Road Trip: The Best Indie Bookstores in America

Map of the Ultimate Bookstore Road Trip
Summertime is here, and for many people, that means planning a summer vacation. It seems like there’s a perfect destination for anyone looking to get out of town, whether you’re thinking of jetting off to Europe or packing up the family to see “the happiest place on Earth.” But if your tastes tend toward the literary, as ours do, you’ll be happy to know that you don’t need to buy a plane ticket to have a great vacation this summer. We’ve planned out the ultimate summer road trip for book-lovers, including 25 of the top independent bookstores from coast to coast. Whether you just want to take a few days off to browse at some indie bookstores in your region or you’d rather have a grand adventure and see the whole country, we’ve got you covered with this list of some of the best bookstores in the U.S., including famous bookstores visited by or even owned by well-known readers and writers. Read more ›

Posted in Fun Stuff

How to Write a Meta Description for SEO

Lucky cat invites customers to come in, just like a good meta descriptionPlenty of people in the world are good writers, but when people accustomed to writing fiction or poetry or blog posts try their hand at SEO writing, there can be a little bit of a learning curve. Some of the most foreign terms to someone not familiar with this writing style are often “title tag” and “meta description.” We’ve taken a look at how to write title tags before; now, let’s examine some tips for writing meta descriptions, starting with the basics. Read more ›

Posted in Content Marketing, Writing Tips

Cute, Creepy, and Cool Collective Nouns

Curious kangarooWhat do word nerds and animal-lovers have in common? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not a love for Latin names. It’s an appreciation for a fun and quirky collective noun. What is a collective noun? These words describe a group of humans, animals, or concepts as one single entity. In the human realm, you’ve likely come across some really common collective noun examples, like a class of students, a team of baseball players, or a party of politicians, but once you stray into the animal kingdom, you’ll find terms in the collective nouns list that are unexpected and even downright adorable! Read more ›

Posted in Fun Stuff

Apostrophe Rules You’re Getting Wrong

How to use apostrophesOf all of the punctuation marks, the apostrophe has to be the most abused. He just wants to help out, filling in the gaps where other letters have gone missing, but instead, people throw him into all sorts of situations he’s just not suited for, mucking up perfectly good phrases or sentences and making him look stupidly out of place.

These crimes against clarity are so awful that numerous blogs have sprung up devoted to pointing out and cringing at them. But if you learn when to use an apostrophe in the three situations where they’re most commonly misused, you won’t have to worry about finding your writing on those sites.

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Posted in Writing Tips

Top Word Processing Software and Apps for Writers

Flopps disks

Photo by frankieleon (Flickr)

Technology can certainly be a distraction when you’re trying to get some writing done: Who hasn’t started researching something for a writing project only to find themselves looking up from Facebook or Wikipedia an hour or two later, wondering where the time went? But technology can also be a huge help to writers, from providing basic tools that make the physical process of writing easier to giving us help with organization, motivation, and capturing great ideas before they slip away. Here, we’ve collected a list of some of the best writing software out there, including a word processor comparison and some recommended apps for writers on the go.

Best Word Processing Programs

It’s hard to imagine being a writer without computers, but there was a time not all that long ago when we would’ve had to use a typewriter or even a pen and paper to put down our thoughts. Thank goodness for time-saving, paper-saving, hand-cramp-reducing word processing software! But which is the best writing software for you? You have a few different options to choose from:

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Posted in Freelance Writing

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