So what does the news that Amazon is to acquire Goodreads actually mean for us self-publishers?  Most of us relish Goodreads, and actively star each other’s work, as Goodreads proves to be a more successful platform for honest consumer review than Amazon in some ways – less glitchy than the strange process used by Amazon’s [...]

Today I have a recent interview with Bestselling Author Tara Sivec. She is the author of the Chocolate Lovers series and the top ranking novel, A Beautiful Lie, the first book in the Playing with Fire series. Author Genre: Romance/Suspense, Humor, Chick Lit About the Author: Tara Sivec is a wife, mom, chauffeur, soccer coach, babysitter, short-order [...]

I want to tell you about something that happened to me a couple of months ago. After spending most of 2012 working on the edits of my second novel and putting off multiple opportunities to visit family in the process, the prospect of killing two birds with one stone—visiting family and promoting the book—seemed like [...]

  I have a Free Book Promotion coming up and I keep hearing the George Strait song ‘Give it Away’ playing in my ears. (Now you know where I get some of the inspirations for  my posts). It was time for me to do some research and talk to several  successful authors on how to do [...]

A former mobile disc jockey, voiceover artist and Crazy Eddie store manager, William Westhoven was a full-time journalist from 1989 to 2011, when he fell victim to newspaper industry-wide layoffs. Since then, he has switched to fiction, writing and self-publishing novels. One-Hit Willie, a historical novel that covers 50 years of music in America, was [...]

Present Returning to my last article on SPR, one year later, I’m struck by a comment left by a reader named Ron Fritsch.  The article was about my self publishing experiment, the Bookdrive, and Ron seemed to really like my idea. He liked the potential of a multimedia reading experience provided by a USB Book. [...]

Today I have a recent interview with award-winning author Melissa Foster. She is the author of three International bestselling novels and the founder of the World Literary Café, Fostering Success and the social and support network for women, the Women’s Nest. Author Genre: Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers Author Description: Award-winning, bestselling author Melissa [...]

Boyd Morrison fits no easy stereotypes for a novelist. With a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University, he first worked for Lockheed and NASA on a space station and other projects. He returned to grad school to earn a Ph.D. in industrial engineering at Virginia Tech. His specialty in ergonomics led him to [...]

Melissa McPhail is a classically trained pianist, violinist and composer, a Vinyasa yoga instructor, and an avid Fantasy reader. A long-time student of philosophy, she is passionate about the Fantasy genre because of its inherent philosophical explorations. For this interview, we focus on the author’s selection and use of languages in creating a world for [...]

Whatever your budget, chances are you could do with a few free photos for your author blog or even your book’s cover. This article explores several websites offering the use of royalty-free images at no cost to you. You also need to familiarize yourself with different types of licensing when using royalty-free images. DON’T GET [...]