Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

A Handy Tool for Authors: Google Alerts

The other day I mentioned to a writer friend that my Google Alerts didn’t seem to be catching everything. “What’s a Google Alert?” he asked. I was stumped. I thought everyone knew about Google Alerts. Every author should be using them.

I explained to him that you can set up Google Alerts to monitor subjects important to you, and it will send you email notifications any time a new search result is found.

For example, any time one of my new books is released, I set up a Google Alert for the title. That way, if my title gets any press, reviews, or is otherwise mentioned online, I’ll be notified. And the really REALLY cool thing about this is – you don’t have to have a Google or Gmail address to participate!

This is how to set up a Google Alert: Continue reading “A Handy Tool for Authors: Google Alerts”

Contrast

You are standing on the precipice of a skeletal building frame when you make the following realization: underneath your skin there are systems and universes and sacks of general gooey mayhem which you will never understand. They operate without your knowledge and assist you in many ways. They breathe for you, crap for you, process food and water. They also give you cancer, strokes, pink eye.

From the top of the building frame you can see the rooftops of the city. They are pointed and flat, adorned with abandoned mattresses and patio furniture. Behind you, the sun floats like an egg yolk in the sky. It warms your neck and makes you feel a pleasant nostalgia for nothing in particular. You are merely glad to be alive, momentarily, with the sun on your neck and the city spread out before you like a patchwork quilt. Continue reading “Contrast”

Desperation: The Mother of Invention.

Yes, I do believe necessity IS the mother of invention. I don’t know who K. S. Brooks on Snow Shoesoriginally said that, and I’m too damned lazy to Google it. Huh, in fact, I’m so lazy that I just used “Google” as a verb. So there.

I have no intention of defending my laziness. Frankly, I’m proud of it. I use my energy solely for writing and marketing my books. My houseplants are wilting and my dinner is still in the freezer. But I put in a long day filled with paper cuts, taping my fingers together and filling in U.S. Customs paperwork so I could send out “Advance Review Copies” of my new book.

There’s that word: review. That all too elusive review – the one that should be written quickly and gladly by the person receiving your book for free. But it doesn’t go that way, does it? BE HONEST – you know it doesn’t. Even though they basically gave their word they’d review your book – what percentage of them actually do it?

Continue reading “Desperation: The Mother of Invention.”

What a writer looks like…

I majored in Creative Writing.  Not because I like writing – because I like Ferraris and fast women.  Majoring in Creative Writing in San Francisco was one of the smartest things I have ever done.  We drank wine during class.  We took lots of smoke breaks.  We were passionate and in love with writing and reading and the sheer bliss of it all.  I met a lot of great writers.  And I met some crappy ones, too.

I am going to make a huge generalization here.  That’s how I roll.  Most of the good writers I knew looked like your average citizen.  But there was always one or two kids…kids who actually wore berets and smoked those short foreign cigarettes.  Kids who wore scarves when it was warm.  Kids who carried notebooks everywhere and tried to sit in conspicuous spots and look like they had existential jock itch.  Man, they annoyed me.  And they never seemed to produce much actual writing. Continue reading “What a writer looks like…”