Beth Reekles penned an article at The Guardian about how indie publishing via online writing communities and ebooks can provide valuable feedback, and even set you on the path to mainstream success.
Category Archives: Success Stories
Focus, long term commitment and sheer hard work, every day, are what have enabled Joanna Penn, bestselling author, professional speaker, entrepreneur and UK ALLi advisor, to pack so much into the five years since she entered the sphere of self-publishing. The remarkable achievements of this authorpreneur have just earned her a place among The Guardian’s Top 100 Creative Professionals 2013, so it’s a timely occasion to ask her to share the secrets of her success.
When it came to giving advice to writers, Kurt Vonnegut had some great stuff. He famously warned people away from the use of semicolons by describing them “transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing.”
Eight years before his passing, Vonnegut published a collection of short stories titled “Bagombo Snuff Box.” The book was made up of previously published short fiction from his early (and short) career from the 1950s writing for magazines. These works did not appear in Vonnegut’s previous collection, “Welcome to the Monkey House.”
As a multi-year winner (including this year, he wrote, tooting his own horn), I always look forward to NaNoWriMo. And Camp NaNoWriMo. And I have fond memories of Scriptfrenzy, and hope they bring it back.
An article from the Examiner puts NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in perspective:
A day to remember for a lot of writers. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) has officially come to an end. While a lot of authors have triumphed, writing 50,000 words in just one month, others gave it their best but didn’t quite make it. But that should hardly be the point.
A lot of people think the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words in a single month is about completing that. It’s just a goal; a difficult goal. But the point of this goal is to learn how to squeeze every ounce of free time into your creativity: For writers to give it their best, grasp the concept of pumping out a rough draft without worrying about revisions, editing, or how a chapter flows.
Talk to any writer and most of them will tell you they have an abundance of ideas, and the hardest part is writing it out. This is the sole purpose of NaNoWriMo: get that idea out on paper and worry about refining when it’s finished! This could very well be a revolutionary idea in the realm of books.
You can read the whole article HERE.
If you’re a writer, you can find out more about NaNoWriMo HERE.
Jeremy Greenfield (Special for USA Today) has posted a new article on the USA Today website about how new firms have sprung up to help writers get their ebooks published:
In the spring of 2010, Amanda Hocking, a social worker from Rochester, Minn., uploaded several books she had been working on to Amazon.com. In the first weeks, she sold a few dozen copies — success for someone who just wanted to have her work read.
In the next few months, she published several more manuscripts, and soon, the sales started piling up. By the end of the summer, Hocking had made enough money to quit her job, and in January 2011, she sold “an insane amount of books,” she said, estimating the total at 100,000.