Category Archives: Indie Week

Indie Week: Wrap-Up & Thank You!!!

Posted on by Robert Zimmermann

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Indie Week came to a close last night at midnight. I was already sleeping at that point, but I hope you all enjoyed the HUGE ending celebration I had go off….What? You didn’t see it? Well, there wasn’t actually anything special to see. I came very close to holding a Saturday Night Indie Week Bash Party/Unorganized Chaos of Awesomeness, but then I rethought that.

In truth, Indie Week isn’t over. It never really started on July 8th either. It started back in the beginning of the year when I started using this blog for all book related things. Indie’s will continue to be supported, promoted, praised, and loved here on A Life Among The Pages. It’s just the way it is, and you better be happy with that :P

As for this event, there are a few things I’d like to go over.

  • Indie Week was a SUCCESS!!! I don’t only mean that it went with only one bump (an error in scheduling on my part, easily remedied). It went very smoothly. It also went to infinity and beyond when it comes to my expectations. I knew my daily views, likes, comments, etc would increase for the week. I didn’t think that on the first say my daily page view record of 120 would be blown out of the water. I broke that during the middle of the day and went on for a record total of 274 page views. Also worth mentioning is the minimum amount of views for this week was 168…168!!!! I hit that 2 days in a row and went up from there. Along with that, in total, this week is my best week ever…hell, July is my best MONTH ever and it’s only halfway through
    • For those who care here are pics of the graphs. They are all cool and flashy…not really. This is WordPress, we don’t do flashy here :P
       
  • Why was all this possible? It’s because of you, you, you, and even YOU! If it weren’t for my readers, I’d just be here behind the computer typing for myself. I think I’d get bored with that after a while. I already mentioned the increase in traffic, but along with that there was an increase in comments. I love seeing comments on the blog. These not only show that people have read the post, it also sparks discussion. There are a few discussions in the comments on some of the Indie Week posts and I think everyone should check them out, could be fun :)
  • Hell, I bored myself already with all that. Bottom line: Indie Week = AMAZING and I’m very pleased with it and how much fun you all seem to have had. I’d like to move on to the thank yous now.
    • First, I’d like to thank all the guests I had this week. Big thanks to S.M. Boyce, Rebecca Hamilton, Wynne Channing, Cinta Garcis de la Rosa, Viviane Mayne, Thomas Winship, Thom Simonson, Chelsea M. Cameron, S. Fitts, HilyBee, Halli Lilburn, Jessica Fortunato, Sandra Perez Gluschankoff, Sarah M. Ross, and C.J. Listro.
      • Without you all I’d be posting my own babble….and that’s never entertaining for more than three days ;)
    • Another thank you goes out to the readers, the Tweeters, the Bloggers, and anyone else out there. I’ve seen a huge stream of Tweets promoting the event and the individual posts. That means a lot to me. I’ve also seem that some bloggers have posted about the event, directing their readers to my blog. THANK  YOU! Last but not least, the Facebooking as well. I feel that Facebook has kind of taken a backseat in the social media game lately. But there are still many people who look at it, and I’ve seen a good amount of people finding my blog through that. Thanks for all who posted there.
    • I’m pretty sure I thanked everyone for their help. If I missed some of you, please know that you just don’t matter enough to be mentioned….I mean that I thank you as well from the bottom of my heart.
  • On a closing note: I’d like to bring to your attention the giveaways going on still. They are all open until 12:01Am on July 18th. This will allow you all to enter for some great books even though Indie Week has “ended”. The only giveaway that’s closed is the one on S.M. Boyce’s post. That’s only because the giveaway has been open for some time along with the original post.

Thank you one last time to everyone. If anyone has ideas for another great event for the future, please let me know. It might be awhile until I can do another one but I’d like to do something some time. Thanks for your time, and please keep coming back. This blog traffic is fun :)

Indie Week: A Poetic Bonus Post, Season’s Change

Posted on by Robert Zimmermann

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I haven’t finish a new poem lately, but I did just recently start one. It’s VERY different than anything else I’ve done. It also won’t be part of my collection. Once it’s finished, though, I might put it up on Smashwords or something (for free of course) just to see how that site works and to allow readers to grab it for their ereaders instead of only having it on the blog.

Until the day comes when I release that poem, I’d like to give you a treat. I have MANY poems that I’ve written over the years. Most are ones I don’t feel like rereading since they are not up to par with my recent work. Yet, there are a few that have always popped up in my head from time to time. Today while walking my dog, there was a specific one that came to mind. It had rained (for the first time in what seems like weeks during this drought-filled summer) over night and was still dripping from the clouds in small amounts.

