Celebrating Independent Authors
Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.
Fear is a killer. When I think back on my life, I am crushed by the things I missed out on because I was afraid. I was a pretty fearless and stupid kid, so that’s saying a lot. But there were fears. There were girls I should have kissed. There were trips I should have taken. There were things I should have tried…or been brave enough not to try. I missed so many opportunities because I was afraid.
by K.S. Brooks and Stephen Hise
You want help and Indies Unlimited wants to help you. Indies Unlimited provides a number of different types of features that can showcase you and your writing (e.g., interviews, guest posts, sneak-peeks, video book trailers, etc.). We also get a ton of page views here, and that number is trending consistently upward. The exposure you get here can be very beneficial to you. Continue reading “We’re Here to Help”
The other day I received an e-mail from an author friend. The e-mail included a link to an article about an indie author who had written a book so bad that it had displaced all other claimants to the crown. The article cited some excerpts from the book, and I must agree the writing, grammar, spelling, and punctuation were all equally execrable. The author of the article was having a great deal of Simon Cowell – type fun with this. He righteously dripped with sarcasm and condescension. This book is a prime example of the kind of writing that causes such sturm und drang in the indie author community. None of us wish to be even loosely associated with this type of “author.” The thought that some might paint all indies in the same light as this fellow induces a collective cringe throughout the indie community. The writer of the article then went on to quote some of the reviews of the book. Continue reading “Forrest Gump vs Lieutenant Dan”
Fiction is a funny thing … that fiction authors take very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it can take over their lives, and depress, frighten, enthuse, or gladden them. Fiction has the power to mystify its creators; dash their hopes, fill them with wonder, and douse them with the kind of despondency that is hard to shake.
For some it is storytelling; for others, a tool to incorporate who they are as people with what the world would like to hear from them. For a few it is a curse; for many, the only joy in their lives. Fiction, if it is in your life, can be the source of the whole gamut of emotions. It is a rare author who has no deep emotive life. There seems to be a prerequisite to be able to feel events, scenes and snatches from real life in a sensitive way, if one is to turn them into stories that will move readers. One must be capable of melancholia and ecstasy. Otherwise, how can one create them, to be felt by others? All stories are to do with life. Even the ones built on the most outlandish science, on fantasy, on improbability, need to be anchored in some way to human life as we know it. In fact, it is rather hard to move so far away from life to write something that is beyond the ken of even the most intrepid reader with the wildest imagination. Continue reading “Attached to life at all four corners by Rosanne Dingli”