Now anyone with a Google login will be able to submit an article and, if they choose, have ads displayed through the Internet search leader’s marketing system.

read more | digg story

Amazon sure stirred up a hornet’s nest with the POD world. Now, if you want them to sell your independently published book you’re going to have to use Booksurge.

Read more:

at Amazon’s press release page

Blogging Stocks

Publishers Weekly

Google News about Amazon (changes constantly)

Social networking is an important part of getting added exposure for your book and often calls for the need to upload an image like your picture and or your book cover.  Or perhaps you upload images to your newsletter or your blog.  Then you’ll want to be sure and optimize those images.  This can be an issue if you do not have some type of photo editing software like PhotoShop or PhotoShop Elements.   There is an easy-to-use alternative that anyone can use from anywhere:  Webresizer.com

Check it out: this nifty photo resizer allows you to reduce your image size, crop photos, sharpen an image, and much more.  This is one tool you’ll want to add to your bookmarks for future use.  have fun!!

Tip offered by Jeniffer Thompson, author of Web Site WOW, Turn Your Web Site Into Your Most Powerful Marketing Tool.  Jeniffer Thompson is the president of Monkey C Media, a full-service design house specializing in author web sites and book cover designs.

Chad and I took a trip to San Francisco this past week for a little R&R (the truth is we won a free vacation that ended up being not so free - but we took it anyway … that’s another story).

We woke up early on Tuesday morning and rushed off to Lindbergh field where we scurried toward our departure gate, bags in tow, when I suddenly came to an unexpected halt. What’s that? The Go Giver?

There it was - one of our client book’s proudly displayed on an impulse rack just outside the store entrance - high traffic area!!! We recently created a book teaser video for The Go Giver, A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea, a Penguin Group Book, so this was a pretty exciting moment.

So that was cool. We boarded our plane, jet-set our way to SF and landed in the pouring rain. Consequently, we spent a good part of that afternoon perusing through the indoor Market Place shops in the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero. Lo and behold what did we see in the first store we walked in to but another client book: Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor, a local cook-book author published with Chronicle Books. The name speaks for itself, Jill’s beautifully designed cook books are scrumptious for the belly and the eye to behold.

Two in one day - that was cool. But, there’s more. We saunter into a quaint little book store and there on the shelf, proudly displayed, is another client book: Ed Sherman of Nolo Press Occidental, a fantastic divorce attorney who decided a long time ago that people shouldn’t have to sell their house and home to get divorced. His books are easy to understand and implement into real-life divorce situations. We had re-designed a web site for Ed last year. What a pleasure to see his book on display.

Oh wait - there’s more: Not three feet down the aisle did we see yet another client—the fourth that day: Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil, by Wallace Stegner, published by our client Selwa Press. We had created a site for Selwa Press publisher Tim Barger. It looked absolutely beautiful on the shelf. We felt drunk with glee. What a great day for a vacation!!

If you have extra books, and I think we all do, set them free. Check out bookcrossing.com.

Hey, catch and release works for fish - why not books too.

Recently I had a conversation with one of my SEO experts who visits more than 50 blogs a day. She noticed a trend that struck me as worth mentioning: many people blog in a voice that is a little too expert-like, so much so that readers may feel intimidated to make comments and get involved.

We often impress upon our clients the importance of writing as an expert in your field. But as the Internet brings the world to our doorstep, we are demanding more and more intimacy.

As readers and Internet surfers, we need to feel welcome—we are looking for that warm and fuzzy that makes us feel understood.

Why not? There are so many choices, and ultimately each of us is asking what’s in it for me? Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a place to promote your book and gain added exposure? There are many sites out there on the Net that offer a place to add your books and even get a link back to your own site. This is known as a back link—a link from someone else’s site to yours is one of the best ways to organically optimize your site and increase your PageRank (Internet visibility). The question is, how do you get people to link to you? The good news is: there are many ways. As you look for sites to link back to you, choose sites with a PageRank of 2 or higher (you can find a site’s PageRank at www.blogflux.com). Read the rest of this entry »

Not sure about that pesky copyright law - here it is explained in an easy to understand video.

While the boss is away …

Monkey Game 1 

Monkey Game 2 

Whether you are a fiction or a non-fiction writer, start thinking of your self as a celebrity or an expert in your field, respectively.  With that said, you will need a professional headshot. That’s not to say you need a glamour shot or that you should worry about competing with the faces of Hollywood.  On the contrary, you want your photo to be sincere, professional, and most importantly you want it to look like you.  Your photo should show you at your best. Read the rest of this entry »