Amazing musical creation by Mike Tompkins doing a cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” Every sound is from Mike.
Steve
News You Can Use – September 4, 2012
Amazon Buys 1,000 Backlist titles from Dorchester - As expected Amazon won the bid for defunct publisher Dorchester. Add these to the 3,000 titles they bought from Avalon in July and you have a serious number of romance backlist titles to offer.
Jonah Lehrer's Plagarism Worse than Originally Thought - Charles Seife analyzes numerous "Wired" articles and the Lehrer's blog and discovers a …
Paid Book Reviews?
by Steve Laube You may have read or heard of the NY Times article where an author admitted to using a now-defunct service that wrote positive online reviews for a fee. Unfortunately I was not surprised. There have been many attempts to game the system over the years. One man bought thousands of his books in various locations to launch it onto the NY Times bestseller list (Read a report about it …
News You Can Use – August 28, 2012
The Beloit College Mindset List for 2016 - Read it and weep. You are getting old. Admit it. For example, for the incoming college freshman (born in 1994), - "History has always had its own channel" and "Simba has always had trouble waiting to be King."
How to Create a Perfect Title - Calvin Miller and Rick Warren discussed this issue as it related to their sermons in this article from 1998's …
News You Can Use – August 21, 2012
Thomas Nelson Publishers citing "loss of confidence" pulls a book about Thomas Jefferson from circulation - What a mess. People are taking sides and calling this an issue of free speech while others applaud the move and call it smart. More from World Magazine on the issue and a quote from the VP of editorial at the publisher can be found here. Bottom line? The book is no longer available from the …
News You Can Use – August 7, 2012
Are Book Covers a Dying Art? - This article from NPR is frustrating. A book designer actually says that someone will not buy a book on the web because of the cover, unlike what happens in a brick and mortar store. I disagree. Covers, even the size of a postage stamp are still a key component to the sound bite of a book's content. Go to this link (please click here) to show anyone how amazing book …
News You Can Use – July 31, 2012
#1 Secret of Great Writers - Joseph Putnam reveals a secret that everyone should know.
Great Keynote Speech from RWA - Stephanie Laurie graciously posted her rousing keynote presentation on the business of writing. (Thank you Debby Mayne for the link!)
21 Links to Fonts for Self-Publishing - On of the biggest mistakes I see in self published books is the use of the wrong font. This …
Fun Fridays – July 27, 2012
Five Guys playing one piano performing the song by One Direction called "What Makes You Beautiful."
Enjoy!
News You Can Use – July 24, 2012
You Might Get Sued for Using that Photo! - Bloggers beware. That photo you snagged for your blog may not be yours to use. This article is a cautionary tale. (Beware, the author writes romance novels for the general market and her book covers are prominently displayed.) Our blog uses crestock.com and istockphoto.com for nearly all our photos. The licenses cost between $1 and $4 for each …
ICRS 2012 – Observations
By Steve Laube
This year’s ICRS (International Christian Retailing Show) was a great time of celebration and doing a lot of business.
First I have to celebrate with Four award winning clients!
AWSA (Advance Writers & Speakers Association) Fiction Book of the Year
Susan May Warren - Heiress (Summerside)
The Christy Awards
Ronie Kendig – Wolfsbane (Barbour) – best Contemporary …