The Knotty and Nice of Indie Publishing #6 - Giving, Receiving, Promotional Items and Random Acts of Kindness

I have always been a giver. As a very young child, the arrival of company sent me scurrying off to my room for a crayon drawing, a toy repainted with mother’s newest color of nail polish or a short poem (which no doubt would have made any Hallmark Cards writer wince). I continue to be a giver. Hopefully, my gifts have improved.

If I give a gift of one Twitter follower’s work to another follower, both benefit. For example, I purchased a photo from a photographer follower (her first sale). I gave the photo to a musician follower. Now both remember me.

The Knotty and Nice of Indie Publishing #5 - The Importance of Personal Blogs, Profiles & Author Sites

Getting your name out there is a major key to an author’s success. It is paramount that you create and maintain an author blog and website. There are several tools you can use to push readers to your sites.

I have had a blog for years. I enjoy blogging and appreciate the 97,000+ folks worldwide who support it by reading. When I first started, it was just a story blog that I faithfully posted to on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Posting regularly and with something of interest is one key to building a consistent following. From the beginning, I have alternated between posting a scifi story, paranormal and a fantasy. I am pleased to say that every month or so it picks up 1,000 new hits.

The Knotty and Nice of Indie Publishing #4 - Reviews, Interviews, Podcasts and YouTube

Let’s talk about reaching out to your readers and potential readers.

Remember once the reader reaches your author page on Amazon or Smashwords, they look at the book’s cover, the description and then the reviews.

Reviews are what authors crave. We indie authors do not have a publisher to tell us how great our current book is and most of us do not want to hit you over the head with the “please read me” tweets. It is so wonderful when someone reviews you and you can quote them as saying you are well written, clever, prolific, a multi-genre genius, whatever.

We live for reviews and are thankful to those who give them. A tip I picked up by reading other indie authors’ books is to insert an “author’s note” in the back of each book, calling for a few words and a sprinkle of stars on any social, media or platform site. It works.

Lexi Miles Tagged Me *grins*

I was scrolling through my twitter stream last week when I saw I was tagged by Lexi Miles (@leximilesbooks). I love being tagged for short little interviews - gives me a chance to chat more than 140 characters. For those of you who know me better, you understand why. I can be as longwinded as my dragon friend, Farloft. I am so pleased Lexi thought of me.

Speaking of thinking of people, since I got caught by the tag I now have become the tagger. So, *grins* I get to introduce you to some of my favorite authors on Twitter. These are folks you should take a minute to get to know and as I always say #FRR (follow-read-review).

By tagging them, it will then become their chance to answer the same questions, as seen below, within their blog and to also become the tagger. With that said, please stay tuned to see if you have been tagged at the end.

So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, grab a cup of your favorite beverage, kick up your feet and have a read.

The Knotty and the Nice of Indie Publishing #3 - The Domino Effect

Writing guest posts on blogs is a worthwhile way to attract an audience to your writing. Once the post is published, you and the person who owns the blog can Facebook the post, Google+ it, or Tweet it. If you are lucky, your connections become like dominoes.

Carla, a well-known author in Italy, gave me my first opportunity to write a guest post. Through the article I posted on Carla’s blog I met Max, who lives in Italy. Max liked what I wrote and clicked on the Web link provided. He has become one of my most devout and supportive fans.

Max belongs to a group called Effortless English (EE) which is composed of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students who follow a program developed by A. J. Hoge. Hoge’s method of teaching English is to have students read authentic English material – books written for young English speaking students.

What's on My Bookshelf

The name of this post is misleading. The books listed below are never on my bookshelf. They sit at my elbow on my desk for quick reference. Hope you find the list helpful. –Theresa Snyder


Writer’s Guide to Character Traits, 2nd Ed., by Linda N. Edelstein, Ph.D

Noted psychologist and author Dr. Linda Edelstein takes you beyond generic personality types and into the depths of the human psyche where you’re sure to find the resources you need to make your characters stand out from the crowd. From sex to schizophrenia: everything you need to develop your characters.


The Emotion Thesaurus, A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi

The Knotty and the Nice of Indie Publishing #2 - Social Media

It takes a community to get the proper attention for a writer’s work and social media helps accomplish that.


Your readers wish to learn about you as a person. They want to feel as if they know you. If you are gentle and engaging, folks will respond. They will assist you if you work together.

Shortly after I posted my first book, The Helavite War, on Kindle, my students suggested that I sign up with Twitter and actively work to market the book. Two of them stepped in and created a perfect profile – branding me as the author, reader, gardener and dreamer that I am.