As part of the bloggers bash (the annual get together for bloggers) there are a number of awards given out. Awards that are voted for by you.

Last year, the committee agreed on 6 awards for the bloggers bash awards. However, this year, we are opening up the award categories to you…

Your humble host

Michael Dellert is an award-winning writer, editor, publishing consultant, and writing coach with a publishing career spanning 18 years. He is currently an independent freelancer living in the Greater New York City area. 

His blog offers tips, tricks, and advice to aspiring writers seeking to improve their craft, as well as insights into the current state of the publishing industry.

I recently asked him to share a few helpful insights for us, and he was gracious enough to accept!

Here’s Michael.

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What makes compelling fiction?

Author Michael Dellert

Is it what your character likes to have for breakfast? How they tie their shoes and brush their teeth in the morning?

I’ve met hundreds of writers, as a blogger, as an editor, as a writing coach, and as a student of writing. Many writers start off with the basics when it comes to character development: height, weight…

Reblogged from D.G.Kaye

Authors, are you using universal links for your books? If you’re not using universal links with your books, you’re most likely missing out on having many more potential readers.

What is a universal link?

When selling your books on Amazon.com, and posting the link for that book when promoting, it will take the reader directly to Amazon.com. Now that’s great that you have an interested reader to view your book, but what if they want to purchase it and they don’t live in the U.S.?

Click to continue reading: Universal links, Amazon.com, booklinker.net, smarturl.it, book promoting, D.G. Kaye

My guest this week says that music is the key to most of his work. The title of his short story collection, Nothing But The Dead and Dying, came from a line in a Simon and Garfunkel song. All the stories are bound by the landscape of Alaska, where he worked for a while in a construction crew. Ennio Morricone helped him recreate its barren desolation. And when he’s been stuck on a story, even to the extent of giving up, rescue usually comes in the form of a random piece of music. He is Ryan W Bradley and he’s on the Red Blog with his Undercover Soundtrack.

Have you tried and failed to include Goodreads Giveaway widget on your WordPress.com site? Have you tried reading forums, only to find that the reason for it is that Goodreads uses Java or whatever else WordPress.com doesn’t allow? Oh, good, so I’m not the only one…

I was so frustrated with this previously, that I created a work-around using an image widget. I was happy with that for a while, but the image suggested that only few people have requested my book, when in actuality it was 1,699 over 2 weeks! I have just started a new giveaway, and already over 350 people have requested a copy, in less than 15 hours!

So I found a different work-around. Cause I just don’t take “no” for an answer and cause I feel omni-potent, having learned the very basics of HTML. Also, probably, cause I’m Russian-born, and we’ve been known to fix space stations…