Sunday, September 21, 2008

What will you be known for?

There are a lot of famous writers in the world, known for outstanding works, but one obituary in the Chicago Tribune today cited a writer for quite a distinction.

Mr. [James] Crumley published eleven books, the best-known of which is "The Last Good Kiss" (1978), whose opening line has been widely called the best in crime fiction:

"When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonora, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon."


Those 38 words, according to Crumley took him eight years to write.
So before we all leave this world, let's take the time to make our writing memorable.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Track your blogs & books

Do you know which words and phrases will drive traffic to your blog or website?

You can find out by using www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com to see what results come up when people search for sites like yours.

If you want to come up with a new domain name that will be readily found, or even better - if you are choosing a book title - use this free service to see how well it would rank.

I've been told again and again that I did the right thing by having a domain name and book title match: Release Your Writing and releaseyourwriting.com works double-time driving traffic to my web site, to this blog, and to steadily growing book sales.

To use www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com, type in the search phrase you expect people would use when looking for your site. It then calculates the average number of expected searches on that term per day.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

More options for self-publishing and print-on-demand

This excerpt is from the 9/03/08 New York Times. I've placed a link to the full article below.

By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: September 3, 2008

Hundreds of small, independent publishers will have easier access to digital book technology under a new service offered by Perseus Books Group, the result of agreements between it and more than a half-dozen technology companies, Perseus is expected to announce on Thursday.

The new service, called Constellation, will allow independent publishers to make use of electronic readers, digital book search, print-on-demand and other digital formats at rates negotiated by Perseus on their behalf. Unlike large publishers, small ones typically lack the resources to use digital technology and as a result often bypass it altogether.

David Steinberger, the president and chief executive of Perseus, said that by using Constellation independent publishers could make their books quickly available in several digital formats, allowing them to compete on the same technological level and with the same speed and flexibility as larger companies. Many publishing analysts see digital technology as one of the few major growth areas in the book industry.

Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com have features that allow consumers to read or search inside a book, and such tools are known to improve sales; digital printing technology allows publishers to produce books when they become suddenly and unexpectedly in demand.

... read full article