Self-Publishing: The Carnival of the Indies Issue #110

POSTED ON Nov 24, 2019

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By Joel Friedlander

Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for November, 2019. 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

Michele DeFilippo presents What Is Typesetting and Why Does It Matter? posted at IngramSpark Blog, saying, “Due to the advance of technology, typesetting matters even more today; increased exposure to beautiful typography in books, magazines, and marketing materials, not to mention websites, has raised our collective expectations regarding type. Even the uninitiated among us can easily pick out poor font choice and bad formatting. So, what exactly is typesetting—and why does it matter for self-publishers?”

Rachel Thompson presents Top 5 Twitter Tips to Powerfully Market Your Books posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “Guest expert, Rachel Thompson of BadRedHeadMedia, shares her top 5 Twitter tips (plus resources) to help authors make the most of this powerful book marketing tool on the BookWorks.com blog.”

Kimberley Grabas presents How to Reach Out to Reviewers: a Publicist’s Guide posted at Your Writer Platform, saying, “Book publicist Ben Cameron has been in the game for twenty years, working with both traditional and self-published authors. But he’s noticed a bigger change in the publishing world in the last five years than he has in the last fifteen. “That’s come down to the self-publishing revolution, and the revolution in ebooks,” Ben observes. In this guest post by Tess Patalano (a writer at Reedsy), she shares Ben’s professional insights on what kinds of reviews are out there, how to find them, and how to get them.”

Book Design and Production

Connie Dowell presents Putting out an Audiobook as an Indie Author posted at Book Echoes Podcast, saying, “This episode details audiobook production options for indie authors and goes through the ACX royalty share production process step by step.”

Glenna Collett presents Design a coffee table book posted at Book Design Made Simple, saying, “Coffee table books are back in vogue! This article describes how to plan and design one so that it will reach its highest potential.”

Louise Harnby presents Publishing lingo explained posted at The Editing Podcast, saying, “This episode of The Editing Podcast demystifies publishing language – the terms professionals use to describe the parts of a book – so that authors can talk with confidence about their text.”

Indie Author

Dave Chesson presents How To Create a Facebook Author Page (And Tips for Using It Wisely) posted at Kindlepreneur, saying, “Have you been meaning to set up your Facebook author page for awhile, but never gotten around to it? Or maybe you already have your page created, but you aren’t really sure what you should be doing with it? This article is all about how to create your Facebook author page and how to use it wisely.”

Kristina Adams presents 8 Things I’ve Learnt Self-Publishing 8 Books posted at The Writer’s Cookbook.

Lisa Poisso presents Setting Goals for Your Novel posted at Clarity, saying, “Instead of measuring your book against other books, hold it up to your own publishing and creative goals. Once you understand what you’re really hoping for—and what you and book need—you’ll be able to tell whether your books are carrying you where you want to go.”

Russell Phillips presents How to Collaborate Across Genres posted at ALLi’s Self-Publishing Advice Center, saying, “I normally write non-fiction, but earlier this year I released a novel that I’d co-written with a friend. We wrote a blog post for The Alliance of Independent Authors on our process, and how well it worked.”

Sarah Bolme presents Are You Following the Rules? posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Authors hate negative reviews of their books. Criticism is hard to swallow, especially when we feel it is not deserved. Some authors believe that a few negative reviews will ruin their sales.”

Marketing and Selling Your Books

Dave Chesson presents 3 Ways to Turn Your Casual Readers into Diehard Fans posted at IndieReader.

Penny Sansevieri presents 4 Tips on How to Get Noticed on Twitter: An Indie Author’s Guide posted at IndieReader.

Sandra Lafferty presents The Best Contract Negotiation Advice for Authors posted at IndieReader.

Belinda Griffin presents How to Write an Effective Blog Headline posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Reader Relationships Expert, Belinda Griffin, continues her series on reader outreach with tips and resources to help authors write effective blog headlines for their own and guest posts.”

Camryn Daytona presents Making Aesthetic Images posted at A Love Letter to Fantasy.

