Reviews – Author Media https://www.authormedia.com Web Design & Book Marketing Wed, 20 Feb 2019 22:46:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1 Web Design & Book Marketing Reviews – Author Media Web Design & Book Marketing Reviews – Author Media https://www.authormedia.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg https://www.authormedia.com/category/reviews/ Why I Love (And Hate) Digital Books https://www.authormedia.com/love-hate-digital-books/ https://www.authormedia.com/love-hate-digital-books/#comments Tue, 21 Jan 2014 18:20:21 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=9697 You would think that, working at a company called “Author Media,” all of the employees would be digital book fanatics, carrying around our Kindles all the time, everywhere. But that’s not the case. I, for one, have had a hard time being won over by digital books. I even went …

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You would think that, working at a company called “Author Media,” all of the employees would be digital book fanatics, carrying around our Kindles all the time, everywhere. But that’s not the case. I, for one, have had a hard time being won over by digital books.

I even went through a period where I flat-out refused to consider buying a digital reader. But I’m slowly being won over. Ideally, I think everyone should own an e-reader, but also buy as many hard copy books as possible. Here’s why.

Reasons to Love

1. Digital books are cheaper than hard copy

Most of the prices I’ve seen for Kindle copies of books on Amazon.com fall somewhere in the $3 to $10 range. A brand new copy of the book, on the other hand, may be anywhere from $10 to $30 dollars. While you may be able to find cheap, used copies of the same book for less than the Kindle price, that’s not always an option. The lack of printing & shipping costs make digital copies easier and cheaper to produce than hard copies.

Also, you just can’t beat free, and the Kindle library has hundreds of free books–including many classics. For book lovers on a budget, it doesn’t get better than that.

2. Digital books are easier to carry

Since I often take public transportation here in Chicago, I try to keep the items I’m carrying to a minimum. This is both for etiquette reasons (I don’t want my stuff spilling over onto the seat next to me), as well as health/postural reasons–I can’t carry heavy bags for too long before my back, neck, and shoulders are in pain. With digital books, all I need to do is bring along my smartphone or Kindle. This means little to no extra bulk and weight.

3. Digital books can be read anywhere, even if I forgot my digital reader

The great thing about digital readers is that you can sync your computer and smartphone with your account, so if you forget your digital reader at home, you can still read your books (assuming you didn’t forget your computer and smartphone, too).

4. Digital books are easy to obtain

Before digital books were invented, I had to weigh the costs and benefits of ordering a book online vs. going to a bookstore. On one hand, ordering a book online was easier and required no gas money or driving time. On the other hand, going to a bookstore eliminated shipping costs and got the book in my hands that day.

Digital books combine the best of both worlds–no need to spend time or gas driving, no shipping fees, and you can start reading the book as soon as you buy it.

5. Digital books don’t get lost or ruined

Ever been searching your house for a book, but just can’t remember where you put it? Or have you lost your only copy of your favorite book when it got dropped in water, or had food spilled all over it? Digital books never get lost or ruined, and while it’s possible to lose or ruin your digital reader, your books will still be accessible via your smartphone or computer. If you have to replace your digital reader, you won’t be starting your entire library over again.

Reason to Hate

DigitalBook

1. Digital books can’t fill a bookshelf

I love looking through my bookshelf, seeing what books I’ve read and what books I still have to read. It’s a lot harder to keep track of how many books you own but haven’t read on a Kindle (at least for me, as a visual person). I also enjoy when friends come over and browse my bookcase. It’s a lot harder for a friend to browse my digital library.

2. Digital books don’t foster relationships

I know some people find this annoying, but I love it when people notice what I’m reading and start asking questions about it. Digital readers don’t open themselves up to that kind of conversation.

3. Digital books can be hard on the eyes

Granted, Amazon specifically designed the Kindle to be as close to words on a printed page as possible. However, if you’re reading on your smartphone, computer, or using the backlight on the Kindle, the digital screen is difficult to read for long periods of time. Not to mention it’s not very healthy.

4. Digital books aren’t as easy to lend

Lending digital books isn’t impossible. Kindle let’s you lend out books for 14 days at a time. Of course, the person you’re lending it to has to have a Kindle-compatible device, and it’s harder if you want to lend the book out for a more extended period of time.

5. Digital books can’t be held in my hands

Ultimately, this is why I try to get a hard copy of a book whenever I can. I love the smell of a new book. I love the feel of the pages. And mostly, I love the feeling of pages moving from my right hand to my left as I progress in the book.

What about you? Do you own a digital reader? Do you prefer digital books or hard-copy books?

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R.I.P. Google Reader: An Obituary https://www.authormedia.com/r-i-p-google-reader-obituary/ https://www.authormedia.com/r-i-p-google-reader-obituary/#comments Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:00:24 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=8759 Yesterday, Google Reader breathed its last breath. Many of us at Author Media used Google Reader for years in order to keep up with all of our favorite blogs. We know many of you did so as well. With that knowledge, we felt it was only fitting to honor Google …

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Yesterday, Google Reader breathed its last breath.

Many of us at Author Media used Google Reader for years in order to keep up with all of our favorite blogs. We know many of you did so as well.

With that knowledge, we felt it was only fitting to honor Google Reader for the impact it has had in our lives. Here’s what we imagine Google Reader’s obituary would sound like.

A Google Reader Obituary

Google Reader (sometimes referred to simply as “Reader”) was laid to rest on Monday, July 1, 2013. It was seven years, eight months, and 24 days old at the time of its death. Reader, a happy resident of Mountain View, CA, was declared to have a terminal illness on March 13, 2013. Despite heroic efforts by its users to bring it back from the brink of the grave, Reader was taken off life support on July 1.

Life

Google Reader was born on October 7, 2005, the child of a small team at Google headed by engineer Chris Wetherell. Reader attended Google Labs University and graduated with honors on September 17, 2007. Fellow graduates of Google Labs University included Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Wave.

While at GLU, Reader started providing a much needed service to Internet users across the globe: a simple way to read all their favorite blogs in one place. Suddenly, an activity that used to take hours could be done in a matter of minutes. Demand for Reader’s services grew, and over the course of its career, it added several new functionalities such as unread counts, support for video content, and sharing options. Many authors and bloggers came to rely on Reader for their daily news and blog reading. By encouraging their visitors to subscribe via Google, subscriber counts skyrocketed for many blossoming authors, bloggers, and other professionals.

Family

Google Reader Meme first world problems

Google Reader is survived by its many children and grandchildren, including Feedly, Newsblur, Digg Reader, AOL Reader, Netvibes, The Old Reader, Pulse, Flipboard, Zite, Google Currents, Reeder, and Taptu. Because Google Reader didn’t leave behind a will, there has been some debate as to who is entitled to Reader’s remaining assets. At the time of this writing, it appears as though Feedly will be the recipient of most of Reader’s estate, with the remaining parts split between the other children.

Memorial

At this time, there is no memorial service planned. In leiu of flowers, charitable donations can be made to Reading is Fundamental or to your local children’s literacy organization. Google Reader helped us read our favorite blogs; now it’s our turn to help children learn to read.

Do you have a fond memory of Google Reader? Or do you just want to express how much you enjoyed it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. 

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Tweet Smarter with FollowerWonk https://www.authormedia.com/tweet-smarter-with-followerwonk/ https://www.authormedia.com/tweet-smarter-with-followerwonk/#respond Thu, 16 May 2013 13:00:34 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=6692 FollowerWonk is a powerful tool that can help authors tweet smarter. We explain what it does and why you should use it.

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FollowerWonk is a wonderful little tool released by the brilliant minds at SEOMoz that will help you connect with the right people on Twitter.

Rand Fishkin did a great presentation on FollowerWonk for SEOs. I highly recommend watching it, even if your eyes glaze over every time the word SEO is used. Please note that he is discussing the paid version of FollowerWonk, although most of the features he discusses are free.

Every time he says “SEO” substitute it with “author.” You’ll end up with advice that, if taken, will set you far ahead of your peers.

If you can’t see the video, click here to open it up in a new window.

I’ve broken down some of what Rand has said into “author-ese.”

1. Bio Search Feature – FREE

FollowerWonk Search

Most authors would use this to find agents and other writers within their genre. Why not use it to connect with experts in the area you are interested in? You can use it to multiply your reach and get advice from people you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

For instance, using FollowerWonk, I can search for “Edwardian” in bios. There are 281 results, including The Victorian Society, Victorian Era Lovers, a few authors, numerous Edwardian estates/guest houses, and even some costumers. All of a sudden, I have access to people who know the Edwardian era inside and out. This would be great if I wrote novels set in this period.

You can make the search more advanced by adding parameters.  

FollowerWonk Advanced Search

The advanced search options make it easy to find the right people.

Like Rand says in the video, the search is pretty literal. You need to be a bit creative and come up with synonyms of what you are looking for because you don’t know what people will put in their bio. Make sure that you use a number of combinations. Have fun with it!

If you are going to an event in a certain city, figure out who to connect with there. If you are going to a family reunion in Atlanta, Georgia, maybe you double-up and see if there are any Edwardian/Victorian experts in the area that you can talk to about your latest WIP.

You can also use this section to find people who live in your hometown. This is a powerful way to connect with other writers if you aren’t currently in a writing group. Hack the system a bit and connect with other people.

Tweetables –

  • Learning all about FollowerWonk from Author Media today. What a powerful tool! – Click to tweet.
  • Why authors should use FollowerWonk. – Click to tweet.
  • Why didn’t anyone tell me about FollowerWonk sooner? – Click to tweet.
  • Using FollowerWonk might be overwhelming for the average author. Good think I’m not average! – Click to tweet.
  • Thanks to Author Media and FollowerWonk, I now know more about you. Yes, you. – Click to tweet.
  • I’m not a SEO but I love the idea of FollowerWonk. – Click to tweet.

2. Compare Users – Free…ish.

FollowerWonk Comparison

This tab shouldn’t take you back to your angsty high school days and popularity contests. Instead, it’s a great way to see who follows who and how to reach out to the audience you are looking for.

Just for fun, I compared mine (@ScribblingHappy) with Thomas Umstattd’s (@ThomasUmstattd). As you can see, he has a larger following while I have a greater influence.

I love drilling down into the user comparisons because it helps me see who people are being influenced by. If all my favorite tech experts are following the same user, the chances are that they are an expert and have something to say that I should be listening to.

If you write nonfiction, you’ll be able to see if there are other thought-leaders in your area of expertise that are following other writers. It makes connecting to people much easier.

There are more features on the paid version that are worth looking at.

