Tips for Wannabe Authors

A excellent posting from Jane Friedman, former editor at Writers Digest, who is a well traveled and knowledgeable speaker on Self Publishing. She has a recent article posted at: http://janefriedman.com/2011/08/09/5-things-beginners-need-to-know-about-e-book-publishing/

This Thursday (August 11), I’m teaching a 90-minute on line class for Writer’s Digest on how to publish your e-book. I’ll be discussing the above issues in-depth, and I’ll be available to answer your questions live. Attendees get access to the recording for a full year.

Click here for a full description of the class, plus a link to register. It costs $79.

Recent statistics show that eBook sales are up 1,274 % in the last three years. This is not a trend that the agents and publishers are ignoring any longer.

For those of you that are now starting to discover the power of networking through the social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and your Blog/Website there are now tools which allow you to post updates from your blog sites to Twitter and Facebook automatically. Here is a good site:

http://twitterfeed.com/

Want to sell an eBook on Amazon(kindle), Barnes and Noble(Nook), Ipad and Book for just $ 99. FREE basic eBook conversion from .doc, .docx .txt, .rtf, .html, or .pages (a $50 value!), including 10 graphic images. Book Baby is providing such as service. Here is where you can find more information: http://www.bookbaby.com/services/eBookdistribution

I have mentioned in the past the big publishers sponsor social media sites for writers. Companies like Harpers Collins and Penguin are two such organizations that provides sites such as Authonomy where writers can seek readers feedback from fellow writers and sometimes get offers from the publisher themselves. This link is to a recent article which reviews such sites:

http://www.fromthewriteangle.com/2011/08/publishers-playing-social-media-game.html

For all those people who love to take pictures with your Iphone there now is a way to turn those pictures into a book. Blurb announced a new service to allow you to import those Instagram photos — in a book. For a 20 page book the cost can be as low as $ 10-11.

Here is the link: http://www.blurb.com/apps/instagram

If you are interested in submitting your short story to a competition this fall there is always the Writers Digest Short Story Competition. The deadline for entries is November and you can read the additional guidelines here

http://www.writersdigest.com/competitions/short-story.

Well this should keep you busy until the 26th.

Also...I am looking for five people who would be interested in reading the first 30 pages of my manuscript entitled: Santa's Magic. I am not going to brag and state that the book is done but I feel more comfortable with where is stands after making some changes that were recommended at the AWW in July. Once the book is published I will provide those individuals with a free autographed copy of thee book as compensation for their feedback. The first five people who request a copy of the manuscript will be eligible.

I hope you all have a great week...with this great weather. We look forward to seeing you on the 26th.