Celebrating Independent Authors
Or maybe that should be bottom. These are ten of the … what should I call them? Mistakes I commonly see in indie books. Pet peeves. Maybe just the kind of things that will turn me off when reading a book.
I’m no David Letterman, but we’ll try it his way. Continue reading “Top 10 Ways to Lose a Reader”
It started one morning while YA author Imogen Rose was in a hot, steaming shower … But Indies Unlimited has a strict policy about posts being suitable for work. I don’t want to risk my gruel rations getting cut as punishment, so let’s fade to black for a bit while I ramble. We’ll return to the shower momentarily.
There are a plethora of places for budding indie authors to gather information about the path they’ve taken. You’ve can check several websites with ideas and hints to help you on your way. I’m partial to a place called Indies Unlimited. Another good one is Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer. There are internet forums where you can ask questions and get a bunch of answers, possibly contradictory. Many authors swear by the “Writer’s Café” forum on Kboards.
There are blogs that talk about Indie publishing. My go to blog is The Passive Voice where Passive Guy curates and aggregates stories from all over the web about the publishing world with an eye towards helping Indie authors stay abreast of the business world they’re operating in. Passive Guy’s background working for tech companies and as an intellectual property attorney as well as living with Mrs PG, an indie author, gives him a unique perspective, which he’ll sometimes add as story commentary. Continue reading “This One Time, In the Shower …”
One of the tools in the promotional arsenal of an author (and also companies, websites, and many other organizations) is a giveaway. People love a chance to win free stuff. Many authors do book giveaways on Goodreads which has some positives (lots of people become aware of your book and add it to their to-be-read list), but some downsides as well. Goodreads only allows paper books to be given away, which has financial implications, not only the cost of the book, but shipping costs that could easily get out of hand if you don’t limit entrants to readers from your home country. By using a 100% off coupon code on Smashwords or emailing an ebook file directly to winners it is possible for an author to do a giveaway of ebooks outside of Goodreads at no cost or, if they prefer, at low cost using their promotional dollars for other prizes (Amazon gift cards or some kind of book swag). Continue reading “Give It Away with Rafflecopter”
A few of you have a Kindle in one of its numerous incarnations, right? Many (I’ll guess most) of the readers who drop in to Indies Unlimited have and use an eReader and the Kindle brand is the one owned by more than any other.
Authors (who ought to be readers too) might also own one to validate the formatting of their eBooks, as well as for reading. So, for all the Kindle owners, how many ways do you know to get a file onto your Kindle? I’m willing to bet there are more ways than you realize. Continue reading “Stuff Your Kindle”