e-authors taking off

It is clear that some authors are doing very well self-publishing their titles as e-books and are quite happy to steer clear of traditional publishers and earn lots of royalties.

From reading the various blogs, I think successful authors do 2 things:

1. They have a body of work. If it is fiction, they tend to write in genres and series. I think e-readers (humans as opposed to devices) devour books so they want more books from authors they enjoy whether it be science fiction, crime or romance.
2. They have a blog presence on the web where they actively engage with readers and would-be authors.

They have often spent fruitless months trying to engage agents and publishers - the one time gatekeepers to the reading public. Now that they can tap into their reading public themselves, they can get the appreciation they knew was out there.

The Cupblog is more about publishing

The other blog on the Nodoff.co.uk site 'Learn a language blog' is for just that - learning a language. Do drop by both!

Is it the risk of sounding a fool...

that so many British people are reluctant to speak a foreign language? It is odd, really, considering that the former Manager of the English football team, Fabio Capello, could barely string his few words of English together. A foreign person speaking English sounds like charm to our ears. But listening to ourselves trying to speak another language is like listening to fingernails scrape down a blackboard.

Obviously, we should just relax and let it all hang out. It has to be better than speaking loudly in English and expecting everyone to understand.

Exams looming

The days are getting longer and exams are coming back on the horizon. With the pressure on young people to gain the best marks possible, they often end up stressed, frazzled and unable to sleep.

This is where the Nod offs are not only ideal revision tools, they will teach you how to relax and unwind. And they are guaranteed to send you to sleep.

This is not just a method for learning a language, you can also use it with other facts you need to memorize. If you need to learn all the bones in the body, why not record them and then listen to the list as you fall asleep?

The best way to revise is to organize what you need to learn, pace yourself and use sleep time to embed information (no pun intended).

Back in Blogosphere

Hoorah, I managed to resuscitate my blogger details. Nice to be back in the old blog. While I have been locked out, e-books are making their mark and making some savvy authors realise they can go it alone without a publishing house behind them. It means that traditional publishers have to be even more cautious about what they publish. No longer can they throw a whole lot of books at the wall and see what sticks. It needs a much more imaginative approach.

In fact they seem to be caught in a pincer-like attack - Amazon on one side and self-publishing authors on the other.

It will be interesting to see how they stand their ground.

Talking about self-publishing authors. Check out Robert Grossmith and his very funny philosophical novel. The best kind of book, not only will it make you belly laugh, it will also teach you a thing or two about philosophy.

Back in Cupblog

Somehow I found myself shut out of blogger. That nightmare scenario where you have so many usernames and passwords you don't know where you are anymore happened to me. I was trying everything, scouring my address book where I'd scribbled said usernames and passwords but with no indication which was current.

Anyway I'm back inside which is quite a relief.

Wallowing in weebly

I have really got to grips with the nod off website I'm putting together via weebly. The more I tinker about with it, the more fun it is to use. At last it is a website I feel in control of (as much as one can when you can't write any of the background stuff). Because I want to include tracks from the nod off cds, I am paying for a pro site. But you can make one for free. I would highly recommend it if you want to understand a bit more about how they are put together.