Indie authors, there is no better time to help each other!
This is a fantastic article written by April L. Hamilton, the founder of Publetariat, which I repost here in its entirety with her permission. It’s a great challenge for indie authors – to find, read, review and promote other indie authors’ books. I love this idea, as this is the core of 2.0 approach to publishing – to help each other, being at the same time the author, the publisher, the critique and the reader.
Let me add Feedbooks to a list of sites, where you can find fantastic books by independent authors. The tag to follow an action on Twitter is #indieaction. Join in, have fun and spread the word!
An Indie Call To Action
Most of us indie authors talk a good game about how there are plenty of quality indie books available, and how there are plenty of terrible mainstream books. We also like to complain about the lack of variety and originality in mainstream book offerings as compared to indie books. Such musings generally lead to the conclusion that if people would just give indie books the same chance they give to mainstream books, if they would just put indie books to the ‘fifteen minute’ or ‘first ten pages’ test, the frequency with which they’d find books they would want to keep reading would be on par with that for mainstream books, and indie authors and readers everywhere would rejoice. It’s time we stop all the hand-wringing and blind hope, and make this happen.
Yes, we have the power. Every indie author is also a reader, and every one of us has a circle of influence. So if you’re an indie author or small imprint owner, I issue the following challenge to you: »»»
#VSS Anthology – vote for your favourite cover!
As you know, a first anthology of the best #VSS Twitter stories is being finalized right now. It’s a really exciting project and as a DIY writer/designer I’ve volunteered to create anthology’s cover. Out of several designs, two are the strongest – with each one having an idea behind.
Cover A
A book out of a tweet box. Simple idea, classic book design. I can make a version with strong colors as well.
Cover B
I used Wordle to generate a word cloud. In a final version there will be a cloud made from a final text of the anthology. The idea is to capture a tremendous variety of thoughts and worlds created by #VSS Authors.
I would be grateful if you leave your vote and share comments. For more info please follow @vssanthology.
My favourite cover for #VSS Anthology is:
- B (53%, 25 Votes)
- A (47%, 22 Votes)
Total Voters: 47
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What’s on my mind, visualized [part 1]
Here is a fantastic Wordle visualization of most popular words used at this blog. I love the look, as well as a way it can be created. You just type the address of your blog, choose a font, colours (font + background) – and there you have it. I’ll wordle my blog frequently. It’s a beautiful way to archive your Internet (=life) activity.
Having in mind blog’s title, I can only say that no, the word being my life’s password is not there yet.
Wordle is created by © 2009 Jonathan Feinberg
“Zany collection of tech-absurd short stories”
Please find below a full text of Court Merrigan’s review of my book Password Incorrect. I’m really proud of is as this is a first, and I hope not last, international assessment of the book, which I’m trying to promote to English-speaking readers without any publisher’s help.
Court Merrigan
Originally from Nebraska, Court Merrigan has lived in various places East and West and is currently back in the US with his family. His short stories have appeared in Blackbird, Weber Review, Porcupine, Evergreen Review, The Summerset Review, Dublin Quarterly, The Kyoto Journal, Pindeldyboz, Identity Theory, and Angle, among others. He is currently working on a novel. He blogs at Endless Emendation
Password Incorrect is a truly zany collection of “tech-absurd” short stories by Nick Name, pen name for Polish author Piotr Kowalczyk, which only a networked world could have unleashed. It’s available for free from Feedbooks. »»»
I’m not Dan Brown. Guess how I feel
I’m not Dan Brown.
Dan Brown is releasing tomorrow his new bestselling novel. I’m not.
Dan Brown is a genius writer. I’m not a genius and I just try to be a good writer.
Dan Brown makes huge money on his previous books. I make little money on my current Google Ads.
Dan Brown is writing books in English. I’m not. And I will never improve my English to the level where I can stop thinking about Google Translate.
