Support for Indie Authors discussion
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Resources for Indie Authors
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Virginia wrote: "Hey Folks,
After a few questions that were raised in the introductions thread I thought it might be useful to start a thread that puts all of our knowledge and experience with Indie Publishing (an..."
:-) I hope it will be useful to people. Those first few are kind of obvious ones so I'm going to add some less well known resources as well.
Noisetrade.comNoisetrade is a site that allows readers and listeners to find books and music available for free in exchange for their e-mail address and postal code. You can post your books there and people can download them for free (there's an option for them to donate $ to you if they like it or are feeling generous) and when someone downloads your work you get their e-mail address.
- Free
- I have sort of used it...
- I have used it to find new music and books and am working on listing my stuff there. I started to fill out my author profile there for Blade's Edge and then realized that I should list my collection of short stories there instead, because I want to encourage people to buy Blade's Edge by reading my short stories. I've heard good things about it from musicians, but I haven't talked to any other authors who use it. (Though there are lots of them on there.) It seems like a strong promotional tool, but I will add more info when I've had more experience with it. Has anyone else used it?
Virginia wrote: "Hey Folks,After a few questions that were raised in the introductions thread I thought it might be useful to start a thread that puts all of our knowledge and experience with Indie Publishing (an..."
Virginia wrote: "Hey Folks,
A great idea. A silly question. How do I underline things here?
After a few questions that were raised in the introductions thread I thought it might be useful to start a thread that puts all of our knowledge and experience with Indie Publishing (an..."
Tasha wrote: "A great idea. A silly question. How do I underline things here?"Hey Tasha, not a silly question at all! Goodreads forums are excellent for a lot of things, but they're a bit old school in that they require you to know some basic html in order to format your text. Here's a quick cheat sheet for html formatting:
**Please note that spaces have been added where there should be none in order to make the format markers visible, to make the formatting work remove all spaces from html format markers**
< i >text here i> is how you italicize text like this
< u >text here u> is how you underline text like this
< b >text here b> is how you bold text like this
And, most importantly (in my mind anyway) the following is how you embed links so that they look all nice and pretty in your text.
< a href ="http://www.goodreads.com" >click here< / a >
When you take away all the spaces except for the one between a and href and any spaces in your visible text you get this:
click here
Please note that you need to leave the space between a and href (a href) and also that you can replace the goodreads link with any other url no matter how long or short as long as you include the http://.
And that is html 101. :-D Hope it helps!
Susie wrote: "I am new to blogs, so I am not sure how to start, as I often find myself worrying about putting my foot in my mouth. Sometimes I ramble away and then a few days later wonder if I should have said t..."Hey Susie, that's not an uncommon feeling especially considering that blogs really started off as online journals to the world at large. Generally I find that people are interested to read almost anything that you think is worth telling. I try to switch things up between personal updates, writing updates, and opinion pieces. Lately things have been so hectic for me that a weird mishmash of personal and writing updates is all I've been able to produce really. I try to break things up with pictures as well.
You can find my blog here if you're interested in checking it out as a point of reference. There are lots of other good (better) blogs out there.
Lots of writers do different things to keep people engaged. Two of my favorite writer blogs that are completely different are Kristin Cashore's and Hugh Howey's. They are both entertaining and I enjoy both of those authors a lot, but what they do with their blogs, and how they interact with their fans, is very different.
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Haha! Yeah, only limited html is allowed. I wonder where they draw the line... I guess you could find out. ;-)
You're welcome! Glad to be of service!
Just thought of another resource that many people may not think of when they're indie producing their book:iMovie
iMovie is the free software that comes with all apple laptops and enables you to edit video on your computer. Why is this relevant to your indie book? Because you can make your own book trailer to help generate buzz about your book.
- free with any apple computer (Windows Movie Maker is your free alternative if you're running a windows PC)
- Yes, I have used iMovie (and Windows Movie maker) to make movies.
- While I have made tons of movies with windows moviemaker and iMovie before (I was a teacher for 10 years and it's a very useful tool for language classes), I was unsure about how well this would go for a book trailer, and worried that whatever I made would look completely unprofessional. However, I was delighted to find that using iMovie's built in trailer templates, I was able to create a surprisingly dramatic and engaging book trailer. You can see the results for yourself if you're curious. I used that trailer in a facebook ad, in conjunction with my pre-order, for my latest release and generated enough sales to more than pay for the ad itself. Worth looking into!
