Audiobooks Read By You: VIDEO - GalleyCat

Hee! Hee! Hee!

Panzer wants to know, are you thinking about doing an audiobook? Are you planning to read your own work? Or maybe hire someone to do it?

My bad boy found a link to a Youtube video over at GalleyCAT to give you insight into the process and a laugh at the same time.

If you want to find out how not to do an audiobook, tootle over to Audiobooks Read By You: VIDEO - GalleyCat

A Panzerism

Panzer says:

Push the cat? I don't think so.

There I was snoozing on a warm keyboard,
when Mom's Pirate told me to, "Get down."
He pushed me off the desk!

I was shocked; shocked I tell you!

I wonder of he'll be shocked, when he finds what
I put down in his running shoes.

How to sell loads of books

450,000 books sold? MeHow?

Panzer went over to visit author extraordinaire Russell Blake's blog today.

You've heard of suspense writer Russell Blake, right? He's the author who wrote 22 books in 30 months. He's also the author who has sold 450,000 books! So, when Panzer learned about Blake's post How to sell loads of books (a big Panzer "Thank You" to Joanna Penn for the link), he took the Panzermobile right over. The post is actually a list of 26 things you can do to sell your books.

If you need some ideas and encouragement to increase your book sales, tootle over to How to sell loads of books

Panzer parked the Panzermobile over at The Future of Ink today. In a guest post Lou Bortone reviews five video tools.

Panzer wants you to definitely check out these tools. You can do video in your emails. You can accept video from your friends and visitors to your site. You can do animations. Or you can set up your own television studio.

If you want to check out these video tools, tootle over to Five Video Tools

Forbes Magazine Names Smashwords to 2014 List of America's Most Promising Companies

Most Promising Company!

Panzer is doing the Happy Cat Dance for his friends over at Smashwords.

Mark Coker announced on the Smashwords Blog that the company made the Forbes Magazine's 2014 list of America's Most Promising Companies. Smashwords is number 69 on the list. Each year Forbes produces their list based on growth, market size, and other criteria.

If you want to read the whole announcement, tootle over to Forbes Magazine Names Smashwords to 2014 List of America's Most Promising Companies

How to Publish Your Book: INFOGRAPHIC - GalleyCat

You're doing this instead of writing?

Having trouble writing your book? Trouble editing it? Publishing it?

Panzer was over at GalleyCAT and found an infographic that will explain it all to you. Click on the infographic to enlarge it and read all the reasons you aren't publishing that book.

To find out what's stopping you, tootle over to How to Publish Your Book: INFOGRAPHIC - GalleyCat

Avon College Romance Novel Writers Contest

Hmmm. 50 pages. I can do that.

Are you a writer? Do you write romance novels? Are you a college student? If you answered yes to all three of these questions, Panzer found a site for you.

He stopped in at the Paperback Writer blog today. Lynn Viehl posted about a romance novel writing contest for college students being sponsored by Avon Books. You'll have to hurry and get your novel written. You'll need the first 50 pages of your novel and a synopsis to enter. The contest ends April 1.

If you're interested in reading the rules, tootle over to for College Romance Writers.

20 Free Resources For A Simple Ebook

PDF Publishing?

Are you ready to put together your own PDF ebook?

Panzer was out in the Catosphere and stopped in at LifeHack site. He found a treasure trove of FREE resources there in a post by Loralee Hutton for those of you ready to jump into the PDF publishing world.

There are tools at Lifehack for organizing your ideas, putting together your outline, using Powerpoint, and converting to the PDF format. Each of them is included in a list with a description of their use and a link to their site.

Why PDF? Because you can sell your ebook from your own site or give it away. Either way you are building your following for your Kindle, Nook or Kobo ebooks.

If you're interested in doing a PDF ebook, tootle over to Create Simple Ebook

MWA Edgar Nominees Announced

No indies?

Panzer was out in the Catosphere today and found some Happy Cat news at the Publishers Weekly site.

He wants everyone to know this years' MWA nominees for the Edgar novel category.

Best Novel

Sandrine’s Case by Thomas H. Cook (Grove Atlantic – The Mysterious Press)

The Humans by Matt Haig (Simon & Schuster)

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin (Hachette Book Group – Reagan Arthur Books)

Until She Comes Home by Lori Roy (Penguin Group USA – Dutton Books)

If you're interested in the nominees in all categories, tootle over to 2014 Edgar Nominees Announced

Copyrighted Books Go Online For Free In Norway

135,000 books? All FREE?

Panzer was over at The Telegraph and read an interesting article by Martin Chilton.

According to Mr. Chilton the National Library of Norway is going to make 135,000 digital books available online FREE. These are copyright protected books and the authors will be paid for the books. The authors include, Stephen King, Jo Nesbo and Ken Follett among others.

To read more, tootle over to Books Go Online For Free In Norway

Market Opportunites for Your Writing

To market! To market!

Are you looking for a market to submit your fantasy or science fiction stories?

