By Joel Friedlander
Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for October, 2017. 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
March McCarron presents Character Creation posted at March McCarron’s Blog, saying, “As I start developing my next project, I have begun with the radical notion of creating my characters BEFORE I dump them into a story that’s already on the move. This way I can deliberately shape the plot to suit my characters. I began looking for templates online for character creation, and though I found many out there, none were what I needed. They often had lots of details that were not relevant to me as a fantasy writer, and left our the things that I think are most important. So I decided to create my own.”
Amy Collins presents Book Review Sites to Help You Get Into Libraries & Stores posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Book Retail & Library Expert Amy Collins lists the top book review sites and publications whose reviews carry weight with librarians and book buyers and suggests the best ways to approach them.”
Lisa Poisso presents Find a compatible editor who fits your style posted at Lisa Poisso, saying, “Your editor is more than a nameless someone who “checks your work.” Whether you write as a creative outlet or a tolerable way of making some money, you deserve a compatible editor who connects with what you’re all about.”
Book Design and Production
Darcy Pattison presents Print Ready Files from InDesign or MS Word posted at Indie Kids Books, saying, “I’ve had specific questions that I answer in these two videos.”
Indie Author
Alexander Zoltai presents #BookReview of #RozMorris ’ #NewBook ~ a Wonderful ! #Travel #Memoir posted at Notes from An Alien.
David Leonhardt presents What I’ve Learned From Negotiating Hundreds of Ghostwriting Contracts posted at Business 2 Community, saying, “Thank you.”
Lois Hoffman presents 21 Reasons why it’s worth the effort to write a book posted at The Happy Self-Publisher, saying, “Are you thinking about writing a book but don’t know if it’s worth the effort? Here are 21 reasons you’ll be grateful you made the journey. Some things you’ll only experience once you’re done.”
Robin Storey presents Where Do Authors Get Their Ideas? posted at Storey-Lines, saying, “Indie author Robin Storey answers one of the most common questions asked of authors – where do you get your ideas?”
Sabrina Ricci presents 5 Strategies for Writers to Market and Monetize Their Work and Expand Their Audience posted at Digital Pubbing, saying, “As an indie author, there are so many tools and strategies you can employ to grow your audience and even monetize your work.”
Sabrina Ricci presents Indie Authors: Book Sales and Other Income Strategies posted at Digital Pubbing.
Marketing and Selling Your Books
Belinda Griffin presents 10 rock-solid reasons why every indie needs an author blog posted at SmartAuthorsLab, saying, “Do self-published indie authors really need a blog? Yes, yes they do! This post reveals 10 rock-solid reasons why an indie author needs to start their author blog today!”
Frances Caballo presents 3 Basic Rules of Social Media Plus 5 Best Practices posted at Social Media Just for Writers, saying, “Dan Zarrella, author of The Science of Marketing, said in his book, “I’ve long been interested in the idea that engaging in conversation is the single most important function of social media marketing.” He’s right. That is why it’s so important to schedule time in the afternoon or early evening to converse with our readers, friends, and influencers in your sphere. If you don’t allocate time to converse, you are missing the point.”
Glenn Miller presents Get Your Newsletter into Their Inboxes: How to Avoid Spam Filters posted at Career Authors, saying, “The first step to making sure your subscribers see every email you send is to avoid spam filters on the way to their inboxes.”
Penny Sansevieri presents An Elevator Pitch for the 8-Second Attention Span posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “Craft an elevator pitch that will stand out in today’s 8-second attention span world with these tips from BookWorks.com’s Marketing Expert Penny Sansevieri.”
Sarah Bolme presents An Important Element in Publishing Nonfiction posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “With decreased time spent reading, decreased attention span, and knowing that the majority of readers don’t read a Christian nonfiction book in its entirety, every author should pay attention to this important element for nonfiction books.”
Self-Publishing Success
Carla King presents Avoid Sales Tax Double-Dip: File a Resale Certificate posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Tech Expert Carla King shows authors how to avoid double sales tax by obtaining a resale certificate and filing it with POD providers CreateSpace and IngramSpark.”
Frances Caballo presents Goodreads Quick Start Guide for Indie Authors posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Social Media Expert Frances Caballo provides indie authors detailed instructions to getting up to speed on Goodreads, THE social network for readers.”
Michele DeFilippo presents POD: Why Authors Should Handle Their Print-on-Demand posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “When it comes to POD, Michele DeFilippo of 1106 Design makes the case for authors to setup/manage their own print-on-demand rather than as part of a self-publishing company package.”
Writing Tools and Tips
Brad Graber presents Should Anger Be Fueling the Writing Fire posted at There, I Said It!.
Deborah Jay presents Writers, how do you manage your time? Have you discovered the Pomodoro technique? posted at Deborah Jay Author, saying, “This easy technique can help both full time authors and those of us with busy day jobs, trying to squeeze in a little writing time.”
Erica Verrillo presents Becoming a Better Writer: Getting Critiques posted at Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity, saying, “It takes some courage, but getting your work critiqued is an important part of the creative process. Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but the end product can be greatly enhanced by constructive feedback. (Critiquing is an art unto itself.) Here are seven good critique groups to get you started. ”
Iola Goulton presents Show, Don’t Tell: How to Identify Telling posted at Christian Editing Services, saying, “We’ve all heard we need to show, not tell, in our fiction writing. But telling can be subtle and hard to identify. Here are four common ways to identify unnecessary telling in our manuscripts.”
Joanna Elm presents Why Writer’s Funk Is (Sometimes) Good posted at Joanna Elm, Author, Journalist, Attorney.
Lisa Poisso presents Types of Editing: A Practical Guide posted at Lisa Poisso, saying, “If you clicked on this article hoping to finally figure out the difference between line editing and copyediting, allow me to break it to you: there are no industry-wide definitions of editing types that everyone agrees on.”
Louise Harnby presents 5 tips for writing about physical pain in fiction posted at The Proofreader’s Parlour, saying, “Drawing on guidance from Milton to medicine, I offer 5 tips to help beginner novelists write about physical pain. The article discusses showing rather than telling pain, trusting the reader, and writing authentically about agony.”
Sonora Taylor presents Progress Report: Decisions and Revisions posted at Sonora Writes, saying, “I’m in the middle of revising my first novel, which is as much of an experience as writing my first novel was! I wrote about that experience on my blog. It’s a process, but one that’s very rewarding.”
Terry Whalin presents Move Beyond Bleeding on the Page posted at The Writing Life, saying, “It’s been said that writing is just sitting at the typewriter and bleeding on the page. The reality is much more complex and pointed out in this article from long-time editor and writer Terry Whalin”
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 November 26, 2017 and the deadline for submissions will be November 15, 2017. Don’t miss it!
Here are all the links you’ll need
- Have something to share with our community? Submit your article here
- The original announcement post
- Carnival of the Indies web page
- Bloggers, grab your official Carnival of the Indies Badges here
- Follow Carnival of the Indies on Twitter to get deadline reminders
- Subscribe to The Book Designer Blog
