Author: K.S. Brooks

K.S. Brooks is an award-winning novelist, photographer, and photo-journalist, author of over 30 titles, and executive director and administrator of Indies Unlimited. Brooks is currently a photo-journalist and chief copy editor for two NE Washington newspapers.  She teaches self-publishing and writing topics for the Community Colleges of Spokane, and served on the Indie Author Day advisory board. For more about K.S. Brooks, visit her website and her Amazon author page.

Dropbox: A Handy Tool for Authors

DropboxHave you ever lost all the work you’d done because you didn’t back up?  I think it’s happened to all of us.  It’s happened to me. After a power surge in my 100-year-old home, I ended up paying a computer forensics company $1500 to get my data back. That was a long time ago.  And believe me, I learned my lesson.

Last Friday, our Rich Meyer wrote a post about the different ways he backs up his information. Everyone needs to do what’s most convenient for them, otherwise – you know how it goes – we just won’t do it, will we? Personally, I back up to CDs and to an external hard drive. Neither of those are greatly convenient, but I do them anyway. There is something better, however. Continue reading “Dropbox: A Handy Tool for Authors”

Anthems for Authors – The Book I Read

When you’re writing a book, you need a lot of words. Pretty much, right? But songs don’t need a lot of words – and sometimes, it doesn’t take a lot of words to say how a book makes someone feel. Here, in The Book I Read by The Talking Heads, there aren’t a lot of lyrics – but any author can appreciate the ones that are there: “I’m writing ’bout the book I read / I have to sing about the Book I read / I’m embarrassed to admit it hit the soft spot in my heart / When I found out you wrote the / Book I read”  Have a listen … and smile.

Like Anthems for Authors? You can see more here.

The Productivity of Youth

“Ah, to be young again,” people say. I have to chuckle when I hear that. No thanks. The years have made me a better writer, and being old now gives me an excuse for being grumpy.

I thought I was doing pretty well until the other day when I uncovered my baby book in a box in the attic. I’d been looking for some research materials for an action-adventure novel I’m percolating in my head. Instead, I found this ancient archive of my childhood.

Brooks' Early Edition Books
K. S. Brooks’ Early Works

As I gingerly moved it out of the box, some papers fell from it. These weren’t just ANY papers. They were all cut the same size, and bound together with a plastic-coated twist-tie. They were BOOKS. On them, my mother had written lightly in pencil “5 years old.”

Not only were they books, they were books I’d made – by hand. I’d illustrated them, and they rhymed. How in hell had I managed such a thing at five years of age? Granted, there were spelling errors, but those should have been caught by my editor. And for crying out loud, I was FIVE. Continue reading “The Productivity of Youth”

Navigating Google Play

googleplay booksGoogle Play is probably the most confusing book selling website I’ve ever encountered. Our RJ Crayton took some of the mystery out of it for us yesterday in this article. But there is so much to it that it’s impossible to cover it in one post.

The other day, I entered the information for eight books on Google Play. It seems like each time I go in, there’s something new and wondrous I discover needs to be done. This time, I noticed the “You need to add a sales territory” comment when I went to my dashboard. You will find your dashboard at https://play.google.com/books/publish/. Continue reading “Navigating Google Play”