A Hard Lesson Learned

September 10, 2018September 10, 2018 Diane Tibert Challenges and Goals, Lessons in Writing, My Indie Publishing Experience, Scattered Stones, Shadows in the Stone, Writing Business #amwriting, authors, books, ebooks, genres, hard lessons learned, indie publishing, learning, lessons, publishing, self-publishing, writers

Although it’s tough to admit it, six years ago, I made a horrible mistake in my publishing journey. After publishing the first book in my Castle Keepers fantasy series, Shadows in the Stone, I should have buckled down and completed the draft to the second book in the series, Scattered Stones.

However, feeling the pressure to get more books on my publishing shelf, I wrote a few short stories that were not in the fantasy genre. They were quick writes, quickly edited by my editor and quickly published. I soon had four books on my shelf. It looked impressive.

I was following the advice of those who believed the more books on a shelf, the more a writer gets noticed because they have a larger footprint.

However, those giving advice didn’t stress the vital fact that the books written should all be in one genre. Readers sometimes stick to one genre, so those who loved my fantasy novel might not like my contemporary stories about death, domestic abuse or a cranky neighbour.

Sigh.

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No One is Surprised: CreateSpace Closes and KDP Print Takes Over

August 28, 2018 Diane Tibert My Indie Publishing Experience, News Flash, Writing Business Amazon, books, CreateSpace, ebooks, indie publishing, KDP Print, Kindle, paperbacks, print books, print-on-demand, printed books, publishing, publishing industry, self-publishing

Between putting the laundry in the washer and hanging it on the line and while I was making pancakes for my youngest child, washing dishes and waiting for the buzzer on the oven to go to indicate the cinnamon rolls were ready for extraction, an email popped up in my inbox.

The subject told me all I wanted to know, and if Amazon thought they’d surprise me, they couldn’t have been more mistaken: CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing to become one service

I didn’t bother opening the message; I was too busy, and I knew what it was all about.

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Register Now: Online Indie Author Fringe Event April 15th

April 10, 2016April 9, 2016 Diane Tibert Events books, editing, Mark Coker, online conference, online Indie Author Fringe Event of 2016, publishing, Roz Morris, self-publishing

The first online Indie Author Fringe Event of 2016 kicks off at 10:00 am on Friday April 15th. This is London, England time, so in Nova Scotia, that’s 6:00 am (fours in the difference).

There’s an amazing line-up and many will recognise some of the names from the self-publishing industry:

Mark Coker (of Smashwords)
David Gaughran
Joanna Penn
Jane Friedman
Bob Mayer
Roz Morris

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Readers, help us solve a few mysteries about your reading habits.

March 13, 2016March 12, 2016 Diane Tibert My Indie Publishing Experience book formatting, books, do you read prologues, ebooks, forward, poll, preface, prologue, readers, self-publishing, table of contents, writing

Recently, I confessed to not reading prologues. I’m not sure when I stopped reading them, but I believe it was in my late teens. Why? From what I can remember, I thought they were boring and unnecessary to the story. In my mind, they kept me from getting to the story, stalled my progress, and that was something I was unwilling to do, particular if I really wanted to read the book.

It’s been so long since I read a prologue, that I truly can’t remember if those books in the 70s and 80s had boring prologues. In some cases, they were merely information dumps, something the author couldn’t creatively inject into the story.

Or perhaps it was the books I was reading, not the period. Maybe the books were written in the 60s or 50s or before then. I can’t say.

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Kindle Spell Check and Preview Your Book While in the Publishing Stage

February 2, 2016February 1, 2016 Diane Tibert My Indie Publishing Experience authors, books, eBook formatting, Kindle, Kindle eBooks, Kindle Spell Check, preview your book, publishing, publishing on Kindle, reviewing eBook, self-published authors, spell check, spelling mistakes, writers

Last week—while discussing Amazon’s warning about spelling mistakes and bad formatting for eBooks published on their site—I realised not everyone is completing all the steps necessary to upload and publish a book.

Book title, author’s name, tags, description and the other items on the Kindle publishing page are important, but the two check points before you hit “Publish” are equally important.

These check points are Kindle Spell Check and Preview Your Book.

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Treat eBooks like Websites and Update them Regularly

January 26, 2016January 25, 2016 Diane Tibert My Indie Publishing Experience Amazon, author pages, billboards, books, ebooks, formatting eBooks, front and back matter, indie publishing, Kindle, links, novels, sample chapters, self-publishing, Smashwords, updating eBooks, writing

Each January, I take a few weeks and update my eBooks – all of them.

This doesn’t mean I edit the stories. It means I update the file with new information and refresh what might have gone stale in the past twelve months. I also add details on things to come, such as the release of a book.

How long will it take?

Updating eBooks take less than an hour per book across all venues. It will take longer if you have not gathered the necessary pieces of information or you are unfamiliar with formatting.

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Independent Book Stores

January 20, 2016January 19, 2016 Diane Tibert News Flash book stores, books, Buy Local, independent book stores, Nova Scotia authors, support local authors

A campaign has been running in Nova Scotia for the past several years. It’s called Buy Local. I believe it started to encourage people to buy locally-produced food, however, it quickly spread to other locally produced items: clothing, furniture and books.

We are the second smallest province in Canada, and for us to survive and thrive, we need to support our local small businesses and local producers. This includes our local authors. When we support our authors, we give our province a voice. We allow them to continue to spread our stories, our way of life and our unique view of the world. We also support our history because our writers know our history best.

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