Quotation for the Week of May 29

"Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong."
-- George Carlin

A Self-Publishing Guide and More eBook Stuff

First, I was sent a link to this article: 10 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing. I think it's worth a look. Now, although it seems to focus on print publishing, most of the points are still applicable, even today in the age of ebooks. Just take the advice and think about it in online terms and you'll see it's still quite useful, actually.

Second, here's an article called Five eBook Mistakes. These are exactly the reasons why I prefer not to format and/or design the cover of my own ebooks. I'm also a strong proponent of having an editor and/or proofreader review the book before it's published. Thank you very much. :)

Finally, does anyone else find this slightly hilarious?j

Quotation for the Week of May 22

"A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts."
-- Colette

Six DIY eBook Formatting Tools

Okay, for those of you who enjoy this sort of thing, here's an article that lists six ebook formatting tools you can find online and use yourself.

Honestly, I don't know if these cover every single need. But a cursory look reveals such words as Mobi and ePub, which are both formats often used on different platforms.

Anyhow, if you're into DIY formatting, here are some tools. Now, go knock yourself out. :)

As for myself, I'd much rather leave the formatting to someone else and spend the time doing things no one else can do for me. Such as, the writing and marketing of my book.

Quotation for the Week of May 15

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
-- Sir Winston Churchill

Quotation for the Week of May 8

"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul."
-- Marilyn Monroe

Twitter for Marketing: It Really, Really is a Marathon, Okay?

Even though I'm not as hugely successful as some authors, in terms of notoriety in the media (for which, frankly, I feel fortunate), I have been making darn good sales. Both my novels have been Kindle bestsellers and one of them made this list. Twice. And as for sales on Amazon UK ... you wouldn't believe what's going on with that ...

So some authors ask me, "What's the secret? How did you do it?" The thing is, I can't point to any one thing I did. There is no one magic bullet. I simply wrote my blog posts and tweeted and Facebooked. Okay, so I'd do book launches and promotions and stuff, now and then. But mostly, I tried to make my content as interesting as possible. When on Twitter, I responded at random to interesting tweets now and then, or retweeted stuff I saw and happened to like. Sometimes, I would make contacts through blogging that would end up becoming followers on Twitter or Facebook friends. See? It all just sort of blends together.

So when I see articles like this one, I think, good grief! What were you expecting? Overnight success? Because I wasn't. And look where I ended up. Less than two years after publishing my first novel. Now, is that so bad, really? :)

Quotation for the Week of May 1

"I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time."
-- Orson Welles