Of course, with this question, I’m presuming that writers do in fact read books about the art, craft and business of writing.  But I could be wrong.  Maybe everyone finds that information now online.

Or perhaps you simply have not yet found the book that really answers the questions you have about writing.  If so, how about describing your “dream book” for you as a writer?  Maybe one of our readers will sit down and write it for you.

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Remember:  PDF is the format that’s becoming ubiquitous in e-books.  Someday you’ll certainly work with that format.

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In further proof that the digital e-book is coming of age, the New York Times today published an online article about the surge in e-Readers since Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of Amazon’s Kindle.

The Times notes that several top-drawer novels are getting in line with Kindle editions of their works.  The article also reviews the current state of various hardware e-readers and looks ahead to anticpated developments next year.  The article also notes that some distributors are now making short stories available in e-book format, a development that make breathe new life into the genre.

Meanwhile, some readers are now turning to their iPhone for reading material, now that there are software applications available.  The Christian Science Monitor, for example, reviews a new application for the iPhone called Iceberg, which debuts on the market today.  There are already 200 titles available and many more coming.  Wired Magazine provides more details.

There’s no doubt about it:  the e-book is continuing to advance.  Writers take note.

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Are you like me at this time of year?  Do you drift into a reflective mood, thinking back over the past year and beginning to noddle around with ideas for the coming year?  If so, here are some ideas and tools for goal setting and time management.

I’ve stumbled onto an interlinked bundle of websites and computer programs put together by Brian Isaac.  I was pulled into one of his sites that offers a free time management tool that hooks directly into Microsoft Outlook:  TaskBlaze.  But more about that later…

I followed Brian’s trail of links on to his goal setting website, which offers an interesting software called Achieve-IT.  This site is one of those hard-sell pages that tries to entice you into an immediate purchase.  While such pages often irritate me, I still find them fascinating — and frequently I read through the formulaic copy to see just what I can learn.  Brian’s site, for example, offers an 18-minute demo video about some of the features of his software package.  If you are reflecting about your future goals right now, then I really recommend that you look at the video.  It won’t cost you a thing, and Brian presents a slant on goal setting that I found invigorating.  He encourages you to brainstorm your goals for the next year.  Next do the same for your goals over the next five years.  Then 10 years.  And finally what goals you want to accomplish over your lifetime.  I’ve never myself really looked beyond a five-year time frame.  Looking farther out can be a provocative exercise; it can clarify a lot about just who you are and what your real ultimate values are.  Just watching the video stirs ideas — and at $39.95, the program may be worth a purchase.

Now back to Brian’s TaskBlaze software that helps one track the time you put into your various tasks.  I’ve written a number of posts about time tracking tools.  This one is particularly ingenious because it reports your time use directly into Microsoft Outlook.  If you are an Outlook user, this software deserves a look.

There seem to be two different versions, free and pro.  So far, I haven’t been able to discover how they differ — and since I don’t use Outlook, I can’t really evaluate them.  I suspect Brian does not update the free version, but does so with the Pro version.  If you do use Outlook yourself, you can find the free version of TaskBlaze here.   The Pro version can be found, along with Brian’s informative sales pitch, at the software’s dedicated website TaskBlaze.  Right at the moment, the Pro version is available at a discounted price of $19.

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Being the curious sort, I tracked down an article by Jeff atarticle directory ArticlesBase about marketing strategies.  In it, he gives broad hints about the capabilities of the upcoming Bkiosk site.  In it, he underscores that Bkiosk can be used for dissemination of downloadable PDF ebooks [and maybe even audiobooks].  The downloads can be offered for free — or one can charge a fee, with the website automating the process.  Hey, writers, this sounds ideal for us!

While I’m mentioning this article, let me say a word about Jeff’s own marketing.  First, by posting an article at ArticlesBase, he’s getting word out about his project and building additional identity on the internet.  Writers, of course, can do the same  I was myself skeptical at first about writing for such article directories.  I’ve even posted about this avenue of promotion and income.  But in recent months, I’m becoming more aware of the importance of this marketing strategy for driving traffic to your own site.  Writers should consider exploring it.

