TODAY ONLY: 72-percent discount on Simidude — plus ndxCards and TreeDBNotes Pro

Managing one’s writing across multiple computers and even operating systems is an often frustrating challenge.  But no more.  Simidude is a software that allows a writer to cut-and-paste among several computers.  And today only, it’s available at a whopping 72-percent discount from Bits du Jour.

What’s particularly unusual about this software is its ability to drag-and-drop snippets, files, even folders between, say, a PC and a Mac.  Perhaps there’s even a netbook running Linus in the mix as well.  I have several friends who have to do this kind of mind-boggling synchronization across different operating systems.  Finally, it’s possible.  This software goes beyond the snychronization among several PC’s.

Normally costing $35.00, Simidude is available Sunday only for $9.95.  As I write this, the software is available for another 15 hours.  I’m not affiliated in any way with this service, other than being a frequent customer [I've bought 4 different software packages from Bits du Jour over the past 2 weeks].

EARLY ALERT:  ndxCards

Next Friday, Bits du Jour will be offering a big discount on ndxCards. This software takes the index card metaphor and explodes it into new ways of usefulness.  Writers might find this software particularly useful.  It will be available at a majo discount on Friday — but you can download it today in order to get several days experience with it.

I was a very early user of this software some years back.  At that time, I saw it’s promise but felt it was not yet ready.  In its current form, this software may be particularly useful to writers who grew up with an index card mentality.

EARLY ALERT:  TreeDBnotes PRO — discounted on Tuesday

TreeDBNotes Pro organizes information in hierarchical trees.  It has the added capability of wordprocessing, with notes exportable in RTF format.  One can even output an e-book in self-extracting .exe file [though I personally do not like this approach to e-books]  It’s rather like KeyNote, a freeware that I use all the time, even though it hasn’t been update in years.  Download it in advance; avail of 46 percent discount on Tuesday — from Bits du Jour.

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Smashwords - The Essential Piece of the Puzzle

When I started my five-part “Most Important Post” series, I knew I would conclude with this post about Smashwords, after first covering recent developments in the e-book world.  Finally, someone has figured out how to bring all of the pieces of the puzzle together into a publishing platform that substantially meets the needs of writers.  Smashwords has established an important model for future book publication and sales.

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, has set up an innovative facility with some remarkable features.

• Writers can conveniently publish their work across all of the major e-book formats at no cost with a simple submission of a Word document.

• Smashwords allows writers to establish the price of their e-books, or even to give them away for free.

• The author receives a whopping 85 percent of sales, while Smashwords retains 15 percent.

• Smashwords encourages its authors to allow free reading by potential buyers of early chapters, a smart feature that will attract potential readers with a genuine try-before-you-buy opportunity.

• Smashwords has also just forged an alliance with Wordclay, a print-on-demand publisher, to cover the print end of publication.  Arrangements are being made to allow sales of the printed version from the Smashwords catalog.  All the bases are covered!

• Author’s books receive cost-free their own individual webpage in the Smashbooks catalog, with reference links to their other books within the catalog, allowing for increased identity.

With this remarkable array of features, Smashwords certainly ranks as one of the most important developments in publishing in recent years.  CEO Coker provides a complete and clear explanation of how it all works at the Smashwords website.  In the form of a Q and A, this page provides one of the best critiques of the state of contemporary publishing I’ve yet seen.  I strongly encourage you to read it.

At the core of Smashwords is its automated submission process.  Writers do their own document formatting within any word processor that outputs Word-compatible files, following the fairly simple and straight-forward instructions spelled out in The Smashwords Style Guide.  The document is then uploaded, usually in .doc format, into Smashword’s file conversion system, affectionately called the MeatGrinder — and miraculously it comes out the other end in an array of different e-book formats.  These then appear on the book’s sales page.  Well, that’s the simplified version of it anyway.

The system works best with flowing text and no illustrations or special formatting.  If the book is more elaborate, there are specific formatting strategies to follow.

Now’s a good time to look at one of the books available in the Smashwords catalog:  Plug Your Book:  Online Book Marketing for Authors, by Steve Weber.  Once on the page, notice the variety of formats offered.  Read it online in your browser, read it on a Kindle or a Sony E-Reader or perhaps your iPhone.  Download it in PDF format so that you can print it out.  And, someday soon perhaps, order a printed copy via a link to Wordclay.  Also notice the link to another book by Weber, as well as links to other similar books.  Oh, and did you notice — Weber is offering this book for free.  So choose your format and download it NOW.

