Month: January 2013

When You Can’t Win for Losing

Come on, admit it – you have award envy. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be able to describe him- or herself as an “award-winning author”? Why, it’s almost as good as “bestselling author,” and easier to achieve. All you have to do is win a contest. And there are a blue billion contests out there. One of those trophies must have your name on it already, right?

Not so fast. There are decent, well-run contests, and then there are people who want to part you from your hard-earned money without giving you much in return. Just like with everything else in this business, you should do your homework before you plunk down your money.

When you’re perusing a writing contest listing, examine these things to make sure you’re not getting fleeced: Continue reading “When You Can’t Win for Losing”

Flash Fiction Winner of the Week: Carol Wyer

Congratulations to Carol Wyer, the first winner of our weekly 2013 Flash Fiction competition. Thanks also to everyone who participated – excellent entries!

The winning entry is rewarded with a special feature here today and a place in our collection of winners which will be published as an e-book at year end.

Without further ado, here’s the winning entry:

Continue reading “Flash Fiction Winner of the Week: Carol Wyer”

What is … Realfastbooks.com?

Thank you for finding Indies Unlimited.

Here at IU, we do our best to provide helpful information to indie authors of all levels. Our goal is to provide the knowledge they need to make intelligent decisions about writing and publishing. We are not, however, a watchdog site, nor do we try to be. There are other sites out there, such as Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors, which dedicate their resources to identifying scammers.

It appears that Realfastbooks.com, realfastbook.com, and danielhallpresents.com have been removed from the internet. Whether or not these were scam sites is not up to us to say.

Despite all the efforts to make authors aware of predators looking to make money off of them, the best tool is actually knowing how to spot a scam. That knowledge will enable authors, no matter how often the scammer changes its name, to avoid being taken advantage of.

Thank you again for finding Indies Unlimited.

– The Admins

Sneak Peek: Lethal Inheritance

Today we have a sneak peek from author Tahlia Newland’s new young adult contemporary fantasy, Lethal Inheritance.

You can’t send police into a tunnel that doesn’t exist after a villain they can’t see, so when shadow demons kidnap her mother, Ariel has to mount the rescue mission herself. She enters a hidden layer of reality only to find that the demons are hunting her, and they feed on fear. Ariel must defeat them before they kill her and enslave her mother. But how do you kill terrifying demons when your fear makes them stronger?

A quirky old guide teaches her how to locate and unleash her inner power, and she falls in love with Nick, a Warrior whose power is more than either of them can handle.

Lethal Inheritance is available on Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords as an e-book.

And now, an excerpt from Lethal Inheritance:

Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Lethal Inheritance”