Friday, January 6, 2012

My Top 12 Blog Posts of 2011 for Writers

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As is becoming traditional in the blogosphere, I thought I'd start 2012 by looking back at the most popular posts on my blog last year.

If you missed any of these first time round - perhaps you've only discovered my blog recently - I hope you'll enjoy reading them now.

And if you've been following me for a while, I hope there are some posts here you'll enjoy revisiting. They are listed in no particular order...

My Top Ten Twitter Follows for Writers - More and more writers are joining the micro-blogging service Twitter, and a question I hear repeatedly from newcomers is, "What other Twitter users should I follow?" So in this post I shared ten of my top Twitter recommendations for writers. These are people whose tweets I especially look out for, as they regularly share useful, interesting and/or entertaining info and links. You might also like to check out Ten More Top Twitter Follows for Writers, which I posted later in the year.

The Best Writing Apps for Writers - This guest post by social media and smartphone specialist David Sumner listed some of the best smartphone apps for writers, which aim to ensure that lack of access to a computer need never present any obstacle to your creativity.

How Non-US Authors on Smashwords and Amazon Can Reclaim US Tax - This guest post by self-publishing author Ali Cooper was among the most popular posts of 2011, and still attracts a lot of traffic today. It's about an issue that concerns many non-US authors publishing their own work on Amazon and Smashwords (the popular e-book self-publishing platform). The issue is that these US companies automatically deduct tax at 30% from any income earned by non-US residents before forwarding it. This applies even though there are tax treaties with the US that are supposed to prevent this happening, as it means an author could potentially be taxed twice on the same income. In her in-depth article, Ali sets out the exact steps she has taken to recover tax deducted by Amazon and Smashwords on the sales of her literary mystery novel, The Girl on the Swing and other books. Don't forget to read the interesting comments that have been made too.

The WCCL Affiliate Program - Ten Reasons You Should Join Today - As you may know, The WCCL Network publish my writing courses, including The 10-Day E-Book and Write Any Book in Under 28 Days. They also sponsor my blog and the myWritersCircle forum. What you may not be aware of is that they also run a highly professional affiliate program. If you have a blog, a website or a newsletter, you can join the WCCL affiliate program and receive generous commissions for every sale generated via your links. In this post I set out ten reasons why I believe joining the WCCL affiliate program is a no-brainer for any writer with a presence on the web.

An Interview With Mike Essex, Author of Free Stuff Everyday - In this in-depth interview, UK author Mike Essex talked about how he came to write his first e-book 'Free Stuff Everyday' and how he published it on the Amazon Kindle. He also revealed how he earned his reputation as 'Freebieman' - and how he receives a steady stream of freebies from companies desperate for the feedback and publicity he can offer them. You can also click through to read my subsequent review of the print version of Free Stuff Everyday (which I edited on behalf of the publisher).

Just Retweet: A Great, Free Resource for Bloggers and Twitter-Users - JustRetweet is a new service I found out about this year and have adopted enthusiastically. If you're a blogger and/or a Twitter user, I strongly recommend you check it out. As the name indicates, JustRetweet aims to provide a simple method for members to get additional "retweets" of selected Twitter updates, thus helping them reach a much wider audience. You can also use it to get more Twitter followers, visitors to your blog, and so on.

Should Writers Create Their Own E-Book Covers? - This was one of a number of excellent guest posts on my blog this year from author and self-publisher David Robinson. In this one, he addressed the question of whether writers can - or should - create their own e-book covers, and spilled the beans on how he creates his own professional-looking covers. I also recommend his guest post How to Create a Video Book Trailer Using Windows Moviemaker, which reveals how David brings his low-cost DIY approach to the creation of attractive video trailers for his novels.

When It Pays to Ignore Copyright Theft - I deliberately courted controversy in this post, in which I suggested that occasionally it can pay authors to take a more relaxed approach to having their work plagiarized, quoting the example of a children's book which aroused the interest of publishers partly because it was being plagiarized so much! Check out the comments the post generated as well.

Novelrank: A Brilliant Resource for Tracking Your Amazon Sales - If you have any books or e-books for sale at Amazon, you should check out the excellent NovelRank website. It provides an easy method for keeping track of your title's sales rank and actual sales, almost in real time (the stats are updated hourly). NovelRank is an independent site set up in a public-spirited way by author and programmer Mario Lurig. Respect is due!

Do check out these posts, and feel free to add your own additional comments if you like. And watch out for more great posts from me (and my guest bloggers) on all aspects of writing in 2012.

Photo Credit: Corfu sunset, by the author.


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