Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

What To Eat in Bargia

Food has been on the brains of many of us lately. Apparently that means writing has taken a back seat. So just to make sure the rest of you don’t get back to business before I do and jump ahead of me here is a post I wrote for Shelley Workinger’s blog (with minor edits). Drool on.

WHAT TO EAT IN BARGIA:

My trilogy, Earth’s Pendulum, takes place in an imaginary old world society. Think agrarian city state, on a large island isolated from other influences. The climate is temperate, akin to what Ireland might have, or England.

Now when I create my world, while it is not a real place, I still want my readers to be able to place themselves there, to see it in their minds, to hear the speech of the characters. Both the setting and the characters must be believable. Continue reading “What To Eat in Bargia”

Emote With Style

I never let an opportunity escape to express myself with personal style. Developing a consistent, signature style is key to branding yourself, a necessity for successful long term promotion. At the end of this post you will have a style assignment, a personal mission if you will, to express yourself with your own unique emoticon. Let’s do some research first.

The exciting thing about American English is its acceptance of new words. Sites like the Urban Dictionary allow anyone to post a word they’ve made-up. Look under my user i.d., sassy/swag, and you will see the word Cheneyesque. Definition: A cold, uncaring attitude. Callous, unsmiling, condescending. Example of usage: I knew Bob wouldn’t care about the starving children in Ethiopia, he is completely Cheneyesque. I was annoyed with Dick Cheney that day so I decided to immortalize him. Continue reading “Emote With Style”

Judging a Book by Its Cover

The Kiss of Night by K. S. BrooksI’m constantly looking at book covers as part of my “job” here at Indies Unlimited.  I run into authors posting their covers in groups all the time, asking for input. So I see a LOT of covers. And most of them all have the same issues.

What I find most ironic is that the same people keep posting book covers with the same problems.  I don’t get that.  Please allow me to make something perfectly clear. And I’m not just making this up to be difficult or bossy or right. I’m speaking from experience. I enjoy providing my own cover art to my small Indie publisher – and because of that, I’ve taken some lumps. But I’ve also learned some important things about book covers. I share this knowledge freely, to help my fellow Indie authors. Book covers are important. We all want to make a good first impression. Book sales count on it. Continue reading “Judging a Book by Its Cover”

The Impact of the Dept. of Justice Investigation

The Indie Author in the world of Publishing

Last week, on March 24, 2012, we looked at a brief history of eBooks, Publishers and the Agency vs. Wholesale pricing model. You can review that post here.

Ironically,on Thursday March 29, 2012, the Huffington Post ran a story by Mark Coker the founder of Smashwords. Most of you are familiar with Smashwords as one of the first distributors to supply eBooks to retailers including, Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, the Diesel eBook Store, and Baker and Taylor. Continue reading “The Impact of the Dept. of Justice Investigation”