8 Online Rules Writers Need To Know

Google 貼牌冰箱（Google Refrigerator） (Photo credit: Aray Chen)

The Laws of the (Amazon) Jungle—Eight Rules Authors Need to Know to Stay Safe

Via http://annerallen.blogspot.com

Update: This is probably now the longest blogpost in history, so I apologize. But I’ve had important updates from commenters that I’m incorporating into the post. An intellectual property lawyer has enlightened me on a lot of things I had wrong. (Scroll down to Rule #5). And South African romance writer Niki Savage has an update on Amazon’s rules for reviewing authors in your own genre (Rule #2) Thanks for all the helpful comments!Everybody tells authors we must use social media to have successful careers in the E-age, but nobody talks much about the dangers that lurk here.

Here’s the thing: the Internet is still the wild frontier. And it’s so huge nobody’s quite sure how to police it.  Big, loosely regulated social media sites seem to encourage the worst in human behavior. Facebook allows people to make hate pages for celebrities with happy abandon, and the comments on news sites and You Tube can make you want to wash your eyeballs.You Tube is making some sweeping changes to try to curb some of the more horrifying comments. You’ll soon need a Google+ account to log in. (Google+ is set to become the most important player for business in social media. We’ll have a post on that in a few weeks.)Online nastiness is so pervasive that even some literary sites have become more like a jungle full of feces-throwing monkeys than a place for civilized discourse. READ MORE HERE.

Amazon, eBooks, and the demise of Borders and bookshop culture (via MaggieCakes)

I miss my neighborhood Borders! How about you?

The era of the big box bookstore is coming to an end and I, for one, am saddened by this.  Yes, I know they were big, bad corporate giants that came in and destroyed neighborhood bookstores and coffee shops, ending third places and stifling locally-owned businesses in many communities.  All that’s true – and awful. But at this point, the closing of your local Borders isn’t likely to mean that a locally-owned bookstore is going to spring up in its … Read More

via MaggieCakes

You Have A Book Idea. Now What?

Image via Wikipedia

When I’m writing I often wonder if the book idea I have in my head has been done already. Well, we all know that everything has been done. What we have to do as writer’s is put our own individual spin on it. Easier said than done. Or is it?

A few ways to ease your mind is to do some research for your book idea. Perhaps some reading would be good. So where to start? One place I start is with the library. The library website in your area will have a catalog method in which you can search by title and subject. This is a quick and easy way to see what has already been done.

If you are interested in checking to see what’s happening around the world then you could search the World Catalog site. This site lists all of the library catalogs and you can find so much interesting information here that could help enhance your book idea. If you haven’t checked it out you really should.

The old faithfuls will be Amazon, Google, Good Reads and Shelfari to name a few. Get online. Do some searching and researching. Have fun and you will learn a lot. Good luck!

 

National Children’s Book Week

As a writer I feel this is a great holiday!  This is a good time for all of us to focus on getting to know new authors and illustrators. We can discover new books that are fun to read and share.

This is also a great week to donate books to local charities so that others can experience and share in the festivities for the whole week too!

Ask your librarian where you can go to vote this week for your favorite authors and stories. As always, happy reading!