Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for June, 2016. 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
Darcy Pattison presents The Classroom Library: Where Do Teachers Buy Books posted at Indie Kids Books, saying “For indie kids authors, it’s smart to target the education market; for me, the education market is about 25% of my sales, and growing. Taking your books to the education market means some mind-shifts. You’ll need to think differently about everything.”
Austin Hackney presents 6 Reasons to Power Up Your Productivity as a Writer posted at Austin Hackney, saying “This rule applies not only to writers but to artists of any kind. Persistent, determined, disciplined productivity opens up the floodgates of creativity in a way which is unparalleled by the rather poor technique of sitting about waiting for inspiration.”
Martin Crosbie presents Book Promotions – Is 1.99 the new 0.99? posted at Indies Unlimited, saying, “Has the 99 cent price point inflated by a dollar to 1.99?”
Book Design and Production
Deanna Cabinian presents How to Survive Formatting a Print Book posted at Deanna Cabinian, saying, “Formatting a print book is intimidating, but still doable for non-designers.”
Indie Author
Alexander Zoltai presents #Gender and #Writing ~ What’s Up? posted at Notes from An Alien, saying, “For all the Indie authors still in school…”
C. Lakin presents 5 Tips to Keep You From Being Overwhelmed posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “Are you feeling overwhelmed by all you have to do to be a writer? If so, join the club. Sometimes the writing journey feels overwhelming. There aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish the mind-boggling amount of things we writers feel must get done in order to grow not just as writers but in order to establish our place in the publishing world. Here are 5 great tips to help you keep from feeling overwhelmed.”
Carla King presents Pronoun & Macmillan:a Shift to More Author-Friendly Publishing? posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “In this post I want to talk about the evolution of Pronoun, which was bought by Macmillan last week, and why they might have bought it, why you should care, and whether or not you should consider using it.”
Claire Luana presents Turn your Book into an Audiobook in 6 Easy Steps posted at Claire Luana, saying, “Check out this post to find out how easy (and free!) it is to turn your novel into an audiobook!”
Dora Furlong presents Young Protagonists Do Not Mean Young Adult Book posted at Clear Concise Conscientious Writing
Karl Drinkwater presents A World Of Writers And Readers: Understanding Modern Publishing posted at Karl Drinkwater, saying, “My blog post from this week might be of interest to self-publishers or those considering that route; it also illustrates some of the prejudice displayed by big book competitions.”
Robin Cutler presents 2016 BEA Wrap-Up posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “This year’s event showed signs that indie authors may finally be granted a seat at the grownups’ table.”
Sabrina Ricci presents Indie Authors: Declaration of Independents Audiobook Contest with ListenUp Audiobooks posted at Digital Pubbing
Marketing and Selling Your Books
Erica Verrillo presents Top 10 Sites for Indie Authors posted at Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity, saying, “Indie authors need all the help they can get. Self-publishing is taxing, time-consuming, and there is a steep learning curve. Fortunately, there are lots of people who are willing to help. If you are considering self-publishing, you will need an arsenal of tools, tips, and strategies, all of which you can find in the following sites.”
Frances Caballo presents Blogging Got You Down? Follow These 6 Steps posted at Social Media Just for Writers, saying, “Let’s raise the curtain on the issue of blogging, shall we? You know you should write your blog posts weekly but for some reason you feel writing new posts can feel akin to writing essays about the importance flossing. Am I right? Guess what? You’re not alone. Plenty of authors feel this way. There are more of you than you might think. Sure, when you look at other author blogs you think to yourself, “Geez. Their blog is great. They must love to write those posts.” Here’s a little secret. There are a lot of you who detest it.”
Jay Artale presents 8 ebook Discovery Services Compared posted at ALLi Author Advice Centre, saying, “These mailing lists can put your free or discounted books in front of tens of thousands of interested readers. John Doppler gathered the data on eight popular services so you can compare pricing, audience, and features to find the right platform for promoting your free and discounted books. For each genre John evaluated four price brackets — Free, $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99 or higher. Each tab lists the services from best to worst value, determined by the cost to reach 1,000 subscribers (CPM). The higher on the list an option is, the better its value.”
Jordan Smith presents The Platform Building Step You’re Probably Missing posted at Fix My Story, saying, “If you’ve been an indie author for any amount of time, you’ve probably discovered that when it comes to your author platform, it’s not true that “if you build it, they will come.” Here’s the missing step to platform growth.”
Kate Tilton presents How To Use Snapchat To Build Your Unique Readership posted at Kate Tilton, Connecting Authors & Readers, saying, “New to Snapchat? Nick Rojas gives authors five great ideas to grow your readership on this interactive platform.”
Miles Anthony Smith presents 11 Vital Video Camera Shoot Preparation Steps posted at Miles Anthony Smith’s Book Marketing Success, saying, “While this post doesn’t directly show how to grow book sales directly, it highlights an important part of an author’s success, branding. Effectively creating video is one of many tools an author needs to have in his/her toolbelt, and if done well will contribute to book sales indirectly. Being in front of a camera tends to elicit trepidation, nervousness, and fear in the average person, much like speaking in front of a group of people. Despite the fact that there many online sources indicating that people are more afraid of speaking onstage than dying, most people would choose to speak in front of of a large group if they had a gun held to their head. But for many, being on camera isn’t much better than public speaking. Being on camera, whether live or recorded, is something just about anyone can not only get comfortable doing, but something at which they can gain a level of proficiency and effectiveness. For most, the fear of a video camera is driven by either not desiring to look foolish by saying something odd or act in a way that people think weird. Watch a few of Miles’ videos, then scroll down to uncover the 11 vital preparation steps to a successful video shoot and overcome your fear.”
