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.

Top Five Ways to Have an Awful Book Cover

BAD BOOK LARGEI’m constantly looking at book covers as part of my “job” here at Indies Unlimited. On top of that, I run into authors posting their covers in groups all the time, asking for input. So I see a LOT of covers. And most of them all have the same issues.

What I find most ironic is that the same people keep posting book covers with the same problems. I don’t get that. Please allow me to make something perfectly clear. And I’m not just making this up to be difficult or bossy or right. I’m speaking from experience. I used to provide my own cover art to my small Indie publisher – and because of that, I’ve taken some lumps. But I’ve also learned some important things about book covers. I share this knowledge freely, to help my fellow Indie authors. Book covers are important. We all want to make a good first impression. Book sales count on it. Continue reading “Top Five Ways to Have an Awful Book Cover”

Tips for a Successful Facebook Live! Broadcast

Facebook Live LogoEarlier this morning, Alan Parks told us why, as authors, we should be using Facebook Live!. Personally, I love the idea, so I decided to give it a try. During the process, I ran into some interesting challenges, but with the help of the IU minions, we had some successful experiments. We learned quite a lot about the nuances of it and thought these would prove helpful to others just getting started. So, here are some tips on how to make your Facebook Live! Broadcast go off without a hitch. Continue reading “Tips for a Successful Facebook Live! Broadcast”

Yes, Virginia, There Really Is an Indie Author Day

Indie Author Day LogoStarting out as an indie author, you might feel like there is a monumental task ahead of you and you are facing it alone. As an indie author with some miles beneath your fingers, you now know there is a whole community of other authors willing to support you in your quest. That’s a nice feeling.

Then why does it seem we are the minority? With thousands and thousands of indie authors out there – what is missing? There is power in numbers – and we have the numbers. And now, the good folks at Indie Author Day are helping us to mobilize our numbers and make them count for something. So why aren’t you signed up??

It’s easy to get involved with Indie Author Day – and it’s all FREE for authors. If you’ve read Melissa Bowersock’s introductory Indie Author Day article that ran this morning, she gives us the basics. After going through the author inquiry process myself, I thought maybe those of you who have yet to sign up might like to know some of the perks of using the form on the IAD site. Here they are:

  1. IAD will send you the email address for the contact at your library. You don’t even have to look anything up!
  2. IAD will also supply you with a template email which you may use to contact your library, making it pretty easy.
  3. When you contact your library, you CC the library coordinator at IAD, and he or she will also contact the library so you will have an “official” advocate.
  4. If your library doesn’t end up participating, IAD will contact you and let you know about other libraries in your area where you can participate.
  5. Even if things don’t work out for this year, using the form will get you and your library in the queue for next year!

So, be sure to check and see if your library is already participating, and if it’s not, make sure to use the Indie Author Day signup form to get involved. It could be the beginning of a long and wonderful relationship between you and your library.

Again, there is power in numbers. Let’s flex our muscles and make Indie Author Day a huge success.

#IndieHeroes: IU Minions

indie heroes logo darkAs #IndieHero month here at Indies Unlimited comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to shine the light on some of my Indie Heroes – the ones here at IU.

You see their articles every month – which you read for FREE. They sometimes have to work at finding a topic – like writing a book, ideas don’t always come that easily. Then, when they have to, they research them, write them, create the SEO information to go with them (yes, you ALL should be doing that each time you write a blog post – or who will see your stuff?), find a matching image, and then send them over to me by the deadline. That’s right, they do all this for free. Because they are super cool people, exemplars of the indie spirit.

Of course, I could go on forever as to how awesome the minions are, so I’ve limited myself to one or two sentences below describing why each of them is my #IndieHero: Continue reading “#IndieHeroes: IU Minions”