Jade Varden Official Blog

Once upon a time, writers like Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austin sat hunched over wooden desks next to oil lamps, scribbling out fantastic prose in longhand with bottles of ink sitting just within reach. They sent voluminous manuscripts -- ink spots, and all -- off to publishers, who were happy to turn these gigantic collections of parchment into beautifully bound books. Those days are long over. Today's writer has to become an expert on using the Internet, a star in social media, an editor, a book formatter, a software guru, a forum nut -- and yes, even a graphic designer. Want to be a professional writer? You'll be lucky if you spend even half of your working hours actually writing. Among the many non-writing tasks you'll be asked to perform, you need to learn about book trailers. What they are. Who they're for. What to do with them. And, oh yeah -- how to create them from scratch. Put away your bottles of ink, and get out a keyboard. What's a Book Trailer? ...

Everyone's self-publishing these days, and the ebook market is booming. Lots of indies are cracking the bestseller lists and making a name for themselves. There's opportunity out there...and wherever there's opportunity, there are people who prey upon it. Self-publishing isn't free, no matter what anyone says. Some things, you've got to pay for. Some things, you shouldn't pay for. Learn how to tell the difference, and spend your money where it's going to matter most.  What Indies Should Pay For Some things cost money, even in self-publishing. When it comes to creating a book that you're trying to sell to the masses, there are some things you're going to have to buy...and some things that maybe you should buy.  Copyright . Where you're writing your book matters. Make sure to look up the copyright requirements for your current home country. In the United States, for example, you have to pay to register your copyright. Always do thi...

If you want to sell more books and get more visitors on your blog, don't underestimate the power of video. There are a lot of reasons why you should be using YouTube's powers to enhance your own reach. The biggest? Google gives YouTube a little extra search engine bump. Video Killed the Book Star It's because Google owns YouTube (and I believe they will one day own everything on the Internet). So naturally Google gives websites that have a lot of YouTube higher rankings, and you'll see links to YouTube videos all the time during normal web searches. So it behooves you to create your own YouTube channel, and add those links to your blog.  If you're going to create content to promote yourself and your books, create good content. And if you're going to use that content to drive more traffic to your blog, create it regularly . There are lots of reasons why an indie author might make a YouTube video. Start with my ideas, and let me know if you come up w...

For hundreds of years, clever salesmen made a great living by selling water in bottles and telling people to rub dirt on their wounds. Scoff if you will, but this is the absolute truth. You see, it usually isn't about what you're selling. It's about the presentation...and that goes for self-published books, too. Snake Oil and Novels We've all heard the jokes and seen the satires of the old-fashioned hawkers and hucksters who used to sell people magical potions and miracle medical remedies, when really the bottles are filled with things like cow dung and cat urine. You've probably heard of the expression "snake oil" and "snake oil salesman." Well, that used to be a real thing. People will buy snake oil if the presentation is right, so they should certainly be willing to buy your books. It's all about how you present those books to the rest of the world. Once you get past the obvious factors, it comes down to salesmanship. How ...

 Even the most celebrated and well-loved authors show off quotes from colleagues, reviewers and prestigious publications. For indie writers, review quotes are a valuable commodity. Many indies make it a habit to tweet review quotes to market their work, and some include them in their book blurbs and websites. I even put some of mine in one of my trailers. Movies, books, magazines, music -- lots of products are promoted with glowing, intriguing and enticing quotes from critics and supporters. But there is a certain finesse to choosing review quotes, and to displaying them, that some indies don't seem to possess. How do you use yours?  On Review Quotes I've been writing on the topic of reviews a lot lately, but only because they're an endless source of fascination. I also happened to see something a little strange recently, and can't help but to blog about it. Besides, it naturally follows that once you've learned how to get reviews , you're going to wa...

In case you haven't heard, it's Petals on the Wind weekend here at the blog. So instead of indie news, this week it's all about POTW news. What can you expect from the adaptation that airs tomorrow night?  Sex scenes.  At least, that's what the trailer indicates. Of course there's more than sex in the film. The trailers and stills are very limited, but to me it looks as though Corinne's role has been somewhat extended for the Lifetime movie . I could be wrong, of course, but since the entire book is told from Cathy's perspective the reader sees very little of Corinne throughout. Contrarywise, Heather Graham is peppered throughout the trailers.

Before you self-publish, writing is a passion and a burning desire. Once you start self-publishing, it can start to become a chore. Falling out of love with writing is common to all authors, and it happens to everyone from time to time. There is definitely such a thing as getting too much of a good thing.  Breakin' Up is Hard to Do  Remember when writing was a hobby? Once you start self-publishing, it becomes part of your to-do list. Now, you've got books to promote. You've got links to Tweet. You've got sales figures to check and pages to edit and networking to do and forums to check...and oh yeah, you need to get some writing done in the middle of all of that.  Self-published authors have a lot on their plate, and that makes it easy to fall out of love with writing. Many indie writers spend the least amount of time on the actual writing part. The research, the editing, the promotion -- this all takes up a huge amount of time. Creating book covers and tra...

After you publish a book, you've got to start immediately thinking about publishing your next book. You've got to keep publishing, even though you have to worry about promoting and editing and making trailers and maintaining you day job, too. When it comes to being an indie, how important is speed?  How Fast Can You Publish? Some of the most successful self-published authors don't just put books out there. They put a lot of books out there very quickly. They make money by constantly offering something new to their fan bases. They make money with speed. What if you can't keep up? 

Indie authors need social media to promote. You hear it all the time, but what you don't hear is that sometimes it's a waste of time. What you don't know about the secret life of social media could be hurting you. Or at least, it could be wasting all your best efforts. Sunday Always Comes Too Late When you tweet links, do you know which ones get clicked? Or do you just post and post, waiting for it to work? Do you write Facebook statuses, and can't figure out why they don't trend? And what about that YouTube channel that looks as desolate as a ghost town in a Western movie? You aren't a bad marketer. You just don't know the secret of social media : it's different every day. Focus your efforts and tailor your links not to your audience and not to your genre. Let the day of the week determine how you're going to promote. Because here's what you don't know: it already does. Monday, Monday Start out every work week ...