Think back to when you started your author career When did you start to consider your brand and how did you decide what it would be nbsp For me the idea of settling on one selling point for my stories has always sounded nearly impossible Even as I prepared to release my first book I knew hellip

Countless craft books and blogs will tell you that the beginning of your book needs to be some of your strongest writing You have to introduce your narrator and your world and hook your reader into the story often in a matter of just a few sentences In some ways your book s launch serves the same hellip

Raise your hand if you re one of those authors who has acted out a scene when they re writing it to make sure it would work Keep it raised if you ve ever mimed a facial expression at your computer screen to help yourself describe it typed a questionable search into Google while researching for your work in progress hellip

Although you re reading this in January or maybe even later into the new year I m writing this letter in December 2023 My family s Christmas tree is still halfway decorated I still have packages to ship letters to mail and several deadlines to meet for our staff before I sign out for the holidays I may be clinging hellip

Another year is nearly complete and I feel confident saying it s been a busy one for most of us It s one of the side effects of being an indie author after all Generally the word leisurely is not in our vocabulary If you re anything like me at this point your schedule is probably filled with hellip

I once had a college professor remind me that in some professions doing everything right means most people won t see the work you did I can t remember now if the advice came as part of a journalism or editing course but after several years of working in both fields I ll admit it seems to apply hellip

Why did you pursue independent publishing We could surely all answer differently In my case I knew traditional publishing could be a long and taxing process I knew the book I wanted to write was in a niche genre and therefore would be harder to sell to an agent even if I also knew it hellip

To anyone who thought the discussions around AI might be quieting down let this past month be an assurance among authors at least the debate rages on nbsp On August 7 author and industry expert Jane Friedman wrote a blog post expressing frustration with Amazon and Goodreads after she discovered a series of nonfiction books which hellip

Ah editing The stage of the publishing process every author always seems eager to reach until they reach it nbsp Don t feel bad Editors get it We know you ve probably frowned at your screen in confusion at some of our questions How do you want me to style your ellipses or you ve grumbled not so nice words hellip

Some of the best things about being an editor for Indie Author Magazine are the gems of wisdom I come across in our writers stories Take Eryka Parker s feature on keywords in this month s issue Like many of you I m sure I ve always viewed managing metadata as a bit of a chore something we do to hellip

Once you ve written The End how do you prepare for your manuscript to go in front of new eyes nbsp By new eyes I mean those of your editor beta readers or ARC team that special selection of people who get to see your book before it s truly a book Putting your published book out into the hellip

At IAM we have always prided ourselves on our ability to dissect and disseminate technology information for authors From the beginning we ve understood the importance of having the right tools for your business and knowing how to use them So it felt only right for us to dedicate an issue to breaking down the newest and hellip

Six months ago I wrote The End on the first draft of my current manuscript It was some time in the early evening in the middle of the work week I remember sitting on the floor beside my writing desk and pausing my music to type those final words nbsp I ll admit it there were a hellip

One of this month s features asks a handful of authors that exact question and I always love hearing people s responses I met mine through Camp NaNoWriMo about eight years ago In fact you can read about our group the Treehouse of Writers in the article During the summer sessions of the writing challenge the site hellip

I have an honest confession to make I ve been staring at my computer for a few minutes now trying to figure out what I want this letter to say I ve fallen victim to the Curse of the Blank Page plenty of times When editing is part of your day job it makes it difficult to hellip

One of my favorite parts of Christmas morning has always been reading the letter Santa Claus leaves for me and my siblings My parents started the tradition when I was around five years old Every year we d wake up to a letter that talked about everything we d each accomplished that year and how proud we d hellip

In American Sign Language to sign the word friend you hook your two pointer fingers together then flip both hands over and repeat the action When I was learning sign language in college the website we used as a reference said to imagine your fingers were hugging Instead I like to think of things connecting hellip

I ve never considered myself particularly technology capable nbsp Sure having grown up awash in new devices and an expanding internet I m probably more adept than I give myself credit for But you can also guarantee I ll need to ask for help from my more computer savvy friends to set up a website Over the years Scrivener and hellip

A few weeks ago I spent an afternoon shopping for school supplies with my younger sister She ll be a freshman in college this year attending the same university I did and while I m helping her prepare showing her around campus explaining how the bus system works and where to buy textbooks I can t help but feel nostalgic hellip