Back to Basics
Learning from the Newbies
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning series of books
for Writers including Third Editions of The Frugal Book Promoter
and The Frugal Editor
I love writing books that will help authors avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into back when the millennium was new and so was something we called POD (print-on-demand) was burgeoning—even for traditional publishers who found lots of useful things to do with it all while many were denigrating it.
There was so much new to learn—and to share! But I’ve noticed lately there was also so much I missed, especially about computer-related stuff. I’m finding the questions new authors have in places like Facebook’s groups great ways to learn more…and to help others more. So I went to work finding other resources I might have been glibly overlooking including advertisements that come to my email box—some uninvited!
I’ve been sharing these tips and ideas with my own new Facebook group mostly consisting of loyal writing friends, former students from the classes I taught at UCLA, from seminars where I presented and sometimes even my Facebook and Linked-In streams, sometimes using the easily identified hashtag #TheFrugalBookPromoterTips.
So, I’m keeping it short so you’ll see what I mean and then maybe even take my recommendation to buy a great new charger for your phone to replace an old one that doesn’t know all the new tricks this one does! (Keep reading for that!).
Here are a couple of reminders I gleaned by opening an e-mail telling me it was time to pay my monstrously expensive bill for the use of my iPhone from Verizon. (I usually skip it because I know only too well the deadline for that bill is coming up!).
#TheFrugalBookPromoterTips: Keep your battery between 30% and 80%. (30%!! Really??)
#TheFrugalBookPromoterTips: Don’t leave your phone in direct sunlight or charge it when it’s cold.
#TheFrugalBookPromoterTips: Need a battery checkup. No extra cost if you’re a Verizon customer. Find link here: https://my.asurion.com/device-care/os-selection. They deserve a little praise after that rude comment about their fees! Ahem!
#TheFrugalBookPromoterTips: Save your iPhone battery. Avoid Overnight charging.
I told you they were pretty basic; try to guess the one I hadn’t been using myself for the many decades of caring for my iPhones—and obviously not doing a very good job of it!
One last tip you might (or might not!) appreciate or need. When I finally absorbed (!)these much-needed tips (or readjusted what I had been doing!), I bought a new charger without any recommendation of advice other than Amazon’s Alexa just because it was old. She is the one AI person I use and trust; she saves me tons of time; and she recommended INIU. Their tag line is “Beyond Safe, Beyond Fast” and it’s no exaggeration. Their icon is an adorable light-up doggy paw that visually hints at what it’s doing and how long its own charge has lasted!
Here’s the major reason I love INUI: It automatically prevents me from overcharging my phone even if I inadvertently leave it doing its work overnight. It stops at that magic 80% number and won’t finish till I’m awake in the morning and decide my day is so full of appointments I might need the full 100%.
Tips and Tidbits or More #TheFrugalBookPromoterTips!  (This box is where Carolyn occasionally lists a Tidbit that will help authors write or promote better. She also includes a Tip to help readers find a treasure among long-neglected books or a sapphire among the newly-published.)
Writers' Tidbit: : Writers of all stripes will enjoy the quick-reading experience of my booklet full of tips I’ve found to correct many of my clients do wrong. It’s the Great Little Last Minute Edits full of word trippers that sometimes confuse you, or you don’t remember, or a few you never learned. It includes tips on wordiness and lots on style choices. It was inspired by my winningest book The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success.Find both on Amazon’s new buy page especially designed to make quick work of ordering e-books though it is available in paperback and hardcover as well. Readers' Tip: I love June Casagrande’s book Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies(www.budurl.com/GrammarSnobs). It is irreverent and reminds us how much fun grammar (and language in general) could have been if only teachers had the freedom to teach those topics as living, breathing entities—which they are. And yes, she believes in breaking rules, too. |
