By Shelley Sturgeon

Did your local groundhog see his shadow yesterday? Will it be spring soon or will winter drag on? (Yes, to our readers outside of North America, this groundhog thing is a silly little tradition. Even we think so!)

Enjoy this week’s articles and don’t forget to mark these dates on your calendar:

• Submit your blog posts to our Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies blog carnival by February 15th. All the information you need to know can be found here. Our Carnival of the Indies post will run on the last Sunday of the month.
   
• Be sure to submit your e-book cover to us for our February e-Book Cover Design Awards by February 28th. February’s submissions will be presented in a post at the end of March. Submission information can be found here.

If you have any questions about the Carnival of the Indies or the e-Book Cover Design Awards, just click on the Contact page and fill in that form, or leave a comment below.

Melinda Clayton on Indies Unlimited
Smashwords vs. Draft2Digital
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a post outlining the similarities and differences between Smashwords and Draft2Digital (D2D), and since both have made changes over the years, now seems like a good time.”

Dan Wagstaff on The Casual Optimist
Book Covers of Note January 2019
“Here are this month’s book covers of note. Better late than never I suppose!”

Frances Caballo on Social Media Just For Writers
How Not to Market Your Book – 12 Rookie Mistakes
“Did you just publish your first book? It’s an exciting time, isn’t it? You’re probably thinking that now it’s time to market your book.”

Michael LaRocca on The Blood Red Pencil
Seven Proven Strategies for Editing and Proofreading Your Own Writing
“After you finish writing it, put your document away for a while. Hours, days, weeks or even months. You want to look at it with “fresh eyes.””

Admin on Self Publishing Advice From The Alliance Of Independent Authors
Marketing: ALLi’s 3 Guiding Principles for Selling Rights
“So you’ve self-published ebooks, paperbacks, and possibly audiobooks too – the usual order in which indie authors make their work available to readers – and you’d like to explore opportunities for other formats, such as translation, TV and film?”

 
Photo: BigStockPhoto