Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

Setting up Your Book’s Kickstarter Campaign

kickstarter logoHere we are, once again! The other day, I covered some of the basics about Kickstarter. By now you should have figured out what you’re campaigning, how much it’s going to cost you, what Kickstarter amount you’ll need to reach your actual goal, what rewards you’re going to have, and how much all of this is going to cost you on the back end in fees, shipping, packaging, and production. Congratulations! You’ve made it this far, but the fun isn’t over yet. There are still a couple things you need, or should at least consider, before you make your Kickstarter campaign. So that I have something to give you as a reference, this is my Kickstarter that is currently running. Later I’ll have screenshots of the before process, but I wanted to give you the finished result to gauge by.

The Video Introduction

Do you need to do this step? Well, as Kickstarter puts it, Continue reading “Setting up Your Book’s Kickstarter Campaign”

Kickstarter to the Heart and Crowdfunding’s to Blame

kickstarter logoKickstarter is a crowdfunding site where one puts up a project, in my case a horror novel, sets a goal, chooses rewards for the backers of the project, and designs the look of the campaign page through a series of easy to figure out, fill in the blank, sections. That’s the easy part. The hard part is the frantic madness that is screaming across the internet landscape, “HEY, LOOK AT ME, I NEED YOUR MONEY AND I PROMISE TO GIVE YOU THINGS!”

Why Crowdfunding? Continue reading “Kickstarter to the Heart and Crowdfunding’s to Blame”

Tips to Help Authors Make their Festival/Events a Success

RJ Crayton author bookfairmewithbooksThe warm-weather months are upon us, and this often means book festivals, book fairs, conferences, and other events. So, this seemed like as good a time as any to offer some tips on what authors need when selling their books at events. While events vary, the basic needs tend to be pretty similar.

First, before you go to the event, find out what you’ll be getting. Different events have different standards. Some events just provide space and a chair, and the author needs to bring a table. Many events provide a table. Sometimes you’ll have a table to yourself, and other times you’ll share a table. Presuming you have a table and a chair to sit in, what else are you going to need? I’ve broken the list into Must Haves, and Good to Haves. Continue reading “Tips to Help Authors Make their Festival/Events a Success”

From the Mail Room: Can I Put a Multi-Author Anthology in KDP Select?

mail-room-author-emails-office-899351_960_720A reader sent in this question:

I’m an indie author who is considering doing an anthology with some fellow authors. I came across the First Chapters one you did and I was wondering if you had any advise on how to do this best? (First Chapters takes the first chapters of 22 different minion books and compiles them into one anthology.)

I had a couple specific questions, since we were thinking about doing a First Chapter complication as well for our book, but we are a little concerned that since we’re all in KDP Select, we can’t do what you guys did.

In reading their terms, it seems we can “give away” samples (meaning can’t sell it) as long as they are less than 10% of the book. I assume since you guys are selling your anthology, that none of the books you pulled chapters from are in KU, and can never be in KU because of that?

Thanks for your help!

Here’s the answer from our awesome team of authors: Continue reading “From the Mail Room: Can I Put a Multi-Author Anthology in KDP Select?”