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10 Things I’ve Learned from Reading Romance Novels
Usually I’m a big reader of autobiographies, biographies, non-fiction history, and all other snobby-type books. But after a 12-hour workday sometimes I just want to forget who I am and pretend to be someone younger, prettier, sexier, etc., etc. So yeah, I read romance novels to relax. There! I’ve admitted it. Go ahead and mock me. Because you are too pretentious to read romance novels, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned from them.
1. There are a lot of 20-something billionaires out there.
I sure as hell wish I knew this when I was younger but apparently it’s true. […]
An Interview with Award-Winning Author Jinx Schwartz
Award-winning author, Jinx Schwartz, author of the Hetta Coffey Series, spends time between Arizona and Mexico. Her Hetta Coffey mystery series won the EPPIE award for Best Mystery (Just Add Water) and was a finalist for Best Mystery (Just Add Trouble).
Jinx Schwartz is the author of eight books, including the award-winning Hetta Coffey series. Hetta is a sassy Texan with a snazzy yacht and not afraid to use it!
A ninth-generation Texan, Jinx has lived and worked all over the globe, and much like the protagonist in her Hetta Coffey mystery series, she’s a woman with a yacht and […]
The Making of Fiction
Recently a reader friend, a woman I’ve never met, but with whom I’ve exchanged emails, left a review of my new novel The Car Bomb on the book’s Amazon page. Previously she had read and reviewed my two non-fiction books, Murder in the Synagogue and Squelched. That’s her preferred type of book, or genre, True Crime, and so I was a little surprised when she decided to read The Car Bomb. But, of course, I was pleased when she filed this kind review:
[…]“I am not usually a reader of fictional mystery/thriller type book, but this one was
Easy Kindle eBook Cover Design in Two Steps
One of the more challenging steps in the self-publishing process for me was creating Kindle eBook cover designs. Second most challenging I’d have to say was the formatting, but I did end up finding a solution to that. We’ll save that story for another day.
Being a writer and not a graphic designer, I had no clue how to approach book cover designs and was next to useless in Photoshop.
However, I had literally no publishing budget so I was prepared to spend some time learning new things in order to take on the entire project with little or no […]
Self-Publishing and Independent Bookstores – Together Somehow?
It’s boom times for self-publishers – online! – but not so much for self-publishers in the print world. At the same time, independent bookstores are struggling to adapt to the new technologies. I’ve been trying to think of ways to help bring these worlds together and I’ve come up with an idea – a business opportunity – and I’m putting it out there for anyone who might be interested. People who love pbooks should not have to miss out on ebooks, and self-publishers should not have to see their books alive online alone.
One of the great things about bookstores […]
Is The Self-Publishing Content Swell Leading To Mediocre Content on Kindle?
Fred Crawley of The New Statesman chews over the rise of self – published content on Kindle from an original angle – is the concept of “own-brand” consumerism affecting self-published books? Are standards slipping to give way to instant gratification? Should proofreading standards be higher? Discuss…
[…]In the digital video shops we increasingly use as our sources of film entertainment, these movies are ranked alongside genuine big-budget efforts, with only a paragraph of description and a cover design (usually the most professional component of the whole project) to distinguish them from the real deal. In this sense, we have all
Three Self-Published Photographers Talk About Their Experiences
“It was like a journey into the unknown”: Photographers with self-published books talk about their experiences, from The Observer’s Sean O’Hagan
[…]Cristina de Middel worked as a photojournalist in her native Spain for eight years before deciding she wanted to create “fictions” with her camera and created The Afronauts, which was self-published in May 2012 in an edition of 1,000 and has since become a self-publishing phenomenon, winning her a place on the Deutsche Börse shortlist and now changing hands for over £1,000 a copy. “I had no clue what would happen when I made the book,” she says,