Category: Amazon hacks

Writer's Tips

Writer’s Tips May Edition – Copyright Page, Italics, Web Content, Amazon, Canva

Published on by dgkaye56 Comments

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Welcome to May edition of my curated Writer’s Tips. This month I’m sharing some informative articles on, when to use Italics by author/editor, Anneli Purchase, how to create a proper Copyright page by Kindlepreneur, Dave Chesson, as well as info on reducing Amazon Download Fees, how to write Web content by Anne R. Allen, how to Translate Text into another Language in Canva by Natalie Ducey, Word Conversion with Harmony Kent.

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Author/Editor, Anneli Purchase on how and when to use Italics

https://annelisplace.wordpress.com/2023/02/15/italics-when-to-use-them/comment-page-1/#comment-9115

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Kindlepreneur – Dave Chesson on What Goes into a Book’s Copyright Page

Guide to Writing a Book Copyright Page [With 6 Templates]

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Dave Chesson shows us how to minimize KDP Download Fees when downloading our books

How to Reduce KDP Download Fees and Instantly Improve Your Royalties

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Anne R. Allen explains why it’s important for authors to learn how to write Web Content

How to Write for the Web: All Writers Need to be Web Content Providers Now

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Natalie Ducey has another helpful tutorial – How to Translate Text into other Languages using Canva

https://natalieducey.com/2023/03/27/how-to-translate-text-in-canva-into-over-100-languages/

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Harmony Kent at the Story Empire talking about writing conventions – American, British, English

https://storyempire.com/2023/04/26/homonyms-with-harmony-part-2-american-and-british-english-conventions/comment-page-1/#comment-171244

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©DGKaye2023

Writer's Tips

Writer’s Tips, December Edition – Books, Blogging and Writing Tips, Scams

Published on by dgkaye50 Comments

Welcome to my December curated Writer’s Tips. In this edition, once again blogger Hugh Roberts has another in-depth post on tips for bloggers – Seven things that scare bloggers. Author Ruth Harris writes about The importance of writing first lines for our books. A.C. Flory has some Amazon news for authors. Promoting your book later, after a launch, by Book Buzz, and Printing Scams on Amazon – authors beware by The Kindlepreneur, Anne R. Allen on Critiquing 101 – Ten Best Tips.

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Hugh Roberts with helpful tips for bloggers

https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2022/10/29/are-you-terrified-of-any-of-these-7-scary-things-in-the-blogging-world/

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Ruth Harris at the blog of Anne R. Allen on tips for writing best first lines in books

How to Write an Absolutely Great First Sentence

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A.C Flory has an informative post about what Amazon is up to with author’s books not showing up

https://acflory.wordpress.com/2022/10/27/why-is-amazon-hiding-books-from-readers/

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Five Ways to Promote your book again after a launch, by Book Buzz

5 ways to promote your book long after the launch

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Amazon Printing Press and Pricing Scams – what authors need to know by The Kindlepreneur

Amazon Printing Press and Pricing Scams: What Authors Need to Know

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Anne R. Allen with 10 Tips to being a good critiquer

Critiquing 101: Ten Do’s and Don’ts for Giving Helpful Critiques

©DGKaye2022

Writer's Tips

November Writer’s Tips – Gutenberg Block Editor, Deadly #Writer Sins, Online Safety, and More!

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Welcome to November edition of Writer’s Tips where I scan the web in my reading travels and discover some worthy posts helpful to writers. In this post we’re covering, reusable blocks in the new editor, online privacy, avoiding four deadly writer sins, blog traffic, New! KDP Hardcovers, 5 Indie mistakes that could cost authors book sales, Audio books, and Pinterest for book marketing.

