Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #47

POSTED ON Aug 31, 2014

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Self-Publishing, Social Media > Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #47


Everyone here at The Book Designer will be taking the day off tomorrow to enjoy Labor Day with our families. See you again on Wednesday when we’ll be featuring another great post, “Book Apps by Authorly” by our Contributing Writer, Jason Matthews. You won’t want to miss it.


Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for August, 2014. 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

self-publishingSabrina Ricci presents Taking a Closer Look at Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited posted at Digital Pubbing, saying, “There has been a lot of buzz lately around Kindle Unlimited, the latest service to enter the ebook subscription game. But what out of all the subscription services I’d say that this one is the biggest game changer, and that’s because it’s an Amazon service.”

James MoushonJames Moushon presents How Do You Develop and Use a List of Your Readers? – HBS Author’s Corner STUDY posted at eBook Authors Corner, saying, “One of the pieces of information authors are finding invaluable is a list of their readers. If you want to announce a new release, a promotion or a giveaway, the instant access to a list of your readers is priceless. It could mean an instant jump in rankings and an increase in reviews both critical to the success of your book.”

self-publishingCarla King presents Book Aggregators and Distributors: A Short Primer posted at Self-Pub Boot Camp, saying, “Indie authors can upload ebooks to each online ebook retailer directly, but we might instead choose to distribute them using an ebook aggregator like Smashwords, IngramSpark, Vook or BookBaby. Likewise, we can upload our print book to Amazon via CreateSpace directly but distribute to other online print book retailers and brick-and-mortar bookstores via a distribution service like IngramSpark… Yeah boy, that is a lot of geeky publishing terms! So let’s wind it down and go through it in slo mo…”

Book Design and Production

Carla Douglas presents How to Turn a Print Book into a Digital File posted at Beyond Paper Editing, saying, “You might have books and stories that you’d like to self-publish, but all you have is a print copy. Don’t let this stand in your way. With OCR software, you can easily convert your print documents to digital—the first step in the ebook creation process.”

Cathi Stevenson presents The New Old in Cover Design posted at Publishing and Business Communications

Colin Dunbar presents Format a Book in Word: Footnote, Index & Bibliography posted at Format Book In Word, saying, “Footnotes are common in many non-fiction books, and are notes or references found at the bottom of the page. You can add these as you write your book, or you can add them afterwards. Endnotes are found at the end of the book, listed consecutively.”

Sabrina Ricci presents Indie Authors: Using 99 Designs to Crowdsource a Cover posted at Digital Pubbing, saying, “I chose to use 99 Designs, mainly because I thought it would be a relatively straight forward process to getting a kick ass cover. I did end up with what I think is an awesome cover, but I did end up investing more of my time than I initially planned. I want to break down the whole process in this post, in case it’s helpful to anyone else considering going this route.”

Ebooks and Ebook Readers

Nate Hoffelder presents BitTorrent to Add a Paywall to its Bundle Platform in September posted at The Digital Reader, saying, “BitTorrent might be synonymous with piracy but it can still prove useful to the indie author. BitTorrent Bundles is a sales platform which is designed to offer downloaders a sample before asking for payment. Right now the Bundles platform only asks for a downloader’s email, but in September the platform will let creators charge for a download. Indie authors could use it to sell audiobooks, graphic novels, and other large files which aren’t practical to sell in ebookstores.”

Ron Callari presents Amazon v Hachette: A Tale of Two Cities or Much Ado About Nothing? posted at Amazon v Hachette: A Tale of Two Cities or Much Ado About Nothing?

Indie Author

G.B. Gabbler presents Why Literature Is No Longer Art; The Case for Self-Publishing as Art posted at Further Annotations, saying, “Indie author makes the case that self-publishing is putting the “art” of literature back into the literary world, all while staying in character(s).”

