Did you know that the best WordPress plugins are also free? One of the things I love about WordPress is that it is “plug and play”. If you want to add some extra features or functionality to your website, you can do so very easily by adding plugins from your WordPress dashboard. Do you want to speed up your website?...
Blogging / Internet Marketing / Wordpress
by Gary McLaren · Published March 6, 2017 · Last modified May 8, 2017
Some people think you need to be a ‘techie’ to build a blog or website. That may have been true in the past, but it is no longer the case. WordPress is now the leading software for building websites. With an estimated 75 million blogs and websites using WordPress, there has to be some rock solid reasons why so many people are using it and...
The 4th Edition of The Inflight Magazines Report is now available over at Inflight-Magazines.com. This update was one of the most important projects I had scheduled for early 2016, so it’s great to be able to tick it off as completed. It incorporates a new design for the report, as well as a new cover, and a complete overhaul of the...
Author Platform / Book Marketing / Ebooks & e-Readers / Publishing
by Gary McLaren · Published October 2, 2015 · Last modified October 6, 2015
In this new era of publishing, a writer, arguably, has more chance of becoming a successful author than at any other time in the last fifty years. That’s the opening line of my 500-word manifesto, “A Manifesto for Authors’ Marketplace Success“, which has just been published at Futurebook. This is part of a series of manifestos on the future of...
Author Platform / Book Marketing / Books / Ebooks & e-Readers / Gary's Stuff / General / Other Projects / Publishing / Writing
by Gary McLaren · Published July 22, 2015 · Last modified February 5, 2017
In the third week of July this year I launched a new blog for writers, Writers Unplugged. This will now be my main blog for writers. Over the past 15 years I have posted my articles at multiple web sites including freelance writing material at WorldwideFreelance.com, e-publishing articles at PublishYourOwnEbooks.com and platform building at PlatformPundit.com. I have discovered that writing new material...
Author Platform / Book Marketing / Books / Ebooks & e-Readers / General / Publishing / Writing
by Gary McLaren · Published April 10, 2015 · Last modified April 11, 2015
A few weeks ago I posted my views on where we’re heading in the independent publishing industry and what will be most important for indie authors in 2015. So many readers enjoyed that post that I decided to create the following infographic that contains all of the key points.
I’ve always loved libraries. Even as a young boy I was a regular visitor to our local library where the world opened up to me through books and reading. Many years later I look back on those early reading experiences and I reflect on how they influenced some of my adventures around the world. I hope you love libraries too. Here are twenty of...
Author Platform / Book Marketing / Publishing / Social Media / Writing
by Gary McLaren · Published February 25, 2015 · Last modified May 31, 2015
In this post I’ll reveal some of the most useful hashtags for indie authors. For those not familiar with hashtags they are essentially a keyword beginning with the “#” character. When someone writes a tweet they can include a hashtag to make it easier for people interested in that topic to find their tweets. For example I might include the hashtags #publishing...
Books / Ebooks & e-Readers / General / Publishing
by Gary McLaren · Published February 15, 2015 · Last modified March 13, 2015
Between books, ebooks and audiobooks there are so many different formatting options. This infographic is designed to provide a quick overview of the most common formats. You may click here to open it full size in a new window or click here to see it in my Google Album. Printed Books A book’s format refers to the shape and dimensions of the...
