Tag: #IndieHeroes

K.S. Brooks, My Indie Hero

indie heroes logo darkWhen I was a little newbie and didn’t know SEO from a hole in the ground, I wandered into a Facebook group and met a smart, sassy author and photographer named KS Brooks, also known as Kat. At the time, I had a manuscript I was thinking of self-publishing. And a lot of questions. Kat answered them. She was funny and had a very long list of titles to her credit: two thriller series and the delightful Mr. Pish books. I could only dream of having so many books on my shelf one day. And she shared her bounty of knowledge. I read the articles she suggested and paid attention to the discussions. She and Stephen Hise ran a website called Indies Unlimited, and it was rife with people doing what I wanted to do. I felt like I’d found my tribe.

As I moved from a casual reader of the blog to a guest-poster to a full-fledged minion, Kat was always there to help me. Continue reading “K.S. Brooks, My Indie Hero”

#IndieHero: David Gaughran

indie heroes logo darkFrom the time I started publishing in 2012, I was aware of David Gaughran, first through his historical fiction, then through his two self-publishing how-to books. Over time, I grew to admire him because he seemed to be putting more time and energy into helping others than he did himself. Plus, he has tackled scummy vanity presses like Author Solutions. Here’s an interview I did with my favorite muckraker, David Gaughran.

Shawn: You’ve written two books to help indie authors – Let’s Get Digital, and Let’s Get Visible. You released a second version of Let’s Get Digital, but as fast as our publishing world changes, are you anticipating writing a new version of either any time soon? Continue reading “#IndieHero: David Gaughran”

#IndieHero Mitchell Davis

indie heroes logo darkBack when we first started batting around this Indie Heroes idea at the IU water cooler, the very first thing I thought of was the fact that, to my mind, CreateSpace has revolutionized the publishing industry. Many of you will know that CreateSpace was not an Amazon creation out of whole cloth, but was a very successfully streamlined idea that grew out of an earlier revolutionary concept, BookSurge. Created in 2000, BookSurge was the brainchild of Mitchell Davis and friends, and was the world’s first integrated, global print-on-demand publishing platform. Now, all of our brains work a little differently; mine works in stories, planting them and then growing them in my head until I have to write them down. I doubt I could ever come up with a new idea for a business, and certainly not one that would change an entire industry. Mitchell Davis’ brain, however, does just that. I decided to do a little literary brain surgery to find out just exactly how he developed his idea that has freed so many writers from the paralyzing grip of traditional publishers.

Mitchell, first of all, thanks so much for agreeing to talk with me. I have to admit, I feel a little like I’m sitting at the feet of a giant, so if I gaze up at you adoringly, just ignore that. My questions will be two-pronged, first about how you came up with your idea and then about how that idea has changed the world we know. Continue reading “#IndieHero Mitchell Davis”

#IndieHero: Chuck Wendig

indie heroes logo darkChuck Wendig has been having an awesome few years. His first Star Wars novel, Aftermath, debuted last year at number four on both the New York Times bestseller list and USA Today’s bestseller list. The second book in the trilogy is due out this year. LucasBooks approached him to write that series after they had read Under the Empyrean Sky, the first book in his dystopian YA series. He’s also in the midst of writing a series about a woman named Miriam Black, who needs only to touch someone to know how the person will die, and when, and how. He’s also a screenwriter and a comic book writer, and he has designed role-playing games.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. Continue reading “#IndieHero: Chuck Wendig”