Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 184
January 10, 2013
Reading Out Loud . . .
What are you doing on March 6th, 2013? It’s a Wednesday… Are you an author, or a reader, or a publisher, or a teacher, or just an ordinary kind of person? Ever read a book aloud—to other people? Ever thought reading aloud to others can be a form of aiding literacy?? I have two other [...]
Top 20 Search Terms That Got People To This Blog . . .
I’ve been writing in this blog for 2 years and 10 days, 5 times a week… I need your help in deciphering some data. Most bloggers keep track of statistics. How many Views does the blog have? —> 41,642 as of this moment… But, Views is a tricky number—it doesn’t mean how many people visited. [...]
January 8, 2013
How To Find The Time To Write
Creative writing takes quite a bit of time—it takes your mind—it takes your feelings—some feel like it takes your soul… I’m sure there are many potential authors—folks who could entertain or educate—people the world should listen to—who will never write because they feel they have no TIME… For those who may be on the edge [...]
Is Counting Words An Important Part of Being A Writer?
If you’re not a writer, Word Count may sound like some child’s game, yet many writers consider it critical to their craft. There are a ton of widgets to count words and many quite respectable software tools for writers include word count functionality. If you’re a freelance writer, not adhering to the required word count [...]
January 7, 2013
Future Opportunities for Authors ~ Closer Than You Might Think . . .
“Is the Internet (and digital gadgetry) killing the novel, literary life and deep thinking? Do we live in an era of information abundance and opportunity—or an era of information overload and distraction?” That quote is from an article by Jane Friedman in the Virginia Quarterly Review—Being a Creative Person in an Ever-Changing Digital Age. Jane [...]
January 4, 2013
Where The Heck Do Writers Find Their Characters?
Does that title seem naive—overly simplistic—maybe, misdirected? Well, anyway, some characters are found in history—some are borrowed from history—some are family or friends—some, somewhat disguised family or friends… Then there are the characters composed from bits of all those sources. And, while there’s nothing wrong with “borrowing” characters or parts of them (as long as [...]
January 3, 2013
Indie Authors Are Learning How To Act Like Publishers
There are a growing group of folks out there who believe in (and, are working toward) a situation where there doesn’t have to be anyone between the author and their readers—except a bit of highly sophisticated technology :-) If you’ve been keeping up with the changes in publishing you might think that last statement should [...]
January 1, 2013
Is Amazon The “Only” Place To Publish An E-Book?
Some folks, those who’ve spent some time exploring the new publishing options, might read the title of this post and wonder how I could ever say something like that. Other folks, who haven’t yet looked closely at the array of e-book options, just might be led to believe Amazon is the only place, or maybe [...]
Book-World Predictions for 2013
One of my friends recently said, “2013—just the numbers make me feel like I’m living in a science fiction story…” Yes, much of what’s happening in Reading, Writing, and Publishing can seem like it’s coming from sci-fi and lots of it is dystopian sci-fi… But, before we look ahead, let’s look at some results from [...]
December 30, 2012
How To Help Your Favorite Authors
Authors need all the help they can get—what with shoddy treatment from publishers and the massive number of books being produced—they can definitely use your help :-) I’m reproducing, with the author’s permission, an article from Lindsay Buroker‘s site. ~~~~~~~~~ As authors, we spend a lot of time trying to promote our books. Our biggest [...]
