Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #73

POSTED ON Oct 30, 2016

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Social Media, Self-Publishing > Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #73

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

publishingHelen Sedwick presents Co-Authors: Before You Tie the Knot… posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks’ Legal Expert Helen Sedwick’s offers smart guidelines to help indie authors to set up successful collaborative writing partnerships.”

publishingDave Chesson presents Kindle Keyword Strategy for Fiction Authors posted at Kindlepreneur, saying, “Kindle keywords aren’t just for non-fiction writers…but the tactic is a little different when working with Fiction books. Discover how you can use keywords for your fiction book with this article and start getting your book discovered on the biggest book marketplace in the world.”

self-publishingJay Artale presents 12 Self-Publishing Services Authors Should Beware posted at ALLi Self Publishing Advice Center, saying, “The value-added service — a bonus or add-on service that complements the primary purchase — is a sales tactic we see every day. At their best, these offerings provide a welcome bargain. At their worst, they can be used to deceive and defraud consumers. ALLi Watchdog John Doppler reveals 12 problematic services marketed to indie authors.”

Book Design and Production

Alexander Zoltai presents The Magic and Mystery of Book Covers posted at Notes from An Alien

Cathi Stevenson presents Essential Information for Formatting Your Book Cover posted at Book Cover Express Indie Publishing Blog, saying, “It costs just as much to produce a bad book cover as it does a good one.”

Tamara Rogers presents On cover design. Because it matters. posted at The Dust Lounge, saying, “Some helpful hints on the do’s and don’ts of cover design – from someone who’s worked in retouching, and on poster and cover designs over the years… and made her fair share of mistakes along the way.”

Indie Author

Deanna Cabinian presents Six Things I Learned In My First Month As An Independent Author posted at Deanna Cabinian, saying, “When you’re doing everything yourself, the wins are that much sweeter.”

Iola Goulton presents The Various Hats of an Indie Author posted at International Christian Fiction Writers, saying, “I know a lot of authors “just” want to write. But as Valerie Comer points out in this post, all indie authors actually wear several hats.”

Marketing and Selling Your Books

Belinda Kroll presents How to Rock an Author Festival with a Self-Published Book posted at Belinda Kroll, Books for Kids & Teens, saying, “I was a little disappointed in some of my fellow indie authors’ table displays at a local author festival. Some were engaging, some were lackluster, and some looked 100% thrown together. I don’t want that to happen to you. With the help of my teacher friend’s commentary of what caught her eye or scared her off of each booth, I’d like to share what I learned in a short hour.”

Chris Well presents 5 Reasons Every Author Needs a Media Kit posted at Build Your Brand Academy, saying, “In the old days, a media kit wasn’t meant for the general public. But today, authors have more access – and more opportunity – to connect with important influencers. So now, your media kit will be seen by more people than just the media. Find out the five different types of people who might ask to see your author media kit…”

Clare Whitmell presents Book Marketing: How to Pitch to the Media Like a Pro posted at Publishing Spark, saying, “Want some free book marketing? Here are six sure-fire ways to get the attention of editors, based on my experience of regularly pitching to editors on The Guardian as a contributing blogger (and receiving a ton of pitches from PR agents and bloggers).”

Gordon Burgett presents 10 Professional Tips to Sell Your Own Books posted at Writing, Publishing, Speaking, and Empire Building, saying, “Valuable, straightforward reminders to self-publishers by the largest distributor (Lightning Source/LSI/Ingram) that provides all of our books mostly to booksellers in the U.S.”

J.M. Ney-Grimm presents Cpoyright Statement for My Website posted at J.M. Ney-Grimm, saying, “It’s smart to place a copyright statement on your website. It reminds browsing visitors that the content belongs to the site owner. But if you use any content from the public domain or content controlled by a Creative Commons license, you can’t just slap © Author Name in the sidebar or the footer, because not all the material is yours. So what do you do? Here’s how I went about the task.”

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. presents 7 Types Of Testimonials: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly posted at Kunz On Publishing, saying, “Testimonials need to be one of the key ingredients of your book’s marketing plan. If they’re created and utilized properly, they can have a very positive impact on your sales. This list gives you a quick run-down of a variety of testimonials. By reading this list you will get a good idea of what makes an effective testimonial, a mediocre one, and a useless one. Once you understand the differences, you’ll be better prepared to explain to your readers and fans on how to create a testimonial that will help you improve your book sales.”

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. presents 9 Tips On Writing A Great Description For A Non-Fiction Book posted at Kunz On Publishing, saying, “If your book’s description does not grab the reader by the collar, and quickly convince them that you have the answers that they are looking for, you are going to lose them. In a matter of seconds, they will move on to the next book and continue searching for answers. I discovered this very early on in my quest to become a self-publisher. So to deal with this, I have developed a short list of tips that can improve how you write your book’s description – and hopefully help increase your sales.”

Kate Tilton presents How You Can Save Time with Bookvetter posted at Kate Tilton, Connecting Authors & Readers, saying, “This article covers how authors can save time by using Bookvetter to handle their book review requests.”

