Hi there! Duolit is on hiatus, but please feel free to explore our extensive archive of posts and our free Weekend Book Marketing Makeover. Thanks for visiting!

March 13, 2013

7 Ways Buffer Will Change Your Life

How much time are you wasting with Twitter?

I don’t mean that Twitter in and of itself is a waste, but if you think about how much time you spend tracking down things to share, writing tweets, shortening links, and scheduling or posting your tweets — how many hours are we talking about per week?

It gets frustrating, fast.

If you’re trying to tweet four or five times a day, that’s a lot of time spent tracking and setting tweets that you could spend writing, working on your book marketing, or watching Justified.

But all that is about to change because I’m going to introduce you to Buffer.

buffer home page

First off, full disclosure here, I have absolutely no affiliation with Buffer whatsoever. I don’t get any kickbacks from them (the primary service is free anyway) for signing people up.

I just use it, love it, and feel compelled to tell the world about it because it’s changed my whole outlook on Twitter.

So, if you’re like me, this was previously your process for creating tweets:Continue Reading

Filed Under: Randomness
January 31, 2013

IndiesForward: Blog Your Hearts Out!

square-indies-forwardThe big day has arrived!

Today (January 31st) bloggers from all around over the world will be talking about our indie-in-spirit Julie Forward DeMay and her book, Cell War Notebooks. [Click here to learn more about Julie and the IndiesForward campaign]

cellwarWe’re so unbelievably thankful to each and every one of you for taking time out of your lives to help us with this cause (Everyone on our mailing list is going to get a special “Thank You” gift from Team Duolit — join the list if you haven’t already!).

All day we’ll be posting excerpts and links to the posts each of you has shared with the world about your inspirational circumstances and the kind words you have for Julie and her family.

If you’ve written a post for the blog-a-thon, leave the link in the comments so we can take a look and please be sure to get the word out on social media (Twitter peeps, remember to use #indiesforward or #cellwarnotebooks).

Before we get into the excerpts, here are the important links of the day:

You can also enter to win a paperback copy of Cell War Notebooks on I Am a Reader, Not a Writer [Ends 2/3/13]

From Shannon’s blog:

As I read the Cell War Notebooks, it struck me that Julie, maybe more than any of us, was familiar with the idea of daily life decisions. She had to get up every morning and decide to live – which in turn meant deciding to fight, to push, to hurt, to cry, and most of all to be unbelievably, undeniably courageous.

In the end, her decision to be brave never wavered, it just changed in definition.

Read More from Life Decisions & Daily Choices

 

From the Hinsdale Times (Jennifer Baird-Dean):

Cancer has deprived the world of another amazing spirit. It has deprived another daughter of a loving mom. But it cannot take her gifts. Julie leaves behind a legacy in her words, in her photographs, in the loving circle of family, friends and those of us that are just plain inspired by her. We promise to use your gifts, Julie. We will share your legacy and it will continue to uplift those still here fighting cancer. Your spirit dances on.

Read more from Memoir chronicles another life lost to cancer

 

From Turndog Millionaire (Matthew Turner):

Then you look at yourself in the mirror, and after you’ve finished calling yourself an idiot, you smile, and laugh, and think about how lucky you are. You consider people like Julie. You realise what’s important. You laugh at how silly you are and what you need to do… right now… right here at this very moment.

Read more from A Tale of Keep Going

 

From Shannon’s guest post on Catherine, Caffeinated:

But the new resources at our fingertips also give us the opportunity to go beyond just selling books. We are now in charge of our own legacy. We can make ourselves into the authors we grew up admiring — the authors who inspired us to fall in love with reading and start writing our own tales.

Truly, we’re so lucky.

Read more from The Lucky Ones

 

Filed Under: Interviews & Stories, Randomness
April 20, 2012

Give Toni Parenting Advice [Friday Funday]

Although I’m writing this post on April 10th, by the time you read it, I’ll totally be a parent. Eek! Speaking as someone who has never even held a newborn (true story), this thought is both exhilerating and terrifying, although, at the moment, terrifying is winning out. As I know a lot of you out there have kids, younger siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and the like, I’m begging you for advice! Tell me:

  • On a scale of 1-10, how terrified were you of becoming a parent? What experience did you have beforehand?
  • How quickly did you get the hang of parenting?
  • Approximately how long did it take you to get more than 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep?
  • What was your favorite part about becoming a parent/caregiver?
  • What general tips, advice and words of wisdom do you have to offer?

I’m really looking forward to reading the answers for this one, so please leave your thoughts in the comments below. I promise I’ll respond, although I cannot promise the answer will make any sort of sense. Really, if I manage to use proper spelling, capitalization and punctuation, I’ll be quite proud of myself!

Happy weekend, everyone! 

Filed Under: Randomness