Audience Anxiety…

Guest post
by Ken La Salle

I coined a new term today, which I’m calling “Audience Anxiety”.

Here’s how it came to be: I was out having breakfast with my best friend, Sean, this morning. (As it turns out, most of my Indies Unlimited pieces are inspired by breakfast.) I was telling him about the new podcast – So Dream Something, now available for FREE on iTunes – and asked him if he had listened to the most recent episode. Sean gave me one of those looks. You probably know the look. It was one of those, “Oh no. He’s hitting me up for something again,” looks. I usually see those when I’m talking up my new book, article, podcast with my friends and family. It took a few moments for Sean to get his response out, a rather sheepish sounding, “Uh, no. I haven’t.” Continue reading “Audience Anxiety…”

Tutorial Tuesday Time Out

IU Tutorials and Tools for Prospering in a Digital WorldWell hello there fans of Tutorial Tuesday. Here at Indies Unlimited, we take pride in bringing you tutorials each week to help you get more out of social media platforms, software packages, handy websites, tools, and more. You can check out past tutorials for free here. If you don’t feel like going through all the tedious and strenuous labor of repeatedly clicking that “older posts” arrow, you can check out this nifty book here.

Occasionally I’ll get messages from folks asking for tutorials on specific subjects, or I’ll write them based on queries which come up during conversations with other authors. Of course, that means we haven’t covered everything yet…

So how about we open up the comments section today and YOU tell US what you’d like to see tutorials about? Let’s not get silly here, we can’t give you tutorials on picking the right lottery numbers or on how to build a laser death ray (that’s proprietary), but we can help in author-related topics other than becoming a best-seller overnight or how to get on Oprah. And please, keep it clean, folks. Here are some upcoming tutorials: How to Create a Sell Sheet; How to Find Media Outlets; Preparing for a Radio Interview; and How to Write a Bio Blurb. We look forward to seeing your ideas. If we’ve already got a tutorial on it, we’ll let you know that, as well.

Writing is Like Sex

I thought that might get your attention…

Writing is to being an author like sex is to being a lover. There may be some natural ability, and the first, fumbling steps may even hold the promise of some wondrous things to come. It’s possible to get by, at least initially, with a measure of natural talent; a degree of youthful exuberance certainly doesn’t go amiss either (even if the individual concerned is not that young). However, without practice and (we all know that it’s not practice that makes perfect but rather perfect practice that makes perfect) probably tutoring, and most certainly some guidance will be needed to help and encourage that budding, and talented individual to reach their full potential. Continue reading “Writing is Like Sex”

How’s Your Fashion Sense?

When I was kid I didn’t give two hoots about fashion. To be honest, as an adult, I don’t really care. Give me a pair of jeans, my Doc Martin boots and a t-shirt, and I’m a happy lady. As long as I’m comfy and the mirror doesn’t crack when I look into it, I can walk out the door feeling confident.

I don’t read magazines, I don’t follow any particular fashion trends and it’s always stood me in good stead. But is not caring about fashion really a good thing?

Let’s talk writing fashion for a moment…

I’ve noticed recently on a few comment threads, within one of my Facebook groups, that the authors who have just released books in the New Adult Contemporary Romance genre seem to be taking off. It hasn’t taken long to work out that New Adult Contemporary is one hot genre in my circles at the moment. Continue reading “How’s Your Fashion Sense?”