient did not have many friends or did not receive many messages, so might need a nurse to visit them at home. It might also reveal that a patient did not speak English as their first language, which would help the hospital plan the person’s care.”  Pardon, but wouldn’t the hospital already be aware that…

on Just Publishing Advice

Getting a publisher is every author’s dream.

But beware of book contract nightmares.

Never sign a book contract with a publisher without doing your homework first.

Find out more HERE

by Ryan Lanz

For some writers, editing strikes fear into their hearts. Okay, perhaps not fear, but some discomfort. At least a stomach ache, right?

Before you reach for the antacids, let’s discuss the different methods of editing and introduce some ways that might make it less intimidating.