TaleHunt: Flash Fiction on the Go

talehuntlogoIf you’re looking to get a little writing practice in while on the go, but tweets are too short for you, maybe TaleHunt will fit the bill.

TaleHunt is a smartphone app available for Apple and Android devices. (The developers are working on a version for Windows phones.) It’s free to download and install. I didn’t see any ads or in-app purchase options – although I presume one or the other, or both, will be coming eventually.

The app allows you to write and post 250-character stories – not words, characters – which other users can then read and vote on. The developers are billing it as the first dedicated flash fiction app. It debuted in January and has about 10,000 users right now. Continue reading “TaleHunt: Flash Fiction on the Go”

Your Platform or Mine?

Platform diving is like platform building.
Platform diving is like platform building.

Today is June first, a strategic date that marks the halfway point of the 2014 marketing plan I wrote six months ago. It took me a few minutes to find it under the scattered Post-it notes that clutter my desk. It is dusty. The ambitious plan is hand-written in a spiral bound journal that also contains my passwords for all the Internet sites I frequent. I give it a cursory look—and note those items I’ve actually accomplished. My critical nature zeroes in on the goals not achieved, and I’m annoyed with myself. Rather than toss the plan aside and start from scratch, I decide to give myself a break and review it without judgment. Success is not linear, a borrowed quote I use often. Have I accomplished any of the most important goals I established in a blissful haze of naïve optimism? Continue reading “Your Platform or Mine?”

Your Author Platform: Building the Plane While Flying It

Karen DoddGuest Post
by Karen Dodd

From the perspective of a newly published indie author (the glow hasn’t quite worn off yet but I’m expecting to see it on my pillow, scowling back at me, sometime soon) I want to share with you the single most important activity to engage in before you publish your book. Okay, I should say the most important activity besides writing a great book.

Is it having beautiful graphics designed for your website and social media presence? No. Is it having fabulously flashy business cards or bookmarks? No. It’s in engaging with others long before your book goes live. Continue reading “Your Author Platform: Building the Plane While Flying It”

I Don’t Have Anything Yet: Marketing for Unpublished Authors

You’re not yet published. You don’t have a website, or a blog, or an Amazon.com Author Central page. You work. You go to school. You’re broke. You have no idea if or when you’ll ever get that book finished. But you’re trying. Theoretically, you’re stuck.

No, really, you’re not. Continue reading “I Don’t Have Anything Yet: Marketing for Unpublished Authors”