By Shelley Sturgeon

Halloween decorations are up and soon bowls heaped with candy will be placed by front doors, waiting for trick-or-treaters to come calling. Do you have your costume all picked out yet? :-) If not, there’s still time! And, there’s still time to submit your e-book cover to our October e-Book Cover Design Awards. All the information you need can be found here. Be sure to check back here tomorrow for September’s e-Book Cover Design Awards!

Next Sunday, don’t miss our blog carnival Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies!

David Penny on Self-Publishing Advice Center
Self-Publishing 3.0: The Future For Indie Authors: David Penny
“If the opportunities of new technologies like the blockchain are realized, we could see authors at the beginning and not the end of the payment chain in publishing, for the first time in history.”

Carla King on Bookbaby Blog
Nine Manuscript Editing Software Programs You Should Consider
“While a good, professional (human) editor is invaluable to your book – the purchase of manuscript editing software can be another prudent investment.”

Lynne M. Spreen on How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks
Author Marketing Challenge: Online vs Real World
“A month ago a friend and I decided to challenge ourselves to an amped-up marketing plan. She was going to implement certain strategies in real life, like looking for opportunities to speak and sell her books in person, and I was going to use Twitter and blog more vigorously.”

Sandra Beckwith on Build Book Buzz
When to write a press release
“Last week, B.D., an author, asked me for help writing a press release. Her book had been nominated for a statewide book award.”

Gordon Long on Indies Unlimited
Can I Make Money off My Non-Fiction Book?
“A reader sent in this question: I saw the blog about Page publishing, I’m thinking about writing educational equine books (as I broke my foot and can no longer train horses I would like to write about it) but wondering if there is any money in writing?”

Self-Publishing News You Can Use

By Amy Collins

YA Self Published Author Discovered by Agent and Publishing House

This week’s news item is a tale of an author who did it right! Intisar Khanani, an author from Cincinnati, decided to self-publish after not being able to find a publisher. She wrote the first draft of her novel during the 9/11/01 crisis. According to Publishers Weekly, Khanani said she

Khanani said she “had looked for an agent on and off, submitting a close-to-final but not-yet-there draft” of Thorn, she finally decided to self-publish the novel in 2012 “to get it out there. At that point, my interest was in reaching readers.” And so she did: Thorn garnered some 5,000 Goodreads ratings and 700 online reviews, capturing not only the attention of readers but also the interest of Morgen, who came across the novel in a BookBub.com email newsletter.

The cover, the editing, the publishing was all handled properly and when it crossed paths with the agent who eventually picked up the project, it was then sold to Harper Teen for a 2019 pub date with a companion novel to follow a year later.

Congrats to Intisar Khanani! See? It IS possible!

Links of Interest

Self-Published Author Lands Deal with HarperTeen
Thorn

Photo: BigStockPhoto. Amazon link contains affiliate code.