Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

How the Smashwords Summer eBook Sale Can Give You a Boost

smashwords-logoI’ve been on Smashwords since November of 2010. Admittedly, it’s still not as widely known as the mighty Amazon or iBooks, but folks are learning about it. If you’re a new author, it’s a great place to sell your work because unlike Amazon, you can set the price as free in order to gain new readers.

For the last several years, Smashwords has done their July Summer/Winter (yes, it’s winter Down Under) sale. Who doesn’t love a sale? Right? Well, for us starving authors, this is a fantastic way to possibly earn a few bucks. The website has been set up to allow authors to discount their books in varying rates. They make it easy as pie to offer these discounts — even marking them down to free if you’re trying to get folks interested in a new story or series. Continue reading “How the Smashwords Summer eBook Sale Can Give You a Boost”

Five Social Media Engagement Tips for Writers

writers and social media marketing business-people-1166576_1920Are you gaining maximum bounce from your social networks? Are Facebook’s new algorithms helping or hindering you from adding readers to your mailing list? Are Instagram and LinkedIn helping you gain subscribers? How can you really get more Instagram followers? What about Twitter or Pinterest? What are they doing for you? Did you know there’s an actual condition called “Social Media Fatigue”? Yes, there is. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet? Continue reading “Five Social Media Engagement Tips for Writers”

LynneQuisition: Indie Author Day

Interviews by Lynne CantwellAs you ought to know by now (because we have run a number of articles on it), the first-ever Indie Author Day is scheduled for Saturday, October 8th. The event is designed to open the doors of local libraries to indie authors.

Allie McKinney with BiblioLabs, the event organizers, has agreed to take a seat in the comfy chair and give us answers to all the questions we’re dying to ask.

For starters, Allie, how are you defining “indie author”? Continue reading “LynneQuisition: Indie Author Day”

Getting Your EBook into Libraries

indie author books in libraries penguin-835742_640One of my marketing goals for this year was to find new readers by trying to get a few of my titles into libraries. Oh, was I naïve. I thought it would be so easy, like that Kevin Costner baseball movie — build it and they will come. I thought I could just sign up with a few distributors and let them do the work. I was wrong.

See, libraries first need to actually purchase your book from those distributors. But they have limited resources. They often have small budgets and few hands on deck. A lot like small bookstores. They want to know that whatever titles they decide to shelve will be read. They want to know that they’re spending those limited budget dollars on quality products. They don’t want to take Aunt Ida’s unedited memoir about her trip to Yellowstone. (No offense to Aunt Ida, of course.) Continue reading “Getting Your EBook into Libraries”