The poem below was written many years ago. I don’t know exactly the date, but the date that I published it on a site I was using at the time was June 6th, 2005. That’s strange to think about. SEVEN years ago!! I’ve been writing poetry for at least that long. If I’m correct, though the actual number for the year is a blur, my first poem was written in 2004.  Oh yea, back to the poem. I’ve always liked this poem. I’ve have many readers like it as well. But I opened it up today and it screamed “GIVE ME A MAKEOVER!!!!” So I did. It should still get work done to it to stand pretty with my newer poems, but I’ll do that in time. (I plan on doing this to a few other poems to include in my collection.) For now this is what I have. I just “fixed” it up before posting this morning, so don’t laugh at me too much ;)

I hope you enjoy as much as others have already.

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Season’s Change

Sweet symphonies of sound.
The sounds of Spring and Rain
fall on the roof at night,
again and again.

It falls down the roof,
and to my face.
This feeling is proof
that Rain can cure the pain.
The sorrow disappears,
the Rain only felt,
hypnotic drops dripping;
there’s nothing but the Rain.

Then it gets colder,
the Snow covers all.
When did it go? Did Summer skip to Winter,
and just forget to go to Fall?

The Snow falls down
to my face with a smile.
My face grows numb.
Sweet memories appear,
memories of warmer times.
Summer in the Sun:

One by one they all fall down
after they have run.
Sleeping under a tree for shade
when it starts all over again.

The Rain suppresses all the pain.
This will help to end today
on a good note, not a bad.
Feelings only felt through touch,
not thinking of anything sad.

*This poem was published in it’s original form on Dreamer’s Reality.

Indie Week: An Adventure With Cinta Garcia & Little Nani: To Become An Indie Author

Posted on by Robert Zimmermann

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Little Nani and Me – Why I Decided To Become an Indie Author

The dream of any writer is to be published. Ideally, every writer dreams of signing a wonderful contract with a big publisher, or at least with a publisher big enough as to make us well-known and to make us sell lots of books. As I said, that is ideally. There are lots of writers out there, and there are lots of very good writers out there. All of them deserve a big contract, because their books are amazing. Sadly, not many of them get that desired contract. That’s how the Indie community appeared. Not now, but long time ago.

I have always wanted to be a writer. I started writing when I was very young, and I even won a literary contest when I was 8 years old. I wrote a short story about the environment, I made it into the finals, and then I won: I got a collection of classic books and a desk. So my dream has always been to publish a book. Till August 2011 I didn’t know that it was possible to find an audience if you went self-published, but then I saw that lots of writers that I was meeting in Twitter were selling a huge amount of books. Hey! I also wanted to write a book and sell a lot of copies!

So Little Nani started to take shape in my head. I wrote a story, I published it in my blog, and people liked it. I felt good, so I wrote a second story, and people liked it even better. I was very happy, so I decided to write a collection of short stories with Little Nani as the main protagonist. Little Nani is a little girl who wants to be a witch. She meets a lot of friends, and she is always messing around with the wrong spells; but she is also sweet and willing to help others. Her adventures are very funny and I thought that my book could be directed to children.

Well, I sent some stories to several publishers. Just three replied to my email. Two of them told me they weren’t interested at the moment in publishing such a book, but the third one said they would be happy to publish my book, since the stories were funny and would easily find an audience. I trusted them. That was my mistake. We authors, sometimes, are too willing to have our books out there, and that makes of us naïve people sometimes. I was naïve, I fell for their flattery, and I got what I deserved for my naïvety.

After months of writing my stories, and weeks of waiting for a reply from my supposed “publishers”, I started to worry and I started to think that maybe the “agreement” I had signed was not the best of the ideas. After talking to some friends, we then discover that this supposed Publishing Agency was a fraud, and they were under investigation. I felt outraged, I felt stupid, and I promised to myself that I would have my book out there for everybody to read it even though no publisher were interested in my stories.

That is how I chose to become an Indie author. Thinking about it now, I should have done it from the very beginning, and I shouldn’t have fallen for the flattery and the suave speech of these deceptive people who only want to take your money and mess up with your dreams. But I guess that everybody learns lessons in this way, in the hard way. After months of suffering, not knowing what was going to happen to my book, now I am in full control, now I am getting it ready to publish it through Createspace, and now I feel absolutely happy about my book. I don’t care if I just sell one copy, or even if people don’t like it; at least, I will have fulfilled my dream of having published a book. And it will be even more satisfactory, since I self-published it. So my “The Funny Adventures of Little Nani” will be out and ready for selling very soon, hopefully at the end of the summer.

