Jennifer Lancaster

April 26, 2021

Two Ways to Track Time and Be More Productive

Working from home comes with its rewards and challenges. There’s more scope… for slacking off! So these two time tracking productivity apps and one way to build a writing habit might be just the ticket to be more productive, including getting more writing done. Clockify Time Tracker If you need to track time so that you can bill your service or assess your project rewards, then free time tracker Clockify is just great. I paid for Harvest tracker & invoicing for six years, but once implementing Quickbooks I needed a solution that did not also charge. I’ve been tracking time spent on projects (billable or fixed/non-billable) successfully this year, with zero outlay. If you want Premium (paid), besides branded timesheets, there is a feature called ‘Focus Time’, where you can click it to just focus on one project. No more…

December 28, 2023

Selling eBooks and Media

Earn Money in Two Ways with eBooks

You can earn money through being an affiliate at the digital eBook aggregator stores and also from selling ebooks. You’ll find the best deals don’t always go through Amazon and I’m told Australians purchase 30% of their eBooks via Apple iBooks or other smaller online stores! Two large eBook aggregators are Draft2Digital and Smashwords. There is also Lulu. _____ Example of Draft2Digital Page Creative Ways with Money eBook https://books2read.com/u/3JVrzB It Pays to Partner! I found that Draft2Digital is a little easier to get a Word file or an ePub through their wizard than Smashwords, so in 2017 I started switching my eBooks to that platform to release to B&N Nook, Kobo, Apple Books, Scribd, OverDrive, and optionally to Amazon, etc. You can also change things about your book sales page you don’t like (see below). Authors, please sign up to…

January 28, 2023

Self-Publishing

Dodge the Vanity Press and Do Your Own Publishing

Self-publisher support companies — like Balboa Press and Austin Macauley — are everywhere. On Amazon I found someone else passionate about saving authors from the clutches of uncaring vanity presses, or as they call themselves, hybrid publishers. Yay! Michael N Marcus seems to have dedicated a good portion of his life to warning authors and informing them on how to self-publish independently. Such idiotic titles as ‘Can I really publish a decent book with Microsoft Word? Yes!’ and ‘How to Not Get Screwed by a Self-Publishing Company’ first made me wonder at the quality of advice. However, on his How to Not Get Screwed Amazon blurb, Michael makes a great point: Self-publishing companies enable anyone who can type to quickly become a “published author” and compete for the attention of the reading public. There is no longer a need to go…

October 27, 2024

Publicity

Behind the Book ‘Ignite Your Power’

This is an Author Interview with Eve Dyer, the author of Ignite your Power, a high-quality, full length book launched in 2019. What was your overall goal of writing your book, Ignite Your Power? To help people, like the clients I’ve seen in my psychology practice, to stand up to hurtful and manipulative treatment. Most thought that by being kind and loving, their partner, friend or parent would listen. But of course they didn’t. I wanted them to know how to use power assertively, not aggressively. How they could resolve their anxiety, stress, and depression, as well as the likely causes of these; their self-doubt, low self-esteem and vulnerabilities. Which platforms did you personally market your book on? The intention was to do so much, looking at the tasks from my eight-page spreadsheet! But then life circumstances changed, clients still…

August 20, 2020

Book Marketing, Publicity

Finally Getting Help with Author Marketing

Talking to authors of late, many whom have a lot to offer the world, I noticed there is still the fear of putting themselves in the spotlight. Folks, you don’t have to do what doesn’t feel right for you when it comes to author marketing (sometimes called ‘being an influencer’). Some authors are great at interviewing, so podcasting/guest podcasting becomes their thing. (Podcasting also has an extremely good take-up rate of regular listeners buying). Have a look at (Facebook group) We are Podcast by Ronzley Vaz. Some jovial guys and gals make videos their thing; whether reading a book passage or showing others their world or creative use of video. Some new authors take their first steps in blogging on a theme… (some never leave ;-)) Some authors are social creatures, so they create interesting content to tie in what…

August 14, 2020

Book Writing, Self-Publishing

Writing your First Book

Many people in a ‘knowledge’ based business (or hobby business) are overwhelmed by the thought of writing their first major book. So it’s quite common that they’ll say “I just want to write a short eBook to put on Amazon”. Hey, I get that; my first book (a marketing manual) was about 70 A4 pages, the second one 46 pages, and it felt like I was feeling my way across a dark room. I didn’t know how to extend it — or even if I should. I reasoned that self-publishing was the only way an unknown novice like me was going to achieve publishing at all. In 2006, I used the US self-publishing platform Lulu for my second how-to book, and happily for me, they turned it into an ebook and distributed it for free. It achieved small sales for quite…