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Branding 101: What Is Your Brand?

Crowd picture with focus on one man with text: How Do You Show Who You Are?

Yeah, yeah, I can hear it now. “Ugh. Not more branding stuff. What if I don’t want to be a brand?” I hate to break it to you, but you already have a brand. So does your kid’s soccer coach, your next-door neighbor, and possibly your pet. *smile* How is […]

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September 24, 2013

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Google’s Fickleness: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Google Logo with text: Adapting to Changes...

If one thing is constant with Google, it’s that they always change. Over the past couple of years, they phased out most of Google Friend Connect and stopped supporting Feedburner. However, I realized recently that I hadn’t talked about their latest changes. Some of their recent changes have been good (Google Authorship), […]

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August 15, 2013

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When Should We Start Building Our Platform?

Red flag with text: Don't Have a Platform? Red Flag!

In my post about book pirates and plagiarism, I mentioned that book bloggers and reviewers are now more wary of debut authors, especially those who are self-published. I don’t blame them. Some people out there are willing to do an insane amount of work to fake legitimacy. A book blogger […]

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August 6, 2013

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Should We Use a Blog Commenting System?

Stick figure with speech bubble and text: Who Wants Comments?

I’ve mentioned before that I wish I could change how comments work on my blog. I’d love for readers to easily see when someone replies to their comments here or provide the ability to subscribe to comments for a post. A system like that often encourages more interaction on a […]

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July 2, 2013

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Using CreateSpace as a Learning Experience

Open book with text: Practice Print Publishing with CreateSpace

For many writers, we long to see our name on a book. Even better is seeing our name on a book in print that we can hold in our hand. I got to have that experience for the first time this past weekend. Sort of. No, I’m not published yet. *smile* […]

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June 18, 2013

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Handling Bad Reviews: Lessons from Amy’s Baking Company

Kitchen Nightmares logo with "Kitchen" crossed out and "Author" added in

On Facebook a few weeks ago, my friend Angela Ackerman dared me to order a pizza from Amy’s Baking Company and send it back (and to record the confrontation). Not one to create drama, I declined. *smile* But then I had to know what prompted her dare. The details were even […]

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May 28, 2013

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Amazon’s Fan Fiction Model: Is It a Good Idea?

Kindle Worlds logo with text: Good Idea? Or Bad Idea?

The internet exploded yesterday with Amazon’s introduction of “Kindle Worlds,” a new publishing model for writers inspired to write fan fiction (fanfic). Everyone and anyone has been commenting on this development, often with gnashing of teeth. Some see this as a win for the fanfic authors, and some see this […]

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May 23, 2013

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What Should an Author Website Include?

A web "home" button with text: What Should We Include on Our Author Website?

Some writers—understandably—don’t want to blog. Blogging can take away from our writing time. Thinking of post topics can be difficult. And if we don’t gain a readership (or our blog readership doesn’t cross over into the target audience for our books), it can feel like a waste of time and […]

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March 21, 2013

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Switching from Blogger to WordPress — Guest: Natalie C. Markey

WordPress logo with text "versus" and Blogger logo

Last week, I announced my two workshops on WordPress for beginners. One workshop is geared toward those ready to invest in a paid website/blog, and one workshop sticks to free resources. Some might wonder why that second workshop focuses only on WordPress. After all, Blogger (also known as Blogspot) is […]

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March 19, 2013

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