Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #16

POSTED ON Jan 29, 2012

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Self-Publishing, Social Media > Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #16

Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for January, 2012. We welcome your submissions on topics related to writing, self-publishing, book design or marketing books.

A collection of outstanding articles recently posted to blogs, your reading here will be richly rewarded.

See the end of this post for links to submit your blog posts for the next carnival, or for participating Bloggers and Featured Bloggers to grab your sidebar badges. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Featured Posts

Piotr-KowalczykPiotr Kowalczyk presents Top Self-published Kindle Ebooks of 2011 [Report] posted at Ebook Friendly, saying, “A report listing top self-published ebooks of 2011, based on figures from Kindle Store. Numbers of books in top 100, average price, books from top selling authors.”

Mark CokerMark Coker presents Smashwords Year in Review 2011 posted at Smashwords “2011 was another strong year for Smashwords and our authors. We’re ending the year with over 92,000 titles published, up from 28,800 at the end of last year.”

David GaughranDavid Gaughran presents Why Is My Book Not Selling? posted at Let’s Get Digital “This question – why is my book not selling? – is quite a common one and I would like to address it in a general way because I think many people slip up on the basics.”

Book Design and Production

Andrew Black presents Good Cover(age) posted at Andy’s Words and Pictures.

Jaye Manus presents Update About That Pesky em-Dash in Ebooks Problem posted at JW Manus, saying, “Not every self-publisher wants to format their own ebooks, but for those who do it’s important to pay attention to details–even details as seemingly petty as how em dashes appear in an ebook.”

Ebooks and ebook authors

Gordon Burgett presents 8 step process to publish in Kindle, Nook, iPad, Lulu, CreateSpace… posted at Empire-Building by Writing and Speaking, saying, “I’ll focus on this topic while I’m writing a related book”

Daniel Arnzen presents The Economics of Self-Published E-Books posted at WritelyDone, saying, “An introductory look at the economics of e-books for the self-published.”

Sylvia Liu presents The Future of Publishing: a Report from the Year 2026 posted at Sylvia Liu Land, saying, “2011 was a big year for ebooks and electronic publishing. What’s in store for 2012? Who knows, but here’s a report from 2026 about the future of publishing.”

Indie Author

Bob Baker presents How to Make Instant Connections with Authors & Experts posted at Bob Baker’s Book Promotion Blog, saying, “How do you get prominent authors, experts, bloggers, and other thought leaders in your field to know about you and even correspond with you? Read this and find out …”

Jennie Coughlin presents Indie Authors Turn Focus to Quality posted at Welcome to Exeter…

Anthony Rando presents Interview and book give-away with Anthony F. Rando posted at Epic Tales, saying, “Interview and book give-away with Anthony F. Rando”

Gary Gauthier presents Publishing In The Golden Age of Competition posted at Literary Snippets, saying, “As e-publishing matures and the economic ramifications play themselves out, the declining value of traditional publishers’ services will become more pronounced. The problem of access to markets and the challenge of physical distribution are solved by digital technology. These previously served as a moat that protected the cartel of legacy publishing from competition. Authors will start to negotiate tougher deals (do I own ebook rights?), demand more services (like marketing) or walk away from contract offers.”

Will Entrekin presents The Best Indie Books of 2011 posted at Exciting Writing, saying, “My picks for the very best indie books of 2011, featuring Martin Lastrapes, Chuck Wendig, and Joanna Penn, among seven others.”

Suzanna Stinnett presents The Indie Collision posted at Open Salon, saying, “With friendly greetings from the grappling ground of everything Indie.”

Marketing and Selling Your Books

Gary McLaren presents 7 Tools for Tracking Ebook Sales posted at Publish Your Own Ebooks, saying, “Hi Joel, wasn’t completely sure whether this was better under this category, Selling your Books, or under Ebooks. All the best, Gary ”

Dana Lynn Smith presents Build Your Author Platform Through Guest Posts posted at The Savvy Book Marketer.

Gordon Burgett presents Converting idle copy into ebooks, booklets, blogs, and articles posted at Gordon Burgett’s Blog, saying, “Many thanks, Joel.”

