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Self-Publishing Your Story

Self-publishing insights, tips, and techniques. Sample topics: my Fiction University guest posts about Indie Publishing Paths, cover artist and editor selection advice, formatting issues, creating print versions, etc.

Self Publishing? What’s Your Distribution Plan?

Stick figure at a chalkboard with text: Fiction University Day! What's Your Distribution Plan?

Indie publishing isn’t made up of just one decision to put us on one path. The choice to self-publish is just the first of dozens, maybe hundreds, of decisions we’re going to have to make as part of our indie career. One choice we have to face is how we want to sell our books. There’s no right or wrong answers—only what works best for us.

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September 3, 2015

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What’s Your Author Self-Esteem?

Man staring at the ground with text: How to Improve Your Author Self-Esteem

I think it’s safe to say that we often doubt ourselves as authors. If we’re not careful, that self-doubt can affect our business decisions. Sometimes we even reject ourselves to prevent rejection from others.

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August 20, 2015

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What Makes Your Story Unique?

Neon sign of "Same Same But Different" with text: Is Your Story the "Same Same But Different"?

Ever heard “write the same but different”? Usually agents want something similar enough to other stories that they know they can sell the book but different enough to not feel like a retread. Whether we’re writing queries for traditional publishing or back-cover blurbs for self-publishing, if we can identify how our story is unique, we can better sell our story.

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August 18, 2015

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Self-Publishing? Which Path Is Best for You?

Stick figure at a chalkboard with text: Fiction University Day! Know Your Goals

Even though I don’t want my blog to turn into “all self-publishing tips all the time,” I also want to share my indie publishing insights and advice. My friend Janice Hardy came up with the perfect solution: joining the Indie Author Series at Fiction University, where I’m writing a series digging into some of our options for indie publishing.

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August 6, 2015

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Shining a Light on Diversity Issues

Cartoon of people looking up at light with text: Shining a Light on Diversity Issues

In gearing up for the release of Pure Sacrifice, one frustrating experience was beyond my control. I’ve mentioned before that we should avoid assumptions about our characters, so I waited until I heard a voice that resonated and knew my paranormal character for this book wouldn’t be white skinned. Great! Except…

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July 28, 2015

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Audiobooks: Getting Started with ACX — Guest: Amy Patrick

Microphone on a counter with text: Audiobooks: Finding the Right Narrator

One way slow writers can succeed is to create more income streams for each book, such as releasing an audio version. But we might not have experience with audio publishing. Luckily, today’s post is by a narrator for Amazon’s ACX service who will tell us how to get started with ACX, especially how to audition and work with a narrator.

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July 9, 2015

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Save Money by Designing Your Own Promo

Wooden box filled with money with text: Save Money with Promo Design

While I paid for a cover designer for my books, I created the bookmarks myself to save money. Several people asked me how I made them complement the cover so well, and since saving money is always a good thing, I figured I should post about the topic.

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June 18, 2015

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Do You Have a Publishing Plan?

Field of daisies with text: Can You Daisy Chain Your Release Schedule?

Those of you who have been following my publishing process might be wondering why the one book I have out so far is free. After all, it costs money—potentially lots of money—to publish a book. Let’s take a look at a publishing plan for when it might make sense to give our books away for free.

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May 7, 2015

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