That’s Awesome

I’m a purist in every sense of the word. I like things just so…or in my eyes, how they were meant to be: correct. Being that way could be construed as a bit silly or stubborn at times, but it is what it is and I am what I am.

That said, it drives me up a wall when words are misused, misspoken, or misspelled. Language is very important to me, and it’s already been adulterated enough by internet speak and colloquialisms, etc.

So when I came to realize that I was contributing to the dumbing down of our language, I was mortified. Yes, it’s true. I was and am one of the billions of people who, frankly, misuse the word “awesome.”
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Desperation: The Mother of Invention

Yes, I do believe necessity IS the mother of invention. I don’t know who originally said that, and I’m too damned lazy to Google it. Huh, in fact, I’m so lazy that I just used “Google” as a verb. So there.

I have no intention of defending my laziness. Frankly, I’m proud of it. I use my energy solely for writing and marketing my books. My houseplants are wilting and my dinner is still in the freezer. But I put in a long day filled with paper cuts, taping my fingers together and filling in U.S. Customs paperwork so I could send out “Advance Review Copies” of my new book.

There’s that word: review. That all too elusive review – the one that should be written quickly and gladly by the person receiving your book for free. But it doesn’t go that way, does it? BE HONEST – you know it doesn’t. Even though they basically gave their word they’d review your book – what percentage of them actually do it?

To read the rest of my post, please visit IndiesUnlimited.com.

Wanted: Celebrity Endorsement

Yesterday I got an email from my publisher letting me know they had accepted my latest work for publication. Awesome. Now that made my day, week, month and maybe even year.

But it also posed a conundrum. I’ve been taking online seminars and reading reports about marketing your wares. It seems if you have a celebrity endorsement you are golden: magazines are more inclined to review or feature your product, and of course the press is more likely to give you coverage. So it makes sense to find a celebrity to review the book, and get it on the back cover before it goes to print.

To read the rest of my post, please visit IndiesUnlimited.com.

Cath 'n' Kindle Book Reviews: Bad Book by K S Brooks, Stephen Hise and J D Mader...

Cath 'n' Kindle Book Reviews: Bad Book by K S Brooks, Stephen Hise and J D Mader...: BUY-UK BUY-US If you ever thought that a collaboration between three authors might be a dodgy, even risky, enterprise, think again.  ...

LinkedIn Profile Tip – Links

This past Sunday, Rosanne Dingli explained why authors and businesspeople should be on LinkedIn. You can read her article here. Once you’re on LinkedIn, there are a couple of things you can do to get better exposure. The method many people agree has the most impact is the “links” section.

In the screen capture to the left, you can see at the very bottom there is a heading called “Websites.” This is where LinkedIn allows you to supply a maximum of three external links. Many people just put in their http address and leave it at that. But LinkedIn allows you to do something even better – actually describe where the link goes – so there isn’t a bunch of ugly html sitting on your profile and people have a clue what they’re clicking.

To read the rest of my post, please visit IndiesUnlimited.com.

The Most Expensive eBook in the World

In one corner, you have the fully-bearded JA Konrath, preaching to the Indie masses to make their books more affordable in hopes they can sell more of them, therefore increasing their income. In the other corner, wearing a goatee befitting an evil mastermind, you have Stephen Hise.

Hise is trying a different approach. In fact – he’s going in exactly the opposite direction. Stephen Hise today announced he was raising the price of all available versions of his book UPGRADE, on Smashwords, to one million dollars. This makes UPGRADE the most expensive eBook in the world, obliterating the old record held by Nuclear Energy, now on sale at Amazon for a mere $6,232.00.

 Asked why he raised the price so dramatically, Hise said, “I read an article by somebody or other who claimed that his sales actually increased after raising the price. I figured if I raised it high enough, I’d only need to sell a couple of copies—half dozen at best.”

You can read the rest of my article at Indies Unlimited here.