Tag: blogger

Choose Your Words

journal

Don’t act like these little black letters have no home outside the blank page. Like murder can’t come falling from your mouth. Like lawlessness can’t come ripping through towns like torn flesh from heavy winds. Choose your words as if the next phrase has the potential to destroy. Examine the shape of them as they exit your mouth. Taste the intention one syllable at a time, for corroded speech is too often praised these days and reveals the unpolished stains of the heart. Deception brimming the mind and falling from the mouth. A surge of power tap dancing in the air only to build nothing on the ground. No substance. No foundation. Just emotion all over the place. A melting pot of empty tongues. Be careful what you say least truth reveals the fairy-tale hopscotching around in your mouth. A collection of letters too light to gravity the ground. Too corroded to fly. Dare you pretend the taste of burnt ash that fell from your mouth and consumed a life did not first have a home in the heart. Choose your words but first guard your heart for out of it the mouth speaks. Amazing all this power in the tongue. This tiny member leaving bodies smashed up against the blog; the stench of bereavement emanating from the first sentence of a post. Choose your words as if the next phrase has the potential to destroy. Because it does.

Self-Publishing: Five Time-Saving Tools

Time saving tools for authors from The Writer’s Path Blog. I use Grammarly, Canva, and Mailchimp so I’ll vouch for these: )

theryanlanz's avatarRyan Lanz

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by Hope Ann

A writer’s life is filled with so much more than the mere creating of stories. There is editing and proofreading. Marketing and newsletters. Blogging and graphics. We can take any help offered, and here are five free tools which have helped me save time and work the best I can.

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Authors / Bloggers – Take these 5 Basic Steps to Secure your WordPress Site TODAY…

Article Quote: “WordPress is the most widely used website platform, and it powers a quarter of all websites. That immense popularity means that developers are constantly adding new software options, but it also means that hackers are always looking for WP sites with lax security. Here are steps you can take to make your website more secure.”

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

By

img_8940 Joel Friedlander and Nate Hoffelder img_8939 

on The Book Designer Site:

54462821 - laptop infected virus computerLicence to use obtained – Copyright Natchapon Nilsonti

Monday is usually my spot in our publishing schedule, but I’m giving it up today for a good reason.

Last week Nate Hoffelder of The Digital Reader alerted me to a widespread attack on vulnerable WordPress sites. Since my site, and those of many other authors run on WordPress, this is a serious situation you should pay attention to.

The attacks, which have affected over 2,000,000 WordPress pages in the past few days, was reported by, among others, Ars Technica: “Virally growing attacks on unpatched WordPress sites affect ~2m pages.”

Here’s one thing they said:

“Attacks on websites running an outdated version of WordPress are increasing at a viral rate. Almost 2 million pages have been defaced since a serious vulnerability in the content management system came to light nine days…

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6 Signs of Scam Publishers

Great post on identifying the red flags of SCAM Publishers (even if they don’t intend to Scam, you should still know where you stand).

Post Quote: “If they plan to use Createspace or Lulu, don’t give them the time of day. You can do the same yourself and will not have to split any of the profits. Again it comes back to value, in some way, a publisher needs to increase your efforts, even if that means only getting your books into a few regional stores. If they do not have their own distribution network they are not worth your time.”

Steven Capps's avatarBard & Books

As a warning, I am writing the rough draft of this post on my IPhone while I do cardio at the gym (cue gym selfie below). I am trying to be more efficient and thought that this would be a good time to get in some writing.

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Earlier today, I was browsing Facebook and amid the swath of political drivel, I found an advertisement for a publisher looking for authors. Several red flags flickered almost immediately. Though this post is inspired by an actual publisher, I am going to omit their name because when I reached out to them, they deleted the content. It seemed like they were more of a naive kid rather than a malicious con-artist. Regardless, here are 6 Red Flags to be aware of when looking into a publisher.

Red Flags of Scam Publishers

1. Poor Marketing Design

It doesn’t take an award winning artist to…

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Author Services You May or May Not Know About

Are you new to this blog?

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I know that not everyone following this blog is an author / writer / aspiring writer, but many of you are.

If you aren’t familiar with this blog, I offer a few services that you may or may not know about.

  • Email List Book Promotions
  • Writer’s Workshop (Details TBA)
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Review Follow-Up: Where Are They Now?
  • Introduce Yourself

Email List Book Promotions are Book Covers, Blurbs, and Buy Links that I promote to my email list at no cost. But you must be on my newsletter to take advantage of this offer.

Sign Up HERE and then send me your Book Cover, Blurb, and Buy Link. My newsletters go out once a month (18th) or twice a month for those who choose bimonthly (3rd, 18th).

Book Reviews are published to this blog on Friday’s. New Book Review submissions are currently closed until my TBR pile is low. However, you should keep checking my Book Review Registry to see when I am open again. Again, I am not currently accepting new submissions for book reviews.

BUT, it’s a good idea to follow this blog so you can get first notification when I re-open!

Understand that registering for a review does not guarantee you the review. I still have to see if it’s the book for me. I will then get in touch with you and let you know.

It is good to register because I have lots of books to read and the registry puts you on my list and secures you a spot in line.

I review books in the order in which I receive them. When I am open, you won’t see the message that I am not accepting responses. I will also be vocal about it on this blog and social media.

Books that I promote (Book Reviews or Book Promos) are also listed under the Indie Author page in my sidebar.

When I open back up I’d like to read more of my favorite genres in addition to the others. I encourage authors with African American centered themes in particular to reach out to me.

What’s New?

Book Review Follow-Up: Where Are They Now? – I’ve been reviewing books since 2015 and have met some great writers. But once I’ve reviewed you, I’d like to continue to support you. I’ve been in touch with some authors and have decided to introduce a Follow-Up segment of the Book Reviews. Book Review Follow-Up: Where Are They Now? is an author interview following up on the authors whose books I reviewed. I have not set a date for this feature but I do have some authors lined up who are eager to meet you all. When I lock their dates in I will do an entire post dedicated to this new feature and give you the start date and the frequency of the interviews (weekly or monthly).

If you’re interested in being interviewed on this blog please email me HERE.

You must have had your book reviewed by me to qualify for the Book Review Follow- Up since this is a book review follow-up series. (yea, kinda self-explanatory but you never know…)

If I’ve already reviewed your book, send me an email.

Introduce Yourself – Can’t get a review in at this time? I have a new feature that I will be doing a separate post on real soon. I will share the motivation behind this segment in that post but in brief, at the close of last year I stated I wanted to offer another service for authors on this blog aside from the Book Reviews. After much thought I have many ideas (some I won’t implement at this time) and some that I will.

Many authors have been writing for years and have multiple works out however they are unknown in the blogging community or writing community in general. Even for those who are known there are always someone who has never read your work or probably don’t even know that you’ve written a book.

I’d like to offer this space to new and established authors as an opportunity to introduce themselves in an interview-like setting. The questions in particular will be tailored toward getting to know more about you as an author and as a person.

More information on Introduce Yourself coming soon.

UPDATE: Learn more about author interviews HERE.