By Joel Friedlander
Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for February, 2018. 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 How to Format Picture Books for Kindle and ePub3 posted at Ficton Notes, saying “Amazon’s Kindle is a major market, and I’m glad to have books there. But there’s a big problem: my profit is being eaten up with Amazon’s delivery fees.”
Kristina Adams presents Stop Romanticizing Your Writing Career posted at The Writing Cooperative, saying, “Writing a book is often seen as a quick win, but it’s just one part of a much longer term strategy. A lot of authors get disheartened – or even give up – when their first book doesn’t do as well as they expected, so I wrote this to dispel some common myths about writing careers.”
Nate Hoffelder presents Nate’s Big List of Free & Paid Book Promotion Websites posted at The Digital Reader, saying, “You can’t sell an ebook if no one knows it is on sale, so here are 70 sites where you can promote your work.”
Book Design and Production
Lisa Poisso presents Series Writing 101: Resources for planning and writing a series posted at Lisa Poisso, saying, “Writing a series is standard operating procedure for self-published authors who are seeking to pad their catalogs. But tackling a series is a serious handicap for freshman authors still mastering how to craft a story. Planning is the key.”
Sarah Bolme presents Is Your Book Cover Too Cluttered? posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “A book cover is marketing material. Like all advertising or marketing copy, its purpose is to draw a reader in.”
Ebooks and Ebook Readers
Amy Collins presents EBook Sales in Decline? Not So! posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “Recent reports to the contrary, eBook sales overall are not declining and BookWorks Book Retail Expert Amy Collins explains why indie authors should continue to promote their eBooks.”
Indie Author
Alexander Zoltai presents More on Reading for Healing posted at Notes from An Alien, saying, “An author’s reading to get back into writing…”
Anne Meick presents Get Your Writing Game On: How an Author is Like an Olympic Athlete posted at Writers’ Connection, saying, “Writing and publishing advice for aspiring authors.”
Lois Hoffman presents Growth through Ghostwriting posted at The Happy Self-Publisher, saying, “What if you want to grow as a writer without exposing all to the world? Maybe you question if writing is a true fit for you. You enjoy writing, but wonder if you can carry the weight of producing solid content each week. Maybe you lack the confidence to use your voice. Maybe you have no idea where to start. Ghostwriting could be your unique transition to becoming a writer.”
Robin Storey presents Five Reasons To Love Short Stories posted at Storey-Lines, saying, “In her latest blog post, indie author Robin Storey reveals the five reasons to love short stories, as a reader and an author.”
Sarah Bolme presents Are You Thinking Like an Entrepreneur? posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “You may not think of yourself as an entrepreneur, but if you have independently published a book, you are. I often tell people that every book is like a start up business. A book needs a mission statement, a marketing plan, and a budget. As the producer of a book, these are your responsibility, making you an entrepreneur. Are you thinking like one?”
Marketing and Selling Your Books
C. Hope Clark presents How Do I Find Money to Write a Book? posted at FundsforWriters, saying, “You are going to have to think entrepreneurial to achieve funding for your book…unless you are willing to foot the bill yourself and hope that the book sells without that extra oomph of financial support. While this tiny editorial cannot begin to go into detail on each financial availability, it can list the possibilities to at least let you realize your options.”
Cindy Samul presents Book Extras & Bonus Materials Are Great Promo Tools posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks author and illustrator, Cindy Samul, shares tips and ideas about how to create and use book extras & bonus material as part of your promotional toolkit.”
Dave Chesson presents AMS 101: Advertising Your Books on Amazon posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks guest contributor Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur shows authors how to use AMS/Amazon Marketing Services to advertise their book(s) on Amazon in Part 1 of a 3-part series.”
Frances Caballo presents Create Social Media Images with Canva and Pablo posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Social Media Expert Frances Caballo shares two of her favorite apps that authors can use to create social media images; Canva and Pablo.”
