Like every month, September contains a basket load of oddball holidays and observances. There’s National Lazy Mom’s Day, Wonderful Weirdos Day (technically, September 9th, but celebrated every day in my house), Stay Away from Seattle Day, and the delightfully amusing Talk Like a Pirate and One Hit Wonder Days. Although we just missed International Enthusiasm week, I hope you might have a little excitement left for one of my favorite September observances: Be Kind to Writers and Editors Month. No, I am not making this one up. In 1984, someone at Lone Star Publishing fielded one too many questions about to when use “lie” or “lay”, went completely off his nut and covered the entire office with red-Sharpied conjugations of several naughty Latin irregular verbs. Continue reading “Celebrate Writers and Editors”
Tag: writers
Psych Out
Writers psych themselves out a LOT. Like baseball players, but less fit. I’ve said before that I don’t believe in writer’s block, but there are other psych-outs. A certain time of day. A certain place. A certain beverage. A certain amount or kind of noise. A certain…whatever. And it is a fact that it is all bullshit. Here’s how I know.
I get ideas and weird inspirations in the shower, while I’m driving, in the middle of the night, mid-conversation…
Now, it stands to reason that if inspiration can strike at any time, then I can write anytime as long as I allow myself to. Meaning, no superstitions. You don’t have to tap your cleats
and spit north to write well.
Self-publishers: Buyer Beware
It’s crunch time. My post is due and I woke at 3 am in a panic with no topic. (Sound familiar, Dan?) There is too much going on in my life. But then an idea I have been toying with for some time came back. I can share the story of my experience with iUniverse and use it as a cautionary tale for novice authors. And cautionary it is.
Let me preface this by saying that I do believe there are legitimate ‘self-publishing’ companies out there who deliver what they promise with integrity and quality. But let me also emphasize that such companies are few and far between and, to most of us, indistinguishable from the rest.
What Can Indies Unlimited Do for You?
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.). Many of the features are free. We also offer low-cost promotion. We 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.
If you are interested in participating, you can get more information on the submissions page. Please use the contact form to make queries.