Fact From Fiction: In Japan, the Floors Can Sing

When writing the Shinobi Mysteries, I try to include as many historically accurate details as possible, and to include at least a few neat facts most readers might not know. In order to keep the stories moving, I often can’t call attention to these details in the books themselves, but I love being able to share them here on the blog. The fiction: In the opening pages of Blade of the Samurai, my ninja detective, Hiro Hattori, uses a squeaky floorboard as an alarm to alert him to an intruder outside the house. The fact: Yes, this could have happened. In

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Mining Your Writing for Twitter Gold

Welcome back to our Wednesday series on effective author marketing. Today, we continue our look at effective use of Twitter, with a focus on providing valuable content to your followers and others. Many authors tell me “I’d like to use Twitter more, but I don’t know what to say.” Getting tongue-tied on social media is a common problem, but fortunately, it’s also easily fixed. Most authors have volumes of valuable information to share — they simply don’t realize there’s gold in the mine. No matter what kind of books (or articles) you write, the odds are high you’ve done either

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Actually, Shakespeare Had it Wrong

My father loved roses. At one point, he had over a hundred hybrid tea rose bushes in his yard. He pruned them and fed them and, from the time I was small, he taught me to care for them, too. A couple of years before he died, my father moved from Malibu to Lompoc, California. His Lompoc house had far less room for gardening than his former home, so when he moved,  two dozen of his roses moved as well. We dug them up carefully, wrapped the roots in damp newspaper and plastic to keep them moist, and I drove

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Tax Week – and a Conference Announcement

Since it’s tax week, I’m over at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers blog sharing some tips about writers and estimated taxes: http://rmfw.org/taxes-101-for-authors/ Independent contractors of all varieties welcome! With conference season fast approaching, I also thought I’d say a word or two about the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold Conference, which takes place September 5-7, 2014 in Westminster, Colorado (just outside Denver). I learned about Colorado Gold in 2011, less than a month before the conference. I registered, hopped on a plane, and found myself surrounded by amazing classes, welcoming people, and a community unlike any other I’ve seen

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Becoming a Twitter Content Provider…Part 1

Since I “simultweet” my Wednesday blog posts on Twitter (using the #PubLaw hashtag) and on my blog, I’ll assume for the moment that if you’re here, you already know how to use Twitter. That said, I’ll do a supplementary post or two on the blog about using Twitter in the days to come for those who want a review. Used improperly, Twitter can suck the hours from a day faster than vampires can raid an unguarded blood bank. The key to effective Twitter content is knowing what you’re going to do before you get there. There are many ways to

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A Thursday Shrimptastic Announcement

We recently lost our ancient cleaner shrimp, Phobos, who lived a long and happy life as an efficient “janitor of the reef” … and also, a serial killer. After his original companion, Deimos, died of old age, we tried to introduce other skunk shrimp to the tank to keep Phobos company. He killed them and ate them. Ironically, Phobos had no issues with other species. He never bothered the peppermint shrimp and seemed terrified of our fire shrimp, Spot.   Still, we decided that Phobos would live out his golden years “alone” where other skunk shrimp were concerned. (Phobos did not care,

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Becoming a Content Provider

Our series on author marketing will explore the traditional modes of marketing, but before we do, we need to talk about “content providers.” Authors are, first and foremost, content providers. We write books (fiction or nonfiction) which contain … content. In all the talk about marketing, sales, and branding, authors sometimes forget a fundamental truth: we are content providers first. Being a “content provider” means providing useful information which other people want to receive and consume. At the core, of course, authors provide content in and through the books we write–but content is a form of marketing, too. Why are

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The Day I Almost Accepted “No.”

A good friend of mine received some difficult news today. News my friend was waiting on for quite some time, and news that all of us hoped would come back differently than it did. In short: this news made my friend very sad. Few things make me more unhappy than seeing my friends (or family) miserable. When people I care for hurt, and I can’t help them, I feel powerless. I feel lost. To use a redundant word…I feel sad–and worse than sad. And yet, as luck (or her best friend, Irony) would have it, rejection and sorrow are part of

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Finding Your Author Voice

Today we examine a mission-critical, but often overlooked, facet of author “marketing.” I use quotes with “marketing” here because, for authors, many aspects of marketing have more to do with who you are than what you do. This makes knowing yourself, and your voice, critically important. Authors are not products, or “brands,” though marketing your books involves aspects of each. Authors are people (like Soylent Green!) and being a person–instead of just a “brand”–is an advantage. It can also be an enormous pitfall, if you handle yourself improperly. Knowing who you are – your author voice – can help you decide which marketing avenues are

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An April Fool’s Day Reef-trospective

It’s April, which means it’s time to share the best of the March moments from the reef: Given the date, it seemed appropriate to include at least one photo of a creature goofing off. Fortunately, the halloween hermits are usually happy to oblige: The iridescent teal mushroom is one of my favorites, both for color and expressive qualities: And the purple mushrooms I brought home in March are doing beautifully, too. The diversity and vibrance of coral colors never ceases to amaze me: Uh…that’s not a coral… APRIL FOOL! It’s hard to get a good photo of pipefish. They move

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