Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for May, 2012. 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
India Drummond presents Hiring a Freelance Editor posted at India Drummond Author, saying, “Recently my beloved editor L.J. Sellers told me she could no longer take in freelance work… She’s an amazing editor and I was so lucky to have found her. (Here are) Five steps for indie authors on how to hire and vet an editor.”
Joanna Penn presents Traditional Publishing And Self-Publishing Are Not Mutually Exclusive posted at The Creative Penn, saying, “The choice of how to publish must be made per book. I believe in the empowerment of the author to choose what is right for their book, and their business. Sometimes it’s not clear which way to go so consider all your options.”
Nick Thacker presents How to Find the Perfect Audience for Your Book, and Sell it to Them posted at LiveHacked.com. “So you just finished writing a book. Awesome–now who are you going to sell it to? If you’re not published by a major publishing house, chances are you’re going to sell it to your parents, your kids, your neighbors, maybe coworkers, etc. You won’t, however, be selling it to a massive segment of the U.S. adult population–unless you’ve been building a list.”
Book Design and Production
Sara Rosso presents How do I prepare my blog content to publish as an ebook? posted at When I Have Time, saying, “Following up to my introduction article about self-publishing on Amazon Kindle, I share some tips for repurposing your blog content as a book, with regards to images, chronology, and links.”
Sara Rosso presents How to publish an ebook with Amazon Kindle in 7 steps posted at When I Have Time, saying, “This article is an overview of 7 things you’ll need to do to publish an ebook with Amazon Kindle, using the tools and resources they make available to you. It’s a great introduction to anyone thinking about self-publishing with Amazon Kindle.”
Indie author
Dan Collins presents My First Ebook posted at The Daily Collins Cartoon Chronicle
Julie Covert presents Being a Kickstarter posted at Julie McKay Covert, saying, “This blog article is about to to successfully raise money with a crowd-funding site, such as Kickstarter. I successfully raised $8882 in 30 days to help pay for the printing of my photography coffee table book, “Art of Winter.”https://juliemckay.wordpress.com/”
Amy Keeley presents does publicity help sell books? posted at where i keep my stuff
Jeff Bennington presents Navigating a First Time Author’s Book Launch posted at The Writing Bomb, saying, “Great post for newbies who have no idea where to start or when or where to market their books.”
Jen Smith presents Richard Nash- Literary Savior? posted at JenSmithSICK, saying, “Many thanks for your consideration. Jen”
Patty Jansen presents Self-publishing successfully: seven further thoughts posted at Must Use Bigger Elephants, saying, “A companion post to an earlier post about beginning in self-publishing that I made a while ago.”
Jeff Bennington presents VOTE for indie Authors – They are Creating Jobs posted at The Writing Bomb, saying, “Thanks again for doing this. Very grateful.”
Marketing and selling your books
Laura Pepper Wu presents What key elements make an effective book trailer? posted at 30 Day Books
Shannon presents 3 Ways To Make Your Media Kit Rock posted at Duolit | Self-Publishing Team, saying, “When properly executed, your media kit should work for you like a hired Hollywood publicist, promoting you and your books. It should leave potential interviewers, reviewers, and bloggers impressed by and interested in your work. Here’s 3 ways to make it rock!”
Pavarti K Tyler presents Book Review Request Rules – How to piss off a blogger posted at Fighting Monkey Press
Sarah Bolme presents Extending the Life of a Book posted at Marketing Christian Books
Dana Lynn Smith presents How to Get Traffic to Your Author Website posted at The Savvy Book Marketer
Cynthia Morris presents Independent Booksellers Nimbly Stay Afloat posted at Writer Unboxed, saying, “It was really fun to write this article. In the future I’d like to write one from the author’s perspective – how indie authors can connect with indie booksellers. Thank you for considering this as part of this month’s Carnival of Indies! Cynthia”
Joanna Penn presents Secrets of Amazon Metadata from #1 Amazon Bestseller Mark Edwards posted at The Creative Penn, saying, “The runaway successes we see in the Amazon charts often have years of work behind them. In this interview, I chat with Mark Edwards whose Amazon #1 bestsellers with Louise Voss got them a 6 figure book deal, but only after years of hard work. Mark also gives some tips on how he used the Product Description metadata effectively.”
iWriteReadRate.com presents Writers & Readers of the World Unite! posted at The iWriteReadRate Blog, saying, “The Indie publishing movement is an exciting and innovative emerging array of people and organisations out there in the wide old reading world to support and develop new writers and help connect them with their audience. Here’s a short article from one of our founding Directors around why he thinks that now is a revolutionary time to be a writer or a reader.”
Alexander M Zoltai presents Writers Want To Be Reviewed & Read ~ More on Book Promotion posted at Notes from An Alien, saying, “Those Wonderful Book Bloggers :-)”
Self-Publishing Success
Jon Rhodes presents Affiliate Marketing For Writers posted at Affiliate Help!
Nick Daws presents 12 Reasons Entrepreneurial Writers Should Connect With The Warrior Forum posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog, saying, “In this post I set out 12 reasons I believe self-publishing authors should check out the popular Warrior Forum for internet marketers.”
Writing Tools and Tips.
Russell Phillips presents Backup, backup, backup posted at Russell Phillips, saying, “A friend’s laptop recently died, and with it a whole load of important documents. It was under warranty, but warranties don’t cover data. Backups are important, but people tend to think they’re difficult. So here’s an easy and free way to So here’s an easy and free way to backup your most important stuff (like book manuscripts).”
Pamela Hegarty presents How to Take Charge of Your Novel: Write It Now 4 Review posted at pamelahegarty.com, saying, “This article reviews highlights of the writing software program, WriteIt Now 4. You’ll see your WIP in a whole new way. I hope this helps my fellow writers!”
Bryan Thomas Schmidt presents Outlining From a Finished Draft for Pantsers posted at Bryan Thomas Schmidt dot Net, saying, “Might be of interest”
Bryan Thomas Schmidt presents What I Learned About Editors From Editing posted at Bryan Thomas Schmidt dot Net, saying, “Might be of interest”
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 June 24, 2012 and the deadline for submissions will be June 20, 2012. 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