 

 

Hugh Roberts our resident Block Editor Guru is showing us how to create a ‘reusable’ block you can add ready made to any post and How to Increase Blog Traffic

Are You Using This Little Known About Block That Helps Promote Your Blog? – Hugh’s Views & News  

 

 

Are You Struggling To Get People To Your Blog? These 7 Free Methods Will Help

 

 

Tech Teacher and author, Jacqui Murrary is sharing great tips on how to stay online safely

https://worddreams.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/lon-ta-6-ways-for-writers-to-protect-their-online-privacy/

 

 

Four Deadly Writer Sins and How to Avoid them, by Ruth Harris at the blog of Anne R. Allen. 5 Indie Author Mistakes that could lose you Book Sales by Tech Author, Barb Drozdowich at the blog of Anne R. Allen and the benefits of creating audio books by William Hahn, guest writer at the blog of Anne R. Allen

5 Indie Author Mistakes That Can Tank Book Sales

 

 

4 Deadly Writer Sins—and How to Avoid Them. Plus a Top-Secret Pro Tip for Writing a Book Readers Can’t Put Down

 

 

The Things I’ve Heard: Confessions of an Audiobook Narrator

 

 

Nicholas Rossis shares the announcement that Amazon KDP is now producing Hardcovers for Indie books

https://nicholasrossis.me/2021/10/09/hardcover-books-on-kdp/#comment-365780

 

 

Jan Sykes at the Story Empire shares what she’s learned from advertising books on Pinterest

https://storyempirecom.wordpress.com/2021/10/18/mktg-part-6-pinterest-socialmediamarketing-pinterest/comment-page-1/#comment-151838

 

 

©DGKaye2021

 

 

Writer's Tips

Writer’s Tips – #Canva Animation, #BookBub, KDP Tools, Famous Writer Advice, Slash Your #Wordcount

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Welcome to the July issue of Writer’s Tips. In this edition we have tips on animation text for Canva, Lessons for Authors, How to Slash your Wordcount, Why some writers quit writing, and the new KDP tool for authors, and tips for promoting on BookBub.

 

Natalie Ducey is back with another fab tutorial on how to animate text using Canva

https://natalieducey.com/2021/06/29/how-to-create-animated-typewriter-text-in-canva-for-free/

 

How to be an Everyday Star Writer, and advice from famous writers, by Ruth Harris at the blog of Anne R. Allen

How to be an Everyday Star: Lessons From 4 Famous Authors

 

Fantasy author Diana Peach shares her experience with promoting her books on BookBub

https://mythsofthemirror.com/2021/07/14/my-bookbub-experience-and-a-few-tips/comment-page-1/#comment-87956

 

Kathy Steinemann with Part 7 of her Slash Your Word Count series

https://kathysteinemann.com/Musings/word-count-7/#comment-9653

 

Jacqui Murray at Worddreams with some valid examples of writing that may deter readers to continue reading

https://worddreams.wordpress.com/2021/07/07/iwsg-july-4/

 

Just a couple days ago (around July 12 – July 14, 2021), KDP added a new marketing tool to the KDP interface. It’s called A+ Content. It’s NOW available to KDP users. You can access the feature from a couple different places from within your KDP dashboard

KDP Has Added A New Marketing Tool, It’s Called A+ Content!

 

Here is the direct page to Amazon’s KDP new author tool

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G8EP5W6H9CY7T8GS#marketplaces

 

I hope you enjoyed and found something useful from this edition of Writer’s Tips.

 

©DGKaye2021

 

 

 

Writer's Tips

Writer’s Tips and a Personal Note – #Amazon, #Canva, #Audible, #PDF Converter, and #Blogging Tips

Published on by 48 Comments

Well, a day late, but I’m getting my Friday post up today on Saturday. My life is very crazy right now, so my posts throughout the coming weeks and month will be erratic. Besides the grieving journey I’m on now for my husband, I am also moving! Yes, that is a story in itself, but suffice it to say, I’m moving to a smaller condo in the same complex, and that involves cleaning out ‘our’ life and getting rid of so many things in order to final downsize. Besides the physical gruel of this mission, don’t get me started on the emotional gruel it takes to look at every single thing we’ve owned and shared together. But that will be a post for another day. In the meantime . . .

I’ve been curating and keeping some great help articles for writers and bloggers, and there are some goodies in this edition – new Kindle Vella for serial publishing, creating animated logos in Canva, #Audiblegate and more!

