Wendy Spurlin 
Now that you’ve completed Automatic Targeting for Books with Amazon Advertising’s Sponsored Ads and let the ad run for a while, it’s time to manage the ad. No, you can’t just set it and forget it. There are a number of things you’ll need to do on a regular basis to make sure the ad delivers results. NOTE: If you haven’t set up an ad on Amazon yet, click on the title above and set … Read more
If you keep a daily journal, where you spill thoughts and track progress on your various projects, there are three items you should add to help increase your productivity. These items are quick and easy to add at the beginning of your journal each day. And they all provide a little kick in the butt to keep your goals on track. 1. Note the Week # and Day # I bet that at the beginning … Read more
So you’ve been putting off writing your author bio. Or maybe you wrote one in 10 minutes just to get it done, then you slapped it up on Amazon Author Central with a dulled-out selfie. After all, very few of us enjoy an afternoon of bragging about our books and other accomplishments. And no one reads them anyway, right? Wrong! Your author bio is your business card. It helps you stand out from the rest … Read more
All of our eBooks are on sale from .99 – $1.99 until 2024. We have books for kids and adults. We have fiction and nonfiction books too. For Only .99 Cents Pieces of Eight: A desperate Wetworld confronts the reality of the world above in this ecofiction tale. Soaring ocean temperatures are destroying the oceans, the scorching heat and putrid waste slaughtering its denizens. A desperate Wetworld sends one of its own to Dryworld to … Read more
If you are a writer or aspire to write, you soon discover it’s not as easy as it looks. In fact, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve been writing professionally for over thirty years. It’s a career where the minute you think you’ve mastered the craft, your editor returns a document covered in markups and comments that triples the size of your MS Word file. Hence, writers learn quickly to stick together … Read more
Today, I decided to share a paper I wrote a few years ago, when I returned to college for a short time. Surprisingly, I had to retake an English class because it had been too many years since I’d had one. I could have challenged the class, but I thought it might be fun to retake it. What’s funny is that they were willing to accept credits for English classes that are much more complicated. … Read more
In a previous post, I showed you how to Remove The Extra Sections, Breaks, and Spaces Before Submitting or Formatting Your Book. This is not the only messy situation you might encounter in your manuscript. Your punctuation can be just as inconsistent, which causes major issues when formatting your book. Plus, your book looks sloppy, and sloppy books get bad reviews. Below is an example of inconsistent punctuation. Forgive my pathetic use of ellipsis and … Read more
Sponsored Products ads are the type of Amazon ad that authors use to create book ads. Automatic Targeting is one of the ad types, and it is the easiest ad to create. Because automatic targeted ads require little to no planning, these are the perfect starter ads for authors new to advertising on Amazon. It is important to note that automatic targeting is one of the least effective ads because you have little control over … Read more
Amazon makes it easy for you to access their ads platform from a number of places. The Amazon Advertising dashboard is where you will create new ads and manage existing ads. In this checklist you will access the website and set up your account for the first time. There are also instructions on how to access Amazon Advertising from KDP and Author central. Amazon Ads Website In this section you will access amazonads.com and set … Read more
If you have an Amazon Author Central account, you’ve probably seen an Amazon Advertising box in the Reports + Marketing section. This is a perfect option for traditionally published authors who don’t have a KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) account. And it’s quite essential for an author to have an Amazon Advertising account because, as you’ll hear me say over and over again, you won’t sell books on Amazon unless you advertise. You might be afraid … Read more
Do you want readers to buy your books? Of course you do. Then don’t just put your books in bookstores, put yourself out there too. Amazon’s Author Central brings both you and your books together in one place that you control. Besides introducing you to Amazon’s customer base, it encourages readers to buy more of your books, and here’s how. 1. Author Follows Amazon is invested in understanding their customers’ preferences because it results in … Read more
Now it’s back to school, and before you know it, it’ll be time to snuggle up under a blanket by the fire with a little one and a good picture book. Here are two books that we recently published that the kids are sure to enjoy.
Let’s face facts. It’s hard enough to write a book, let alone keep the manuscript file clean. Eventually you find yourself with an edited book that you want to submit to agents or self-publish, but there’s all kinds of extra line breaks, spaces, tabs and other inconsistencies that make your manuscript look like a giant mess. Sure, you can turn it over to a book formatter, but the up front work to clean up the … Read more
We are excited to announce we’ve been working with a new children’s book author. ArmLin House Productions will be publishing Marin Resnick’s second children’s book, her first titled Scary the Scared Iguana. Her new book, Fall Night Fun, is about Apollo the horse and Jerry the squirrel, best friends that live on a farm and venture out to find pumpkins during a crescent moon and the Halloween harvest. Marin is a mom, writer, and coffee … Read more
I write a fiction series, currently titled The Courier under the pen name Winnie Jean Howard, but I’m changing the series name to Angels Dark and Dumb. Why, you ask? Because the series title doesn’t speak to the actual series’ genre/sub-genres. Yes, the main character is a courier, and he continues to transport otherworldly things and beings in the series, but The Courier doesn’t speak to the fantasy, paranormal, and comedy side of the series. … Read more
Dr. Martha talks about holidays with family throughout her life in Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers. The word Lent has multiple meanings, and somehow it came to mean the forty days before Easter Sunday beginning on Ash Wednesday. One explanation is that the 40 days represent the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus Christ spent fasting in the desert. There was also this tradition—the only word I can think to describe it because it … Read more
In Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers, Dr. Martha discusses 4 generations of motherhood. But I wish they had lived longer. I have bunches of patients who are my age and whose parents are alive, or at least one is alive. I envy that. I tell people that my parents died young because I do think that 76 and 77 are young. Too young to be dead. I have a four-generation picture of my mother’s mother, … Read more
Mother’s Day is fast approaching. Have you thought about what you’ll get Mom or Grandma this year? If they grew up Catholic during the 60s and 70s, they will love Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers, a walk down a memory lane of baptism, naming ceremonies, confession, confirmation, marriage, divorce, and much much more. Dr. Lucas candidly recounts memories of her Catholic daughter’s childhood: beginning with her parents choosing which saint to name her after and … Read more