Frances Caballo presents Want More Twitter Followers? Don’t Buy Them! posted at Social Media Just for Writers, saying, “Did you see the New York Times article on Sunday, January 28th? In case you didn’t, let me explain it to you. A teenager named Jessica Rychly is a Minnesota girl who uses Facebook and Twitter and often talks online about how bored she is or trades jokes with friends. There’s another Jessica Rychly on Twitter as well. This one, according to the New York Times, promotes Canadian real estate investments, cryptocurrency, and a radio station in Ghana.”
Glenn Miller presents Your One-Sentence Book Marketing Plan posted at Career Authors, saying, “Most writers don’t an extensive backlist or an established author platform. Most writers are intimidated by the notion of book marketing. So what are most writers to do? Here is one-sentence prescription for most writers.”
Iola Goulton presents Email Marketing: 5 Lessons Learned from Signing up to 20+ Author Newsletters posted at Christian Editing Services, saying, “The experts all say we need an email list. But what do you email people about? I signed up to a group giveaway to investigate what authors put in their newsletters—good and bad.”
K.T. Lee presents What’s the Best Timing for Self-publishing a Series? posted at ALLi Blog, saying, “I waited to release my books until I had three in a series available and wanted to share my experiences with other authors. (Also, I used the Spark book design template to format the books – I found it quite helpful!)”
Louise Harnby presents 4 good reasons to edit your author podcast transcript posted at The Proofreader’s Parlour, saying, “A podcast transcript makes your audio content visible. Edit that transcript and your content stands out. Wordy people need to do wordy well!”
Self-Publishing Success
Andromeda Huff presents The “Should I self-publish?” checklist posted at Writer Mom Life, saying, “Self-publishing isn’t for everyone, and unfortunately sometimes people don’t realize that until they’re a few books deep! We created this checklist for those just getting started, so they know if they’re prepared for what lies ahead. And, if you’re struggling and can’t figure out why, maybe you’re just missing something that’s on the checklist!”
Chris Well presents Optimum Author Website Content for Media Response – Part Two posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks Media Expert Chris Well on how to make it easy for the media to contact you (and how to keep your personal info private) in Part 2 of his series on media-friendly author website content.”
Michelle Weidenbenner presents Top Ingredients to Include in your Book Description posted at Random Writing Rants.
Sophie Anderson presents Cost-Effective Ways to Self-Publish Your Book posted at Carmine Proofreading, saying, “Self-publishing can end up being very expensive for the author. I’ve listed some ways to make it a bit easier on your pocket!”
Writing Tools and Tips
C. S. Lakin presents A Look at Masterful Voice posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “I believe that if you sit down and try to come up with a “writer’s voice” for your novels, you will wander off track. Why do I say that? Because, to me, there is no such thing as a writer’s “voice.” I might write ten novels, and in each one, my “voice” might sound different. And should. That’s because every story is different, even within the same genre.”
C. S. Lakin presents How to Write Realistic Fight Scenes posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “The title says it all. Learn some insights into crafting believable fight scenes!”
Kristina Adams presents 9 Character Types to Include in Your Story posted at The Writer’s Cookbook.
Linda Maye Adams presents Apologizing for What’s in Our Stories? posted at The Writings of Linda Maye Adams.
Linda Maye Adams presents The Worst Writing Advice? Outlining posted at The Writings of Linda Maye Adams.
Lisa Poisso presents Updated: Author’s Survival Guide to Track Changes posted at Lisa Poisso, saying, “I haven’t had a Track Changes-related death among my clients yet, so my track record of getting people through this process seems pretty reliable.”
Terry Whalin presents How to Move When Feeling Overwhelmed posted at The Writing Life, saying, “As writers, it’s easy to be overwhelmed and stalled. Prolific author and editor Terry Whalin gives seven ideas to move you forward in your writing.”
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 March 25, 2018 and the deadline for submissions will be March 15, 2018. Don’t miss it!
Here are 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
- Bloggers, grab your official Carnival of the Indies Badges here
- Follow Carnival of the Indies on Twitter to get deadline reminders
- Subscribe to The Book Designer Blog