Pocket Tech & Beyond

Between 1 in 3 and 2 in 3 product reviews on Amazon.com are fake. They are bought and paid for. They are written by friends and family. They are swapped and traded on Facebook. They are incentivized from readers. Talking about this problem as I have for nearly 2 decades now has made me the repeat target of the thousands who make their living writing reviews, the millions of sellers who benefit from the fake praise and the dozens of Amazon employees working the system for personal and/or professional benefit. Having reported problems with reviews to Amazon hundreds of times over decades and received repeated, direct retaliation from Amazon employees for doing so, I learned the hard way about the active involvement of Amazon employees in Amazon’s own marketplace, whether to ensure the success of themselves, family or associates or simply to ensure the failure of particular targets. This occurring repeatedly despite state and federal laws protecting those who report criminal activity, c...

Beware those who do evil in the name of good, those who build bully pulpits so they can target and victimize. I wish I was talking about some totalitarian regime or corrupt corporation, instead I’m talking about Absolute Write run by Victoria Strauss and others. Absolute Write is a platform for hate and abuse created by those claiming to do good for the writing community. A platform for hate and abuse that claims affiliation with Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) to extend the reach of its harm, victimization and abuse. For a number of years Absolute Write members and leaders indiscriminately targeted self-publishers as frauds, while membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America looked on and nodded their heads in agreement. For a number of years Absolute Write members and leaders indiscriminately targeted those who used print on demand as frauds, while membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America looked on and nodded their heads in agreement. For a...

I’ve been a writer for 30 years, having finished my first novel in 1986, and I’m no stranger to the ups and downs that come with the business. Heck, even though my work won awards in the interim, I didn’t truly break into publishing until 1995 when my first full-length work of nonfiction catapulted its way onto bestseller lists. That work was followed by a dozen other bestsellers, nearly all of which were published by Macmillan and distributed to the world by Simon & Schuster, that is until the business turned and I found myself at a crossroads. The year was 1998 and I turned away from full-time writing for a short while to work for a Seattle-based startup. Around the same time, I jumped ship from Macmillan and an opportunity to write for Microsoft arose. Microsoft was working on a new series of books called Pocket Consultants. They needed writers who could write fast, clearly, concisely, authoritatively and just as important meet crazy timelines not just once or a few times b...

Today I'm writing about finding success as a writer and my recent award for distinguished contributions in writing & American Letters. As a past recipient of awards for excellence in writing, merit and distinguished accomplishments, I'm honored to have been nominated. I’ve written nearly 200 full-length works since I completed my first novel in 1986, but it wasn’t until 1995 that I had a breakout hit that established me as a bestselling author. I wrote those early books for Macmillan and have since had books published and/or distributed by Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Microsoft, O’Reilly, McGraw Hill, Pearson and others. My books have sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide and been translated into 34 languages, with well over $150 million in sales. That type of success is the stuff of Willy Wonka’s wildest dreams. Still, as I wrote about in “ How I Made This Crazy Thing Called Writing a Career ”, wild success doesn’t always mean riches for the w...

Recently, a reader asked a good question: How do Windows Server 2016: The Administrator's Reference and Windows Server 2016: IT Pro Library differ?  The short answer is that they are completely different texts, written separately from start to finish, while both covering Windows Server 2016. An IT Pro could own both sets, or the individual books in each set, to round out and complete their library. More specifically, Windows Server 2016: The Administrator’s Reference provides over 250,000 words covering Microsoft's latest server operating system and includes the two IT Pro Solutions books I've written for Windows Server 2016: 1. Windows Server 2016: Essentials for Administration 2. Windows Server 2016: Server Infrastructure The IT Pro Solutions books are practical and precise hands-on guides with ready answers for IT professionals. You get fast answers and quick instruction. Windows Server 2016: IT Pro Library provides over 500,000 words coveri...

2016 was the year the music almost stopped. Quite literally. The accompanying image reflects some of the books I’ve released this year. These books need your support. Hope you’ll spread the good word about them and share because without your support the music really will stop. The publishing industry continues to change, requiring authors to continually adapt and retune or succumb and perish. The entire industry continues to be dominated by Amazon, where staves prevail and good authors all too easily get lost amongst the bramble. In tech, the changes over the past few years have been apocalyptic. Fewer and fewer readers get their information from printed books, requiring publishers to rethink their entire business and authors to sing for their supper. Those few who do succeed in the widening sea of change and detritus do so by staying ahead of trends or making their own trends entirely. In the early 2000’s when I started publishing electronically and using print on demand,...