Heidi Willard's Blog, page 2

Publish often, and don’t forget to write

In the wide, wide world of indie publishing, there are a lot of ways to stick out. Advertising, blog tours, free runs, Amazon Select, lighting yourself on fire in the middle of Times Square. One of the most common pieces of advice (and one that’s a little less painful. Well, maybe) is to have a large catalogue of books available for readers through which readers can browse. Offer them a variety pack of your best written (or even your slapped together) novels, novellas, short stories, etc. If they find something they like, they’ll check it out (a.k.a, buy it). Then they might find something else to buy, and soon you’re buried beneath a mountain of cash from those poor suckers, er, readers.

How do you get a catalogue, you might ask? Write. If that’s not enough, write some more. Stick to a schedule for how many words you can get a day (don’t make it too big or you’ll get discouraged). Put that goal into increments and handle it that way. Whatever you do, stick with it and don’t give up.

Amazon previewer, like cake, is a lie

This will be a short rant on the entirety of the Amazon uploading process. Most of it boils down to this: never, NEVER rely on the Amazon.com cover previewer for a reliable preview. It just mutilates the image for no apparent reason. I’ll admit I made the mistake of believing that’s what my cover would really look like, and I panicked. Honest to God, sweating panic. I went through countless sites trying to figure out what I’d done wrong, and then I posted a question on the Kindle Boards about the problem. That’s when a kind soul told me that it was deceitful. My cover would look just find post-publishing. I’ve never forgiven Amazon since.

Scrivener Is Your Friend

The Scrivener writing program, created and published by Literature and Latte, is one of the best tools for aspiring indie authors on a relatively tight budget. The program has a free 30-day trial (based on the days you use it, so if you open it only ten times in 30 days, you still have 20 days left on your subscription) and is relatively cheap ($45 USD for the Mac, $40 for the Windows). It’s a great program if you obsess about separating chapters and scenes because it allows each part of your book to be compartmentalized into folders. Hell, you can have a whole folder-ception going on in your book document if you organize that way.

One of the greatest benefits I’ve seen, though, is the ability to compile the book into an ebook without having to export to another program. I’ve read enough horror stories to know people have a hell of a time changing a writing document into the ebook format (.mobi, .epub, etc.), and was really glad I didn’t have to go through all that trouble when I bought Scrivener.

The second best thing? You can share it among family members in your household an endless amount of times. The keycode they give you literally works forever, so all you need to do is keep that thing around for easy install use.

With all these great (and cheap!) benefits, go check it out. It’s worth a look.

Author Tip of the Day

I thought I’d feed the insatiable troll of narcissism by creating a series I like to call “Author Tip of the Day.” It’ll feature any random idea that I see or that pops into my head regarding troubles, trials and tribulations of indie ebook authors. Some of these may apply to the traditional publishing industries, but mileage may vary.

For any authors rummaging through my site, this will at least be an amusing read. For readers, get ready for your own posts as soon as I think of a nifty name.

They’re Alive! They’re Alive!

[image error]The first two novels of The Catalyst Series have gone live! Now you can pick up Hawthorn Inn and Sanctuary at any of the four publishing sites!

Feel free to head on over to their pages and take a look at them, and remember, the third book is scheduled for release at the end of this month!

Catalyst Release

Just a quick update on what I’ve been doing (which is writing my fingers off in final drafts):

The first and second novels for the Catalyst series will be released on Friday, March 1st (meaning it should be available for download then at all participating sites). The third has a tentative scheduling of the end of the month, followed by the last two one month proceeding that.