Earlier this week Panzer stopped in at the Paperback Writer blog. He found a post by writer Lynn Viehl describing ten markets accepting submissions. Whether you write micro-fiction or full length short stories, you'll find a market here for your work.

If you're looking for a home for your writing, tootle over to Submission Opportunities for Your Writing

Goodreads Author Program Hits 100,000

Only special cats get verified!

Panzer can't believe what he read at the Goodreads Blog today. They hit 100,000 authors enrolled in their Author Program! Those enrolled include Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and Nicholas Sparks.

To celebrate hitting the 100,000 mark, Goodreads is starting a new program of a special badge on "verified" authors' pages.

Panzer says, "I'm not sure what a "verified" author is, but it must be something really special!"

If you're interested in reading the whole post, tootle over to Goodreads Blog.

My Wattpad Experience, Emily Benet

With a little help from friends.

Panzer has mentioned here before that he has a Wattpad account. He loves discovering new writers there!

You post your writing work there in chapters. Readers give opinions and encouragement to help you with your work.

He was doing the Happy Cat Dance when he read this post at The Writing Platform by Emily Benet. She explains how she set up her Wattpad profile and through it was able to get marketing help with her writing.

If you want to read about what Wattpad can do for your writing, tootle over to My Wattpad Experience, Emily Benet

WordPress for authors: 7 steps to a great WordPress author website

So easy!

Panzer has been thinking about setting up a WordPress site to host his podcasts, so when he saw this over at Oliver Rhodes site he did the Happy Cat Dance

The seven instructions for setting up your site are easy to follow. It begins with how to get your domain name, get web hosting, choosing your theme and all the other steps to get setup.

If you're thinking about setting up a WordPress site, tootle over to WordPress for authors: 7 steps to a great WordPress author website

Crime and Science Radio - Interview David Corbett 09/24 by Suspense Radio | Books Podcasts

Hmmm. I didn't know that.

Ever wanted to know what a private investigator really does? Well, Panzer found a FREE podcast over at BlogTalkRadio just for you.

It's a one hour interview with private investigator and author David Corbett. He talks about some of his former cases, the things p.i.s can and can't do, and the time he almost got killed.

You can listen to the podcast on the site or download it to your computer or player as an MP3 file.

If you want to know the real truth about p.i. work, tootle over to Crime and Science Radio - Interview David Corbett 09/24 by Suspense Radio | Books Podcasts

Scribd Addresses Pirated Content

I'm watching you.

Panzer was out in the Catosphere today and found a very disturbing post at Publishers Weekly site about Scribd. You all know Panzer just uploaded the first Lori Stockley story at Scribd for FREE download.

It's upsetting to learn we're dealing with a site that has a lot of pirated material available. It's also annoying because our ebook distributor Smashwords has signed an agreement with Scribd to use their paid subscription service to sell Smashwords' authors' ebooks.

From the response of Scribd's V.P. of Content Acquisition it sounds like they're working to stop the pirated uploads, but it also sounds like it will be a continuing problem for the foreseeable future. So, Panzer and I will be watching this situation very closely.

If you want to read the full post, tootle over to Scribd response to Writer Beware.

Australia here I come!

Panzer was out in the Catosphere over in Australia and he happened to find a post at Lifehacker about his hero George R.R. Martin.

My bad boy was reading George's books even before the Game of Thrones became popular, so he's doing the happy cat dance to find this post!

George is talking about his ten tips for writing fantasy.  Actually, these tips really aren't specific to fantasy. They're applicable to all writing.  There's choose your POV, the use of grief, borrowing from history and seven more tips. All the tips can be used in other genres.

To read the full post, tootle over to Fantasy Writing Tips.

Cats Own The World

It's about time somebody got it.

Panzer found this post over at the Huffington Post website.

The post has photos and graphics and totally explains cat behavior.

Panzer says, "It's about time somebody put this together so every human can finally understand what cats want."

To see what your cat really thinks about you, tootle over to Cat Facts.

A New Panzerism

Why didn't I think of that?

Panzer on hunting dogs:

Sounds like a good idea to me

. . . but is it legal?

Free Cats and Crime Short Story

Happy Cat Dance!

Panzer has a New Year's gift for you.

The Case of the Cat and the New P.I., the story of how Lori Stockley became a private investigator and the first case she and Panzer solved, is FREE at Scribd. You may have heard about Scribd's new payment system, but you do not need to be a paying subscriber member to download/read this story. Panzer uploaded it as FREE. It's in PDF and text format or you can read it online.

The Case of the Cat and the New P.I. is one of the stories included in Cats and Crime.

To read Panzer and Lori's first adventure, tootle over to The Case of the Cat and the New P.I.

10 Tips for the New Year's Writer

It's 2014!

Short post today.

Panzer says, "Start 2014 off right with these writing tips from Lynn Viehl at the Paperback Writer blog."

Tootle over to 10 New Year's Writing Tips

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

from

Panzer, the Pirate and Me