Today I’m going to share my top 10 digital tools for the business of being an author. Most of these are free and all of them are easy to use. I recommend them to you because I use them and find them valuable and think you will too. (1) WordPress for website and blogging – Hands down there is no better platform for authors to blog. And it’s free. Open source code, it is easy to download to any webhost and if you can read the documentation or watch the video tutorials you can build a site yourself, or have us set it up for you and then you can easily manage and administer it yourself. (2) MailChimp for newsletters and RSS blog delivery. This service is free up to 2,000 names on your email list. If you want a professional looking newsletter that reflects your brand and personalized to your readers this is how to do it. And it plays nice with WordPress. There’s a plugin and your blog is delivered to subscribers from your website. You can create and import lists directly from LessAnnoyingCRM which I mention below. (3) Google Alerts. Set up an alert for your author name. Using it is not an act of vanity. It’s called image management. Yes, you want to know when anyone anywhere at any time posts something on the internet using your name or your book title. You can set up google alerts for keywords, names, places, phrases, and let…
On 01/16/2013, Google updated their Analytics Interface. The updates changed some navigation interfaces, added new functionality, and made certain areas easier to access. The Swenson Book Development Google Analytics for Author blogs written before this update have been updated to reflect these changes. If anything has been noticeably altered in the blogs, it will be clearly marked to reflect the update. Luckily, many of the… [Read More]
Filed Under: analytics for authors, Google Analytics, social media metrics
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“There’s never been a book like this,” is a phrase that may doom your book propsoal to oblivion. When writing a book proposal, an essential document to prepare is a comparative title analysis. This is a report which identifies the current bestselling books like yours. If there is nothing comparable to your book in the marketplace of ideas, then there may be a reason for… [Read More]
Cayuga Nature Center sits on 100 acres overlooking the largest of the Finger Lakes with a lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s as a “preventorium,” a temporary home for families members of tuberculosis patients at the nearby “sanatorium” (near the present Cayuga Medical Center). The lodge, recently renovated, is quiet and comfortable in the winter months. Writing workshops are being offered for… [Read More]
Filed Under: Bill Chaisson, Cayuga Nature Center, Finger Lakes, Jay Leeming, memoir, Nature Writing, poetry
Preparing a book proposal for submission to a publisher or an agent requires you write a Table of Contents (TOC). This should be an outline of the book concept you plan to propose. Simple enough? Simple is not the same as easy. To begin this document, start with a list of your chapters. Do you have chapter titles? Are the chapters divided into sections or… [Read More]
Planning to write a non-fiction book in 2013? Do you have a work-in-progress memoir? And your goal is to publish? Then start the New Year with a timeline and plan to write a book proposal. Now that you’ve updated your biographical profile, write a synopsis of your book concept before the end of this month. In less than 1,000 words, write an essay in third… [Read More]