Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

Draft2Digital, Baker & Taylor, and OverDrive

ebook library-1666702_960_720Those of you who use Draft2Digital to distribute eBooks outside of Amazon should have recently received a message that Draft2Digital has now partnered with Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360 eBook distribution platform.

Baker & Taylor, a massive distributor of books, movies, DVDs, and other entertainment, has been in business for over 180 years. A primary distributor to libraries, Baker &Taylor is owned by the Follett Corporation and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But wait, you may be thinking (or at least I was), Draft2Digital already uses OverDrive to reach libraries. Why do we also need Baker & Taylor? Continue reading “Draft2Digital, Baker & Taylor, and OverDrive”

How Do I Know if My Writing…. Sucks?

does my writing suck little-girl-3399737_960_720This article has two purposes: The first is to discuss a specific question. The question, in its most simple form, is how do you know whether your writing is any good? Specifically, are you good enough to publish your first book and expect to be able to attract and satisfy readers and, if you aren’t, how do you figure out what areas to focus on improving to get there? Continue reading “How Do I Know if My Writing…. Sucks?”

Indie Author Newsbreak 11-23-2018

indie author newsWell then, moving a little slowly from all that turkey yesterday? Grab a cuppa and check out these publishing industry articles that meant your fearless admin had to slog through tons of stuff to find the gems to share with you today. Yes, people, there are lots of other blogs out there using lots of words and even sentences – but she braved them just for you! In this installment:

Anne R. Allen shares some great advice for self-publishers, including the rapid release method in this article called Want to Self-Publish Fiction Successfully? Follow These 9 Tips.

It seems that Amazon has been having some problems with international platforms, as the indubitable David Gaughran reported on his site in KDP Books Unavailable To International Readers. The issue may or may not have been resolved in full at this time according to some commenters on the article.

Joanna Penn recently attended the Independent Author Conference and was nice enough to share what she learned there in a blog post. There are some interesting points that should be very useful to folks in her article 5 Tips For Successful Publishing And Book Marketing. Lessons Learned From The Independent Author Conference.

I bet we all wish we had an office manager like the one Amber Lynn Natusch worked with. On a dare, Amber Lynn self-published her first book, and the rest is history. Read more in the Valley News.

For those of you who have already published a few books, this won’t be news. But it’s nice to see a writer come to the realizations we’ve all been telling the world for a while. In this article, screenplay writer Brian Fitzpatrick discovered a number of lessons while converting his screenplay into a novel.

That’s all we have time for this week, folks. Thanks for being here. We’re thankful for this great community and each of you is a part of that. Good luck with your book sales this big weekend!

Write a Best-Selling Book in Just 3 Days!

Have you seen these ads? Had your eye caught by that promise of easy-peasy success and wealth? I’m assuming (*cough*cough*) that most of you would know from the get-go that this is the bait for a complete scam, but just in case it tickles your palm and sends your brain into financial what-ifs, here’s the lowdown.

You used to see these ads in the backs of magazines (does anyone read paper magazines anymore?), but now you’ll see them as pop-ups on questionable sites or as books on Amazon. If you search on Amazon for any kind of writing advice, you’re bound to see a few of these come up as suggestions.

I looked at one recently called Continue reading “Write a Best-Selling Book in Just 3 Days!”