Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

Book Promotion Site Survey for Authors

author book promotion survey checklist-41335_640Recently, we ran some articles about the decline of effectiveness of book promotion sites and we posted some performance statistics of some of those sites. These articles caused somewhat of a stir in the publishing community. Well done, minions!

One of our readers asked if we shouldn’t update our fabulous page of Book Promotion Sites to include a link to Bob Hammond’s article, but our fearless leader didn’t think that would be fair based on the experience of just one author. So here’s your chance, peoples! Let us know how YOU did with these sites by taking the survey below. You will remain anonymous, so there will be no chance of backlash for reporting less than stellar results.

  • Fill out the survey once for each site you used. If you ran multiple promotions with the same site, you are welcome to fill out the survey more than once for that site.
  • Only include your experiences within the past year so we can gauge what’s going on in recent history.
  • Please share this everywhere writers hang out (Facebook groups, forums, social media) so we can get a lot of data and make this survey really meaningful.
  • No login or credentials are needed. We’re awesome that way, aren’t we?
  • To take the survey more than once, when you are done and receive the “thank you” confirmation message after submitting, just refresh the page and a new survey will come up.
  • You have until February 29, 2016, and it takes less than two minutes to do, so let’s make this happen! (And a special thanks to BigAl for crafting this fine survey!)

KDP Error Messages: The Sky Is Not Falling

dont panic kdp warnings shield-114440_960_720You have probably already heard about the latest sky-is-falling report involving KDP. An online publication (which shall remain nameless, as it’s well-known for publishing unsubstantiated clickbait, but whose initials are Good Ereader) struck fear into the hearts of many indie authors last week, when it announced that starting February 3rd, Amazon would begin pulling from sale any eBooks reported to have typos or formatting issues. Continue reading “KDP Error Messages: The Sky Is Not Falling”

You’re Going to Write What? – Part 6

scribbling-152216_640This is an ongoing series about BigAl’s first experience writing a book. Join him as he flies by the seat of his pants and figures things out as he goes. For a more complete explanation about the book and this series of posts, you can read the series introduction here.

In the introductory post to this series I promised (maybe threatened?) that some of my posts might be a sample of the work-in-process. This post is going to carry out that threat. One chapter of the book (which is a how-to for people wanting to set up a book review blog) will cover establishing a submission policy, even if that policy is that they’ll find the books to review on their own, meaning without the help of friendly and eager indie authors. The meat of this particular chapter contains the elements of a good submission policy: things like if you are willing to accept books to review from authors, publishers, or others. It’s only a portion of the chapter, but the most critical part. Continue reading “You’re Going to Write What? – Part 6”

Tips for Realism in Writing

boring writing book-15584_960_720The mantra for writers these days is “Make it realistic.” After all, it won’t be long before we’re competing with three-dimensional, five-sense virtual reality. But we will never try to do that. It is impossible to give the reader everything, and you don’t want to. The trick to giving the reader a wonderful experience is to make the right choices in what we show.

Naturalism: the Ultimate Reality

There was a movement in the theatre world in the nineteenth century. The performers were trying new ways to make their performances as realistic as possible. One offshoot of this movement was the “naturalism” school. These people had the brilliant idea that the best way to show realistic theatre was to show reality. Actors woke up in the morning pretending to be their character. They went through their whole day as their character. By the time they reached the theatre, they were totally immersed in their role. This is now called “method acting,” and many performers use adapted versions today.

However, other theatrical geniuses tried to take the “reality” much farther. Someone actually had the idea of taking the side off an apartment building and placing seating there instead, so the audience could watch the tenants go about their daily lives. Can you imagine? Continue reading “Tips for Realism in Writing”