Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for March, 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
Bridget McKenna presents Do-it-Yourself Publishing, Part 1: Making the Leap and Do-it-Yourself Publishing, Part 2: Editing, Editing, and Editing posted at Occupy Publishing, saying, “New publishing is distributed in each author who has published her own book, or is getting ready to do so, or even just considering sticking her toes in the water. And yes, there’s work involved, and a bit of a learning curve. There’s also fun, satisfaction, liberation, and flavors of control that authors haven’t experienced since…well, maybe forever. Oh, and higher royalties. As in much higher.”
Joanna Penn presents The 7 Worst Mistakes Of Indie Authors And How To Fix Them posted at The Creative Penn, saying, “To be an independent author means taking your book project seriously. But most of us haven’t been in publishing for our whole careers, so it’s inevitable that we make mistakes along the way. Mistakes aren’t bad either. They are the human way to improve and learn. But it helps if we can help each other! I’m not perfect and I continue to learn along the writer’s journey but here are the worst mistakes I have made and seen others doing too.”
Andre Gerard presents Blog #37: How to Name a Publisher posted at Andre’s Blog, saying, “The blog item discusses some of the factors a self-publisher should consider when choosing a publishing name and colophon.”
Ebooks and Ebook Readers
Alexander M Zoltai presents Authors/Readers vs Publishers vs the U.S. Dept. of Justice posted at Notes from An Alien, saying, “The DOJ, Apple, and the “Big Five” slug it out over E-book pricing…”
Indie author
Jim Murdoch presents Milligan and Murphy by Jim Murdoch posted at The Truth About Lies, saying, “There are no reasons for unreasonable things. Following in the footsteps of Samuel Beckett’s tramps from ‘Waiting for Godot’ Milligan and Murphy finally cut the ties to their ma’s apron strings and head out into the big bad world. But they are not alone. Someone is looking after then. Someone else is cycling after them. Will they get to see the sea and once they have what then?”
Lindsay B presents Tips for Getting Your Self-Published Book into the Library posted at Lindsay Buroker | Fantasy Author, saying, “I interviewed a librarian and got the lowdown on getting self-published books into the library.”
Jen Smith presents Why I Wrote SICK | Jen Smith SICK posted at Jen Smith SICK, saying, “I’m having a blast blogging, tweeting, and conversing in writer social communities. Perhaps we’ll be chatting soon. Thanks for checking out my blog.”
Chris Kridler presents 5 timely takeaways from a writers’ conference posted at Sky Diary, saying, “This blog entry notes five trends and truths from a writers’ conference that will help put changes in the publishing business into perspective for writers.”
Andy Black presents By the Seat of My Pants posted at Andy’s Words & Pictures, saying, “An Infographic of sorts explaining the life of a “Pantser.””
Alex Lukeman presents Depth of Character posted at The Independent Writer, saying, “I post about once a week with a different twist for Indie authors. My articles use humor, literature and entertainmemnt to help inspire Indie writing.”
James Moushon presents eBook Industry: Does Amazon Have a Winning Hand or a Dead Man’s Hand? posted at The eBook Author’s Corner, saying, “thanks Joel. james moushon”
Gary McLaren presents KDP Select Results After 3 Months posted at Publish Your Own Ebooks, saying, “Amazon’s KDP Select program has now been running for more than three months so let’s take a quick look back over what has happened with this program so far.”
Darby Harn presents My Advice For Writers posted at The Phantom Planet, saying, “More and more I get asked for advice from aspiring writers. Mostly this is because I have a book, not because I really know anything. That being said, here are some things I’ve learned along the way that I think are helpful for others.”
Dan Collins presents My First Ebook posted at The Daily Collins Cartoon Chronicle, saying, “The article is in two parts with the second part immediately following the first.”
Patty Jansen presents Reviews and the writer posted at Must Use Bigger Elephants, saying, “Thanks for publishing a previous post of mine. I have published both in traditional venues (having sold a novel to a press last week, and stories to well-known genre magazines) and on Amazon as self-publisher. My posts tend to straddle both streams. I don’t believe publishing methods are, or should be, mutually exclusive.”
