Writing & Publishing

Book Review – Plug Your Book! by Steve Weber

Mar 2nd, 2010 | By Wilfried F. Voss

Plug Your Book reveals the most effective and least expensive tools to promote your titles and to increase your exposure. It’s the best book on online marketing I have ever read, and I read quite a few in the course of my consulting practice with small presses.



Scammers Know What An Aspiring Writer Needs

Feb 19th, 2010 | By Wilfried F. Voss

In another entry on this blog I couldn’t find anything good about literary agents and their apparent lack of business sense. At the same time I was very impressed by the business model and the professional attitude of the Writers Literary Agency. Rather than dealing with a single, overworked and unorganized literary agent (agents always complain about the number of queries they receive), I found it refreshing to deal with a team of professionals where each member took on a certain aspect in the process of finding a publisher. However, with what I learned today, I am happy I didn’t sign the contract they had sent me. As it turns out the whole thing is a scam.



Forum Sharks And Semi-Gods

Feb 11th, 2010 | By Wilfried F. Voss

Most of us aspiring writers sign up for Online forums, either to pitch new ideas and wait for feedback, or to ask for advice, but foremost to “build a platform.” “Building a platform” is based on a very basic principle: If nobody knows you, nobody will buy your books.



A No-Nonsense Guide to a Professional Blog

Feb 10th, 2010 | By Wilfried F. Voss

A step-by-step guide to setting up a blog with WordPress, spam-protecting your blog, search engine optimization, and creating web traffic. This a very concise book with a “quick and dirty” approach; it will allow you to set up a professional looking blog within hours. The book has been written while creating http://www.myprofessionalblog.com. See the web site as a reference of what you can do.



SCRIBD.COM – Screen Shots Proving Copyright Violation

Jan 23rd, 2010 | By Wilfried F. Voss

The following shows a number of screen shots made from scribd.com. They document the copyright infringement of three books.



A New Religious Movement: Writology

Jan 13th, 2010 | By Wilfried F. Voss

I just received the latest issue of my favorite most useless magazine, Writer’s Digest. Why I still receive it, I don’t know; I don’t keep track when my subscription ends, and it will hopefully end some time soon. It took me an annoying five minutes to page through the magazine to find there was nothing in there that would even remotely interest me.



A Reversed Form Of Writer’s Block

Jan 12th, 2010 | By Wilfried F. Voss

My version of writer’s block comes in form of not having worked on my second novel for several weeks. I spent some useless time on writers’ forums, and even tried to make some money through my blog. To put the result up-front, forums are a terrible waste of time, and I made $15 in two weeks by writing one lousy article on my blog. On the other hand, my novel American Male Prostitute is about making a career as a writer, and I will take the liberty of adding my experiences to the story of the main character, Stuart Berry.



Chocolate Jesus

Dec 17th, 2009 | By Wilfried F. Voss

Just today I found an entry in the Online forum at AuthorNation.com (in my personal opinion the most civilized forum for writers). A fellow author complained about a book that apparently sells very well in the United States, but whose title he found somewhat annoying.



Literary Agents Are Snobby Bastards

Nov 25th, 2009 | By Wilfried F. Voss

As a business man I am appalled by the lack of business sense literary agents display to the public, especially when it comes to rejecting writers not because they’re not talented but due to primitive reason such as violation of the submission guidelines.



SCRIBD.COM – How Authors and Publishers Can Protect Their Work

Nov 10th, 2009 | By Wilfried F. Voss

The most important advice for any author and publisher at this time is to check the Scribd.com web site. Search for names and titles. Chances are your work is not listed, but if it is write an e-mail to copyright@scribd.com with the following content.