Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for September, 2017. 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
Chris Well presents Media Attention: 9 Ways Any Author Can Get It posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “Media veteran Chris Well shares 9 ways authors can get free media attention and publicity for themselves and their books in his guest post for BookWorks.com”
Erica Verrillo presents Translating Your Self-Published Book posted at Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity, saying, “Translating your self-published book or story can open it up to global markets. Here are some of the best translation services available to writers. Some have no up-front costs to authors, but operate on a royalty-sharing model. I’ve also listed freelance translator sites and standard translation services. Bonne chance!”
Katherine Pickett presents Beyond Sales: 3 Powerful Benefits of Preorders for Newbie Indie Authors by K. Patrick Donoghue, posted at The POP Newsletter, saying, “Big-name authors routinely list their upcoming titles for preorders, and their books-in-waiting always seem to immediately pop onto the best-seller lists. But what could an unknown indie author hope to achieve by employing the same practice? The answer: Whoa, Nelly!”
Book Design and Production
Louise Harnby presents Proofreading checklist: How to check page proofs like a professional posted at The Proofreader’s Parlour, saying, “This proofreading checklist guides self-publishers through the process of quality control on final designed page proofs. If you’re preparing for print-on-demand or PDF publication, these are the checks that a professional proofreader and a mainstream publisher carry out as standard.”
Indie Author
Alexander Zoltai presents What’s the Real Value of Literary Prizes? posted at Notes from An Alien.
Christine Bernard presents The Work / Writing Juggling Act posted at Christine Bernard.
Deanna Cabinian presents Four Reasons I’ve Stopped Using Facebook and Why Other Authors Should Consider It posted at Deanna Cabinian, saying, “Facebook hasn’t been a good use of my time as an author.”
Lisa Hess presents Teacher Lady vs. Scrappy Writer posted at The Porch Swing Chronicles, saying, “It’s always hard returning to school schedule after a summer when writing time was less difficult to come by.”
Victoria Noe presents Rebooting My Writing Career at a Writing Conference posted at Friend Grief.
Marketing and Selling Your Books
Belinda Griffin presents What bestselling authors can teach you about marketing self-published books posted at SmartAuthorsLab, saying, “This round up post provides a summary of the most important elements of a marketing plan and links to bestselling author and pro book marketer posts that offer more detail. I hope it’s a great resource for indies to refer to. The Book Designer blog gets a mention alongside several others. Thanks for considering it!”
Frances Caballo presents Amazon Book Marketing Tips with Dave Chesson posted at Social Media Just for Writers, saying, “I recently interviewed Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur.com as part of the Conversations with Frances series. Dave was lively, funny, down-to-earth, and incredibly informative. He may understand Amazon better than Amazon itself. If you want to learn how to make your books rank higher on Amazon, listen to this interview and be sure to visit his website.”
GISELA HAUSMANN presents 5 Ways to Spot – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Author Blogs. posted at Gisela’s Straightforward Blog.
Glenn Miller presents Your Author Platform: The Hub and Spokes posted at Career Authors, saying, “Authors are inundated with marketing suggestions – so many that authors end up trying to sell at the wrong venues. With a strategy to “engage at the spokes and sell at the hub,” authors can be more effective with their limited marketing time.”
Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. presents The Strategic Advantage Of A Credible Book Foreword Author posted at Kunz On Publishing, saying, “In order for a book foreword to give a book a substantial strategic advantage over all the other books competing for the same audience, it must be written by someone with a high level of believable credibility. And this credibility must be backed-up by a combination of objective and subjective characteristics at the same time.”
Katie McCoach presents First Impressions: Book Covers posted at KM Editorial, saying, “Your book cover is the first impression a reader will have of your book, and even of you as an author. Don’t waste this opportunity! Show readers you are worth investing in—a fabulous cover gives readers an idea of the quality they can expect to find in the pages.”
