Uniqueness vs. Productivity in Writing

Nicholas C. Rossis

This is a guest post by Paula Hicks. Paula is an experienced journalist from Romania. She currently lives in the US and works as a freelance editor for a number of educational resources. Her big dream is to open a publishing house in Europe. Connect with her on Twitter.

Does Every Writer Have a Specific Trait that Differs Them from the Rest?

Whenever you’re trying to find tips on how to be a better writer, you hear this one: be unique!

It sounds logical. If, for example, you’re trying to reduce the bounce rate on your blog, producing unique content may be a solution. You have to be different from all other bloggers, so the audience will recognize your style and will want more of it.

The Problem with Uniqueness

“Stay unique” is an important advice for a novelist or a blogger. When you’re a freelance writer or a…

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How to Add Expanded Distribution to KDP Print Books

chrismcmullen

EXPANDED DISTRIBUTION

KDP’s print option now includes an Expanded Distribution channel.

It may not (yet) be equivalent to CreateSpace’s Expanded Distribution, but it’s another big step in the right direction.

When KDP print originally rolled out, CreateSpace was a much better option.

Since then, KDP has added printed proofs and author copies.

(For authors based in Europe, KDP offers a huge advantage: You can order proofs and author copies printed in Europe.)

KDP lets you advertise paperback books through AMS.

CreateSpace automatically distributes to Canada and pays the same royalties as the US for Canadian sales, which is nice.

IMPORTANT NOTE

If you already published a paperback book using KDP print before the Expanded Distribution option became available, your book isn’t included in Expanded Distribution yet.

Go to the pricing page.

Check the box to enroll in the Expanded Distribution channel.

(This checkbox is quirky. Make sure you only click…

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Amazon #PRIMEDAY book savings WOW! #AmazonPrime

chrismcmullen

Amazon image use guidelines: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml%3Fc%3D176060%26p%3Dirol-logos

SAVE ON BOOKS ON AMAZON PRIME DAY

Prime Day, 2018 has begun. Technically, it is Tuesday, July 17, but it started on the afternoon of Monday, July 16.

Amazon is obviously getting huge traffic right now, so if their website is a little quirky, just be patient or try again later.

Compared to previous Amazon Prime Days, I like this one MUCH, MUCH BETTER.

Why?

Because this year it looks like Amazon wants to sell millions and millions of BOOKS (even more than usual) on Prime Day.

Both print books and Kindle eBooks.

I even saw offers to save money on my books this year, which was nice.

Although my books didn’t appear to be discounted when I checked the current price, I did notice a GREAT SAVINGS opportunity.

First, I’ll show you where to find the SAVINGS for eligible PRINT books:

• Look to the…

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What did Amazon pay for Kindle Unlimited pages read in June, 2018?

chrismcmullen

JUNE, 2018 KINDLE UNLIMITED PAGES READ:

$0.0046 per page is how much Amazon paid for Kindle Unlimited pages read in June, 2018.

This is a slight improvement over May ($0.00454) and April ($0.00456). It has been fairly steady this year.

$22.6 million is the KDP Select Global Fund for June, 2018.

This is a slight improvement over May ($22.5 million) and April ($21.2 million).

Write Happy, Be Happy

Chris McMullen

Author of the Improve Your Math Fluency series of math workbooks and self-publishing guides

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Focusing Your Novel With a Journalist’s Trick

A Writer's Path

by Andrea Lundgren

Okay, perhaps it’s more of a tool than a trick, but journalists have been using the “Who-What-Where-When-Why-and-How” format on hard news pieces for well over a century (to judge by the sort of articles they write, where each of these items are addressed), and I’ve found the six questions are equally useful when writing a novel.

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The Odds of Advertising Your Book

A Writer's Path

by Richard Risemberg

This is the way it is: if your book does not enjoy extensive publicity, it will not sell.

This is not a hard and fast rule, as miracles do happen through word of mouth, but the odds favor ads in this word of white noise that we live in. Sure, Moby Dick is a classic now, but it was a flop in Melville’s lifetime, even though he had already published two bestsellers!

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SSL Security And Social Share Counts

Nicholas C. Rossis

As those of you who are self-hosting your websites will probably know, beginning this month (July) with the release of Chrome 68, Google Chrome will start marking all HTTP sites as “not secure”:

Depending on your traffic, this may or may not be an issue. Still, many of you will upgrade your hosting with an additional security measure called a Security Socket Layer–or SSL. As the rather technical name suggests, what this does is make sure that the communication between your server and a visitor is secure. As far as web users are concerned, the only difference is that the prefix to their website address will now be HTTPS instead of HTTP, the extra S indicating this is now a Secure server.

Some hosts already provide this free of charge, while others will charge for the upgrade. But there is a snag: the moment you make the move to HTTPS,

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5 Main Benefits of Creative Writing Workshops

A Writer's Path

by Sara Kopeczky

Joining a creative writing workshop can be scary, especially for beginners, because allowing others to read your writing means also allowing them to criticize your work as well (hopefully in a constructive way). However, I think that the pros by far outweigh the cons. Here are some of the major advantages of creative writing workshops I have identified so far from my own experience:

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StumbleUpon is Shutting Down

Nicholas C. Rossis

I usually get some 300-400 views on my posts. There were some exceptions, though. A couple of times, I had a few thousand views out of nowhere. Or, at least, that’s what it looked like. After a brief examination, I realized the extra visitors had come courtesy of StumbleUpon.

Which is why I was sad to hear that, after 16 years, StumbleUpon shut down on June 30, 2018.

Before posts and tweets, before snaps and pins, StumbleUpon was providing endless internet entertainment with just the push of a button. In its 16 years, it served up nearly 60 billion stumbles to over 40 million Stumblers, and infinite hours of “woah, cool” moments.

Welcome Mix

However, there is a silver lining. The people behind StumbleUpon, have started up Mix! On Mix, people can build shareable collections of their favorite finds across the internet: articles, videos, podcasts, and more. As you curate…

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Why You Should Rewrite and Not Edit

A Writer's Path

by Teagan Berry

Congratulations. You’ve just finished a novel. You’ve taken some time to decompress and relax, away from the world of writing, but now you need to dive in and start getting your piece ready for publication.

The first edit. That’s a term I’ve mentioned before, even written a whole post about it. Though looking back on the process I went through then, I should have probably titled that blog post The First Rewrite. Because when it comes down to it, that’s what it really was.

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