Along with Bkiosk, Jeff is setting up the Small Business Internet Cooperative, with its own website and blog.

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How much time do you spend fussing around with your computer, trying to get it to work for you efficiently? If you are like me, too much — and with the added anger that sometimes goes along with it. The December issue of PC World carries an article that will certainly help: 20 Tech Habits That Will Change Your Life. ;You can conveniently find the article online, with all the clickable links for followup.

Personally, I found 14 of the 20 tips to be directly useful to me as a writer juggling too much email, worrying about backing up my files, setting up a thumb drive as my travelling writer’s office and such.

Much to my surprise and delight, I discovered that many of these tips have already been conveyed to you in various posts over the past year. But this article brings them all together in a one convenient location.

Even if you use the online article, you may still wish to buy this issue of PC World on the newsstand. This issue has more of my dog-eared bookmarks than usual — it’s packed with useful information. You may recall a previous post where I wrote that PC World had overtaken PC Magazine in my view as a useful resource for writers. This issue is a good case in point — so much down-to-earth, usable information.

One last observation: I started this blog two years ago as a stimulus to help me learn about how to harness the computer and the internet as a writer. With the blog, I’ve been able to share with you my discoveries. Even more important to me personally, my blog has become my own warehouse of information and bookmarks, all assembled in one place — and I can easily find what I’m looking forward via the Table of Contents in the sidebar or under the archives tab.

With this PC World article, which carries information I’ve already passed on to you, I now realize that in many ways, I’ve accomplished my objective with this blog. That has set me to thinking: where do I go from here? You’ll hear about my assessment and about some new directions over the coming weeks.

NOTE WELL: In the preparation of this post, I just discovered that PC Magazine will henceforth be published online only and that PC World has significantly downsized its staff. That startles and amazes me. These magazines are the most advertiser-packed magazines that I buy, and I therefore assumed they were financially sound.

These developments underscore a sub-theme of this blog: the world is moving online, and writers that don’t acknowledge this reality do so at their peril.

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Following the theme that the perfect gift from a writer is a book, I’m passing on this suggestion: Give an Amazon Gift Certificate.

One of the virtues of such a gift is that the recipient gets to choose exactly what to buy. No more gift ties or silk scarves for the person who never wears them.

Secondly, you don’t have to spend much time searching out the perfect gift. The recipient will be the one spending time searching, and enjoying every minute of it too.

It’s easy to do: Just visit the Amazon Gift Certificate center and make your choice.

POST-SCRIPT: If you found the WOWIO gift book suggestion of interest, I recommend that you scroll down to that post and read the comments. BookWriter passes on some recent news about WOWIO that I was unaware of, suggesting that use of WOWIO might benefit from some additional online research. Thanks, BookWriter, for the info.

I recently received a most interesting email promotion from WOWIO, an online and PDF book publisher.  It offered me an opportunity to give a personalized copy of “T’was The Night Before Christmas” as a downloadable PDF book via email.  I immediately chose a cover, wrote a personalized message to my adopted “grand-daughter,” and set it up to be mailed on 23 December to her father.  It cost me 99 cents.

There are many other books that can be emailed as gift ebooks, some others for children, many for adults on a wide range of topics.  You too can give books as presents – just go to the WIWIO website, find a book and chick “Send PDF as Gift.”  Prices will vary, according to your selection.

If you just want to read the books yourself, many are available for free reading online.  I already have a library of very useful books on computers, history, biography, art and design, travel and fiction, most of them available to me for free.

I first wrote about WOWIO eighteen months ago, nost too long after its launch.  Since then, the site’s catalog has expanded greatly.  I suggest that you read my post to get background details about this intriguing website.  It may even provide you with a platform for your own book.

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“Making a list, checking it twice…”  Remember that adage from “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town?”  Well, in the spirit of lists and gift-giving, check out these two lists, courtesy of Mashable:

100+ More Ways To Organize Your Life

If you really take this list to heart, you will be, arguably, well OVER-organized.  With selectivity though, you will certainly find something here that might really be helpful, especially as you get organized for a new year.  I discovered some online tools I’d never heard of and will certainly deploy a few of them.