Nathaniel Hoffelder presents Attention, Authors: WordPress 5.0 Will Change Everything You Know About WordPress posted at Valiant Chicken, saying, “The many authors who built their websites on WordPress, and blog on it everyday, are going to be very shocked when WordPress 5.0 comes out. The new version of WordPress features a whole new interface which looks completely different. It’s called Gutenberg, and authors are going to need to learn how to use WordPress all over again.”
Penny Sansevieri presents Finding Readers Nextdoor: Network in You Neighborhood posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “Nextdoor.com is a hot new social network that connects people who share a neighborhood. BookWorks Marketing Expert, Penny Sansevieri, advises authors on the best way to make it work for them.”
Sarah Bolme presents The Importance of a Cover posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Eight seconds. That is all the time you have to convince a reader to check out your book. If your book’s cover does not engage the reader in these few seconds, you lose.”
Terry Whalin presents Why I Give Away Books — And You Should Too posted at The Writing Life, saying, “Terry Whalin used to be tight-fisted and wonder about the wisdom of giving away books. Now he does it all the time and explains why.”
Self-Publishing Success
Brandon Schieckoff presents Top Five Free Things You Need In Your #writerslife posted at Top Five Free Things You Need In Your #writerslife.
Helen Sedwick presents Understand Right of Publicity If You Write About Real People posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Legal Expert, Helen Sedwick, explains the Right of Publicity to help indie authors avoid legal pitfalls when writing about real people.”
Iola Goulton presents How to Find a Publisher posted at Christian Editing Services, saying, “A Twitter follower asked me how to find a publisher. Here’s my answer. Long story short: the best publisher for your book might be you.”
Tyler Doornbos presents Insider’s Guide to Your Author Website: Execute! posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “How to build your author website with WordPress, including resources, in Part 3 of 3-part series, “Insider’s Guide to Author Websites”, by BookWorks.com web lead Tyler Doornbos.”
Writing Tools and Tips
C. S. Lakin presents Do You Really Know How to “Show, Don’t Tell”? posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “Part of fast-tracking to success lies in writing novels that readers can quickly sink their teeth into. That usually means getting quickly into story and characters in a visual, active way. In other words, starting scenes with pages of explanation and narrative are a kiss of death for novels these days. I’ll say this definitively: if you don’t master “show, don’t tell,” you probably won’t write novels people will want to buy or read. It’s that important.”
C. S. Lakin presents Insights into Your Midpoint Scene posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “The midpoint is a crucial part of novel structure. As I’ve explained before, it’s the moment in which something new occurs. Some new major development or complication. Some twist or disruption. If you have your basics: your inciting incident, your protagonist’s goal for the book, what is going to happen in the climax and end of the story (how the goal is reached or not, and what those consequences will be), then focusing on your midpoint can be a great way to zoom in on the heart of your story and character.”
Ellis Shuman presents Self-Editing: These Words Have Got to Go! posted at Ellis Shuman Writes, saying, “What do you do when you finish writing a book? You edit it! And what do you do when you finish editing? You edit some more.”
Lisa Poisso presents Types of Editing: A Practical Guide posted at Lisa Poisso.
Sonora Taylor presents Back From Canada, and Back Up Your Files posted at Sonora Writes, saying, “This is a blog post I wrote after I returned from my trip to Nova Scotia, and about two weeks before I self-published my first short story collection. We often see blogs about tips for writing, inspiration, prompts, and where to publish. But as masters of our own content, we must be vigilant in backing up our files. I emphasize that point with the true story of how my laptop – the source of all my writing – was lost. I also talk about my trip, tell the story about my laptop and its journey, and finish with some photographs from Halifax and Prince Edward Island.”
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 October 29, 2017 and the deadline for submissions will be October 15, 2017. Don’t miss it!
All the links you’ll need
- Have something to share with our community? Submit your article here
- The original announcement post
- Carnival of the Indies web page
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