The benefits of the B.R.A.G. Medallion and being a part of the indieBRAG Family 2016 As anyone who has had their book honored with the B.R.A.G. Medallion knows, it is a very challenging but worthwhile experience! Obviously, we hope having the B.R.A.G. Medallion on your book will bring it to the attention of a broader group of potential readers. But there is a great deal more that you can and should do to beyond just having the Medallion on your book. Here are some suggestions that will help us help you benefit from achieving this industry-wide, recognized standard of quality. We encourage you to take advantage of what we offer and to be generous in sharing your experiences and knowledge with other indieBRAG authors Be sure to tell everyone about your B.R.A.G. Medallion – The more recognizable the Medallion becomes as an indication that a book is worth a reader’s time and money, the more it benefits everyone. “One for all, all for one”! Encourage others to come to www.bragmedallion.com to find books that might interest them. We do not sell or distribute books, and we get very little financially when purchasers click through to amazon.com or the like to buy…
How 6 Writers Found Bliss in the Destruction of a City
Nothing that begins with champagne can ever be dreary. That is how A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii began—with Stephanie Dray, Kate Quinn and me toasting the release of one of Kate’s marvelous novels. We three have a longstanding tradition of hanging out on release days, primarily to keep whichever of us has a book launching from relentlessly checking Amazon rankings or curling up in a fetal position (if you’ve never released a book, believe me it is as terrifying as it is gratifying). All sorts of things get discussed at these luncheons—including the types of plot points that seem perfectly normal to historical novelists, but send waiters scurrying away concerned. On that particular day, however, our history obsessed brains turned not to poison or regicide but to doing something creative together. Specifically to continuities—collections of short stories that each stand-alone but also interlink to form a larger novel—which were increasingly popular in historical romance, but hadn’t made the leap to straight historical fiction yet. Maybe it was all the bubbles, but we were determined to change that. Writing is generally a solo effort, and it can be lonely. So when you have a chance to work with…
The Texas Book Festival: An indie author’s report
Anna Castle Author of the B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree Murder By Misrule (The Francis Bacon Mystery Series), shares here experinces at the Texas Book Festival Two Texas chapters of Sisters in Crime teamed up this October to host a booth at the Texas Book Festival on the State Capitol Grounds in Austin. Eight authors participated -- Traci Andrighetti, Alexandra Burt, Martha Carr, Anna Castle, N.M. (Noreen) Cedeño, Janet Christian, Helen Currie Foster, and Melissa Lenhardt -- a mix of indies and traditionally published. We took turns staffing the booth in two-hour shifts, but displayed our collective works throughout the weekend. The weather was gorgeous, the turnout was terrific, and we all had a great time. The book festival was first launched by Laura Bush in 1995. It has become one of the major literary events in the country, showcasing some 250 authors and attracting 40,000 book lovers. Most of them come for the fun of strolling around the capitol grounds enjoying street food, cooking demonstrations, live music, jugglers, the children’s story tent, and presentations by a wide range of authors. The streets are lined with big tents sheltering booths offering books for sale, alongside nearly every book-related organization in the state. We wanted Sisters in…
GET A BOOK READING, MAKE AN EVENT!
Lorraine Wilke Author of 2 B.R.A.G.Medallion Honorees- shares some great advice on making your book reading an event! One of the most tangible, satisfying ways for writers to connect with their reading public is with a book reading, that vaunted affair every author pictures at some point during the creative process! But as many self-published authors can testify, the logistics of getting one scheduled can be challenging, with results that are sometimes less than auspicious. Certainly every venue comes with its quirks and marketing can be a bear, but there are effective ways to ensure that your reading becomes a win/win endeavor. First: how to actually get one on the books: Pay for it. Yep, some bookstores not only charge to stock your book (commonly called “consignment programs”), but to schedule readings as well. Which means any author with a checkbook can get books on shelves and readings on the calendar without much effort. Reading fees can get as high at $250-$300, (which can be daunting for the average indie author), but if the store has a high enough profile to garner you real attention, it may be well worth the investment. Check the policies of local bookstores to see…
Overcoming the Terror of Speaking by Alison Morton
Alison Morton is the author of the Roma Nova thriller series – all B.R.A.G. Medallion honorees! Her latest is AURELIA featuring a new heroine pursuing silver smugglers in the late 1960s. It’s the day. You have a mass of faces in front of you. You are alone in the arena and the lions are pacing back and forth, tongues salivating. The be-tunicked and be-toga-ed are watching, a smile on their lips, ready to be entertained, but their thumbs are ready… No, this isn’t Ancient Rome, although it may feel like it as you stand there, notes in trembling hand, praying that the PowerPoint will work and that nobody will laugh or boo. An exaggeration, perhaps, but speakers today at events are expected to be as entertaining and as quick on their feet as ancient gladiators. Sometimes people who are expert in their field are not happy to speak to an audience. This is a shame as they may the very people we’d like to hear from. Now, I like standing up in front of people, but that’s not enough. I still agonise about whether I have too much or too little material or if I’m pitching it at the right…
Book Giveaways – Do They Make Any Sense? By Florence Osmund
You want me to do what? Offer my book for free? Just give it away? I would never do that. I put too much work into writing it and spent a small fortune on editing, cover design, and formatting. And what would people think—that I put such little value on my book that I’m willing to give it away? Nope. Not me. That was some of my earlier thinking. I’ve since changed my attitude. Let me explain how giving away books makes good business sense. KDP Select My experience with book giveaways is with Amazon’s KDP Select program for Kindle e-books. When you enroll your book in KDP Select, you have access to certain promotional tools including free book promotions where you are allowed to price your book for "free" for up to five days during each 90-day enrollment period. The book then also qualifies for Kindle Unlimited (an e-book subscription service) and the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. The main caveat is that as long as your e-book is enrolled in the program, it is exclusive to the Kindle Store—you agree not to sell it from any other venue. I personally don’t have a problem with that, but some people…
Attention Mainstream & Indie Authors
Some Lessons to Learn About Self-Publishing There is no question that the poor quality of the vast majority of self-published books has tainted the well and made all self-published books the target of criticism. We all wish that weren’t the case; however, the good news is that many in mainstream publishing have begun to notice that there are a small but growing number of self-published books that deserve attention. They are in every way as good as traditionally published books and many are better. Evidence of this was provided in the awards ceremony at the recent 2015 Historical Novel Society Conference, where three awards were presented: I think this proves two things: First, the best of indie books are competitive to mainstream published books. And second, indieBRAG is finding and supporting great self-published books. In conclusion, it is YOUR job as a self-published author to do the work to make your book the best that it can be. If you do, it is OUR job to do everything we can to shine a light on you and your book.
