Day: September 10, 2014

Which Story Has the Power?

Vote5Whose story about The Potion of Power do you think should win this week? There are so many good entries. We leave it up to you, IU readers, to choose which story should win the honor.

Remember, the winning entries will all be included in the next edition of the IU Flash Fiction Anthology.

Check out this week’s entries here. Make your decision, then use those share buttons at the bottom of the post to spread the word.

Voting polls close Thursday at 5 PM Pacific time.

Which story has the power to win this week?

  • Dick C. Waters (38%, 16 Votes)
  • Neil (17%, 7 Votes)
  • Jon Jefferson (10%, 4 Votes)
  • L.A. Lewandowski (10%, 4 Votes)
  • Sara Stark (7%, 3 Votes)
  • AL Kaplan (7%, 3 Votes)
  • Timothy Wan (5%, 2 Votes)
  • NC (5%, 2 Votes)
  • Ethan Cuka (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Don Martin (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Venkatesh Iyer (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 42

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NOTE: Entrants whose submissions exceed the 250 word limit are eliminated from the poll. ONE VOTE PER PERSON, please. Duplicate votes will be deleted. The results displayed above are unofficial until verified by administration.

Sequels as Standalone Books

vicki-lesage-authorGuest Post
by Vicki Lesage

Following the advice of indie authors who’ve been there, you decide to pen a sequel. What? You haven’t? Well you should. It’s daunting – that first book didn’t write itself! – but having multiple books is one of the best ways to increase exposure and sales.

Think of all the energy you put into writing and marketing your first masterpiece. Now your next book can ride that wave of success.

A good sequel should accomplish two things: Continue reading “Sequels as Standalone Books”

Smashwords Loves Authors Fest

smashwords heartAh Smashwords. They are so kind to authors. We revealed in our last installment of Author Tips and Tricks that readers don’t even need an account there to download free books. How cool is that? Not sure how they can or will compete with Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited. So how about we show Smashwords some love with a Smashwords Book Page Like-fest!

This is how it works: If you are an author with a book listed on Smashwords.com, in the comments below, write a SHORT one sentence blurb about ONE of your books, then paste in the link to that book below it. (If you post more than one book, to be fair to everyone else, we will delete all except for the top link, so please behave and post only ONE book – NOT your author page – there is no way to like those!) Make sure you show some love to the links in the comments above yours, and check back throughout the day to catch up.  If you’re a publisher, editor, or reader, please check out these book pages – you may see something you like! (BTW, liking a book on Smashwords WILL show up in your FB feed. If you don’t want it there, you’ll need to go into Facebook and manually remove it from your wall.)

[Don’t forget, if you right-click the links, you can choose to have them open in a separate tab so you don’t have to worry about navigating back and forth to pages.]

This should be fun and should generate a lot of likes for everyone’s books. Let’s get things moving – and here’s a book to get you started:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/23869

PLEASE do not post erotica titles. IU is a safe-for-work site.

To those with concerns about the ethical implications of “liking” a book you have not read, we regard  likes as more analogous to a “high five” than a rating or review. We do not support the idea of rating or reviewing a book you have never read. If you’re concerned that people will think you are endorsing someone else’s book, you can always just write something like “hey, my friend’s book is on Smashwords.”