Category: Site announcements

  • Updated! And we’re looking forward! #mondayblogs

    Updated! And we’re looking forward! #mondayblogs

    Hi! Welcome back!
    How do you like the redesign?

    Firstly, the whole team wants to say hi, we’re delighted to have you along and whether you’re new or an old hand, we’ve been honored to serve and work with you to now, and hope that this new phase brings more great stuff!

    The Indie Author Group is eleven, and we’ve redesigned the site, so I thought I’d talk about what you should expect to see going forward. Valerie, myself and the rest of the team have been discussing how to make IAG the one-stop shop that we’d love it to be, and the blog is, in my opinion, an integral part of that (though, I would, I love blogging!). Valerie and I have talked in depth about it though, and we’ve got a pattern we’d like to try, so here goes 😉
    While the site is still being updated, and worked on, we’ve started the new blog up to get started up so that people could access some of the new information available out there. From pre-publishing, all the way through to promotion, we’ll be writing about every aspect of indie author life that we can help you with.

    And with that, we need YOUR help.
    What would you like to see? Not only can you ask questions on the group, but you can ask us to write up content and offer information on the things that might be troubling you. We’ve created some great guides, including how to self-edit, and our ten hour marketing plan (which is due it’s update next week!), so we’re hoping to give you one place to find all the critical information you need to make your career rock!

    Exclusives and more

    Every Friday, there will be at least one exclusive, IAG specific article, that is for our site. These articles will be in series’ or from questions, or a mix of both. We’ll be covering the important stuff that comes up, for now once a week, as an exclusive article. We’ll also be pulling in some of the best blogs, and content written by trusted sources to talk about extras in the community. And we’ll also be putting up more short form answers on TWIRL.

    New stuff!

    We do have some fun new items on the list too. While some are still being worked on and rolled out, we’re delighted to announce that we’ll be running a weekly roundup of our blog posts, other interesting news, and more for authors once week on Fridays.

    Join here! (it’s free, on Substack!)

    Finally, we’ve added a questions form!

    If you’ve got a question or concept or series of articles you’d like us to cover, we’d love to hear from you! Head on over to our form and ask! (or ask on the group, we’ll pick up stuff that we can add to on there too!)

    Next week, we’ll be starting *right* at the beginning – some great ways to get inspiration, and why your first draft doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be drafted!

    See you then!

  • Happy 9th Birthday IAG!

    Happy 9th Birthday IAG!

    Happy birthday to the Indie Author Group. Founded just as the trend of self-publishing took off by Valerie Douglas, and her co-founder Kai Viola, we are a vibrant team of writers and artists that look after one of the oldest communities for self-publishing and hybrid publishing on the Facebook.
    It’s our birthday today! We’ll be celebrating next week though, so watch the blog, group and page! (or the blog page!)
    To celebrate our 9th birthday, we’ll be overhauling, adding resources and doing a lot more, so watch this space!

  • Welcome to 2020! Let us help you make it your year! #IAG2020

    Welcome to 2020! Let us help you make it your year! #IAG2020

    IAG Happy New Year 2020

    Hi guys! I know it’s been a while that we’ve been writing regularly here, but we’ve got an actual editorial calendar and a plan now, and we’re back. Valerie and I will be blogging and we’ll be introducing the mods that are around, old and new, throughout the year. We’ll also be looking for guest posters, but I’ll explain more on that in a few days 🙂

    In 2011, Valerie Douglas put out a call for moderators. I think I was either first, or one of the first to say ‘I’ll help’. We’ve run this site, and others for almost as long, but we took a sabbatical last year, to think about what we wanted to do. And now….we’re back!

    But first….
    This year is a fun year for us. Not only are we NINE in May, but Valerie is a stone’s throw from 30 books, unless I miscounted, and that’d be funny cause I’m doing a Combined STEM degree, mostly maths. No, we’re not back in 2011, when this all started, but things are very similar again.

    So…to start with, we thought we’d invite you guys to share your goals. Same rules as always, you can use the link in the form that you fill in to make a comment, but any URLS in the comment bodies will be rejected.
    And if you’re not sure how to make goals, hang around this week – we’re doing a crash course on this, and some other stuff that might help.

    Quick tips to setting goals

    While I’ll be sharing many more articles on building yearly and five-yearly plans and your vision board for the decade, using free tools, the biggest and most important tip is that any goal you set (whether you call it a goal, a target, a resolution or where I’m going), is to be as specific as possible.
    Whether it’s “make six figures, five figures, four figures or three”, whether it’s to write a million, half a million or any range of words, whether it’s to publish 1-100 books, put a number on it, then tell *everyone*. Stick it in the sidebar of your blog if you have one. Put it on your Facebook, your Twitter, and check out our post on making an intentions post on Canva, on the 3rd.

    And, share it in the comments on the blog. We’ll be here, cheering you on.
    You’ve got this – and we’ve got you.
    Happy New Year, guys!