Blog Posts

Pre-Release Readers Wanted

11/2/2018

Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 370
Release date: 11.30.2018

The release date for Into This Wild Abyss is 30 November 2018. We're looking for avid readers to score a pre-release copy of this book and help us build some momentum for when it goes on sale. Spaces are limited.

Interested? All you have to do is read the blurb and fill out the form below. Successful applicants will receive an ebook, or in special circumstances a physical copy. We would appreciate it if people read the book, and then leave reviews on Amazon and/or Goodreads. This however is not compulsory.

The Vermilion Empire is in turmoil, rocked by murder, betrayal and revolt. Amid the chaos, three individuals face the brutal reality of a society collapsing around them.

Ashara is stranded in the city and desperate to return to the grassy plains of her homeland. Surrounded by strangers, she must learn the hard way who she can trust. As things go from bad to worse, she is forced to flee with nothing but her wits and courage to protect her.

Natan is a disappointment to his merchant father. He sees the civil war as an opportunity to prove himself but does not count on the bitter cost. What starts as the pursuit of adulthood ends in a quest for revenge.

Po is a novice monk in the Ba’re order. Idealistic but at times naive, he is drawn into a web of intrigue that sees him hunted by the notorious Ministry of Virtue. The information he safeguards could determine the future of the empire itself.

Loyalties are tested and human endurance finds its limits amidst the gritty and unrelenting backdrop of a world teetering on the edge of oblivion.

Still interested? Fill out the form. It will only take a minute. All details are kept private and you will only be contacted in relation to this application.

Submit

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Seeking Fantasy Authors

3/5/2018

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This is an exciting opportunity for fantasy authors. It is 100% free and no strings attached. We just want you involved.

To qualify you must:

Be a fantasy author.
Self-published or with small press.
Meet basic quality standards.
Be willing to provide an original bio.

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Q&A: Aarti V Raman - Thriving in the Indian Book Market

3/2/2018

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Today we interview author Aarti V Raman. When we think of book publishing, we often think of the United States, United Kingdom and a few others. Few outside the industry think of India, but in fact it's the second largest English book market in the world. Nielsen predicts it will be worth $11 billion USD in 2020. Bestsellers include authors familiar to most western readers, such as John Grisham, and some less familiar such as Shouvik Bhattacharya’s Murder in a Minute, as well as Amish Tripathi, Ravinder Singh and more. So, today, for more insight we’re talking with author Aarti V Raman.

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Q&A: Everything an Author Should Know About ISBNs (and a lot you don't).

2/16/2018

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Q: What is an ISBN?
A: It’s short for International Standard Book Number. Nowadays they’re 13 digits long and unique to each edition of a book.

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The Year Ahead

2/14/2018

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For those that don't know, we're in the southern hemisphere. That means it's summer, sticky hot, and a really busy time for book selling. We're rushed off our feet. But as kids go back to school and business eases out, we're ready to get stuck in to expanding our reach and engaging with authors around the world. So some questions.

What do you find hard about publishing?
What books or resources have really helped you?
What would you tell your younger self if you could do it all again?
What topics would you like to see us cover?

Comment below, message us on Facebook, or email us on the Contact page. We can't wait to hear from you.

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Book Review: Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve

9/1/2017

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Nabokov's Favourite Word Is Mauve: The literary quirks and oddities of our most-loved authors

Do you ever get confused by writing advice? We've all heard the common ones — avoid adverbs, no exclamation marks, start books with something other than the weather, et cetera, et cetera. Depending on who you talk to, opinions differ on the value of this advice.

In Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve Ben Blatt combines two of my favorite things: big data and books. The result is an analyses of bestselling fiction, literary fiction, and fan fiction to see how well authors follow the advice, and by inference how well respect the advice is among authors.

If you're interested in self-publishing, then this will give you tons to think about.

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Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for Good Writing

8/28/2017

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Never open a book with weather.

Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said"…he admonished gravely.
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

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One Common Mistake Self-Published Authors Make When Formatting

8/13/2017

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We work in the book industry, so we're handling books every day and are used to the way the big publishers make them. Without looking at the logo or the cover, there is one dead give away we see to indicate a book is self-published. It is one common mistake A LOT of authors make.

