The use of exclamation points and caps flag authors as amateurs
by,
August 21, 2012

Flagrant misuse of grammar rules hurts a writer’s chances for publication. Agents and editors take one quick glance and form a strong first professional impression. Don’t send up red flags and get rejected by your amateur abuse of punctuation or capitalization rules. Your email query may never be opened if you put the subject line of your message in all caps. WHEN YOU ARE USING… [Read More]

Choosing a Backup Method to Disaster-Proof your Data
by,
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
by,
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
by,
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]

Writer’s Keyboard Shortcuts: Control A to Z
by,
May 26, 2012

Okay, there’s no real shortcut to writing, per se. Writing requires you sit down, collect your thoughts, organize them, and turn them into text. But as a writer, I sometimes wonder what button or link I inadvertently touched that made my computer do something wacky and unexpected. Then I realize my knowledge of a set of shortcuts on the keyboard may help me get out… [Read More]

Smart tools for smart bloggers: writers who self-promote to reach readers
by,
May 19, 2012

If you are a writer with a book project, book proposal or complete manuscript, you absolutely must have a website. Why? Publishers and readers demand it. The world must be able to find you on Google. Writers need a professional online presence, beyond the personal Facebook profile and e-mail account. If you are going to publish, you need to have a public persona. Not the… [Read More]

It’s Time to Data Mine – Installing Google Analytics
by,
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
by,
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]

The Biggest Secret in Web Browsing is at Your Fingertips
by,
April 21, 2012

The biggest secret of the best web users is not a browser, or a program, or a web site.  The biggest secret is two keys that have been on your keyboard from the very moment you got a computer – Ctrl-f. To those in the know about Ctrl-f, the idea of not knowing might strike you with surprise and pity.  How, you may ask, is… [Read More]

Something for Nothing: Snagging Free Stock Images
by,
April 14, 2012

Even the most poignant blog post is virtually unreadable without a little visual appeal. On one hand, text matters most because content is KING of SEO. However, the queen in this strategic game toward publishing flanks the important part of your content – key words, headings, and links generate your SEO. Your ideas are what will make people keep coming back and your visitors come… [Read More]