The Author Spot

Authors Shouldn’t Have to be Tech Experts

TJ Culler — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:22:39 +0000

Last week, I took a call from an author who was launching a charity alongside a testimonial book. The author asked for help setting up the charity program, and of course, designing it to compliment the book. In this post, I share some details from that experience. Video Transcript Hey. I’m TJ Culler, and welcome to The Author Spot channel. Today I want to share with you a little…

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Happy July 4th From The Author Spot

TJ Culler — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 20:44:04 +0000

I took my Osmo Pocket 3 to the park and made this special holiday greeting for ya’ll. Hope your holiday was great! – TJ Video Transcript Hey out there. Happy fourth of July. I decided that since it’s a holiday, I’d record in the park. And if you think about it, it’s Saturday and I’m in the park, and it just happens to be the fourth of July. Anybody out there sharp enough to…

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Your Author Website is Built on Rented Land – Don’t Lose it to a $15 Mistake

TJ Culler — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 19:23:29 +0000

Here at The Author Spot, we often describe our services as solutions for technology-challenged authors. Over the years, we realized that authors are not necessarily computer geeks, and vise versa. We at The Author Spot, however, collectively have over 45 years of tech experience, and while we are also authors, at our core is a mastery of technology. In this post, we take a close look at domain…

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Write Messy When Messy is Right

TJ Culler — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:28:03 +0000

Writing fiction is different than writing non-fiction. The believability of your fiction’s characters depends on their dialect and inner thinking matching the character’s personality. To achieve believable characters, each character must think, speak, and behave in character. Allow a grammar checker to correct your fiction, and your character’s uniqueness will disappear. Don’t let that happen.

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How to Kill Your Fiction One Verb at a Time

TJ Culler — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:37:24 +0000

Video Transcript: Hello, I’m TJ Culler, and today let’s talk about three things that quietly sabotage otherwise good writing: Active voice. Passive voice. And verb tense. Most writers never think about these until an editor hands their manuscript back with red ink all over it. These aren’t just grammar rules for grammar nerds. They’re the difference between writing that moves and…

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To Amazon or Not To Amazon?

TJ Culler — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:50:43 +0000

Video Transcript: When my first book got listed on Amazon, I felt like I’d arrived somewhere. I made it. I was a published author. I wanted to scream it out loud. “My book is on Amazon!” I was insufferable about it. For a few years, the relationship worked fine. I nudged my readers toward leaving reviews, they came through, and eventually I had over fifty 5-star ratings stacked up…

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Welcome to The Author Spot

TJ Culler — Tue, 26 May 2026 14:00:27 +0000

Video Transcript: Hello. Welcome to The Author Spot. I’m your host TJ Culler. Now, grab a coffee — or don’t, I’m not your mom. I’m going to presume you’re here because you’re either writing a book, thinking about writing a book, or you’ve already written one and now you’re drowning in questions nobody warned you about. Questions like: How do I actually get this thing published?

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But Wait, I Can Do That

TJ Culler — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 21:04:53 +0000

The other day, I was talking with a friend about The Author Spot, and after presenting our five-cent elevator speech, she replied, “There’s nothing there I can’t do on my own.” And she’s right, TAS is not offering anything you can’t go out and do on your own, but there’s a catch—you have to do it on your own. Before the concept of TAS was anything more than a distant thought…

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The TAS Fun Spot

TJ Culler — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 20:47:03 +0000

Every so often, I run across a bit of humor that must be shared. Today was one of those days. I’ll add to this post as I find bits worthy of sharing. Enjoy. — TJ A Writer’s Riddle In a river, there is a hungry crocodile. On one side of the river is a man reading a book. On the other side of the river is a man writing in a notebook. Which man does the hungry crocodile…

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A Word On Integrity

TJ Culler — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 20:28:26 +0000

The Author Spot is old-school in that we value hard work, honesty, responsibility, and integrity. It’s the latter I want to address today. The Author Spot is a business. We have expenses. It costs a pretty-penny to license software, keep our servers secure in an environmentally controlled data center, and cover payroll for our staff. So we will not pretend to be skiddish about admitting we…

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