Author: Big Al

Big Al (who insists he only has one name, like Cher, Sting, and Madonna) spends his days writing computer programs that are full of typos, homonym errors, and incorrect verb usage. During his evenings, he writes reviews of indie books for BigAl’s Books and Pals and has recently taken over The IndieView, a website founded by indie author Simon Royle as a resource for indie authors, indie reviewers, and those who read either.

What Readers Want – On Short Story Collections

what readers want logoAs an author, do you ever struggle with a decision about your book and wonder, “What would a reader say?” You probably aren’t the first author to wonder about that same thing. Indies Unlimited has two reviewers on our staff, the fabulous Cathy Speight and venerable Mr. BigAl, who are here representing readers. In this series, we’ll pose your questions to them for their take and encourage other readers to weigh in with their thoughts.

First the question from the author: Continue reading “What Readers Want – On Short Story Collections”

What Readers Want – The Long Frikken Book

what readers want logoAs an author, do you ever struggle with a decision about your book and wonder, “What would a reader say?” You probably aren’t the first author to wonder about that same thing. Indies Unlimited has two reviewers on our staff, the fabulous Cathy Speight and venerable Mr. BigAl, who are here representing readers. In this series, we’ll pose your questions to them for their take and encourage other readers to weigh in with their thoughts.

In this post I’ll answer a question that has been posed by an author looking for a reader’s opinion, starting with The Case of the Long Frikken Book.

First the question from the author: Continue reading “What Readers Want – The Long Frikken Book”

You’re Going to Write What? – Part 1 – The Introduction

scribbling-152216_640I could give credit for this idea to the author of one of those self-publishing how-to books that are constantly being discussed in the Minion Cafeteria. (“Is this a scam? Does it have anything new? What does an author whose bestselling book is ranked at twenty-bazillion on Amazon know about how to write a million-seller anyway?”) That would be giving that author too much credit. But he did get me thinking. Continue reading “You’re Going to Write What? – Part 1 – The Introduction”

Blog Book Tours from a Blogger’s Perspective

Lackawanna book blogger Tour
Photo by Billy Hathorn of English Wikipedia

Last month Karen Wojcik Berner shared a post on blog tours here at IU. As I was reading, it occurred to me that a discussion of blog tours from the perspective of a blogger might be of interest and potentially of value for authors, whether they’re doing the hard work of putting a tour together on their own or hiring one of the many blog tour operators to coordinate the effort.

Personally I have a love/hate relationship with blog tours because they have plenty of positives for a blogger, but depending on the blogger’s perspective, a non-trivial list of negatives as well. I’ll start with the good. Continue reading “Blog Book Tours from a Blogger’s Perspective”