Going Indie: 4 Tips Indie Hip-Hop Group Macklemore Can Teach Authors

April 30, 2013 by 6 Comments
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We lurrrrve Macklemore.           In the past six months, indie hip-hop group Macklemore (Ben Haggerty & Ryan Lewis) has become HUGE. Not Harry-Potter-over-two-decades huge, but they’re certainly inching on Hunger-Games-over-five-years huge. “Thrift Shop,” a funky little ear worm that has everyone talking about poppin’ tags, has dominated YouTube waves with nearly 250 million views as of today and has gone platinum. Macklemore is the first indie group (an artist or group without the backing of a major record label) in nearly two decades to top the Billboard charts with “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us”; another hit, “Same Love” celebrates same-sex marriage, becoming a standard protest/civil rights anthem. Another hit on their 2012 album The Heist is a track called “Jimmy Iovine,” based on the legendary… [read more]

Filed Under: Audience, Authorpreneur, Branding, Fun, Indie Publishing, Kickstarter, Literary Trends, Media, Self-publishing, Social Media, Technology, Traditional Publishing, Twitter, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

More E-book Drama! Amazon and the Big 6 (3?) Sued by Indie Bookstores over E-book Sales

February 22, 2013 by 1 Comment
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                      Yesterday, it was announced that three independent bookstores–Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Fiction Addiction, and Posman Books–filed a suit against Amazon and the “Big 6” (3?) publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster) over Amazon’s monopoly over e-book sales due to DRM. These publishers have made agreements with Amazon to allow Amazon the advantage in selling their e-books. DRM, or “digital rights management,” prevents the transfer of e-book files from one device to another. For example, if you purchase an e-book on Amazon, that file can’t be transferred to a non-Amazon-friendly device (nook, for example) if you choose to change devices. Last year, J.K. Rowling historically… [read more]

Filed Under: Bookstores, eBooks, Pub. Industry, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

E-books: Why Self-Publishing Will Be Preferred by Readers

January 11, 2013 by 9 Comments
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If you are an avid reader of Wise Ink, you know that we live and breathe  indie publishing. We couldn’t be more in awe of the self-sufficient, self-starting, inspirational, educational, entertaining, thought-leading, movement-making indie authors we work with. You make us strive to be as awesome as you! Indie love! We’re also realists; we realize there are STILL (still? Yep.) plenty of nay-sayers out there trying to keep self-publishing authors down. Certain booksellers and reviewers refuse to even look at self-published books because “it’s their policy.” Indies move around them–directly to their audiences. Tons of other experts (Wise Ink included) believe that indie publishing is THE BIGGEST thing happening in publishing right now. Nothing in publishing has affected the industry… [read more]

Filed Under: eBooks, Indie Publishing, Pub. Industry, Royalty Publishing, Self-publishing, Technology, Traditional Publishing Tagged With: , , , ,

3 Online Tools that Make Publishing Your Book Easier

September 5, 2012 by 5 Comments
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As we are still tirelessly striving to get The Indie Author Revolution to the printer, it’s been easy to sulk about the challenges: it took longer than we thought, we hated compiling those endnotes, and there was not enough time to hire five more editors…the usual. However, there’s a lot to be thankful for, including the fact that there would have been more hiccups and time wasted had we not used a few tools. These tools surprised us and really came in handy. So here goes: 1. Evernote There’s not enough we could say about how wonderful this tool is. Evernote is the ultimate clipboard. Consider it your very own personal assistant. It captures articles, videos, notes, and details for your book… [read more]

Filed Under: #hashtags, Technology, Twitter, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

Book Design 2.0: Crowdsourcing Your Cover Design

August 22, 2012 by 2 Comments
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Our favorite step in the publishing process is the book design phase. Last week a few of the authors we work with received their first cover concepts from their designers and we had a great time pouring over each design. There’s something about seeing your book title paired with cover art. Your book suddenly becomes real. You finally have a visual of what you’ve pictured for so long. Finding the right person who will connect with your book and then design a cover and interior that compliments your content is major. We personally have asked around for recommendations and have found great designers that way. But, if you’re in search for a cover designer only, and you’re interested in working… [read more]

Filed Under: Design, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Revamp Your Twitter Page in 7 Days!

June 22, 2012 by 3 Comments
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Twitter is a wonderful yet overwhelming beast. When used properly, it will be one of the greatest tools in your arsenal for making new connections, building relationships with readers, and becoming an established voice in your topic/genre. When used improperly (i.e. not really used all that much), your Twitter page with 67 followers and 93 Tweets over the course of 6 months is going to do more harm than good! A Twitter page like that sends potential followers the message that you don’t take it seriously; if you don’t take it seriously, they figure you must not be that professional or that much of an expert, and definitely not worth their follow. A moment for sympathizing: I get it. I… [read more]

Filed Under: #hashtags, Blogging, Book Marketing, Branding, Social Media, Technology, Twitter Tagged With: , , ,

31 Twitter Hashtags for the Indie Author

May 21, 2012 by 5 Comments
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Soooo, you’ve got that Twitter account, huh? You’ve got a good follower-to-following ratio? You’ve got quite a few Tweets under your belt? Good for you! As we always preach, it’s extremely important for indie authors (or all authors, really) to be as directly connected to your audience as possible. On a large scale, there’s no better platform than Twitter. As far as Twitter goes, it can look like a jumbled mess of information if you don’t know how to navigate. With the use of #hashtags, however, Twitter is actually designed to group your information (and the information you seek) in a highly organized way. If you’re not already following #hashtags or using them in your own Tweets, you should be!… [read more]

Filed Under: #hashtags, Book Marketing, Indie Publishing, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Writing, Writing Prompts, Writing Tips Tagged With: , , ,

The Do’s and Don’ts of Using Twitter to Market Your Book

May 9, 2012 by 2 Comments
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The great thing about Twitter is that it doesn’t take a lot of time to do it right. The problem with Twitter is that its constant flow needs to be monitored daily in order to gain the rewards. You can have a really great Twitter day on Monday, but if you ignore it for the next week, you may have lost your followers already. It’s a much more volatile network than other social media sites because it’s the fastest moving. Below is a list of do’s and don’ts for optimizing the rewards of your Twitter account.   DON’T connect with as many people as you can, no questions asked. You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you; be strategic… [read more]

Filed Under: Book Marketing, Planning, Social Media, Technology, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,

Got Apps? Five Apps Authors Should Add to Their Toolkit

April 11, 2012 by 2 Comments
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Ease on Down the Aisle—The App Store Aisle! If you have an Android phone, iPhone, iPad, or iPod take the time to peruse the Android or iTunes app store for the latest and greatest writing-related apps. I’ll assume you have the basic must-have apps: Google, iBooks, Nook,  Kindle, and Wikipedia. Here are more of our favorites to jumpstart your app shopping; most are free, and none are more than $2.00. WordPress WordPress has quickly become the most preferred platform for bloggers. The WordPress phone app is complete with the ability to upload your blog post, highlight the location from where you’ve uploaded it, and insert high resolution photos. If you think blogging is not for you, the ability to do… [read more]

Filed Under: Planning, Technology, Writing Tips Tagged With: , , ,