People make amazing things. That's probably why I spend so much time online—I often go down the rabbit hole of reading about people's cool projects. Speaking of, here are some I've heard about recently: "This Book Is A Planetarium" on Hyperallergic: "Defying every expectation of what a book can be, this pop-up extravaganza transforms into six fully functional tools: a real … [Read more...] about Cool People, Cool Projects
Publishing
20 Stories Related To Writing and Publishing
Sometimes I read stories, and just have to share them. Here's a list of recent interesting stuff (in no particular order): "13 Writers Who Grew To Hate Their Own Books" on Literary Hub: List includes Ian Fleming (The Spy Who Loved Me), Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange), and Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace). "8 Notable Attempts to Hack the New York Times Bestseller List" … [Read more...] about 20 Stories Related To Writing and Publishing
Technology and Publishing
Tech, including tools and developments in machine learning, have become more prevalent, leading to a lot of interesting experiments and projects. One that caught my eye recently is a neural network that wrote a novel about its own cross-country road trip. Ross Goodwin took a road trip from Brooklyn to New Orleans, and hooked up a GPS, microphone, laptop, and printer to the … [Read more...] about Technology and Publishing
An Update on Amazon
It seems Amazon is always in the news, and that makes sense. It's a giant company with a huge reach. For this post, I'm going to focus on the non-book items of Amazon. Some of it is related to indie publishing, and some of it is just plain interesting. First up, a writer on Gizmodo tried to block Amazon from here life, and found it was impossible. This is because in addition … [Read more...] about An Update on Amazon
Pitching a Book
For writers who want to go the traditionally published route, there's a process. It usually involves pitching to agents, then having your agent pitch your book to publishers. A lot of people are working on their novels, so you want to make sure that yours stands out. With that in mind, Electric Lit shares 10 novels that agents have already seen. They include having a … [Read more...] about Pitching a Book
10 Audiobooks to Read This Holiday Season (A Good Audiobook Speaks Volumes Blog Tour)
Happy November, fellow readers! We’re in the middle of holiday season, which probably means lots of traveling, and also getting ready for traveling. One great way to help you prepare, and to help you relax while you’re traveling, is to listen to audiobooks. And that’s why I’m participating in the “A Good Audiobook Speaks Volumes” blog tour. Audiobooks make it easy to … [Read more...] about 10 Audiobooks to Read This Holiday Season (A Good Audiobook Speaks Volumes Blog Tour)
209 Examples and Trends Impacting the Future of Storytelling
Storytelling comes in a variety of formats: as books, articles, podcasts, films, and more. It seems every week there's something new and cool coming out of the works, so I thought I'd highlight some of them here (in no particular order). Also, there's a lot that can be learned from other people's stories! New Tech / Tools / Platforms Book Marketing Book Title Generator … [Read more...] about 209 Examples and Trends Impacting the Future of Storytelling
Amazon News and Tools
It's been a while since I've posted about Amazon, so thought I'd share some links I've been collecting. It covers a wide range of topics, but hey, that's Amazon! Amazon Tools and Tutorials ACX University Kindle Create Amazon Sales Estimator Tool on Jungle Scout Amazon Sales Rank Calculator on Kindlepreneur "Tutorial: Enabling X-Ray for Your eBooks on Amazon" … [Read more...] about Amazon News and Tools
Guest Post: A Brief History of ASR, Automatic Speech Recognition
By Jason Kincaid This moment has been a long time coming. The technology behind speech recognition has been in development for over half a century, going through several periods of intense promise — and disappointment. So what changed to make ASR viable in commercial applications? And what exactly could these systems accomplish, long before any of us had heard of … [Read more...] about Guest Post: A Brief History of ASR, Automatic Speech Recognition
Guest Post: Why Instagram Stories Is A Big Plus For Businesses
By Alex Slichnyi Social media is one of the biggest trend-setters in the society today. Every day, millions of people all around the world log onto platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to keep themselves updated about various subjects. Instagram is perhaps the hottest social media platform right now. A staggering 300 million users visit it every day. Its … [Read more...] about Guest Post: Why Instagram Stories Is A Big Plus For Businesses
For the Readers: A List of Sites, Tools, and Examples of Beautiful Works
More and more platforms are springing up to help both indie authors and readers looking for their next great read. One new platform that does just that is The Books Machine, which allows authors to gift their books to hundreds of thousands of readers, according to the website. Readers have 30 days to read the book and write an honest review. Reader membership is free, and … [Read more...] about For the Readers: A List of Sites, Tools, and Examples of Beautiful Works
Books and Stories From the Past
Just for fun, for today's blog post I thought I'd share some interesting links about stories from the past. Coloring Books First up are a couple links about coloring books. Apparently, coloring books started out as meant for adults. According to Time, there are early coloring books from the 1600s that depict engraved maps, and it was a trend to color the maps in yourself. … [Read more...] about Books and Stories From the Past
Data and Analytics for Marketing and Automation
![By Arbeck (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i2.wp.com/digitalpubbing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Open_Processes_Leading_to_Improved_Impact.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Metrics, data, analytics. These are all related words that can really help authors effectively market. Matt Minoff wrote a great piece on Digiday, called "In Order to thrive, publishers must master their data." This means more than merely collecting data. It means having a plan, understanding what the data means, and deciding what actions to implement. If you want a solid … [Read more...] about Data and Analytics for Marketing and Automation
Writers: Going the Traditional Publishing Route
Not all writers wants to go the indie route, which is understandable. Publishers have teams to help with editing, publicity and marketing, and distribution. And it's cool to be able to say, "XYZ published me." It's a tough route to go though. I have a few friends who have written manuscripts and are currently sending them out to agents. But it often takes months for agents … [Read more...] about Writers: Going the Traditional Publishing Route
A Roundup of History Lessons: Book Blurbs, Fairy Tales, Ebooks, and More
![By Nikolai Ushin (1898–1942) (Lpamyatniki.narod.ru) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i2.wp.com/digitalpubbing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Nikolai_Ushin-1001_Nights_volume_2_cover_illustration.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
It's always fun to think about how things came to be. A couple weeks ago, I shared a bunch of links that looks at the present and predicts future trends. I think that understanding the past also helps us to better understand the present and look towards the future. With that in mind, there have been some interesting stories going around the interwebs lately that talk about … [Read more...] about A Roundup of History Lessons: Book Blurbs, Fairy Tales, Ebooks, and More
