The BlaBla Meter, Test Your Prose For Meaningfulness

I love this tool! From the site:

How much bullshit hides in your text?
PR-Experts, politicians, ad writers or scientists need to be strong here! BlaBlaMeter unmasks without mercy how much bullshit hides in any text.

A useful tool for everyone involved in writing!

Simply copy your text into the white field and check your writing style. It works with English text up to 15.000 characters (overhead will be cut off). For a meaningful result we recommend a minimum length of 5 sentences.

This is a fun way to spend 5 minutes, and there's the possibility of learning something. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself!

To try it out, go here: BlaBlaMeter.

Related reading:
- Aherk! Makes Writing App 'Write Or Die' Look Tame
- Write Or Die: The App

Query Tracker: Keep Track Of Your Stories

Robert Heinlein told writers to put their stories on the market and to keep them there until they sell, but he didn't tell us how to keep track of them.

Unfortunately it can take many, many, mailings before a story finds its home and it would be embarrassing, to say the least, if a writer sent his or her masterpiece to the same place twice!

This is where QueryTracker.net comes in:

Find Literary Agents & Publishers
- Use our extensive database search tools to locate the perfect agent or publisher for your work.
- Watch a demonstration video.

Organize and Track Your Query Letters
- Keep track of your query letters using the most advanced tracking system available on the web.
- Watch a demonstration video.

View Statistics about Agents and Publishers
- Our database allows information to be collected and shared. This gives access to useful statistical information about literary agents and publishers.

And, amazingly, it's free!

I wondered about this--how can this service be free? Here's the explanation given:

Why is QueryTracker free? QueryTracker is free because it is our goal to collect as much data as possible about query letter results.

To do that, we need as many members as possible to submit their data, and the best way to do that is to make it free.

One of my writing friends recommended QueryTracker to me. She uses it and swears by it, so I'm going to give it a try. If you use it, let me know what you think! Cheers.

Happy 4th of July!

Related reading:
- 6 Rules of Writing from John Steinbeck
- Henry Miller's 11 Writing Commandments
- 7 Tips On How To Get Your Guest Post Accepted

Photo credit: "Punctuation marks made of puzzle pieces" by Horia Varlan under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Jen Talty: Amazon's CreateSpace Vs LIghtning Source

I love Jen's posts! This time she examines the pros and cons of two print on demand (POD) providers, Amazon's Create Space and Lightning Source. She breaks down the cost of each and then gives her conclusion: Cool Gus Publishing is switching from Lightning Source to CreateSpace.

Here is Jen's breakdown of cost:

Lightning Source:

• $75.00 Upload fee for Cover/Interior
• $12.00 US Distribution (a year)
• $12.00 UK Distribution (a year)
• $30.00 Proof
• Change your files it will cost $40.00 per Interior and $40.00 per Cover
• $1.50 Shipping and Handling charge per order
• must provide own ISBN

****No services provided on cover, editing, or anything else that goes into the making of a book

CreateSpace:

• FREE self-service (there are services you can pay for, but the basic upload is free)
• $25.00 Expanded Distribution (one time fee)
• A proof is the cost of printing plus shipping.
• Can use CreateSpace ISBN for free

****There are many services that CreateSpace offers from building your book, editing and cover design that are all at the author’s expense, but they are not required at all

Jen concludes:

The bottom line for us came down to customer service AND ease of the system. LSI is a bit clunky and if you don’t know what you are doing with formatting a book, cover, etc., you are bound to make a mistake. I made a few the first time around. CreateSpace gives you templates (for free) for both interior and exterior so your book looks professional. They also have a cover tool. I have not used it since I’m an InDesign junky, but I’ve played with it and for the novice user, its pretty good, but my big caveat is most of us are not cover artists and always best to hire a professional.

Between talking with my team to wargame the best course of action, the ease of their on-line system was the deal closer. They have this 360 digital proof that shows you the cover and how it wraps around the book, well that right there sold me. Their entire system is very easy to use and while I just created more work for myself as we are going to transfer ALL of our books, I highly recommend CreateSpace.

Well, there you have it. I'd encourage you to read Jen's article in its entirety: Why is Cool Gus Publishing switching from Lightning Source to CreateSpace?

