7 Things to Make your Book Launch a Fantastic Success

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I love signed books and where better to get one than a book launch when the author can sign it personally for you.  But if you are an author then there is far more to a book launch than just signing your book. You need to consider the when, where and how of your launch. Now I have been to some great book launches recently and each of them has been different. Read more →

Can I get rid of adverts on my WordPress.com website?

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I was asked by one of my author clients recently if it was possible to get rid of the adverts on a WordPress.com website. You know the sort of thing – random ads appearing on your pages and in your sidebar. Sometimes these ads even appear in the middle of one of your pages between paragraphs. Well, you can now get rid of those ads, but it will cost you, of course.

WordPress.com is essentially the free version of WordPress.org which is the all singing all dancing website creation software. I am assuming that as you are reading this blog then you already know about WordPress.com and WordPress.org, so I will just concentrate on the question of adverts.

If you want to prevent adverts showing up on your WordPress.com website then you can subscribe to one of three paid plans. The one you choose will depend on what you use your website for and how much you want to spend. You can start with spending as little as £4 per month for a personal plan which will remove all the ads.  You will also get support either by email or chat if you run into difficulties and will have double the amount of space that the free version will give you.

The Premium and Business plans offer other benefits and you can compare all three plans and upgrade here:

https://wordpress.com/pricing/

It is simple to upgrade to a paid plan. Just click on the plan which best suits you and follow the instructions to link your existing website to your plan. So you don’t need to be frustrated any more by adverts appearing all over your carefully designed pages.

 

My thanks to the talented romance authors at New Romantics Press for allowing me to use their home page as an example.

 

Inspiration from Winnie the Pooh

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“What day is it?” asked Pooh.

“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.

“My favourite day,” said Pooh.”

A.A. Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh, was born this day in 1882.  Although he wrote a number of other novels and non-fiction, it is his stories about that little bear that have been a lasting legacy.

A book, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, is a wonderful legacy and is one that so many people dream of having. It doesn’t have to sell loads of copies or make you Read more →

Are you prepared if your laptop dies?

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My laptop is dying! Yep, after about 5 years and a couple of mishaps it is on the way out. It’s done well considering. At least it is giving me notice though. If I try to switch it on, it just freezes, you know the sort of thing, and then the only course of action is to switch it off, cross my fingers and try switching it on again.

But at least, as I said, it is giving me a warning, it is giving me time to prepare for its ultimate demise.  As with many of you no doubt, my whole life and work is on my laptop. Every photo, every carefully written document. You could have whole books on yours which have taken months if not years to write. Imagine not being able to access any of that information, imagine losing all your hard written words. And imagine the effort of trying to rewrite them from just your memory.

Knowing that death is imminent means I can make sure I am prepared. So I thought I would share my preparations so that you can be prepared for an unexpected death in your technological family. Read more →

‘ How Food Shapes Your Child’ wins Janey Loves Platinum Award

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It is always a delight to hear that one of our authors has won an award so we are very pleased to announce that Louise Mercieca of The Health Kick and her book How Food Shapes Your Child has won the Janey Loves Platinum Award as best parenting book. Her book, How Food Shapes Your Child, is an essential guide for parents on childhood nutrition, as well as sharing a range of fun, healthy meal ideas.   Read more →

Createspace and KDP merging – What must I do?

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If you are reading this article you have probably heard about the amalgamation of Createspace and KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and are wishing you had a crystal ball to predict what will happen. Or perhaps you can’t see the wood for the trees and are confused about what you need to do before this change takes place. Either way this article is for you.

What is an Advanced Information Sheet and how do you create one?

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I have been asked questions about an Advanced Information Sheet by a number of my authors recently so I thought the best way to answer it would be to actually create one using information from one of Goldcrest Books’ most recent publications. So, my thanks to Hester Durkan whose book Get off that Phone is featured here in this blog post.

14 Things to do on Goodreads.com

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I was invited to talk to a group of authors a while ago about Goodreads.com which is a terrific website for readers and a must for any author or aspiring author.  My talk went down very well and seemed to be of use to everyone, judging by the comments I received afterwards, so I thought I would share some of it with you today.

What is Goodreads.com?

If you haven’t come across Goodreads before then let me start by giving you some background information.

All you’ll ever need to know about ISBNs

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I am often asked about ISBNs and when they should be used and how to get one so I thought I would put together a post that answers the most frequently asked questions about this topic. 

Use your roots to promote your novel

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Have you written a novel based near your home town?