Mark Coker, the Smashwords CEO, himself also offers The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, with suggestions and tips especially for Smashwords authors.  It’s free too.

Smashwords has been around for less than a year, but already its catalog boasts 800 titles by 400 authors, more or less.  I predict the catalog will explode over the next year.

One of the real virtues of Smashwords is that it is particularly appropriate for shorter books and those that need to be published very quickly.  Poets too may have finally found their outlet.

While Smashwords will not be perfect for all writers and all books, it does offer a guaranteed, no-cost route to publication.  One of the biggest obstacles for writers has now been resolved.  check it out and let us know what you think.

Of course, other challenges for writers immediately arise.  Becoming A Writer Seriously will be turning its attention in new directions.  Watch for our major announcement later this week.

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My Most Important Post: The Pieces Are Beginning To Fit

During the two-plus years I’ve been blogging about productivity for writers, significant developments and changes affecting us writers have been cascading in a dizzying torrent.  In fact, there’s so much of it that many writers have more-or-less stopped following it all.  It’s just been too much, too disjointed — and too confusing.  Suddenly the pieces are beginning to fit.

This week I will write the most important posts I’ve ever uploaded to Becoming A Writer Seriously.  I will chart out, along with helpful links to what others are also writing, the new and exciting topography confronting us writers.  Finally, I think we can say, the revolution offered by the internet to writers has truly arrived, and now we can see our way forward.

Within the past month there has been a convergence of new announcements and written opinion across a wide spectrum of sources that are simultaneously arriving at the same conclusions that I have.  Fundamentally, there is emerging agreement that this is the year that the e-book finally makes its mark.  The recent highly-trumpeted unveiling of the new Kindle 2 has sparked a lot of this discussion.  More quietly has been the suddenly realization by many that e-books are also moving onto the iPhone in a big way.  And the most recent issue of Writers Digest focuses on self-publishing, a true sign that this route to publication is moving into the mainstream, no longer a scorned corner in the book publishing universe.

In other words, it is clear that the roadblocks to publication are crumbling, especially as more and more readers are turning to these new sources of books, articles, stories and such.  While writers will still long for the big book deal with one of the remaining major publishers, the other routes to publication are both more promising and more immediate.  And these new routes also open up new forms of writing — shorter, more interlinked, less rigidly sequential.

Later in the week, I will point to some new e-readers that are likely to appear in the next year or two.  I will also share what I’m learning about what’s happening in the iPhone world, a development that only came to my attention in the past few weeks.  And I’ll cap that off with my recent discovery of a new publication portal that may become a writer’s greatest resource of all, one with stunning implications for all of us.

But now let me point you to another blog post of immense significance:  Mike Elgan’s column in ComputerWorld — Here Comes the E-Book Revolution.  This, by the way, is REQUIRED READING!

Now that the Kindle 2 is shipping, other tech writers are also beginning to write their own first-hand evaluations.  They are universally good.

Yahoo Tech gives a definite thumbs up, liking the new Kindle even more than its predecessor.  The New York Times review does an excellent job of describing what’s new.  The only major criticism of the Kindle 2 I’ve uncovered, aside from simple personal tastes against electronic devices, is an outcry from the Author’s Guild about the Kindle 2’s ability to utilize text-to-speech technology that delivers content in spoken word, contending that writers and displaced voice talent should get extra payments from Amazon.

What are YOUR THOUGHTS?  Has the revolution really arrived?  How will it affect you as a writer?  Please share your comments.

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Best of the Web: Timelines, Self-Publishing

The latest…

Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs:  Christina Laun has just published this awesome annotated list at Best Colleges Online.  It’s a great reference.  And, yes, we made the list — thanks, Christina.

Bee Docs Timeline for Writers:  Those of us who write novels, memoirs or history using a MAC may find Bee Docs Timeline [$40] useful.

New York Times on Self-Publishing:  Once considered a “kiss of death” for aspiring authors, the New York Times recently carried a major article asserting that self-publishing is emerging as a legitimate strategy to achieve a major book deal.

Writer’s Digest 2009 Directory of Self-Publishing Companies:  Posted at the Writer’s Digest website is a comprehensive list of sixty-one self-publishing companies, each with contact details and summary of its approach.

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Reviewing POD

Occasionally I get a Google Alert notice [great service, by the way] about a mention of this blog somewhere on the internet.  This morning I learned that the blog has been included on a “blogroll” of links to sites about books and writing.  I tracked it back to a couple of very interesting blogs that self-published writers should know about.  Each specializes in reviews of books published by Print-on-Demand publishers.

