The Big "O" for Writers—Organization: The Writer's Toolbox #3

This is Ruth Harris's third installment in her Writer's Toolbox series. You can read Writer's Toolbox #2 here and Writers Toolbox #1 here. Today she's talking about tools for organizing your research and ideas: very timely for me this week. I've been working on and off for months on researching my next Camilla mystery, which takes Camilla back to the English Midlands (where she may or may not find out whether Peter Sherwood survived that...

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Why Writers Need to be on Google Plus…Plus a FREE Tutorial on How to Use it Effectively!

A lot of writers seem to find Google Plus as mysterious as I do, so when I met Google guru and SEO expert Johnny Base in a Google Plus group a couple of weeks ago, I jumped at the chance to get him on the blog. Not only does he have a great blogpost for us, but we've imbedded a mini-webinar that walks you though signing up for Google Plus and gives you a bunch of tips on how to use it. Personally, this what I know about Google...

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Social Media Secrets for Authors, Part IV: How Not to Spam

If you've ever wondered why unsolicited Internet advertising is named after a perfectly innocent meat product, blame Monty Python. In a famous 1970 sketch, the customers in a café are constantly drowned out by a chorus of Vikings singing "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam... Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!" Conversation is impossible because of the "spammers."Spam-mobile photo via WikicommonsBut whatever it's called, we don't want to generate it.This is because:It's...

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The Laws of the (Amazon) Jungle—Eight Rules Authors Need to Know to Stay Safe

Update: This is probably now the longest blogpost in history, so I apologize. But I've had important updates from commenters that I'm incorporating into the post. An intellectual property lawyer has enlightened me on a lot of things I had wrong. (Scroll down to Rule #5). And South African romance writer Niki Savage has an update on Amazon's rules for reviewing authors in your own genre (Rule #2) Thanks for all the helpful comments!Everybody tells...

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