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Formatting Your Book For Print

8/5/2017

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There's huge demand out there for help with interior formatting. Authors everywhere want to take pride in their work, so we've put together this eBook for self-published authors. This eBook will give you proven tips and strategies to format the interior of your book. Simple and easy to understand, it includes practical advice and hands-on activities so you can get your formatting done with confidence.

It covers:

Selecting the right format.
Margins and bleed.
Headers and page numbers.
Fonts and paragraph styling.
Leading (line spacing).
Widows and orphans.
Chapter headings.
Front matter.
Back matter.

To get the most out of this eBook, keep paper or notebook handy. Each chapter ends with a series of homework assignments so you can personalize your interior formatting. No two books are the same, so we provide exercises that help establish what you need to know for your genre. At the end of the book, with your new knowledge and notes, you'll be ready to format a clean, professional looking interior.

Buy now for Kindle.

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Formatting Paranormal Romance

7/26/2017

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Due to popular demand, this week we're looking at paranormal romance. We've changed the questions around a bit and are now looking at:

Format of book (size of book in inches).
Indents (depth of indent on first line of new paragraph).
Chapter headings (whether the books used just numbers or titles as well).
Headers (whether the book has a header at the top of a page).

To do this, we looked at a randomized selection of paranormal romance. Normally we'd want to look at 100 or so titles published by the major publishing houses. This week though, we've had to limit ourselves to 50 books. Still, there are some clear messages we can glean from the sample.

Format Size

Paranormal Romance titles seem to be smaller on the whole than other genres. 56% in our sample were 4.1" by 6.8". 26% were 4.25" by 7". These two formats combined fall within the scope of 'mass market paperback'. 14% were 5.06" by 7.81". This would be a traditional B format. 4% in our sample were traditional trade paperbacks, or 6" by 9".

This poses some issues for self-published authors, who on the whole stood out for their larger book sizes. CreateSpace (one of the most popular print on demand services) does not offer mass market paperback as a size. IngramSpark does (4" x 6", 4" x 7", 4.25" x 7”), but they charge a setup fee. The most practical option, to fit in with the majority of traditionally published paranormal romance, would be to opt for 5.06" by 7.81".

First Line Indents

Next we wanted to look how the paranormal romance books used indenting. In particular, in this case, we looked at the depth of the indent on the first line of each new paragraph. 84% of the books used an indent of approximately 0.15". 12% used 0.2" and 4% used 0.25". Unsurprisingly, the larger indent sizes correlated with the larger formats.

As is normal, 100% of those books sampled did not indent the first line of a paragraph when there was a space between them (for example with a scene change).

Chapter Titles

As in previous weeks, we wanted to see whether paranormal romance authors used chapter titles (ie. “Deception”, “Turning Point” etc…), or just numbers (ie. Chapter 31, 31, #31, Chapter Thirty-One etc…). The results here were overwhelmingly in one direction. 100% of those books sampled (we are very wary about ever going 100% with such a matter of taste) used numbers without any other title or name given to the chapter. You can compare this to the fantasy genre where 53% of books give names to their chapters.

Headers

We also looked to see if headers ran across the tops of pages. Previously we'd found 49.5% of general fiction had headers. With paranormal romance this was way different. 76% of our sample had headers.

Liked this? Make sure you like and share on social media. We also don't mind if you put this on your own blog or website, just be sure to acknowledge us.

We'll also take special requests for other topics.

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<<Previous

Pre-Release Readers Wanted

Pre-Release Application

Seeking Fantasy Authors

Q&A: Aarti V Raman - Thriving in the Indian Book Market

Q&A: Everything an Author Should Know About ISBNs (and a lot you don't).

The Year Ahead

Book Review: Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for Good Writing

One Common Mistake Self-Published Authors Make When Formatting

Formatting Your Book For Print

Formatting Paranormal Romance

Format Size

First Line Indents

Chapter Titles

Headers

Archives

Categories