First, I discovered The Lulu Book Review, which has linked to this blog.  I never knew such a site existed.  And what a great idea and service it is.  This anonymous blogger writes lengthy and very detailed reviews, choosing only from books published by Lulu Press.  He’s already up to review 52.  If you ever consider publishing via Lulu, you simply must check out this review blog.  In fact, any POD author should take a look.  The “How It Works” page explains just how the blogger chooses books to review — he very methodical about it.  And the Who Am I page shares the interesting history behind this blog.

Rummaging through the Lulu review site, I came across some comments by another blogger who’s up to the same thing.  Floyd Orr started out by reviewing books published by iUniverse, but now he’s opened up to review books from any POD publisher.  His review blog is called POD Book Reviews and More.  Another great resource that writers should know about.

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Free PDF tools

PDF documents - those that one views with Acrobat Reader - are truly valuable to many writers. In fact, if you ever consider self-publishing or creating an e-book, you’ll find yourself working the PDF files.

Gizmo’s Tech Support Alert website recently carried a post evaluating the best PDF tools available today. You may find something here that’s quite useful for your work.

If you visit the site, look around. This is truly one of my favorite sites on the internet, ranking perhaps in my top ten. Especially valuable is the link at the top left, Best-Ever Freeware. This site is legendary among freeware fans. I go there frequently when I need a software to accomplish some new task. You will find there reviews of lots of software pertinent to writers, with links for downloads.

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New Book at Amazon About Self-Publishing

Added to the offerings at Amazon this month is a remarkably low-priced [$5.99] guide to self-publishing:

Top Self Publish Firms: How Writers Get Published, sell More Books, and Rise to the Top and Make Money Working from Home with the Best Print On Demand Self-Publishing Companies.

While I haven’t read it myself, the book has already been reviewed by six readers, all of whom rate it FIVE STARS. Here’s a snippet from one of the reviews:

This little gem of a special report is only 153 pages long and sells for a whopping 6 bucks. I loved it. I loved its content. And I loved its price for what you get. If you have written something that can be reduced to 150 to 200 pages of 6×9 paper sheets that can sell for somewhere around $12 to $15, then this book is for you. What you will learn from this booklet is what you need to know to get your information product published without going through the hassles, and often times rejection, of trying to get a traditional publisher to bankroll your endeavor.

You can easily order it right from this blog — just click on the BOOKSTORE tab along the top, which will take you to a specialized bookstore for writers featuring titles I have personally gathered for your convenience. This online store is actually powered by Amazon, who handles all orders. While at this specialty store, you can browse various categories that might appeal to you, and you can read extensive user reviews of any book that interests you.

For sake of full disclosure, if you order from my storefront, I will receive a commission. In September, I earned — hold your hats! — 21 cents! I guess you can deduce that I’ve spent the time setting up this store, not to make a profit, but to provide a service to writers.

If any readers of this blog read the book, please let me know. I will consider inviting you to contribute a guest post for all to read.

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Another early publication promotional ploy

Hmmm, maybe Amazon’s constellation of companies is aiming toward another new sales strategy. Earlier today I wrote about the Audible IndieFirst early publication program. An hour later, I read in the Publisher’s Weekly email newsletter about another early publication strategy, somewhat differently deployed: 2000 copies of a new book about Obama and America’s economic challenges is being rushed by indie-publisher Chelsea Green into production for early release on Amazon, in time for the Democratic Convention. Read the Publisher’s Weekly story HERE.

Of course the strategy appeals to people who want to be “the first to know.” Not a bad idea.

If you visit the Publisher’s Weekly site, you may wish to subscribe to the free email newsletter. I usually only scan the headlines. But occasionally something pulls me in for a fuller read. I find the service useful and informative. And it’s free.

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Exploring PDF

I’m still on the road, running around Europe in search of more documentation for my history project. But, of course, this blog must be fed as well.

Readers will remember that some weeks back I discovered Jonathan’s Tool Bar and Grill blog, which covers computer utlilities, as well as Linux software. While I love it myself and recommend it to anyone who likes to get the most from one’s computer, there’s really not a lot there that is particularly useful to writers. Before hitting the road for my current trip in Europe, I went back through all of Jonathan’s posts for the first half of 2007, knowing that would surely be a few that you writers would like to read.

