Self-Publishing: The Carnival of the Indies Issue #108

POSTED ON Sep 29, 2019

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By Joel Friedlander

Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for September, 2019. 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

Deborah Jay presents Reporting #20BooksEdinburgh – How do you build an author brand? posted at Deborah Jay Author, saying, “The 20BooksEdinburgh conference provided plenty to think about on a broad range of indie author facets, and I want to share some of the information I found either new, or that extended my knowledge. This was a clear, concise presentation on author branding – something we should all be striving to create and grow.”

Dave Chesson presents First Line Generator 101: Everything You Need To Know + Great Examples posted at Kindlepreneur, saying, “Every writer needs a little inspiration from time to time. A nudge to get the creative juices flowing. In these situations, one possible solution is a first line generator; and in this article, I’ll introduce you to a few solid options.”

Belinda Griffin presents How to Craft a Guest Blog Pitch (with Free Template!) posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Reader Relationships Expert, Belinda Griffin, instructs authors on how to craft a winning guest blog pitch (including a free template) in her continuing series on reader outreach strategies.”

Book Design and Production

Dmitri Barvinok presents Publishing Trends: Edison’s Dream Becoming a Reality as Millions of Americans Enjoy Audio Books posted at Front Edge Publishing Blog, saying, “FINALLY BECOMING A REALITY—Since Thomas Edison first appeared in Scientific American magazine in 1877, demonstrating a mechanical process that he said could permanently preserve and replay sounds—publishers have dreamed of making books as easy to hear as they are to read. We finally are nearing that historic inflection point, 142 years after Edison’s boast.”

Sarah Bolme presents How Long Does It Take to Read Your Book? posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “We are all strapped for time. Numerous outlets clamor for our attention. As a result, some people find it hard to commit to reading articles and books. These individuals feel like reading the article or book will take too much of their time. Help people know how much time they will have to invest in your book with this technique.”

Indie Author

Lois Hoffman presents How I Developed a Writing Habit posted at The Happy Self-Publisher, saying, “Developing a writing habit isn’t just about writing every day. Writing every day or on a regular schedule is important, but before you decide to make that commitment to yourself and your work there are a few things to consider that will make it easier for you to succeed in creating and maintaining a writing habit that fits you and your needs, that you can stick with, and that will support you in reaching your writing goals.”

Marketing and Selling Your Books

Fiona Raven presents POD Book Publishing posted at Book Design Made Simple, saying, “Thinking of POD (print on demand) book publishing? We recommend using Amazon KDP for Amazon and IngramSpark for all other distribution to get bookstore and library orders too.”

Jay Artale presents Free Tool for Marketing your Podcast on Social Media posted at Birds of a Feather Press, saying, “Your social followers are inundated with static images, so when it comes to marketing your podcast it needs to be eye-catching. Jay Artale presents this walk-through on how to use the free version of Wavve to create engaging graphics. This is one way to entice your social media followers into becoming fans of your podcast, so they can discover your books.”

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. presents 5 Easy Steps To Repurposing Your Blog Post Into an Audio Podcast posted at Kunz On Publishing, saying, “Repurposing your blog post is one of the smartest and easiest ways to spread your message to a wider and more varied audience. The more people that see it and read it, the more that will benefit from it, and you will sell more books. With these 5 steps, you can easily and quickly take that same written post, and change it into an audio podcast.”

Kimberley Grabas presents Brand Strategy for Authors: How to Truly Stand Out From the Crowd posted at Your Writer Platform, saying, “It’s not enough just to be good at what you write. You need to be able to create an emotional connection with your reader – often before they’ve had a chance to read your book.”

Penny Sansevieri presents Book Marketing Timelines: How Early to Get Started posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Marketing Maven, Penny Sansevieri, reveals the optimum marketing timelines to help indie authors plan their book launch promotion.”

Sabrina Ricci presents Guest Post: 5 Steps to Finding Profitable Book Topics on Amazon posted at Digital Pubbing, saying, “As an independent author you must fill two distinct roles—that of the creative, and that of the entrepreneur.”

Sarah Bolme presents What Influences Book Purchasing Decisions? posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Whoever coined the phrase “Familiarity breeds contempt” was not talking about readers who buy books. In fact, when it comes to book purchasing, the opposite is true.”

Terry Whalin presents The Necessity of Continued Pitching posted at The Writing Life, saying, “It’s a stark reality of the publishing world: everyone has to continually be pitching. Get insights from this prolific author and editor, Terry Whalin.”

Self-Publishing Success

Anne Janzer presents Learning to Love Book Revision: Process is Key posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “Award-winning writer and BookWorks.com author, Anne Janzer, shares her book revision process so you can learn to enjoy it and not get lost in the weeds.”

Writing Tools and Tips

Bryan Schmidt presents A Trick Every Writer Should Know About Writing Scenes posted at Bryan Thomas Schmidt.

C. S. Lakin presents Every Novel Scene Should Contain a Death posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “One very important emotional aspect of a novel is character change. But I bet you haven’t thought of change as a kind of death. We want our POV character to change by the end of every scene in some small or large way. In that moment, something should have died: a dream, an opinion, a relationship, a hope, an assumption, a fear or worry … and so on.”

Joy E. Rancatore presents How to Track Timelines and Characters posted at Logos & Mythos, saying, “How do you keep track of timelines and characters in your stories? Read a few of my tricks and then share your own in the comments!”

Karen Conlin presents Spellcheck Cannot Save You! Parentheses vs. Em Dashes posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s intrepid Indie Editor-at-Large, Karen Conlin of Grammargeddon.com, tackles when and why to use parentheses vs. em dashes in her latest “Spellcheck Cannot Save You!” column.”

Katherine Pickett presents Before You Hire an Editor, Do These 4 Things posted at The POP Newsletter, saying, “It doesn’t happen often, but there have been times when I had to turn down a client simply because I thought they would be wasting their money by hiring me. Not that their book idea was dead; they just were not ready for editing.”

Katie McCoach presents When You Should Read Book Reviews posted at KM Editorial, saying, “It seems there are two major camps on the topic of reading reviews from readers. One camp believes reviews are for the readers and all the feedback the author needs is that received during edits and beta-reads. The other side believes that an author can grow in their writing by reading what readers think. So which viewpoint is right?”

Kimberley Grabas presents Struggling to Write? How to Stay Motivated When Life Gets in the Way posted at Your Writer Platform, saying, “Even if we love what we do, we may find our motivation waning from time to time. It happens to the best of us, and when it does, it can compromise our focus, productivity and confidence. This post shares some of our best ideas on how to stay motivated even when life gets in the way.”

Louise Harnby presents How to use dashes in fiction: UK and US style posted at The Parlour, saying, “Are your hyphens, en dashes and em dashes giving you the run-around? Here’s a guide to conventional usage in UK and US publishing.”

Phyllis Zimbler Miller presents Writers Practicing Safer Sex in Fiction posted at Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Screenwriter * Author, saying, “This is a subject that has been important to me for many years — the responsibility of fiction writers to encourage safer sex.”

Zara Altair presents What Makes a Novel a Mystery? posted at Write Time, saying, “The elements that separate the mystery from other genres like thriller and crime. Critical components for writers.”

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, Link to it!

The next issue is October 27, 2019 and the deadline for submissions will be October 15, 2019. Don’t miss it!

Here are all the links you’ll need