Laxmi Hariharan presents How to make it to the top 5% of Indies posted at Young Adult Old Soul

Steven Saus presents Will Someone Copy My Work And Get Away With It? posted at ideatrash, saying, “The concern is perennial: What about my copyright? Whether from sending a story to an editor or agent, or perhaps an online critique group, or simply posting the work on a blog, the concern is the same: Someone will take your hard work and imagination and claim it as their own. In my experience, this question almost always get asked at entirely the wrong time, and with the wrong focus.”

Marketing and Selling Your Books

Jane Ayres presents Book promotion: is it working for you? posted at The Beautiful Room, saying, “Author Jane Ayres explores the mysteries of marketing for writers, shares some secrets, discusses the merits of using Facebook to sell books versus print media advertising, and asks if there really is a magic formula for writers.”

Kate Tilton presents Finding Twitter Chats For Writers by guest @K8Tilton posted at BadRedhead Media, saying, “Need to expand your reach on Twitter? Joining a Twitter chat is a great option. In this post I cover ways to find the right chat for you, suggested chats to check out, and tools to use once you find your chat.”

Kimberley Grabas presents Are You Building Your Writer Platform at Gunpoint? posted at Your Writer Platform, saying, “The pressure is constant. Everywhere you turn these days, you hear the word. Platform. It’s a must have, a deal breaker. And you’re told that if you expect any success at all as a writer, you should have started building yours three years ago. You hope for an out, but it appears that nobody can escape its reach. Whether an Indie or traditional author, a writer of fiction or nonfiction, published or still grinding through your debut novel – the robustness of your platform is continually questioned.”

Michael T. Miyoshi presents To Tweet or Not to Tweet posted at Musings of MediocreMan, saying, “This blog post goes live on Saturday, August 2, 2014 and deals with tweeting (as marketing) and writing. It is short, sweet, and in the form of a poem.”

Randy Stapilus presents Hitting the Book Club Circuit posted at BookWorks

Sarah Bolme presents There is No Magic Pill posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “There is no magic pill. Whether in dieting or book promotion, no one opportunity will bring you magic results.”

Self-Publishing Success

Nick Thacker presents Wake-Up Call for Self-Published Authors posted at LiveHacked.com, saying, “This is the post I wish I would have read when I got started in this business. Now, while I’m still learning, I’ve penned the article myself.”

Shelley Hitz presents How to Self-Publish a Book with a Co-Author posted at Training Authors, saying, “Here are the 7 steps I recommend you take when self-publishing a book with another author. I encourage you to carefully consider each step before taking the leap.”

Writing Tools and Tips

C. S. Lakin presents 5 Writer Goals to Help You Avoid Overwhelm posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “Are you feeling overwhelmed by all you have to do to be a writer? If so, join the club. Sometimes the writing journey feels overwhelming. There aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish the mind-boggling amount of things we writers feel must get done in order to grow not just as writers but in order to establish our place in the publishing world. So I’d like to recommend a few helpful writing-related goals that will help you achieve your broader goals.”

C. K. MacLeod presents A New Tool for Writing and Editing posted at Tech Tools for Writers, saying, “Are you looking for a writing tool that syncs easily between your computer and a tablet? Do you want a tool with powerful editing features? Look no further. This tool is free!”

Carla Douglas presents How to Improve Your Writing with Macros—Tips for Beginners posted at Beyond Paper Editing, saying, “One thing an editor will do when marking up your manuscript is indicate where more careful word choice would make your writing more direct and engaging. Maybe you’ve used three words where one will do, maybe your voice is passive, or maybe you’re doing too much telling and not enough showing. You already know this. But did you know that you can use macros to analyze your prose yourself? Here’s how.”

Joshua Powlison presents “Character or Story?”- Wrong Question posted at Storytelling Philosophy, saying, “How the popular question “which is more important- character or story?” is intrinsically flawed.”

Ron Callari presents Is Twitter Fiction an Option for Self-Publishing Authors? posted at Is Twitter Fiction an Option for Self-Publishing Authors?

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 September 28, 2014 and the deadline for submissions will be September 15, 2014. Don’t miss it!

Here are all the links you’ll need

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

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