Caught in A Storm: How to Help the Animals of the Hurricane-Damaged Caribbean
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4, hit the island of Puerto Rico causing catastrophic effects. I was recently asked by Natalia of AllTheRooms to share their post on the numerous ways you can help the animals caught in the recent...
Goodreads Offers Kindle EBooks Giveaways-At A Price
Since March 2016, Amazon has been offering both print and e-book giveaways. Goodreads, however, has only been allowing giveaways of print copies. As my author friend, Elle Boca, notified me the other day, this will no longer be the case. Goodreads will be introducing...
The Complete Guide to Ebook Distribution: A Reedsy Infographic
I have shared a number of infographics designed by Reedsy and I always welcome the opportunity to share more. An opportunity which arose again a couple of days ago, when I discovered an amazing guide to Ebook distribution. The title is not clickbait--the post really...
A Writer’s Guide to Firearms: Semi-Automatic Handguns
This is a guest post by my author friend, William R. Bartlett. It continues his discussion of all things firearms. Part 1, Introduction, was published in late October. Today, Bill explains how semi-automatic handguns work and describes some common writing blunders....
Amazon Steps Up Its Antifraud Efforts
Since 2015, Amazon has been actively trying to stomp out scammers exploiting authors. As I first reported in 2015, foremost among these were fake reviews, but a couple of months ago it upped the ante by filing arbitration complaints against five individuals who it...
Are You Using AMS? Here’s How To Respond To Clicking Disasters
I hope you will never have any use for today's post, but it could be a lifesaver if you are hit by the so-called "clicking disaster." If you're using Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), you will have noticed that the reporting system is somewhat... unreliable. However,...
The Origins Of English
TED-Ed Original lessons feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Educator Claire Bowern and Director Patrick Smith have produced a great little film that explains the origins of English. As they explain, when we talk about...
Facebook Tests Split News Feed
As many of you have realized, Facebook has been making it progressively harder to share non-paid content. Usually, only a tiny percentage of your friends and followers (around 2 to 5%) sees whatever it is you're posting--unless you pay a small fee to have it appear on...
Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving
Thanks to a scheduling cockup, my Thanksgiving special wasn't published in time. Apologies for that. I would have wished you a happy Thanksgiving. Instead, I guess I will have to opt for wishing you aren't suffering from indigestion today. The most important thing in...
The Most Luxurious Medieval Manuscripts
I have Anika Burgess and Vittoria Traverso of Atlas Obscura to thank for the beautiful images you can enjoy below and for the fascinating tale of the Luneborch manuscript; a long-lost 15-century prayer book that had been missing for some 40 years. The...
Amazon Kindle Is 10-Years-Old Today
Ten years ago, on November 19th, 2007, Amazon introduced Kindle to the world, for US$399. It sold out in five and a half hours, even though there were just 88,000 books available for download. The device remained out of stock for five months until late April 2008....
Infographic: The Road to Success – 30 Habits, Qualities and Secrets
You may remember Jack Milgram of Custom Writing from his Infographic, 28 Boring Words and What to Use Instead. He has now shared with us his latest creation: The Road to Success - 30 Habits, Qualities and Secrets. Infographic: The Road to Success - 30...