Virginia wrote: "Tasha wrote: "A great idea. A silly question. How do I underline things here?"Hey Tasha, not a silly question at all! Goodreads forums are excellent for a lot of things, but they're a bit old sch..."
Thank you, Virginia. :)
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Oh, and for those that already have (or are just creating new) blogs and/or facebook pages, here's an excellent free resource:Boost it Tuesdays
Boost it Tuesday is a wonderful free promotional opportunity hosted by Gin's Book Notes.... You simply add your name and facebook page url to the list on any Tuesday and then check out other people's pages to like posts, pages, links and pictures and receive the same love on your own page.
- Free (requires a small donation of your time and attention to other people's pages)
- Yes, I have used it!
- I don't take advantage of this often enough. Tuesday often rolls around and I forget to sign my name to the list, but when I have remembered it has been great for adding likes and views to my page and attracting new blog traffic as well. The more likes you have on your page the more you are likely to attract new readers, and this is an easy and fun way to gain a bit of readership. In addition, there are some really entertaining book blogs and author pages that you'll come across when you check out other people's pages.
Virginia wrote: "Hey Folks,After a few questions that were raised in the introductions thread I thought it might be useful to start a thread that puts all of our knowledge and experience with Indie Publishing (an..."
Virginia, thanks for this post. Would you be willing to share how you optimized your Facebook ads? Thanks!
Virginia wrote: "Tasha wrote: "A great idea. A silly question. How do I underline things here?"Hey Tasha, not a silly question at all! Goodreads forums are excellent for a lot of things, but they're a bit old sch..."
excellent advice, can certainly use it on wordpress.com. Thank you.
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H.O. wrote: "Virginia, thanks for this post. Would you be willing to share how you optimized your Facebook ads? Thanks!"Sure! I narrowed down my targeted audience to people who "liked" books, reading, fantasy, young adult, and then included about seven different authors that I think are "similar" to me in terms of writing and content.
I'm still working out how best to target audiences, so anyone who has additional recommendations on how to narrow in on potential readers should definitely chime in. :-)
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They were once I started narrowing my audience down. But, keep in mind that was for the book trailer, and I think people get more excited about video than they do a lot of other things... Still, it's a decent place to experiment because you can make it as cheap as you like and work on refining things for very little money.
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I decided very early on that if I was going to do a book trailer, it would have to have some proper money behind it. I suspect I'd end up getting more into the trailer than the actual book.I've watched a few book trailers, out of sheer morbid curiosity, but they've never tempted me to buy a book.
Funnily enough, I agree with Andrew. A book trailer has never sold me on a book that I hadn't already wanted to read. But, as with most advertising I tend to think I'm not the target audience (I have ad blocker on all m web browsers and don't own a television, so ads don't enter my day too often). People do seem to like movies and share them more readily amongst their friends than other forms of ads, especially on facebook. I'm dubious as to whether it would be worth spending any money on, but I'm pretty happy with the free one I created and the results it's gotten so far. (It's really all thanks to iMovie having fantastic templates with built in dramatic music and effects.) I would say conclusively: your milage may vary. ;-)
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Plus, if you find one that WANTS to be an editor, some offer to do a free reading in order to help build their client base.
That's an excellent suggestion, Riley! And reminds me of another free method for getting editing...Scribophile
Scribophile is a community for writers to exchange critiques on each others work.
- It's free! But you can't post your own work until you've earned enough "karma" to do so, by critiquing the works of others.
- Yes, I have used it. (You can upgrade to a paid account for some added benefits, but the free account does everything you need it to.)
- I haven't actually posted any of my own work to Scribophile yet, but only because I haven't had anything at that particular stage of editing since I signed up (outside of my kickstarter funded novel for which I hired a professional editor). However, I have critiqued a number of works there and connected with a few people who I used as beta readers for Blade's Edge (general overall read through, not the detailed nitpicky feedback that scribophile is excellent for). The quality of the feedback on the site seems to be quite high. People will tear your work apart in the friendliest possible manner and provide you with excellent insights and reader suggestions all of which you are free to ignore or accept as you like. You can request specific kinds of feedback, from plot and pacing to nit picky grammar, as well. And the community is wonderfully welcoming and supportive. (People are rated for their feedback, and earn more points for better rated feedback, so it pays to be thorough and polite.)
