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Adventures in Indie #8 Marketing Efforts
Originally published at J. Kathleen Cheney. You can comment here or there.
Beyond the newsletter, it’s a challenge for an indie writer to know how to market their books.
Make no mistake: There are a bunch of people out there making a fortune. A lot of them are making a fortune selling books that tells other people how to sell books.
I’m actually on ( Read more... ) -
Starting the Story in the Right Place
Originally published at J. Kathleen Cheney. You can comment here or there.
While traveling last weekend (which is why I didn’t post a segment of The King’s Daughter), I tried to read a historical mystery novel. It was the first in a series of several and I’d hoped I’d found a new Sebastian St. Cyr or Nell Sweeney. Instead I found a boring series of ( Read more... ) -
Reblog: Things an Author Doesn’t Actually Control
Originally published at J. Kathleen Cheney. You can comment here or there.
Reblogging this because a friend just got a nasty-gram from a reader because one of her books isn’t out in mass market paperback. Since I am in exactly the same boat, I thought this old post was pertinent.
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Cooking blahs...
I don't particularly enjoy cooking. I never have. But lately it's been worse ( Read more... ) -
Immigration crack-downs do not happen in a vacuum...
I'm going to tell the story of a company I worked for in El Paso, Texas amidst an immigration crackdown. In 1993, the Border Patrol began an operation they called "Hold the Line" where they had an agent every 1000 feet (reportedly) along the border between Juarez and El Paso ( Read more... ) -
Adventures in Indie #7: The Dreaded Newsletter
Originally published at J. Kathleen Cheney. You can comment here or there.
I’m heading into the area of promotion, and I have to admit that I’m at a bit of a loss here. Trying to grasp all the types of promotion available is like drinking from a fire hose. It’s overwhelming.
But there is one staple I can start with: A newsletter
Now, a large ( Read more... ) -
Adventures in Indie #6: Self-made books
Originally published at J. Kathleen Cheney. You can comment here or there.
I talked a couple of weeks ago about using Canva to make covers for ‘promotional’ books. And generally to save costs on those books, I also format them myself.
Now, I have to say up front that my method of formatting is not the best. There are a lot of ways to format a book ( Read more... ) -
Adventures in Indie #5: Formatting and Editing
Originally published at J. Kathleen Cheney. You can comment here or there.
Back in 2011, I put up some books on Amazon and Smashwords and sold them. I formatted those myself, and while they were adequate, they didn’t look particularly…professional.
For my new forays into self-publishing, I wanted a product that looked better. So I paid someone to do ( Read more... ) -
Adventures in Indie, #4: Canva
Originally published at J. Kathleen Cheney. You can comment here or there.
There’s a last category of cover that I’m using. Self-made covers, more or less.
I only use these on books that I’m planning to use as a giveaway book: giveaway for joining my newsletter, giveaway for my Patreon patrons, or publicity giveaway. If I’m planning to make money ( Read more... ) -
Adventures in Indie #4: PreMade Covers
Originally published at J. Kathleen Cheney. You can comment here or there.
One way in which a writer can cut costs is to purchase a premade cover. These are bountiful on the internet-all you have to do is type ‘premade book cover’ into your search engine, and you’ll find dozens of sites offering these.
I had been in the habit of perusing these for ( Read more... )
