Tag: author tools

Free Service Makes Lovely Landing Pages for your Books

Booklaunch LogoAuthors who need polished landing pages for their books can get them free with the web service Booklaunch.io. A landing page is a webpage designed to provide a splashy, glamorous look at your book that funnels readers to purchase the book.

Landing pages are particularly great when you publish to several different websites through a distributor. If you’re using the same file for Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble, you can’t put vendor-specific links to your other books in that manuscript. However, if you put links to a landing page, purchasers can purchase your book from whatever vendor you want. Continue reading “Free Service Makes Lovely Landing Pages for your Books”

The Authors Guild and Publishers Weekly for Self-Publishers

author guildAs the world of self-publishing continues to change the publishing landscape, two organizations that have traditionally been off-limits to self-published authors seem to have had a change of heart.

The Authors Guild

The Authors Guild bills itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest professional society of published authors, representing more than 9,000 writers,” and claims to have “achieved much for individual authors through the collective power and voice of their members,” including improving author contracts and royalty statements, and protecting authors’ rights under the First Amendment.

Members have access to various panels and programs as well as access to health insurance, legal services, media liability insurance, and low-cost website services. Continue reading “The Authors Guild and Publishers Weekly for Self-Publishers”

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”