Tips for Authors

Using Tech for Book Marketing

Kate Gingold from Sprocket Websites Kate has been building websites with her husband Don since 1996 for all sorts of clients, including authors.

Kate regularly writes about online marketing for Sprocket Websites and provides tips and techniques for entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Since being an author today is not really different from being an entrepreneur with a small business, most of those tips are just as useful to authors.

Kate is an author herself. She writes books on local history, including the award-winning "Ruth by Lake and Prairie," a fictionalized account of the true story of Great Lake pioneering to the shores of Chicago and beyond to found Naperville, Illinois.

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Ruth By Lake and Prairie

Author Tips and Tales

Furniture Makers and Undertakers in Holland’s 1886 Directory

Kate Gingold Host / Wednesday, November 16, 2022 0 339 Article rating: No rating

It was common for craftsmen who built furniture to also provide coffins and the Holland’s Directory listed two men in Naperville: Charles Babst and Frederick Long.

The mass production of furniture was just beginning, so stores might offer both ready-made and hand-crafted items as well as furniture repair or other fine woodworking. Coffins were a natural offshoot of the woodworking business and providing funeral services was an added source of income.

I’ve written about Frederick Long before, but here’s a review:

Long started his career in cabinet-making in 1857. By 1861, he was operating his own workshop and had added undertaking by 1870. In 1861, he married Amelia Beidelman and they had one son, Charles, who only lived until the age of thirty and left no children from his brief marriage.

Amelia’s nephew, Oliver Beidelman, worked for Uncle Fred and eventually acquired the business. He and his son, “Dutch” replaced the old frame building on the corner of Washington Street and Jackson Avenue with an impressively large brick building. Adjoining the building to the north was a space where funerals were held and you can still see the arched windows of the chapel on the second and third floors.

Going to a Book Fair? Here Are Tips for Readers, Authors and the Event Hosts.

Kate Gingold Host / Tuesday, November 15, 2022 0 579 Article rating: 4.0

Everyone’s heart is in the right place, but an Emily Post-type should dictate some etiquette for book and author fairs so that they run better. My opinions are below, but I’d love to hear your take on this as well!

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The Sprocket Report

The Sprocket Report is published every other week with Internet marketing tips, tools and techniques. The archive features articles from 2011 up to the present. You are welcome to read how business owners are using technology to market themselves and apply those tips to your author business.

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