Instagram, born yesterday – October 2010 – , is already a giant, over 200 million users busily sharing pictures in that weird square format typical of antiquated Polaroid photos. When Facebook bought it in April 2012, paying one billion dollars in stock and cash, it knew what it was doing! In 2013, Instagram grew at…
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What’s Wrong with the UN Security Council
Here’s another article about the UN I wrote for the magazine Impakter under my real name: Claude Forthomme (published on 9 June, 2014) – after all, after 25 years of service in the United Nations, I believe I know a thing or two about it! Enjoy and let me know what you think! What’s…
Ready to self-publish? Don’t rush and here’s why
All the advice I’m giving here is based on my own experience in self-publishing. Be warned, it’s a steep learning curve! You’ll find that you can quickly master the technical aspects of uploading a file on KDP, Amazon’s platform for self-publishing, or on Smashwords to get your book on other e-platforms like Sony, Kobo, the…
A Novel Rejected by Big Publishers Wins a Major Literary Prize
There’s hope for recognition for all of us poor writers… The lesson is: never give up, keep trying! That’s what Irish author Eimar McBride did, she never gave up and this week-end the news came in: she just won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, “A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing”. …
BOOKS ARE NOT BREAKFAST CEREAL
I totally like this! BOOKS ARE NOT BREAKFAST CEREAL.
Why Climate Change is Only a Side Show: the Sixth Extinction is Upon Us!
In the United States, Climate Change is viewed with suspicion: many Americans don’t believe in it, at best they’ll agree that climate warming may have natural causes but they strongly refute the idea that it could be due to human action. And in any case, they reject any causal linkage with extinction of life on…
Which Country Reads The Most?
Originally posted on Mark Williams – The International Indie Author:
Which country reads the most? You won’t be surprised to learn it’s not America. In fact, the USA kicks in at an embarrassing #22 on the list. This side of the pond you can probably hear the guffaws of laughter and see the knowing smiles…
Two Good Reasons Why You Should Do Audiobooks
Should you do audio books of your titles? The answer is YES! And there are two very good reasons for doing so, but before I get to them, here’s a little introduction to the world of audiobooks. It’s a new aspect of the digital publishing industry, now worth $1.6 billion (still peanuts) but growing fast….
When an Audio Clip Turns Into a Radio Show
Fantastic job done by the Director of the HighRock Institute Joel Scott and his partner Angela Castonguay. This is a fiery dialogue taken from CRIMSON CLOUDS, my just released romance. What was going to be a sample audio clip was suddenly turned into something quite different, like a radio drama show, with two beautiful voices,…
Are Mammograms Useless in Screening for Breast Cancer?
This morning the New York Times trumpeted the news that “mammograms fail to cut risk of death and causes overdiagnosis”, apparently the result of a major Canadian study involving 90,000 women over 25 years (to read the article, click here). For women like me who’ve been undergoing mammograms ever since we turned 40, this is…
MIGRANTS FROM AFRICA: THE BATTLE FOR FRANCE!
You can check out this post on my original site: click HERE Of the 20,000 illegal immigrants that have invaded Italy since January, most are Tunisians and most want to go to France: they speak French, they have family there and they are (mostly) young men who want to work. In Italy, for them there’s…
Is Traditional Publishing Headed for a Smash-up?
Dear Readers, Some of you may know me from my site on blogspot.com and I’ll try to keep you posted on both sites, with comments on politics, books, art (everything I like) and economics (everything I dislike!) – in short, our world as I see it. But since this is just a bunch of personal…