And now comes the most important part: Dan Brown is perfectly meeting people’s expectations towards literature – he is giving them a long escape to the past. I think this is wrong. The literature of digital age shouldn’t be just an escape. We’re too much stuck in daily life to have enough time to escape. What’s more, the stress we receive every minute, from people and technology, cannot be just escaped. But it can be defused. That’s why I try to give my readers a short reset to the future, so they can live a bit easier and happier the next day.
I believe that today’s world is just too diverse for just one Dan Brown. I believe that there are readers, who don’t look for lost symbols, but forgotten passwords.
Now you know how I feel. I just feel good.
Possibilities of e-book cover design [example]
Look at the example of a cover I recently made for my new book.
Book covers seen in Stanza Reader for iPhone
Referring to this post, I just started to collect ideas of what can be done to support e-book cover design, with “e-book” being the most important part. We should stop thinking of e-books as a second class, second step or a second chance. We should stop thinking of CMYK, Pantone colors and the shade of a paper. Let’s think of a cover design for an e-book in terms of where it’s gonna be exposed. And it will not appear on a bookshelf. The destination of an e-book cover is a screenshelf.
As soon as we change our perspective, some amazing ideas start to crowd into mind. This single example of a cover, designed to be an e-book cover and nothing else, is benefiting from two possibilities, which are not so easy to be achieved with p-book covers: »»»
Please stop complaining about e-book design
There is a lot of complaining about how badly electronic books are designed. It’s true that 90% of e-book designs are crap. Most designers can tell you that. Probably exactly the same thing they say about paper books. The only difference is that in case of p-books they sometimes spot and share a good stuff.
When we talk about e-books the one single design association is a mix of white background, smiling photostock figure and a huge “how-to” title. Does that mean, that well designed e-books don’t exist? And this is what really bothers me: recognized, experienced book designers either ignore e-books or reject them.
Please stop it. Open your imagination to e-books. There is a lot to be done. 90% of designs are waiting to be improved. This would be much better, if we all start to find and share great, inspiring examples of e-book design. »»»
Why #vss and #wpss are good for a writer?
For those who are not very much involved into Twitter literature: #vss stands for very short story, #wpss is West Port Short Story. Both are the hashtags used to spot literary pieces written by Twitter authors. Why are they so good for writers?
They make writing easier :. You are constanly inspired by all the great stories, which are accompanied by both tags. You don’t wait, you write – because you don’t want to be left behind. For a non-English writer this is also an invitation to break his limits. I skipped #twittnovel, because I realized I can’t be good at it. With literary hashtags I feel like a member of a community, the one who has to learn a lot, but also the one, who is obliged to try. As I fixed my mind on tech-absurd, I’ll write #vss and #wpss on that and only that. Maybe my English is not good enough, but I hope the stories will be interesting enough to accept my language as it is.
They promote short literature :. I greatly believe that the future of literature are short narrative forms – like the ones on Twitter. As both tags lure more and more writers and readers, they are a great way to help digital literature break into mainstream. People stop reading books, because they perceive them as time consuming. But reading a #vss can give you a similar doze of emotions. And it takes a moment – or a stream of moments. »»»
16 amazing things you can’t make from e-books
Look at those beautiful examples of what can be done from a paper book. It’s just amazing… but on the other hand it’s good, that e-books are intangible. You can’t do things like that to them. As a writer I would love my book to be part of a heritage, not a birdhouse.
Use bit.ly to make a book easily downloadable from a tweet
Referring to a post, where I was sharing a way to make your book downoadable from a single tweet by everybody, who is using iPhone + Stanza, I have a great update: when you use bit.ly url shortener it’s now even easier to make. This solution was tested and suggested by Jonathan Vaught (@copyhacker), thanks for that!
Here is how it goes:
1. Copy a link of an ePub file, go to bit.ly and paste it into a link box
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3127.epub
2. In a link replace “http” to “epub”
epub://www.feedbooks.com/book/3127.epub
3. Click “shorten”. The link is ready!
This simple solution is based on a fact, that Safari can interpret epub:// directories, so that it opens Stanza, which immediately downloads a book from that directory.
Recently updated Polish tech-absurdist and mobile fiction writer 3.0 beta. Addicted to ebooks and technology. Guest writer at 