3. Analyze Followers

Twitter can be a treasure trove of information. Plugging in to this feature lets you tap into some of it.

When I plugged in my personal account (@ScribblingHappy), I was able to look at my follower data and find out some surprising things. I could also look at the data of who I follow, but for this article, we’re sticking to the inbound data.

world wide twitter followers

At the time of writing, I had just over 1,000 followers – 1,111 to be exact. I wanted to see where my followers lived (something you can also do via Map My Followers). Because so many people don’t list where they live in their bio, I’m unable to get an accurate reading.

Zooming in allows me to see more data – I can zoom in to see areas of cities, which is fantastic or scary depending on your personal views on privacy.

Twitter Map

The bulk of my followers come from where I’ve lived: the Northwest, Texas, and the UK. But there’s quite a few in regions I’ve never been.

As a writer or speaker, this knowledge is incredibly valuable. Let’s say you have an event coming up – you’ll know who to connect with. You already have a team on the ground, waiting for you to reach out to them. So reach out.

With the free version you can also find –

  • Social Authority Scores of Followers
  • Gender of Followers
  • Follower Count of Followers
  • Following Count
  • Account Ages
  • Recency of Follower Tweets
  • Total Tweets of Followers
  • Languages
  • Percentages with URLS
  • Retweets as a Percentage of Timeline
  • @Contacts as Percentage of Timeline
  • Most Active Hours
  • Bio word Cloud
  • Two word Bio Cloud
  • Location Word Cloud

All of that information is incredibly valuable. It’s a gold mine for marketers.

Imagine what you could do with your follower information. If you want to use Twitter at a higher level, I suggest taking a look at who is listening to you. They want to have a conversation.

4. Track Followers – PAID

FollowerWonk

You must sign up to use this part of FollowerWonk. It allows you to see how your followers have grown, allowing you to track trends. The above photo is an example of the data you’ll be able to mine.

Did you gain followers when you were tweeting during the last Presidential election? Did you lose most of them? Is there a certain date where your followers became more engaged? Are the new follows clustered around a geographical location?

Unlocking this section of FollowerWonk will allow you to find the answers. It’s not as important for authors but it is yet another powerful tool that you can use.

5. Sort Followers – PAID

FollowerWonk

Rand doesn’t talk about this on his video but it’s still a valuable resource. This allows you to sort people into nice and neat little groups so you can analyze them better. It’s kind of like putting people in boxes, only not.

 FollowerWonk is powerful.

Use it.

If you’ve been on Twitter for awhile, I highly recommend using FollowerWonk. If you are just starting out, wait a few months.

FollowerWonk is a great way to get the big picture of your social footprint. You don’t need to use it every day but it should be part of your annual social media analytics review. Don’t just tweet. Tweet smart.

Have you ever tried FollowerWonk? What did you find out about your followers? 

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Do You Want Free Books? https://www.authormedia.com/become-a-book-blogger/ https://www.authormedia.com/become-a-book-blogger/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 13:00:16 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=6730 We’ll show you how to become a book blogger and get free books.

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A funny thing happened when I first started with Author Media. I found that I was familiar with many of the authors who were coming to me for a professional author website consultation.

As a book blogger, I had reviewed their books.

One of the perks of being a book blogger is getting to know authors. One of the biggest perks, however, is getting free books. It’s hard for me to want to purchase books because I’m so used to getting them for free…and sometimes, autographed.

A few people have asked me about getting free books, so I thought I would share.

Here’s how you can become a book blogger and get free books:

1. Start a blog

blogger

You don’t need a professional author website when you are just starting out. CaitlinMuir.com was a simple WordPress.com blog. I didn’t switch over to .org until I wanted more control over my site. I do recommend buying your domain name.

Make sure that you have a section for book reviews and an easy way for people to contact you. I have both on my website and often have authors contact me directly, asking me to review their books. As your platform grows, you’ll start receiving requests as well. The key is to prepare now.

2. Apply to be a book reviewer

ebook sales prediction

There are many places you can apply to be a book reviewer. Each of them have their own set of guidelines and preferred method of review submission. Some want you to post only on their site, while others (the publishing houses and authors) want you to post your reviews all over the internet. Review the guidelines carefully.

Here are some of them:

Other resources – How to Get Free Books to Review on Your Blog via CopyBlogger

If you know of any more, post them in the comment section.

Tweetables

 

3. Keep track of books…and READ!

goodreads

This sounds like a no-brainer, but after you start getting books, it can be hard to keep track of who sent them to you. Right now, I have a pile of books sent to me by publicists, authors, and book review sites. Only, I’m not sure which one came from who…so sending a copy of the review to the appropriate person just got trickier.

Creating a spreadsheet of books you’ve received allows you to track titles, websites, dates you received the book, and the deadline you need to meet.

Trust me, you’ll want to do this from the beginning.

You’ll also want to carve out time to read the books. Don’t let them just sit on your nightstand. Read away!

5. Keep it legal

dont go to jail

If you are getting free books, you need a legal disclaimer stating that you received books in exchange for an honest review. It’s all part of the FTC guidelines. Michael Hyatt wrote a terrific article on Five Ways to Comply With The New FTC Guidelines for Bloggers. I highly recommend reading it.

6. Reach out to Authors

one man speaking into a microphone with computer in front of him

Instead of just writing a review, interview the author on your website. Often, you will be given a way to contact the author when you receive the book. Contact them with your interview questions.

Written interviews are great but getting them on camera (or on a podcast!) is a great way to stand out.

Consider publishing your book review on one day and the interview on a different day. You can also ask the author if they’d be willing to do a book giveaway.

7. Share the good news

little boy holding newspaper and megaphone

If you like a book – tell people! Create a Facebook page for your book reviews and tag the authors when you review their books.

You can also post your reviews on:

  • Amazon
  • Barnes and Noble
  • CBD
  • Goodreads
  • Powells

As a general rule of thumb, you want the bulk of your review to be on your site.

Where do you go to get free books for book reviews?  

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If You Write Two Different Kinds of Books, Do You Need Two Different Websites? https://www.authormedia.com/if-you-write-two-different-kinds-of-books-do-you-need-two-different-websites/ https://www.authormedia.com/if-you-write-two-different-kinds-of-books-do-you-need-two-different-websites/#comments Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:00:34 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=7658 Liz Curtis Higgs answers the question – “If you write two different kinds of books…do you need two different websites?” The answer may surprise you.

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Creating one new website was daunting enough. But two new sites, mere months apart?

While I wrote two books and traveled constantly? Only a crazy person would attempt such a thing. I definitely qualify.

Even so, Author Media made it happen. And they made the process fun.

Why two websites?

My historical fiction readers are a different breed from my nonfiction/Bible study readers. Of course, there’s some overlap, but over the years, when women have signed up for my quarterly newsletters and shared what books of mine they’ve read, it’s invariably been all my Bad Girls of the Bible series or my Scottish historical fiction—not both.

So, it seemed wise to create two different online presences. I have a separate Facebook page for each one and two Twitter accounts as well.

Author Media’s in-depth Website Worksheet forced me to:

  1. Think through my goals for each site
  2. Sort out the most important elements of each home page, and
  3. Identify each distinct audience and how best to reach them.

LizCurtisHiggs.com

Liz in front of red door BANNER 300

I started with my Facebook page stats. Since I write for and speak to women, the FB breakdown is 95% female, 5% male. No surprise there. As for their age span, 66% of my followers (and readers) fall in the 25-54 bracket.

When I told my FB followers I was working on a new website, and asked them what words they might use to describe my nonfiction writing and speaking, their 300+ responses provided great direction for my Author Media designer, and gave me a clearer understanding of how my audience perceives me.

This was my favorite question on the Author Media Worksheet: “What do you not want from your website?”

Sometimes it is easier to identify what you don’t want, and in the process figure out what you do want.

For me, I didn’t want something that looked cluttered. I didn’t want ads. I didn’t want it to look like a corporate or business site. I didn’t want long, wordy content [oops, never mind that bit!]. I didn’t want to look like I’m a celebrity, which meant any praise needed to come from others.

I also didn’t want family info or photos—just enough personal stuff to assure my readers I’m a real person with a real life outside of speaking and writing, yet without invading my family’s privacy.

Here’s the finished product, if you want to check it out: http://www.LizCurtisHiggs.com.

Tweetables:

  • If you write two different kinds of books, do you need two different websites? – Click to tweet.
  • Liz Curtis Higgs answers one of the toughest questions writer’s face in blogging. – Click to tweet.
  • Liz Curtis Higgs has TWO websites. Here’s why. – Click to tweet.
  • Do you need two different websites? You might. – Click to tweet.
  • I thought I had trouble keeping up with one site. Liz Curtis Higgs has TWO. – Click to tweet.
  • Get a free website consultation from Author Media. I’m going to! – Click to tweet.

 

MyScottishHeart.com

My Scottish Heart

Finding content for the second site was easy enough. I’ve been to Scotland a bunch of times to do research for my historical novels, so it seemed the right place to share photos, discoveries, and interesting bits about bonny Scotland, as well as point readers to the books I’ve set there.

Sifting through thousands of photos took longer than expected, and choosing quotes from my books to use for captions was a time hog too, but I’m happy with the results. See what you think: http://www.MyScottishHeart.com.

You’ll notice that I’m not a very consistent blogger on MyScottishHeart. Though I have 30+ solid ideas for blogs waiting to be fleshed out, finding the time to write them has been a challenge, especially with a long (1,500-2,000 word) weekly post on my other blog.

An important note…

If I were starting a new website today, I’d have 10-15 blogs already written before I went live with the site, just to establish a consistent pattern from the start.

I had the same problem on LizCurtisHiggs.com, until I chose a definite focus for my blog—namely, a Bible study. Once I announced that first 12-week series, promoted it widely, and posted consistently every Wednesday, my blog followers went from 600 to 2,400 in 3 months, then to 4,500 in another 3 months.

I’m encouraged by the growth and am convinced that focusing on something I’m truly passionate about has been the key.

Kudos to Hannah Hill at Author Media for guiding me through the website building process. Both sites are easy for me to update and easy for people to navigate. My business card is two-sided, so I can invite anyone I meet to stop by the site that suits his or her interests best.

Ready to get a new (or two!) professional author websites? Author Media can help. Just request a consultation to begin the journey.

Do you write two different kind of genres? How do you manage the gap?

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How to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure From Hackers https://www.authormedia.com/how-to-keep-your-wordpress-site-secure-from-hackers/ https://www.authormedia.com/how-to-keep-your-wordpress-site-secure-from-hackers/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:00:09 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=7752 Every day, an army of evil computers are trying to hack into WordPress sites. Have you fallen victim? Here’s how to protect yourself.

