Month: July 2014

Consider the Criticism

Photo by Melissa Bowersock
Photo by Melissa Bowersock

Nobody likes getting criticism, at least nobody I know. It’s painful. It’s debilitating. It’s confidence-destroying.

I think it’s pretty normal to want to dismiss criticism out of hand. Bah, what do they know? They haven’t published 10 books. They haven’t been in this business for over 30 years.

The other alternative is to take it all together as a soul-crushing package and think your work is terrible. Who were you kidding? You can’t write. Look at that critique. It’s over. Done with.

Not so fast. There’s a middle road. There’s a demilitarized zone somewhere in the middle where you can walk safely between hubris and defeat. Continue reading “Consider the Criticism”

How to Make an eBook Cover in Publisher

publisher logoMaking a book cover in Microsoft Publisher is extremely easy. If you don’t have MS Publisher, I’m sorry, I don’t really know any comparable alternatives in freeware or on Macs. (If you know of one, please feel free to let us know, and if you’d like to write a guest post about it – even better!) I’ve been using Publisher for a ridiculously long time, and that’s what works for me.

There are so many options in Publisher, I could never talk about all of them in this article. Nor do I probably know how to use all of them. I’m a simple person – and keeping it simple works for me. I’m using MS Office 2010. If you are using a different version, some of this will look weird to you, but the basics remain the same.

Open Publisher. Select blank (portrait mode) from the options under New. Continue reading “How to Make an eBook Cover in Publisher”

What One Persistent Bird Taught Me about Book Promotion

Cardinal_2Some of you might know that for what seems like the last three months, a male cardinal has been smashing into my kitchen windows. Repeatedly. When he’s not hurling his tiny body against the glass, he’s staring up at us, glowering, as if we should do something about his problem. Or at least make him some coffee. We have named him Napoleon. I’ve tried every remedy friends have suggested to get him to stop doing this, but every morning there he goes, flinging his little body at his own reflection, thinking it’s an intruder threatening his domestic bliss with Mrs. Napoleon. Since he doesn’t seem to be going away, I figure that perhaps he’s here to teach me a few things, such as: Continue reading “What One Persistent Bird Taught Me about Book Promotion”

The Twitter Twelve

twitter-birdThe amount of time we spend on social media can be daunting. With Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and so much more, it’s nearly impossible to get in, get out and get on with what you’re really supposed to be doing.

Twitter is an integral part of most of our social media strategies; however, like the other platforms, it’s easy to get caught up in the “social” aspect of the platform. Try this system to spend less time managing Twitter. Continue reading “The Twitter Twelve”