Writers Remedies

Wordpress seems to be the platform to rave about. It’s the essential website design tool if you have a business, you are a celebrity or a media guru. But for those who simply want to share ideas and articles, I have found Blogger is much better. Here’s why. Most of the features on Wordpress require you to sign up for a plan. Even the smallest thing such as the use of a font on your webpage.  The message comes up: ‘purchase to use Typekit fonts on your site’. In other words, you have to sign up for Wordpress’s premium plan which requires a yearly fee. I don’t want to pay to use a font when I have already paid to use Word. Which is Better Wordpress or Blogger? On Blogger, you can use any font you want for free. On Wordpress, you can’t custom the background colors of your site for free. You have to sign up for a premium plan to do so. I didn’t know colors had to be purchased. Are they copyrighted? On blogger, you can use any background color you like. You ca...

I am thrilled to see a book review of my psychological thriller A Hard Lesson in the summer 2015 Edition of Patoss Magazine. They have reviewed my novel because one of the main characters has dyslexia. I have yet to encounter any fictional character with dyslexia, but am sure they exist. According to Dyslexia Action , 1 in 10 people have dyslexia. But this does not seem to be reflected in fiction or the entertainment industry in general. This is a shame, as people with dyslexia tend to be more creative and think outside of the box. Buy from Amazon The Patoss Bulletin is a magazine for teachers and students dealing with specific learning difficulties. A book review section can be found in the back, which rates all manner of books and resources connected with different learning styles, as this magazine recognizes lateral thinking. Fictional Character with Dyslexia Here is what Patoss Magazine has said about A Hard Lesson: “A psychological thriller which, after a slow ...

The Audio Book Reviewer gives narrators the opportunity to complete a questionnaire about their experience of book narration. Questions like how did you get into narrating audiobooks? Which narrators do you admire and what is the hardest part of narrating audiobooks gives food for thought for every narrator. Mastering Audiobook Narration Narrating and producing audiobooks is one of the hardest things I have ever done, particularly since I knew nothing about audiobook narration before taking up the challenge in 2015. Challenges of Book Narration But after filling in the questionnaire, have become aware of what I have learned after this challenge and the sort of style I have developed after narrating 7 audiobooks. Accents are tough to master, since I do not have a strong regional accent, despite coming from the Midlands. As every narrator must be aware, differentiating between characters is important, or the listener may not be sure who is supposed to be speaking. I have h...

Audio book Giveaway Win a copy of my audiobook Eclipse Quartet Four Psychological Thrillers by entering this sweepstake hosted by Rafflecopter. All you need to do is tweet me and subscribe to this blog. In return, you could receive a 32 hour audio book containing 4 thrillers. View Eclipse Quartet on Audible. Update. The winners have now been announced. Thanks to all for entering the prize draw! a Rafflecopter giveaway

I don’t believe in purchasing followers on Twitter. What would be the point? All the followers on my Twitter page are genuine. There aren’t many at the moment, but quality is better than quantity. The followers on my page are those I like to reach. Real people: authors, book lovers, audiobook narrators and book publishers. It is a given that Audible, ACX, Kindle and GoodReads are included. But individuals are important. Some wildcards that I simply find interesting are included; creative people from various sectors. Posting Interesting Tweets I am careful about what I post. I don’t spam and go on and on about my books. I will post an excerpt now and again, to keep my books in the feed, but I will also post useful tips about writing, how to market ebooks and other useful info, such as how to format large print books and how to fill in a tax return if the writer lives in the UK. As an avid reader, I will also post book reviews. Sharing useful information will more often ...

The indie writer had become caught in a web within the Web. Yes, self publishing has created a revolution in the publishing world. Now anyone can publish their books online. And this is great, because the reason most writers write is because there are stories within the head vying for a way out. So the writer writes, edits, conceives a blurb and designs a book cover. And once the novel is complete, it is self published somewhere. Getting Reviews isn't easy Chances are, the book will be found on KDP Amazon, Smashwords, Createspace, GoodReads, Lulu and other such places. Every writer wants their work to be read. Not to be unread. Not being read is the writer’s nightmare. Not being read takes away the point of writing. Writers like to be read. After all, writing is about communication. Many writers even put their books out for free just to be read. How Not to Get Your Book Read Now what happens? Chances are, there will be a few or no sales because there are millions o...

Write great articles with lots of traffic, yet your Adsense sucks. Why? You haven’t optimized your affiliate ads to the best effect. Who wants to look at a page that is cluttered with affiliate ads? The key to a money making article is to place your ads discreetly on your web page, yet entice the reader to click through. Here are some tips on how to get the most of your Adsense. Adsense Heat Map. Hot is Good Think of the visitor first. Make sure your webpage, whether hosted on a blog or other website offers something valuable the visitor is looking for. This might be vital information or advice on finding the best services. An example is how to format your own book or where to find the best formatting services for book design if you do not wish to do this yourself. The image represents the general rule of thumb of Adsense hotspots. Hot is good, cool, not so much. But one size fits all is to be avoided. Experiment with your Google ad placements and shift your ads around to ...

I have been blogging for seven years and have seen many myths written on the internet about how to make money blogging. Here is my personal list of mistakes you cannot afford to make if you want to make cash blogging: Don’t write about something you don’t care about. Your blog will fail after 3 months max, even if the subject purports to be lucrative. Buy from Amazon Don’t spend lots of time on social media and such stuff. Twitter, Facebook and Linkdin will not earn you cash directly, only bits of traffic now and again and will eat at your valuable writing time. Don’t clutter your blog with gadgets that are going to slow you pages down. The reader will click away after getting bored. Attention span is microseconds on the Internet. Don’t write about something timely such as SmartPhones and the latest gadgets. Such subject matter will be yesterday’s news before you know it and traffic to these pages will die before you know it. Don’t write about something that is...

In my experience, and I have done both. With audio book production, much can go wrong and often does. I shall relate to painting Da Vinci’s masterpiece at the foot of this article. I started producing audio books in January 2015 knowing nothing about sound equipment and learned everything the hard way from scratch. Here’s what I learned: Don’t Go Cheap on Audio Equipment Sound Editing for Audio Books Initially, I brought an off-the-shelf condenser mic that gave a tinny edge to my voice and recorded plosives no matter what I did (even with a pop filter and standing some feet away). I sent it back and went for the Rode which solved everything. It gives a warm, clear sound and it comes with its own pop filter – studio standard. You can’t go wrong with a Rode microphone. My Scarlett Solo interface, PC and Audacity free sound editing software and my homemade recording booth (fashioned from a table stood on its side, covered with duvets and lined with acoustic foam) mean...

Purchasing audio books from Audible offers a choice of plans. You can have one membership credit per month for the upload of one audio book, or two credits for two. You may opt to purchase audio books one-off without being a member of Audible at all, but this means purchasing the book for its listed price, which can be very costly. But there are ways of getting more out of Audible credits than first impressions. Here’s how. Make the Most of Audible Credits Make the Most of Voucher Codes on Audible Audible will use various means of enticing the audio book lover to sign up for a membership plan, one such way is to offer free membership for the first 30 days. If you decide to sign up for a membership plan, you can go for £7.99 per month for 1 credit (or one audio book), or 2 credits, £14.99 (or two books) per month. One membership credit allows you to upload any audio book, regardless of its price or length. This is interesting to note, as the writers of tomes such as Ste...