L. Leander Announces New Non-Fiction Title

Author L. Leander is pleased to announce the release of her new non-fiction reference book, 13 Extreme Tips to Self Publishing.

13 Extreme Tips to Self Publishing by L. Leander is the go-to book for those who are new to the world of writing and publishing a book. It’s a short, concise guide of tips to guide the writer through the maze of questions that crop up when navigating the road to finish and make a book available to the public. The author has included things “I wish I’d known” as she makes suggestions to ease the stress of self-publishing. Links to helpful sites are included. Are you thinking about taking the self-publishing route? Confused about where to start? Then this book is for you!

13 Extreme Tips to Self Publishing was released on December 25, 2012 and is currently available from Amazon.com and Amazon UK.


What Can Theatre Do For You?

A Guest Post
by Benjamin Steele

Some time ago I was approached by my mum, Carolyn Steele, who wanted my opinion for a blog post. She said it was about characters, what makes them flat or page-leapy, and how we feel about our creations. She had to stop me when I started to ramble about Stanislavski, and we decided there might be a post in how an actor’s method could benefit the fiction writer. I would like to share with you how my experience as an actor and playwright helps my development of prose characters.

So you’ve got a character that comes off a little flat, a little boring—he’s just zis guy you know? I’ve heard all sorts of tips for giving characters a little more life: the most common being physical or personality quirks, and rich backgrounds that shape their development. While these are undoubtedly useful tools for both the writer and the actor, I consider them to be traps. These should be supplementary tools, second to the arguably most important influence on a character’s action: Dreams of the future. Continue reading “What Can Theatre Do For You?”

Anthologies (Part 2)

Last month I posted on the use of anthologies–book length collections of writing by several writers–as an optimal way for writers to break in, build “platform”, and promote their work and brand. This week I’ll examine it from the other side: the publishers, editors, curators, or whatever you want to call people who conceive, collect, and produce anthologies.

There are advantages to the “supply side” of this literary format, as well as the submission end. Hey, it’s a publication credit where somebody else provides all the content. It can help establish you as an editor and publisher in a pretty graphic way. There are few better ways to establish contacts with writers in a given field: not only by posting general calls for submission, but also as a “license” to contact writers of more prestige and request the honor. It’s an excellent promotional vehicle: just as you provide a boost to the various writers by the work of creating the book, you–and your line or imprint–benefit from their combined promotional efforts…and you can advertise your other works in the back pages. It’s a powerful tool for charities, causes, or communities: a large percentage of multi-author collections come out under some collective aegis such as a church, writer website, academic department, or cause like AIDS awareness or Breast Cancer prevention or Humane Society outreach. Continue reading “Anthologies (Part 2)”

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We’ve been receiving a lot of requests via email lately from folks wanting permission to post a link and/or a badge to the Indies Unlimited site on their blogs and/or web sites. The answer is: by all means YES!

Your recommendation to others is the greatest compliment you can give us and we’re grateful for it.

If you’d like to post a badge on your site, please feel free to grab the one we’ve got at the bottom of our IU Gear page here. The HTML code is there for your convenience.

Have an idea for something flashier? Let us know – we’d love to see it. Thanks again for your support!