Welcome to the December 24, 2012 edition of tips and tricks for writers and authors. We have a great mix of posts on book publicity, social media, writing, book marketing and self-publishing. Thanks to the contributors. Happy Holidays!

Book Marketing

Sue Collier presents Guest Post: Things to Keep In Mind When Marketing and Promoting Your Book posted at Self-Publishing Resources.

Book Publicity

Jon Rhodes presents How To Get A Guest Post Published posted at Affiliate Help!, saying, “This article shows the point of view of a guest post publisher. This can help you learn some do’s and don’ts when submitting your own guest blog posts for publicity.”

Jan Bear presents Public Relations for Authors: Getting Out the Word about Your Book posted at Market Your Book, saying, “Public relations for authors can be a powerful force in selling your book. In this blog interview, publicist Jessica Glenn of MindBuck Media tells us how.”

Nick Daws presents Freelance Writers – Have You Joined the Video Revolution Yet? posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog, saying, “In this post I discuss the importance to writers of getting to grips with video, and recommend some useful free resources.”

Social Media

Joel Friedlander presents Should Fiction Authors Be Bloggers? posted at The Book Designer, saying, “If you’re a novelist, should you be blogging?”

Matt Schoenherr presents Target Marketing: Speak Directly to Your Target Audience posted at Marketing Ideas 101, saying, “The other day, I stumbled across an ad that caught my attention. The ad was for Careers 2.0, a site dedicated to programmers and the programming industry. What I found remarkable about this ad was the laser-fine focus it possessed. And maybe this is a reflection on me—but my first assumption was that they were saying something profane…”

Writing

Chrys Fey presents Get Ready, Set, TONE! posted at Write With Fey, saying, “In the beginning of this blog is a short teaser that I wrote to help illustrate setting and tone.”

Matthew Hall presents How to Outline with yWriter: An Introduction to Outlineingposted at M.L. Hall, saying, “How to outline with yWriter. Introduction to outlining using the yWriter software.”

Iulian Ionescu presents How to a Novel in 30 Daysl posted at Fantasy Scroll – a blog for fiction writers, saying, “50,000 words in 30 days. That’s about 200 pages (double spaced, standard margins, 12 pt. font). Mathematically, that is not more than a mere 1,667 words per day, or about 6 to 7 pages. This translates in about 1 to 2 hours per day of typing. Piece of cake, right? Well, as we all know, writing a novel is not about math, unless you are writing some kind of algebra textbook. It’s a lot more than that, and most of it has to do with what’s in your head.”

Karen M. Rider presents A Writer’s Life: How Public? How Private? posted at Karen M. Rider, saying, “It’s easy for us writers to think we need a presence everywhere, from Google+ to Tumblr, in order to get noticed. If you aren’t thinking strategically about who you are as a writer and what you want from your writing life, then you’ll get sucked into the social media universe, possibly to never be heard from again! To maintain progress toward your goals, and prevent getting lost in the social media realm, you’ll want to understand the difference between your public booklife and your private booklife.”

George Bernstein presents Critiques posted at SuspenesGuy.

Self-Publishing

Bob Baker presents Two Ways Writers Can Get More Done in Less Time posted at Bob Baker’s Book Promotion Blog, saying, “Use these two quick tips to carve out more time to write books, blog posts, scripts, articles, and more.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of tips and tricks for writers and authors using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.