Indie Life With the Indelibles

The Indelibles have started the year by hosting a monthly feature surrounding the indie life.  Posts go up on the second Wednesday of each month and indie authors are invited to share their experience, so here goes.

Lately, I’ve started taking my writing career seriously. Well, more seriously than I have since I started writing. After having three books traditionally published, I hit the road with a collection of short stories in 2011 and haven’t looked back since.

In March, I plan to launch a young adult series and I’ve laid the groundwork to be able to do that. I had planned to have the first in the series out by December 2012, but that didn’t happen.

It was a wakeup call and a reminder that proper planning is key when there are a limited 

number of persons working on a project. And boy did I learn how important it is to set realistic time frames. I did a loose schedule, which I’ll have to revisit, but I’m learning not to stress too much over missed deadlines.

I’ll never stop learning and so my latest task is how to format ebooks.  Susan Kaye Quinn made some interesting points in this article. When I first read the Smashwords manual, the thought of formatting anything made me want to tear my hair out, but I believe in learning new things and this seems to be stuff I can wrap my head around, so onward I go…

What new and challenging thing are you learning to do as it pertains to self-publishing?  

Thanks for sharing and do visit the other indie writers on the list below. 

P.S. I’m off to Mass this morning, so I’ll ‘see’ you when I get back. 

On another note – I’m hosting a blogfest to celebrate the release of Retribution. Details are here. If you write romance, or would like to try your hand at it, bring your best piece of writing (it can be something you’ve written already) and you could win a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card. Entries close tomorrow at day’s end.

Off to the U.K. with Isis Rushdan

Today, I’m off to cooler climes. I’ll be hanging out with Isis Rushdan (Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy writer) talking about what I learned from blogging and publishing. Slip across if you don’t mind. We’re looking forward to seeing you. Who knows? I might let you in on something you don’t know about or haven't yet explored. So hop on over and spend a few minutes with us here.

In case the journey is too much for you, there’s a frog I haven’t quite captured yet, but what I have seen of him, I’m gonna share with you. Gonna try and snare the total package before the week is out. 

It's too funny and darned if he isn’t full of sass! 

And yes, in case you wondered, this is Jamaica where your store front is liable to be taken over by vendors once you close your shop for the day.

Book Covers, Indie Publishing & Author Meltdown

Based on the comments I received from the first covers I posted here, I came up with this one. The ring is not as prominent, but hopefully this will work for the short story I’ll be posting to Smashwords.  Feel free to share your thoughts. I do want the cover to be as good as it can be.