How To Articles

In a world where sharing documents is commonplace, do you give a thought to how to safeguard your manuscript before you publish your book? Unlike a report or an article draft, your book manuscript is months, or even years, in the making. You are probably careful to protect your manuscript by making regular backups and…

Using AI-generated images in your ebook or blog is a logical consideration because they can quickly add unique visual appeal. However, issues regarding copyright and ethics have made the use of these images far from straightforward. As is the case with most advances in technology, laws and legislation are extremely slow to react and enact.…

Of course, you always want people to discover your writing, whether you’ve published an article, a short story, or your latest book. However, after you hit the publish button, you wait, and wait, and nothing happens. But it’s not just happening to you. Until recently, writers and authors could pretty much rely on search engines…

If you’re an author or writer, you use search engines for research, but do you know about the site search operator? I use it every day because it’s a quick and easy way to search for my indexed articles, mentions of my books or name, or finding internal linking opportunities for my blog, plus many…

Can you start a blog anonymously and keep your identity a secret? Yes, you can, and it’s relatively easy to do. Perhaps you want to protect your privacy or avoid potential conflicts with your professional life. For authors who write under a pseudonym, blogging under your pen name is often a good idea. Whatever your reasons,…

When you are preparing to self-publish a new book, one important element to include is a disclaimer in your front matter. You’ve probably got a lot of other things on your mind as you get ready to publish. However, a disclaimer is a vital precaution that will offer you some degree of legal protection. You…

Zine is a diminutive of the word magazine, so it means a very small magazine. Ezines now refer to online and electronic versions that are often between six and twelve pages. In the past, small publications such as this were sometimes called pamphlets or leaflets. The history of zines dates back to the 18th century, when…

Need to know when a webpage or article was published? The publish date helps you verify that the information is current, especially when you’re researching topics like technology, science, or medicine. Dates may not matter as much for historical research, but if you want the latest insights, an article from 2005 might not be reliable.…

Deciding on a process to manage your writing drafts is a key element for all writing projects, from articles and essays to poetry and book manuscripts. A first draft is rarely, if ever, the final product. For most writers, the final draft often results from many earlier revisions and edited versions. However, new writers sometimes…

Hardly a day goes by without news about artificial intelligence (AI). Whether you like it or loathe it, the one certainly is that it’s here to stay. But the big question for writers is, how can you use AI to write? The quick and simple answer is that you can’t let AI write for you…