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You need to change your WordPress login information.

Now.

The world is a scary place. It’s important to remember that not all the mayhem is physical.

Right now, there are hackers trying to get your information from your website.

There were more than 1 million hacking attempts on April 11, 2013.

That’s right, one million.

We’ve all heard warnings about internet safety for years. But in the last few weeks, internet hacking attacks have increased and thousands of sites have already been compromised. 

There were more than 1,000,000 scans /hacking attempts that occurred on April 11, 2013. Sucuri just published an in-depth blog post on the details of the hacks that is well worth reading.

The Battle of the Botnets is just beginning.

Hackers are using botnets (a series of networked, compromised computers) to try to gain access to websites all over the world. Once a clean computer is compromised, it joins the “dark side” as a new recruit in the botnet army. Hackers can have their wicked way with your site, uploading files, changing content, and inject malware…all without your knowledge.

How are they getting in? The way into your website is by figuring out the username/password combination.

Remember trying to figure out a combination lock the hard way as a kid? At first it was fun but after awhile, you gave up. The botnets don’t give up. They just keep trying.

Every time a botnet tries to login, they are using your server’s resources. When thousands of botnets are trying to log in at the same time, it can mean serious trouble. Your site performance can slow down, causing headaches for everyone. Additionally, people have had their site suspended because of the load on the server.

You should not take this threat lightly.

Tweetables

  • How to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure From Hackers – Click to tweet.
  • Is it safe? Is it secure? // How to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure From Hackers. – Click to tweet.
  • Time to change those passwords! – Click to tweet.
  • There were over 1,000,000 hacking attempts on April 11. Time to look into website security! – Click to tweet.
  • The battle of the botnets is just beginning. Here’s how to protect your website. – Click to tweet.

 

What you can do to protect yourself from hackers.

There are a few things you can do to protect your WordPress site secure from hackers. I recommend starting them as soon as possible.

  • Change your username / account (avoid the “admin” and “administrator” usernames)
  • Change your passwords

1. Change Your Username / Account

If your username is still the default “Admin” I would suggest changing it. Right now. Most of the attacks are happening to accounts using this name. Simply changing it will increase your protection.

Here’s how you do it:

  •  Login into your WordPress admin panel using your admin account.

Admin Login

  • Select the ”users” area from your dashboard sidebar.
    • Click on “Add New User”.
  • Fill in the form and choose ”administrator” in the ”Role” drop down menu. You will need to use a different email address than the one currently linked to your website.
    • When finished, click on ”Add New User”.

Add new user

  • Log out of WordPress.
  • Log in again, this time with your new WordPress admin username.
  • Navigate back to the Users area.
  • Delete the previous Admin account.
    • Next, you will be asked about the articles posted under the the previous ”admin” username.
    • Select the option “attribute all posts and links to:” and select your new username.
    • When ready click “Confirm Deletion”.

It’s important to use common sense when you are choosing your display name. Make sure that it is different than the username. This is important for all users but exceptionally so for those with admin power. 

2. Choose a secure password

Some important information on passwords from Zone Alarm

Some important information on passwords from Zone Alarm.

As you can see, there are only so many combinations in the world. Unfortunately, most people pick the same ones because they are too lazy to make something original. If any of your passwords are on the above list, or on the list of the 25 most common passwords of 2012, change them now.

Your new password should contain:

  • Numbers
  • Symbols
  • Lower and upper case letters

It will also help if your combination is longer than 12 characters.  Think of your password like a Rubik’s cube; you want to make it as hard as possible for the botnet army to crack.

If the thought of remembering 12 character passwords makes you cringe, don’t.  You can use a password vault so you only have to remember one secure password. Here are a few that will help keep your passwords secure:

I think my site has been compromised. Now what?

The first step is to do a quick scan to see if that’s really the case.

Sucuri offers a free site-scan. It’s not 100% accurate but if your site has been compromised, chances are that Sucuri will be able to tell.

Talk to your hosting company

Not all hosting companies are created equal.

A good hosting company will provide:

  • Additional security
  • De-hacking help
  • Automatic website backup

Those are three of the services that Author Media provides for hosting clients.

If you find out that you have been hacked, call your hosting company. If you cannot get hold of them, or you are self-hosting, call another hosting company (you can call Author Media).

Go through the above steps (changing your passwords!) if you haven’t already.

Hopefully, you will never have to go through the experience of having a hacked website.

It’s your turn. Have you ever been hacked? What do you do to keep your website secure?

Is WordPress Safe?

Yes! WordPress is a very secure content management system. But even the most secure bank can be broken into if the front door is left unlocked.

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10 Books For Writers You’ll Want For Christmas https://www.authormedia.com/10-books-for-writers-youll-want-for-christmas/ https://www.authormedia.com/10-books-for-writers-youll-want-for-christmas/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:00:07 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=5794 Wondering what books to get the author in your life this Christmas? Here’s a list of books for writers that will make shopping easy.

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What books are on your Christmas wish list?

As the gift-giving season rapidly approaches, it’s important to be prepared. If you want presents that is. Like a ninja, you need to be ready to whip out your very own wish list at any given notice.

We’ve made you a list.

We’ve made it easy for you this year, compiling ten of our favorite books for writers. Working at a company that specializes in building author websites, we get to hear from authors about the books that are inspiring them. The books that they pick up when they need a kick in the pants and motivation to start writing again. Many of those books are in this list.

These books are in no particular order and do contain affiliate links.

Are you ready?

10 Books for Writers You Need This Christmas

1. Steven Pressfield – War of Art

2. Jeff Goins – You are a Writer

3. Stephen King – On Writing

4. Robert McKee – Story

5. Anne Lamott – Bird By Bird

6. William Zinsser- On Writing Well

7. William Strunk – The Elements of Style

8. Roget’s International Thesaurus

9. Ray Bradbury – The Zen of Writing

10. Michael Hyatt – Platform

Love the list? Feel free to share it on Facebook, print it off and leave it by your spouse’s pillow, or simply steal some ideas for your own master list.

You may also want to look at our gift board on Pinterest. And don’t forget, a new professional author website makes a great gift!

Tweetables:

  • Not to be rude but I’d love any of these books for Christmas. – Click to Tweet
  • Hmm…now to get this list in Santa’s hands. – Click to Tweet
  • 10 Books on writing that are on MY Christmas list. – Click to Tweet
  • I accept print and e-book. Just sayin’. – Click to Tweet
  • You can get me a new author website for Christmas or one of these books. – Click to Tweet

Are we missing a book or two? Leave a suggestion in our comments. We want to hear from you!

 

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Review: WordPress 3.5 for Authors https://www.authormedia.com/review-wordpress-3-5-for-authors/ https://www.authormedia.com/review-wordpress-3-5-for-authors/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:00:53 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=5913 Wondering what the fuss is all about? We review WordPress 3.5 for authors.

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WordPress has just launched version 3.5 of their website content management system. It’s exciting times for developers and writers alike.

They call the update the “Elvin” update; it has nothing to do with The Hobbit or Santa but everything to do with the drummer who played with John Coltrane.

 

Watch the video to find out more:

Developers and coders are happily geeking out about the changes but many non-tech savvy authors are left wondering what the changes mean for them.

Here are the three big changes that will affect your author website.

1. Easier to Use Media Manager

Screen capture of the new WordPress Media Manager

Screen capture of the new WordPress Media Manager

 

The new media manager makes it easier for you to control how your photos look on the page.

You don’t have to be a designer to make your photos and page pretty. The drag-and-drop system makes it incredibly easy for you to insert photos onto the page. The gallery feature has also been expanded making it simple to share multiple images in a blog post.

You do however, still have to use legal photos on your blog. The new upgrade doesn’t come with amendments to the law.

Insert Media Page WordPress 3.5

 

Make sure you pay attention to the bottom right corner of the screen.  This is the attachment display settings and it is very important.

Attachment Display Settings

Attachment Display Settings

 

Make sure that your image is the right size for your screen. This size is too large to fit comfortably on our blog yet I’ve selected it because it is far easier to shrink an image to fit than to enlarge it.

2. Retina Ready

Retina Ready Screen

Retina Ready Screen

 

If you have a high-resolution screen, you’ve probably had to deal with fuzzy pixels on the screen. It was enough of an issue for the folks at WordPress to makes sure that the upgrade included an ultra-high resolution on the dashboard.

Now when you are blogging from your iPad, you won’t have to wonder just what those blurry words are saying. However, if your screen is still blurry after the upgrade, you may need glasses.

Tweetables:

  • WordPress 3.5 explained for authors and the non-geeks. – Click to Tweet
  • The new WordPress update comes with many things but sadly, no amendments to media law. – Click to Tweet
  • WordPress gives an “Elvin” gift this Christmas that has nothing to do with Santa or Legolas. – Click to Tweet 
  • Watch out world, I just learned about the “Elvin” WordPress update thanks to @AuthorMedia. – Click to Tweet
  • I’m excited about the new WordPress 3.5 and here’s why – Click to Tweet

3. New Theme Options

WordPress Twenty Twelve

WordPress Twenty Twelve

 

For the adventurous author, there are more options for your website theme. WordPress has made “Twenty Twelve” the default theme for bloggers. It’s a beautiful theme for anyone starting out.

If you are a professional author, you will want to invest in a professional author website. You don’t want your site looking like everyone elses.

The perks of having a professional author website include someone else doing the work to build the site, a custom theme that has been tailored to your brand, and widgets that make it easier than ever to sell your book from your site. If you want more information on what goes into building a professional author website, contact Author Media.

WordPress 3.5 is perfect for Author Websites

We’re incredibly excited about the “Elvin” release at the office. As a blogger myself, I can’t wait to start playing around with more of the features.

WordPress 3.5 is another solid move by the devlopers. The changes that “Elvin” brings help shrink the learning curve for authors who are not tech-savvy. Which means you’ll have more time to write instead of spending hours trying to google how to do something on your site.

All Author Media websites will be upgrading so that our authors can take advantage of the exciting changes.

If you are already an Author Media hosting client we will be automatically upgrading you to 3.5 over the next few weeks. We will take care of the backups and plugins so all you have to do is enjoy the new features.

Are you excited about the new updates? What would you name the next update?

 

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Website Critique – Tiffany Cole https://www.authormedia.com/website-critique-tiffany-cole/ https://www.authormedia.com/website-critique-tiffany-cole/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:40:14 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=5705 Today, we’re critiquing a reader website. She’s a writer, editor, and entrepreneur. Here’s what you can learn from her website.

