Self-Publishing: The Carnival of the Indies Issue #107

POSTED ON Aug 25, 2019

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By Joel Friedlander

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

Anne R. Allen presents Blogging Is a Potent Tool for Author Platform Building posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “Anne R. Allen shares her experience in creating her popular author blog, how blogging helped revive her career and how it can help you too.”

Nate Hoffelder presents Ten Free Online Image, Graphic, and Photo Manipulation Tools posted at The Digital Reader, saying, “Have you ever been handed an image or project file in a format you’ve never seen before, and just been told to deal with it? I Have! That’s why I have pulled together a list of online tools that can be used to do things like take apart PSD files, remove backgrounds, resize images, etc.”

Iola Goulton presents The Importance of Revision and Self-Editing posted at Christian Editing Services, saying, “No matter how you plan to publish, it’s in your best interest to learn to edit your own work. It will reduce your overall editing costs. Here are nine free or low-cost alternatives to help you learn to self-edit and reduce your need for paid editing.”

Book Design and Production

Dmitri Barvinok presents Tips for Authors: Understanding Digital Proofs (includes an Adobe Reader tutorial) posted at Front Edge Publishing Blog, saying, “EVER WONDER about a typo you spot in a new book? Care to learn more about how professionals direct a proofing process these days? Publishing house Production Manager Dmitri Barvinok takes readers on a tour of the proof process.”

Paolo Amoroso presents Leanpub and Lean Publishing posted at Moonshots Beyond the Cloud.

Indie Author

Deborah Jay presents Reporting #20BooksEdinburgh – Networking for Authors posted at Deborah Jay Author, saying, “This is just one of a series of posts I’m doing, reporting from the 20BooksEdinburgh writing conference”

Kyoko M presents Hindsight is 20/20: My Sixth Year in Self Publishing posted at She Who Writes Monsters, saying, “I recap what I’ve learned in my sixth year of being a self published author.”

Lenny Kleinfeld presents Interview with Lenny Kleinfeld: Let’s Make Crime Fiction Fun Again posted at Greg Levin, saying, “This is an interview Greg did with me after reading my latest book, “Shooting Lessons.” It came out pretty damn funny and even sold some books.”

Sarah Bolme presents Are You Sharing Your Story? posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Emotions are not barriers to decisions, rather, they are a crucial component of decision-making. In other words, emotion is required for our brain to make a decision. Emotional reactions can lead people to buy your books.”

Marketing and Selling Your Books

Belinda Griffin presents How to Come Up With Blog Topics for Your Guest Postsst Pos posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Reader Relationships expert, Belinda Griffin, shares strategies to help fiction and nonfiction authors come up with good ideas for topics for their guest blog posts.”

Doris-Maria Heilmann presents How Smart Authors Get Their Books into Libraries posted at SavvyBookWriters, saying, “US libraries spend over 3 billion dollars each year – Libraries spend over 25% of their budgets on ebooks and audiobook downloads. So authors should consider using some of their sales and marketing time to present their books to librarians.”

Frances Caballo presents Book Launch Case Study with Mike Sahno posted at Social Media Just for Writers, saying, “I met Mike Sahno on Twitter and was impressed by his book launch success. So I asked him to share his experience so that you could learn his tips. Here is our interview.”

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. presents Sell Sheet Worksheet And Questionnaire For Self-Publishers posted at Kunz On Publishing, saying, “This worksheet and questionnaire is simply a boiled down list to help you start to organize what you will need to begin building your first sell sheet. Part I is very straight forward, and it’s just a matter of filling in the blanks with some specific facts about your book. But, in Part II will need to do much more thought and reflection about you, your book, and your audience.”

Nate Hoffelder presents Why You Should Use a Link Shortener / Redirection Plugin on Your Website posted at Nate Hoffelder, saying, “A redirection plugin is a great tool that every author should use. Not only is it great for branding but it will also save you a lot of work the next time you have to go edit the links in the back of your book.”

Russell Phillips presents A Missed Opportunity posted at Author Help, saying, “How a traditional publisher missed a unique opportunity to give a new book a marketing boost at launch, and how you can take advantage of similar opportunities.”

Sarah Bolme presents The Declining Web Traffic Conundrum posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Have the number of people visiting your website declined this year? I have noticed a downward trend in the number of organic site visitors since the beginning of 2019. I have also heard from others that they are experiencing the same thing.”

Self-Publishing Success

Chris Well presents Follow Up Your PR Pitch: 7 Secrets to Success posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Media & PR dude, Chris Well, shares 7 insider secrets to help authors when following up on a PR pitch for optimum success landing the spot.”

Writing Tools and Tips

Bryan Thomas Schmidt presents Write Tip: Three Act Structure posted at Bryan Thomas Schmidt.

Dave Chesson presents The Best Writing Apps for Android And iOS of 2019 posted at Kindlepreneur, saying, “The best writing ideas don’t always appear when you’re sitting at your desk. And since we’re all stretched for time, many writers will use their phones to make progress on the go. Writing apps are getting more and more advanced. That’s why I’m here to give you my top picks for the best apps for Android and iOS.”

David Leonhardt presents How to describe a character (with free character development crib sheet) posted at Always Write.

Jay Artale presents Tools to Help You Blog on the Go posted at How to Blog a Book, saying, “Don’t let your flashes of inspiration become creative orphans that get lost in the cloud. See how to use the Scrivener iOS App and Dropbox to write your blog posts and books while you’re away from your computer.”

Joy E. Rancatore presents Authors, Be Your First Reader posted at Logos & Mythos, saying, “You’ve typed The End. Congratulations! Celebrate! Live it up! Now you send it straight to the editor to fix, right?”

Karen Conlin presents When to Use a Semicolon vs. Colons: Not So Hard, Really posted at BookWorks Blog, saying, “BookWorks.com’s Indie Editor-at-Large, Karen Conlin, explains when and why to use a semicolon versus colon in her latest “Spellcheck Cannot Save You!” column.”

Katie McCoach presents 20 Things I Learned After Reading 150,000 Words in Opening Pages posted at KM Editorial, saying, “After reading through 100 submissions of opening pages of manuscripts during RevPit (which totaled 150,000 words in one week!), I’ve come up with 20 tips that will help your opening pages stand out.”

Lisa Poisso presents Writing Software: Why you need Microsoft Word posted at Clarity: Tools and Skills for Authors, saying, “Microsoft Word is the publishing industry standard for editors because it offers the most powerful tools and plug-ins for complex text editing, analysis, and feedback. When you use it too, you stand ready and able to process edits in an industry-standard format. Your professionalism will inspire trust and confidence in you and your book.”

Zara Altair presents Troubleshoot Your Mystery posted at Write Time, saying, “Every writer knows that a novel has bumps and holes. Tips for smoothing the rough places to polish the story.”

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 September 29, 2019 and the deadline for submissions will be September 15, 2019. Don’t miss it!

Here are all the links you’ll need