A while back, I read this post, on Chuck Wendig’s blog and it got me thinking.

The basic gist is that there are gatekeepers for every writer. While, with indie publishing, it’s fairly easy to get your book out there, it gets much harder after publication than it is for trad published authors because most of the gates indies must go through turn up after the book is published.  So you get things like review sites that won’t touch anything self published; different gate, different place in the process but it’s still there. He explains how completely saturated the market is and links to an article from a fellow who has 150 books each day sent to his review magazine from trad publishers alone – which is why it only accepts trad pubbed books.

The message of Chuck’s article is, basically: there are gatekeepers in any part of the…

Back in April, I did something that I called the ‘Monster Maker Fun’.  I asked people to give a list of nonsense words and I turned them into monsters, items, and fictional rituals for a week. Here’s an example that was given to me by John W. Howell last time:

Meagain

“A majestic horse that roams the prairie of Southliver.  Most of them are white and brown, but there have been sightings of black, red, and purple colors.  Unlike other horses, the Meagain gives off an odd glow that is stronger depending on the purity of the spirit.  They are also much more intelligent.  People have been able to communicate clearly with these animals even without a common language.  Meagains are also good problem solvers and those in captivity have been known to pick locks with their narrow tongues.  Avoid getting kicked because they have barbs on their hooves that…

Hello All,

Would you please read my story submission on Canada Writes? The title is Creative Promise Achieved.

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/2014/10/stories-of-belonging.html#mid=20534467&offset=2&page=&s=

This has been bothering me for quite some time but today it finally just reached my boiling point. So, what else to do about it but write a blog.

I am an avid reader, although not nearly as much as of late with all the demands of my personal life. But I do read an awful lot of books. I read mainstream books AND I read tons of indie authors. Ever since I discovered the world of indie publishing, I have enriched my life by reading from so many different authors.

I have spent more money on books than I care to add up. Most are worth every penny. I’m always amazed at the prices of books and think that the emphasis on cheaper and cheaper isn’t a good thing. Even books I receive as ARCs to review, I still purchase to support the author. Does my $2.99 make a…

Yahoo Image Search

Now that I’m fed and have gone on-line, I can talk about my experience with Thunderclap.  I got 102 supporters and it went live at noon.  So you can imagine the boost in sales I got for my books:

Well, you’re going to have to imagine it because nothing happened.  Wait!  Don’t go running away just yet.  There are benefits to this experience even if sales didn’t occur.  As an indie author, you have to think outside the box.  Did anything beneficial happen from this experience?  Yes and I’ll get to it after I make a few points:

Thunderclap Observations

1. My highest joining days were the first 24 hours and the last 24 hours.  It seems you’ll get your trusted allies at the start and then you’ll have people step in to save the day at the final hour.
2. A LOT of people retweeted, reblogged, or shared…