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Today, we’re critiquing a reader website.

This isn’t the first one we’ve critiqued. Kathy Pooler was the first brave soul to volunteer for a website critique. We’re back to see what is right and what is wrong on Tiffany Cole’s website.

Tiffany is a writer, editor, and entrepreneur. She’s not afraid to tackle a technology topic either.

Pro 1 – Great Branding

Great Branding

Ideas. Words. Results.

Those are the makings of a great brand. You want your editor to have a description like that. It’s short, sweet, and to the point. Tiffany has also included a professional photo of herself. She’s already ahead of the game.

Con 1 – Bad Page Descriptions

Tiffany may be one of the best editors but her page descriptions don’t reflect that. She doesn’t need to go in to the back end of her site and edit the grammar; she needs to add a few key phrases to enhance her site for SEO. A good page description will do wonders for your SEO.

Pro 2 – Functional Website Layout

Tiffany T. Cole Website Layout

Tiffany has chosen a theme that is no-nonsense, professional, and mimics the feel of a newspaper beautifully. The accent color is a bright teal, which draws your eye, highlighting news and recommendations. The layout also has built-in social media buttons, making it easy for you to connect with Tiffany outside of her site. Go, Tiffany!

Con 2 – Not Enough Pages

Tiffany’s site only has 11 pages indexed by Google. That’s a very low number. Every page indexed increases the chance of being found by search engines. When you run a business, you want to be found. It’s the only way you’ll survive.

Pro 3 – Pricing Up Front

Tiffany T. Cole Editing Prices

It doesn’t take you very long to find out just what exactly Tiffany does and how much it will cost you to have her edit your work. The only thing missing is a call to action button. How do you go from reader to client?

It’s great to have prices readily accessible but it’s even better to instantly convert people once they see your prices.

Con 3 – No Integrated Blog

Tiffany has a robust blog. The problem is that it’s a personal one and isn’t helping her convert readers to clients. By integrating her blog onto her professional website, she would be able to start getting authority for her keywords, which would translate into more hits…and clients.

Bottom Line:

Tiffany is a great writer. She has all the elements she needs to have a successful website but they need to be put together a little better. Creating a blog for her site is the most important thing that Tiffany can do at this point. She doesn’t need to work harder, she just needs to work smarterWe’d love to help.

Do you want your website critqued? Let us know.

 

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7 Reasons Why Your Book Should Also Be An Audiobook https://www.authormedia.com/why-your-book-should-audio-book/ https://www.authormedia.com/why-your-book-should-audio-book/#comments Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:15:45 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=5635 Most books don’t end up as audiobooks and I think this is a huge marketing mistake for the following reasons.

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Most books never become audiobooks.

This is a huge marketing mistake for the following reasons.

 

 

 

Reason #1: The Size of the Audiobook Industry is Nearly a Billion-Dollar Industry.

The Audio Publishers Association estimated in December 2004 that the size of the audiobook market was $800 million. Since then, audiobook sales growth has exploded due to the ability to download audiobooks from sites like Audible.com, iTunes and ChristianAudio.com. I predict that when the APA releases their next set of numbers, the industry will have broken 1 billion dollars in revenue.

Is your book getting a piece of that action?

Reason #2: Book Mavens Listen to Audiobooks.

A maven is somebody who is a connoisseur of information. When people have a question, they often go to the maven in their life. Chances are you know a car maven who is the first person you talk to when you need to buy a new car. Another word for “maven” is “nerd.”

A book maven is the kind of person who reads 50+ books a year and has hundreds of books on their GoodReads bookshelf.

Audiobook mavens are able to read so much because they listen to books while driving, working out, or cooking. If you have an audiobook, not only will you make money selling the audio versions, you’ll make additional money through the recommendations of book mavens who listened to the audio version.

Reason #3: Audiobooks Protect You From the Oprah Effect.

The Oprah Effect is when a famous person recommends your book out of the blue. Suddenly, 100,000 people all want to buy your book and the 5,000 copies in the stores are gone within hours. Then your publisher scrambles to print more books, only to have them returned because everyone’s forgotten about the book. The opportunity was lost because the books went out of stock. E-books are the best protection for this, but audiobooks protect you as well.

If someone famous recommends your book, there will never be a shortage of (downloadable) audio books. Whether it’s ten downloads or a million downloads, you’re covered.

Reason #4: Audio Books Boost Paper & eBook Sales.

If people love your audiobook, they’ll sometimes go back and buy a paper copy so they can underline it and show it off on their bookshelf. So not only do the audio mavens recommend the book to friends, but people will buy additional copies for themselves as well.

Amazon’s Whisper Sync is now causing this sales boost to apply to Kindle books as well.

Reason #5: Audiobooks Give You Access to Non-Readers.

There are millions of people in the world who hate reading, but love listening.  These “non-readers” either can’t or won’t take the time to sit down and read a book. Perhaps they struggle with slow reading, dyslexia or are blind. Or they may be a busy CEO or reporter. When you have an audiobook, the pie of potential readers gets bigger, which is exactly what the publishing industry needs.

I am one of these non-readers. I only “read” audiobooks and I “read” a lot of audiobooks. I listened to 69 books last year and am on track to read 60+ this year. If you want people like me to read and recommend your book, there had better be an audio version.

Reason #6: Having an Audiobook Makes You Easier to Find.

There are over 100,000 books on Audible. There are millions of books on Amazon. I can’t think of an easier way to break your book out of the crowd than to turn it into an audiobook.

It’s a lot easier to stand out from the crowd if you’re in a small crowd. Click to Tweet!

Often I’ve looked for a book, only to find there was no audio version available. Then I see that a competing book is available on audio. Which book do you think I purchased? There are many topics that still have no audiobook.  The first author to put an audiobook up on that topic wins the entire pie of interested readers.

The audiobook pie is filled with mavens who can make you famous. Click to Tweet!

Reason #7: Audiobooks Are Cheap & Easy to Make.

In the olden days (aka the 2000s), producing an audiobook was expensive and time consuming. Publishers could only afford produce their most popular titles in audio. Now, services like ACX and Voices.com make producing an audiobook cheap and easy. ACX even lets you produce the audiobook for free, provided you split the revenue with the narrator 50/50.

Many publishers still do audiobooks the old expensive way, which isn’t a problem as long as they make the audiobook. Unfortunately they often retain the audio rights and yet don’t pay to make the audiobook, which is the worst scenario. The best scenario is for your publisher to pay to get the audiobook created. The second best is where you record it yourself or go through a service like ACX.

Important: when negotiating your next book contract, make sure you either demand that they make an audio version, or keep the audio rights for yourself. Click to Tweet! 

What do you think? Is your book an audiobook?

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5 Ways Evernote Keeps Writers Writing https://www.authormedia.com/5-ways-evernote-keeps-writers-writing/ https://www.authormedia.com/5-ways-evernote-keeps-writers-writing/#comments Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:38:31 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=5301 Evernote will make your life organized. Ever had a brilliant idea for a story and then forgotten about it? That’s a thing of the past.

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You never know when some idea or piece of information for your book will come to you.

So like a diligent Girl or Boy Scout, a writer needs to always “BE PREPARED!”

And if a writer is like a Scout, Evernote is your Swiss Army Knife –an invaluable tool you’ll find is able to help you through any number of situations during your writing week.

Evernote is a ubiquitous capture and organization tool available for Mac, PC, smartphones, and tablets, in which you can store nearly any type of information, and organize it into notebooks, stacks, and tags. A cloud-based tool that syncs across devices, it is available for you to use pretty much anywhere.

Best of all: it’s free!

A Week With Evernote

Monday, you’re home on the web researching space warfare tactics for your next Hugo award-winning sci-fi novel. Prepared with the web clipping tool, Evernote empowers you to save and tag entire web pages to your “Strategy” notebook.

Tuesday, you hit the library and find a fascinating journal article conceiving a bug-like alien species. Prepared with its camera tool, the smartphone app enables you to photocopy the article directly into your “Aliens” notebook.

Wednesday, you need to read what the article said about the alien hive mind. Prepared with Evernote’s powerful search tool, you simply type “hive mind” into the search box. In seconds, the program searches the entire notebook, including the full text of your photocopied article, taking you straight to the first instance of the phrase “hive mind.”

Thursday is Valentine’s Day, and as you’re taking a romantic walk through the park by yourself, it hits you: “Valentine: perfect name for the sister!” Prepared with the smartphone app, you just whip out your phone, and record your epiphany straight to your “Characters” notebook using the voice memo tool.

Friday lunch, you get an idea for what the aliens should look like. You’re a decent sketch artist, but you can’t stand digital drawing, so you draw in your Moleskine. Prepared again with Evernote’s camera tool, you take a snapshot of your new “bugger’s” visage, and save it directly to your “Aliens” notebook.

This is just a brief glimpse into how this powerful “Swiss Army Knife” for writers can help your writing week go more smoothly.

Evernote helps you stop worrying about those brilliant ideas slipping through the cracks by giving you a single place to save and organize almost anything from anywhere. It helps to simplify and streamline your creative process so that you can get your story told and sold.

Download Evernote and  “BE PREPARED” for trekking the uncharted wilderness of your creative process.

If you’ve got to see to believe, check out what The Juggling Writer, Christopher Gronlund, has to say in his video on Evernote for Writers.

Or for a quick, general overview of what Evernote can do, check out this video.

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Are You Planning for Success? https://www.authormedia.com/are-you-planning-for-success/ https://www.authormedia.com/are-you-planning-for-success/#respond Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:00:07 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=8573 The publishing world has changed significantly over the past ten years. Publishers have become much more selective about which books they choose to publish, and often they require the writer be established already somehow. This leaves new writers with little choice but to go with a smaller, less selective publishing …

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The publishing world has changed significantly over the past ten years. Publishers have become much more selective about which books they choose to publish, and often they require the writer be established already somehow.

This leaves new writers with little choice but to go with a smaller, less selective publishing house, or to self-publish, both respectable options. If self-publishing worked for the likes of Mark Twain, John Grisham, L. Ron Hubbard, Walt Whitman, Richard Paul Evans, Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen, Beatrix Potter, Edgar Allan Poe, T. S. Elliot, E. E. Cummings, Tom Clancy and many others, it can certainly work for you too!

Yet given the circumstances, small publishers and self-publishing options can’t provide the same solutions or services a larger publishing house is able to. Much of the hard work of selling your book falls to you. But who is better suited to do it? You know your book.

