You Tell Us…

The talented and underfed staff at Indies Unlimited cuts a wide swath through subjects of interest to our readers, but that doesn’t mean we have covered every topic imaginable or of interest to you.

Sure, we could continue to use our amazing mental powers to divine your areas of interest; or we could just ask you what you’d like to see addressed. That’s the whole point of our reader request feature, You Asked For It.

What’s on your mind? What issues, areas, controversies, tutorials, surveys would you like to see IU undertake? Our staff will divvy up the requests and hand-craft posts to tackle the questions asked.

What’s On Your Mind?

The talented and underfed staff at Indies Unlimited cuts a wide swath through subjects of interest to our readers, but that doesn’t mean we have covered every topic imaginable or of interest to you.

Sure, we could continue to use our amazing mental powers to divine your areas of interest; or we could just ask you what you’d like to see addressed. That’s the whole point of our reader request feature, You Asked For It.

Last time around, we got questions from IU readers Renee Pierce Williams, Elina Castro, Melody Stiles, J. Johnson Higgins, and Matt Valenti. Our staff divvied up the requests and wrote posts to tackle the questions asked.

So we are asking again. What’s on your mind? What issues, areas, controversies, tutorials, surveys would you like to see IU undertake?

Q&A Two-fer

It can be hard to tell from the other side of the curtain just what it is that goes on around here. Sure, every once in a while, somebody leans on the red button and the front row gets more splattered than at a Gallagher performance.

Most of the time though, things run pretty smoothly. One of the drawbacks to making this look easy is that it raises expectations and folks may get a little impatient from time to time. Precious minutes have ticked by since you hit the send button. Fear not. You have questions, we have answers:

I submitted a query/materials to be featured on your site a week ago. How come I haven’t heard back? What do you people do all day?
Indies Unlimited is staffed by lovable but snarky volunteers. We respond to queries in the order in which they are received. Sometimes there is a bit of a backlog, and your patience is appreciated. Here’s the deal though: Sometimes people just send in a query that says, “Here’s my book.” We appreciate that you believe we’re clairvoyant, but since we have a lot of different features, it’s really best if you tell us which one interests you. If you don’t give us what we need to help you, then your query and/or submission goes to the end of the line while we take care of the folks who were more assiduous about following the instructions.

I participated with a Sneak Peek, Book Brief, Book Trailer Video, or Guest Post feature – why can’t I find my book in the IU Book Store?
The book store is updated twice a month, more often if time allows. Unfortunately, the store is not searchable by title, but you should be able to find your book in the “Featured Authors” section. The “Indies Unlimited Authors” is reserved for members of the IU Staff. If your book falls into one of the genres in the store’s left side-bar and you would like your book added, use the contact form, include a link to your book on Amazon.com, and the name of the genre. Of course, you must have participated in one of the qualifying IU features in order to be eligible to have your book listed in the store.

Too Close for Comfort

I have never been very good at expressing my emotions verbally.  I don’t have that problem when writing.  Which is lucky, because good writing must be emotionally honest to resonate with the reader.  Even when it is fiction, it must be honest.  Writers can’t afford to pull punches or hedge their bets…not if they want to really reach their readers and establish that all important connection…the one that makes reading so magical.  This can create some interesting problems.   Continue reading “Too Close for Comfort”