Tools for Writers

SELF-e Gets Indie Books Into Library Catalogs

June 26, 2015June 24, 2015Business of Writing, Tools for Writers

by Porter Anderson, @Porter_Anderson

The American Library Association’s (ALA) 2015 Annual Conference & Exhibition opened yesterday, Thursday (25th June, #alaac15), in San Francisco with something unprecedented being offered at this year’s gathering: Library SELF-e’s first-ever national curated collection is now ready, an array of 200 indie ebooks that librarians can peruse and consider carrying for their patrons to check out and read.

Big thanks to Elizabeth for letting me jump onto her blog today to tell you about it.

As originally endorsed by indie bestsellers Hugh Howey and CJ Lyons, Library SELF-e is one of the breakthroughs many independent authors have hoped to see.

Until now, self-publishers have been generally stymied in trying to get their work into libraries. And that’s not because librarians weren’t interested in self-published work. No, it’s because there’s so much of it. My Bookseller colleagues and I in London recently estimated that the US alone is producing between 450,000 and 600,000+ new indie titles annually. Do you have time to read all those books? Neither do librarians.Continue reading

Working With a Cover Designer: Time-Saving Techniques

January 26, 2015January 25, 2015Business of Writing, Tools for Writers

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I have a cover conference (via email) this week with my current cover designer, Karri Klawiter. I’ve been told by cover designers in the past that they like working with me because I both know exactly what I’m looking for (or can quickly identify what I’m looking for when I get samples) and that I supply most/all of the information they need on their end immediately.

I’ve got sort of a template email that I use with designers to help speed along and clarify the process on both ends. Below is the initial email I sent for the last, published, project of mine (fall release). Continue reading

Reedsy: a Marketplace for Indie Writers

January 12, 2015January 12, 2015Business of Writing, Tools for Writers

Note from Elizabeth: Several years ago, when I took the self-publishing plunge, the scariest part of the process for me was making an investment in my writing without the promise of a payout. What’s more, at the time, it was a sort of wild west of providers. Connecting with a cover designer or a freelance editor or a solid formatter was a word-of-mouth process…and if someone had good word-of-mouth, they were totally booked.

Ricardo Fayet reached out to me last July about what he called a “curated self-publishing marketplace” and wanted to know if I’d chat with him on the phone about his start-up and a little on my thoughts of what self-publishing authors would find useful.

Reedsy is now available to authors as a tool to find professionals for our books. What’s more, it’s currently free for authors. (And, as a note, I’m not associated with Reedsy in any way aside from a beta view of the marketplace.)

Presenting Reedsy: where authors meet the best publishing professionals

by Ricardo Fayet, @RicardoFayet, @ReedsyHQ

“The fast-growing self-publishing environment is attracting all kinds of start-ups and companies that intend to serve authors. However, most of them seem to aim at the periphery of what authors really need, which in my opinion, is primarily editors and cover designers.” — Joanna Penn

Joanna absolutely hit the nail on the head, and I started Reedsy to properly and completely address this gap in today’s self-publishing marketplace.Continue reading

The Ultimate in Networking

December 8, 2014December 6, 2014Business of Writing, Motivation and the Writing Life, Tools for Writers

by Alex J. Cavanaugh, @AlexJCavanaugh

While writing itself is usually a solitary venture, everything else we need to accomplish as authors is not. We need input from critique partners, advice on publishing, assistance with marketing, and encouragement. To accomplish that, we need to network with others.

There are many great ways to connect and find other writers: blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Sometimes we’re lucky and we find a group of writers. One that is active and networking with one another. Perhaps it’s a growing group that’s spreading to other platforms. That’s a big plus, as with a large group, we can make a lot of quality connections.

When I first began writing, it was just me. I wasn’t online and I wasn’t involved in any writing groups. It wasn’t until I signed my first contract and was forced to venture online that I realized what I was missing. Those connections are so important!

I’m fortunate to be involved in what I believe is the ultimate networking group – the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Connecting writers through several platforms and with a hashtag of #IWSG on Twitter, it’s swelled to over two thousand members in just three years. And we have four ways for writers and authors to connect:Continue reading