Marketing, publicity, events coordination, book tours, distribution, and more, which used to be the responsibility of the publisher, now often falls to the writer. For some writers, this can be overwhelming because they don’t even know where to start. What’s the inevitable result? Most self-published authors sell an average of less than 200 books. Just to put that in context, 78% of all titles released during that same time were released from a small press or self-publisher.

So, a lot of new titles just aren’t gaining the traction that they could. This is a direct result of the fact many of the things traditionally handled by the publisher are now being left for the author to do themselves, and they haven’t a clue where to begin.

In addition to the marketing and publicity issues, you have to decide which formats to publish a book in as well. Print or digital? If a digital format is decided upon, which eBook formats will be supported? They’re not all alike!

There is typically only a slight additional cost to publishing in eBook format. As a result, 85% of eBooks produced are created in addition to printed books. Okay, but which format?

Well… 38% of eBook sales actually take place on Amazon. Compare that to the 1% that takes place on the Barnes and Noble website, and that might help you make an informed decision as to where you want to spend your money, at least for now.

Many self-publishing firms offer an eBook option as part of a bundled package. As long as the Amazon Kindle format is part of the mix, go for it! However, don’t be too quick to dismiss the need for the other formats. The eBook sales and distribution market is growing rapidly, and other EPUB-based platforms and channels are gaining traction. That doesn’t mean sales are down at Amazon though. It’s simply that the market is growing and Amazon’s sales margin isn’t growing at the same rapid pace as the rest of the industry.

The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books

With all of these different decisions to make, it’s no wonder that authors who are left to handle all of this on their own have no idea how to proceed or what to do next. They didn’t sign on to be a publisher. They followed their dream of being a writer. And there’s a big difference! But that’s what The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books is going to help you with.

It’ll give you a starting place to work from and, hopefully, you’ll find you don’t need to be another statistic with only 200 copies of your book sold.

This is when commitment to your book needs to take over. The writing is done. It’s time to get it into the hands of your readers. Are you planning to succeed?

Tweetables:

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Will BookShout Change Everything For Readers? VIDEO https://www.authormedia.com/will-bookshout-change-everything-for-readers/ https://www.authormedia.com/will-bookshout-change-everything-for-readers/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:43:16 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=4462 The reading experience has been a solo activity for thousands of years. Watch our interview with BookShout to see how that is changing.

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For thousands of years, reading has been a solo activity.

With the advent of the e-reader, the game has been rapidly changing. Remember our 2012 publishing predictions? They are starting to come true.

“I think ‘social reading’ is still a huge opportunity for the e-reader space. So far, only Rethink Books seems to have the vision for this,” said publishing industry giant Michael Hyatt in a blog post last December. Hyatt is also rumored to be on the board for the company.

Think of BookShout as an online book club…on steroids.

Rethink Books is the parent company of BookShout, an app that is causing quite the buzz in the sector where social media and publishing collides. With this social reading application, you’ll be able to:

  • compare notes with readers from all over the world,
  • start discussion threads on passages, and
  • read the author’s notes.

Listen to what BookShout founder Jason Illian has to say –

Users will be able to subscribe to anyone’s feed, similar to Facebook. For instance, if you wanted to read Hilary Clinton’s notes on Sarah Palin’s book (or vice versa), you’d only have to subscribe. The catch is that in order to read the notes in context, you’ll have to purchase the book.

BookShout is a win-win for everyone.

For users, it provides a richer reading experience. For authors, they can find out just what people think about their books. Publishers win by harvesting the analytics – they can now discover what people love (or hate) about a book, the most popular passages, and when someone puts down the book.

Currently, all the major publishing houses are on board with BookShout.

Publisher’s Weekly says, “BookShout is certainly a timely venture that offers social connectivity, easy access to digital books, and a new retail outlet at a time publishers are certainly looking for one.”

BookShout will be released in April 2012 for the iPad.  BookShout will be released in April 2012 for the iPad.

The question is, what do you think about BookShout? Will you be using it?

 

 

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The New iPad Reviewed For Authors https://www.authormedia.com/the-new-ipad-reviewed-for-authors/ https://www.authormedia.com/the-new-ipad-reviewed-for-authors/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:03:02 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=4458 The New iPad is here and perfect for authors. We’ll tell you why.

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“The iPad is so ubiquitous, and so entwined in mainstream culture already, that it is hard to imagine a time without it.” – Tony Bradley, PC World

Last week Apple presented a keynote on the soon to be released New iPad. For those of you writers who haven’t seen it or don’t see how this snazzy new device applies to your industry, here’s the rundown on the features that will undoubtedly change the way authors everywhere are writing and staying connected.

Apple’s influence continues to grow.

Last year alone, Apple sold 172 million post-PC devices. They made a way for authors to create transmedia eBooks with iBooks. They keep revolutionizing the electronic media industry.

There are now 362 Apple stores worldwide in some of the largest global cultural hubs. Apple revolutionized the music industry with the iPod, and now it appears they might be revolutionizing the writing industry with the iPad.

The New iPad will run on iOS, the world’s most advanced and most user friendly mobile operating system to date (the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch all run on iOS). It weighs in at a little under a pound and a half, making it light enough without being wispy, and it sports a design that is so simple that only Apple can get away with it.

The goal is to be the best device to allow you to do the things you do most often, such as browse the web, email, connect via social media, and, for authors, write. (Need ideas on what to write about? Try one of these 50 ideas!)

The New iPad is better than ever.

Check out some of these new features:

1. Retina display: This means that, when the iPad is used at a normal distance from the eye, your retina is unable to discern individual pixels. This allows for vibrant images and sharp text, which is great for reading (and producing enchanting blog posts, etc.). Also a new development in the A5X technology powers graphics four times as fast as before, allowing for the best mobile display ever.

2.iSight camera: A fantastic new camera which comes with auto-exposure, auto-face detection, auto-focus, and a focus and exposure lock.

3. HD video recording: This comes with video stabilization and temporal noise reduction for better quality recording.

4. Voice dictation: This nifty feature allows you to dictate text automatically and is particularly useful for anyone who writes or wishes to dictate notes, emails, etc.

5. Next generation wireless: Thanks to huge advances, the New iPad will be able to download up to 73 megabits per second on LTE. This is extremely useful when browsing the web, downloading, networking, writing, or doing most anything else on the iPad. The New iPad, Apple boasts, is 3G world ready, and can be used as a personal hotspot which can be shared with up to 5 devices.

In addition to these perks, the iPad will continue to do well what it has always done best, which is to serve as a unique device which allows for better mobility and centralization. 

The iPad is great for travel and working on the road as it allows more freedom than would lugging around a big laptop, and it allows more freedom to work from more places. Although it won’t necessarily replace your laptop, it is ideal for using out and around. (Find out how the iPad 2 stacked up against the Asus Transformer). Even with the remarkable speeds and graphics of the New iPad, it will still hold its charge for ten hours, nine hours on a 4G network, allowing for extended hours of mobility.

For all of you writers out there, the New iPad will allow you to write comfortably from anywhere.

There is a keyboard on the screen, although the iPad supports an external keyboard, as well, and both options are easy to use. The device will also allow you to use vivid and beautiful color and images in your writing, a relatively new option for writers who have until more recently been restricted by ink prices.

The New iPad will make it easier for you to manage your blog in and out of the comfort of your own home, and will also allow others to read and share your blog easily.

As far as reading your work or others’ work, the iPad has been the favored device on which to read books.

The Kindle is a good device if all you want to do is read. (Did you see our review of the Kindle Fire?) However, if you want to read, write, create and compile your notes, browse the web and keep connected via email, the iPad is the device for you, plus you can still read Kindle books on the iPad with the Kindle app.

The App Store is larger than ever.

With 585,000 apps, the App Store is filled with numerous applications that are fantastic for the writing process, and these are all supported on the New iPad. The list includes apps for writing, editing, reading, scheduling, and note taking.

With the dawn of the New iPad, however, you can expect more useful apps soon, including one that will allow you to read books and take notes interactively with friends via BookShout.

Will you be getting the New iPad? How often do you use your tablet for reading or writing books? 

Is your website optimized for mobile browsers? Author Media create a website that is beautiful on any device. Ask us how.

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Are You a Purple Cow? https://www.authormedia.com/are-you-a-purple-cow/ https://www.authormedia.com/are-you-a-purple-cow/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:00:25 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=4327 What do purple cows have to do with writing? Everything. Discover how to stand out in the writing world.

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Once upon a time, Seth Godin wrote a book that changed the marketing world. It was called Purple Cow.

Godin tells a story about driving through the countryside.  He and his fellow passengers were amazed by the sheer number of cows that were surrounding them. They couldn’t stop talking about the cows.

But then something happened.

The cows ceased to be a novelty. There were so many of them, that they seemed like one mass herd of boring. That’s when Seth realized that to be truly remarkable, a cow would have to be purple to stand out. He realized that the same rule applied to the marketing world.

And thus the legend of the Purple Cow was born.

In business, a purple cow is a product that is so revolutionary and different that people think of it as a novelty.

The old rule of business was to create safe, ordinary products that people would use and combine them for great marketing.

Here are two examples of the old rule of business.

  • Soap. Yes, soap. There are thousands of different kinds of soap. Can you name five of them? It’s a safe business and it has been for years. People aren’t going to suddenly give up cleanliness. The soap scene was boring for years. It was boring because they didn’t feel the need to innovate.
  • Instant coffee. This household staple was invented in 1901 and began mass production in 1906. Maxwell House came on the scene in 1926. For the rest of the twentieth century, Maxwell House and Foldgers owned the scene. Boring.

The new rule of business is to create remarkable products that the right people seek out.

Let’s revisit our yawn-inspiring examples.

  • When the soap scene got boring, Dove decided to differentiate itself as the soap for women. They started the Real Beauty Campaign to help women celebrate their non-photoshopped selves. They have resources to help little girls develop healthy levels of self-esteem. They found a huge market (the 99.9% of women who battle self-image issues) and have created content that helps change their lives in positive ways. And as a result, Dove has set their brand apart from all their competitors. And they’ve sold a lot of soap.
  • When instant coffee needed perking up, Starbucks came to the rescue by developing their VIA line. Until 2009, there had not been any major innovations in instant coffee. Starbucks knew that they had a dedicated group of customers who loved Starbucks coffee but didn’t have the time to wait in line.

This directly applies to your writing and you as an author.

If you try to write like every other author, you’ll be just another author. If you try to write to the masses, the masses will ignore you.

author is ignored

Your writing needs to be remarkable. Radical. There are millions of websites on the internet, authored by millions of writers who have dreams that are very similar to yours. If you want readers, you need to stand out of the herd. You need to be a Purple Cow.