I haven't used a POD service yet, but I had been planning on giving Lightning Source a try. Now I think I'll go with CreateSpace. I love getting recommendations from unbiased industry professionals!

Related reading:
- Espresso Book Machine: Create A Book In 5 Minutes For 1 Cent A Page (Video)

Publish America: Writer Beware

PublishAmerica has been in the news lately and I wanted to write a post detailing why a writer should, in my opinion, never ever get involved with this company but David Gaughran beat me to it. He writes:

For those unaware of the checkered history of PublishAmerica, a quick summary:

1. They are one of only two organizations to earn the dubious honor of having their own sub-forum on Absolute Write’s Bewares & Background Checks (the other being Robert Fletcher’s infamous web of companies).

2. Preditors and Editors have a lengthy entry warning writers away.

3. The Better Business Bureau rates PublishAmerica as an “F”.

4. The leading industry watchdog – Writer Beware – regularly cover PublishAmerica’s various attempts to squeeze money out of their writers (e.g. here, here, here, here, here, and here - and that’s just the tip of the iceberg).

5. PublishAmerica are now the subject of a class-action suit, the allegations being very familiar to anyone who has followed the company (full complaint can be read here).

In short, PublishAmerica is probably the last place I would recommend to a writer.

This list is part of a longer article David wrote. It's about the Authors Guild and you can find it here: The Authors Guild Doesn’t Serve Writers.

Wherever you send your manuscript, I wish you the best of luck. Check your prospective publisher out with organizations such as Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors, do a search on their name and ask other writers what they have heard about the company before you sign anything.

Aherk! Makes Writing App 'Write Or Die' Look Tame

With the writing app, Write Or Die, if you stop typing for too long you can lose your writing, but with Aherk! you could lose your reputation.

From GalleyCat:

The new Aherk app will help you blackmail yourself into meeting your literary goals. The free service lets you pick a goal and save a “compromising picture” of yourself and use it as “knife on your neck” reminding you to finish your project.

Tell us what it is that you want to achieve and set a deadline. Upload a compromising picture that will be posted to Facebook in case you fail to achieve your goal. After your deadline expires, your Facebook friends will vote and tell us if you achieved your goal or not … No boring graphics and calculations, extensive how-tos or cheesy ‘you’re awesome, go get’em!’ texts. It’s just a knife on your neck that will keep you on your toes while your friends are watching.

Here's the complete article: Blackmail App for Writers. Aherk! is still in beta, but it looks as though it is open to the public.

Interesting idea. Perhaps more fans would friend their favorite authors on Facebook if it was known they were using this app. What pictures we might see!

On second thought, that might not be a good thing ...

Thanks to Elizabeth Spann Craig, mystery writer par excellence, for tweeting a link to this article. Elizabeth has a great Twitter feed which you can view here: @elizabethscraig.

Remember, whatever it takes, keep writing!

Related reading:
- Write Or Die: The App
- 4 iPad Apps For Writers
- Conflict Creation: The Needs Of Your Characters

Amazon's KDP Select, Kobo & PubIt: Joe Konrath & Blake Crouch Share Their Experiences

Joe Konrath published the post I've been hoping for ever since Amazon tinkered with its ranking algorithm. In his post, Exclusivity and Free, Joe is joined by Blake & Jordan Crouch, authors of Eerie, who share their experiences with various self-publishing platforms starting with PubIt!

Joe's post is a must-read for anyone who has self-published or is thinking about it. I'll summarize a few things here, but, really, head on over to Joe's site and read the original.

(Also, Black & Jordan Crouch are offering their book, Eerie, for free today (July 2), so head on over and pick up your copy.)