Reviewing Historical Fiction – what every Indie Writer Should Know
Helen Hollick - author, editor of Historical Novel indie books and author of 3 B.R.A.G.Medallion Honorees- shares her wisdom with us! It is all very well writing an historical novel – doing all that research, checking and re-checking to ensure no factual errors or anachronistic bloopers creep in, (like the narrative in a Medieval novel proudly announcing; “she froze, like a rabbit caught in the headlights,”) but what happens after you have finished the editing, sorted the formatting and finally got your book into print? You want it to sell, of course. The best way to do this is by word of mouth. Create a buzz, get people talking about your novel. Easier said than done though! A good way to get started is obtaining an Indie B.R.A.G medallion and gaining some genuine honest, reliable, reviews. Which is where I come in. I am an author – traditionally published with my Historical Fiction in the US, but my nautical fantasy adventure series, the Sea Witch Voyages are Indie Published (and all have B.R.A.G. medallions). But for this article, my other role is the primary one: I am also the Historical Novel Society’s Managing Editor for Indie Reviews. We welcome indie…
2014 indieBRAG SURVEY RESULTS
READERS SURVEY: PART ONE Over the past two weeks I have shared with you highlights from indieBRAG's Second Annual Survey among Authors of a B.R.A.G Medallion book. I would now like to present the key findings from the Reader Survey, and compare the results to 2013 where relevant. I will provide these results in three parts, beginning today with the Reader Survey: Part One. READER SURVEY: PART ONE Overview As was the case with the Author Survey, participation in this year's survey among our readers declined versus last year. Specifically, it dropped to 15%, which compares to 25% in 2013. While we were disappointed by this lower participation rate, the sample was still large enough to provide some useful, albeit directional, findings. The results I will present in Part One and Two reflect the readers' general views and preferences unrelated to their roles as indieBRAG reviewers. In Part Three, I will highlight several key findings that pertain directly to our readers' experiences in reading indieBRAGsubmissions. Preferred Format for Books Like last year, a little over half of our readers prefer reading an eBook. Only ten percent prefer trade paperbacks while forty percent read either. Very few readers favor mass…
READER SURVEY: PART THREE
READER SURVEY: PART THREE In this Blog I will conclude my summary of the key findings from the indieBRAG 2014 Reader Survey. The results presented here reflect the views and preferences of the respondents in their roles as members of the indieBRAG reader team. Based on their experiences reading self-published books for indieBRAG, 80% of our readers believe that the best indie books are as good as the best traditionally published books, while 20% say they are even better. This finding has not changed versus last year. Factors Affecting Attitude Characteristics of Self-Published Books Advice to Self-Published Authors As we did in the Author Survey, we asked our readers if there was one piece of advice that they could give to self-published authors what would it be? This concludes my review of the significant findings of the 2014 indieBRAG Reader Survey. I hope that you have found these results, along with those from the Author Survey, interesting and informative. However, as I said at the beginning of this series of Blogs, the level of participation in both the Author and Reader Surveys dropped markedly this year versus last year, and we are currently considering whether or not to discontinue the…
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Most Discussed Posts
- Fact to Fiction - The Eternal and the Holy
- "The Child, the best immigrant"
- The Journey to Holy Parrot
- What inspires an award-winning tale?
- Fire in the Cascades!
- From Ruins to a Shining City!
- Your First Chance!
- The Blurb- Buy or not to Buy
- On the road with Apple Turnovers!
- Grab a Meat Pie and travel back in time!
- A closer Look
- Egyptian Jews- a Culinary Community
- What do you know about self-publishing?
- The Plague!
- Trucking Together!
- A conundrum!
- Memories of the Deli-
- Time Travel
- A Trip into Medieval England
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