What do I want to say with all this rant? Well, if you really want to publish a book, if you really have faith in your writing, go self-published. Don’t wait for a professional publisher telling you that your writing is not worth of it. You don’t need them. You just have to believe in yourself. You will be surprised of how much other authors will help you, providing valuable pieces of advice, helping you to promote your book, even reading and reviewing your work. And eventually, maybe one day someone from a big publishing company reads your self-published work, loves it, and offers you a big contract. Who knows? But till that happens, you need to make your work known, and going Indie is the best option. The Indie Community of writers is like a big family. A family all over the world. And I love being part of that family.

Thanks, Rob, for letting me rant like this in your Indie Week :D

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About the Author:

Cinta García de la Rosa is a Spanish teacher who always dreamt of being a writer. So she writes, every day, compulsively. Always active, she is also an avid reader, a blogger and a book reviewer. Her first writings were in Spanish, but, since she got her BA in English Studies, she decided to start writing in English. Now, she feels more comfortable writing in English than in her mother tongue. She is finishing the editing and formatting of her first book “The Funny Adventures of Little Nani”, a collection of stories for children, with illustrations and other surprises. She is also working in other projects: a collection of short stories and a novelette based on the British Regency period. Apart from writing and reading, she enjoys meeting new people, dancing, and traveling.”

Find more from Cinta:

Indie Week: C.J. Listro & To Indie Or Not To Indie

Posted on by Robert Zimmermann

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To Indie or Not to Indie…

To indie or not to indie? That is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler—gotcha. No, I’m not going to write this entire post in Hamlet-speak. However, the question is an important one with fierce and violent supporters in both camps. Indie or traditional? If you’re teetering on the pre-published fence, like I am, it’s a question that has to do with much more than ideology. Not to be a negative Nancy (or Nellie, if you prefer), but a lot of people rush into the indie business before they’re ready. (Same for traditional, but agents and editors are pretty good about sniping them down.) Doesn’t mean they don’t have a killer story. But going indie is a lot more work than just writing the Great American Novel and hitting the publish button.

What? You mean, you can’t just send your story to Amazon and rake in the dollars? No. Not unless you’re a wizard. Are you a wizard? No? Well consider the steps of novel selling:

  • Write the story
  • Edit the story
  • Format the story
  • Design a cover
  • Publish the story
  • Distribute the story

Market the storyWhen you go traditional, you have a team of editors, marketers, designers, etc. etc. etc. who take care of the last four or five steps for you. You can’t exactly just sit back and smell the roses, but you don’t have to become an artist, editor, coder, and marketer all at the same time. Or hire them. For the indie, it’s more complicated. You edit the novel (or pay someone to do it). You design the cover (or pay something to do it). You distribute the story and get red in the face when major booksellers won’t carry your paperbacks. You arrange the book signings, the tours, the blogs. You send free copies to reviewers and cross your fingers. If you’re planning to do this as your day job, good for you. If you’re tacking this onto your day job, just add up the hours (and money!) and make sure you still have time to sleep.

If you do it well, it can work. Let’s take a look at two people with different indie trajectories: S.M. Boyce of Lichgates and Amanda Hocking of Trylle. Boyce is known for her charisma, her fierce marketing campaigns, and her magical editing skills. Hocking earned herself millions by releasing books every few months, networking like a madwoman, and losing a lot of sleep. But even Hocking went traditional in the end. Because she wanted to be a writer—and only a writer. And in my opinion, the wrong member of this duo is making the millions (okay, okay, I’m biased and in my opinion, Lichgates is way better written). But I digress. A traditional publisher can’t guarantee you success. Some indie books sell way more than their traditional counterparts (Hocking is the poster child for this concept). But what do both these women have in common? They’ve spent a lot of time and money. Editing their books or finding editors. Shopping for cover artists. Learning how to format for .mobi and .epub. These things are non-negotiable. There’s nothing less appealing than a badly-formatted indie e-novel with an MS Paint cover and a slew of typos. If you’re not willing to put in the extra effort—well, maybe indie isn’t for you.

Before the indie warriors stab me with pitchforks, I’m not anti-indie. I love indie. Indie has all sorts of advantages. You keep more of your royalties. You can sell cross-genre or experimental works that publishers are too afraid to touch. You retain creative control so some editor doesn’t slash up your work to ribbons and add a gross-looking cover. You can sell your brilliant novel that agents and editors just don’t seem to clamber for, even though the only thing wrong with it is that there are thousands of other books being submitted and you don’t have any snazzy literary connections. Indie publishing has broken open a literary world previously controlled by the tastes of publishers and now controlled by the tastes of the masses. You know, those people actually reading the books.

