You can’t change the face life dealt you, but you can have a big effect on the way readers perceive you and your work with accoutrements and subtleties of expression: a puppy, horn-rimmed glasses, a slight curl of the lip. Think about the persona you want to develop with your photo, and think about how it relates to the content of your book.

We’ve told you about sites devoted to tracking Amazon.com sales ranks before, but here’s a new one: Ranktracer.com. Tracking only books that have been added by users, the service offers several appealing features, including slick flash graphics, estimates of Amazon’s highly guarded sales numbers, and tracking of ranks on international Amazon sites.

Oprah has been kind to books, and books have been kind to Oprah. The godlike talk show host granted a windfall to bookselling with her famous club (and performed something of a miracle, prompting legions of soccer moms and their ilk to rush to bookstores and ask for the works of William Faulkner). Now, her upcoming weight-loss book, according to UsMagazine.com, has commanded the highest advance ever, besting even Bill Clinton’s My Life. Whether or not you find Oprah a worthy arbiter of culture, there’s no arguing that she resuscitated reading for many a jaded TV watcher.

“I’ve heard horror stories about editors,” an author told me recently at the start of a project. Another said to me, “I was really expecting the worst during editing.” Horror stories? The worst? Really? What is going on in the publishing world that has authors dreading editors and their fiendish red pencils? I know a lot of editors, and I don’t think we’re a horrible lot. Yet editors do offer up similar lamentations about working with authors: “I need to start charging a stupidity fee” or “Why won’t they just accept that I’m right.” If you’re on either side of this editorial war, I recommend you read on for some rules of engagement:

A few weeks ago, we posted five tips to help you be in top form for TV appearances. Here, courtesy once again of Marsha Friedman, are ten more tips to help you capitalize on valuable air-time when you appear as a TV guest.

Barnes & Noble recently launched Quamut.com, a new how-to site that features guides published by their own in-house editors. Their Q-Wiki allows users to elaborate on existing Quamut guides and also publish their own standalone guides from scratch. This is a great opportunity for authors to establish their expertise and brand by creating helpful guides that tie to their books. Sign up for your free account today, and start sharing your knowledge with potential book purchasers.

Here at Greenleaf, we believe in telling someone when they’ve got a big piece of spinach in their teeth. And we also know that—while it may seem shallow—nothing charms a prospective buyer more effectively than crackerjack packaging. That’s why we created RateMyBookCover.com. Upload your cover (it’s absolutely free) and, much like Internet dinosaur HotOrNot.com, the crowds will let you know what they think of your image on a scale of 1 to 10.

Ever watch morning TV and think, “Hey, I can do that!” Well the truth is that if you have a book, product, or service to promote to consumers, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t appear as a guest on TV! But what does it take to be a good guest? Here are five simple tips to get you started and help you capitalize on the valuable airtime at your disposal.

Is it disloyal to admit that I admire, sympathize with, even like AP style? It’s true that Chicago will always be my first love. And 80 percent of the AP Stylebook is just alphabetized terms in loose chapters. To those of us with wandering eyes and a shaky grasp of the alphabet, that’s just cruel. Sure, it’s straightforward, but if I want to know about commas, it’s pretty well guaranteed I’ll get stuck reading about colloquialisms, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and commodities before I discover I’m to look up the entry under punctuation. Where, of course, I’ll find Purim, Pulitzer Prizes, and a direction to the punctuation chapter. Well, why didn’t you just send me there in the first place? (On the other hand, ask me about Lithuanian independence!)

Author Cory Doctorow has good reason to be wary of digital rights management. After switching from Mac to a Linux OS, he tells of the months-long task of laboriously converting his extensive DRM-controlled audiobook collection to the universal MP3 format. Ouch.
Digital rights management has long had its critics, who argue that piracy prevention efforts are […]