Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 143

The Noble Typewriter

I was the only boy in my grade school typewriting class.

Image courtesy of andrew eldridge ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/andreweld

I wish my memory were better so I could determine if I wanted to be a writer way back then…

But, what else is a typewriter for?

Ever use one?

I also used a slide rule for math when I was in nuclear training in the Navy.

I guess I’m on the older side of young :-)

Returning to typewriters, did you know they’d been conceived of as early as 1714—check out this typewrit...

25+ Book Recommendation Sites

Last year I wrote a post listing the “top 10″ book recommendation platforms.

Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bouquin_%C3%A9lectronique_iLiad_sur_une_pile_de_livre_dehors_au_soleil.jpg

Of course, any listing of the “top” sites has a bit of bias built in—your “top” may not be my “top”…

And, plenty of people would say GoodReads is the Top since it’s touted as the largest and most-used reading-recommender.

However, last month, I found an article in the Self-Publishing Review that...

You Decide ~ Which Genre Should Sell Best?

There is a poll for you to take but I have to reveal the results of the poll about polls—“Should I have a new poll every Friday?“

Image Courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/profile/iamwahid

“Agree” and “Strongly Agree” totaled 40%.

“Disagree” and “Strongly Disagree” totaled 20%

I took the idea for this first Friday Poll from the “Other” responses…

You can definitely pick more than one :-)

And, “Other” is where you can vote for genres I didn’t happen to include…

Take Our Poll

Brand New Way To Self-Publish ~ Especially, If You Didn’t Think You Ever Would…

I once said there might be too many ways to self-publish.

Image courtesy of Tracy Olson ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/designkryt

At least it could seem so when you’re considering the possibility and you have to decide the best way to do it…

I’ve settled on two ways—FastPencil and Smashwords (though, I did recently publish a book of Fantasy Tales on Kindle Direct).

Then, yesterday, I got an email from FastPencil that said they’re “…offering all Evernote users the ability to instantly self-pu...

Self-Publishing 101 ~ “What’s It All About?” & “Where’s The Money?”

I’ve written about 200 posts on my blog about Self vs Traditional Publishing over the last three years.

Image Courtesy of Rae Grimm ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/bloodylery

Even if you read all my posts and the many other articles I link to, you’d still need to read much more to fully understand what’s going on in the book world…

However, many writers, due to the relative ease of self-publishing, read a bit, prep their manuscript, and publish—usually learning by this method how not to do i...

Do You Own Your E-books?

I remember the first time I heard that Amazon can take e-books back after you buy them—I felt violated…

Image from Wikipedia ~ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mia5793

But, I recently published my second e-book, this time directly with Amazon, and discovered I have some control over what they do.

I discovered, as the author, that I could choose whether or not the book had DRM applied.

I chose to let the reader have some say—without DRM the purchaser can copy the e-book to another device an...

Is That Really A Word??

I’ve written a number of posts explaining how I understand words—one of the slipperiest things we humans use.

Image by Christian Ferrari ~ http://christian-ferrari.blogspot.com/

I was deep in discussion with my Best Friend last night and she made the eloquent observation that words are, in fact, slippery…

It seems that words come from some other realm, change meanings like chameleons, and slip our minds like cat burglars.

Of course, I’m only talking about English words because I have scant unders...

Strange Fantasies

From Psychology Today: “Fantasies are not frivolous. They can be entertaining, distracting, frightening, even arousing, but they also allow for creativity and help us plan for the future.”

I’m doing a rare Saturday post because I’ve just released STRANGE FANTASIES—31 Short Tales of Mystery and Wonder.

Yes, the stories are available as individual posts; but, now you can have all 31 Strange Fantasies on your Kindle for 99 cents.

It took me 7 months of Fridays to write them and I worked hard to “be...

A Poll About Polls

Getting feedback on a blog isn’t necessary if the blogger’s motivated by a strong sense of service.

Image courtesy of Craig Parylo ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/parylo00

But it is nice to know what readers feel and think…

I’m feeling like I should start a new kind of post—the Friday Poll.

But, I need to give you a poll to see what you want…

I’m stopping the Friday Fantasies (they’ll still be available to read here) but I’ll soon be publishing them as an e-book.

So, simple poll today—you’re ch...

COMING SOON ~ “The World’s Best Story”!

NEWS ALERT: “Enter the first social contest to reward writers and readers in the search for the next blockbuster story.”

This is for Writers & Readers—with prizes for both.

My favorite publishing-aid company, Fastpencil, has teamed up with World’s Best Story to offer a stunning set of prizes! {check out the Full List below}

I’ll let Kevin Flight, their Account Manager, tell you what they’re up to:

“We’re coming down to the wire in the entry phase of the World’s Best Story contest that aims to fin...