But if you want to go indie, you have to be willing to put in the time and money and schmoozing. And for miss poor, overworked, shy grad student over here (that’s me), that’s a commitment my life can’t handle right now. So I may publish a few indie stories for fun, or to get my name out there, but for my novel series (insert shameless Dark Moon plug), I’m going traditional. You know—if the planets align.

Moral of the story? Indie publishing has a whole load of benefits—if you’re willing to work for it.

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About The Author

C.J. is a graduate student going for her doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She likes to pretend to be a hipster but let’s face it, she’s just a nerd. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and a double major in English from the University of Notre Dame, where she participated in a creative writing group named after a condiment. She likes to write about real people who don’t exist.  She can typically be found reading on her balcony, slaving in her office, or posting silly things on her sarcasm and citrus themed blog. She has an eye for good prose and a nose for that old musty book smell.  Her novels and short stories span the genres from YA fantasy to adult literary horror, but they’re currently locked away in her secret safe until someone decides to publish them.

For More Information on C.J.

Indie Week: Sarah M. Ross Wants To Give Away Some Books!!!

Posted on by Robert Zimmermann

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Today, there’s a special treat…it’s a giveaway from author Sarah M. Ross. Ross is the author of  the books Awaken, book one of The Patronus series and Echo of the Earth Angel, the first book in the Earth Angel Trilogy. Because Indie Week is a big celebration, Sarah was very generous for this giveaway. She is willing to give ONE lucky commenter a copy of BOTH of her books! To enter, just leave a thoughtful comment on THIS post. Be sure to leave your email so the winner can be contacted. Giveaway ends 12:01AM July 18th

Before you jump down and comment, be sure to read the blurbs about the books. I have a copy of Awaken already and can’t wait to get to reading it. :)

The Patronus Book One: Awaken

Lucy Donovan was supposed to have a weekend of fun in the sun, celebrating her upcoming graduation from college. In a split second, everything changed. A drunk driver ended Lucy’s mortal life.

Lucy opens her eyes to a world she never imagined possible and a new destiny: as a Patronus, a guardian of spirits. Adjusting to her new role and abilities while negotiating this confusing realm will test her limits and push her further than she ever dreamed she would go. From wayward spirits who don’t want her help to soul stealing vampires, and even a stuck-up British royal, Lucy must brave them all to save one spirit she can’t bear to lose.

Further complicating her life is an inexplicable yet growing connection she feels to a member of her team, Max, whose mysterious behavior leaves her both confused and intrigued.

Waking up dead was just the beginning of her problems. Lucy’s death is about to become the greatest adventure of her life.

The Earth Angel Trilogy Book One: Echo of an Earth Angel

18 year old Tessa Copeland barely survived the worst year of her life—in fact, it was a miracle. After making it through the tragedy that killed both of her parents, she’s left to pick up the pieces of her life. Combating the holes in her memory and the concern of her friends was hard enough, but a new talent threatens to destroy everything she’s trying to reclaim.

David Allegri didn’t mean to ruin Tessa’s life. She was the brightest soul he’d seen in centuries and he couldn’t let her die, so the fallen angel used his abilities to heal her—only he took it too far and changed Tessa forever. Now, he has to figure out a way to explain what’s happening to Tessa and somehow protect both of them from the consequences.

His choice made them targets for the Hunters, who will use any means necessary to capture their prey. Only a desperate plan can help them escape, and sacrifices will be made. Time is ticking. Will they make it, or will they be lost to the echoes of fate?

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About the Author

I started my obsession with reading at an early age, getting in trouble for sneaking BabySitter Club and Nancy Drew books into math class in elementary school. I would read any fiction book I could get my hands on. I knew it was an addiction when instead of grounding me from TV or music, my mom would take away my books as punishment (The Horror!). My love of all things paranormal was inspired by my good friend Laurie, who convinced me that books with vampires, witches, and all things shifter were amazing. After a little reluctance, I gave it a shot with the Sookie Stackhouse books, realized she was right, and the rest was history.
I grew up in Pittsburgh, graduated from The University of Pittsburgh with my degree in English, and taught 8th graders to love reading as much as I do for several years. I will always be a proud member of the Steelers Nation, but I couldn’t take the cold and moved my frozen tush to Florida where I now live with my family and two cats. You will find me now with my trusty Kindle in hand and toes in the sand!

To find more about Sarah: