tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67827131278244781762010-01-08T07:31:24.774-08:00Follow my adventures in both self-publishing and traditional, trade publishing.April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-70325781997276673042010-01-07T17:11:00.000-08:002010-01-07T17:36:09.641-08:00

[This is excerpted from a lesson I wrote for Vault University, with a little extra commentary added.]What is “voice”? There are differences of opinion on this, but generally speaking a writer’s voice is that combination of style, technique, tone and subject matter that immediately identifies a piece of writing as part of a specific author’s canon of work. As a rule of thumb, if you can imagine a

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-25160417547402144242009-12-18T08:32:00.000-08:002009-12-18T15:42:02.160-08:00

If you've ever belonged to a workshopping writers' community and have made your work available for critique, you're probably all too familiar with a certain type of singularly insulting and useless feedback. And you've probably wondered why the authors of condescending and mean-spirited critiques are so...well, condescending and mean-spirited.At last, I've found the answer in the following

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-57562997739149768832009-12-09T13:15:00.001-08:002009-12-19T20:18:19.585-08:00

Ah yes, the only two things that are certain in life are death and taxes. While I hate to harsh anyone's holiday season mellow, this is something to which we U.S.-taxpaying authors need to pay attention, especially at this time of year.Let me open by saying I am not a tax professional and nothing in this blog should be construed as professional tax advice. For that, you must consult a

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-12281803790223672152009-11-29T17:57:00.000-08:002009-11-29T18:45:40.256-08:00

I am a maven of self-publishing. I believe that in today’s world, in most cases, there’s not much of great value a traditional publisher can do to help a previously unknown, debut author reach her goals that the author can’t do on her own. Advances are down, publisher-funded promotional budgets are slim to nonexistent, and brick-and-mortar bookstore distribution is no longer the crucial linchpin

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-46407014389488895712009-11-18T12:30:00.000-08:002009-11-18T14:54:16.065-08:00

Just as Thomas Nelson did about a month ago, Harlequin has announced it is partnering with Author Solutions, Inc. (ASI) to form a self-published books imprint. This new imprint is called Harlequin Horizons (HH), and according to a Harlequin press release:“Through this strategic alliance; all sales, marketing, publishing, distribution, and book-selling services will be fulfilled by ASI; but

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-83030243639273821762009-11-16T19:41:00.000-08:002009-11-16T20:30:31.048-08:00

Most of us indie authors talk a good game about how there are plenty of quality indie books available, and how there are plenty of terrible mainstream books. We also like to complain about the lack of variety and originality in mainstream book offerings as compared to indie books. Such musings generally lead to the conclusion that if people would just give indie books the same chance they give to

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-51227574918177929002009-11-06T20:19:00.000-08:002009-11-09T11:54:46.140-08:00

If you’re budget-minded (like me), you probably think of writers’ or publishers’ conferences as a luxury: something you know you can benefit from, and something you’d love to do more often, but something for which it can be hard to justify the expense. Well, in addition to the educational and social networking benefits, it turns out there can be major author platform dividends as well.Author

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-2916411934179130612009-10-15T08:14:00.000-07:002009-10-15T08:31:22.380-07:00

Christina Katz, The Writer Mama and author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, hosts a regular Twitter interview series known as #Platformchat, and I and author Seth Harwood will be guests on Friday, 10/23. From Christina's site: On Friday, October 23rd our #platformchat guests will be Seth Harwood & April Hamilton. Time is: 11:00 - noon PT (noon - 1:00 MT, 1:00 - 2:00 CT, & 2:00 - 3:00 ET).Topic:

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-87793232298111211712009-10-11T14:32:00.000-07:002009-10-11T14:40:32.483-07:00

It’s a cliché that so-called overnight successes are many years in the making, but it’s also true. As you plug away at your day job and your manuscripts, year in and out, it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s hard not to feel nothing’s ever going to happen for you. And when you read about some hot new author du jour you’ve never heard of who got a six or seven figure offer, landed a spot on Oprah

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-24288071220985846632009-10-08T11:59:00.000-07:002009-10-08T19:36:23.602-07:00

For the past several months, I’ve been working on the Publetariat Vault. Among the hundreds of authors who’ve registered for Vault membership, about 5% are completely overwhelmed by the listing form. They refuse to read or follow the instructions on the form, or think 17 required fields are too much to ask, or don’t know how to create a synopsis or excerpt in pdf, rtf or txt format, or don’t know

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-9407914718384696232009-10-01T18:12:00.000-07:002009-10-01T18:38:52.304-07:00

There’s a lot of hue and cry against online aggregation circulating around the interwebs these days, and I really don’t get it.Aggregator sites reprint excerpts from other sites’ articles and blog posts, along with a ‘keep reading’ or ‘read the rest’ link to the source article/blog post. The more responsible aggregators also include the name of the author, and the most considerate ones also

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-82339166538326683962009-09-29T12:02:00.000-07:002009-10-02T19:29:13.933-07:00

*UPDATED* (see revision in blue, below)Have you been wishing you had some time to speak with me in person about your self-publishing quandaries and questions, preferably while on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera? Or perhaps you've wanted to ask NYT bestselling author Scott Sigler how he crossed over from indie to mainstream success on the basis of his author platform, ideally while sipping a

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-88937402866946087322009-09-22T18:58:00.000-07:002009-09-22T19:49:57.208-07:00

