I have several friends who are brilliant, dedicated academics. They write excellent books, teach at colleges and universities, and are standouts in their fields. You might want to know where they are speaking next and what they are currently researching, but you'd be hard-pressed to find them on the web....

Of all the social media platforms, Facebook seems to cause authors the most consternation. The generally accepted wisdom is that every author (some say every book title) needs her own Facebook page -- a business page, not simply a personal profile. Meanwhile, most authors I speak to simply dread the...

Last December I had the opportunity to attend the Churchill Club open forum on The Future of Publishing. Moderated by author, entrepreneur and publisher Guy Kawasaki, the panel included author

It is widely known that we need better sleep to be more alert and healthier during the day. Thanks in large part to Arianna Huffington's advocacy work, women especially are rediscovering the value of a good night's sleep.

But a funny thing happens when we get more sleep:...

I had a great time at OpenCoSF last Friday, where I managed to squeeze in six sessions before my feet got tired from walking too many miles, and my brain got tired from too much new information. With more than 2,000 people attending sessions hosted at over...

Think of a dream. Maybe it was from last night. Maybe it was so long ago you're not even sure it really was a dream. Think of it anyway. Remember every detail. Fill in the blanks where your memory falls short. Make it a dream of this moment, a creative...

When the daily grind has ground you to dust, you can get your bearings and return to your soul by lifting your head and looking out to the horizon: to the east, the south, the west and the north.

Around you right now are the compass points of creation, the...

"And there is no peace, no true release
No secret place to crawl
And there is no rest for the ones God blessed
And he blessed you best of all."
-- "King of Bohemia," by Richard Thompson

Last month on the Blog o' Gnosis, I wrote, "As a...

Ewan Morrison's recent article in The Guardian, "Why social media isn't the magic bullet for self-epublished authors," deftly lays out many self-published authors' deepest fears. Faced with the self-destruction of traditional publishing and scratching their heads over the byzantine alleyways of Facebook fan pages and the like, authors weigh the...

The Bay Area Pagan Alliance kindly asked me to speak at their annual festival this year. What follows is an edited version of that speech.

This year's theme is "paradigm shift." In Reclaiming, the Pagan tradition I was most involved with starting in the early 1980s, the ideal...

I have written a lot about the essential tools, work habits, and attitudes for growing a vibrant brand presence. But today, I want to focus on the moment when all your hard work pays off and you actually start achieving success.

Strange as it may seem, success catches many people...

I write a lot about the importance of web presence for businesses and individuals, how to create it and how to sustain it. But right now authors are in a uniquely powerful and also potentially hazardous position in terms of their web presence, and in this post I...

One of my favorite sayings is, "Life is an open-book test." It is not important that you know everything, either in life or in business. But it is important to know where to find the answers you need. If you have set up your web presence correctly, chances are that...

Lots of changes have been happening behind the scenes at Facebook. The platform now has a lot more functionality for business and professional users. If you have a Facebook page for your business, now is a great time to try out some of these new tips and tricks for increasing...

I had this post half written when I went away last weekend for my daughter's college graduation. When I returned, I read these comments made by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the e-G8, bemoaning the fact that people...

Having a publishing house market your book used to be one of the big advantages of signing with a major publisher, but not anymore. Established authors have understood for years that they need their own publicist and marketing plan for every new release. Meanwhile, the internet is abuzz with puzzled...

By all accounts, the publishing industry is in tough shape. Sales are down, bookstores are closing, and many authors are leaving traditional publishers in favor of

Most business owners understand the basic premise of social media marketing today, which is that linking your website to your company presence on other social networking hubs (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter) is more effective than just getting a lot of SEO for...

In an online world dominated by analytics, you may be relieved to know that one of the most important social media tools at your disposal is your intuition. It is especially important in creating a vibrant network presence, where half the battle is separating the wheat from the chaff among...

You may have heard by now that Facebook is changing what we can do with Business Pages. As of March 10, all Pages on Facebook will have a new look, and some important new functionality. Based on an earlier article bemoaning the limitations of the earlier Facebook Pages,...