Linda Lavid, award-winning author and lecturer on fiction and self publishing

My name is Linda Lavid and I write books, stories, articles. I've been published by others and by myself. I also give seminars on all of the above. I write contemporary stories with characters who mess up but keep going. Integrated into all my work - novels, short stories - are hefty doses of mystery and relational stuff, not just romance but parent/child, friend/friend, etc. I'm curious about human nature and why we act the way we do. I also write extensively on writing and publishing. To get a sense of my work, click on the links below that follow Stories/Articles. Thanks for the visit!

**Guarantee on all books or money back!! If you are not completely satisfied with any of my books sold from this site, full purchase price, minus shipping/handling, will be refunded. Simply return book(s) within thirty days. Return policy is included with all book orders.

Writing Tip: Most stories are written in the simple past – he ran, I thought, she wished – even though the story action is happening in the present. At first this may seem jarring but with practice, the use of past tense becomes second nature. Tenses, generally, should not be mixed. I suspect this happens because we often use multiple tenses in our daily lives. Personally I enjoy the freshness of the present tense, but this can be problematic. Readers have expectations in how a story is told. To keep the waters calm, stick with the tense that prevails for that genre.

Editing Tip: To slow the pace while editing for minutiae, follow tap each word with your finger or use another piece of paper to cover the lines below the line you are reading.

Publishing Tip: Should you publish directly with Lightning Source, consider taking advantage of the United Kingdom (UK) printing option. Books printed in the UK are distributed throughout Europe. This option dovetails nicely with marketing on the Internet, making it easy to both promote and sell your book throughout Europe and its half of billion people.

Website Tip: Many hosts offer access to raw Web server logs. These logs give more specific information on a website’s traffic than a regular statistics program, thereby helping to fine tune your website and marketing tactics. To view the logs you must do two things: download the log into your computer and utilize a log analyzer program to pull out and present the data. There is no cost to doing this. Look inside your panel to see how to save the log to your computer, then download a free web analyzer. Should you need a Perl Interpreter for the analyzer to do its job, you’ll be given the link when you try to execute the program. Log Analyzer on Links Page

Marketing Tip: The guru of book marketing is John Kremer. He’s been in the business for years. His website(s), blog(s), book(s), downloads(s), podcast(s), seminar(s), consult(s) demonstrate his passion for marketing books. He also has a terrific newsletter and prints tips from other writers/publishers. Information is updated regularly and changes with the times. He’s the Stealth Bomber of book marketeering. Thankfully without the maintenance. Kremer on Links Page

I'll be teaching a five-day seminar "On Self-Publishing" at the Chautauqua Institution during Week Nine, August 18 through August 22. The seminar is on self-publishing and its many forms. We'll explore individual expectations, needs, and discuss the best options with overviews of becoming your own publisher offset/POD or using a subsidy. Tips on writing, editing, marketing will also be included. Register. Taken from Chautauqua website, Week Nine's topic: will mark the celebration of Darwin's 200th birthday as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. The public debate surrounding his theory of evolution seems to have diminished little in that span of time. This week we will focus on all that has followed, including the scientific, social, religious and legal ramifications of Darwin's work. In addition, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the 1758 publication of Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus' system for giving Latin names to animals, indeed, cataloging the natural world. We will consider the legacy of that important work as well.