As an author of stories for language learners it’s always important to me to create materials that are both fun and useful on a day-today basis. So perhaps it will not come as much of a surprise that many of these works are based on my own experiences (and frustrations) of learning languages myself. A couple of weeks…
Indie Publishing
What’s The Best Software For Writing Ebooks? – A Brief Introduction
Once you’ve made the decision to write your first ebook and self-publish it or just finally release that epic fantasy tome catching dust in your drawer, the inevitable question arises: what’s the best software for this? How much should you spend? Is there something open-source, perhaps? Can you just use good ol’ Word? Since I’ve been asked this…
German
Never Get Lost In Our German Learning Dungeons Again With These New Maps
Recently, I’ve heard from some readers that they were getting lost in the mazes of Genowrin and Shanima. For those who don’t know these books, they are part of an interactive German learning adventure, where the reader has to choose one’s path through the story by jumping in between pages, selecting dialogue options and navigating through forests, dungeons…
Guest Posts
Practical Questions and Answers For First or Second Time Authors
Today I’m writing to you with some lessons and thoughts from the author’s desk. I am a language tutor, turned blogger, turned nearly-done-author of two “Smart Guides to Language Learning”, and currently in the middle of all the work that goes into self-publishing. It’s rewarding to write your own book, put it out on virtual…
Hacks & Tutorials
How To Become A Better Writer By Finding Creativity Within Constraints
Lately, an interesting writing app has been making the rounds. It’s called Hemingway, and it promises to “make your writing bold and clear”. The way it works is that you type or paste in a few paragraphs, and then the app will try to highlight long and complicated sentences, unnecessary adverbs and overgenerous use of…
Indie Publishing
Turn Your Research Paper Into A Book: 5 Reasons To Self-Publish Your Work
Recently, I stumbled over an old research paper I had written in university. The term paper (a short treatise on classical perceptions of melancholy as a disease of the “four temperaments”) had survived on a backup copy of my website, stowed away on a disused hard-drive. And surprisingly, as much as I had sweated over…
Discover Dino lernt Deutsch: the German story series for beginners that will help you learn German in no time.
learn more Hacks & Tutorials
Introduction to Regular Expressions For Indie Publishers (Open Office)
One of the perks of being an indie publisher is that you can do everything your way, from manuscript formatting to cover design and marketing approach. But it’s also one of the downsides of being an indie publisher. Perhaps you can afford to hire an intern, but chances are that you’ll have to keep your…
Indie Publishing
Should You Convert Your Ebook Yourself, Or Hire A Professional?
In a recent blog post on Teleread, Juli Monroe mentioned an email (probably unsolicited) that advertised ebook-conversion services for “only $400”. The author called the price offer “ludicrous”, arguing that softwares such as Calibre and Scrivener enable authors to do their own ebook-conversion, for free. The most controversial part of this article (as so often)…
Indie Publishing
Why Making Books Is Like Baking Cookies
Making books is fun. In fact, it’s rather addictive. Once you get started, it’s hard to stop. The process of bookmaking has long been in the hands of a small intellectual elite, heavily guarded by cultural gatekeepers. The internet has disrupted this machinery and exposed its arbitrary rules of admissions. Now, everyone can make books…
Hacks & Tutorials
3 Writing Tools You Aren’t Using Yet
If there’s anything I’ve learned over the course of the last 15 years of writing, then it’s probably the fact that writing is a craft like any other. Listening to one’s “muse” and getting inspired is all great, but ultimately, if you don’t control the writing, it controls you! And even beyond the mere mechanics…
Games
Of Swords & Dungeons: An Interactive Gamebook For German Learners
After writing three detective stories for German learners in 2012 and seeing people embrace the format, I wanted to do something different and yet very similar in 2013. So, I decided to create an interactive fantasy ebook for German learners which would not just work on fancy tablets and smartphones but even on the fabulous…
