DRM – The Acronym that’s Deleting (or Saving?) Books
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November 3, 2012

DRM is an acronym that readers may not associate with good experiences – you’ll encounter it a lot in articles about the woman who had her digital library remotely wiped from her Kindle by Amazon  or ones about the poetic deletion of George Orwell’s 1984 from hundreds of e-reader devices. DRM is a topic that gets people in flames – and as a future author,… [Read More]

Getting Distracted? Try a Software Application for Focused Writing
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October 27, 2012

Not everyone has the willpower to sit down and write for an hour everyday. With pop-up notifications, the siren call of the internet, and everyday life getting in the way, sometimes even the formatting bar in your word processor can be enough to drive you away from wordsmithery. This overwhelming feeling of distraction is probably why there are multiple competing software applications aimed at creating… [Read More]

Choosing a Backup Method to Disaster-Proof your Data
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August 7, 2012

There are few feelings that compare to a broken computer – Did you save your tax records anywhere else? Do you know anyone who can fix this? What about your drafts, and photos, and important information? Is it all really gone? We live in a time when it’s fairly easy to forget to backup your information regularly. Features like autosave and document recovery create an illusion… [Read More]

Connecting your Facebook Business Page with your Personal Profile Timeline
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July 14, 2012

If you’re an author on Facebook, you’ve certainly noticed that your personal timeline and your page exist as two seperate entities – at least on Facebook, your ‘Author-Self’ and ‘Everything-Else-Self’ are as divided as the North and South Poles. It’s not even possible to write on your own personal timeline; you can only communicate with other business pages directly. What’s a well-connected and sociable author to… [Read More]

Using Google Alerts: a How-To for Instant Access to Security and Content
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July 7, 2012

If you really distill the many difficulties of blogging, there are two issues that are the most arduous to contend with on the regular: monitoring who’s talking about you, and coming up with fresh and fantastic ideas. Luckily, Google already has you covered. Google Alerts is a free online tool that can alert you anytime it finds a new page on the ‘net that’s related… [Read More]

How to Have Marvelous (or Monstrous) Facebook Etiquette
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June 26, 2012

Facebook, for better or worse, has become quite the meeting hall of 2012.  It’s where we commune electronically to discuss the days’ news, to check out our friends’ latest photos, and, as an author, promote our blogs and books. Self-promotion has always been a bit of a tight-rope walk – you have work you believe in that you want to show the world!… but you… [Read More]

A Day at BEA: Swenson Book Development does Book Expo America
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June 16, 2012

Swenson Book Development, LLC was in the thick of publishing madness two weeks ago  – two members of our team, myself and Jill Swenson, checked out the trade floor and events at Book Expo America.  BEA is the place for movers and shakers of the North American publishing industry. From event interviews of famous musicians-come-authors to Harlequin Romance shilling for their latest salacious-covered paperback, from bustling New… [Read More]

Wild Fermentation: Feed your Rebellious Side
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June 9, 2012

That container gently bubbling in the kitchen, a jar of vegetables and spices and antiseptic salt, is an exercise in patience. It’s a testament of expectation. It’s going to be your sauerkraut in just a few weeks if you can just wait, and taste, and trust. Ellie Sandor Katz’s seminal work, Wild Fermentation, has been considered the gateway text into a world of natural fermented… [Read More]

It’s Time to Data Mine – Installing Google Analytics
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May 12, 2012

Much of the labor of creating a snappy and engaging blog is visible to the outside world – your carefully crafted content, your punctual updates, your original style and creative voice… But under all of that outward cultivation lies a rushing river of information, a spring of data that you need to tap.  Who is visiting your site? How long are they staying? How did they get… [Read More]

2 Easy & Free Ways to make your Author Website Mobile-Friendly
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May 5, 2012

Whether you check the news on your smartphone first thing in the morning or you’d rather read the phone book than attend to anything on such a tiny screen, there’s one thing you’ve got to keep in mind – potential readers are looking at your site on mobile even if you’re not.  In the same way that your website needs to be accessible to many… [Read More]