Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #111

POSTED ON Dec 22, 2019

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Self-Publishing, Social Media > Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #111

By Joel Friedlander

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

bloggingDave Chesson presents Book Cover Ideas Every Author Can Learn From [32 Examples!] posted at Kindlepreneur, saying, “To catch readers’ attention so you can sell books, you need an awesome cover. Intimidated? Don’t be. You don’t have to be an artist to come up with great book cover ideas. Sometimes, all you need is a little inspiration. In this post, we’ll look at what 32 book covers can teach us about the art and science of cover design, so you can find the perfect idea for your next book cover.”

Sarah Bolme presents 5 Book Publishing Trends You Need to Know for 2020 posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “The year 2020 is now in sight. It’s important to take stock of where you are and where you want to go periodically. A new year provides a great chance to do just that.”

Dave Bricker presents How Many Spaces After a Period? A Battle of Stories posted at StorySailing®.

Book Design and Production

Bill Peschel presents Are Your Fonts Commercial? posted at Career Indie Author, saying, “This post describes what I learned when Kindle KDP flagged one of my books (removing from sale without telling me) because two fonts were non-commercial. I describe how to find out what fonts you’re using in your book (even without knowing it) and how to figure out if your fonts can be used for commercial purposes.”

Iola Goulton presents Understanding the Paths to Publishing posted at Christian Editing Services, saying, “A compilation of my previous posts on publishing, including paths to publishing (top tip: vanity publishing is a bad idea), and other useful publishing information, such as scams to watch for, ebook formatting tools, front and back matter, and the basics of copyright.”

Indie Author

Sabrina Ricci presents End of Year Gripes and Resolutions for the New Year posted at Digital Pubbing.

Marketing and Selling Your Books

Amy Edelman presents What to Include in Your Author Newsletter posted at IndieReader.

Chris Well presents How to Pitch a Seasonal Story for Media Publicity posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Media & PR expert, Chris Well, continues his series on creating multiple angles to pitch the media with instructions to help authors exploit seasonal story ideas.”

Katherine Pickett presents Do You Really Need a Marketing Expert on Your Team? posted at The POP Newsletter, saying, “I recently asked self-published author Dr. Thomas Caulfield to share his experience working with a professional marketing team. His book, Ephphatha: Growing Up Profoundly Deaf and Not Dumb in a Hearing World, won an award and has received several media mentions, thanks in part to his marketing team. But was it worth it?”

Laura Cross presents How to Identify and Define Your Unique Selling Point to Differentiate Your Self-Help, How-To or Business Book from Every Other Expert on the Subject posted at Ink & Cinema.

Sarah Bolme presents Effective Content Marketing posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, ““I’m blogging and sharing on social media, but it just does not seem to help me sell books.” I have heard this complaint from more than one author. These authors are creating content, but not finding it as effective at driving sales of their books as they had hoped.”

Terry Whalin presents Write a REview AND Promote Your Book posted at The Writing Life, saying, “Terry Whalin reveals the details of how to write a review AND promote your book to increase your book sales and exposure.”

Self-Publishing Success

Dave Chesson presents Put Together an Advance Team for Pre-Launch Reviews posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Author Branding expert, Dave Chesson, coaches indie authors on how to assemble an all-star advance team to get pre-book-launch reviews.”

Katherine Pickett presents How to Be a Good Author: An Editor’s Perspective posted at The POP Newsletter, saying, “Do you have what it takes to be a good author? This is not the same as being a good writer, at least not from an editor’s vantage point. No, although working with authors who are skilled with the pen does make an editor’s job more enjoyable, it is only one of many factors to be considered. Rather, it is the writer’s ability to maintain a good business relationship with his or her editor that makes one a good or bad author in an editor’s eyes.”

Writing Tools and Tips

Belinda Pollard presents What to do when you’ve finished the first draft posted at Write, Edit and Publish Like A Pro, saying, “Whether you’ve won NaNoWriMo, or you’ve just been working quietly to your own schedule, when you type The End, celebrate! It’s a huge achievement. Now it’s time to polish that first draft, to make it the best book it can be…”

Connie Dowell presents 5 tips to improve your wordcount this week posted at Book Echoes.

Jenn Gott presents Time to Rewrite Your First Draft? Try This 5 Step Plan posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “Indie author Jenn Gott from the Reedsy team shares her 5 phase approach to get you over the hump of your first draft rewrite on the BookWorks.com blog.”

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. presents 3 Easy Steps To Adding A “Share Box” To Your Infographic posted at Kunz On Publishing, saying, “By adding an infographic to your blog, and giving your readers an easy way to share it, is a sure way to help build your network. We can make the infographic easy to share by adding a “share box” immediately below it. This gives other bloggers a fast and simple way to share your infographic. Here are the three simple steps that I follow in order to create and add a “share box” to my own infographics.”

Louise Harnby presents Novel Editing: A Three Step Recipe for Getting It Right posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com welcomes fiction editor Louise Harnby to the blog to explain why the levels of novel editing are akin to baking a cake. Follow her 3-step recipe for best results.”

Pam Firth presents APA Seventh: What’s New? 20 Changes You Need to Know About posted at Devilish Details: Fiendish Tips for Writers & Editors, saying, “The APA published its long-awaited seventh edition of its publication manual in October. So what’s new? This blog post highlights 20 major changes from the sixth edition, including reference to the manual’s section numbers and links to further resources.”

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 January 26, 2020 and the deadline for submissions will be January 15, 2020. Don’t miss it!

Here are all the links you’ll need

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

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