Jen's Writing Journey

E-reads: Penetrating the Mystery of E-book Pricing
Ever wonder why e-books are priced the way they are? Wonder no more. This article provides an interesting look at pricing models and their basis in print pricing models.

IPod Touch, iPhone Join Kindle’s Book Club
The Kindle store is becoming slightly more inclusive by offering a free app for iPod Touch and iPhone. Will this move keep Apple from developing their own ebook reader?

Genachowski Named to Head FCC
The new FCC head has a long history in tech and is supportive of net neutrality and expansion of broadband service. What does that mean for our industry?

Ask the Editor: Should I Self-Publish?
Self-publishing has a bit of a stigma among writers, but this post gives some good reasons it might be the right choice for a particular writer or project.

Beta Readers: Are They Useful?
L.J. Sellers shares her experience with beta readers. She has had some good and some bad. Have you used beta readers? Do you have any tips to make the experience successful?

Forward Motion for Writers
SF writer Holly Lisle has provided some tips and tricks for fledgling writers in this sub-section of her website.

How to Drum Up Motivation When You Don’t Feel Like Writing
Just do it.

Special Focus on #queryfail
Did you follow queryfail on Twitter last week? If not, you can go back and view the tweets by searching for #queryfail at twitter.com. And read these stories about the good and the bad opinions of the exercise.

• Query Fail Day Debated at Media Bistro
• Positivity Week at Nathan Bransford’s blog (make sure you read the comments)
• Twitter Tips on How Not to Get Published from The Guardian
• The Success of #queryfail at Publishers Lunch (subscription required)

Happy Monday. Let’s all have a great week writing!

• Writing Roundup, April 6 Here is this week's batch of writing resources. Happy writing!FictionTalking about TalkingThe editors at The Blood Red Pencil give some good tips for ensuring dialogue that sounds authentic but not as boring as the average conversation. Don't believe me when I sat the average conversation is boring? Record one or......
• Writing Roundup, September 4 Public Service Message: If you are affected by the Google Books settlement and you want to opt out, today is the deadline. Here is the link to opt out. The Business of Writing Books: The Big Story Is Consolidation This Financial Times article argues for further consolidation of book publishers......
• Book Review: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott While stuck in the Fort Lauderdale airport yesterday, waiting for our flight to Houston, I had a lot of time to read. I finished this 1994 book, along with a novel and three magazines, during the travel odyssey.Lamott's reflections on writing and life are couched in real-world experiences that......
• Self-Reflection If I learned one thing in my days working on ed tech research journals, it was this: self-reflection is a key component of your ongoing development as a professional in your chosen field.So, I have decided to chronicle the things I'm doing and the lessons I'm learning as I grow......
• Writing Roundup, July 10 I hope you are all having as productive a month as you would like it to be. This seems like such a good time to take a breather and go light on the writing projects. Not me, I always seem to have big deadlines in the summer. Maybe next year,......

• Amazon Kindle: Buy or Not? When I first started this blog, I announced that I'd write about technology 5% of the time. Since I have written more than 700 articles...
• Easy Ebook Creation for Business Promotion and Marketing There are a number of ways to create an ebook. If you want to create an ebook to give away as a premium for signing up for...
• Best Reads of the Week: the 'Too Big for Jail' Edition I haven't posted a Best Reads article in some time due to the monster snowstorm that knocked out power and web access subsequently throwing a...
• Twitter Report~1 I have been a member of Twitter for quite some time now, but I am not a Twitter expert. I do not even have that...
• Copywriting Tips For Bloggers Who Hate Writing Online copywriting, contrary to what some may say, is not some mysterious ancient code you must decipher before you get good at it.  Quite frankly,...