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About Tom Collins

Here at Master Book Builders, I'm known as the "Book Artisan" -- the guy who takes over to help with your book design and publishing steps, after you and Yvonne finish writing, editing, and polishing your book manuscript. As a writer myself, I usually chime in with a suggestion here or there. Since reading your book is inherent in my layout process, I bring that understanding of your message to your cover design, as well. And then I help with many of the tech and "author business" tasks in the publishing and marketing phases, constantly learning as the industry evolves. I try to share some of that learning in my blog posts, too.

featured image showing girls writing intently with pencil for blog post, Writing by Hand: The Hands-Down Winner, by Tom Collins

Writing by Hand: The Hands-Down Winner

The science that shows why writing by hand helps you read, learn, and remember better than typing.

By Tom Collins October 2, 2025 Learning, Reading, Writing
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featured image showing AI robot with many arms in a recording studio for blog post, Can AI Create Your Book Trailer?, by Tom Collins

Can AI Create Your Book Trailer?

Find out what I learned in a course on creating book trailers with AI and my own experiment

By Tom Collins September 4, 2025 AI Tools & Tips, Creativity, Marketing your book
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featured image showing a robot reading a book for the blog post, Will the AI Overlords Be Reviewing Your Book?, by Tom Collins

[TfTi] Will the AI Overlords Be Reviewing Your Book?

See what an AI reviewer did with a piece I wrote decades ago and learn why you don’t want that for your book.

By Tom Collins July 31, 2025 AI Tools & Tips, Book Reviews, Marketing your book, Tips from Tom's inbox
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Featured image showing July - December 2025 calendars of book-related holidays for blog post, 'Flod Planning (not a typo) for the Holidays' by Tom Collins

Flod Planning (not a typo) for the Holidays

Want a flod (not a typo) of book marketing opportunities? Check out our July-December 2025 Literary Holiday printable calendars.

By Tom Collins July 17, 2025 Marketing your book, Marketing your business
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featured image of author typing and fireworks launching from the page for blog post, 'Celebrating Author Independence,' by Tom Collins

Celebrating Author Independence

This Fourth of July, along with America’s independence, we’re celebrating author independence with some timely quotes and ideas.

By Tom Collins July 3, 2025 Books, Business & Entrepreneurship, Indie Publishing, Reading, Writing
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featured image of statue of Cicero holding one of his books for blog post, A Lesson on Success from Ancient Indie Authors, by Tom Collins

Marginalia: A Lesson on Success from Ancient Indie Authors

What can today’s indie authors learn from the ancients? The meaning of success! Hint: it’s not about royalties

By Tom Collins June 5, 2025 Books, Indie Publishing, Marginalia, Marketing your book
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featured image showing woman appalled by Stephen King's assertion that writers should never use a thesaurus for blog post entitled, 'No Thesaurus? NO WAY, Stephen King!' by Tom Collins

[TfTi] No Thesaurus? NO WAY, Stephen King!

Stephen King claims, “Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word.” Nonsense, I say. What do you think?

By Tom Collins May 22, 2025 Books, Creativity, Tips from Tom's inbox, Writing
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featured image showing scattered groups of people with one in center for blog post, A 'Fan-Finder' AI Prompt and a 'Recognize & Reward' Mindset, by Tom Collins

A “Fan-Finder” AI Prompt and a “Recognize & Reward” Mindset

Wondering where to start building your fanbase? Here’s a Fan-Finder AI prompt and tips on a Recognize and Reward approach to building fan relationships.

By Tom Collins May 7, 2025 AI Tools & Tips, Books, Indie Publishing, Marketing your book
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featured image showing text and images in Egyptian papyrus scroll and medieval codes for blog post, How Do Images Fit in Your Book?, by Tom Collins

How Do Images Fit in Your Book?

“Words and pictures belong together.” — Edward Tufte

Those words have inspired my work in book design and here I’ll share some tips for you to make better use of graphics in your writing.

By Tom Collins April 24, 2025 Book Design, Books, Indie Publishing
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featured image showing Nazi book burning with caption 'Those who burn books will in the end burn people' for the blog post entitled, 'When they come for your libraries,' by Tom Collins

[Marginalia] When they come for your libraries . . .

What can the book, Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World, teach us about the fragility of libraries in our current times? And what can you do about it?

By Tom Collins April 9, 2025 Books, Copyright & Legal Stuff, Libraries, Marginalia
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Let's get in touch

Send me an email and I'll get back to you, as soon as possible.

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Recent Blog Posts

  • Is Your Book Idea Really a Book? 5 Tests for First‑Time Authors Before You Write a Single Chapter.
  • What Can a Virtual Book Tour Do for Indie Authors?
  • Are You Ready? 7 Questions to Ask Before You Hire an Editor, Hit Upload, Or Start Marketing Your Book.
  • Reading and Writing as Dementia Defense
  • [TfTi] Using TikTok as Your Bookseller
Tom Collins and Yvonne DiVita - Master Book Builders
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