Category: Staff Articles

Greetings scribblers, scribes, pixel pounders, and ink slingers! The Admins at Indies Unlimited have sojourned across the great expanse of the interwebz to bring you the finest shade-grown, fair trade, organic, non-GMO, gluten-free tidbits for your infotainment pleasure. So, knock the cat off your lap and prepare to be smartified.

1. Amy Collins shares some excellent thoughts on how to keep your followers engaged without marketing them to death.
2.  Correct usage of symbols is important. Incorrect usage can undermine the authority of a writer. Mark Nichol provides guidance on the correct usage of raised symbols.
3. Stay vigilant. As long as there is a dime to be made from a gullible author, predators will continue to flourish. Writer Beware puts out a new Vanity Publisher alert.
4. One frequently given piece of writerly advice is along the lines of “Learn to write well by reading well-written books.” But we can also learn from mistakes. Dana Sitar posits 4 ways reading bad writing can make your writing better.
5. And in a long overdue explanation, Jenna Blum illuminates Productive Procrastination.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tune in next Friday as we tackle the philosophical question of the ages: If a glass spills in the forest, was it half full or half empty?

Greetings authors, writers, novelists, and aspirants! The Admins at Indies Unlimited have walked up and down the length of the information superhighway gathering the freshest and most fragrant information for your infotainment. Prepare your brains for upload and squint a little so the light doesn’t hurt your eyes.

1. What’s out? Zombies. What’s in? Vikings. Yes, that’s right, Vikings are all the rage as far as you know, and fortunately for you, there is a tremendous likelihood that your work already contains a smattering of Viking words. Daily Writing Tips provides an illuminating list of 30 Viking words in common use in the English language.
2.  Is there a more maligned and reviled punctuation mark than the poor semicolon? One would think no semicolon has ever survived the brutality of an editor’s critical and uncompromising eye. Yet, the semicolon does have its proper place even today as Adam O’Fallon Price points out.
3. In recognition that tomorrow is Bastille Day, we turn to the knowledgeable and always-entertaining Grammar Girl to answer the question that is bound to be on everyone’s mind: why do people say “Pardon my French?”
4. The indefatigable David Gaughran undertakes the task of debunking some common misconceptions about “The Amazon Algorithm.”
5. Finally, over at the Creative Penn, Damon Suede offers some great thoughts on writing memorable characters through strong language and action.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tune in each Friday morning for more Indie Author Newsbreak. Next week, we answer the question on everyone’s mind: How can someone be discombobulated without having been combobulated at some point before?