Take some time to evaluate where you are now. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Do you ever hear from readers?
  • Do your posts have a social footprint?
  • How many “shares” or “likes” do you get on average?
  • Would you read your blog?
  • What makes you different than every other writer?
  • Do you know what agents and publishers are looking for?

It takes time to become a Purple Cow. You can’t microwave the process.

Your writing will not be an overnight success. For many authors, it takes years and years to achieve success. Some of them never make it. But there are many that do. And you can be one of them.

In his book, Seth shares ideas for how to turn your product into a Purple Cow. I’ve adapted them for writers.

  • Tailor your writing to a niche, underserved market. Create a website tailored for them.
  • Build a permission set. Market to your fans via newsletters.
  • Be willing to take the time to innovate wisely. Don’t just slop things together.
  • Tell stories that will change the lives of your readers.
  • Write back to readers who email you. Get to know them personally.
  • If your story’s future looks bleak, change course. You can spend years rewriting or you can write a new one tailored to your audience.
  • Find the things that are “just not written about” in your genre or industry. Write about them.
  • Before you nix a crazy idea, ask “Why not?”

How can you revolutionize your writing? How can you become a Purple Cow as a writer?

 

 

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Will iBooks Alienate Your Readers? Our Author Review https://www.authormedia.com/will-ibooks-alienate-your-readers-our-author-review/ https://www.authormedia.com/will-ibooks-alienate-your-readers-our-author-review/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:34:22 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=3841 The new iBooks is inventive, intuitive, and interactive. But it could also alienate your audience. Discover why in today’s blog post.

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When Apple introduced the iBooks app on January 19, 2012, the world took notice. Hailed as a way to revitalize the publishing world, thousands of people eagerly downloaded the app. Apple made it easier than ever for would-be writers to become authors…or did it?

Seth Godin says otherwise. But we’ll get to that later.

There’s one major drawback to iBooks.

You can only read the published book on an iPad or or iPhone. The program was originally with educators in mind as a way to incorporate the iPad into the classroom. Think of all the money, space, and trees saved by carrying an iPad instead of a heavy backpack full of textbooks.

Creating an iBook is easy. But I was unable to preview the finished book on my MacBook. That’s a severe limitation. If your market is made up of  an army of Apple aficionados who have iPads and iPhones, your life just got better. But if your core readership is more diverse than that, you’re in trouble.

iBooks is

  • Intuitive
    • Apple knows how to make things user-friendly. Dragging and dropping text onto the pages is easy. Inserting entire chapters from files into the program is easy. Adding graphics is easy. If you open up the program, you’ll know how to use it.
  • Inventive
    • Remember those publishing predictions we shared at the beginning of the year? Some of them are coming true. You can now add music and movies to your e-book.
  • Interactive
    • Adding galleries, media, interactive images, and 3D images to your e-book appeals to more than one sense. Instead of referring to things in the text, you can now include them.

Seth Godin on the iBooks for Authors

There’s a huge difference between printing and publishing.

Printing is a commodity, a straightforward but important process that takes time and money. Clearly, digital ‘print’ in the form of an ebook is easier and cheaper than paper printing, which involves cutting down trees and paying for trucks and shipping, etc.

But publishing is something else entirely. Publishing is the act of curation, of taking financial risk to do the marketing work of finding people who want to read your book. Publishing is venture capital for ideas. Publishing involves either building direct relationships with readers (like you and I have) or in gaining access to scarce shelf space with retailers who have those relationships. A good publisher, then, gets your book on the shelf at Barnes and Noble, or uses some sort of connection (an electronic one, perhaps, or a trade show) to get the book in front of the reader and to make a sale. – Seth Godin, The Domino Project

Do you agree with Seth?

Know Your Audience Before Publishing With iBooks

Before jumping on the iBooks bandwagon, you need to know if you will be alienating your audience. This is where Google Analytics is going to become your best friend. (If you need help setting it up, try this video or we can set it up for you.) Google Analytics can help you find out who is accessing your site, which browser they are using, and what kind of smartphone they are using.

If the analytics reveal that your core audience uses Safari or an iPhone, you are in luck. Spread your book. If it isn’t, use a different medium. Your readers deserve to read your book. Don’t alienate them.

What do you think of iBooks? How do you think it will change publishing?

 

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Author Website Critique – Kathy Pooler https://www.authormedia.com/author-website-critique-kathy-pooler/ https://www.authormedia.com/author-website-critique-kathy-pooler/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:38:48 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=3612 We asked for one brave volunteer to be our first public author website audit. Find out what Kathy Pooler is doing wrong…and right!

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We’re launching something new at Author Media. Every month, we will be doing one free website review on our blog. If you are interested in having your website featured, leave us a comment or contact us.

Today we’re reviewing Kathy Pooler’s website.  Kathy is an avid blogger who is writing a memoir this year as part of a challenge. She agreed to let us review her site publicly, so we’re going to highlight three things she’s excelling at and three things she can work on.

Pro #1 – Her Name is Her Domain

There’s nothing simpler than having your own domain name. It shows that you have commitment and are serious about building your author brand. Kathy blogs at www.KRPooler.com. I’m not sure why she didn’t go with her full name but the bottom line is that her website is still very easy to find. It also passes the important radio test.

Buying a domain is easier than you think. When you do buy a domain, please avoid GoDaddy.

Con #1 – Branding Inconsistency

Kathy Pooler Bio

Kathy has a beautiful bio box and a great About Me page. Unfortunately, they don’t match. This isn’t really a con per say. She just needs to pick which one she wants to use and commit to it.

A professional author portrait would also boost her branding.

Branding doesn’t just happen in the text of your website. It’s reflected in your photos, your header, and even the color scheme of your site.

Pro #2 – Blogging Consistently

Kathy blogs every week. For two years, she’s faithfully been writing her blog. That’s a lot longer than a lot of Hollywood marriages. She’s committed to her writing and it shows.

You might not think that two years is a big deal but it is. Imagine how well you would get to know someone if you saw them every week for two years. There’s a lot of trust that gets built. She’s built trust with her readers. She’s shown that she’s not just playing at writing. She’s writing every single week of the year.

Con #2 – Flabby Content

This doesn’t reflect on Kathy’s writing at all. She’s just not a web geek. Writing for the internet is different than writing for books. Paragraphs need to be shorter in order to retain readability. A good rule of thumb is that each paragraph should be no longer than four lines (not sentences). If your paragraph exceed four lines, make the next paragraph one line.

That’s just as hard for me as it is for you.

Tighten up paragraphs. Use excerpts on your page so reader click-through to read the entire post. Write magnetic titles. Sprinkle photos throughout. That’s a formula that pays well in the blog world.

Pro #3 – Strong Community

Kathy has a great community of readers on her blog. But I bet that didn’t happen overnight. If you look carefully, Kathy replies to every comment on her blog. That’s engagement. That’s what builds community like nothing else. When you get a comment, reply. It takes time but the time is never wasted.

I love what Kathy has to say about this.

Kathy Poolers Motto

Kathy tells stories every week. Put yourself in her shoes. Imagine you’ve just told a story and your guest has made a comment or asked a question. You wouldn’t just ignore them would you? Don’t do it online.  She also invites her readers to connect with her outside her blog.

Great job on engagement, Kathy!

Con #3 – It’s Hard to Share

Social Icons

Kathy has social icons, which are essential these days. She has people who want to share her content, which is great! The only problem is that her sharing icons are hard to spot.

One easy solution is to embed social share icons at the end of every post. That way once someone is done with the article, the natural response is to “share” or “like” it. They want to like more than your page.

Bonus Pro – Kathy isn’t One Dimensional

Kathy Pooler VLOG

One thing I noticed right away is that Kathy isn’t just a writer. She’s a storyteller. She uses pictures to enhance her writing. She even has her own YouTube channel. Branching out like that will only help her in the long run. She’s creating elements that will appeal to every type of blog reader.

Bottom Line:

Kathy is a great writer. She has all the elements she needs to have a successful blog. It looks like she spends a fair amount of time reading other blogs, so she knows which elements she needs on her website. The social elements she’s added shows that. Kathy’s only problem is that she’s not a geek.

The issues on her website can be easily taken care of by someone who is fluent in web-design and layout. We’d love to help.

How can you incorporate Kathy’s best practices into your blog? Do you want your website to be reviewed next? Let us know.

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Know Your Audience – The Secret To Author John Locke’s Success https://www.authormedia.com/know-your-audience-the-secret-to-author-john-lockes-success/ https://www.authormedia.com/know-your-audience-the-secret-to-author-john-lockes-success/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:39:52 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=3486 Know your audience. It sounds so simple. We’ll show you how best-selling author John Locke used this principle and became a success.

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Contemporary author John Locke has been on The New York Times Best Seller list a multiple times. He sold millions of e-books before he had an agent. Within a few months, he went from a nobody to the top of the Amazon Best Seller’s list. He has a small, rabid following who will buy anything that he writes. He’s living his dream.

John Locke recently wrote How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 MonthsYou can buy his 157 page eBook for $2.99 or you can keep reading. His “secret” isn’t revolutionary. Locke has a four keys to success that he expounds on.

They are –

  1. Have a Plan
  2. Know Your Target Audience
  3. Take a Business Approach
  4. Use Your Tools Properly

Pretty simple, right?

Locke’s Real Secret

How-I-Sold-1-Million-eBooks-in-5-Months

The heart of John Locke’s success, and the one element he goes over multiple times in his book, is “know your audience.”  Locke’s books aren’t for cozy mystery fans, Twilight aficionados, or formula romance readers. By his own admission, his fans could read a high-brow literary work but at the end of the day, they just want something that entertains them. His target audience is older professionals that like sexual situations, sexual banter, and disturbing violence. They like strong, silent heroes who can save the world but have trouble with women.  That’s exactly what you’ll find in one of his books. He writes with his readers in mind. In his book, Locke tells how he carefully analyzing content. If one book is selling better than another, he’ll find out what his readers loved and write the next book in the same style. Are you making the mistake of focusing on yourself instead of your reader? Find out the top 5 mistakes authors make on their website.

If you want to be a best-selling author,  you need to get to know your audience at the same level Locke knows his. How well do you know your audience?

Locke’s Relationship Formula

John Locke gets to know his fans by interacting with them. He tweets about different blogs he’s reading. He recommends other authors online. He builds relationships. He doesn’t post to his blog regularly but when he gets an email or tweet from a fan, he takes the time to respond to each and every one of them. When he meets someone on Twitter, he develops the relationship into an email relationship. That’s how you get to know your audience. You become their friend. Look at how Locke interacts with his readers on Twitter. He’s a master a connecting with his readers. If you need help with Twitter, read 7 Articles to Help You Become a Twitter Ninja.  You can also sign up for a social media coaching session.