Frances Caballo presents How to Handle Your Social Media During a Crisis posted at Social Media Just for Writers, saying, “How you use social media during a crisis will be different than how you use it on a day-to-day basis. For example, right now, I am packed and ready to evacuate due to the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County in Northern California. What do you do at a time like this with your book marketing? Put an end to it.”

Joy E. Rancatore presents Indie Authors and the Case of Events posted at Logos & Mythos, saying, “Selling books at events can be tricky and may not always pay out in dollar signs. They’re not without benefits, though, especially when you take a few steps to prepare.”

Martin Crosbie presents How I Hit The Bestseller List… posted at The BookBub Partners Blog.

Sarah Bolme presents Author: Are You Doing These Marketing Activities? posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Authors—whether traditionally published or indie published—are largely responsible for the marketing of their books. Ask yourself: Am I doing all these marketing activities for my book?”

Self-Publishing Success

Carla King presents How to Create a Self Publisher Imprint & Logo posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Tech Guru, Carla King, explains the steps to creating a professional self publisher imprint and logo to publish under.”

Dave Chesson presents How to Get Reviews to Ensure Your Books’ Success posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Author Branding expert (and marketing Jedi), Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur, shares strategies on how to get the reviews so critical to your books’ success.”

Writing Tools and Tips

Belinda Griffin presents 10 Steps to Writing an Awesome Blog Post (+ Free Template) posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Reading Relationships Expert, Belinda Griffin, shares 10 tips to writing a great blog post that will be a hit with your audience and get you invited back + a free template in her continuing series on guest blogging to reach new readers.”

C.S. Lakin presents How to Avoid Writing a Boring Story posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “It should go without saying that if your own story idea bores you, maybe you shouldn’t waste weeks, months, or years of your life writing that book. Don’t just write a book to write one, unless you just want to challenge yourself to accomplish such a goal, which is what some people strive to do during Nanowrimo. I’ve spoken to many people who wrote a novel just to see if they could do it, and for many, that end was satisfying in itself. But for a serious career novelist (or poet or short-story writer) who wants to tell a compelling story, and hopefully more than just one in his lifetime, it’s a good idea for him to come up with a concept that excites him, for whatever reasons.”

C.S. Lakin presents Why Writers Should Trust Their Intuition posted at Live Write Thrive, saying, “When you write a scene, you should be able to sense if something is wrong or missing, not quite hitting the mark. And if you nailed the scene just right, you should be able to feel that as well. Maybe this is a little touchy-feely for some of you (men especially). But I think there is great wisdom here that is rarely talked about. I have learned over the years of writing novels to tune in to and trust that bodily response to my writing. However, to be able to do this well, you need to be very honest with yourself. You have to be willing to listen to that subjective voice that says “this isn’t working” and, in a sense, be objective enough to act on that realization.”

Colin Dunbar presents How to Start Writing a Book posted at Colin Dunbar, saying, “Choose the method that suits you, and get started with writing your book.”

Colin Dunbar presents How To Write A Book posted at Colin Dunbar, saying, “Check out this post to get started on your dream to write a book.”

Iola Goulton presents Dear Editor | When Can I Use Italics in Fiction? posted at Christian Editing Services, saying, “In writing, overusing any particular word, phrase, or technique runs the risk of drawing the reader’s attention away from the story. Italics are a particular problem. They have many uses in fiction, and are easy to overuse. This post shows when italics must be used, and when they can be avoided.”

Louise Harnby presents How to use quote marks in fiction writing posted at The Parlour, saying, “Here’s how to use quote marks (or speech marks) according to publishing convention in your fiction writing. The guidance covers both US English and UK English conventions. There’s an audio version, too, for those who’d prefer to listen.”

Louise Harnby presents How to use round brackets (parentheses) in fiction writing posted at The Parlour, saying, “Round brackets, or parentheses, crop up less frequently than many punctuation symbols in fiction writing, but that doesn’t mean we must ban them. This post explores two ways to make them work effectively.”

Zara Altair presents How to Work Backstory into Your Mystery posted at Write Time, saying, “The benefits of backstory for writers and how to use backstory in the story itself.”

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, Link to it!

The next issue is December 22, 2019 and the deadline for submissions will be December 15, 2019. Don’t miss it!

Here are all the links you’ll need