Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #23

POSTED ON Aug 26, 2012

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Self-Publishing, Social Media > Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #23

Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for August, 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

Joanna-Penn-2012Joanna Penn presents How to sell books with social posted at The Creative Penn, saying, “There have always been various methods used to advertise and sell books. Social is just one of the latest incarnations. It is still about hand-selling to individuals, but this time on a global scale. The first job of an author is to write great books, but these days, the second job is to market them, especially as a new author with no backlist. This is true for traditionally published as well as self-published authors.”

blogs for self-publisherMark Coker presents How a Traditional Publisher Could Harm a Writer’s Career posted at Smashwords, saying, “Could a traditional publisher harm an author’s career? This post examines how traditionally published ebook authors are disadvantaged compared to indie authors. Our study revealed that $2.99 ebooks earn authors more revenue than $9.99 ebooks, yet earn the author four times as many unit downloads. This means indies have the ability to price lower than traditionally published ebook authors, yet build platforms (fans, readers) faster. The post also examines Pearson’s acquisition of Author Solutions.”

will-entrekinWill Entrekin presents The True Cost of Independent Publishing (And How to Do It Free) posted at Exciting Writing saying, “When publishing is a button, pretty much the only thing you really need to buy for access to that button is a computer, and chances are you don’t even really need a great one at that.”

Book design and production

Jesse Lee presents How to Hire an Awesome Illustrator on a Seriously Low Budget. posted at Buddy Lee Books – Self Publishing Updates, saying, “I am beginning my book launch blog tour in August. I hope that this article can be used as part of it.”

Yesenia Vargas presents 7 Money-Saving eBook Formatting Links For the Indie Author posted at Yesenia Vargas, saying, “Here are a few websites and books to help indie authors learn to format ebooks themselves (if they’re up to the challenge) and save a little money to invest elsewhere.”

David Bergsland presents Classifications: the lowest common denominator posted at The Skilled Workman, saying, “This is the introductory article to my new series about all the different fonts, how they are classified, and which ones you want to use.”

David Bergsland presents Setting up your book to be read: page layout posted at The Skilled Workman, saying, “The first step in page layout is setting up your folders to hold all the files you will be using so that you can reformat easily. This article discussed that procedure.”

Ebooks and Ebook Readers

Paul Salvette presents Market for eBooks is Rapidly Expanding in Thailand posted at BB eBooks

Indie Author

Shannon @ Duolit presents 6 Laws for Becoming a Career Author posted at Duolit

Laxmi Hariharan presents Dare to be an Indie Author? posted at Young Adult, saying, “I wrote this after attending a digital publishing conference in London. Its a quick and easy quiz for writers to determine if self-publishing is indeed for them.”

Gordon Burgett presents Resell your article again and again? Here’s the needed tool… posted at blog.gordonburgett.com

Victoria Rollison presents Self publishing – the only option posted at Victoria Rollison, saying, “I blog about my writing journey as a self published author of two novels. This post is about the reason I chose to self publish and mentions the indie success of 50 Shades of Grey”

Yesenia Vargas presents Should Writers Blog About Writing? Some Answers posted at Yesenia Vargas, saying, “A follow-up to the the post, “Should Writers Blog About Writing,” here are some different solutions (along with pros and cons) indies can take, along with awesome input from indie author, Lindsay Buroker.”

Judith Briles presents The 3 Ps posted at Author U Blog

Lenore Skomal presents Why I went Indie posted at Self Published Authors Lounge

Marketing and selling your books

Nick Daws presents Pinterest: Ten Tips for Authors posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog, saying, “Pinterest is the fastest-growing social network ever. In this blog post I set out ten top tips for authors on how they can harness its potential in order to promote themselves and their work.”

Phyllis Zimbler Miller presents Harnessing the Power of Amazon Reviews for Authors: Part I posted at Phyllis Zimbler Miller, saying, “Book marketing by authors can be overwhelming. One good place to start is with the opportunities on Amazon.”

Laura Pepper Wu presents 31 ways to find new readers, outside of your network posted at 30 Day Books, saying, “How do we break beyond the tight-knit indie community and reach readers outside of the network of people promoting to each other online? Here are 31 ideas for you to ponder and an invitation to share your own tip in the comments!”

Patricia de Hemricourt presents Amazon Book Reviews: 10 Cardinal Rules of Using Reviewing Power posted at ePublishabook

Lindsay Buroker presents Authorpreneurship 101: Shameless Self-Promotion vs. Shameful Self-Promotion posted at Lindsay Buroker — Fantasy Author

Sue Collier presents Create marketing magic with energized editorial and electrified titles, part three posted at Self-Publising Resources

Dana Lynn Smith presents Get Incoming Links to Your Author Website posted at The Savvy Book Marketer

Sue Collier presents Guest Post: Things to Keep In Mind When Marketing and Promoting Your Book posted at Self-Publising Resources

Steven Saus presents Have a Professional-Looking CreateSpace Bookstore posted at ideatrash, saying, “I’m an author, small publisher, and mid-level geek. One of my missions as a small publisher is to spread information on how to do things better (or how NOT to do them). Having a ecent-looking CreateSpace storefront for your POD offering is still part of looking professional.”

Sarah Bolme presents How Many Times? posted at Marketing Christian Books

Randy Ross presents Linked In Tips for Authors posted at The Loneliest Planet

M. Louisa Locke presents My Brief Experiment Going off KDP Select: At least I got this nifty blog piece out of it! posted at M. Louisa Locke’s The Front Parlor

Patricia de Hemricourt presents Need an advance for your book? Get your future readers to fund you! posted at ePublish a Book

Patricia de Hemricourt presents Self-Publishers Beware – Analysis of the way some publishing enablers are preying on unwary writers posted at ePublish a Book

Judith Briles presents The Author Tipping Point posted at The Book Shepherd

Nick Thacker presents To Ship, Or Not to Ship: That Is the Question posted at LiveHacked.com

Self-publishing success

Clark G. Vanderpool presents CAUTION – Self-Publishing Is Too Easy posted at Smudged But Legible, saying, “Self-publishing is a remarkable industry. The ever-increasing ease of access to publication through the various avenues of indie and self-publishing (in the broadest sense) is a good thing–and a bad thing. In the case of self-publishing, simple can lead to sub-standard. How does an indie author avoid the fate?”

Writing Tools and Tips

Alexander M Zoltai presents “It Was A Dark And Stormy Night…” ~ Writers’ Weather posted at Notes from An Alien

Joanna Penn presents 10 Things The Olympics Can Teach Writers posted at The Creative Penn

Sue Collier presents 5 Tips for Healthy Living as a Writer posted at Self-Publising Resources

Natasha McNeely presents Reading: Why will it help you write? posted at Natasha McNeely’s Guide to The Beyond, saying, “I wrote this post to show other writers how important reading really is to our writing career. If we don’t read, writing is almost entirely out of the question. Because a lot of writers tend to forget that, this post was born to show exactly how reading helps.”

Patricia de Hemricourt presents The importance of being edited posted at ePublish a Book

David Bergsland presents What skills are needed to self-publish posted at The Skilled Workman, saying, “Writing in InDesign gives thyself-publishing author the power and control to produce true excellence in publishing without the confinement and constraints of traditional publishing.”

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 below to Tweet it, Share it on Facebook, Plus-1 it on Google+, Link to it! The next issue is September 30, 2012 and the deadline for submissions will be September 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

Book Cover Design Checklist

Set your book up to SELL with our FREE Book Cover Design Checklist to boost the quality of your book to its very best!
Liked this post? Share it with friends!

More Helpful Articles