Here's the scoop:

Publishing platforms covered:
- Barnes & Noble's Nook/PubIt!
- Kobo's publishing program (Kobo is soon launching a self-publishing platform: Writing Life)
- Amazon KDP & KDP Select

Publishing platform that was the most flexible and author friendly: Kobo
What Blake had to say surprised me:

[I]n May, I had the opportunity to drop my best-selling title RUN into a Kobo promotion involving email blasts, coupons, and prominent placement on their landing pages. I could not have been more pleased with the results. RUN reached the top 10 on Kobo's overall list, stayed there for several weeks, and the rest of my catalog sold well in response. When you consider the size of Kobo's market share, the fact that I sold more books on Kobo in May than I did on Pubit! is astounding. It was only a few hundred dollars shy of beating Amazon for May, and it did beat Pubit! again in June. Even better, Kobo did not request exclusivity. Their writer-relations people are some of the friendliest, most proactive, responsive people in the business. Suggestions and requests I made last year were taken to heart. It's no secret that Kobo is on the verge of unveiling their own platform (Writing Life). If there is a company that could one day compete with the mighty Amazon, it's these guys. They're inventive, have far, far reaching plans to bring writers what could become the slickest digital publishing platform ever created, and they get that writers are customers. They listen. Best of all, my titles continue to sell and rank highly on Kobo's bestseller list, a month after the promos ended. I cannot say the same for Barnes and Noble. There is no other platform (aside from Amazon) where I've seen this level of "stickiness." If someone asked me what's keeping the majority of my titles out of KDP Select, I would have to say these guys.

That makes me more interested in hearing from authors who are testing out Writing Life before it's rolled out at the end of this month.

Pulbishing platform which sold the most books: Amazon
This was the least surprising thing Blake had to say. Every author I've talked to has admitted to selling more books on Amazon than on any other platform. That Kobo came close to Amazon's sales figures amazed me.

That said, Blake wasn't entirely pleased with his experiences with Amazon's KDP Select. He writes:

KDP Select opinion pieces are a dime a dozen. Amazon is still, hands down, the most lucrative platform for me. Even though the transition from free to paid sales appears to have weakened as of late, success stories like Ann Voss Peterson and Robert Gregory Browne are convincing enough for my brother and I to roll the dice and drop EERIE into KDP Select. I say this as someone who has had great success with free titles: they still make me nervous. I get the excitement of giving away 70,000 ebooks. The prospect of making new fans. But free, in the long run, is dangerous. It sets a bad precedent and level of expectation in the minds of readers. Am I a hypocrite for saying this while EERIE is free? Maybe. But if all the platforms did away with free, I'd be okay with that. As writers, we cannot keep going to that well. It will dry up. Kindles may be able to hold a gazillion ebooks, but readers can't read that many. The key is not being downloaded. It's being read.

This post is not going to end with a definitive conclusion on freebies and exclusivity. I'm uncomfortable with both concepts, even as I play the game. My sense is that the people who survive and continue to do well selling ebooks will be those who experiment, take risks, and adapt. We've said it before, but what worked yesterday, may not work today, and the possibility of a game changer (like KDP Select) is constantly looming. 

Publishing platform that has technical support staff from hell: Barnes & Noble's Nook/PubIt!

Although Blake and Jordan were "pleasantly surprised" by their books performance on PubIt! their sales rank was disappointing. He writes:

It [their book's sales rank] never seemed to correlate to a corresponding low rank. Even on days where we sold 400 books, our rank never dropped below 2000. I have no doubt this cost us many, many sales, a good chunk of money, and kept the book from every appearing on the BN bestseller lists. A real shame, because the marketing triggers that Pubit! pulled worked in a big way. The tech just wasn't there to support them, and their tech support staff just couldn't be bothered to give a damn.

But that aside, Pubit! clearly has some real marketing power, and the smaller window of exclusivity (as opposed to KDP Select's 90 day commitment) is a definite plus. When Pubit!'s tech support decides to follow the model of Kobo and Amazon and treat writers as customers instead of entities to be ignored, Pubit! could become a force.

Overall, Blake's experiences are encouraging. The promotions he ran with the various platforms worked and his book, in generally, ranked well.

Blake and Joe go on to discuss book pricing and the pros and cons of offering books for free. Joe just posted the blog, but already many authors have written in to share their experiences with various platforms and programs.

If you'd like to read Joe's post it's here: Exclusivity and Free
Read the comments here: Exclusivity and Free (Comments)

Related articles:
- Amazon Award-Winner Regina Sirois & The Problems Of Indie Distribution
- Amazon's KDP Select: Another Author Shares Her Experience
- Writing Life: Kobo's New Platform For Self Publishers
- Amazon To Acquire Dorchester Publishing

Photo credit: 3D Issue

10 Female Science Fiction Writers Who Changed Our Lives

Madeleine L'Engle

This is from Flavorwire.com:

In honor of the occasion of Butler’s birth (and because lady sci-fi authors never get enough love) we’ve put together a list of the greatest lady authors of science fiction and fantasy in this or any time — in our own humble estimation of course. ...

