Tag: indie news

Okay, 2018 is just about over, so let’s take a look at a few ways to make 2019 a kick-butt year with some great advice from folks who seem to know what they’re talking about.

From rejected by publishers to self-published and number one on Amazon’s self-help, new releases category, Matt Sweetwood talks about What You Need to Know to Create a Best-selling Book on Entrepreneur.com.

Is 1000 True Fans Still Relevant for Self-Publishers? If you’re new to the concept of 1000 true fans, this piece by Amy Harrop talks about the origins as well as how and why it applies today more than ever.

Over on Anne R. Allen’s blog, veteran author Derek Murphy looks back and writes about 10 Mistakes I Made as a New Indie Author to help others not fall down the same way. He’s got some good advice in there, and it’s not just for newbies.

Last, but definitely not least, Joanna Penn sat down with Mark Leslie LeFebvre to talk about Tips For Long-Term Publishing Success. They talk about building a professional author brand, dealing with retailers, podcasting, in-person marketing, and more.

That’s all we have time for this year, folks. Thanks for being here. We’re thankful for this great community and each of you is a part of that. Stay safe on New Year’s Eve, and here’s to a bright and successful 2019.

Well then, moving a little slowly from all that turkey yesterday? Grab a cuppa and check out these publishing industry articles that meant your fearless admin had to slog through tons of stuff to find the gems to share with you today. Yes, people, there are lots of other blogs out there using lots of words and even sentences – but she braved them just for you! In this installment:

Anne R. Allen shares some great advice for self-publishers, including the rapid release method in this article called Want to Self-Publish Fiction Successfully? Follow These 9 Tips.

It seems that Amazon has been having some problems with international platforms, as the indubitable David Gaughran reported on his site in KDP Books Unavailable To International Readers. The issue may or may not have been resolved in full at this time according to some commenters on the article.

Joanna Penn recently attended the Independent Author Conference and was nice enough to share what she learned there in a blog post. There are some interesting points that should be very useful to folks in her article 5 Tips For Successful Publishing And Book Marketing. Lessons Learned From The Independent Author Conference.

I bet we all wish we had an office manager like the one Amber Lynn Natusch worked with. On a dare, Amber Lynn self-published her first book, and the rest is history. Read more in the Valley News.

For those of you who have already published a few books, this won’t be news. But it’s nice to see a writer come to the realizations we’ve all been telling the world for a while. In this article, screenplay writer Brian Fitzpatrick discovered a number of lessons while converting his screenplay into a novel.

That’s all we have time for this week, folks. Thanks for being here. We’re thankful for this great community and each of you is a part of that. Good luck with your book sales this big weekend!

Our admin’s a little busy this week, so we’re going to do away with all the wonderful wit that normally prefaces our weekly Indie Author Newsbreak and just get right down to it for you:

Gigi wanted to know why people buy books, so she did a survey, and 355 people responded. She went into things like genre, categories, and more in her article How & Why People Buy Books: The Results of a 355-Person Survey.

Most of these tips aren’t anything our fearless leader hasn’t shared in the past, but in case you weren’t listening… here’s How A Copywriter Would Write A Better Book Description.

If you don’t sell any books, then “Also Boughts” aren’t really an issue for you. But if you do, then you may have noticed them disappearing. The ever helpful and dashing David Gaughran delves into Amazon and the Also Bought Apocalypse to explain things.

That’s all our admin has time for this week. Sorry. If you want to inspire her to be more benevolent, you may send gifts in the form of coffee and chocolate. Feel free to wrap those gifts in hundred dollar bills, if you’d like. Green is such a happy color, isn’t it? Like trees, you know? Happy, happy trees. Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday once again. That means it’s time for us to break the news for you. After a short hiatus loaded with coffee, gruel, and ice cream, our benevolent staff has combed the internet so you wouldn’t have to. They’re a great group, aren’t they? Here’s what they came up with:

There are plenty of reasons why writers should self-publish, and just one of them is maintaining control of your copyright. Here’s a great case for why you shouldn’t sign your rights away, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

We’ve had quite a few articles about dialogue tags, but none recently. (Yes, I spell it the British way because I’m classy.) Here’s a refresher course on dialogue tags and how to use them in fiction writing by proofreader and copy editor Louise Harnby.

You know you’re an indie author when a meatgrinder has nothing to do with meat, a kindle is not a fire, and … well, you get the picture. But for the newbie, the lingo can be a little confusing. Here’s a guide to some self-publishing terms that you may find useful from PublishDrive. (By the way, we do have a glossary for authors here on IU… just sayin’.)

And what good would we be if we didn’t include something spooky for Halloween week? Well, of course we would still be awesome, but this just makes us awesome…er? Yeah. Awesomer. Frankly, I find all the advertisements scarier than the story, but it is an interesting tale of The Ghostly Residents of the Famed Literary Hotel Chelsea by Nancy Snyder on Book Riot.

That’s it for the news this week, unless one of those ghosts at the Chelsea tells us the winning lottery numbers. Have a good weekend.