A Free Tool for Writers—Vook’s Author Control

Tools for Writers

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigVook

I mentioned briefly in last Sunday’s Twitterific that I was a beta tester for a new tool for writers.  Vook’s Author Control launched over a week ago.  I wasn’t paid for my testing, but asked to give feedback and a fair review or endorsement if I liked the service.

I’ve blogged before that I’ve been frustrated with some of the business/financial aspects of publishing.  For one, it’s time-consuming to track of income.  That meant that I wasn’t doing a wonderful job keeping track of income, which meant that I had an unfortunate tax bill when I went to my CPA in February.  I’ve made some changes since then.  For one, I have a separate bank account that writing-related income is directly deposited to, so that it doesn’t mix in with our general household funds (a recommendation the CPA had made last year but that I was slow to follow up on). Continue reading

Writing Longhand

Uncategorized

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraignotebook-and-pencill

One thing I’ve found with my writing is that my process tends to change or adapt through the years.  It’s important to find what works, what helps us be more productive, and stick with that. Clearly, different approaches will work for different writers.

A big change, that I recently thought about when reading writer Victoria Grefer’s post, The Pros and Cons of Writing Fiction on Paper First, has been switching over from writing longhand to writing on a laptop.Continue reading

The Neil Gaiman Guide to Social Media

Promo Tips

by Jason Kong, @storyrallygaiman-tweet (1)

Imagine millions of people tuning in to hear what you have to say.

Not because they have to, but because they want to. They’re ready to support your next project and spread your latest news. And you can reach them all with just a few keystrokes and a click.

This isn’t a fantasy. It’s Neil Gaiman’s reality.

Gaiman lives in social media nirvana. He has attention for what he does and admirers for how he does it. When someone is compelled to highlight his past tweets because he’s taking a social media sabbatical, you know he’s doing something right.

So is he an outlier? Or are there lessons from his success that can be applied to your own situation?

Let’s take a closer look.Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Blog

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine(developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

I also wanted to mention a cool new tool for writers (free) that I helped to test drive before its release.  Vook released a new ebook tracking tool that  tracks sales across all major retail channels.  Publishers Weekly wrote about it here .  I liked that I didn’t have to pull up my KDP page, my Smashwords page, my iBookstore page, and my Nook page to get a sense of my sales for the last month, because it compiled them all…what’s more, it puts results in dollars and cents, which is helpful for the math-challenged like me.   You can track up to ten titles for free.

When to Add a Scene Break:  http://ow.ly/u9lGj @janice_hardy

Warning Signs that Your Character Is Acting Out of Character: http://ow.ly/u9luH @KMWeiland

What to do when you get an offer while your MS is still with other agents:  http://ow.ly/u9mJXContinue reading

Backing Up Our Work

Tools for Writers, Writing Tips

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigfile7371249345763

And now for a very brief public service announcement.  Please back up your work.

What way is easiest for you?  There are so many options.

The best way is to have a digital copy backed up—on a USB/thumb drive, as an email attachment in an email sent to yourself.  In Dropbox.  On Google Drive or Skydrive (these are free options for cloud backup).  On a server in your home.  Or just print the thing if you don’t mind retyping it if you lose a digital version. Continue reading

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