For Writers – Page 2

Is KDP Select Worth It? (An Example From a Real Person)

March 13, 2013

Amazon’s KDP Select program has kind of been marketed as a Miracle Grow for Books. It seems that, whenever you Google something about KDP Select, you run into another article boasting about authors who got rich and famous from just using KDP Select and barely marketing their book at all. Like a lot of authors who are…

For Writers

Amazon, books, ebooks, For Writers, KDP, self-publish, writing

What All Writers Can Learn from Calvin & Hobbes

March 6, 2013

It’s widely accepted that Calvin & Hobbes is the best comic strip in the known world. More than anything else, that’s because of its universal appeal. Kids, college students, and adults have all found something unique to treasure in Bill Watterson’s timeless comic strip. I grew up reading Calvin & Hobbes. As I got older…

For Writers

authors, Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, For Writers, self-publish, writing

4 Things You Have to Do to Get Google to Show Your Personal Website

February 25, 2013

A lot of authors, artists, and bands are creating their own websites these days, only to find that… whoa… Google isn’t showing their page. I’ve been blessed and cursed with a one-of-a-kind name, so getting BlaiseLucey.com to the top of Google wasn’t that difficult. I also basically blog for a living, so that helps. The…

For Bands, For Visual Artists, For Writers

For Writers, Google, search, search engine optimization, SEO, websites

Music, Writing, and Art in the Age of the Optional Purchase

February 23, 2013

In the summer of 2010, when I started my first job, I listened to about six hours of Pandora a day. The ads were an annoyance, but I sat through them because I loved the songs that Pandora found for me. I knew that there was such a thing as “Pandora One,” but, like most…

Culture, For Bands, For Visual Artists, For Writers, Rants

art, authors, books, content marketing, For Writers, millennials, Pandora, writing

Writers Stink at Social Media (And Why That’s Bad if You’re Self-Publishing)

February 20, 2013

I’ve talked about how bad writers can be at Facebook before. It’s pretty obvious if you just take a look around. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but in general it seems that us writerly folks tend to not like social media that much, particularly the insta-smile networks of Facebook, Twitter, and their…

For Writers

authors, books, ebooks, Facebook, For Writers, self-publish, social media, social media marketing, writing

Is the Final Draft Dead?

February 13, 2013

I wrote a lot of this in my car, because I have a smartphone, so now I can talk sternly to it and, magically, those incantations are turned into text. I’ve tried this method to write blog posts before, but it never quite works because swerving through rush hour traffic isn’t the most conducive environment…

For Writers, Technology

blogging, content marketing, ebooks, For Writers, self-publish

How One Author Makes Facebook Work

February 6, 2013

Facebook has been something of a Rubik’s Cube for authors. Even if you take a look at some of the most famous authors’ Facebook Pages, you can tell that the teams pulling the strings have a pretty poor understanding of how it all works. In my quest for authors who use Facebook effectively, I first…

For Writers, Marketing

authors, ebooks, Facebook, Facebook marketing, For Writers, self-publish, writing

Why All Writers Have to Love Technology

February 1, 2013

The other day, I got in an argument with my friend over a recent article about what a few start-ups were doing to nonfiction books. Well, “argument” is being generous. More like four exhaustive Facebook posts written by two tired people who have the same opinion about things, but disagree to pass the time. Anyway,…

For Writers, Technology

authors, ebooks, For Writers, self-publish, technology, writing

How to Set Up Google Authorship on WordPress… and Why All Writers & Bloggers Need It

January 18, 2013

Don’t feel like you’re out-of-the-loop if you haven’t heard of Google+ — practically no one uses it. Sure, there are some reports about a surge of users for Google’s social network, but that’s mostly people who have been tricked into using it by accidentally clicking the wrong button on YouTube or Gmail. The average Google+…

For Writers

content marketing, For Writers, Google, periphery marketing, writing

Print Books Aren’t Dying, But They’re Definitely Changing

January 6, 2013

It’s a new year. We’re humans, so we love the endless art of speculation. If you’re a writer, an avid reader, or both, there’s probably one big question on your mind in particular: are print books going to stick around or are eBooks going to replace them? What’s a bookshelf going to look like in the…

For Writers, Technology

ebooks, For Writers, print books, reading, self-publish, writing