Latest News in the Indie World - January 27 2014

Let's see a show of hands who is tired of all this winter crap?  I have never seen it this cold.  I would give anything for a day with above freezing temperatures. 

What's the latest news in the world of Indies?

Theresa Ragan, author of Taming the Mad Max, was interviewed at GoodBooksToday.com about how she sold over 800,000 books. What I find interesting about this interview - several things actually - is the fact that she tells us not to put a lot into promotional efforts until you have 3 other books published.  I was on the fence about that until I reread what she said and the key phrase is "a lot" of promotional effort.  I'm not sure what she means by a lot and I figure she means money-wise figuring it'll take three or four books out until you see some decent sales.  What I also find interesting is the reasoning behind this.  If you have more than one book out there, the promotions going into the recent book will help those on the back list so that makes sense.

If you are self-pubbed, do you still need a professional editor?  Let me tell you, I have the best editor ever.  Her name is Cheryl Malandrinos and if ever you are in the market for an editor, let me know and I will put you in touch with her because she is the cream of the crop.  I would send her chapters after I had done my best going over it and over it and still she sent me back a pageful of edits.  And have I learned anything from the experience?  Omg I wish I could count the ways.  Grammar, character development, you name it.  I found a video that explains the value of a professional editor.



Now this last one talks about the illusions of traditional publishing and goes into briefly about hybrid publishing.  Hybrid publishing is where you are not only published traditional, but self-published as well.  Gotta love Bob Mayer.  In this article, he tells it like it is. "Where does all this lead?  To a place in the middle.  With small, agile, hybrid publishers that focus on the content producer (writers) and the content consumers (readers), while working with the distribution channels and focusing on discoverability. Most importantly, where the creator of product and the consumer of the product are placed foremost, not the middle-men."

Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales Come To Life

Playing in the woods behind my grandmother's house was a special treat.  It was a paradise where I made up stories as I played with my cousins, darting from one tree to the other, discovering treasures and escaping.  The woods behind my grandmother's house wasn't very big, but it was the one spot the bulldozers didn't swipe out making way for the new Highway 13 which was going to be built behind us.  The cousins and I played all sorts of games in our forest hideaway, but I imagine nothing could compare to playing in a forest or near a house in a forest like this:

Cologne, Germany-based photographer Kilian Schönberger's work has been showcased today at Huffington Post.  All you have to do is sit and stare at these pictures and stories will pop right into your head.  See them here.

Latest News in the Indie World - January 13 2013

I like to keep updated with the latest trends in self-publishing for two reasons - one it helps me help Indie authors and two - I will become one any day now.  I'm late in joining the self-publishing circus having prior responsibilities to my business, but little do people know I self-published back in the day - before the Kindle store - using ebooks which at the time not too many people were aware of (What's an ebook? How do you read an e-book?).

I published ebooks myself and sold them on my website.  This is just what we trail-blazing entrepreneurs did back then.  Since Amazon came up with the terrific idea of adding the Kindle store to their empire, this has given a whole new meaning to self-publishing, ebooks and what have you as you know.  It's a whole new ball game now making it much easier for Indie authors and publishers as well to sell ebooks which incidentally is selling faster than paperback right now.

So here you go - the latest news in the self-publishing world:

There's an interesting interview with Melissa Foster at Alli, the Self-Publishing Advice blog.  I've seen her around the 'net a lot and I truly admire her.  In this interview, Melissa shares her top self-publishing tips.

Self-Publishing 101: Using the Right Search Words is an interesting article for those who are self-publishing for the first time.  Did you know Amazon asks you for seven search words for their store?  Do you know the right ones to choose?  Do you know the ones to avoid?

And we get a formal apology to self-published authors from Natalie Whipple.  I've seen this around the net lately, haven't really had time to figure out why she needed to apologize so I did so now.  You have to pat her on her back.  She had the courage to admit that self-publishing isn't so darn bad.  Back in the day, she, along with most authors, stayed far far away from being classed into the self-publishing cell block.  Oh no we had too much class for that.  Even if we waited until the sun don't shine or hell froze over.  We forgive you, Natalie, because we're all doing the same darn thing.

I feel downright special

Little snow before weekend deluge !! MT @hoffmanrich Picture of snow this morning in Bronx from TJ Mcgurk pic.twitter.com/kHl8Ot4vxq #NYC
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) January 10, 2014

RT @JimCantore Is snow coming again for the east coast, Jim?
— Dorothy Thompson (@pumpupyourbook) January 10, 2014

@pumpupyourbook Maybe a little next Wednesday VA/MD/Jersey
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) January 10, 2014

RT @JimCantore How about the Eastern Shore (Chincoteague) of Virginia?
— Dorothy Thompson (@pumpupyourbook) January 10, 2014

@pumpupyourbook yes maybe
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) January 10, 2014