Laura’s Blog

6 Reasons Why You Should NOT Write a Book

In the movie, Miss Austen Regrets, an admiring fan gushes to Jane Austen, “I could write a book.” Jane gives him a long look, then replies, “And you are most welcome to do so.” Over 80 percent of the U.S. population believes they have a book brewing inside them. I’ll bet you do! But should […]

Passed vs. Past

I was helping an author revise the bio that would appear on his book’s back cover. Here’s the copy he sent me: I have been a widower since 1978, when my wife pasted away from cancer, we had 11 children of which 3 have past away. We’ll ignore the run-on and jump straight to this […]

‘Alexandria Impolite’: Spell Checker Mangles Names in High School Yearbook

When the students at Middletown Area High School in Pennsylvania picked up their yearbooks, they were in for a surprise. On four of the yearbook’s 176 pages, last names of students were changed to creative new monikers: Max Zupanovic became “Max Supernova” Kathy Carbaugh became “Kathy Airbag” William Givler became “William Giver” Cameron Bendgen became […]

How to Convince an Agent You’re Worth a Second Look

After reading literary agent, Rachelle Gardner’s post, “The Dreaded Author Platform,” I immediately tweeted her and asked permission to reprint it. Rachelle brings up some excellent points about the importance of using social media to build a readership – before you ever pitch your project to an agent or editor. Here’s her column, in its […]

Five Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft

Whenever people learn that I’ve written three books, they respond: “Oh, I’ve always wanted to write a book about ________.” (fill in the blank with the topic you’ve dreamed of writing a book about) I’ve heard that: 81 percent of Americans feel they have a book in them. 10 percent of that 81 percent actually […]

How to Set up a Gravatar

What is a gravatar and why do I need one?

A gravatar is a Globally Recognized Avatar – your avatar is the thumbnail image that appears when you comment on someone’s blog.

If you have a Blogger profile, the image that accompanies your profile is posted whenever you comment on blogspot.com blogs. But that avatar works only for blogs hosted by Blogger. To make your avatar show up on WordPress (and other) systems, you’ll need to create a gravatar… a universal avatar.