Month: February 2017

Indie Reads – February 2017

Indies Unlimited does not review books, but we do have a couple of renowned reviewers on staff. We thought a great way to celebrate indie writing would be to ask those reviewers for their top indie picks of the month. Here are this month’s top picks from our experts:

paradise prison by faith mortimerParadise Prison by Faith Mortimer

“Hold on to your hats, Mortimer fans. You’ll be blown away by this one.”

Read the rest of the review by Cathy Speight.

Paradise Prison is available through Amazon.com.
 Continue reading “Indie Reads – February 2017”

Book Titles in Thumbnail: Size Does Matter

illegible titlesAs you are probably aware, back when IU was vetting books, the most common issue we saw with books during the process was an unclear or confusing book description. The second most common issue: unreadable titles on book covers in thumbnail size.

Who cares? Right? It’s just a tiny book cover. No one expects to read it in that size.

Um, wrong.

One of our most referenced articles is one that our Lynne Cantwell wrote about the Marketing Rule of 7 – that it takes at least seven instances of someone seeing your book before they actually purchase it. Well – what if those seven instances are in thumbnail size? Do you think they will remember to purchase a book when they can’t read the title? Moreover, will they even notice it to begin with? Probably not. Don’t waste a chance to get in front of someone and make an impression.

Here at Indies Unlimited, thumbnails are generally 120×177 pixels, which on my laptop ends up being around 1.75 inches high by just under 1.25 wide. There is no specific industry standard for thumbnails, (on WordPress it’s 150×150) and the size varies from site to site. Then, add to it people viewing sites on their tablets and cell phones – and you can end up with some mighty small thumbnails. Can you read your title under those circumstances? You may want to check. Continue reading “Book Titles in Thumbnail: Size Does Matter”

Get Your Books into Libraries – Free Webinar

Join our fearless leader – Admin K. S. “Kat” Brooks, as well as other industry experts including Carl Pritzkat from Publishers Weekly’s BookLife; Carla Sarratt of the New Hanover County Public Library; and Kiera Parrott from Library Journal as they provide pointers on working with libraries.

Evidence for Indies: Exploring the Library Journal Self-Published Book Survey Report from BiblioBoard Library on Vimeo.

You can read more about this on the Indie Author Day website here.

Judith Garcia Wins Flash Fiction Challenge

Judith Garcia is the Readers’ Choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. The winning entry is decided by the popular vote and rewarded with a special feature here today. (In the case of a tie, the writer who submitted an entry first is the winner per our rules.)

Without further ado, here’s the winning story:

Continue reading “Judith Garcia Wins Flash Fiction Challenge”