A few weeks ago, we posted five tips to help you be in top form for TV appearances. Here, courtesy once again of Marsha Friedman, are ten more tips to help you capitalize on valuable air-time when you appear as a TV guest.

Barnes & Noble recently launched Quamut.com, a new how-to site that features guides published by their own in-house editors. Their Q-Wiki allows users to elaborate on existing Quamut guides and also publish their own standalone guides from scratch. This is a great opportunity for authors to establish their expertise and brand by creating helpful guides that tie to their books. Sign up for your free account today, and start sharing your knowledge with potential book purchasers.

Here at Greenleaf, we believe in telling someone when they’ve got a big piece of spinach in their teeth. And we also know that—while it may seem shallow—nothing charms a prospective buyer more effectively than crackerjack packaging. That’s why we created RateMyBookCover.com. Upload your cover (it’s absolutely free) and, much like Internet dinosaur HotOrNot.com, the crowds will let you know what they think of your image on a scale of 1 to 10.

Ever watch morning TV and think, “Hey, I can do that!” Well the truth is that if you have a book, product, or service to promote to consumers, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t appear as a guest on TV! But what does it take to be a good guest? Here are five simple tips to get you started and help you capitalize on the valuable airtime at your disposal.

Is it disloyal to admit that I admire, sympathize with, even like AP style? It’s true that Chicago will always be my first love. And 80 percent of the AP Stylebook is just alphabetized terms in loose chapters. To those of us with wandering eyes and a shaky grasp of the alphabet, that’s just cruel. Sure, it’s straightforward, but if I want to know about commas, it’s pretty well guaranteed I’ll get stuck reading about colloquialisms, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and commodities before I discover I’m to look up the entry under punctuation. Where, of course, I’ll find Purim, Pulitzer Prizes, and a direction to the punctuation chapter. Well, why didn’t you just send me there in the first place? (On the other hand, ask me about Lithuanian independence!)

Author Cory Doctorow has good reason to be wary of digital rights management. After switching from Mac to a Linux OS, he tells of the months-long task of laboriously converting his extensive DRM-controlled audiobook collection to the universal MP3 format. Ouch.
Digital rights management has long had its critics, who argue that piracy prevention efforts are […]

When I first found out that I was expected to write a piece for the Big Bad Book Blog, I was stumped. As I sat staring at the blinking cursor on my computer screen I realized I could use this to my advantage. I decided to write about writer’s block. We’ve all had it dozens of times: the feeling of blank impossibility in the face of a writing project.

It’s time again in the publishing industry to start preparing for industry trade shows. There are easy ways for authors to exhibit even if they don’t have the time or money to travel or invest in a full-fledged booth. Combined Book Exhibit can display your book for you at a number of regional shows and some of the industry’s largest shows, such BookExpo America (BEA), the American Library Association annual conference, and the Frankfurt International Book Fair. For a single fee, you can tap their expertise to show your title or titles for you; interested attendees will be given catalogs with all contact information should they be interested in the book, and you can buy full-page ads in the catalog if you choose. You’ll also be included in the CBE searchable online database for a year. Visit this page for details on registration.

2007 was fun, wasn’t it? Between Judith Regan, O.J. Simpson, Amazon’s Kindle, the AMS bankruptcy, and James Frey vs. Oprah redux, there was plenty of shock, titillation, and Schadenfreude to go around. (We’re pointedly excluding a certain boy wizard. Months later, we’re still fatigued.) But bigger than any one of these stories was the […]

According to some estimates, 20 to 30 million trees are harvested each year for paper and paper products, and the US publishing industry is one of the biggest culprits. On average, only about 5% of the paper used by US book publishers comes from recycled paper or paper managed in an environmentally friendly way. What’s wrong with this picture?