Hillary DePiano's Blog, page 2

On Writing & COVID (& Camp NaNoWriMo)

About a week ago, you couldnt go online without someone reminding you that Shakespeare wrote King Lear during quarantine so you have no excuse not to write that novel now!

And then somehow weve gone full circle from that to people saying that if you ARE being productive and writing right now, youre a soulless ghoul without empathy for everyone who is suffering.

And, wild as a theory as it may be, I feel perhaps there is some middle ground between those two extremes?

Maybe writing is hard...

Status update (and a Kindle Countdown deal)

So, um, hows everyone holding up out there?

Very interesting times were living in, no?

Anyone else just, like, completely cracked out on fear and uncertainty right now?

My oldest is still in school but they switch to online learning (and who the heck knows how THATs going to work but it sounds a lot like I just became a home school parent for the foreseeable future) and my husband will start working from home on Tuesday and only go into work as needed. I am the most worried about my parents...

Book Review: My Publishing Imprint: How to Create a Self-Publishing Book Imprint & ISBN Essentials

My Publishing Imprint: How to Create a Self-Publishing Book Imprint & ISBN Essentials
by David Wogahn [ BUY ]

Once upon a time, I used to work for a popular self-publishing company and reading this book I kept thinking of dozens of writers I worked with in those days that needed to be walloped over the head with the information in My Publishing Imprint. You would not believe what I saw in those days, people using another random persons name as the name of their publishing imprint without so much...

SendFox Review: Email Marketing for a single $49 Lifetime fee

Review in a hurry: SendFox is a simple email marketing platform for an unbeatable one time price, ideal for artists, authors and small businesses who don’t need a lot of frills beyond basic mailing list automation. While it has its quirks and limitations, it’s still new and therefore safe to expect improvements and new features will be added in the future.

SendFox

There’s a new email marketing platform in town called SendFox. From the people behind AppSumo, SendFox is brandy new and offering...

Should you write by hand? Handwriting pros and cons

Writing by hand

There’s something about taking a favorite pen and a pretty notebook and just letting the words pour out. It’s an almost magical process where ideas can flow directly through your hand through the satisfying physical sensation of ink on paper. Or so I’ve been told since my joints are so bad I can’t handwrite for more than a few minutes before my fingers cramp up in pain.

Writing by hand is not for everyone. But if it’s what works for you, don’t let our gizmo-loving world...

How to Make Self-Publishing a Profitable Side Hustle

You’ve probably heard the flashiest self-publishing success stories. There’s The Martian, the sci-fi blockbuster that lost Matt Damon an Oscar in 2016. It began its sales life as a 99-cent Kindle download. And there’s the Fifty Shades trilogy, which infamously originated as Twilight fanfiction. Scrubbed clean of copyright violations and released through print-on-demand, it transformed Fanfiction.net user “Snowqueens Icedragon” into multimillionaire author E.L. James.

Of course, it’s not all...

Resolve to Let It Go

Happy new years, friends! Is it just me or has this year simultaneously been flying by and also felt it’s already been at least five years long? Have you managed to wrap your head around the whole 2020 thing yet? I still can’t write it without feeling like I should replicate myself some earl grey and hop into my flying car. That somehow what my brain has always pictured as the future is the present is beyond the capacity of my imagination. Speaking of imagination, I’m going to need you to use...

The Impact of Mobile Devices on Ecommerce

Ever done some shopping on your cell phone? Who am I kidding, of course you have! Smartphones have completely changed the ecommerce landscape over the last few years and sellers who ignore that are doing so at their peril. Here’s a guest post from Karthik Reddy, Community ManageratWebmastersjury.org on just how much mobile devices have changed the way people shop!

-T. W. Seller

The number of monetary transactions done on mobile devices is increasing. A research carried out by experts at ...

5 Tips to Get Into a Writing Habit in 2020

Everything has been a bit bananas over here (Why must kids get sick so often? Why???) and I’m a bit behind on the blog. While I try to get my feet back under me, I’m turning the blog over to Reedsy’s Thao Nguyen today for a great guest post on starting a writing habit (an essential part of Building a Writing Life). -Hillary Every January, you tell yourself: “This is it! This will be my year.” You’re going to write that book and get it published.… Read more

The post 5 Tips to Get Into a...

Book Review: Write Your Book in a Flash: The Paint-by-Numbers System to Write the Book of Your Dreams—FAST!

Write Your Book in a Flash: The Paint-by-Numbers System to Write the Book of Your Dreams—FAST! by Dan Janal [BUY]

I am always kind of skeptical of books that talk about writing speed and have exclamation points in their title because it always feels slightly snake-oily but I also feel like, a whole bunch of books into my writing career, it still takes me too dang long to finish a book so I decided to give this one a try. Dan Janal was kind enough to send me a free copy of Write Your Book in a...