Books by Some of Our Author-friends #goodreads

 Authors help authors-- that's the way it works amongst writers and bloggers. In that spirit, here's my second post in the series of books by indie-author friends (first post here): some are books I came across, others have been recommended for mention.

 I'm adding only one link, but you can click through to the author sites for more options and also more books they've written. I've added a bit about each book, so if you see what you like, go buy it!

If you're an author-friend, or a reader who loved a recent download, leave a comment with the link to the book.

So here it goes, in no particular order: 

Shannon Grissom:  Monkey Made of Sockies

Want to smile? Want to giggle? Are you ready to return to your childhood? All you have to do is pick up a copy of Monkey Made of Sockies.  As soon as you see the smile on the monkey’s face, you’ll gain a smile of your own.  Each turn of the page describes why Monkey Made of Sockies is the favored toy at Grammy’s house.  The vibrant illustrations and lyrical text make reading his book a truly enjoyable experience.





                                                          Jacqueline Stone: Rising from Ashes

Living in the shadow of abuse is a dark and frightening experience that limits every area of life. This book is an invitation to come out of the shadows and into the light of Love, to heal your heart and learn to love yourself. It empowers the reader with tools for self-awareness and healing processes to become a joyful co-creator. If you're ready to heal your heart and finally know what it is to be happy, get this book.

Allan Douglas: Writing for Profit or Pleasure

Writing for Profit or Pleasure; Where to Publish Your Work, is 146 pages (paperback version), 30,000 words of concise, insightful information about where and how a writer can achieve publication of their writings. Whether you write for income or for the joy of it, whether you aspire to write on-line or for print, this book has a wealth of information to help you find and secure publication.




Joe Bunting: Let's Write a Short Story!

An eBook about the process of writing and publishing short stories. The book will guide you through the process of researching publications, writing your story, editing, and submitting your work to literary magazines. It's also a primer in how to make a career in fiction writing. If you've ever wanted to be a writer, this book will help get you started.

• Why all the great writers started with short stories, and why you should, too.
• How to build a fiction platform with short stories rather than just another blog.
• How short stories are structured differently than novels. 
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To Ebook or Not to Ebook, that is the question...

Last year for the A to Z Challenge, I wrote flash fiction for each of the 26 days, and then edited and compiled them into a book:  A to Z Stories of Life and Death.

Not only have sales continued to trickle in since last year without any marketing on my part, I've found folks reading and reviewing the book in some detail-- like this one, at The Conscientious Reader.

I'm now working on a novel, my first, for the past few months. I have no idea how good or bad it is, since I haven't yet finished the first draft. But prevalent wisdom says it is unlikely to be much good, all first novels are destined to remain in the writer's desk drawer. (Yes, I've had several short stories traditionally published, but a novel is a different beast.)

So, I'm wondering: would it be better to try this novel out as an e-book?

• Conventional wisdom says no. It says I should try finding an agent, who will find me a publisher and so on.  (But printed books are slowly getting wiped out, marketing budgets are shrinking and writers have to do their own marketing, the agency model seems to be floundering a bit, Amazon looks poised to take over a big chunk of the publishing market)
• New e-book wisdom says it may be more profitable and popular to self-publish. (But e-books means doing a lot of publishing and marketing work-- time that I'd rather spend writing. It also means writing a lot of books quickly-- but I'm a slow writer. Genre books tend to do better as e-books, but mine has a literary bent. Besides, I don't mind if the trad-pubbed book doesn't give me much money, I want my book read but don't expect to start rolling in money)

Since at my current stage of the novel I'm more bothered about writing the book well, than deciding on its mode of publication, I have at least an year or more to decide how I want the publishing to happen. In the meanwhile, I'd rather ask for opinions.

Should I stick to traditional publication? (And once I finish and polish the novel, start typing those query letters, and check if I have a shot at getting published.)

Should I e-publish? (And get ready for an exhausting binge of marketing-- hence push my social media presence an extra notch, starting now?)

Will all the advice you give me become invalid an year from now? (given the pace at which the publishing scenario is changing)


(Now that I've sufficiently spent my writing break on mulling over publishing a book that is 1 year or more from the finish line, I'm off to do some #amwriting. )


But I'd still appreciate your opinion: Querying or self-publishing-- what's your advice for me?
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