That said, there are lots of great resources out in the interwebs for newbie writers like me and I mention some of my favourites on my website. Apparently you don't count as a seasoned writer until you hit 1,000,000 published words - I'm currently on about 710,000 so another couple of books for me before I'm an old pro (hmm, that doesn't sound right, does it??).
It's no secret that I love Smashwords and I think that its founder Mark Coker (or St Mark as I like to call him) is very generous. He offers three free ebooks for aspiring indie authors (some of these are available in other languages):
- Smashwords Style Guide: The Smashwords Style Guide has helped thousands of authors produce and publish high-quality ebooks. This free guide offers simple step-by-step instructions to create, format and publish an ebook. It's required reading for any author who wants to distribute their book via Smashwords to major ebook retailers such as the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Diesel.
- Smashwords Book Marketing Guide: This free book marketing primer provides authors easy-to-implement advice on how to market their books at Smashwords and elsewhere. It starts with an overview of how Smashwords helps promote your book, and then provides 30 simple do-it-yourself marketing tips. The book is useful to all authors, even those who don't yet publish on Smashwords.
- The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success: The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success reveals the best practices of the most commercially successful self-published ebook authors. This ebook is a must-read for every writer, author, publisher and literary agent. Learn over 25 best-practices you can implement today at no cost. These secrets will help you become a more professional, more successful writer and publisher. Share the secrets!
Thanks, JD!
ReplyDeleteI'm always looking for stuff like these, :D And I've glanced through the "Smashwords Style Guide", although I didn't read it. It seems very helpful.
By the way, I tried to enter on Smashwords website, and it's down. This only happens here (Spain, EU) or has anyone any problem, too? Yesterday it seems just fine, :S
And if anyone want to hear it, in my case I began writing long ago (well, sure that depends on what you think is "long ago"), when I was almost thirteen. Now that I'm 18, I'm planning on "publishing" a collection titled "Memorias de agua" ("Water memories", more or least). It would have all my writing, except for those things that are unfinished.
I used to be part of a very important literally forum, where a lot of people share their opinions about the author's books who owns it and also about literature in general. It has a dedicated section where amateurs writers can publish their stories, and other users might read and comment them. It was wonderful, and I learn a lot there. And we had the lucky that this author, Laura Gallego, although is a successful and famous writer always was there to exchange opinions with her fans!
Now I regularly publish some short stories, poems and phrases on my blog. If I write something, then I want to share it with other people, :D
Hi Soñando! No problems and good luck with your own writing and publishing adventures! :-)
DeleteJD!!!!
ReplyDeleteI thought of you today. My husband woke me up this morning to an 1980s song by Men at work called Land down under... It is now 6:15 pm my time and the damn radio is still belching 80s music.
Cheesy huh???
I'm sorry your book is still not available at BN.com.....I am acquiring the patience of Saint!!! Gladly at that.
Just Thought I would throw something random out to you. ( the music episode that is occurring somewhere Cold in the US...)
Hi Annie
DeleteDown Under is practically a national anthem here! And I'm quite partial to a bit of 80s music - nothing like some Duran Duran or Bananarama to brighten up your day :-)
B&N are being quite slow at releasing HP. They've had it for 2 weeks now and it's still not up. I'm beginning to think it will never appear anywhere!!
Bananarama????? Gah!!!! Hours of it will not only brighten up your day but make you see colors at that. Specifically Red! (the man almost undid me with his music and not in a good way) male mid-life crisis I swear. I keep telling him to pick up a nice quiet book....especially those written by someone name JD Nixon, but he won't listen. I always leave the Nook accessible in case he has a change of heart. Well, I will wait for the book. It will come out eventually. Look forward to reading it soon. : }
ReplyDeleteLol! Not an 80s music fan, I gather? Personally I'm not a fan of 90s grunge music (an attribute I give to Tilly in HP - don't worry, not a spoiler). Funny about your hubby! What was he listening to? Was he rocking out loudly to Iron Maiden? Or rapping with Run-DMC? Or God forbid, dueting with Agnetha from ABBA? Curious minds need to know :-D
DeleteOh my goodness, the man was listening to some group called Stryker and Styx. Now granted that the ar men but they have such a high pitch voice that makes you wonder if the are not trying to please dogs with their pitch. Now here goes my husband singing along and I told him that he could really hurt himself trying to keep pitch with them. In addition to those singers he was belching to culture clubs "do you really want to hurt me" and I kept saying yes!!! I really want to hurt him. Bad English was their and the cherry on top as Pat Benatar...I told you he almost gave me culture shock with the darn music. I honestly had to leave the house because I couldn't take it anymore. On purpose---when I came home I was greater by my husband and 2 daughters strumming their guitars in the kitchen. Arhhhhh!!!!! They were out to get me.
ReplyDeleteOh Annie - it's even worse than I thought! :-D
DeleteIndeed, indeed! And that was me giving you the pg version of it. He was totally dancing in his scrubs and all...
ReplyDeleteOh Annie, my dear, too much information :-)
Delete:}
ReplyDelete