Thanks so much for the Boost It Tuesday's tip!I also used iMovie for a book trailer... and kittens.
http://vimeo.com/113555716
Authonomy link above is great for reading community help and every month 5 manuscripts are selected/reviewed for possible publication through HarperCollins.
Ann wrote: "How many of you use book trailers? I've never done one. My husband thinks I should."I agree with Andrew--it would be nice to have the budget for a professional trailer. I kind of wanted to test it out first before spending a lot so I made my only two videos myself. I like them, others like them, but I can't quantify any kind of results. They appear on my website, my Amazon page and a few other book related promotional sites.
I have never done one but I'm about to with my new eBook about "Breaking Bad" -- chapter one is free, BTW, at https://gumroad.com/l/emwN.I have two different ideas, both humorous (I think). One starts by showing "It was a dark and stormy night" on a poster board. I say something like, "This is an example of bad writing". Then I include a short, witty excerpt from my EPUB and afterwards declare, "This is good writing about a man going bad" or maybe "This is Breaking Bad writing".
Other scenario involves me dressing up like Walter White, delivering a pizza from the Heisenberg Pizza Factory, and then instead of handing the large pizza to the unsuspecting customer, I fly into a rage and hurl the pizza onto the rooftop. Then I tell the customer, "There's your hand-tossed crust. Try to eat that BLEEPING pizza now."
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Victoria wrote: "I just mailed out books today from my first Giveaway. I emailed the winners right away and have to say I enjoyed their enthusiasm."Oh yay! That's good to know, I'm running a giveaway right now, but it doesn't end til the end of the month, so I'm curious as to how it will wrap up. I'm glad that your winners are enthusiastic, that bodes well. How many books did you offer in your giveaway?
Victoria wrote: "For this one ten. I have two other giveaways going that I'm only offering five, but that's because the books are thicker and more costly to produce and ship."Ok. Good to know. I only did three with this one, but I'm starting to worry that that was too few. Or that my giveaway is too long. I'll have to reconsider for next time.
Virginia wrote: "Oh, and for those that already have (or are just creating new) blogs and/or facebook pages, here's an excellent free resource:Boost it Tuesdays
Boost it Tuesday is a wonderful free promotional op..."
Nice tip, was not aware of this. BTW thanks for starting this discussion very useful.
A.W. wrote: "Thanks for the helpful tips."We indies need to stick together! Actually, authors period need to stick together. :-)
I read somewhere that Goodreads is contemplating doing giveaways that can include e-books? Has anyone else heard this? As my first novel is still a month away from publication, I have not had the opportunity to participate in a giveaway, but as I understand it, right now, giveaways are exclusively for hard copies?Thanks
Currently they are hardcopy only. Goodreads hints on their Giveaway creation page that they will be allowing ebook giveaways at some point in the future. However, I have heard no news as to when that might be.
Here's a list of online resources I compiled from Goodreads lists and then double checked as best I could https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Has anyone been involved in ALLI, the global independent author's association? http://allianceindependentauthors.org/
C.M. wrote: "Has anyone been involved in ALLI, the global independent author's association? http://allianceindependentauthors.org/"
Hey, CM!
I hadn't heard of it before, but now I'm checking out. I like the look of their ethical author campaign... Still reading up on the rest of it. Are you affiliated with them at all? Can you tell us more about them?
I was reaching out because I'd just learned of them too, and was wondering if anyone had any experience with them. So... I'm going to go through their site, too, and in this discussion... let's see whats we gets, eh?
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Thank you kindly EJ! Sorry it turned out to be hocus pocus.
Thanks E.J.! I'm sorry you spent the money on them, but I'm glad you shared for the rest of us. Their ignoring you age category is terrible - you could have parents giving you really bad reviews because they thought YOU targeted their kids for your audience.
Thanks for the specifics in your post, and the heads-up.