Doris Heilmann presents How Can You Use Holidays to Sell More Books? posted at Savvy Writers & eBooks online, saying, “Savvy Writers & e-Books online Writers & Publishing, e-Books & Marketing”

Toni presents How to Make Sure Your Book Marketing Goals are SMART posted at Duolit | Self-Publishing Team, saying, “The start of a year new year often means setting new goals –- but how can you be sure you’ve set proper goals? Give the SMART system a try!”

Nick Daws presents Just Retweet: A Great, Free Traffic-Building Resource for Writers posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog.

iWriteReadRate.com presents Why We @iWriteReadRate Are Excited About 2012 posted at The iWriteReadRate Blog, saying, “It’s going to be an exciting year for writers and readers. 2012 promises to build on the foundations & progress of 2011. Here are a few reasons why we’re excited about the upcoming year.”

Self-Publishing Success

Bridget McKenna presents The Golden Age of Big Publishing (Not a Fairy Tale) posted at Points of View, saying, “There was once a golden age when editors edited, agents agented, and publishing companies thought beyond this quarter. Trust me; although it’s no longer true, this is the way it happened in that golden age.”

Writing Tools and Tips

Dave Bricker presents Writers Software Review – AutoCrit Rocks! posted at The World’s Greatest Book (formerly OneHourSelfPub.com).

Christina Li presents 2 Steps to Writing Your Novel posted at ChristinaLiBooks, saying, “This blog post takes novel writing and boils it down to its two most important elements: focus on getting to the next big scene in your novel and a plan for how to complete your book with specific daily word count goals.”

Samantha Gluck presents How to Write Feature Stories Like a Pro Journalist posted at Freelance Writing Dreams, saying, “I’m a freelance journalist and I love sharing the techniques and tools journalists use to craft their news stories and other columns. This story gives tips and advice on writing feature stories (as opposed to straight news). All the best, Samantha”

Nick Daws presents My Top 12 Blog Posts of 2011 for Writers posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog.

Andrew Black presents Show and (Don’t) Tell posted at Andy’s Words and Pictures, saying, “I know that there are a flood of show, don’t tell articles but I hope mine helps shed some noew light on the subject.”

Samantha Gluck presents Take Your Writing from Fail to Festive by Ramping Up Style posted at Freelance Writing Dreams.

Rebecca Berto presents The best advice I’ve learned on mastering a concept worthy of a story posted at Novel Girl, saying, “Do you know the 6 Core Competencies? Can you describe the idea, concept and premise of your novel? This article is part of my ‘Best advice I’ve learned’ series and focuses on “Concept” from Larry Brooks’ “Story Engineering”.”

Rebecca Berto presents The best advice I’ve learned on mastering theme in storytelling posted at Novel Girl, saying, “Theme in novels is easily overlooked. However, when someone asks what your novel is about, they aren’t referring to “”plot””. They want to know what it’s really about: theme. This article is part of my ‘Best advice I’ve learned’ series from Larry Brooks’ “”Story Engineering”. This article explores examples from “”The Da Vinci Code”” and “”The Cider House Rules”.”

Rebecca Berto presents The best advice I’ve learned on mastering three-dimensional characters (people) posted at Novel Girl, saying, “Too many manuscripts are read, even those published, that are described as having “flat, one-dimensional characters”. Don’t let this be YOU! Learn how to create 3D characters in this simple article.”

Liz presents Top Ten Reasons to Carry a Blank Notebook posted at Liz Andra Shaw, saying, “Thanks for considering my article.”

Alexander M Zoltai presents What Readers Want vs What Writers Write posted at Notes from An Alien.


Well, that wraps up this issue. I hope you enjoy some of the great articles here, and let other people interested in self-publishing know about the Carnival—Use the share buttons to Tweet it, Share it on Facebook, Plus-1 it on Google+, Link to it! The next issue is February 26, 2012 and the deadline for submissions will be February 20, 2012. Don’t miss it! Here are all the links you’ll need:

The original announcement post
Carnival of the Indies web page
Submit your article here
Bloggers, grab your official Carnival of the Indies Badges here
Follow Carnival of the Indies on Twitter
Subscribe to The Book Designer Blog

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

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