Amy Leigh Strickland's Blog, page 2

How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo

In the third episode of Indie-Visible, I discuss How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo. Subscribe on Youtube for a new Episode Sunday.

NaNoWriMo 2015

Happy Halloween! All Hallow’s Read is fast approaching. Tomorrow night I will be busy with friends eating book-themed food and swapping spooky books while dressed as a gender-bent Harry Potter. Then on Sunday, I will be writing like a madwoman to get out in front of NaNoWriMo!

My username is Nimbuschick, so go add me as a Buddy (it’s case sensitive). You can also follow me on Twitter and participate in sprints with me from time-to-time.

What will I be writing? Last year I wrote a ~65k word se...

Bottom Line: The Rocket City LitFest Was a Blast!

I’ve had a very busy October so far. On October 9th I finished a 9-week teaching position with a flurry of paper-grading. On the 10th and 11th I did the Rocket City LitFest in Huntsville. On the 13th I spoke to some kids at Chelsea High School. Today I slept in late and made pretty leather things, at the expense of my clean, unstained fingers.

As utterly exhausted as I was by weekend, I must admit that it was well worth it. I spoke on a bunch of panels, met some really nice readers, and got t...

Aurors: The Fist of Mars

I wrote a Harry Potter fanfiction. A 65k+ word fanfiction. Because I don’t know, but it was fun.

Aurors: The Fist of Marsstarts months after the Battle of Hogwarts and is canon to the epilogue. It follows Harry, Ron, and other members of the Department of Magical Law enforcement as they attempt to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the war.

Ships: Romione, Hinny, and just a bit of Hannah/Neville. Also Oliver Wood features strongly in this fic.

I’m putting it online for free because I just...

Amazon Ads versus Facebook: A Case Study

Last weekend my father-in-law’s book launched. We got advancedreaders to pile their reviews on day one, bumping us up to about 20,000 overall in the paid store before sinking back down. Within the genres we got MUCH higher. For this launch we budgeted $100 in Facebook ads and $100 in Amazon ads. Here’s what happened.

Facebook Ads: A Tale of Two Variables

Our Facebook ads were split into four categories of $25 for the first few hours for some A/B testing, and then I switched the rest of the bu...

Why Hire a Cover Artist?

In this month’s Indie-Visible vlog, I cover some points I previously made in this blogand add some more. This video features a special guest appearance! Check it out.

What We Mean by “Indie”

A few months ago I was asked bythe crew at Indie Visible to work on a show for their new channel on Youtube. What I started is a monthly show (don’t worry, I haven’t given up Read Ink) that will cover various topics in Indie Publishing. Tuesday the September video will go live, but today I wanted to share the August video, “What We Mean by ‘Indie.'” Enjoy!

You’re a Professional, START ACTING LIKE ONE!

Dear Indie Authors,

It is acceptable to make Tumblr collages in which you cast Lucky Blue Smith as Draco Malfoy. Nobody will come after you for putting song lyrics on a photo of Jennifer Lawrence to express all your feels about Peeta on Instagram. Fair Use protects these exercises in fan art because you’re creating commentary without profiting or interfering with anyone else’s ability to profit off of their work.

But as soon as you slap a price tag on your work, it’s no longer fair use. As so...

Guest Posts from Cheaters

I have a few sites that I manage (including this site, the Olympia Heights comic, my publisher site, and a site I co-founded with a friend that looks at popular culture.) I’m used to getting email pitches from people who didn’t really look at my site or who think I work for a much bigger company than I do. But something has started happening these past few weeks that really rankles me as a teacher. I’ve seenthree applications to sites I work on from different writers (or so they claim to be)...

What’s In That Fan Pack?

You may have noticed in the sidebar (or on a pop-up) an advertisement now on my site for the fan pack. Users who sign up for my mailing list will receive a free 300mb+ zip file filled with digital goodies. If you’re already on the list, you can drop me an email to grab a link.

So what is in the fan pack?

There are quite a few goodies in it, and I’ll be adding to it from time to time.* Here’s what’s in it now:

Olympia Heights: The Pantheon(mobi, epub, pdf) Rescue OR, Royer Goldhawk’s Remarka...