Indie Publishing Guide

About two and a half months ago, I announced on Facebook that I was taking a big step and writing my first non-fiction book about indie publishing. I never thought I’d ever write anything non-fiction, but in the last year I’ve been approached by multiple to-be indie authors asking for advice. I really love to help with publishing since I’m very passionate about it, but there is SO much information to cover and emails can get really long. My mom suggested an email to use that covered all the basics or have a page on my website. So I sat down to do this one afternoon and realized it was just too much for a  website. That’s when I decided I should just try to write a short book about it. I worked on it on and off since then and now have it finished at about 9,500 words. It’s not a comprehensive guide detailing every little part of publishing, but it will give you an overview of how I approach publishing and answers all the questions I’ve been asked in the last year. With working really hard on Ilyon Chronicles, this project has been at the back of my mind so I’ve neglected a lot of pre-release marketing of any sort, but I’m quite excited to share the cover.

I’m working on the final edits for the book and plan to have it available in eBook form for $1.99 in the next week or so. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it available in paperback, but then I thought, why not? :) So I’ll be working on that as well. Looks like it will come to be about $4.99. Here is the table of contents so you can get an idea of the topics I cover.

Introduction
1. Why choose indie publishing?
     —Indie Publishing Pros & Cons
2. Publishing
     —Book Printing
     —eBooks
3. Book Creation
     —Cover Creation
     —Interior Formatting
     —Converting to PDF
     —eBook Formatting
4. Copyright
5. ISBN Numbers
6. Marketing Tips
     —Word of Mouth
     —Pre-Release Marketing
     —Blog & Website
     —Social Networking
     —Marketing Materials
     —Book Trailers
7. Taxes & Business Expenses
8. Resources
9. Conclusion

I’ve really had a lot of fun putting this book together, more so than I thought I would, and I really hope it can help anyone who might be wondering where to start in indie publishing.

99¢ Indie eBook Sale and Giveaway

I'm participating in a big indie book sale! 39 books, including Every Tear, A Captain's Heart, Finding Faith, Courage, and Trust, are all on sale for 99¢ from June 5-12! Also, be sure to enter the $100 Amazon gift card giveaway at the bottom of this post!

Here are the books in the sale:
By Luke Alistar

• Offset
• Catalyst ZX-10
• Deep Water
• The Offset Trilogy
• Daughter of Thieves
• By Starlight
• The Element of Surprise
• The Unseen
• Velvet’s Wings

By Kendra E. Ardnek

• Sew, It’s a Quest
• Saffron’s Big Plan and Other Stories
• Do You Take This Quest?

By Katie Lynn Daniels

• Supervillain of the Day
• Fire and Ashes
• Inspector Floyd
• Supervillain Hunters, International
• Sanctity of Life

By Molly Evangeline

• Every Tear
• A Captain’s Heart
• Finding Faith
• Courage
• Trust

By Ophelia - Marie Flowers

• Zeal Aspiring

By Elisabeth Grace Foley

• The Ranch Next Door and Other Stories
• The Silver Shawl: A Mrs. Meade Mystery

By Jennifer Freitag

• The Shadow Things

By Jessica Greyson

• Annabeth’s War

By Aubrey Hansen

• Red Rain
• Peter’s Angel

By Sarah Holman

• The Destiny of a Few
• The Destiny of a Galaxy

By Abigail J. Hartman

• The Soldier’s Cross

By Holy Worlds

• The Sword and the Pen

By Rebekah Jones

• A Year with the Potters

By Elizabeth Kaiser

• Jeweler’s Apprentice

By Jacob Lauser

• Through Crystal Skies and Windy Nights

By J. Grace Pennington

• Firmament: Radialloy
• Never

By Jordan Smith

• Finding the Core of Your Story 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Paperback Amazon Book Sale

I can’t say how long it will last, but Amazon has discounted all seven of my books. If you’ve been thinking about getting a paperback copy, now is the time the grab one before the sale is off. Here are all the links and the discount amount.

Pirates & Faith
The Pirate Daughter’s Promise – $9.99 $8.99 (save $1.00)
Every Tear – $13.99 $12.18 (save $1.88)
A Captain’s Heart – $12.99 $11.69 (save $1.30)
Finding Faith – $11.99 $10.79 (save $1.20)

Makilien Trilogy
Truth – $12.99 $11.69 (save $1.30)
Courage – $13.99 $13.29 (save $0.70)
Trust – $12.99 $11.43 (save $1.56)

Makilien Website Makeover

Just a quick update to say I’ve given my Makilien Trilogy website a much needed makeover. It looks cleaner and more professional now. Most of the content has stayed the same, but I have added the first three chapters of each book to the excerpts section in Free Stuff. You can download and read them as PDFs. Before I only had the first three chapters of Truth available. Click the picture to check it out.

Borrow the Makilien Trilogy

I’ve been working toward this for a few weeks now and am excited to announce that if you have an Amazon Prime account, all three books of the Makilien Trilogy are now available to borrow for free from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library!

Truth
Courage
Trust

Interview and Truth Giveaway

I was recently asked to do an interview for Writing 4 Two, and it was one of the most fun interviews I’ve taken part in. Lots of great questions. The interview is now live, and it includes a giveaway for Truth, the first book in my Makilien Trilogy. Be sure to head over there and check it out!

http://writing4two.blogspot.com/2013/02/feature-friday-with-molly-evangeline.html

Title of Ilyon Chronicles–Book 1

So here we are, first post of 2013! What better way than to announce the title of the first book of Ilyon Chronicles? That title is…*drum roll*… Resistance. It wasn’t the first title I came up with, but it fits the story perfectly, and I quite like one word titles like this.

Now, not only is the title finally revealed, but I’m also sharing a small synopsis. It’s the first look at the lives of my two main characters, Jace and Kyrin. Enjoy!

     Soulless. Monster. Animal.

     Could God ever love a half-blood who society looks on with such fear and disdain? Jace once believed so, but when tragedy shatters the only peace he’s ever known, all the lies and doubts he’s tried to put behind him descend on his grieving heart. With them come the haunting memories of the past he longs to forget, but can never escape.

     Taken from home at a young age and raised to serve the emperor, Kyrin Altair and her twin brother live every day under a pretense of loyalty and the threat of being discovered. After her unique abilities place her into direct service to the emperor, Kyrin finds herself in further jeopardy as it becomes increasingly difficult to hide her belief in Elôm, the one true God.

     As the emperor sets into motion long-devised plans to enforce the worship of false gods under the penalty of death, thousands of lives are endangered. But there are those willing to take a stand and offer aid to the persecuted. With their lives traveling paths they never could have imagined, Jace and Kyrin must fight to overcome their own fears and struggles as they become part of the resistance.

* * * * * * * *

Interested? I hope so. :) I can hardly wait to share more. Still no plans for a publishing date, unfortunately. But I actively update my Ilyon Chronicles Facebook page with all the latest news as I work through the series. So make sure to like it if you want stay up to date and catch any story snippets I post along the way. Also, if you’re interested, I have many growing boards for the series over on Pinterest. Lots of character, race, and setting inspiration for the story. You can kind of get a feel for the world there. It’s been one of the most fun aspects of writing this story.