Narelle Atkins presents Marketing your book in a boxed set posted at Australasian Christian Writers

Penny Sansevieri presents Your Guide to Picture Perfect Instagram Book Marketing posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Marketing Expert shares tips and resources to help you master your Instagram book marketing.”

Sandra Hutchison presents Ditching the nudity, but not the sex posted at Sandra Hutchison, saying, “Sandra Hutchison shares how Amazon Marketing Service’s policy about even a hint of nudity on covers sent her on a cover redesign odyssey.”

Sarah Bolme presents Are You Developing an Audience? posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Recently, I presented a workshop titled “Three Things to Do Before You Publish a Book” at a Christian writer’s conference. One of the three things I talked about doing was developing an audience. One of the attendees asked, “Don’t you find an audience for your book?””

Sharon Stogner presents Monday Morning Marketing Mojo – Marketing Basics by Sharon Stogner posted at Side Street Cookie Publishing

Terry Whalin presents Why Authors Need An Online Press Room posted at The Writing Life, saying, “Every Author needs to take a proactive approach to reach the media and build an online press room. It will take some planning but open a world of possibilities for you with the media.”

Self-Publishing Success

Carla King presents Own Your Author Business in 7 Steps posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “A business mindset and smart practices can ensure a successful self-publishing career. BookWorks Tech Expert Carla King outlines the 7 fundamental steps to setting up a sound author business that avoids costly mishaps.”

Frances Caballo presents Time Management Tips for Busy Authorpreneurs posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Social Media Expert Frances Caballo helps time-challenged indie authors with strategies to help carve out room for both social media marketing and writing their next book.”

Helen Sedwick presents Author LLC: When Should Writers Incorporate? posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Legal Expert Helen Sedwick, explains all about limited liability corporations, who needs them, who doesn’t, and alternative options potentially better suited to indie author’s needs.”

Writing Tools and Tips

Austin Hackney presents 3 Big Mistakes I Made on My Writing Journey: and How You Can Avoid Them posted at Austin Hackney, saying, “The three biggest mistakes I have ever made in my writing journey. I hope that by identifying them and offering practical suggestions for avoiding or overcoming them, you will forge ahead with your own writing, free of the trouble they bring.”

Brian Greiner presents Literature analysis as a tool for writers – Part 1 posted at Random Typings, saying, “Being a nerd-boy, I like to analyze stuff. Being a writer, I want some way to improve my manuscripts before I publish them. So I decided to combine the two sets of interests and try to write a program that would analyze various aspects of writing. Or at least give me some idea of where to start looking at how to improve.”

Dave Chesson presents Master Guide to Selecting a Book Editor posted at Kindlepreneur, saying, “Finding the right editor for your book can be very frustrating. That’s why we not only created a list of top book editors but also share some tips and free tools to help you get the best for your book.”

Donald J. Bingle presents The Three Rs: Reading, Reading, and Reading posted at Writer on Demand TM

Geoff Hughes presents How to create an eBook cover…that’s not a monstrosity posted at Madhouse Media Publishing

Georgina Jeffery presents The Easy Cut posted at An Inspired Mess, saying, “Editing can be the most frustrating part of writing, but it is a skill that every author needs. If you’ve been staring at your first draft wondering how you could possibly improve it, start with the The Easy Cut: these simple tips will set you straight on that editing path.”

K.M. Weiland presents How to Be a Gutsy Writer: Stay True to Your Characters posted at Helping Writers Become Authors, saying, “Sometimes your greatest act of courage is being honest, especially in staying true to your characters. Check yourself with these 4 questions.”

Lois Hoffman presents Why Writers Procrastinate posted at The Happy Self-Publisher, saying, “Procrastination is an odd phenomenon, yet an all-too-common one. We want to get things done and off our minds. We know we’ll have more time for the fun and joy in life and avoid the Tums-inducing stress of waiting until the last minute. If we get it done, no one will nag us, our bosses won’t fire us, or we won’t have to pay the late fees on whatever we put off. For those of us who are writers, our blog posts get delayed, our plot lines stagnate, and worst of all, our books don’t get finished IF we even manage to start them at all. Why then do we procrastinate?”

Marcy Kennedy presents How a Novel Is Like a Human Body posted at Marcy Kennedy’s Website, saying, “Writing a book requires mastering different levels of writing craft, but first we need to understand what the levels are and how they work together.”

Marcy Kennedy presents Understanding Goal, Motivation, and Conflict: GOAL posted at Marcy Kennedy’s Website, saying, “The foundation of every functional novel is goal, motivation, and conflict. What your character wants, why they want it, and what they’re willing to endure to get it.”

Paula Cappa presents Creating Characters, The Complete Guide posted at Reading Fiction, saying, “This post is for writers looking for good writing craft books. I read and review these craft books and make commentary.”

Renee Regent presents Seven Things To Consider Before Submitting Your Writing For Critique posted at Renee Regent’s Blog

Shelley Hitz presents How to Properly Reference Quotes in Your Book posted at Shelley Hitz, saying, “Are you in a middle of a book project? In today’s training, I share a time-saving tip on how you can properly reference quotes inside your book.”

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 November 27, 2016 and the deadline for submissions will be November 15, 2016. Don’t miss it!

Here are all the links you’ll need

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

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