Author: Lynne Cantwell

Lynne Cantwell grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan. She worked as a broadcast journalist for many years; she has written for CNN, the late lamented Mutual/NBC Radio News, and a bunch of radio and TV news outlets you have probably never heard of, including a defunct wire service called Zapnews. But she began as a fantasy writer (in the second grade), and is back at it today. She currently lives near Washington, DC. Learn more about Lynne at her blog and at her Amazon author page.

Tutorial: How to Open a Zazzle Store

gifts from authors christmas-2975398_960_720Here we are, in the thick of the holiday shopping season, and we indie authors are faced with a dilemma: What do we suggest for fans of our work who have already bought all of our books?

One option is to design stuff with images from our books, and either give them away or sell them. Zazzle is one place where you can do that. I’ve made a few things on Zazzle previously – buttons and bookmarks for giveaways, mainly – but this year I wanted to try my hand at some other merchandise. So I opened a store. It’s pretty easy, and you can do it with just one product. Continue reading “Tutorial: How to Open a Zazzle Store”

Indie Author 101: How to Get Started with KDP, Smashwords, and CreateSpace

scared newbie author person-1205140_960_720
Don’t be afraid – we’re here to help!

To be an indie author, you have to publish a book. Right? But how do you sign up for that?

This will seem pretty basic to a lot of folks, but those who have never done it may be worried about the process. You know what? It’s really easy. Here’s what you do.

A note before we begin: All of the sites request some of the same information, so you will need to have it handy. They will ask for your name, your address, your email address, the password(s) you want to use, and some very basic financial information: your Social Security number for US residents, and the routing number and account number for the bank where you want them to deposit your royalties. And okay, another note – each will have different requirements for book covers, so make sure to read those on the respective sites.

With that said, here we go. Continue reading “Indie Author 101: How to Get Started with KDP, Smashwords, and CreateSpace”

Amazon: Unequal Treatment for Trads and Indies?

amazon messes with indies water-glass-2542790_960_720Let’s say there’s an indie author who has a couple of books under her belt. And she’s chatting on, oh, I dunno, Goodreads, and she says something that rubs some people the wrong way, and some guys get really, really steamed at her. So they get together with their friends and stage an attack on the author on Amazon, leaving her books a raft of one-star reviews. A number of those reviews attack the author and not the book.

Our author, who has put in a lot of hours learning her craft and whose books enjoyed ratings nearing five stars, suddenly sees that her ratings have dropped into the three-star range. Panicked and upset, she combs through the new reviews, and despite her pain and revulsion, she realizes where all these new, bad reviews came from. She appeals to Amazon, Continue reading “Amazon: Unequal Treatment for Trads and Indies?”

Choices for Publishing, 2017 Edition

publish buttonI admit it. When it comes to where and how I publish my books, I’ve been on autopilot for the past several years – I put all of my eBooks in KDP Select and publish my paperbacks with CreateSpace. So when someone in the IU Fans Facebook group asked what alternatives exist today for indies who don’t want to put their books into KDP Select, I figured it was time to do a little digging.

It turns out that not much has changed in the three years since we last looked at publishing choices. Indies still basically have four options for eBook publishing: Amazon’s KDP, Apple’s iBooks, Nook Press, and Kobo.

Earlier this year, Author Earnings released a report showing Amazon is far and away the leader, with more than 80 percent of English-language eBook sales worldwide – both indie and traditionally-published – and 91 Continue reading “Choices for Publishing, 2017 Edition”