Here’s his formula for meeting people:

  1. Use Twitter to create a friendship circle
  2. Drive your Twitter friends (and book readers) to your website
  3. Drive them to your “Contact Me” button
  4. Personally email them
  5. Convert them into loyal friends
  6. Convert your loyal friends to buyers
  7. Convert the buyers to reviewers
  8. Put them on your Guaranteed Buyer mailing list
  9. Email them to promote your next book
What steps are you taking to know your audience? Don’t play hide and seek with your readers. When was the last time you emailed one of them?

Locke’s Plan in Action

friendship mug

Locke takes “know your audience” to new heights. He recently asked for his readers to review a book he was considering in a blog post. He was concerned that it was too graphic and disturbing, even for them. So he emailed the book to his core fans and within 24 hours, 500 people gave him their answer. They responded with negative reviews and asked him not to publish it. So he didn’t publish the book. He blogged about the experience (brilliant!), which solidified him as an author who cares about his fans. The title of his blog post? “I Love You!”

Check out how he talks to his fans –

You helped me remember something important this week. You got me back on track. I almost forgot why I do this. I don’t want to change the world or write books kids will have to study in high school someday. I want to keep writing the kind of books I’ve always written: books that take you out of your stressful lives for a few hours and make you smile. It’s who I am, what I’m good at…In the end, thanks to your wonderful emails and comments, I realize it’s like it’s always been. Despite my mistakes and imperfections, you love me just the way I am, same as I love you. And we’re still in this writing adventure together, as partners and friends. We’re still having fun, still making history together.

He writes as if he’s sitting on the porch with old friends, having that heart-to-heart after the football game. Have you ever written a blog post blatantly for your audience?

John Locke’s secret is simple. Know your audience. Take the time to interact with them. Find out what they love about your writing and tailor your book to fit that expectation. You’ll only get to know your audience at this level through social media and some good ol’ fashioned email writing. Take the time. It matters.

If you need help getting started, contact us for a free social media consultation. We can coach you through your toughest questions. Ask us how.

 

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Author Tech Tips is Now Author Media Blog https://www.authormedia.com/author-tech-tips-is-now-author-media-blog/ https://www.authormedia.com/author-tech-tips-is-now-author-media-blog/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:00:01 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=3193 Author Tech Tips is now the Author Media Blog. In 2009, Thomas Umstattd Jr. started Author Tech Tips as a way to share writing strategies with authors who were timid about technology. He knew that most authors weren’t technology experts. They were professionals writers but that didn’t mean they were experts in …

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Author Tech Tips is now the Author Media Blog.

In 2009, Thomas Umstattd Jr. started Author Tech Tips as a way to share writing strategies with authors who were timid about technology. He knew that most authors weren’t technology experts. They were professionals writers but that didn’t mean they were experts in marketing, the internet, or how to sell the books they were writing. They needed help but didn’t know who to ask.

As he talked with different authors, Thomas discovered that they needed help discovering where to find free & legal stock photos onlinehow to get Twitter on their phones, and even how to avoid lame author portraits. Thomas knew the answers. He just needed a way to share them with authors. That’s when Author Tech Tips was born.

It’s time for another change.

Author Tech Tips is now the Author Media Blog.

The name change comes as the blog deepens and Author Media continues to grow. Authors will still be able to find free how-to guides on technology, book marketing, and social media. We’re also adding more technology reviews that are tailored to authors and their specific needs. You won’t be buried in technical details. You’ll discover which gadgets make the grade for authors based on criteria such as user experience, writability, and sticker shock.

In 2012, the Author Media Blog will focus on:

  • Platform building tips,
  • Technology reviews for authors,
  • Marketing success stories,
  • Book reviews of materials essential to book marketing success,
  • Social Media secrets, and
  • Reader suggested reviews.

The other big change is that we will update the blog more often. Instead of posting once in a while we will be posting multiple times a week.

Authors, do you have specific questions you would like answered on our blog? Are there specific products you want reviewed? Leave us a question or post suggestion in the comments.

Author Media has built author websites for years. Is 2012 the year we build yours? Contact us for a free website consultation.

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Author Tech Review: The Kindle Fire https://www.authormedia.com/author-tech-review-the-kindle-fire/ https://www.authormedia.com/author-tech-review-the-kindle-fire/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:00:20 +0000 http://www.authortechtips.com/?p=1777 I almost didn’t get the chance to review the Kindle Fire . When my boss handed me the sleek black e-reader with the directive to play with the device and review it for Author Tech Tips, I was excited.  The first thing I did when I got to my house that …

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I almost didn’t get the chance to review the Kindle Fire .

When my boss handed me the sleek black e-reader with the directive to play with the device and review it for Author Tech Tips, I was excited.  The first thing I did when I got to my house that night was turn it on. Tried turning it on. There’s only one button on the small machine, so I pushed it. Nothing happened. The battery was dead.

I plugged it in and let it charge. The next day, I tried again.

Nothing.

By this time, the machine was fully charged. Was this some sort of sick practical joke? How would I be able to review the Kindle Fire  for authors if I couldn’t even turn it on?  So I did what any self-respecting member of the millenial generation would do. I googled it.

It turns out that I wasn’t the only one who had problems getting the Kindle Fire  started. I had to perform a “hard reset” on the machine, holding the power button down for 30 seconds. This isn’t how I wanted to start out my Kindle Fire experience.

 

What I loved about the Kindle Fire:

 

  • Free e-book rentals with an Amazon Prime membership. Getting one free book a month is a great way to get casual readers used to using an e-reader. I downloaded The Hunger Games and finished it in a night. Now I’m more likely to purchase the whole series in e-book format. Great job, Amazon.
  • Streaming movies from Amazon Prime. Again, another fantastic perk of being an Amazon Prime member. Movies play beautifully on the 7″ screen. It isn’t a home theater experience, nor should it be. If you’re on a mass transportation or even sitting in a coffee shop, the personal screen delivers your movies to you. Slip on a pair of headphones and you’re in your own little world.
  • The feel of the Kindle Fire. It doesn’t feel like a book but it’s a lot closer than any other e-reader I’ve used. There are no side buttons to push like on previous versions. You can flick the screen with your thumb, much like thumbing through a paper book.
  • Built-in dictionary. I loved that when I found a word I didn’t understand, I could highlight it and instantly find out what it meant. It’s the little things in life that bring joy to my logophile heart.
  •  The internet. I love that the Kindle Fire comes with browsing capabilities. I can do one click shopping on Amazon, listen to music while I read, or work on documents.

 

What I hated about the Kindle Fire:

 

  • The cluttered bookshelf. If you open an application up, it’s on your bookshelf. I haven’t been able to declutter the bookshelf and it is driving me crazy. The scrolling screen also makes it hard to find the book you are looking for. If everything came automatically alphabetized, it would add some much needed order to the Kindle Fire.
  • The battery life. If you are going to watch a movie, keep the charger handy or turn off the internet as soon as possible. If you are just reading offline, you’ll be fine with the ten hours. Those hours go down rapidly once you are online and streaming content.
  • Unpredictability. The Kindle Fire and I did not start off well. Having to perform a hard reset from the gate doesn’t make me glow when talking about the gadget. Now that it has been reset, it works well. But other user reviews have revealed that there are more glitches yet to be worked out. That just makes me a little nervous.
  • The Kindle Fire feels intuitive but when it’s not, it throws you for a loop. It’s hard to remember that it isn’t an Apple and you can’t use all the same swipes and motions on it as you can the iPad. Having the button be on the bottom of the device goes against intuition and makes it very easy to accidentally turn off your reader. In the middle of a book. So frustrating.

 

The bottom line:

The Kindle Fire  is not the iPad. You will not get an iPad experience when you purchase the Kindle Fire. If you are looking for an e-reader with some fun extras, the Kindle Fire is for you. If you are looking for a tablet with an e-reader, keep looking. If you want any sort of chance of happiness with your Kindle Fire, you need to get the difference locked in your head.

I’m looking forward to using the Kindle Fire . It’s a fantastic e-reader. I’m also excited about using the different apps to modify documents while I’m on the go.

 

Agree? Disagree? Leave it in the comments!

Have an e-book that needs marketing? Author Media can help. Contact us to find out how.

 

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Author Technology Face Off: Asus Transformer vs. iPad 2 https://www.authormedia.com/author-technology-face-off-asus-transformer-vs-ipad-2/ https://www.authormedia.com/author-technology-face-off-asus-transformer-vs-ipad-2/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:00:05 +0000 http://www.authortechtips.com/?p=1687 Christmas is almost here. Which means it’s time to buy a present for the author in your life. Especially if that author is you. Some of the hottest gifts this year are tablets. They are ultra mobile and relatively light on the wallet. For a long time, Apple has dominated …

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Christmas is almost here. Which means it’s time to buy a present for the author in your life. Especially if that author is you.

Some of the hottest gifts this year are tablets. They are ultra mobile and relatively light on the wallet. For a long time, Apple has dominated the market. Does anyone even remember the HP TouchPad? It never stood a chance. Great product but it couldn’t compare with the big kids in that price range.

Asus has brought the first real contender to the field with their Transformer. It’s a tablet that connects to a docking station with a keyboard. The catch is that the tablet and keyboard are sold separately. Sneaky. I reviewed the product with a docking station as that was the most natural for authors.

This isn’t going to be a technical review because most authors don’t care about that. They care about writability, battery life, user experience, and the sticker shock.

Here’s how the two tablets stack up against each other:

 

Asus Transformer vs. iPad 2: Writability

Asus Transformer: Like I mentioned, it has a mobile docking station that you must purchase for it to live up to its name. The keyboard is 92% of full size so it isn’t going to bother you if you’ve ever used a netbook. Once it is hooked up to the dock, it doesn’t feel like a tablet any longer. It just looks like another netbook. An incredibly cool netbook with a touchscreen. If a mobile docking station just isn’t your thing, there are wireless keyboards you can purchase.

iPad2: It has wireless and Bluetooth enabled keyboards that you can purchase directly from Apple. You can also buy cases with built-in keyboards.  None of these mimic the netbook feel of the Asus. Which, for many people, is a perk. It was never designed to be one.

Winner: Toss-up. 

