1. How to Be Creative (Tips from Picasso, Einstein, Stephen King)
You can always learn from the greats. This was in a recent issue of Time Magazine.
2. How to Gain Followers on Instagram
Instagram is a very visual social media, so it's not perfect for all authors. For authors of more visually-oriented books, however, it's a must. This article has some good tips about how to increase your instagram presence.
3. Amazon to put final nail in B&N coffin?
Interesting note. Barnes and Noble has lost approx 60% of it's value in the last 6 months. They have 76 million shares outstanding at approx $7.40 share. This means that the company is valued at about $600 million, while Amazon is worth approx $250 Billion. Amazon could buy (or initiate a hostile take over) B & K with .2 % asset allocation. Tick tock, Barnes and Noble. Now Amazon is launching retail outlets too.
4. Kindle cracks down on e-book quality
For those of you who don't follow the whole Kindle world, there's a movement that tracks free e-books and promotes them. Many Kindle readers used to sniff at paying anything at all for an e-book because so many of them were free. Ah, but you get what you pay for, don't you? The quality was often horrible. Not just content-wise, but also formatting-wise. Authors tried to do it themselves to save money and made lots and lots of mistakes. It's gotten so bad that amazon has been forced to crack down.
5. A great interview with Adam McKay, the man who transformed "The Big Short" into a motion picture
The Big Short is a great book by Michael Lewis. It's now also a great film. Adam McCay is the man who transformed it into a movie, and this feature in the Washington Post is a great read.
