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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Smashwords / Nano

Smashwords/NaNoWriMo Promotion

Publish, Share, Track and Promote your NaNoWriMo Work-In-Progress

About NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, takes place every year in November. Writers are challenged to start and complete a 50,000 word novel between November 1 and November 30. This year, over 200,000 writers are expected to participate. Learn more athttp://www.nanowrimo.org/
Smashwords is providing this promotion as a free public service to NaNoWriMo participants and their fans. Smashwords is not an official sponsor of NaNoWriMo, although we are a huge supporter and we encourage all authors to participate and to financially support the great work of NaNoWrimo. To make a tax-deductable donation to NaNoWriMo, visit https://store.lettersandlight.org/
About the Smashwords/NaNoWriMo Promotion
Smashwords is opening up the Smashwords platform to allow all NaNoWriMo participants to publish, share, track and promote their works-in-progress.
All NaNo books will receive promotion via:
  1. A special catalog hosted at Smashwords.com
  2. A special catalog in the native catalog of Stanza, the #1 most downloaded (2.5 million +) e-reading app on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
  3. A special catalog in the native catalog of Aldiko, the #1 most popular e-reading app for Android phones
  4. Promotion in the Smashwords blog, on Twitter, and elsewhere!
How to list your book as a NaNoWriMo title at Smashwords:
  1. Sign up for free with Smashwords (if you're not already a member) http://www.smashwords.com/signup
    Between November 1 (12:00am PST) and November 30 (11:59pm PST), publish your NaNoWriMo novel:http://www.smashwords.com/upload/nanowrimo
  2. You can set the price of your book to FREE (recommended if you want to get the most readership), or you can set a price let readers pick their own price if you want friends, fans and family to financially support your month of writing madness. Free is better! If you do charge people to read your book, we suggest you donate your proceeds during November directly to NaNoWrimo to support their great program.
  3. During that same time period, whenever you feel like it, upload a new revision of your novel by going to your Dashboard and clicking "Upload new version" next to the title: http://www.smashwords.com/dashboard
    And yes! readers will always be able to fetch the latest version!
    A dynamic display of a bar graph and other statistics on your book's public info page will help you and your fans follow your progress.
  4. Please note: Our word count may not match the official NaNoWriMo one!
    Send your friends, fans and family to Smashwords to read your novel, other NaNoWriMo novels, and to discover thousands of other great ebooks! http://www.smashwords.com/
  5. If you write 50,000 or more words by November 30th, you'll see "Goal reached!" (If you finish after November, we'll show your latest progress, but also point out that you eventually did reach the goal.)

  6. REMEMBER: Smashwords is providing a fun way to publish (and sell, if you want) your new novel. You still need to sign up for NaNoWriMo and submit your book there, too, to participate in the offical contest! http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/register

    How to Promote your NaNoWriMo title at Smashwords:
    1. Use the social media links on your book page to share your book with friends, fans and family
    2. Encourage your friends, fans and family to share your work in progress with friends, using the social media links
    3. Celebrate your Nano entry by posting links to your Nano book at Smashwords, so fans can download your work-in-progress, readable in multiple DRM-free ebook formats!
    4. Review our free ebook, The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, for additional marketing tips. Smart book marketing begins before you release your finished book, so star now!
    The Details
    • Since you cannot begin your novel until NaNoWriMo starts, you cannot add your book to Smashwords until then, either. (In other words, your book must have a "published" date at Smashwords within the month of November, or it won't be listed on this page.)
    • The book must be within the Fiction category at Smashwords.
    • During the month of November, whenever you upload a new revision of your work, its NaNoWriMo word count will be updated automatically.
    • Your book's participation in NaNoWriMo will be listed on the book's info page at Smashwords, along with the latest word count we saw during November.
    • Even after NaNoWriMo is over, please keep updating your book at Smashwords. And when you finish your novel, remember to uncheck the Work in Progress setting for your book!
    • PLEASE NOTE: Smashwords does not send your book or word counts to the official NaNoWriMo site! To officially participate in the contest, be sure to sign up at NaNoWriMo.org and update your book there, too!
      Click here to register at NaNoWriMo.org >

