Tag: Writing

Helping you become a #1 Bestselling Author

Bestselling Author … Bestselling Novel … sounds good doesn’t it? A few weeks ago, I posted about reviews and their impact on ratings and readers. You can see that post here. Today, I want to discuss the elusive BESTSELLER.

When you have achieved bestseller status, it is yours for life. No one can take it away. Conveniently, Amazon changes the rankings hourly. Now, many of you might look at that as a negative but all you need is for your book to hit #1 just one time, and even if it drops out after an hour, you’ve just achieved “bestseller” status.

As with anything in our indie publishing world, you have to know the system before you play the game. First, when you uploaded and published your book, you picked five categories. These have nothing to do with how Amazon ranks your book—they’re used in keyword searches for someone browsing topics. Continue reading “Helping you become a #1 Bestselling Author”

An overdose of criticality – by Mark Cantrell

Author Mark Cantrell

ONE of these days I’ll figure out how to switch off.

No, I’m not talking about relaxing, well not exactly, but stepping out of this world and into the ‘zone’. That’s the place where the state of consciousness alters when the muse is in full flow – at least until the inability to power down the critical faculties crashes me back down to Earth.

When the words flood the screen there’s a kind of freedom, but all too often the internal critic comes smashing through the door to stick his damn finger in the dyke. The other finger he tends to wag my way; admonishing me for the terrible state of my composition. If I’m not quick enough, he takes a dive for the delete key, too, the swine. Continue reading “An overdose of criticality – by Mark Cantrell”

Week 11 Flash Fiction Contest Voting

Vote!The time has arrived for IU readers to begin voting in this week’s Flash Fiction Competition. On behalf of the IU staff, I want to thank all the entrants for doing such a great job with the writing prompt and the merciless constraints of the exercise.

This week, there are ten entries from which to choose. You may review the entries here. Please spread the word and encourage your friends to vote by using the share buttons at the bottom of the post!

The poll will be open until 5:00 PM MST Thursday

Select the entrant with the best story for the IU writing exercise competition, "The Last Season."

  • 3. Shiri Sondheimer (39%, 38 Votes)
  • 7. Dianna Stover (23%, 22 Votes)
  • 5. K. Zeth Ozbirn (18%, 17 Votes)
  • 9. Genora Powell (10%, 10 Votes)
  • 8. Terveen Gill (5%, 5 Votes)
  • 2. Yvonne Hertzberger (3%, 3 Votes)
  • 4. RG Bud Phelps (1%, 1 Votes)
  • 10. A. L. Kaplan (1%, 1 Votes)
  • 1. Robert H. Cherny (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 6. Elisavietta Ritchie (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 97

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Other Influences on Authorial Style – by Joe T Velikovsky

Stephen Hise posted a really great question here about The Influence of Personality on Authorial Style  – and it really got me thinking. I’m paraphrasing now, but Stephen’s (excellent) point was, as an Author – can you put your attitude towards the world into your Storyworld? (i.e. Optimist, Pessimist, Skeptic, Cynic or Realist/Pragmatist…)

It’s an excellent point! And – in my humble opinion, probably the most important thing about `Voice’ as a writer. But – I also think – it’s incredibly difficult to do—not in the execution but in the publishing.

Allow me to unpack that idea: Continue reading “Other Influences on Authorial Style – by Joe T Velikovsky”