GTD NINJA – 50+ Websites For the KickAss Control Freak

This list is over a year old, but I still refer to it as my bible to online sources about Getting Things Done.  I even printed it out over a year ago and keep it in a handy file.

Image via Wikipedia

You don’t have your own website?  Well, it’s time that you do something about that.  Frankly, it’s very easy to do these days.

The options are many.  Too many probably.  How do you sort through them?

Well, here are are a few preliminary options, most of them with samples I’ve set up [or tried to set up] — or which friends have established.  The major attraction is that each can be set up within minutes simply by selecting from an array of themes and elements to include.

Blogger.com:  This is one of the grand-daddys.  Sign up is simple.  And it’s free.  Lots of writers have placed their blogs here.  The disadvantage:  your blog is located at a “sub-domain.”  That meams “blogspot.com” shows up as the root domain, with your domain tacked on at the beginning:  SubDomain.Domain.com, for example.  Still it’s not a bad option.  My own first blog was placed there, just to give me some experience with the blogging routine.  Take a look at my first effort:  How To Write History.

WordPress.com:  Another free option, a direct competitor of Blogger.  Of course I’ve got a blog there too, even though I never use it.  This free service is not to be confused with the much more powerful WordPress platform that must be placed on a hosting service, with a paid-for domain name.  Personally, I think this free service is a very good place to begin.  You can graduate later to a more fully developed platform.

WetPaint.com:  My next quick and easy website evolved after watching a 12-year-old manage quite a sophisticated site there.  Well, if he could do it, I could too.  Within an hour, I created what I consider a rather well developed website at The World Beyond.  I seldom maintian it; it was set up primarily as a demonstration site about 7 months ago.  Still, just 2 days ago, I got a notice that this site had 150 visitors in November!  If you visit, you will uncover some very personal stuff.  While setting up this site, suddenly an outpouring of pent-up emotion filled the site within an hour — with posts, audio, video.  I’m impressed with this facility.  For those in the know, my EMO side erupted full-force.

Multiply.com:  This facility is most popular among Filipinos.  Surprisingly, Filipinos are very computer literate.  It’s the cellphone texting capital of the world.  And the country ranks very high among users of blogs and social media.  I know:  I live in Manila for most of the year.  Anyway, when I discovered a friend using this facility, I decided to try it out.  Within minutes, I had my own Multiply.com website up and running:  Pen and Harmonica – Tom Colvin’s Tools of Choice.

SnapPages.com:  I’ve just wasted an hour trying out this new facility.  I’m reasonably adept at these things — and I just couldn’t just any satisfaction from it at all.  My SnapPages site never took shape.  It’s a newcomer — I guess it still has to grow up.

Joomla.com:  This facility is known as a Content Management facility.  It too is beoming very popular.  It’s a very modular type tacility — lots of content options — you just chose what you want and plug it in.  My brother George, an artist with NO computer savvy, hired an acquaintance to set up his website:  George Colvin – Artist.  Joomla is a current heavy-weight in the web presence business, as George’s website-in-progress demonstrates.  It does require a hosting service and a domain name — that’s not free, and it does take some knowledge to run.  but it’s powerful.  if you need a domain and web host, I can recommend Hostgator.comsdazw very highly — reasonable cost, fairly easy to manage.

IMPORTANT ISSUE:  Many of the free website facilities offer sites at a SUB-DOMAIN.  That means you show up as http://YOURSITE.hostdomain.com.  The host domain may be Blogger, Wordpress, WetPaint, etc.  These domains are not as “valuable” as top-level domains — but they are free!  I personally think these facilities are a good way to dip into the website world.  They are mostly easiy to use and cost not a penny.  Once you’ve learned the ropes, you may wish to “graduate” into somethign more powerful, more pseronal, more visible.

My blog, for example, is hosted on a hired server utilizing the popular WordPress.org platform, the more mature sibling of WordPress.com [NOTE the different address extensions], and i have my own top-level domain name.  If you are really serious, you’ll end up with something similar.  Maybe I’ll post about these options later on.

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