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Improbable Press Blog — Atlin Merrick

Come Hell or High Water

Atlin Merrick Come Hell or High Water Help for Writers

Come Hell or High Water

By Atlin Merrick A thousand words a day.One thousand words a day.A thousand every day every day one thousand. That. There. The rule I lived by for two years. Several years ago, in an effort to become a better writer, I promised myself I'd write a thousand words a day for a year. When that went well, I continued on into two years and by early year three… …I was… …sometimes… …………falling behind. Because by year three I'd become deeply involved with fandom, going to meetups and conventions, I'd moved countries, and I'd started a degree program. So a thousand...

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How to Set Up Your Own Website for Free – Or Almost Free

Atlin Merrick Book Promotion Publishing Reference

How to Set Up Your Own Website for Free – Or Almost Free

By Atlin Merrick Got a book? Then you want to be online to help promote it, whether that's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or a website. While you can stick to social media-only for promotion, if you decide to create a website – a good long-term investment in your writing self – here are a few ideas on how to do it for free or for cheap. Tumblr For the Win – Maybe The cheapest and easiest way to create a website is to start with Tumblr –  if you're already using it. Something you already know will make the process easier,...

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Quick Book Promotion Don'ts: What Not to Do After You're Published

Atlin Merrick Book Promotion Publishing Reference

Quick Book Promotion Don'ts: What Not to Do After You're Published

By Atlin Merrick There are a lot of things to do to help promote your book – and here are 11 book promo ideas – but there are a few things you want to not do, including: Don't create a Goodreads page for your book Goodreads is owned by Amazon, and once your book is listed there by your publisher, Amazon automatically generates a Goodreads page for your book. So if you create one before Amazon you will end up with two pages. If you have no book page after a few days or a week after your book is out...

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Know Your Publisher: Independent? Subsidy? What's the Diff?

Atlin Merrick Publishing Reference

Know Your Publisher: Independent? Subsidy? What's the Diff?

By Atlin Merrick A quick note today and that's this: Know your publisher. I don't mean know the actual people, I don't even mean know all about what they do and when they started, I mean know what sort of publisher they are. I follow and get followed by other publishers and editors on Twitter and I usually follow back, but lately I've stopped doing that automatically, instead seeing who I'm following. This is how I learned that some subsidy presses are calling themselves independent publishers. But they're not. Not in the way that term is traditionally used. Independent Publisher...

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#Own Voices – What It Means to Us

#OwnVoices Atlin Merrick Own Voices

#Own Voices – What It Means to Us

By Atlin Merrick I like labels. No, that's wrong, I like labels which help. Lots start out that way, but some labels are turned, used to marginalize, belittle, other. The ones that help though? Oh, the clarity they can bring, the community they can create. This is why I like the #OwnVoices label, a hashtag which popped up on Twitter a few years ago. At its simplest Own Voices means that if your main character identifies as part of a minority group, you the writer are also part of that group. If an author identifies their story as Own Voices,...

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