Category: Tutorials

How-to articles for writers.

Favicon, Schmavicon

I damaged my little toe last week. Tiny and insignificant it may be but oh boy does it hurt. Small things are like that, you may not notice them when they’re working fine but when they’re not they can cause all manner of mayhem. Take favicons for example, short for Favourites Icon. You probably hardly notice the effect they have on your browsing behaviour but they’re powerful little chaps.

Take this for example…

or this…

…instant recognition?

You probably know that favicons are to be found in the tabs of your browsing windows. Lin Robinson introduced us to them here. Continue reading “Favicon, Schmavicon”

Press Release Mania: Reasons to Issue a News Release

Two weeks ago we ran a tutorial on press releases. If you missed that, you can read it here. That article caused quite a stir, and a number of people responded with “Oh, man! I wish I’d had this information when my book came out!” But a new book release is not the only thing worthy of the local news. There are other ways and reasons to get press which often go overlooked. (One way that tends to get overlooked is sending your news to radio and television stations. Make sure to include them, too!) Here are a few reasons to generate a news release: Continue reading “Press Release Mania: Reasons to Issue a News Release”

Tip: Createspace Proofs Are Perfect for Edits

Back in the olden days, before eBooks and the internet and such, we used to print out manuscripts. Crazy, right? Now, with all these great ways to electronically generate books, we crank ’em out, edit, and proof read them in digital form. Guess what? I think that’s a BIG mistake.

The venerable Ed McNally wrote about self editing in this post. Like Ed, many people suggest you load it on your Kindle, or read it out loud, etc. All those techniques are good; but the one thing I think makes a huge difference is – printing it out. Continue reading “Tip: Createspace Proofs Are Perfect for Edits”

Goodreads Widget for Your Website

I just got a new website. It’s pretty, but it’s kind of plain. So I’ve been looking for some things to add to it. A Goodreads widget seemed like just the thing – and it was so easy to do that I thought I’d show you how.

1. Go to Goodreads and click the Home tab. You should now see a box at the top of the right-hand column labeled Author Dashboard. If you don’t, then chances are that you’ve never claimed your Goodreads author profile. Go here to find out how do that.

All signed up for the author program and back at your home page? Excellent. Now click the words, “Visit your dashboard.” Continue reading “Goodreads Widget for Your Website”