Month: February 2015

NEA Creative Writing Fellowship Grants Available

National Endowment for the Arts LogoThe NEA is currently accepting applications for fellowships in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) from published creative writers to enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement.

Prizes: $25,000 Fellowship

Entry fee: FREE

Deadline: March 11, 2015

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.

Kira Flynn Wins Flash Fiction Challenge

A hearty congrats to Kira Flynn whose entry won this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge.

The voter-selected story is recognized with a special feature here today and wins a place in our 2015 Flash Fiction Anthology, which will be published as an eBook when this year’s challenges are completed.

Without further ado, here’s the winning story:

Continue reading “Kira Flynn Wins Flash Fiction Challenge”

Planning for Author-Entrepreneur Success

Jeff Bezos' iconic laugh does not endorse this post.
Jeff Bezos’ iconic laugh does not endorse this post.

I’m starting this post with an embarrassing admission. My original post — brilliant, ground breaking, and written late at night after several days working my day job at a local luxury retailer — has gone missing. I would like to say that I suspect nargles, à la Harry Potter, but more than likely I deleted it when I powered down my computer.

You probably wouldn’t have wanted to read it anyway. It was my business and marketing plan for 2015 and some of the more creative highlights included: Continue reading “Planning for Author-Entrepreneur Success”

Using Surveys and Forms on Your Website or Blog

Taking SurveysI first used Google forms to set up the Indies Unlimited 2015 Self-Published Production  Process Survey. If you’ve self-published at least one book and haven’t taken that survey yet, it’s not too late. You have until February 23, 2015. Go do that now. We’ll wait.

Welcome back. Thanks for doing that.

If you have a website, chances are at some point you have or will want to conduct a survey of some kind. (I’ve used one to get opinions from my readers on what they like and dislike about one of my sites.) Or maybe you want to set up a form to collect data of some kind. (Don’t forget, survey results are a favorite of the news media.)There are several alternatives for accomplishing this task, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Continue reading “Using Surveys and Forms on Your Website or Blog”