 

Nicholas Rossis has some amazing news for authors with Amazon’s new short writing program – Kindle Vella

https://nicholasrossis.me/2021/04/23/hello-kindle-vella/

 

At the blog of Anne R. Allen – Three things you should know to make your query letters stand out

Three Things Your Query Letter Needs to Stand Out

 

Deborah Jay shares some great information on making sure authors are using all the tools available in our Author Central accounts

https://deborahjayauthor.com/2021/04/12/are-you-making-the-most-of-your-amazon-author-central-account-editorialreviews/

 

Also by Deborah Jay – Have you heard about the madness going on with Audible? #Audiblegate

https://deborahjayauthor.com/2021/03/29/audiblegate-and-why-its-important-to-all-authors/

 

Nicholas Rossis shares a new PDF Converter Tool – The Tool Rocket

https://nicholasrossis.me/2021/04/02/toolrocket-a-free-pdf-converter/

 

Blogging Guru, Hugh Roberts with another blogging tip lesson – How to reblog correctly

https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2021/03/15/how-to-reblog-a-blog-post-correctly-on-wordpress-bloggingtips/comment-page-1/?unapproved=113951&moderation-hash=1100de8fefb69389c0439d41bc1900f8#comment-113951

 

And Natalie Ducey with another informative tutorial on How to Create Animanted Logos FREE in Canva

https://natalieducey.com/2021/03/11/how-to-create-an-animated-logo-for-free-in-canva/

 

These should keep us all busy for awhile. Don’t forget to save these articles, no doubts we’ll want to come back and reference them!

©DGKaye2021

 

Writer's Tips

Writer’s Tips – #Twitter Tricks, Scheduling and #Blogging Tools

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Welcome to December edition of Writing Tips. Today I’m sharing some worthy articles for writers on how to maximize your Twitter, how to colorize your photos, a Twitter app scheduler, Mistakes to avoid, and attention authors – Author Central has moved!

 

Hugh Roberts offers up a new tutorial for those bloggers who aren’t familiar with how to attach your name to your Twitter share button on your blogs.

https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2020/11/18/how-to-connect-your-twitter-account-to-your-wordpress-blog-via-the-new-wordpress-dashboard/comment-page-1/?unapproved=103911&moderation-hash=45bcefb2ea823be9e119bc7aa8517a45#comment-103911

 

Deborah Jay features Reedsy writer – Desiree Villena with 5 important things to avoid when self-publishing

https://deborahjayauthor.com/2020/11/30/the-five-most-common-publishing-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/comment-page-1/#comment-29499

 

 

Nicholas Rossis shares a great editing tool for writers – The Picture Colorizer

https://nicholasrossis.me/2020/11/17/picture-colorizer-free-photo-editing-tool/

 

Looking for a good app to schedule your tweets? Check out Signal.

https://www.pensignal.com/?src=cross_pr_smedian

 

Here’s an interesting article I came across by the Writing Cooperative – How to get more retweets for your Twitter posts – Twitter does not like external links! And how to make Twitter Threads

https://writingcooperative.com/your-articles-arent-getting-rt-d-because-twitter-hates-external-links-a017c3fcbcf1

 

And last but certainly not least for authors!

Attention all authors, Author Central has moved! Manage all your authorly needs here

Source: Amazon Launches New Author Portal | The Digital Reader

 

©DGKaye2020

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Writer's Tips

Writer’s Tips – Action Writing- Apple Books for PC- Self-Hosted Blogs and More!

Published on by 34 Comments

Welcome to this edition of Writer’s Tips. I’ve come across a wealth of insightful articles these past few weeks that I’m happy to share here for writers and bloggers. In today’s curated articles there’s a plethora of information on everything from better writing tips, publishing with Apple books news, onlines tools for free, self-hosting vs. WordPress.com, editing tips, and how to get more viewers for Youtube. Also, Harmony Kent has been running a series at The Story Empire with a detailed description on how to load our books on the Amazon platform. Check it out!

