Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for August, 2011. 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
Giuseppe Granieri presents Trends We See in Publishing posted at 40K, saying “Publishing is going social, so there is plenty of intelligent dialogue out there. Authors, editors, readers, even publishers, are sharing their experiences and their views. When we link an interesting source (mostly on Twitter), people often ask us for our point of view. But the scenario is too complex to be successfully analyzed in 140 characters. So, let’s try to summarize some trends.”
Chris Brogan presents Writing a Book — Making Money posted at Chris Brogan, saying “You don’t get all that rich writing books, unless you’re James Patterson or Stephen King or that marketing guy who made 7 figures selling ebooks through the Kindle store and will gladly sell you his secret to selling you ebooks. I didn’t buy a new car based on my book money. (I bought it based on speech money.) So, now that I’ve burst your bubble, I’m going to share some ways you can make money writing a book.”
Jeff Bennington presents Letter to the Beginning Indie Author posted at The Writing Bomb, saying, “Over the last two years, I’ve learned so much about publishing and marketing, but more importantly, I’ve learned that I’ve had expectations of an industry that does not bend to my wishes. Without boring you with the usual “get edited and a good book cover” redundancy, I’d like to share 5-Fascinating Facts I’ve learned that might help you with your book launch, and prepare you for an industry that’s filled with vipers and wild stallions.”
Book design and production
Dave Bricker presents Evolution of a Book Cover posted at The One-Hour Guide to Self-Publishing. “As a fiction writer, I don’t expect to get anywhere near the bestseller list. My writing is fundamentally an artistic effort and I saw no reason to dilute that effort with cheap packaging. When it comes right down to it, books aren’t really my product, anyway; book design is my product. Why produce an inferior representation of that offering?”
Ebooks and ebook readers
Joanna Penn presents Is Free Too High A Price? posted at The Creative Penn, saying, “Guest post from CJ Lyons on pricing for free and impact on sales.”
Marketing and Selling Your Books
Adam Charles presents Writer Spotlight 1: Funnels, Soup & Dark Energy by Adam Charles (@ACharles_writer) posted at iWriteReadRate.com Blog, saying, “This is a short article describing ‘how I write’ for the iWriteReadRate Writer Spotlight Series. Writer Spotlight is for our members to write a short piece showing readers their writing style & linking to their ebooks on iWRR. Take a look….”
Allison Moon presents A Self-Publishing Manifesto posted at Tales of the Pack, saying, “This pdf is a companion to my 90 Days of Self-Publishing project. It explains, in roughly 25 pages, some of the more value-based reasons I’ve chosen to self-publish. I also explain self-publishing as a feminist act. The pdf is free to download and doesn’t require anything from the reader.”
Jeff Bennington presents 5 Reasons Why Indie Authors Are Succeeding posted at The Writing Bomb, saying, “I’m an indie author, and I started my own publishing company because I’ve discovered that if you enjoy the intricacies of publishing it’s more fun to do it yourself.”
India Drummond presents Ordinary Angels Revealed posted at India Drummond, saying, “From ePub to indie. My experience, my sales numbers, and my take on the whole thing.”
Dana Lynn Smith presents Are You Making These 10 Mistakes on Facebook? posted at The Savvy Book Marketer.
Marketing and Selling Your Books
Shannon presents Get noticed: 5 Steps to Boosting Book Publicity posted at Self-Publishing Team.
Toni presents Blog Tours Part 2: A Primer for Bloggers posted at Self-Publishing Team.
Jamie DeBree presents Release Day Hoopla…or Not? posted at Beyond the Words, saying.
David Robinson presents Kindlegraph – A Sign(ing) of the Times posted at David Robinson, saying, “A brief post on a new feature that allows the e-publisher to sign copies.”
Self-publishing success
Linday Buroker presents 3 Reasons I’m Glad I Chose Self-Publishing posted at E-book Endeavors, saying, “Why I turned down an agent, chose to self-publish, and found success.”
Mark Coker presents The Literary Agent’s Indie Ebook Roadmap posted at Smashwords.
Patricia de Hemricourt presents Terry Odell – The Interview posted at ePublishing a Book, saying, “Terry Odell has a foot in Indie publishing and the other in self-publishing. She tells us all about how to live happily in both worlds. Read on!”
PJ Kaiser presents My new post “Indie Publishing: One Size Does Not Fit All” posted at Easily Mused, saying, “This is a guest post that I wrote for the “Easily Mused” site that provides my overall thoughts on the Indie Book Event 2011 that I attended in New York 7/30/11.”
Writing tools and tips
Nick Daws presents Kindle Kash is Go! posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog, saying, “My new course on writing and publishing for the Amazon Kindle has just been released by The WCCL Network.”
Dave Bricker presents Self-Publishers Should Not Be Self-Editors posted at The One Hour Guide to Self Publishing.”
Bob presents 20 Unique Blog Post Ideas posted at Blogging Your Passion, saying, “If you ever run out of blog post ideas, here is a list of 20 to get your brain churning!”
How to Take Part in the Carnival of the Indies
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 below to Tweet it, Share it on Facebook, Link to it! The next issue is September 25, 2011 and the deadline for submissions will be September 20, 2011. Don’t miss it! Here are all the links you’ll need:
The original announcement post
Carnival of the Indies web page
Submit your article here
Bloggers, grab your official Carnival of the Indies Badges here
Follow Carnival of the Indies on Twitter
Subscribe to The Book Designer Blog
