Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

Some Alternatives to NaNoWriMo

Every November, tons of writers and would-be-writers set out to take part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The concept is simple: in the span of one month, write a 50,000-word novel.

While many flock to this concept as a way to have an ultra-productive November, some writers resist. For example, I find the forced word count of NaNoWriMo causes me to write junk just to fulfill the word count. And that is not particularly helpful if you want to write a good novel.

If NaNo just isn’t your thing, yet you’d still like to take November and use it as a month for productivity, I thought I’d offer some alternatives to NaNoWriMo. Continue reading “Some Alternatives to NaNoWriMo”

Be Vigilant When Publishing Book Titles

Girl at computer cryingI’m in the middle of dealing with several clients (one of whom is myself!) who have made errors when entering book titles on Amazon. This is how it goes:

The Fatal Error

You enter an eBook in Kindle Direct Publishing. You put up the title, subtitle, author, etc. and all goes well. It goes so well you think now you’ll get some print copies to sell locally, give away as prizes, etcetera, so you do a softcover edition. You used to go to Createspace for this, but now you just go to Kindle Direct Publishing and it’s all done in one place. Which is probably better, because I think they now use exactly the same book information entry form, the lack of which was what caused my problem in the first place. Continue reading “Be Vigilant When Publishing Book Titles”

Indie Author Newsbreak 11-9-2018

indie author newsOur admin’s a little busy this week, so we’re going to do away with all the wonderful wit that normally prefaces our weekly Indie Author Newsbreak and just get right down to it for you:

Gigi wanted to know why people buy books, so she did a survey, and 355 people responded. She went into things like genre, categories, and more in her article How & Why People Buy Books: The Results of a 355-Person Survey.

Most of these tips aren’t anything our fearless leader hasn’t shared in the past, but in case you weren’t listening… here’s How A Copywriter Would Write A Better Book Description.

If you don’t sell any books, then “Also Boughts” aren’t really an issue for you. But if you do, then you may have noticed them disappearing. The ever helpful and dashing David Gaughran delves into Amazon and the Also Bought Apocalypse to explain things.

That’s all our admin has time for this week. Sorry. If you want to inspire her to be more benevolent, you may send gifts in the form of coffee and chocolate. Feel free to wrap those gifts in hundred dollar bills, if you’d like. Green is such a happy color, isn’t it? Like trees, you know? Happy, happy trees. Have a great weekend!

The CreateSpace to KDP Print Migration: Issues to Watch for

herding sheep createspace to kdp printThe indie publishing world has been abuzz since authors received an email from CreateSpace stating CreateSpace would be closing and KDP Print would take its place.

Some authors have been greeted with a pop-up on CreateSpace that tells them they can move their entire catalog with one click. Other authors haven’t yet received the pop-up but should soon, since CreateSpace said the option would be rolled out slowly over the next few weeks. If you don’t yet have the pop-up, don’t worry; CreateSpace has said within a few weeks, if an author hasn’t moved books from one account to the other, CreateSpace will do it for us. Continue reading “The CreateSpace to KDP Print Migration: Issues to Watch for”