Madeleine L’Engle 
We don’t know about you, but Madeleine L’Engle penned what was probably our first interaction with science fiction of any kind, the phenomenal Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels, starring independent Meg Murray and her delightfully advanced little brother. Her writing is forthright and timeless, her ideas original and utterly captivating, and we don’t know where we’d be without her.

Connie Willis
Funny, fantastic Connie Willis has, among other things, won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards, to which we can only say: wow. But the lady deserves it — her science fiction is witty and weird, filled with strange, meticulously researched trivia and slapstick humor pressed up against skillfully handled portrayals of love and loss.

These are just two of the 10 authors profiled by Flavorwire. If you're looking for a good book to read, this list will present you with an embarrassment of riches. You may read the rest of Flavorwire's article here: The Greatest Female Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors of All Time.

Madeleine L'Engle's book, The Wrinkle in Time, was my introduction to science fiction and it changed my life. I read the book for grade four and from the first few pages realized I'd better not let my parents know what I was reading. I read the book in massive gulps and finished it in a couple of days. I spent so much time in my room my parents thought I was ill! I suppose I had caught a bug of sorts, and I'm very grateful.

Madeleine L'Engle was one of the writers who made me want to be a writer, I wanted to be able to construct stories like that, worlds like that. I, and many, many others, owe her a great dept.

Thanks to the Passive Voice Blog for posting a link to Flavorwire's article.

Other reading:
- Henry Miller's 11 Writing Commandments
- How To Become A Full Time Indie Author
- Ursula K. Le Guin On Literature Versus Genre

Lulu.com: New Author Advice Tool

UPDATE (July 1, 2012):
My apologies. I read the original article from Digital Book World in a hurry and thought that Lulu.com, a legitimate company that helps authors self-publish, had added certain 'author solutions' to its site. Unfortunately, on closer inspection, that is not the case.

As Paul pointed out in his kind comment, and as I have known for a while myself, Author Solutions has been flagged by Writer Beware a number of times and I would not recommend it.

Here is what Writer Beware has to say about Author Solutions:

Some POD services have trouble with timeliness in book production and order fulfillment. The companies owned by Author Solutions (AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibris, and Trafford) are the subject of frequent complaints about customer service. Before choosing a POD service, it’s a good idea to scout for complaints, and to contact writers who’ve used the service. (From POD Service Issues To Consider)

There are many legitimate print-on-demand services (such as lulu.com, createspace.com and lightningsource.com) that help authors by enabling them to produce, distribute and sell paper copies of their work and I feel good about recommending any of these companies. Author Solutions is not a company I would recommend.

Because I don't like deleting things, my original article is below.

UPDATE (July 3, 2012):
Here is a link to another post on Writer Beware about AuthorSolutions:
Victoria Strauss -- Author Solutions Acquires Xlibris

--------------

This is from Digital Book World:

In the continuing arms race between self-publishing platforms, Lulu.com has added a new feature designed to entice authors.

Lulu’s Publishing Advisor is designed to give authors customized recommendations on how they can most effectively create, publish, market and sell their title. The recommendations are customized based on the author’s answers to a five-question questionnaire.

Lulu.com is just one of a number of self-publishing tools recently to go to market with improved services and pricing to attract more authors.

Author Solutions is currently offering authors 100% royalties in perpetuity on books published through the site by July 4. The company is also offering authors a something called BookStubs where authors can distribute physical cards with a code for readers to download their e-book to enable in-person e-book sales or giveaways.

A new company called Your Ebook Team just launched and says that it offers authors “360 degree” service, from editorial to distribution.

Major publishing companies are also now reaching out to authors to tout their ability to serve them. Random House, for instance, recently put out a video discussing all the value it offers to authors.

You can read the rest here: Self-Publishing Site Lulu.com Launches Author Advice Tool.

The Writers' Dash: A Virtual Writers Group

I heard about this just today from Virtual Writers' World. I've never been, but it seems like a great idea!

