Author: K.S. Brooks

K.S. Brooks is an award-winning novelist, photographer, and photo-journalist, author of over 30 titles, and executive director and administrator of Indies Unlimited. Brooks is currently a photo-journalist and chief copy editor for two NE Washington newspapers.  She teaches self-publishing and writing topics for the Community Colleges of Spokane, and served on the Indie Author Day advisory board. For more about K.S. Brooks, visit her website and her Amazon author page.

Why Indies Unlimited No Longer Accepts Paid Advertising from Authors

no money from authors pixabay dollar-551932_640That’s right; IU no longer accepts paid advertising from authors. It was a decision that took a lot of consideration, and ultimately, it came down to one question: Do we really want to take money from authors? Sure, we’re drowning financially over here – operating for free means the money comes out of the admins’ pockets and from the occasional donation – but we want to stick to our guns.

Indies Unlimited has never been about taking money from authors. We go to a lot of trouble to offer all our resources for free – from tutorials, to breaking news, to resource pages, and more. The minions are most generous with their time and knowledge. Give them a round of applause.

It’s more complicated, but it basically comes down to the principle of the matter: We do not want to take money from authors. Continue reading “Why Indies Unlimited No Longer Accepts Paid Advertising from Authors”

Indies Unlimited Resource Pages

graduation capHere at Indies Unlimited, we are constantly trying to identify the needs of authors at all levels of the publishing spectrum. In an effort to provide useful information in a sea of internet data, we’ve recently introduced some Author Resource Pages. Some of our new resource pages include:.

I’ve Written a Book, How Do I Publish It?
This resource page includes articles on the entire process from proofreading to how to find an editor to the anatomy of a copyright page, all the way to pushing the publish button. It’s a great resource for newbies and experienced authors alike.

 

Glossary for Authors
Sometimes it’s just not obvious what abbreviations mean, and sometimes it’s just a wee little bit embarrassing to have to ask what someone’s talking about. This glossary will help.

 

How to Spot a Scam
Scammers change their company names all the time. The best way to protect yourself is to know what to look for. This resource page will teach you what you need to know, so you don’t become a victim. (And don’t forget out #PublishingFoul resource page.)

 

Reviews and Review Sites
As you hopefully know by now, IU does not review books. This handy resource page will help you figure out how to find the right reviewers for your book(s).

 

Book Promotion Sites
Martin Crosbie has been generous enough to share his list of book promotion sites with all of us. It is updated as new sites come to our attention. All those sites are checked by Martin before being added to the list.

 

KnowledgeBase
This page contains all the useful IU articles arranged by tag. Know what you need? Just click on the subject which interests you and all the articles associated with it will magically appear. Yes, we did this just for you.

 

We’re adding new resource pages all the time. Please feel free to share these pages if you know someone in need, and please use the contact form if there’s a resource page subject you’d like us to research.

A Beginner’s Tips for Setting Up Instagram

Is Instagram for Authors?A few weeks ago, our Jim Devitt wrote a tutorial on How to Get Started on Instagram. Since I am always taking photographs, I figured this would be a great app for me. It seemed like everyone else was on Instagram, so it made sense to finally take the plunge. I was very grateful to have Jim’s article to guide me through.

Being a technological dinosaur – and that’s Ms. Megapnosaurus to you, thank you – I needed a little bit more hand-holding. So here are some tips that might help those of you new to smart phones and apps, and all that other newfangled stuff. Continue reading “A Beginner’s Tips for Setting Up Instagram”

How to Reduce Image Sizes Using Outlook

Sometimes smaller is just better.
Sometimes smaller is just better.

Here at IU, we ask people not to send photos over 500kb. We’re all volunteers, and we have small, free email accounts. Therefore, large attachments cause a problem. If you’ve ever received a failure message from us stating “mailbox full” – that’s because someone sent us a large attachment which filled our mailbox to capacity. Naughty author!

We’ve run a couple of articles on this: Tutorial: Resizing Pictures and  How to Resize a Photo – Mac Edition. If you don’t have the software programs mentioned in those tutorials, here’s an easy way to make an image smaller when you need to email it to someone. (In fact, you can even use this to email images to yourself if you need to resize it for something you’re doing.) It’s super easy, too. Continue reading “How to Reduce Image Sizes Using Outlook”