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.

Lights, Camera, Facebook Live!

movie lightWe’ve had a couple of posts here at IU recently about Facebook Live. First, Alan Parks tackled what it is and why an indie author might want to do it in the first place.  Then our own K.S. Brooks wrote about her experiment with the feature.

One thing that hit me, as the other minions and I helped Kat set up her video debut, was the importance of good lighting. Lighting can bring out your best features – or it can turn you green, or make your eyes seem to recede into your skull, or even make you the spooky storyteller at the campfire. And lighting for video is a little less forgiving than it is for still photography. Continue reading “Lights, Camera, Facebook Live!”

LynneQuisition: Indie Author Day

Interviews by Lynne CantwellAs you ought to know by now (because we have run a number of articles on it), the first-ever Indie Author Day is scheduled for Saturday, October 8th. The event is designed to open the doors of local libraries to indie authors.

Allie McKinney with BiblioLabs, the event organizers, has agreed to take a seat in the comfy chair and give us answers to all the questions we’re dying to ask.

For starters, Allie, how are you defining “indie author”? Continue reading “LynneQuisition: Indie Author Day”

TaleHunt: Flash Fiction on the Go

talehuntlogoIf you’re looking to get a little writing practice in while on the go, but tweets are too short for you, maybe TaleHunt will fit the bill.

TaleHunt is a smartphone app available for Apple and Android devices. (The developers are working on a version for Windows phones.) It’s free to download and install. I didn’t see any ads or in-app purchase options – although I presume one or the other, or both, will be coming eventually.

The app allows you to write and post 250-character stories – not words, characters – which other users can then read and vote on. The developers are billing it as the first dedicated flash fiction app. It debuted in January and has about 10,000 users right now. Continue reading “TaleHunt: Flash Fiction on the Go”

Goodreads Expands Giveaways to Include eBooks

goodreads ebook winnerFor years, indie authors have wished that Goodreads would diversify its popular giveaway program to include eBooks as well as paperbacks. Now, at last, Goodreads is moving slowly in that direction. It announced a pilot project for Kindle eBook giveaways last month.

The Goodreads program is sort of like the one offered by its corporate overlord, Amazon, but sort of not. With the Amazon program, you pay upfront for as many copies of your Kindle title as you would like to give away and how you would like them awarded (every third entrant, randomly, etc.), and Amazon takes care of pushing the content down to your winners’ Kindles. Continue reading “Goodreads Expands Giveaways to Include eBooks”