Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘web tools’

Shop Talk |

How to write more: Blackmail yourself?

by Celeste Ng

Perhaps, like many of us, you’re the kind of person who won’t do anything without a (proverbial) gun to your head. But it’s hard to type while holding a gun to your own head, no? Leave it to technology to solve this problem: enter Aherk!, which describes itself as a free “goal-oriented self-blackmailing service.” Now in beta testing, Aherk! has three basic steps: Define a goal. Tell us what it is that you want to achieve and set a deadline. Put your ass on the line. Upload a compromising picture that will be posted to Facebook in case you fail […]


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Control your own book tour destiny

by Lee Thomas

We’ve written several posts over the years about the emergence of DIY book tours, marketing and self-publicity (read them here, and here, and here). Not only do self-published authors need to get their hustle on, but writers who publish with small presses, or find themselves mid-level (or lower) on a big house’s list can find their book off the radar within months of a debut. Yet many writers find they’re woefully unprepared to find the right venue in Kansas City or drum up buzz ahead of time so they don’t show up to an empty house at an Austin coffee […]


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Literature Maps

The following guest post is by Emily VanDusen, an FWR intern and first-year student at the University of Michigan. As a student, a writer, a reader, and simply a person, I have made many a concept map in my day, whether in writing or in my imagination. The organization of interrelated thoughts takes many forms, but few are as straightforward and yet complex as the “literature maps” offered by Gnooks.com. All you have to do to see the connections and proximity of one author’s “relationship” to another is type in a name and watch the screen bloom. What’s cool is […]



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