Have you noticed that no matter what other interests we have, we never tire of talking and reading about indie publishing and all the disruptive changes happening in book publishing? These changes have two sides, of course, and along with unleashing the creative power of millions of writers, things don’t always work out as planned. Writers featured here today provide great guidance as you approach the tasks of publishing and promoting your books. Read on.
Dan Blank on We Grow Media
Attack of the Social Media Zombies
“Yes, you can leverage all these wonderful new online tools, they are not supposed to replace real human connection.”
Anne R. Allen on Anne R. Allen’s Blog
Social Media Secrets Part II: How to Blog your Way out of the Slush Pile and onto the Bestseller List
“Do all authors need a blog? Maybe not, but you need to be on social media somewhere. You can’t just have a launch party in your local bookstore and get a press release into your hometown newspaper and expect to make significant sales.”
Stephen Tiano on Stephen Tiano, Book Designer
Half a Dozen Regrettable Choices That Mark a Self-Published Book “Amateur”
“Although it is tempting to say that readers are responsible for whether they remain focused on what they are reading, those of us involved in making books … should do all we can to help readers stay involved with the books they read.”
Jason Matthews on How to Make, Market, and Sell Ebooks
Oscars for Indie Author Book Video Trailers
“Indie authors of all genres sent examples of book trailer videos for us to enjoy and learn from collectively… We saw wonderful videos and some dreadful ones too, which seems par for the course in the indie author crowd.”
Laurie Boris on Indies Unlimited
Smashwords Now Offers Preordering, But Is It for You?
“After reading Smashword’s info page, I had lingering questions, so I went straight to their head honcho, Mark Coker. Here’s what he said.”
New Children’s Book Templates on Sale
The beginning of this month we introduced 5 brand new children’s book design templates for Microsoft Word.
Authors have started showing me the books they’ve created with these Word templates, and I have to admit I’m quite impressed with the work they are doing.
Templates provide you with a pre-designed, pre-formatted Word file, complete with all the styles and fonts you’ll need to make your book look just like our samples.
Just take out our sample text and, following the instructions in our Formatting Guide, drop in your own text.
Instead of trying to figure it out yourself and maybe spending days in frustration trying to get all the running heads, page numbers, chapter openings, and other book elements to work properly, take the shortcut.
Throughout August, the new children’s book templates are 40% off. You don’t need a coupon code, your discount will be automatically calculated when you put any of these 5 templates in your shopping cart.
Sound interesting? Check them out here: Book Design Templates for Microsoft Word
Photo: bigstockphoto.com
Thanks much for the shout-out, Joel. Great links. Nice to be in such good company. I look forward to meeting you at the Central Coast Writers’ Conference!
Anne, I just moved down to Pismo Beach this year, didn’t even know about the CCWC.
Hi Anne, it looks like a great event, I’m really looking forward to it. Jason, any chance you’ll come over for part of the event?
Absolutely. I’m embarrassed to admit not knowing about it, especially because I’ve had Santa Barbara, Newport Beach and LA events on my schedule while right in my backyard is CCWC. Really looking forward to meeting more local authors, networking and learning from them.
Cheers, Joel. Much appreciation for the mention plus the work you do for writers and readers.