Sometimes you realize that the right time to do something is right NOW. This morning, even though I had about 100 work-related things to do, I realized I couldn't put off harvesting my basil and my garlic. You know fall is approaching when the basil starts to get weird, and you have to just rip out the plants. It was a harvest it, or lose it moment.

Many heads of garlic are now hanging in the woodshed curing (drying). I also spent a peaceful half-hour sitting in my garden de-stemming the basil. The leaves spent most of the day soaking in a 5-gallon bucket of water. After I finish this newsletter, they are going to be ground up with olive oil and frozen in ice cube trays. (Basically, it's pesto minus those absurdly expensive pine nuts.)

Along the same lines, when it comes to technology, sometimes the right time is now. Many people talk about setting up a Web site or a blog to market their book, but they let a few simple concerns hold them back.

Enjoy!

Don't Be Afraid to Market Your Book with a Blog

by Susan C. Daffron

Don't let a few simple concerns or fear of technology stop you from setting up a blog

For those who have been wondering about all my nerdy comments on Facebook lately, at long last I feel comfortable revealing what the "Big Web Site" project is. I'm now the President of the Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN), which you can find online at http://www.spawn.org/. I've been a member for years, and I'm thrilled to be working with such a great group of creative professionals.

Redoing the Web site was my first task for SPAWN, and it's mostly done. I haven't quite finished the private member area stuff yet or implemented the new ecommerce store, but it's getting dangerously close! I have cleaned up, reformatted, and reorganized 500+ pages, and set up the new blog, so it's downhill from here.

In somewhat less nerdy news, I'll be doing a teleseminar about publishing with Melanie Jordan next week (8/26 at 1 pm Pacific). As some of you might recall, Melanie spoke at our SPOC conference and is the author of What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know, which is a comprehensive guide to infopreneuring and marketing.

You can read more about the teleseminar and sign up using this URL: http://BudUrl.com/SelfPublishingCall.

It doesn't cost anything, and if history is a precedent, it should be a lot of fun. Melanie and I have a lot in common and tend to laugh a lot when we get together.

This week's article is on a topic that's been bugging me lately, since I've been spending so much time in the world of ecommerce.

Enjoy!

Don't Send Credit Card Numbers Via Email...EVER!

by Susan C. Daffron

Whether you are business owner or consumer, it is never okay to send credit card information via email

Even though it's only Wednesday as I’m writing, this week has been one of those emotional roller coaster weeks with extreme highs and lows. I started off by committing a serious "reply to all" email faux pas. (Yes, admit it, you've done it too!) Then on Monday, I had not one, not two, but three clients with technical traumas. One person had a "meltdown;" another professed to be "going insane" dealing with a printer. However, I resolved them all, so by Tuesday, I was riding high and feeling like a techno-goddess.

That high continued through my NAPRP teleseminar in which I had the amazing opportunity to talk to the founder of Petfinder.com, Betsy Saul. For those who don't know, Petfinder is one of the most popular animal-related Web sites online. This Web site has single-handedly improved pet adoption statistics in North America. Betsy is one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet and is more proof that sometimes just one person with an idea and a lot of motivation can make a big difference.

Motivation also happens to be the subject of this week's article.

Enjoy!

Stop Wondering How to Write a Book

by Susan C. Daffron

If you haven't written your book yet, stop wondering how; figure out what motivates you and just do it

Some of you may remember that author Shel Horowitz spoke at our Self-Publishers Online Conference in May. The other day, Shel told me about a great deal he's offering on his book Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First. This self-published book is actually the basis of a new book he's working on for a traditional publisher (Wiley) called Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green, which he is co-authoring with Jay Conrad Levinson. The new book will contain quite a bit of information from Principled Profit.

Once the new book comes out, Shel is prohibited by contract from selling Principled Profit anymore. So he's asked friends and associates (like me) to let people know that he's running a special that lets you buy the book at a deep discount. Principled Profit also comes with two e-books he's written as bonuses. If you'd like to take advantage of the offer, click this link: http://frugalmarketing.com/newsletters/2009/06/26/my-quandary-your-opportunity/.

I don't get anything for recommending this deal, but I do want to help Shel keep these extra copies from heading to the shredder. He sent me a copy of the book, and I can report that, like Shel's other books, Principled Profit is full of a ton of great marketing advice, so it's a worthy addition to your library.

This week's article is about book barcodes. Perhaps not the most exciting subject, but if you're self-publishing a book, it's something you need to understand.

The Ins and Outs of Book Barcodes

by Susan C. Daffron

Self-publishers need to understand the acronyms and terms related to book barcodes