Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

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Our community of self-published authors is generous with the knowledge they have gained on their writing journey. Here at Writers, Readers & Self Publishing, we will share with you their advice, their experiences and their ideas for writing and promoting award-winning books.  We will also share incites from our readers and others in the field of self-publishing such as editors, designers and successful best-selling authors who graciously share their thoughts and experiences. Our readers and writers have also contributed some fun and interesting stories that we hope you will enjoy!

Your First Chance!

Geri Clouston
Your Book Cover by S.L.Dwyer Great! You’ve written a wonderful book. The story flowed onto the pages and your characters have become your best friends. Now what? Write the blurb—ugh, and synopsis. Not the most fun, but necessary. Blame the industry for those hateful necessities. So we come to the first thing a reader sees when looking for a new book. Your cover. Yup, first with the eyes, then with the words. There are millions of beautiful book covers that your book will fight with for space on the shelves or on the internet. So what makes a great book cover? Some will say it’s the color that will catch your eyes first. Others say it is the script or the lack of color. Is it part of a genre color scheme? Should we all use pastels for romance or black and red for horror? Dark blues and bright lights for Sci-Fi or soft primaries for fantasy? Knowing your genre and the major premise of the story should dictate a starting point. Bright colors will attract your eyes, while dark colors will repel those who are not interested in the genre usually represented by those colors. Choosing colors and script…

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Bloggers, Book Marketing, indieBRAG, Marketing an indie Book, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, Uncategorized, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

The Blurb- Buy or not to Buy

Geri Clouston
      The Blurb By S.L. Dwyer   The blurb for your book is the most dreaded word once you’ve typed “The End”. We sit and stare at the screen, or paper, wondering how do we even begin to condense a three or four hundred page book into two or three paragraphs. Yet, the blurb is the first thing a reader goes to when deciding if they want to purchase a book. The reader has to be pulled into the idea of the story, make them want to see how it unfolds with a limited amount of words. This isn't a synopsis that gives away the entire story, including the ending. It is a concise, pared down to the fewest of words, yet intriguing enough verbiage to make the reader want to take the book home. The blurb is the most important step in putting your book out for the public, either fiction or non-fiction. So, why is it so difficult to write? After months, and sometimes years, we have lived with this story. We are part of our characters' journey, their joys and heartaches, and their reason for demanding we share their story. We want to include everything…

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Bloggers, Book Marketing, indieBRAG, Marketing an indie Book, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, Uncategorized, Words of Wisdom, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

What do you know about self-publishing?

Geri Clouston
I would like to tell you about self-publishing and indieBRAG First, what do you know about self-published books? That they are books that couldn’t find a publisher – probably because they aren’t good enough?  Well, there was a time when that was a fact – but not so any longer. It has become a very popular choice for writers who want to have more control over their work. You would be surprised at the successful books that have been self-published today (not to mention some of the old classics like Beatrix Potter’s books). Here are a few that might sound familiar- The Martian by Andy Weir- which not only became a best seller, but also a successful movie. Wool by Hugh Howey – a founder of the “hi-bred” publishing. He sold the print rights to Simon & Schuster (for a sum of$500,00!), the movie rights to 20th Century but has retained all rights to continue distributing online himself. He was able to do this due to the success of his Self-published books. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki. This was the first self-published book to make it to the New York Times Best Seller List! The Joy of…

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award winning books, In Praise of indieBRAG, indieBRAG, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, The World of Reading, Words of Wisdom, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

Attention Mainstream & Self-Published Authors!

Geri Clouston
Some Lessons to Learn About Self-Publishing     1. You are NOT competing with self-published books. You are competing with ALL books published. 2. Readers do not care who publishes your book. Most of the disdain for self-publishing comes from mainstream published authors and publishers. 3. Self-publishing, if done properly, is a respectable way to publish a quality book but when comparing the cost/benefit of either method, it is simply a matter of ‘pay me now or pay me later’. a. Mainstream publishing –The publisher covers the cost of editing your book, formatting it, and creating an appealing cover,              but these costs are passed along to you by virtue of the relatively small royalty you will receive on the back end. b. Self-publishing – While you receive a much higher percentage of your book’s selling price at the front end, you must                         engage the services of professionals to do the work that a traditional publisher would have done. Think of this as                                 buying  a new house that a…

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Have you ever wondered how snowflakes are made?

Geri Clouston
Fawn faces a hungry arctic wolf, battles a fierce North Pole blizzard, and is the prisoner of a conniving sea captain intent on capturing arctic animals to sell to a New York City zoo!                       'Til the Last Snowflake Falls                      Have you ever wondered how snowflakes are made?                      I certainly have! Watch this!   How Do Snowflakes Form?

