Day: June 19, 2013

How a Novel is Like Flooring

The other day my partner Mark and I put down the flooring in a spiffy new building project in our back yard: an ‘Accessory Dwelling Unit’, or ADU as the city likes to call it. It’s actually a mother-in-law apartment for my parents to use when they decide they can’t hack the Arizona heat and yearn for some fresh, cool, northwest air. This tends to be every year about the time the temps in Phoenix scream into the triple digits. Go figure.

How does that relate to writing, you ask? Continue reading “How a Novel is Like Flooring”

Flash Fiction Challenge Voting

I can’t believe you remembered THIS and forgot to vote in the flash fiction contest.

It’s Wednesday, and that means Indies Unlimited readers get to choose the next Flash Fiction Star. Let’s take a look at some of those puppies.

Remember, all our winners will be included in the next edition of the IU Flash Fiction Anthology. So, support your fellow writers and participate in this week’s voting, then spread the word, bang the drums, and share the link to let everyone know the vote is on.

Polls will close tomorrow at 5 PM, so act quickly, while supplies last!

We had a number of great submissions this week. Kudos to all the entrants. Check out this week’s entries here. Vote for your fave then use those share buttons at the bottom of the post to spread the word.

 

Which author do you choose as this week's flash fiction star?

  • Dick Waters (36%, 24 Votes)
  • Marjorie McCoy (21%, 14 Votes)
  • Laurie Boris (11%, 7 Votes)
  • Jon Jefferson (11%, 7 Votes)
  • Jacqueline Hopkins (9%, 6 Votes)
  • Rich Meyer (6%, 4 Votes)
  • Faye Hollidaye (3%, 2 Votes)
  • Morgen Bailey (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Per Holbo (2%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 66

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NOTE: Entrants whose submissions exceeded the 250 word limit were eliminated from the poll.

Does This Book Have a Sell-By Date?

do-books-have-expiration-dates-copyright-ks-brooksThe other day an indie author asked for my opinion with this series of questions: “How long is it reasonable for an indie author to keep marketing the same title and expect results? Is there an expiration time for titles in general… even trad published ones? What’s the data?”

As often happens, my first inclination was to respond, of course not, don’t be silly. As Konrath points out, an eBook is forever. There are millions, billions, or trillions of people in the world (I’m not going to look it up, but it’s a bunch, and this is the only data I’m going to provide.) No matter how many copies of a book have been sold, it is only to a miniscule portion of your target audience. Even if we exclude those who don’t or can’t read, don’t understand English, or are readers who never touch your genre, by the time an author runs out of potential customers they’ll have made enough to buy Mitt Romney or maybe even Bill Gates several times over. Continue reading “Does This Book Have a Sell-By Date?”