Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for February, 2012. We welcome your submissions on topics related to writing, self-publishing, book design or marketing books.
You’ll find here a collection of outstanding articles recently posted to blogs, and clicking through to read them is your reward.
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
Patty Jansen (@pattyjansen) presents Ten Home Truths About Starting in Self-publishing posted at Must Use Bigger Elephants, saying, “A no-nonsense look at self-publishing for those who are thinking about it and are trying to cut through the ‘you must absolutely do this’ hype that can end up costing a lot of money for little benefit.”
Cynthia Morris (@originalimpulse) presents How a 90-year-old business model can guide author-preneurs now posted at Original Impulse, saying, “While Paris in the 20s and 30s was a groundbreaking place and time for the arts, this golden era was also a challenging time for a bookish businesswoman. The Great Depression that started in the United States affected those in Europe, too. Times were tough for Sylvia Beach as they are for us now. The steady stream of American customers to her bookshop Shakespeare and Company dried up in the 30s. She relied on her wits, her friendships, and her commitment to a cause to keep her shop alive.”
Caitlin Muir (@scribblinghappy) presents 89 Book Marketing Ideas That Will Change Your Life posted at Author Media. “Fresh out of ideas on how to help your writing take off? You’re in luck. We’ve compiled a list of 89 book marketing ideas that will change your life, build your brand, and sell your book. There’s something for everyone on the list. Best of all, the list is free. Completely free. Sound intriguing? Read on.”
Book Design and Production
Andy Black presents Just My Type: DIY Book Design, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 posted at Andy’s Words & Pictures, saying, “Four articles to help arm self-publishers with some knowledge to create a better looking book”
Paul Salvette presents How to Design an eBook for the Kindle Fire posted at Paul Salvette in Bangkok, saying, “I just started a tutorial series on designing eBooks for the new Kindle Fire format. Sincerely, Paul Salvette, Bangkok, Thailand”
Ebooks and Ebook Readers
Russell Phillips presents Read Whatever You Like. Just Read posted at Russell Phillips’ Blog, saying, “There is a snobbery around books and particularly e-books, which I don’t understand. Reading is a good thing. E-books apparently allow more people to read what they enjoy, rather than what they think they should be reading. Surely this is a good thing?”
Indie Author
Joanna Penn presents Author 2.0 Blueprint Rebooted for 2012 posted at The Creative Penn, saying, “Author 2.0 encapsulates the spirit of empowerment to create, publish, sell and promote with the amazing online tools available today. This is the rewritten brand new version of the Author 2.0 Blueprint -52 pages of information on writing, publishing and book marketing. Free to download.”
Turndog Millionaire presents Author Marketing: Is Content Really The King Of 2012? posted at Turndog Millionaire, saying, “An article, as part of The Millionaire Plan (marketing strategy for aspiring authors), with a Guest insight from Joanna Penn. How important is Content? What can a Blog do for aspiring authors?”
Jeff Bennington presents Layer Your Book Marketing Efforts For Better Results posted at The Writing Bomb, saying, “Thanks for accepting my submissions. I teally appreciat this opportunity to broadcast my blog to a new audience.”
Karen Inglis presents Marketing posted at Self-publishing adventures, saying, “I self-published my first children’s book in September and this blog talks about how I’ve gone about marketing it – both through social media and via traditional routes including to the main bookstore chain in the UK, schools, traditional PR etc I also talk about how I’ve used wholesale discounts to help me get the book accepted in stores. I hope you’ll enjoy and find something of use! Karen”
Richard Alan presents My Three Newbie Mistakes and the Blogs that Helped Me Past Them posted at Village Drummer Fiction Random Thoughts from Author, Richard Alan.
Laura Rae Amos presents The Indie Author Hat: Worthiness Reconfigured posted at This is Not a Mommy Blog, saying, “Hi Joel, I’d like to offer my post “the indie author hat: worthiness reconfigured” (posted 1/25/12) for the Carnival of the Indies. It’s a post about my bittersweet and empowering decision (as a degree-holding literary fiction author) to forgo the steadfast path of traditional publishing I always thought I’d end up taking. It also compares the current publishing climate to the mommy-wars. ;) Thanks for considering it! – Laura”
Delaney Diamond presents The Joy and Pain of Self-Publishing posted at Delaney Diamond – Romance Author.
Bob Spear presents Writers Block posted at Book Trends and Writers Blog.
Marketing & Selling Your Books
Bob Baker presents 7 Reasons Every Author Should Have a Blog posted at Bob Baker’s Book Promotion Blog, saying, “Here are seven important things a blog can help you accomplish as an indie author and book publisher …”
Sylvia Liu presents 8 Ways to Make a Blogger Blog Look and Act Like a Website posted at Sylvia Liu Land, saying, “Author websites are an integral part of marketing. If you’ve been using Blogger and haven’t had the time or inclination to switch to WordPress, here are 8 tips to make your Blogger blog act and look like a professional website.”
Anne Hill presents Authors: Where is the Taproot of Your Web Presence? posted at Creative Content Coaching, saying, “My article also appeared on the Huffington Post this week, with the title “Keep Your Author Platform Rooted in the Independent Web””
Jeff Bennington presents How to Have a Successful KDP Select Campaign posted at The Writing Bomb.
M. Louisa Locke presents KDP Select Free Promotion–Discoverability Experiment: One Month Later and Feeling Fine! posted at M. Louisa Locke, saying, “This is an indie success story as well, but the main focus is on how the free promotion offered by KDP Select increased my sales. Today I got the royalty statement from Amazon for January-and just on Kindle sales I made $15,610.33, just on 2 books. I can just imagine what authors of more books, or people like Konrath, are making. Wow.”
Writing Tools and Tips.
Shannon presents 6 Steps to a Booming Brainstorm posted at Self-Publishing Team | Duolit, saying, “Sometimes we need a brainstorm to get the ideas flowing. Other times, even when we’ve had a great idea come to us out of the blue, we still need a good brainstorming session to hash out the details. Follow these steps to make your next brainstorming session a success!”
Alexander M Zoltai presents Are Fiction Writers Capable of Freelancing? posted at Notes from An Alien.
Nick Daws presents Duotrope – A Brilliant Resource for Fiction and Poetry Writers posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog.
Jon Mac presents Fantasy Map Tutorial posted at Mythik Imagination, saying, “This step by step tutorial shows how to create cool looking fantasy maps. There’s a lot of talk these days about “World Building,” which helps create a realistic and interesting story setting. But after you have carefully crafted your world of wonder with believable geographic and geopolitical details, you probably want a nice picture of it, right?”
Andy Black presents Getting Your Story Write posted at Andy’s Words & Pictures, saying, “I have gathered together a good list of resources that explore several different approaches to the art and craft of writing.”
David Robinson presents Rules for Writing Whodunits? posted at David Robinson -Writer, saying, “Are there really rules for writing a whodunit?”
Joanna Penn presents Scrivener: 3 Reasons You Should Use It For Your Book posted at The Creative Penn, saying, “I used Scrivener for my latest book, Prophecy. It’s been a truly life-changing experience after the dreadful cutting and pasting process in MS Word that plagued my last novel, Pentecost.”
Lindsay Buroker presents Using Kickstarter to Fund Self-Publishing Projects posted at Lindsay Buroker — Fantasy Author, saying, “A look into KickStarter, a crowd-funding platform many indie authors are using to finance the editing and cover art costs for their novels.”
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 March 25, 2012 and the deadline for submissions will be March 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