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award winning books, Book Spotlight, From Fact to Fiction!, indieBRAG, indieBRAG Kids, Middle Grade Reader, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, The World of Reading, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

The Earl Of Wessex – Sons of the Wolf

Geri Clouston
First creation (c. 1019) Wessex was one of the four earldoms of Anglo-Danish England. In this period, the earldom of Wessex covered the lands of the old kingdom of Wessex, covering the counties of the south of England, and extending west to the Welsh border. During the reign of King Cnut, the earldom was conferred on Godwin at some time after 1020.[3] Thereafter, Godwin rose to become, in King Edward's time, the most powerful man in the kingdom. Upon Godwin's death in 1053, the earldom passed to his son, who later became King Harold II and died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. In 1999, Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son, Prince Edward, married Sophie Rhys-Jones. Younger sons of the monarch have customarily been given dukedoms at the time of their marriage, and experts had suggested the former royal dukedoms of Cambridge and Sussex as the most likely to be granted to Prince Edward. Instead, the Palace announced that Prince Edward would eventually be given the title Duke of Edinburgh, which was at the time held by his father. This was unlikely to happen by direct inheritance, as Prince Edward is the youngest of Prince Philip's three sons. Rather, the title is expected to be newly created for Prince Edward after it "eventually reverts to the crown" after "both the death of…

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award winning books, Book Spotlight, From Fact to Fiction!, indieBRAG, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, The World of Reading, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

HOW TO WRITE A BOOK REVIEW IN 4 EASY STEPS

Geri Clouston
We thought our readers and      We thought that our readers and reviewers might be interested in these thoughts on writing reviews!     Thanks Carrie for sharing-                                                                                       indieBRAG Reposted with permission by author Carrie Beckort from Across the Board   Ah, book reviews. As a reader, I have a love-hate relationship with book reviews. For most of the books I read, I only look at a handful of reviews prior to reading. And those I do read are usually the 1 and 2 star reviews. If there is consistency in the negative reviews—poorly written/edited, clichéd plot, incomplete ending—then I think twice before reading. If the negative reviews are random or about things not important to me—such as the author using too many swear words—then I will likely jump in and read the book. I then go back and read several reviews, both positive and negative, after I finish the book to see how the views of other readers…

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Authors' Chat, indieBRAG, Readers Thoughts!, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, The World of Reading, Words of Wisdom, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

Benefits of Reading to Children

Geri Clouston
‘Reading for pleasure is more important for academic success than the family’s socio-economic status’ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The benefits of reading to your child are limitless. Nurturing the parent and child bond, sparking their imagination and forming the foundations of their learning abilities into adulthood are core benefits of reading to children. The advantages of reading are essential for working life and cultivating these basic needs in infancy helps children avoid the under-achievement gap that can arise from neglected basic skills. The Centre for the Economics of Education state “The best predictor of how skilled the adult will be is his or her level in primary school.” The best education systems worldwide require children to be in school from anywhere between 35 – 45 weeks to get the most out of classroom education. Having poor literacy and/ or numeracy can be a potential impediment to the individual’s life and career, and are ultimately foreseen consequences preventable in childhood. 8 Benefits of Reading for Children Nurturing the Parent and Child Bond Kids are constantly on the go. As your child grows older, they’ll be running about non-stop. Their natural curiosity causes them to become little explorers, constantly searching for something…

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Uncategorized, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

A little help!

Geri Clouston
  We were part of a panel on marketing recently.  The other 5 "renown" participants talked about such technical things that it lost the audience, I think.  They talked about SEO's and amazon logistics and things you could spend months on.  Although these things can be important and useful, they take time both to learn about and implement and right now we are going to talk about some of the things that you can do that a easy and don't take a lot skill!  We had gathered together some great ideas for marketing which were targeting more to what authors could actually do without getting a PhD..  When I began, I was aware that the others were not expecting much form indieBRAG.  At the end, I was swamped by audience members and after we returned home each of the other panelists got in touch to see if we wanted to work with them!  There are 2 sides to marketing- technical and physical.  We am trying to find a way for amazon to recognize indieBRAG  and the medallion so more readers will have a chance to find our wonderful books! We will be sharing with you some basic ideas for marketing. …

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Uncategorized, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

How to Source and Use Photos in Self-published Book Covers

Geri Clouston
How to Source and Use Photos in Self-published Book Covers Reposted with permission from Jean Gill Jean Gill, photographer and author From France, Jean Gill offers important advice about the right and legal way to source images for your books, websites and social media, drawing on her knowledge as both a professional photographer and an author, able to see the issue from both sides of the lens. As writers, we want images for our book covers, blogs, adverts and tweets. It is so easy to break the law if you find the perfect picture online. All you have to do is right-click, save it and use it. Simple! As simple as picking up sweets in a shop and pocketing them. You probably wouldn’t do the latter because a) it’s stealing and b) if you get caught, you don’t just pay the price of the sweets. The same applies to using images without permission, and there are some horror stories doing the rounds about the price of being caught. Why Paid Stock Photos Give Peace of Mind I’m a writer and a photographer, with a stock portfolio of 3,500 photos at istockphoto and Getty Images. When you buy a stock image, you pay for…

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Uncategorized, Writers, Readers & Self Publishing

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