It seems like everyone wants to cool off these days, and I’m sure there will be a break in the weather soon enough. That doesn’t mean things are cooling down in the indie publishing scene, so take a few minutes to cool off with your favorite beverage while you enjoy this week’s picks.

David Gaughran on Let’s Get Visible
Penguin Random House Merger Helps Author Solutions Exploit Writers
“Needless to say, all that has happened in the year since is that Penguin has aggressively expanded the operations of Author Solutions – a task that is a little easier when you can add the names of two historic publishing houses to your logo, and to your sales pitches.”

Kimberley Grabas on Your Writer Platform
How To Target an Audience (And Avoid Book Launch Flop)
“One of the biggest mistakes writers make as fledgling authorpreneurs is believing that the larger the potential market, the greater the chances that their book (or freelance services) will get noticed. In fact, the opposite is often true.”

Brad Frazer on Jane Friedman
Is It Fair Use? 7 Questions to Ask Before Using Copyrighted Material
“One defense against copyright infringement is fair use. Fair use allows you to use someone’s copyrighted work without permission. However, invoking fair use is not a straightforward matter.”

Victoria McNally on BookWorks
Hashtags, Tweets and RTs — Here Are the Twitter Terms You Need to Know
“This is a dictionary of sorts for all the new words and definitions that have come out of this micro-blogging platform since it first hit the Internet in 2005. Once you have of all these terms down, you’ll be ready to hit the Twitterverse.”

Jennifer Kennard on Letterology
The Great Book Cover Project
“Levente Szabo has all the markings of a great book cover designer; a rare combination of diversified talents including conceptual design, illustration and typography. I hope his dream of producing The Great Book Cover Project results in a great dream career of designing books.”

Want to Get Started on Twitter?

This week I’ll be presenting a webinar in conjunction with the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) called Twitter for Authors. Here’s the write up on what you can expect:

Tweets are showing up on television, hashtags are popping up in retail promotions, and live tweeting is taking place at every event from the Olympics to the recent elections. Everybody’s talking about building your “platform” to support your book marketing efforts and make your work go viral.

Instead of getting lost in the blizzard of status updates that dominate Facebook, you can use Twitter to focus your book marketing, and you can do it in 15 minutes a day.

But how do you get traction, amass a following, and really get the amazing benefits that this network can produce?
In this fast-paced webinar, you’ll learn:

• The value of the most important 160 characters in social media (your Twitter profile), and why so many people get this wrong
• The biggest mistake newbies make, and how to avoid it
• Which programs power users rely on to manage huge Twitter followings
• A sane and steady approach to long-term platform growth
• Power tips to find the communities of followers that will help you grow your platform
• Easy ways to track your networking progress
• The single most important part of any Tweet when it comes to impact
• The secrets of #chats, #hashtags, #lists, RT, MT and more

Twitter has made it possible for authors to leverage the power of their writing—no matter where it first appears—across the social Internet. Join us to learn how you can use this great tool yourself.

The webinar will be a live event:

When: This Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Time: 11:00 a.m. PST / 2:00 p.m. EST
Info: Check out the Registration Page for more info and to register.

“See” you on the webinar!

Photo: bigstockphoto.com.