Tag: Guest Posts

The Why and How of E-Book Piracy by Arline Chase

Preface:  The other day a Google alert informed me that my first novel, Lust for Danger, was mentioned on a site called 4shared.com.  I clicked through to discover that they were offering my novel as a free download.  I immediately emailed my Indie Publisher, Write Words Inc., to notify them of this issue.  Within a couple of days they’d managed to get the site to take my book down.  Honestly, I never thought this would happen to me.  But it did.  Arline Chase – owner of Write Words, Inc. – will explain why, and how, pirates steal our titles.  

Without further ado, here is industry veteran Arline Chase:

I can’t speak to how pirates get hold of every title, but I can mention some of the ways they are able to “find” material to give away and why they do it.

Some publishers, not me, but some, put the PDF up at Bowker’s Books in Print when they register the ISBN. As a protection to our authors, Write Words does not send the whole PDF there, or to Google’s “search inside the book” or anywhere else except sales sites where we actively participate. Bowker’s security is good, but no Internet Security is infallible.

Authors get tons of spam all the time. One ploy is to offer “free advertising” to authors by e-mail and ask them for one free copy to use for promotional purposes. If the author sends them ONE PDF book file by e-mail attachment, they can then give it away hundreds of times and they can claim to have your permission to do so as it was sent willingly. I don’t know that this is how they got your book, but it DOES happen. A Lot. You would also get lots more “offers” from them to buy advertising on line. Continue reading “The Why and How of E-Book Piracy by Arline Chase”

Help us help you

by K.S. Brooks and Stephen Hise

We indie authors need all the help we can get to spread the word about our writing. We don’t have an army of agents and publicists at our disposal. We don’t have a big publishing house pushing our books onto the front shelves of every remaining brick and mortar store in the world.

Still, we don’t have to bear the burden alone – we have each other. We use social media to build networks and connections. We learn from each other and we teach each other. We help each other.

I established Indies Unlimited for the express purpose of helping indie authors. We provide 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.

You want help and Indies Unlimited wants to help you. This should be easy. Some people make it difficult. Below are some things that will facilitate that process – and keep us from wanting to kill you. Continue reading “Help us help you”

Forget Promotion! Think like a Reader by Kathy Meis

Author Kathy Meis
Author Kathy Meis

Be honest, book promotion is a thorn in your side. You know you have to do it, but you’d much rather be writing your next book. It’s time consuming, often expensive, and can give you that uncomfortable “I’m selling” feeling. Promoting online reduces the time and expense somewhat, but still requires creation of an ongoing stream of content (blogs, interviews, reviews). You’re compelled to build snazzy websites and attract fans and followers through regular social media engagement. It’s exhausting.

Efficient, effective promotion is key. Creating this type of promotion, however, means taking off your author’s hat and thinking like a reader. The minute you do this, the burden of book promotion melts away and you start contemplating book discovery. Browsing, sampling, exploring – the kind of experience bookstores create so well. I’m a big believer in the power of blogs, but consider this: the primary content readers encounter at a bookstore is books. They can randomly sample any page and easily peruse a book’s cover art, summary, author bio, introduction, acknowledgements and endorsements. They’re all built into the book. Continue reading “Forget Promotion! Think like a Reader by Kathy Meis”

Feedback for Writers by Harry Bingham

Author Harry Bingham
Author Harry Bingham

I run a business whose core service is simple. We offer feedback to writers. We work on everything from picture books through to memoirs, but probably ninety percent of what we deal with is novels.

Needless to say the same old issues come up time and again. They’re issues which writers could easily correct themselves. That’s not to say that getting feedback isn’t massively worthwhile – it is – it’s just that you’ll get better value from feedback if you’ve put in the hard yards yourself first.

And naturally, like all professional authors, I practice what I preach. Although I’ve had more than ten books published over the years, I still rely deeply on the feedback I get from my literary agent and from my editors. My most recent novel, probably the best one I’ve written, still benefitted from some 6,000 words of written notes from my editor. I didn’t need those notes because I’m a poor writer. I needed them because feedback makes a good book better.

But enough of that. If most writers coming to us are making the same old mistakes – what exactly are those mistakes? And how do you avoid making them? Continue reading “Feedback for Writers by Harry Bingham”