Tag: indie publishing

How Indies Unlimited Will Help You Find a Publisher

Retro-Pop-Art-Woman IU knows allWe get lots of email here at IU. Sometimes we get kudos (we like those a lot!). Sometimes we get questions we can answer. We love those, because we are here to help people achieve their dreams of being published.

But sometimes we get questions that would take hours to answer, and honestly, folks, we work for free and just don’t have that kind of bandwidth. Often they go something like this:

Hi Indies Unlimited,
I’ve written a major groundbreaking book and I need help finding a publisher. Can you help me? Who would you recommend? Continue reading “How Indies Unlimited Will Help You Find a Publisher”

If I Was Starting Over as an Indie Publisher

indie author starting overI’ve been publishing for just under three years now, so although not a grizzled veteran of the publishing wars, I’m not a noob, either. Like most of us, I hang out in a lot of the places writers gather: internet message boards, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, Google+ groups, etc. It seems inevitable, when I meet someone who is new to self-publishing, that I get some version of this speech: “You were lucky. You got in while “free” was still a goldmine/when reviews were easier to get/when the competition wasn’t so tough.”

I don’t feel defensive when I hear that, because, maybe they’re right. Maybe, if I was launching my first book into today’s climate, I would struggle mightily to get any traction at all. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered — what would I do if I was starting completely over? Continue reading “If I Was Starting Over as an Indie Publisher”

Indie Publishing: Our Dirty Little Secret

be quietI’ve been attending the annual World Fantasy Convention for several years now, and it’s been interesting to watch the evolution of attitudes about indie publishing there. In 2011, traditionally-published authors were quick to dismiss indies as vanity-published hacks. (I won’t quote chapter and verse; we’ve all heard it before.) In 2012, as I reported back then, the convention organizers put together a panel discussion on indie publishing. That panel was less dismissive of indies – although there were still a couple of “slush pile” comments – and even featured one of the honchos from Kobo Writing Life, which had just launched that summer.

I couldn’t afford the trip to Merrie Olde England for last year’s convention. But this year, the big event was practically in my backyard. So I went with my ears perked up to see what, if anything, had changed over the past two years. Continue reading “Indie Publishing: Our Dirty Little Secret”

Self-Publishing Book Expo 2014 Wrap-Up

Screen shot 2014-11-16 at 4.13.54 PMWhat a difference a year makes. New York’s Self-Publishing Book Expo, now entering its sixth year, has followed alongside the evolution of indie publishing, more or less. It’s a unique show designed to help self-published authors network with service providers and learn how to navigate the marketplace to publish and promote their books more effectively. But the most recent show, from the exhibitors to the presenters to the audience, had some huge differences—some good, and some that made me want to punch a wall. Continue reading “Self-Publishing Book Expo 2014 Wrap-Up”