This Week in the Blogs, June 7 – 13, 2014

Although we can’t all take dear old Dad to an island in the Maldives for Fathers Day, we can tip our hats to all dads out there—Thanks for all you do! And while you’re out at the beach or the park, or watching the World Cup, spend a little time catching up on some of the best articles published this week.

K.S. Brooks on Indies Unlimited
Amazon’s New Series Pages
“Last year, Smashwords introduced a neat tool called Series Manager which allows authors to link books in the same series together for better discoverability. Well guess what? Amazon has now done the same thing. Supposedly. But not quite. Frankly – not at all.”

Frances Caballo on Social Media Just For Writers
Writers: Use Visuals to Market Your Books
“I never describe myself as a visual person. I can open the refrigerator door expecting one of our lunchtime salads to be gobbled up and not see a big, fresh salad that my husband made for me in the morning.”

Holly Brady on Holly Brady
Goodreads offers authors a new way to connect with readers
“One of the most intriguing announcements at Book Expo 2014 was about Goodreads’ new “Ask the Author” feature. If you’re signed up as an author on Goodreads, you can now host your own Q&A sessions, thus making new connections with your readers.”

Nina Amir on How to Blog a Book
How to Prepare for Your Virtual Book Tour
“After completing four of my own virtual book tours, I can tell you from experience that preparation plays a key role in the success of your tour. A discussed previously, you need to choose your tour stops and invite invite hosts, but you also must plan the content you will provide. Additionally, you need to determine how you will make time to produce those posts—anywhere from two or three to 30. And you need to keep track of all the moving pieces—hosts, deadlines, content, social media promotion, etc.”

Dara Beevas and Amy Quale on Wise Ink
The Simple Pre-Proofing Checklist
“When inspiration strikes and words are flowing onto the page, it’s understandable to bypass proper grammar rules. You’re in the zone. Ideas are more important than commas. But when you’re out of the drafting stage and ready to take on serious proofreading, missing punctuation and wrong words are inexcusable.”

Cover Template 25% Off Promotion Running Until Wednesday

On Friday we launched our new Book Cover Template for Microsoft Word, and the response was both immediate and excited.

I was a bit surprised by the level of interest, but getting that 25% off on any templates or services during the promotion didn’t hurt either.

The discount lowers the price of the new Cover Template from $57 to $42.75. The template package is itself a bundle of tools to help authors get print book covers done quickly and easily if they want to use Microsoft Word.

I’ve even heard from book publishing professionals from big vendors who are impressed at how this product works. Pretty amazing.

You can check it out—including our 5 new instructional videos—here: Book Cover Template for Microsoft Word, and don’t miss the 2:29 video on that page that shows exactly how the template works.

But don’t put it off: that sale will end on Wednesday night at midnight Pacific time. I wouldn’t want you to miss it.

Photo: bigstockphoto.com