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In Praise of indieBRAG – S. R. Zales

Geri Clouston
  Hello indieBRAG, In 2013 I was awarded a Gold Medallion by Indie B.R.A.G. for my Juvenile Book "Jenny and the Hummingbird Faeries". First off I cannot thank your group enough for the honor.  I did receive some Medallions and used them on the books I sold. I wanted to let you know that they were a great asset in selling by book. The book has continued to sell in the hundreds and I believe you were instrumental in making that happen. I have a number of venues coming up in the next several weeks and months where I will be selling even more books. The problem is that I have used all, yes all, the Gold Medallions and am desperately asking to purchase from you 200 more. Is that possible? It would be a marvelous if you could send them as soon as you can. Thank you  in advance. Keep up the tremendous work you all have been doing. S.R. Zales Jenny and the Hummingbird Faeries Find this award winning book HERE Author S. R. Zales https://www.srzales.com/

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Book Marketing, Book Spotlight, In Praise of indieBRAG, indieBRAG, The B.R.A.G.Medallion ,

Advice from Steena Holmes “Branding with Intent”

Geri Clouston
Writers: Don’t Give In To The Pressure By Steena Holmes on Apr 05, 2018 02:23 pm If you are a writer, raise your hand if you feel the pressure to rush your process and just get those books out. (my hand is raised and I know yours are too!) There are so many factors to this rush: bills are piling up so many of your writing friends are releasing books in quick succession you keep hearing this is the only way to get noticed (ie. 90 day window) any other number of reasons to feel like you’re missing out Can I say something that might be against the norm? Stop. Slow down. Don’t panic. I know, I know, easy enough to say, but hard to accomplish, right? I’ve been there, in your shoes when I saw my income going down and my bills piling up. When I would hear of others talk about their numbers and stepped back so no one would notice me and ask how I was doing. When I would visit different FB writing groups and the advice was to write/publish/repeat as fast as you can in order to increase your visibility. Every time I would hear…

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Authors' Chat, Book Marketing, indieBRAG, Marketing an indie Book, Steena Holmes, The Self-publishing World, Uncategorized , , ,

Lunch with Madame Presidentess.

Geri Clouston
Foodie Lit Definition: a genre  of novels and memoirs filled with stories and recipes A more open community around the table Madame Presidentess by Nicole Evalina The first woman running for president is a tale filled with intrigue, scandal, enemies and lurid newspaper accounts, sexual innuendoes, financial scandals and marital woes.  Biographical accounts are often brutal and vindictive. You might think I am writing about Hillary Clinton but she in fact was not the first woman to run for President. Victoria Woodhull ran for the office in 1872 on the Equal Rights Party, supporting women’s and workers rights.  Writing about her run for president, Woodhull noted, “The truth is that I am too many years ahead of this age…and the unenlightened mind of the average man.” Nicole Evalina brings us a vivid portrait of Woodhull in her historical novel. She told me, “My portrayal of her comes from how I think she saw herself… I think she believed the ends justified the means.” A constant headline maker in her own time, because of later conflicts with suffragettes, Woodhull became a footnote, mostly written out of their accounts of the decades’ efforts to gain the right to vote for women. Yet…

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Book Marketing, Food for Thought, indieBRAG, Readers Thoughts!, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World , , , , ,

In Praise of indieBRAG by author Pamela B. Eglinski

Geri Clouston
" Let me say once again that indieBRAG is a dream to work with.  You are head and shoulders above most every other social media site.  I'm so pleased to work with you, and you never seem annoyed with my questions and requests! Pam Eglinski                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The Can-Can Girl Find out more about Pamela B. Eglinski

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Authors' Chat, Book Marketing, Book Spotlight, In Praise of indieBRAG, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, Uncategorized , ,

In Praise of indieBRAG by author Glen Craney

Geri Clouston
"I learned about indieBRAG from fellow historical fiction authors who are members of  Facebook groups.  With the emergence of POD and digital publishing, the good news is anyone can now publish a book; the bad news is anyone can now publish a book!  The greates challenge indie authors confront is the stigma of inferiority caused by books rushed into the market without professional design and editing.  indieBRAG offers an invaluable vetting service to readers who might otherwise she awar from indies.  With the rapid changes in the industry, i'm confident the walls between indie and traditional publishing will continue to crumble." Find our more about Glen Craney, multiple B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree author

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Book Marketing, Book Spotlight, In Praise of indieBRAG, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, Uncategorized , ,

What’s in a Media Kit?