Penny Sansevieri presents 5-Minute Book Marketing for Indie Authors posted at BookWorks Blog
Penny Sansevieri presents Metrics Are Worthless…So What Should You Focus on Instead? posted at BookWorks Blog
Peter Rey presents How to write effective book titles posted at Peter Rey – musings on the craft of writing, saying, “Reading a novel is like a marathon. But grabbing the attention of a reader is more like a one hundred meter dash. Each stride counts. And titles are no exception.”
Ron Callari presents Inkitt: Using Algorithms to Open Doors for Indie Authors to Become Bestsellers posted at Bookworks’ Ron Callari Blogs, saying, “With over a half-million users globally, this platform provides self-publishing authors with a bigger bang for their self-publishing efforts. They can publish on Kindle, iBooks or Smashwords and also submit to Inkitt. In so doing, that same eBook has an opportunity to make it into print with top publishers that Inkitt seeks out for those manuscripts that their reader-driven algorithms identify as potential bestsellers.”
Sarah Bolme presents Easy Ways to Get More Book Reviews posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Reviews help sell books. Consumers rarely believe advertising alone. They want to know if the dollars they will be spending on a product are going to prove worthwhile. This is where reviews come in.”
Shelley Hitz presents The EXACT Equipment I Use for my Facebook Live Broadcasts posted at Shelley Hitz | Author Audience, saying, “Someone recently asked me this question, “What equipment do you use for your Facebook Live videos?” Therefore, I decided to share with you in this post the exact equipment I use for my Facebook Live broadcasts in this post.”
Self-Publishing Success
Clare Whitmell presents Why Your Readers Are Your Greatest Asset posted at PublishingSpark, saying, “How do you know if your ideas for a great storyline or character will appeal to your readers? Here are six ways that your readers can help you fine-tune your next bestseller.”
Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. presents Writing A One-Page Business Plan: 5 Questions A Self-Publisher Must Ask posted at Kunz On Publishing, saying, “Whether you are about to self-publish your first book, or start a micro-niche publishing company, you need to have a business plan in place. A business plan will give you a basic roadmap for your new business. An easy and quick way to do this is to create a one-page business plan. This will let you quickly clarify your own thinking about your new business. This short, one-page plan, can also be used as an outline for a longer more in-depth plan. With some research, you should be able to complete this one-page plan in under one week. Here is a list of five questions that you must include in your simplified, one-page business plan.”
Martin Crosbie presents How to Notify Amazon Buyers about New Content in Your eBook posted at Indies Unlimited
Writing Tools and Tips
C. Lakin presents How Writers Can Bring Setting to Life through Personification posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “This guest post by Becca Pugisi discusses ho settings can be tricky for authors. In our desire to firmly ground readers in the scene, we often write too much, adding way more details than are necessary. We also tend to write our settings in somewhat bald terms, keeping them simple so readers can easily envision the time and place. The problem with these approaches is they result in descriptions that are flat and boring—even when the places themselves are not.”
David Leonhardt presents How To Dazzle With Dialogue posted at Always Write, saying, “Thank you. :-)”
Georgina Jeffery presents Lessons Learned: 5 Tips for Episodic Writing posted at An Inspired Mess, saying, “Here are five mistakes I made – and 5 lessons learned – while writing a free online short story series. These same lessons are applicable to all kinds of serial or episodic writing: whether you’re publishing webcomics, writing weekly articles for an online magazine, maintaining a daily blog, serialising your novel or working on a short story series, you’ll find some useful pointers here.”
Jackie Weger presents Mastering Amazon posted at https://enovelauthorsatwork.com/, saying, “Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to share my blog posts. They may not suit your audience. I’m not a best selling author and I’m not an expert. I just share what I learn. Best to you and yours, Jackie Weger”
Jenn Crowell presents 5 Surefire Ways to Write About Foreign Settings posted at Fiction With Conscience and Heart, saying, “I frequently get asked how I go about writing foreign settings in my novels, so I thought I’d provide a few hints.”
K.M. Weiland presents 6 Tips for How to Organize Your Novel’s Edits posted at Helping Writers Become Authors, saying, “Organizing your novel’s edits can seem like a complicated task. Use these 6 steps to make things as simple and straightforward as possible.”
Katie McCoach presents Self-Publishing or Traditional: Which One is Right for You? posted at KM Editorial, saying, “FOR THOSE THAT are planning to self-publish a book, you may have heard by now that self-publishing is a business. It’s your business, and treating your business with professionalism and enlisting in the required help will help your business (books) succeed. For those seeking agent representation, this idea also holds true, however a publisher is in charge of many of the business decisions instead of you. This article will help you decide which option is best for you.”
Nancy Sayre presents What I learned on the Chicago CTA posted at Golden Alley Press Blog, saying, “Arising from my recent experience getting lost in Chicago when I was out there for BEA, this blog post is a story about . . . story.”
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 July 31, 2016 and the deadline for submissions will be July 15, 2016. Don’t miss it!
Here are all the links you’ll need
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