Today, I’m referring you on to Jonathan’s particularly informative post about the PDF format. We writers run into references to that format a lot, but I suspect many of us don’t know very much about it. Nor have we thought about it’s utility to writers. This blog occasionally has discussed the format, particularly since it is emerging as an essential ingredient in self-publishing. Jonathan’s post is a valuable read for those just learning about PDF, as well as those who are already semi-experts.

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Podcasting with Audacity

My good friend Dustin Wax over at The Writer’s Technology Companion has recently completed an informative 5-part series on Podcasting. It’s worth checking out: podcasting can be a useful approach to sharing and marketing your writing.

Dustin points to the freeware Audacity as a principal tool. I agree wholeheartedly. The software deserves to be on your computer, even if you do not contemplate podcasting. In the current issue of PC Utilities [issue #100], which features the 100 Best Freeware downloads, Audacity was one of the few that showed up on almost everyone’s Top Ten list. It’s a remarkable tool — and free. It can be downloaded at SnapFiles, which also provides more information about the software.

I’ve just uncovered a remarkable resource to help anyone to understand how the software works and just what you can do with it. There’s a new website called WonderHowTo, which offers a catalog of links to how-to videos. And there’s a whole bunch of them, twenty-one in fact, showing how to use Audacity.

Have fun. AND if you do put together a podcast, be sure to let us know.

ADDENDUM:

At the same site, you will find lots of how-to videos covering other software of interest to writers, including:

• Acrobat
• Dreamweaver
• Illustrator
• In Design
• iWork
• MS Office
• Quark

To find them most conveniently, click on the Categories tab at the WonderHowTo website and look under Software.

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• FOUR CORNERSTONES of PRODUCTIVITY 4 WRITERS

  After more than two years of blogging, I've come to realize that there are four areas writers must address to improve their productivity: Thinking, Organizing, Writing, Promoting. Below are some of the best books to help you master these challenges.

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• 2 - ORGANIZING

  

  
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• 3 - WRITING

  

  
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• 4 - PROMOTING

  

  
• ..... VIDEO FOR WRITERS here offers only four out of a large collection of video useful to writers. To see an annotated list of all of them, just click on the title of the box below. .....

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  Add new tag Amazon Kindle Attention Economy blog creation blogging Book Marketing continuity marketing Craft E-book e-books ForthChapters how-to Index card iPhone Isaac Mizrahi John Haydon Kindle marketing New media Nozbe Organizing PDF converter POD productivity promoting Publishing Rives self-publishing social media software SuperNoteCard sychronization TED Time management time tracking Twitter Twuffer Video VIDEO FOR WRITERS Web 2.0 WordPress Word processor Writers Resources Writing Zoho Office Suite

• TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Select Category 1-GENERAL  (3)    1-Introduction  (1)    2-Quick Start Advice  (18)    3-Miscellaneous Topics  (83) 2-FIRST STEPS  (2)    1-Finding Time  (32)    2-Organizing Your Workspace  (25)    3-Collecting Ideas  (19)    4-Joining the Community  (31) 3-PUTTING WORDS ON PAPER  (7)    1-For General Writers  (15)    2-For Novelists  (18)    3-For Scriptwriters  (7)    4-Alternatives to Word  (22)    5-Writing Online  (32)    6-Alternative Office Suites  (20)    7-Word & WordPerfect Tricks  (7)    8-Specialized Writing Tools  (49)    9-For Mac  (17) 4-CREATING CONTENT  (4)    1-Story Development  (3)    2-Research  (6)    3-Saving Your Work  (14)    4-The Craft of Writing  (4) 5-THE BUSINESS OF WRITING  (1)    01-Agents  (3)    02.Markets  (11)    03-Other Sources of Income  (20)    04-Submissions, Pricing & Billing  (9)    05-Print on Demand  (30)    06-eBooks and AudioBooks  (50)    07-Marketing and Promoting  (47)    08-Blogs & Websites  (38)    09-Podcasts & Teleconferencing  (15)    10-Equipment for Writers  (15)    11-Keeping Up with Software  (10) 6-OTHER RESOURCES  (0)    Book Stores  (7)    Learning Opportunities  (4)    Magazines  (1)    Miscellaneous  (4)    Newsletters  (2)    Other Website & Blogs  (15) Uncategorized  (227)

• Best of the Web

  • Mac Productivity Timer Reminds You to Spend Time Wisely [Ubergeek] (Lifehacker)
  • J.K. Rowling Leads Fight Against Free Book Site (The Internet Writing Journal)
  • OpenOffice.org 3.1 RC1 released (Download Squad)
  • Ten Ways To Start Your Writing Career Right (Get Paid to Write Online)
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