Marketing and selling your books
Thomas Burchfield presents “Well . . . I’m Big in Brazil”: 15 Years of Online Writing posted at Thomas Burchfield: A Curious Man, saying, “On Blogger, my essay on character actor Lee Van Cleef’s film noir roles far outpaced everything else I posted there in the 2011 (328). Two other pieces from 2011 that were popular were my critique of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire (184) and my annual promise to not watch the Oscars (112) (which received a large number of thumbs down when I posted the link in the comments on the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate—what d’ya say we do that again!?)” An essay summarizing my online stats for my webpage in 2011. Thanks for reading!”
Sarah Bolme presents eBook Price Trends posted at Marketing Christian Books
Pavarti K Tyler presents The Importance of Labeling posted at Pavarti K Tyler
Jennifer Bardsley presents What Has Happened to the Mainstream Publishing Industry? posted at Teaching My Baby To Read, saying, “I have been amusing myself by spotting errors in even the most simplest of books recently, which begs the question: What is happening in the publishing industry? Are they arbiters of quality or just masterminds of marketing?”
Patricia de Hemricourt presents 40 Book Promoting Sites posted at ePublish a Book, saying, “A nice free source of websites where you can promote your book for free. Saves time to have it all in one list :-)”
Dana Lynn Smith presents Authors, Can Your Readers Find You? posted at The Savvy Book Marketer
Lindsay Buroker presents Does Advertising Work for Authors? (AKA We Wanna Sell More Books, Dagnabit) posted at Lindsay Buroker — Fantasy Author, saying, “Full-time indie fantasy author Lindsay Buroker covers the three main types of online advertising and discusses which worked for her and to what extent.”
Gordon Burgett presents Ten advantages to niche publishing posted at Gordon Burgett’s Blog, saying, “Part of a five-blog series for outsiders considering niche publishing”
Self-Publishing Success
Laura Pepper Wu presents Combining self publishing with traditional: A new publishing hybrid posted at 30 Day Books, saying, “There has been much debate over the future of publishing and a divide in opinions over which is better for authors – the traditional or self-publishing route. I propose that combining the best of both worlds might, in some cases, be a good answer.”
Sue Collier presents The truth about book distribution for self-publishers posted at Self-Publishing Resources
Writing Tools and Tips.
Bob Baker presents 3 Things That Kill Creativity and Efficiency for Writers posted at Bob Baker’s Book Promotion Blog, saying, “To help you experience more fulfillment in the pursuit of your writing goals, here are three culprits you should be aware of that get in the way of your creativity and efficiency as a writer …”
Andy Black presents Be Prompt posted at Andy’s Words & Pictures, saying, “A few writing prompts for those who are temporarily idea-challenged.”
Gibson Goff presents “But, I Don’t Know What I Want” posted at Freelance Writing Dreams
Bryan Thomas Schmidt presents Cat Rambo’s Developmental Editing Checklist posted at Bryan Thomas Schmidt dot Net, saying, “An editing checklist from a pro”
Nick Daws presents Colons and Semicolons: What Mr Sanders Taught Me posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog, saying, “In this post I share concise guidelines for using these punctuation marks taught by my old English teacher, Mr Sanders. I still follow these excellent guidelines today!”
Rebecca Berto presents The best advice on “writing voice” posted at Novel Girl, saying, “Question: What is “voice” in writing? Larry Brooks has written a bestseller and dedicated a section in his book to making it easy to understand. I’ve summarised this in one article. Check it out now. A must-read for writers.”
Rebecca Berto presents Three Fiction Writing tips from famous authors posted at Novel Girl, saying, “Sick of hearing “read lots to write great” and ” edit, edit, edit” as writing advice? Check out what Jonathan Franzen, Elmore Leonard and Hilary Mantel have shared about writing in this concise article.”
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 April 29, 2012 and the deadline for submissions will be April 20, 2012. Don’t miss it! Here are all the links you’ll need:
The original announcement post
Carnival of the Indies web page
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