The Writers’ Dash (#writersdash or #dailydash on Twitter) is a 15-minute free writing exercise held on Twitter, Facebook and Second Life® every weekday. At 5:30am & 5:30pm PDT we share the word prompt on our social media channels; the live event begins in Second Life® at 6am & 6pm PDT. Write whatever comes to you. Don’t fixate too heavily on what you are writing and disengage your inner editor – the key is for you to get the words on the page first; you can worry about editing later. If you are attending the live event in Second Life® there will be an opportunity for you to show your work to the other participants after the 15 minutes are up. If you are unable to attend the live event you can share your work on our blog. Just look out for the prompt post and leave your dash piece as a comment.

To read the entire article, click here: Writers’ Dash: Tuber

The writing prompt on June 28th was "tuber". Sounds fun. Quirky.

By the way, I'm out of the office today, but will be back tomorrow. I hope everyone has a terrific long weekend!

Google Drive: Who Owns Your Stories?

Writers are constantly on the look out for ways to make writing more convenient. We have all experienced the pain of having a great idea for the story we're working on but been unable to access it because our saga has been left left at home, or on the office computer, or ...

Dropbox is a great way to keep your story a click away no matter what device you happen to be toting around. Up until recently Dropbox was the solution that stood head and shoulders above the rest but now there is a new gunslinger in town by the name of Google Drive. * Cue cheesy western music *

Google Drive does everything Dropbox does, but costs less. Of course, since it's Google (or as I think of it nowadays: Benign Overload In Training), folks are going to have security concerns, but Nilay Patel of The Verge says that, this time at least, Google is shooting straight with users. (Sorry, I should kill that metaphor.) He writes: 

[A]ll web services should be subject to harsh scrutiny of their privacy policies — but a close and careful reading reveals that Google's terms are pretty much the same as anyone else's, and slightly better in some cases. Let's take a look.

. . . .

Here's the section from Google's terms of service that's causing all the controversy today, with my emphasis in bold:

Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.
When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.

That's a lot of rights to give Google, on the face of it — in fact, it's basically every right you can give to Google as a copyright holder. But think about how limited Google's services would be if it didn't have permission to use, host, store, modify, communicate, publish, or distribute your content — it couldn't move files around on its servers, cache your data, or make image thumbnails, since those would be unauthorized copies. It couldn't run Google Translate or Google Image Search. It would be illegal to play YouTube clips in public. In short, Google is giving itself all the permissions it could possibly need to run all of Google services, with the specific limitations that it doesn't own anything you upload and it can't use your data beyond running its services.

Google actually responded to Nilay Patel's request for comment and clarification. Gotta say, point for Benign Overlord Google. Not many huge corporations have the PR savvy to do something like that. Here is Google's response:

As our Terms of Service make clear, "what belongs to you stays yours." You own your files and control their sharing, plain and simple. Our Terms of Service enable us to give you the services you want — so if you decide to share a document with someone, or open it on a different device, you can.

To read more of N. Patel's article click here: Is Google Drive worse for privacy than iCloud, Skydrive, and Dropbox?

I've taken the plunge and installed Google Drive on my devices. If you're considering doing likewise--or even if you're not--here is a comparison chart of the different store-it-in-the-cloud solutions such as Dropbox and Google Drive:

This graphic is from the article, Google Drive vs. Dropbox, SkyDrive, SugarSync, and others: a cloud sync storage face-off. It was published April 24th 2012 so it's a wee bit dated now, for instance, Google Drive has an iOS app out, but the article is still a great resource for anyone researching the different cloud solutions for storing and sharing data.

By the way, for mobile device users, CloudOn is a great tool for editing the text documents you store in programs such as Dropbox or Google Drive. CloudOn allows you to open such documents up and edit them seamlessly.

Before I used CloudOn I would open up a Dropbox document, save it in Pages, do my edits, mail it back to myself, and then manually update the document in Dropbox. So, yes, the document was available wherever I was, but the experience wasn't what I would call seamless. With CloudOn I just open up my document, make whatever changes I want, and they are automatically saved back to the underlying document. Much less work.


Related articles:
- Why Dropbox Is A Writer's Best Friend
- Evernote: the everything app