 

Author Meghan Ward is guest writer at the blog of Anne R. Allen sharing a wealth of tips of how to keep the action alive in our writing.

Is Your Story Getting Lazy? 5 Ways to Improve the Action in Your Story

 

David Gaughran demonstrates how to publish with the new Apple Books for Authors now available for PC.

https://davidgaughran.com/2020/05/08/apple-books-for-authors-launches-pc/#more-8629

 

Nicholas Rossis is sharing some great online tools for writers.

https://nicholasrossis.me/2020/05/29/free-content-creation-online-tools/

 

Also from Nicholas Rossis- a free tool – the Amazon Book Description Generator!

https://nicholasrossis.wordpress.com/2020/06/07/free-amazon-book-description-generator/

 

 

Jessica Norrie is sharing some great editing tips on how to de-clutter our writing.

https://jessicanorrie.wordpress.com/2020/06/05/declutter-your-writing-advice-from-a-hoarder/comment-page-1/?unapproved=2159&moderation-hash=1c0a7d73171fdafd27958ffc9dc5ac22#comment-2159

 

Natalie Ducey has another informative post on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress self-hosting and what’s involved.

https://natalieducey.com/2020/05/26/wordpress-com-or-wordpress-org/

 

Janice Wald of MostlyBlogging.com has an excellent article on what’s involved to get noticed on Youtube.

https://www.mostlyblogging.com/not-getting-views-on-youtube/#comment-80266

 

Last, and far from the least, Harmony Kent has a writer’s help series at the Story Empire where you will find all the links to each article in-depth on how to publish on Amazon. Below find the first part of the series:

https://storyempirecom.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/how-to-publish-with-kdp-part-one/

 

 

I hope you find these articles as helpful as I do, and I suggest saving what is relevant to you in folders for easy access.

 

©DGKaye

 

Tips for Writers

Writer’s Tips – Author’s Toolbox, Scams, Search Engines, Freelance Writing and More!

Published on by 31 Comments

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my Writing Tips edition. This is the first post I’m sharing of 2020 on tips this year since I was on a winter hiatus. I picked out some posts I found had great information along my blog and newsletter reading, and I think  all writers will find these posts helpful in some way. There’s always something in my tips that you may not need now, but more than likely you will need at some point in your writing career, so you may want to create a folder for yourself in your files or in an app file for future reference. I personally, have all my reference files in the Evernote app, in case you’re looking for a recommendation. (No, this isn’t a sponsored ad, just trying to be helfpful.)

 

Books

 

Google Keep – a great note taking tool by Jacqui Murray (I use this on my phone. It comes in handy for making lists of things to remember.)

https://worddreams.wordpress.com/2020/03/18/authortoolboxbloghop-why-google-keep-is-a-great-notetaking-tool-for-writers/

 

 

Anne R. Allen with some great information on Publishing Scams to beware of:

10 New Publishing Scams to Watch Out for in 2020

 

 

The Bookdesigner demonstrates how to use Amazon’s Search Engine

Amazon is a Search Engine–Make Your Book an Easy-to-Find Product

 

 

Deborah Jay has some terrific information on how to get our books in more categories

https://deborahjayauthor.com/2020/02/03/how-to-add-categories-to-your-book-on-amazon/comment-page-1/#comment-16670

 

 

Anne R. Allen again, with great tips on how to write a good Query Letter

How to Write a Professional, Not-Embarrassing Query to an Agent, Reviewer, Editor, or Blogger

 

 

Janice Wald from Mostlyblogging.com sharing some freelance writing websites

https://www.mostlyblogging.com/freelance-writing-websites/

 

 

Doris Heilmann of 111 Publishing offers some interesting tips on how to get more exposure for our books

Sweepstakes: Getting Your Book Message Viral

 

 

Nicholas Rossis has an excellent share for creating your  Online Signature for documents you have to send back signed

https://nicholasrossis.me/2020/03/25/working-from-home-tools-wondershare-signx/

 

I hope you find these tips as helpful as I have.

©DGKaye