Until recently, if you were self-published virtually any agent or book editor worth her salt didn’t want to hear about it. Many of them would want nothing to do with you at all, as if your self-published status might rub their own cachet off or something. But given the tenor and content of the sessions at this year’s Writers Digest Business of Getting Published Conference, I predict it won’t be

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-4668987185618568382009-09-06T20:56:00.000-07:002009-09-06T21:14:51.776-07:00

Hi, Joe or Jane Author. My name is...well, it doesn’t really matter what my name is, all that matters is I’ve just signed up for your newsletter, or started visiting your site or blog, or registered for membership on your site, or started following you on Twitter, or friended you on Facebook or MySpace or FriendFeed or Goodreads or LibraryThing or something similar. This should be the start of a

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-22899172941725972772009-08-04T21:02:00.000-07:002009-08-04T23:49:26.645-07:00

I've been away because I've been judging in this year's Writer's Digest Self-Published Books contest, and unlike some other contest judges I know of, don't think it's fair to reject any entry after reading only the first paragraph---or less. I read all of the 25 books allotted to me from cover to cover, and went back to re-read certain passages in most of them when compiling my judging notes. I

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-4409746147541234252009-06-25T08:29:00.001-07:002009-06-25T08:49:15.489-07:00

I'll be presenting a workshop at this year's Writer's Digest: The Business Of Getting Published Conference, and the nice folks at WD have provided me with a $50 discount code my audience can use when registering for the conference (discount code below). From WD:The Writer's Digest Conference: The Business of Getting Published is designed to guide any author through the new dynamics of today's

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-38401338510004306712009-06-08T21:00:00.000-07:002009-06-08T21:21:35.239-07:00

‘Author Platform’ is the buzzphrase of the moment. If you’re doing a good job of creating and maintaining that all-important communication channel between yourself and the public, it’s only a matter of time before the web trolls descend upon you to ruin things for everyone. Herewith, I present a relevant excerpt from Ms. Gertrude Strumpf-Hollingsworth’s “Encyclopedia of Annoyances, Bothers and

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-31706100932782313192009-05-13T15:07:00.000-07:002009-05-13T21:44:10.587-07:00

My blog series on the most common problems I found in the self-published, non-fiction books I recently judged for The Next Generation Indie Book Awards continues. In part one, I discussed books written by authors who are not qualified experts in their chosen subjects. In part two, I wrote about authors who come across as dabblers or flakes in their author bio. Part three was about memoirs

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-51692225713496188992009-05-07T11:25:00.000-07:002009-05-07T11:28:59.681-07:00

My blog series on the most common problems I found in the self-published, non-fiction books I recently judged for The Next Generation Indie Book Awards continues. In part one, I discussed books written by authors who are not qualified experts in their chosen subjects. In part two, I wrote about authors who come across as dabblers or flakes in their author bio. Today, it’s about memoirs

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-83429474177404608942009-04-25T10:55:00.000-07:002009-04-25T12:47:35.487-07:00

My blog series on the most common problems I found in the self-published, non-fiction books I recently judged for The Next Generation Indie Book Awards continues. In part one, I discussed books written by authors who are not qualified experts in their chosen subjects. This time, I take on the dabbler: the author who comes across as a jack of all trades, but master of none.Nobody wants to take

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-30611448891324472142009-04-17T10:41:00.000-07:002009-04-17T11:29:34.239-07:00

I recently completed a stint of judging nonfiction, indie books for The Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Popular lore holds that most self-published books are of poor quality, both in terms of layout/design and writing, but that was not my experience with these books.Most of the books had very attractive and professional-looking covers, and many of them had excellent illustrations and interior

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-36948452497876090312009-04-07T10:51:00.001-07:002009-04-07T11:05:58.842-07:00

By now, most any writer on Twitter has heard of #queryfail and the subsequent #agentfail. For those of you reading who have no idea what I'm talking about, #queryfail was a collection of Twitter posts made by literary agents in which they variously railed, joked, complained, and talked about failed queries from writers. Writers shot back with their own Twitter stream: #agentfail, in which they

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-38375475468013403652009-04-02T14:31:00.000-07:002009-04-02T14:43:45.705-07:00

Note: This article is a cross-posting from Publetariat.com. You’ve probably been hearing a lot about Google Book Search lately. Mainstream publishers and authors are variously confused, angry or nervous about GBS, but for indie authors and small imprints, it’s all good.What’s This All About, Then?From Wikipedia:Google Book Search is a tool from Google that searches the full text of books that

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-26845486142861448302009-03-16T10:34:00.000-07:002009-09-30T13:17:07.692-07:00

At the risk of coming off as some kind of Amazon shill, I'm afraid I've just got to blog about one of their services again: CreateSpace. I feel this is necessary because I keep seeing tweets, posts and Facebook notes from indie authors--especially authors outside the US---who intend to go through Lulu based in part on a belief that Lulu is the most economical choice for the services offered, and

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782713127824478176.post-55338853004364097172009-03-02T17:39:00.000-08:002009-03-02T18:53:36.788-08:00

I received an email today from someone who says: I am wondering why you call yourself an "inide" (sic) author when you have not one, but 2 links to Amazon on your site with no mention of Indiebound.org. Amazon is the anti-indie.As the manager of an indie book shop we seek the support of authors by asking them to post Indiebound.org as a purchase option. I cannot believe that you profess to be

April L. Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06450879359445096462indieauthor@gmail.com7