Alma T. C. Boykin How many of us are blessed with the gift to instantly see what needs to be corrected after we finish a manuscript? Yeah. I'm not either. My habit is to finish the rough-rough draft. Then a day later I go in and fix the last little stuff that I realized I... Continue Reading →
Odds and interesting ends
So, most of you probably know that last October, Amazon broke the kindle store. I mean, keywording and search has been broken well before that, such that keywording would go cross-categories in places they didn't want it to - so, for example, the same keywords that let a romance author slot her book in military... Continue Reading →
Challenge Accepted
So, my cover artist and I went to the range recently. On the way back, we found the time to tackle things even more difficult than shot placement and proper grip: cover art. She'd sent a mockup of what would be a great cover for someone else's book, and I had to think for a... Continue Reading →
What An Author Owes the Reader
Alma T. C. Boykin The short answer is "probably nothing, unless you've paid for the story and I need to e-mail/ship it." However, a lot of people, even those who will answer "nothing," believe in an understood contract with readers, especially those of us who are indie writers. Traditionally published writers are a little more... Continue Reading →
Anthology AAR
I've been in two anthologies in the last 90 days. I don't have any numbers on how they've sold yet, since I am not the publisher, merely a contributor. So it's a little early to look at a full After-Action Review, but as I am both sick, and recovering from parental visit on top of... Continue Reading →
Trad vs Indie Author Earnings
[--- Karen Myers ---] The results are in from the recent survey that some of you have participated in, from the Alliance For Independent Authors (ALLi). The Passive Voice reports on The Bookseller's report on the survey results. "ALLi circulated the survey to its members and subscribers, as well as “through other key self-publishing and... Continue Reading →
Finding a Style
You've got style. Whether you realize it or not. I'm not talking about writing voice, here. I'm talking about the underlying document styles that you compose in on any wordprocessor. There are a lot of variations, I'm going to touch on two, and hopefully show you a couple of tricks that will make life easier... Continue Reading →
How to: Author Central
Every author should set up their Amazon Author Central page in the lead up to their first publication. This is true if you are a traditional author, not exclusive to Amazon, or if you only have a short in an anthology coming out. Eventually, your book will be on Amazon, one way or another. Having... Continue Reading →
The Working Writer and Artist
There are two lists on the big whiteboard in my office. One is headed with 'graphic design' and the other, with a flourish, 'fiction.' There used to be a third labeled non-fiction, but for some reason it was erased, and I need to put it back up there, although really it's only one item currently:... Continue Reading →
Public Service Announcement — Survey Data Request
With the kind permission of our gracious hostess, I'd like to draw your attention to a survey for Indie Authors. Several years ago I joined the Alliance for Independent Authors (abbrev ALLi), an industry group based in the UK with a very substantial US constituency. (You can find out more at the link. They're helpful... Continue Reading →