What should be in your digital toolkit for the business of being an author? Google Suite for your email. Do you wonder why your emails don’t get a reply? It may be they were never delivered. If your account is with AOL, Hotmail, or Yahoo, there is a strong likelihood if you send someone you don’t already have a connection with they will never receive it. And while it is neat to have an email address tied to your website domain, if your webhosting company is one of the bigger ones, it’s likely they also host spammers and scammers which means your address may be blacklisted without you knowing it. In this era when email security is the order of the day, the account of your recipient may filter your email straight to the spam folder. Even with a free Gmail account there is a good chance it won’t be delivered. For professional and business email, I recommend the Google Suite which is $5/month. WordPress for your website and blog. I strongly recommend WordPress.org because it is open source code, can be installed easily with one click on most webhosting platforms, and works best for blogging if you want your work to get found. It is not to be confused with WordPress.com, a site that gives you free webhosting, but you’re renting and don’t own your real estate on the internet and they can place their ads on your site. WordPress is used by professional website designers for its versatility…

Guest blog by Carolyn Porter, author of Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate (Skyhorse, 2017). In the five months “Marcel’s Letters” has lived in the world, I have been honored to join ten book clubs, and I look forward to the half-dozen more who have arranged events for the coming months. The visits have been delightful. If I sound surprised, that’s because as an introvert, I had not expected multi-hour visits with strangers could be so enjoyable. But, it has been delightful to engage readers in in-depth conversations about the book. That, and the perks: French wine, delicious macarons, lots of laughter, goose-bump-inducing personal stories. And the pool party. Jill asked me to share some of these book club experiences along with observations about what has made these events enjoyable and successful: Arranging the Book Club If you don’t have a personal connection to an author, but love their work, visit their website. Do they proffer an easy way to contact them? If so, inquire if they would be willing to chat with your group via phone or Skype. If they are local, ask if they would be willing to join your group in person. There’s no harm in asking! I have heard some authors follow a “rule of ten.” That is, the book club needs to have ten or more people (or the group needs to buy ten or more books). I don’t enforce that rule, though I understand the sentiment. If you do…

Know someone who loves a suspenseful page-turner? From fast-paced action to stories that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, thrillers can encompass a wide variety of subjects, themes, and plotlines. With book buying season upon us, these selections are sure to make great gifts for the thriller lover in your life. Recursion by Blake Crouch From the best-selling author of Dark Matter comes another science fiction thriller about time, identity, and memory, taking readers on a whirlwind ride of twists and turns. For the past eight months, Barry Sutton of the NYPD has been investigating cases of a new affliction dubbed False Memory Syndrome, which leaves its victims with memories of a life they never lived. Meanwhile, neuroscientist Helena Smith has dedicated her life to researching memory and the human brain in the hopes of curing her mother’s Alzheimer’s. As Barry’s investigation leads him to cross paths with Helena, they will have to work together to bring down a force that threatens to unmake reality itself. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell She was fifteen, her mother’s golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone. It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter. And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet. Before too long she’s staying the…