Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

Don’t Write “Instinctively”

for writers INSTINCTIVELYI may have mentioned in my post a couple of months ago that inept critics, academics and bloggers may create awareness of a certain usage simply to give themselves something to write about. That was me in my curmudgeonly mode. Now I hope to redeem myself by committing a like deed for positive reasons: creating awareness because I see overuse and misuse of a word.

And to show how much time good writers spend on choosing their words (or how obsessive certain people get about word choice), I’m going to spend this whole article on the usage of one word: instinctively.

Show and Tell

The first argument against using any adverb is when it is being used to prop up a dull verb. Showing an action or emotion is more effective than telling about it. Continue reading “Don’t Write “Instinctively””

Creative Book Promotion Ideas Courtesy of a Failed Kickstarter

crazy marketing ideas for authors hat-591973_960_720Happy Tuesday! The strange journey known as Kickstarter is now over, and I still have so much to share. You can read the previous articles in my Kickstarter adventure series here. This part will cover advertising, advice, and avoidances. Trust me, you’ll want to read this even if your plan is to never run a Kickstarter.

Advertising:

I hope to see this change over the years, but for now there is nowhere that truly supports a book Kickstarter. Video games, gadgets, films, even comic books have Facebook groups, special advertising websites, Twitter accounts, and all the things we tend to utilize outside of Kickstarter for promoting our books. Novelists have none of that. The websites you normally post your free/discounted books on? Most of them ask for an ASIN number, which you don’t have because your project hasn’t been published yet. Because of the strangeness of the terrain, I found myself performing guerilla advertising. Is that a real term? Don’t know, but it defines this madness fairly well. Continue reading “Creative Book Promotion Ideas Courtesy of a Failed Kickstarter”

Writing as Self-Help: A Workshop

writing as self help adult-1868015_960_720Sometimes workshops do not go according to plan. Sometimes that’s a good thing.

Recently I had the privilege of conducting a two-evening workshop on writing as a tool for suicide prevention with a group of five youth. A town nearby had experienced a troubling spate of teen suicides over the past year. A youth worker from the area asked me if, as a writer, I could put a workshop together on how writing might be a prevention tool. Continue reading “Writing as Self-Help: A Workshop”

The Hard Facts on Hardcover Books

hard cover books book-wall-1151410_960_720Article by
K. Rowe and K. S. Brooks

Hardcover books are seen as a luxury to novel-writers, but to children’s book and picture book authors, they’re seen as a necessity. Until recently, publishing a hardcover was out of reach of indie authors.

Today, we’re going to focus on six manufacturers — some well-known in Indie book circles, some not so well-known. Some of these suppliers offer print-on-demand (POD) services, some don’t. Of course, using a POD printer means you won’t find yourself saddled with dozens (or more) of copies of a book you can’t sell. Who wants to drive around with a trunk full of books?

Sizes, page counts, and minimum quantities vary by supplier. In order to keep things as standard as possible, we asked these publishers to quote the following: Continue reading “The Hard Facts on Hardcover Books”