G'day dear readers. Join Molly Greene, author of the recently released top-seller Blog It! The author's guide to building a successful online brand, and me on her blog today where I'll discuss five easily avoided mistakes I made last year as an independently published author and ways to avoid doing these yourself. My greatest hope is that my experiences can be chalked up to taking one (or five) for the team. A sneak peek:
The term "indie writer" is a misnomer. Why? Because, as we all know, once you cover your keyboard for the day, your work is only 1/10 finished. Making the conscious effort to become an indie writer also means taking on the challenge of becoming your own marketer, publisher, art director, editor, and numerous other variations on these. Along with learning the ins-and-outs of, well, EVERYTHING, we inevitably make mistakes. Today, I'll share a few that I made or almost made in 2012 that I have all good intentions of avoiding this year.1. Failing to do due diligence. > Prior to the release of my second Spectras Arise novel, Contract of Betrayal, last month, I decided to hire a new artist to revamp my first book's cover and create the second's. Failing to take my own advice when I last guest posted for Molly and ask around for recommendations from friends and colleagues, I found another author's post that linked to a number of artists (though didn't specifically endorse any). Long story short, I picked an artist whose work matched my own creative vision and hired them. After they failed to meet the terms of our agreement, I started poking around the web and discovered that several others had experienced what I was going through. The good news is, Paypal, which I had used to pay the artist, has very clear grievance and claims processes. Upon calling on these, I was able to resolve the issue without any loss of money, and only minimal loss of time. The big takeaways from this experience are: Don't pick a name of out of a hat; rely on word of mouth and seek out experts to engage and learn from. Paypal is your friend. And use Kindle Boards to assist your research.Continue here for more.
