This Week in the Blogs, May 12 – 18, 2018

POSTED ON May 20, 2018

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Self-Publishing, Social Media > This Week in the Blogs, May 12 – 18, 2018

By Shelley Sturgeon

The holiday weekends of the summer have commenced here in North America. For many, these weekends are all about relaxing, maybe going camping and getting back in touch with nature. Often part of that relaxation includes reading a good book. Just think! Maybe this time next year, someone will be reading YOUR book!

Be sure to check back here next Sunday for our Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. You won’t want to miss it!

Sandra Beckwith on Build Book Buzz
How to interact with readers on Goodreads
““I can’t figure out Goodreads!” … It’s a common author lament. While Goodreads is a social network of sorts, the site for book lovers doesn’t look, feel, or operate like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms you might use.”

Cate Baum on Self-Publishing Review
GDPR – How it Affects Authors in 2018 – With FREE Privacy Policy Template
“If you’ve been relying on a mailing list to sell books online, or you sell books from your website, you need to know about the GDPR, a new law that comes into effect on May 25, 2018 that protects people online from spam and unwanted data sharing.”

Nate Hoffelder on The Digital Reader
Nate’s Big List of eBook Market Analytic Tools
“Finding the right niche / genre / keywords to market your book, and then parsing the sales data once your ebook is on the market, can mean the difference between a best-seller book and one no one has ever heard of.”

Frances Caballo on Social Media Just for Writers
Got Nothing to Say on Social Media? Check Out These Examples!
“If you’re still feeling confused about how to best present the information you’ve curated, don’t worry. Keep reading and you’ll learn how to write the best social media updates.”

Ali Luke on Aliventures
Everything You Need to Know About Writing Brilliant Blog Posts
“Over the last eight years, I’ve written hundreds (probably thousands!) of blog posts for dozens of different blogs. … I’ve also written quite a bit about blogging. e looking for data about an industry or you want to follow current trends, following are some resources to use.”

Self-Publishing News You Can Use

By Amy Collins

Deadline for General Data Protection Regulation requirements

May 25th is when the deadline for General Data Protection Regulation requirements go into affect. You may have heard these initials GDPR, but what do they mean to you? If you are an author or publisher with a mailing list or blog with a subscription feature these are the main things to keep in mind:

  • Companies must provide “reasonable” security for personal data collected. (What “reasonable” means we shall soon see as things unfold)
     
  • Data breaches and lack of security around personal data collected might result in fines up to 4% of your global income.
     
  • While these rules are for the 28 countries in the European Union, most of us have names and data from folks from the Union.

Which companies does the GDPR affect?

Any company that stores or processes personal information about EU citizens within EU states must comply with the GDPR, even if they do not have a business presence within the EU. Specific criteria for companies required to comply are:

  • A presence in an EU country.
     
  • No presence in the EU, but it processes personal data of European residents.
     
  • More than 250 employees.
     
  • Fewer than 250 employees but its data-processing impacts the rights and freedoms of data subjects, is not occasional, or includes certain types of sensitive personal data. That effectively means almost all companies.

Links of Interest

6 steps for GDPR compliance
 
GDPR Portal: Site Overview

 
Photo: pixabay.com

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

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