“Kick” is free today, along with a lot of other great books sponsored by the Self-Publishing Roundtable. Check it out!
Category Archives: Indie Publishing
Awesome Indies Everywhere
Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about the Awesome Indies or included new ones into their mighty ranks. Mainly because of that stupid rule I created when I first started the project. Basically, I said I wouldn’t add anyone who “didn’t need the help” or something like that. Total hogwash. Let’s face it: everyone needs help. Publishing is tough. From now on, even indie powerhouses get a seat at the table.
Another change is I’m no longer limiting the list to people who write so-called “full length novels.” Novellas are allowed. And I only post the actual books that I’ve read by the author, not something else they’d rather see placed here.
With the administrivia out of the way, here are the new Awesome Indies:
- “Talking To Luke,” by Diane Ryan
- “Fat Vampire,” by Johnny B. Truant
- “The End Of The World As We Knew It,” by Nick Cole
- “The Neighbors,” by Zach Bohannon
- “Jumper: Karma Police,” by Sean Platt & David Wright
- “The Day After Never,” by Russell Blake
All of these books had great stories, great editing, awesome presentation, and made me want to read more of their stuff. And they’re all independently published.
Filed under Awesome Indies, Indie Publishing
News updates: health, book covers, paperbacks
I’d originally started this blog as a blog, but really it’s more of a news site these days for whatever’s going on in my publishing adventures (thus the lack of regular posts). But there has been a little news in the last month, and here it is:
News 1: Weight loss/Health
Despite not being a blogger, I did start a bloggy sort of thing the other day — a weight loss challenge. If you’re curious, you can read my first post on my wife’s blog: John’s Little Problem. I’ll be posting something there every Monday.
News 2: New Covers
The old covers were cool, but book 1’s looked a little like a karate book, in my opinion. Couple that with the name “Kick,” and I think I was turning a lot of folks away who might have enjoyed reading a story about a body-hopping dead guy with a fast food habit (who also fights evil). So I went out and re-branded the series. Here, have a look: new covers.
News 3: Paperbacks
Being an indie author, it’s super easy to forget about paperbacks because so much of our sales come from ebooks. For a reader to buy a paperback, one or more of the following has to happen:
- the reader has to love reading paperbacks.
- the reader has to know the author exists.
- the reader has to discover the book in a book store.
- the reader loved the ebook so much she just had to buy the paperback.
I’m sure there are other reasons (gifts, pet termites, book burnings, etc.). The point is, I’ve neglected all these folks for far too long. Also, it just looks cool having my books in multiple formats. As of now, all the Jenkins Cycle books are available in both ebook and paperback. For “Kick,” the audiobook will be out hopefully before summer, that’s all I can promise right now. I’ll get around to publishing “Thief’s Odyssey” in paperback when my designer, Lindy Moone, frees up a little time.
Cheers
Filed under Blogging, Indie Publishing
Lindy Moone book covers
She claims she makes book covers for love and not money, and yes I believe her. So don’t bother offering her thousands and thousands of dollars to make a cover (/laugh).
Seriously though, check out the great work:
Filed under Indie Publishing
Video trailer for the boxed set
A friend of mine created the following video trailer for “The Jenkins Cycle Boxed Set: Binge Edition.” I thought it was pretty cool, and used it in a Facebook ad. Now that the ad is over, I’m posting it here for your enjoyment.
Filed under Indie Publishing
Mark Coker talks about Amazon exclusivity, and the latest casualty: Flipkart
Fascinating read by Mark Coker of Smashwords. It starts off talking about Smashwords ending its relationship with Flipkart, but goes into Mark’s opinions (mirroring mine) about Amazon exclusivity and what it means for indies.
http://blog.smashwords.com/2015/08/smashwords-and-flipkart-to-end.html
Filed under Indie Publishing
Tonight on the Self-Publishing Roundtable — Me!
For those who are interested in seeing me opine about lofty issues while sitting in front of a fireplace, you can catch me on the Self-Publishing Roundtable tonight.
Filed under Indie Publishing, Podcasts
“Tell your friends great” fiction — Interview with Stephen Campbell
Wonderful read, and I couldn’t agree more. I think all authors would like to be in the “tell your friends great” category. I think my stuff falls more into the “admit guiltily to your friends” niche, but hey, I’ll take it!
http://www.thecockeyedpessimist.blogspot.com/2015/07/who-are-curators-of-remarkable-fiction.html
Filed under Indie Publishing
“Hopper House” is available for pre-order on Amazon
Good news, I decided to put Hopper House up for pre-order on Amazon. It’ll be officially on sale on August 15. It’s also available for pre-order on Apple.
Filed under Indie Publishing
Mike Faricy on The Author Biz — great show for bare-bones self-pubbers
For those of you indie authors who don’t get to listen to many self-pub podcasts, here’s one with Mike Faricy. He’s a great guest on one of my favorite podcasts. He describes his mostly bare-bones approach to self-publishing, and more importantly, he talks about how his career didn’t take off until he got 5 books into a series. Before that, he’d written 5 standalone novels which didn’t really sell. By book 9 in his series, he switched careers and became a full time author. I love his attitude: just do the damn work, move forward. Hey, it works for salmon. And like salmon, we all die at the end.
Ah, Mondays … Here’s the link again:
http://theauthorbiz.com/tab050-a-different-way-of-running-your-author-biz-with-mike-faricy/
Filed under Indie Publishing, Podcasts, Writing Market
John L. Monk 