Geri Clouston
A Media Kit can be a useful way to gather all the info about you, as an author, and your book.  We asked Marisa to share her terrific MK with us- I’m a self-published debut author and a proud owner of an indieBRAG Medallion Award. My book, GOODBYE To Italia, is a family story, and was published in 2016 but only a year later have I created a Media Kit (MK). An MK is defined as containing information about your business, product or an event. I did have a one-pager that in loose terms met this criteria. But in such a competitive world and a global market, it really is necessary to have a more professional approach. Thanks to my publishing and marketing mentor, Ocean Reeve, he provided me with a couple of examples of what an MK should look like. He also gave me a kind but strong talking to. Duly subdued, I reviewed the relevant documents and sat down one weekend to create my own. Not for me was a 15-page MK although if that’s what you want to do that’s your choice. Instead, I wanted to relay the messages as effectively and succinctly as possible. Not wanting…

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Book Marketing, indieBRAG, indieBRAG News!, Marketing an indie Book, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, Words of Wisdom , ,

Let’s begin a Jolabokaflod!

Geri Clouston
The small country (329,000 people) of Iceland boasts it has more writers, books published and books read than anywhere else in the world. Can you imagine that? To those of us who are “Book People”, this is astonishing! A tradition we can all be envious of is Jolabokaflod – the “Christmas Book Flood”. Christmas Eve is a time of giving books and stores are sold out long before the special night.  Each person receives at least one print books (not ebooks) along with chocolate to enjoy for the rest of the evening when it is tradition to spend the night reading. It wasn’t long ago that all TV stations in Iceland stopped broadcasting from 6pm-10pm because everyone was reading! The book season kicks off in September when each family receives Bokatidindi, a catalog of new publications from the Iceland Publishers Association distributed free to every Icelandic home.  By early December book stores are sold out. Because of this amazing tradition, Reyckavik has been named by the United Nations as a “city of Literature” and it host the international children’s literature festival and the international Literary Festival. Icelanders have a grand history of storytelling.  The Icelandic Sagas written around the 13th century…

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award winning books, Book Marketing, Christmas, from Fact to Fiction!, indieBRAG, indieBRAG Kids, Readers Thoughts!, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, The World of Reading ,

Blogging for your Readers!

Geri Clouston
Maria Grace Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was ten years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful. After penning five file-drawer novels in high school, she took a break from writing to pursue college and earn her doctorate in Educational Psychology. After 16 years of university teaching, she returned to her first love, fiction writing.   She has one husband and one grandson, two graduate degrees and two black belts, three sons, four undergraduate majors, five nieces, is starting her sixth year blogging on Random Bits of Fascination, has built seven websites, attended eight English country dance balls, sewn nine Regency era costumes, and shared her life with ten cats. We are so fortunate to have the very gifted writer Maria Grace (4 X B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree author!) join us today to share some thoughts and information about her very successful blog.   Marie, I love your website!  I am a fan of your books and always look forward to posts and info you share on your site. There are so many different types of websites from authors- some…

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Book Marketing, indieBRAG, Marketing an indie Book, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, Words of Wisdom , ,

“Branding” with best selling author Steena Holmes

Geri Clouston
  Steen Holmes is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has sold over 2 million copies of her books. She is a sought after speaker on the subject of indie publishing and branding.  We are very pleased to have Steena Holmes, B.R.A.G .Medallion Honoree author of Finding Emma, join us here to share her thoughts and expertise. First of all, let me congratulate you, Steena, on all your success--selling books is not easy! For all self-published authors out there, I am taking a big step beyond giving advice on writing.  By the time a book gets to us at indieBRAG, learning how to write and asking advice about publishing a book is in the past.  We assume that when an author submits their book to us they are confident it is well written, edited, formatted and has an appealing cover.  If not, it probably will not make it to our library. So Steena, let’s talk about what you are an expert on--marketing and selling books. How important is finding your audience and how do you do that? For me, knowing my audience, finding those readers – that’s more important than anything else after the book. If…

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Book Marketing, Book Spotlight, genres, indieBRAG, Marketing an indie Book, Romance, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World , , , , , , , ,

The Fifty Shades of Grey Effect

Geri Clouston
    I love a good historical romance!  I think reading Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters fueled that love at an early age.  As most of us know, there is a big difference between romance and erotica but, that line is being blurred.  Yes, it is still possible to find a great romance that doesn’t share the intimate sexual acts of the characters however it is getting harder.  This isn’t always a bad thing.  The wild success of Fifty Shades of Grey proves that there is a huge audience for graphic sex.  I am finding that many, if not most, of the historical romances now have graphic sexual content.  As long as it is a good story and well written, a reader can just flip through the sex if they are offended by it and not lose the story or the ability to share in the intimacy of well written characters. But here is the problem I have seen all too often- The sex seems to be added JUST to titillate and not to add to the story.  It often breaks the mood, stalls the story and this lowers my impression of the ability of the author to convey…

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award winning books, Book Marketing, Book Spotlight, indieBRAG, Readers Thoughts!, Romance, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World , , , ,

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