    After NaNoWriMo is Over

    How to Publish Your Finished Book on Smashwords
    When you finish writing your novel, and after you get it properly edited and proof-read (ALL books need many revisions and edits before they're truly ready to publish), and after you have carefully formatted it per the requirements of the Smashwords Style Guide, you can return to your Smashwords Dashboard, upload the finished version, and uncheck the "Work in Progress" setting to make it 'live' on Smashwords and eligible for free, Premium distribution to major online retailers such as Barnes and Noble, Sony, and others to be announced soon. Learn more about how Smashwords can distibute your book on our Distribution Information Page.

    Sunday, October 12, 2014

    Working With a Book Cover Designer

    I couldn’t have said this better myself. Good information to know when working with a cover designer. Thanks to Peter Fritze for writing this useful tip.
    Originally posted on Peter Fritze:
    Blog 27Last post in my series of blogs on how to self-publish, I wrote about what a book cover design should achieve. As an author, to get the best result for your cover, it’s useful to know some tips about the process of working with a designer. I’m assuming here you’ve hired someone to create original art for your cover.
    First off, if you’re expecting your designer to read your book as part of the design process, don’t. She’s unlikely to have the time (or interest), and depending on the schedule for your book release, your manuscript might not be in proper shape anyway.
    Instead, be ready with a good, short synopsis, preferably written. Also, be clear about the book’s genre, mood and tone, perhaps comparing them to those of well-known books.
    Next, have some ideas ready for her. In my first book, The Case for Killing, an abandoned railway track features (have…
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    Writing Tip #1 – Passive Voice

    One of the most common errors people make is writing in passive voice.  This slows down the action of your story and should be avoided as much as possible.  How do I recognize passive voice you ask? Passive voice always consists of a form of “be” and the past tense of the verb   Placing “had” or “have been” in front of your verbs is a quick way to recognize passive.  For example, The squirrels had been barked at by the dogs.  (passive voice)  The dog barked at the squirrels.  (Active voice -much more clean and it moves the action of the dog into the present and moves the story forward).
    In Active Voice the subject acts
    In Passive Voice the subject is acted upon.
    Only use passive voice when the actor (subject) is unimportant or unknown.
    Please add your tips for recognizing and dealing with passive voice.
    Books by Kelly Abell     Cover Designs by Select-O-Grafix
    Copyright 2014 by Kelly Abell
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    Welcome to Write with Kelly

    Welcome to my blog. I’m so excited you decided to stop by and join me on my journey. I was inspired to begin this blog by another author who visited my author website http://www.kellyabellbooks.com and found a page there where I’d posted some writing tips. She was so intrigued by the tips and how much they helped her, I decided to begin a blog and write about my experiences as an author and the work I’ve done in the publishing industry.
    Not only am I a published author with over 10 works to my credit, but I’m also a graphic artist, who works with book design and formatting. Through my company Select-O-Grafix, LLC., I have learned a great deal about the do’s and don’ts in the publishing industry and am eager to share them with you. We’ve dealt with everything from book cover design, book trailer design to building author promotion packages. We know what works with social media and what doesn’t. I’ll discuss topics like Building Your Author Brand, What Makes a Cover Eye-catching, and more…
    My hope is together we can learn more about how to improve our craft and present ourselves to publishing houses and agents, or create a self-published work that is professional and engaging to readers. Because after all, we wouldn’t write if we didn’t want someone to enjoy it, right?
    Please subscribe and follow me along this journey. I know you’ll discover many valuable tools to make you even better than you are today.
    Quill pen and inkwell resting on an old book with green backgrou
    Books by Kelly Abell     Cover Designs by Select-O-Grafix
    Copyright 2014 by Kelly Abell
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