Author: Melissa Bowersock

Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, award-winning author who writes in a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres. She has been both traditionally and independently published and lives in a small community in northern Arizona. Learn more about Melissa from her Amazon author page and her blog.

AudioBook Boom

audiobookboom logo Have you converted any of your books into audio books? Supposedly audio books are the “next big thing,” although I’m not sure who decides that. In any event, I have been converting quite a few of my books to audio and have been having a lot of fun in the process. I’m doing this through ACX, and I’ve written here before about how that process works.

One thing that I particularly like about ACX, as well as the meeting place they provide so authors and narrators can hook up, is that they continue to send promotional ideas via email. One such email introduced me to AudioBook Boom.

Here’s the deal. Continue reading “AudioBook Boom”

I’m Promoting My Book — Where’s My Sales Spike?

book sales graph-841606_960_720 (003)If you’re a regular reader of IU, you know that writing a book is only part of the recipe for success. You’ve taken all the advice about punctuation, plot, characters, and story arc to heart, you’ve written the best book you could, gotten first-class editing, paid for an eye-catching cover and now your book is up on the web just waiting for the orders to roll in.

But they’re not.

Okay… you’ve sent out an announcement to your email list, you’ve posted on Facebook and Instagram, tweeted on Twitter, touted your book on LinkedIn. You’ve sent press releases to the local media and to any distant locations that might be interested (i.e. the setting for your book, your old home town, etc.).

Still no sales spike. What’s up with that? Continue reading “I’m Promoting My Book — Where’s My Sales Spike?”

The Minions Speak: Indies Unlimited Celebrates Eight Years!

I’m willing to bet that the minion responsible for this photo thinks I completely forgot about it. Ha! I’m evil that way. – Kat

Time flies, doesn’t it? Eight years can go by in a flash. Luckily for us, it’s been a very supportive, productive, insightful flash. We’ve covered all the latest trends, good and bad, and given some time-proven advice. We’ve done an in-depth series on publishing scams, and we’ve highlighted our indie heroes. We’ve discussed character development, punctuation, promotional tactics, and tackled legal issues. Is there any aspect of writing and publishing that we haven’t at least touched on? Not that I can think of.

To take a look back at where we’ve been and to look forward to where we’re going, we asked our minions to answer just a few questions about IU. Here are their answers. Continue reading “The Minions Speak: Indies Unlimited Celebrates Eight Years!”

Author Eats Crow – Never Say Never

raven on a tree branch courtesy of pixabayWay back in 2014, I wrote an article here on Indies Unlimited about how I would (almost) NEVER write a sequel or a series. I ranted quite a bit about inspiration vs. conscious, mechanical design of a plot, and I named names. As you might imagine, I got both positive and negative comments on that post, as I fully expected.

So here I sit, five years later, and I’m writing Book #22 of my paranormal mystery series!

What changed? Nothing.  Everything. I have no idea. Continue reading “Author Eats Crow – Never Say Never”