Thanks for the specifics in your post, and the heads-up.
Just downloaded a bunch of books on writing offered by Storybundle. They're on twitter at @storybundle. Storybundle is affiliated with Nanowrimo and offers different bundles every month. Just finished reading the first of over a dozen books. Good stuff.
I haven't used Facebook adds yet. Still working on my book and the pictures I want to use. But I will use it soon. I did a course yesterday. Since Facebook knows everything about you you can really define who you want your add audience to be. Also you can find a lot of information about your target audience. Like what they spend their money on and what pages they like and much more. You can put several adds in one campaign and FB will later use only the one that works best. On every social media video always seems to work best.
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After a few questions that were raised in the introductions thread I thought it might be useful to start a thread that puts all of our knowledge and experience with Indie Publishing (and marketing and publicity) into one convenient location.
To make things easy to find we should perhaps follow a format, so I've arbitrarily decided on the following (please let me know if you think it could be improved).
-name of resource -underlined- (please include a link if you can)
-brief description
-cost (if any)
-whether or not you've used it personally
-results if you have, and source of recommendation if you haven't (please include both positive and negative results)
To demonstrate what I mean I'll include a few resources that I've come across lately that I think are useful.
Goodreads Giveaways
Goodreads Giveaways allow you to offer up free copies of your book in exchange for an honest review. In addition, being listed on the giveaways page gains you quite a bit of visibility with readers.
-Listing a giveaway is free, however you are responsible for the costs of sending copies of your book to winners of the giveaway
- Yes, I've used it myself.
- I just started my first giveaway on Jan. 26th, but 175 people have already entered for a chance to win it, and as a consequence over 100 people have added it to their Goodreads bookshelves. I've only offered 3 free copies, so costs should be relatively low. In fact, if just two people buy the book in any format because of the giveaway it will have paid for itself. The only downside I can think of is that if no one buys a copy as a consequence of the giveaway I'll have spent about 30 bucks for "nothing," but worst case scenario I think that would just equate to "associated costs" of getting the book reviewed by the winners of the giveaway.
Facebook Author Page
Facebook author pages are free to create. They provide an easy platform for people on Facebook to "like,"share, and help spread the word about you and your work, and can be easier to manage than a website if you struggle with that kind of thing. You can even add an app that connects readers straight to your goodreads author profile.
- It's free to set up an author page, but there are ways to advertise and boost your posts that cost money.
- Yes, I've used it.
- I started my author page back in June of 2014 and it has been exceedingly useful in spreading the word about my books and events. It has also made it much easier to create facebook ads which have led directly to sales and awareness of my new book. The only downside I've encountered so far is that people who are already connected to you personally, and who like your author page, may get repeat content from you if you post in both accounts.
Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are small advertisements that appear in the ads column and in people's news feeds as "sponsored posts." They can reach millions of potential customers and are highly customizable.
-They cost as much as you are willing to budget. You choose your budget, the length of your campaign, your targeting, and your marketing goal, and Facebook serves your ad accordingly. The cost per click varies according to how many people actually click on your ad over the length of your campaign.
- Yes, I have used facebook ads.
- My initial experience with Facebook ads wasn't great, and it has taken some time to sort out what ads are the most effective use of budget. I ran one campaign that wound up charging me $13 per click because it only earned a single click over the life of the two week campaign. My other campaign, which is still running costs about $0.02 per click because it's getting thousands of clicks over its month long campaign with a maximum budget of $50. In other words: your milage may vary. ;-)
Blogger
Blogger is a free blog creation and management site provided by google. It is user friendly, and allows you to produce a crisp professional looking blog in minutes.
- FREE
- Yes, I have used it.
- I've been using blogger for years now and it has come a long way since its roots. Big plusses are: it provides you with a customized url (for example: virginiamcclain.blogpsot.com), but it also allows you to use a url that you have purchased for yourself (for example: virginiamcclain.com). Also, it's easy to manage and easy to link to social media. Downsides: currently there is no way to easily add an online store to sell merchandise directly from your website, however, you can link to any other page, so you can link to a different webstore if you have one. Also, it's only as customizable as the templates allow (which is quite a lot if you're good with basic html), but not as completely customizable as some other platforms.