Asus Transformer for Authors

Asus Transformer vs. iPad 2: Battery

Asus Transformer: This is where this machine shines. The tablet itself lasts 9.5 hours, which is slightly inferior to Apple’s product.  With the docking station, it is boosted up to 16 hours. One brilliant feature is that the docking station charges the tablet. You can forget about looking for coffee shops with electrical outlets. All you need to do is grab and go.

iPad 2: This tablet has a battery life of 10 hours. There are battery boosting apps but none of them come close to adding hours like the docking station.

Winner: Asus Transformer. 

 

Asus Transformer vs. iPad 2: Sticker Shock

Asus Transformer: It will set you back $409. Add the other half of package is $119. For $528, you’ve got yourself a tablet and a netbook in one.

iPad 2: Apple has a fixed price of $499 for the entry-level product. An Apple official wireless keyboard is $69. By spending $568, you have your hands on the gadget that redefined cool.

Winner: Asus Transformer Even if you purchase the iPad with a wireless keyboard, you are still left with a tablet that needs a cover. The docking station for the machine closes up like a netbook, protecting your tablet. 

 

iPad 2 for Authors

Asus Transformer vs. iPad 2: User Experience

Asus Transformer: The product just isn’t as intuitive as the iPad. Nor does it have Apple’s the incredible operating system. Instead, it uses Honeycomb, which makes me just as hungry typing it as does the Ice Cream Sandwich OS. Were the engineers starving when they created these programs? There’s a learning curve to using this product. It’s not incredibly steep but it’s there.

iPad 2: Do you really want me to wax poetic about iOS5? I could. But it would be a waste of time. You already know that it’s the best system out there.

Winner: iPad 2

 

Bottom Line:

The Transformer wins. Barely. If you are a serious author who just needs a grab and go device, the Transformer is what you need. It isn’t going to be as sexy as the iPad 2 but you don’t need it to be.

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Christmas Gift Guide For Authors https://www.authormedia.com/christmas-gift-guide-for-authors/ https://www.authormedia.com/christmas-gift-guide-for-authors/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:00:27 +0000 http://www.authortechtips.com/?p=1745 There are only a few more days until Christmas. Have you gotten the author in your life a present? If the answer is no, you’ve got to get moving. Santa isn’t going to be covering for you this year. He quit. It’s up to you. Luckily for you, we compiled …

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There are only a few more days until Christmas. Have you gotten the author in your life a present? If the answer is no, you’ve got to get moving. Santa isn’t going to be covering for you this year. He quit. It’s up to you. Luckily for you, we compiled a Christmas Gift Guide for authors. Think of it as your cheat sheet for gift-giving. We’re taking the guess work out and leaving you with the easy task of choosing one of the items.

Here’s the ten Christmas gift ideas that will please any author:

 

10. Apple Money

Apple Money For Author Christmas Present

Authors can use Apple gift cards to purchase writing apps, iPad accessories, or music from iTunes. You can load it up for any denomination between $25 and $5,000. That would make any author happy.

 

9. Moleskin Journal

Moleskin Gift For Authors

Story ideas have to be put down on paper before they make their way to the bookshelf. Chances are, your author friend has a few Moleskin journals of their own already, filled up with stories just waiting to be told. Give them a gift that they will be sure to use.

 

8. Scrivener

Scrivener Gift For Authors

Ahhh…the gift of technology. This little electronic writing studio has made it easier than ever to compile your thoughts, plots, and characters in the same place. With Scrivener, your author friends will be more organized , making hitting deadlines easier than ever.

 

7. A New Keyboard

A New Keyboard Gift For Authors

Are all the e’s on your author friend’s keyboard worn out? Do they have a tablet that they type on directly? It just might be time for a WiFi keyboard. This might be one of the practical gifts as it is something they will use every day. Logitech has a very affordable wireless mouse and keyboard combinationthat just might fit under the Christmas tree.

 

6. Tablet Cover

A New Tablet Cover Gift For Authors

Does your author friend have an e-reader, iPad, or Asus Transformer? Get them a cover for it. Not only will it help protect the tablet, it will set it apart in a world of boring tablets. There’s a whole world of tablet covers out there. The options range from fake books to the eco-friendly bamboo covers made from the friendly folks at Grove.

 

5. Spill Proof Mug

Authors need hot drinks to keep them writing late in the night. Coffee, tea, it doesn’t matter. They just belong together. Unfortunately, that combination, magical as it may be, is a recipe for disaster. Save everyone a headache and get a spill proof mug for the author in your life. The Brugo mug comes in a variety of colors.

 

4. Amazon Gift Card

Amazon Gift Card For Authors

Is your author a reader? Give them the gift of an Amazon gift card so they can load their e-reader up. Amazon has made it easier than ever to give gift cards. You can send it by email, Facebook, print, or the standard plastic card. You can also personalize the card with your own photo.

 

3. A Lomography Camera

Lomography gift for authors

Is there an author in your life who is always looking at art for inspiration? Help them express their imagination in a new way by getting them a lomography camera. These cameras aren’t the kind you’ll be taking to fashion photo shoots. These are the delightfully artsy ones that were popular in the ’60s and ’70s. Yes, you can get an app for that on your smartphone but where’s the sense of whimsy in that?

 

2. Nike Running Shoes

Nike Gift For Authors

When authors are in the middle of a manuscript, fitness is the last thing on their mind. If it’s on their mind at all. They’ve got deadlines, characters, and plots twists running in their head, not gym time.  Give them the gift of health with a pair of Nike running shoes. Better yet, sign both of you up for a 5K and train together.

 

1. A New Website

New Website For Authors

Does your author friend have a great stories and terrible web presence? Give them the gift of a new website. Author Media can help you. Ask us about gift certificates for author websites.

Authors, need to send someone a holiday hint? Share this post on Facebook!

Did we forget something? Leave us a comment below!

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The Apple iPad: A Guide for Authors https://www.authormedia.com/the-apple-ipad-a-guide-for-authors/ https://www.authormedia.com/the-apple-ipad-a-guide-for-authors/#comments Sat, 17 Apr 2010 10:02:20 +0000 http://www.authormedia.com/?p=1096 Chances are you’ve heard people talking about Apple’s new iPad. Will it change everything for authors? Is it our doom or salvation? As a technologist, an author and a marketer this is my take on the iPad.

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Chances are you’ve heard people talking about Apple’s iPad. Will it change everything for authors? Is it our doom or salvation?

You may want to check out some of the other  great reviews of the various iPad features.

What the pundits are saying about Apple’s iPad

Industry leaders have speculated about the effect the iPad will have on the publishing industry. Here is a sample:

But what does all this mean for you?

Here is my take on the iPad as a technologist, an author and a marketer.

7 Things the iPad Can Do for Authors

  1. Display Kindle books. This is a big deal because the potential audience for Kindle books just grew by half a million people in the last three weeks. Ironically, being in the Amazon Kindle Store is more important now than ever before.
  2. Allow you to write on the go. Pages allows you to edit documents. The iPad is surprisingly easy to type on and can use an external keyboard. There are several great apps for writers. Look for a roundup in the coming weeks.
  3. Blend multi-media with traditional books.The iPad gives you a bigger box in which to be creative inside. You are no longer limited to just words.
    • Prediction: vooks (which blend video and writing) will become far more popular with the advent of the iPad.
  4. Make color cheap to distribute. Up to this point if you wanted to incorporate graphics into your book you either had to deal with prohibitive costs or go black and white. No more. Now color is no more expensive than black and white.
    • Prediction: books will become far more graphical with the advent of the iPad.
  5. Make self publishing easier.Apple has made is easy for self published authors to get into the iBook store. This will likely put pressure on Amazon lower barriers as well. This is good news for self published authors.
    • Prediction: some unknown authors will come out of nowhere with innovative uses for the iPad. Will you be one of them?
  6. Keep you connected to social media on the go. For those of you who don’t have an iPhone, the 3G iPad will be a great tool for using Twitter and Facebook on the go.
    1. Prediction: The iPad 3g could replace a smart phone for many people and for a cheaper monthly cost.
  7. Make blogs more accessible & important. Before the iPad, the only places people could read blogs were in front of a laptop or squinting into a smart phone. Now blogs are just as comfortable to read as books. Apps like NetNewsWire allow iPad users to read their Google Reader feeds offline. This is good news for authors who blog and bad news for authors who don’t.

5 Things the iPad Can’t Do for Authors

  1. Raise your royalties. By making the web more available and self publishing easier, Apple is raising the supply of writing. This will create a downward pressure on prices. I doubt the iPad will boost demand enough to keep up with the boost in supply.
  2. Help you with presentations. I was excited about using the iPad from the lectern in my technology talks. My hope was that it would give me control of the presentation and show me my current slide the next slide and a timer. It fails to do all three of these things. I can edit presentations and that is about it. These are issues that may be fixed in the future but as of right now the iPad fails to help with presentations.
  3. Replace your laptop. If you are an author you probably won’t be able to ditch your laptop for an iPad. But it may keep you from having to take your laptop everywhere you go just so you can check email and work on your book.
  4. Reduce Distractions. The iPad provides one more thing to do other than write. Keep this in mind before you get too excited about this new gadget.
  5. Help your publisher stay in business. If your publishing house is struggling now, the iPad is only going to make things worse. The houses that will benefit from the iBooks market and boosted Kindle market are likely going to be the ones who have already been embracing the new trends. If your publisher has struggled to adapt so far, how will the iPad change anything?

3 Things the iPad is Changing for Authors

  1. Distribution. Think of the iPad is the iPod for books. Now think about how much the music industry has changed in the 10 years since the iPod came out. Paper is going the way of the CD. Print on Demand + Digital Distribution is becoming a more and more viable strategy for small print houses. Some publishing houses like Marcher Lord Press have been able to abandon traditional offset publishing altogether with great success.
  2. Competition. Thirty years ago authors only competed with the other books and the TV for the living room. Now they must compete with the whole internet for that coveted “couch time.” Writers must write better than ever.
  3. Pricing. A plummet in book prices is inevitable.  The big publishing houses will fight this of course but this will just create room for small houses to eat market share away from them with low cost digital books. Savvy authors will know they can make more money with a lower price.

Bottom line

You don’t need an iPad to be a successful author. But you do need to understand how the iPad is changing the publishing industry.

  • Some authors will thrive in this new environment of high competition. They will incorporate color graphics and drop prices to sell more books and make more money.
  • Other authors will wither. They will complain about the changes the iPad and its army of clones will bring to the industry. They will fight these changes to their own demise.

What do you think?

  • Do you have an iPad? Do you like it?
  • Do you plan to get an iPad? Why or why not?
  • Will the iPad help or hurt authors?
  • Do you plan to incorporate more graphics into your books now that it is cheaper and easier to do?

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