Month: October 2013

Author Tips: Smart Marketing with Twitter

I don’t want to share my marketing genius!

Guest Post
by Nicholas Forristal

So, you wish to know my kung fu? No? Oh, you want to know what I’m doing with twitter these days. Fine, I guess we can discuss that.

What I’m doing takes a combination of a twitter account (preferably two accounts), a website with a solid front page, Hootsuite, and a little time. It doesn’t have to be Hootsuite, but it’s free and works really well, so that’s what I use.

If you haven’t heard of Hootsuite, it’s, among other things, a website to automate tweets. (Indies Unlimited has an article about Hootsuite that might help explain.) I have a text file full of different quotes from reviews, goofy statements and book related topics to use as tweets at any given time. With Hootsuite, using the “Past Scheduled” section under “Publisher”, it takes me all of ten minutes to set up a week’s worth of posts. That’s one post per hour from 4am to 8 or 9pm. Why 4am? The UK is five or so hours ahead of us and I do fairly well overseas. My latest book, released yesterday (at this writing), is #7 in Asian Myths and Legends and 66,813 overall. Not “OMG I CAN STOP WORKING” good, but it’s selling. Continue reading “Author Tips: Smart Marketing with Twitter”

Do You Trust Your Readers?

Must have made a wrong turn at that last interjection…

When I learned to drive as a teen (yes, they had cars back then, shut up), one of the more puzzling statements in my DMV-supplied manual was: “Passing is a cooperative venture.” This didn’t make sense until I was in a situation where a guy in front of me kept speeding up to avoid my attempts to pass him. I don’t know what his problem was, maybe a little too much testosterone in the bloodstream, but that’s when I realized that the act of passing is a team sport. I have to speed up, and in a legal, safe place, he has to let me pass him. Continue reading “Do You Trust Your Readers?”

The Fiction Desk Flash Fiction Competition 2014

Now in its second year, the Fiction Desk Flash Fiction Competition is open for stories from 250-1,000 words.

Prizes: First prize, £200 plus publication in an upcoming Fiction Desk Anthology; Runner-up (4), £50 plus publication.

Entry fee: £3 for one story/ £7.50 to submit three stories together.

Deadline is January 31, 2014. For more information, please visit their website.

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.

Self Publishing the Talk of Frankfurt Book Fair

Frankfurt, Germany, Frankfurt Book FairThe Frankfurt Book Fair wrapped up last week, touted as the biggest marketplace in publishing. Well, 300,000 attendees must not be wrong! Perhaps the biggest surprise of the conference was the greater role of self-publishing among the traditional publishing giants.

In fact, an editor from Publishers Weekly proclaimed, “The self publishing discussion is the only conversation we need to be having today.”

Here are some of the important discussion points that culminated with a two-hour panel conversation on self-publishing. Continue reading “Self Publishing the Talk of Frankfurt Book Fair”