Book Covers

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Indie Barter Zone

Indies helping Indies. Let's trade services, exchange skills and help each other out!


Book Covers, Editing, Design, Beta Readers, Critique Partners, Social Media, Formatting... you name it....let's do it.


Please state what you need and what you can offer in exchange... (please have the talent to back up your offer!) :)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

IBC Author Workshops







We love the Indie Book Collective! A ton of information for the independent author all in one place. 

There are author workshops (see below), articles, a blog talk radio show, tutorials, tips, author resources and more.
1) SOCIAL MEDIA FOR WRITERS:                 COST: FREE    
TRAINER: RACHEL THOMPSON AKA @RACHELINTHEOC
WHEN: FIRST MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH (UNLESS THERE’S A HOLIDAY; THEN IT’S THE FIRST WEDNESDAY)
DETAILS: This workshop goes over the basics of an author’s social media platform.  The workshop covers your need to brand yourself.  Focusing on Twitter, Rachel goes behind the blue curtain, reviewing all the specifics every other needs to know, not only to increase their reader’s base and create a marketing tool to help sell more books.
Specifics covered include follower/following ratios, content vs. promo tweets and ratios, all things lists, branding, bio/avatar/background review, retweet specifics, shortening links, what “banking” tweets means, third-party apps, memes, #MentionMonday, Klout, and more...you do NOT want to miss this workshop! 
2) FACEBOOK/GOODREADS:                COST: $15 (via PayPal)
TRAINER: AMBER SCOTT AKA @AMBERSCOTTBOOKS
WHEN: FIRST TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH
DETAILS: Amber goes into all the specifics of creating and maintaining a robust and interactive Facebook profile, page and presence– a critically important plank of any author’s writer’s platform! She has lots of tips and tricks for you to help you increase fans that can help turn them into readers. 
In addition, Amber gives a great overview of Goodreads and how it benefits all authors, what it is, and how authors should use it to interact with and gain readers. A great workshop! 
  1. BLOGGING (WORDPRESS & BLOGGER)      COST: $15 (via PayPal)
TRAINER: AMBER SCOTT AKA @AMBERSCOTTBOOKS
WHEN: SECOND TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH
DETAILS: Not sure you need a blog to sell books? Wrong! Amber reviews the two most popular free blogging platforms, WordPress and Blogger, and everything you need to get started to have you blogging like a pro in no time! Hints, tips, & insider tricks you can immediately apply.
4) EFORMATTING                       COST: $15 (via PayPal)
TRAINER: AMBER SCOTT AKA @AMBERSCOTTBOOKS
WHEN: THIRD TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH
DETAILS: Formatting an eBook can seem like rocket science, or at least as intimidating. Amber walks you through the steps as she live formats a book then illustrates publishing it to both Amazon AND Smashwords! She’s our IBC resident eBook formatting expert and you want to learn from her. This is definitely a fabulous workshop at a reasonable price you don’t want to miss!
5) AMAZON OPTIMIZATION                    COST: $15 (via PayPal)
TRAINER: CAROLYN MCCRAY AKA @CRAFTYCMC
WHEN: FOURTH TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH (BARRING HOLIDAYS)
DETAILS: Carolyn is a social media and publishing consultant.  She will show you how to optimize your digital sales platform (we concentrate on Amazon, however the techniques we teach can be used across any platform) to maximize your book sales.  After going through the basic process, if time allows, Carolyn will take volunteers to critique their Amazon.com page LIVE. 
You will come out of this value-priced workshop with the tools to transform your digital book sales.
Find out more at IndieBookIBC@gmail.com