Day: February 21, 2012

2012 Toronto Book Awards

The Toronto Book Awards is now accepting submissions of books of literary or artistic merit that are evocative of Toronto.

To be eligible for the 2012 awards, books must be published between January 1 and December 31, 2011. The deadline for submission is March 30, 2012.

Finalists are expected to attend scheduled readings hosted by the City of Toronto and the Toronto Public Library at the Word On The Street festival to be held the last weekend in September.

For more information, please visit their website.

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Indies Unlimited is pleased to provide this contest information for the convenience of our readers.  We do not, however, endorse this or any contest/competition.  Entrants should always research a competition prior to entering. [subscribe2]

Hey, you with the Kindle…lookin’ for a date?

Last week I wrote about KDP Select and how I was going to whore my first novel, ‘Joe Café’ out to the masses. Well, I thought I’d give y’all a bit of an update. Because I was shocked at the results. I used two of my five days of promotion (when it is free for everyone not just ‘Prime’ members – and I think Amazon may pimp it a little bit). During those two days it was downloaded 6,500ish times in the US. Almost two hundred times in the UK. Twelve times in Denmark (Germany, sorry – McNally!). And once in France. It also rose in the rankings, to number 13 in Literary Fiction at one point. I want to say it hit #3, but I don’t really remember. It was a hectic two days. Would I do it again? Oh yeah.

Continue reading “Hey, you with the Kindle…lookin’ for a date?”

Meet the Author: Harry Bingham

Author Harry Bingham

Author Harry Bingham started out as an investment banker, but says he grew bored of pillaging the planet and robbing poor people. “So I decided to become a poor person – and turned my hand to writing. Ten or so books on from there, I wouldn’t dream of any other career.”

Harry says his greatest area of strength as a writer is surviving. “It’s very tough to make a career as an author and I’ve done so pretty effectively for over a decade. A less flippant answer is tough to come by. My most recent novel (a work of crime fiction) is unquestionably most remarkable for its strong voice and the strong – even abrasive – personality of the central character. But that’s because that’s what that particular book needed. I adapted my style to the needs of this particular story. Other times, my writing has offered something much softer. I used to write yarns with a quite old-fashioned feel. If I had to survey everything I’ve written and come up with a single common denominator, I’d say that I write strong stories that have a quiet underlying intelligence. Beach reads you don’t have to be ashamed of.” Continue reading “Meet the Author: Harry Bingham”

LinkedIn Profile Tip – Links

Linked In ProfileThis past Sunday, Rosanne Dingli explained why authors and businesspeople should be on LinkedIn.  You can read her article here. Once you’re on LinkedIn, there are a couple of things you can do to get better exposure. The method many people agree has the most impact is the “links” section.

In the screen capture to the left, you can see at the very bottom there is a heading called “Websites.” This is where LinkedIn allows you to supply a maximum of three external links. Many people just put in their http address and leave it at that. But LinkedIn allows you to do something even better – actually describe where the link goes – so there isn’t a bunch of ugly html sitting on your profile and people have a clue what they’re clicking. Continue reading “LinkedIn Profile Tip – Links”