Using Free Books to Welcome Loyal Readers

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Aug 17, 2016 12:00:00 PM

wire-trees.jpgIndependent passion projects require an incentive for your audience to return and return again. The internet affords people the ability to make their work visible to an entire planet. How can you channel that potential audience into a devoted fanbase though?

Whether you're a YouTuber, an artist on Etsy, a musician on Soundcloud, or a writer self-publishing your first novel, you can maintain a loyal following with samples of your work that they can share and you can be proud of.

Digital meets paper.

Here's how free books work as a downloadable...

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Topics: self-promotion, Download free ebook, free books

How to Download Free Novels to Kindle or iPhone

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jul 29, 2016 12:00:00 PM

100-years-of-solitude-cover.jpgJust like when Napster won the hearts of millions of music fans, and enraged Metallica's lawyers, you'll be happy to hear we're in a new age of digital content creation and consumption. The arrival of the .mp3 necessitated the CD burner, letting you load your digital music onto a format, you know, you can actually play.

Today, you have the opportunity to learn about getting the book file downloads you have onto your Kindle, iPhone, or Google Play Books app.

It's great for reading independent writing, content submissions, or even digital comic giveaways.

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Topics: self-promotion, Download free ebook

Preparing Your Free Books For Distribution

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jul 22, 2016 12:00:00 PM

The_Scarlet_Tenant_ebook_cover.pngIt's time for our Friday update! First the good news: progress is abundant on Diffused States' second chapter. In fact, there's too much material. At halfway, it's tracking to be twice as long as it should be.

This means, the word count will reach upward of 15,000. Taking the average reader's speed into account, 15,000 words takes about 70 minutes to read.

That's too long. It should be down more around 9000-10,000 words. The chapters on Ghost Little, of course, are divided into smaller sub-divisions while maintaining a story through-line.

The chapter will eventually be completed. Then some edits will need to happen to Diffused States first chapter—currently available for download like the rest of the free books on its downloads page—to assure continuity.

Today, you'll get a little insight into how the free book samples themselves. With The Scarlet Tenant the most recent publication, let's use it as our guinea pig.

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Topics: self-promotion, Download free ebook, free books

How Anonymity Still Hurts Online Writing

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jul 1, 2016 12:00:00 PM

blues-brothers-nun.gifI remember when the internet and virtual reality became the new escapism for the non-conforming youth. Perhaps realer than the high-fantasy elves and goblins of generations prior because it was something the 90's rejects could actively live in. They could get away from the traditionalism that beat them down under pretense they defied.

So online, these rejects could share among one another. The sharper ones even had some measure of penetrating power online. And they had extra-special, secret names they gave themselves.

They could be anonymous, if they felt it. I get that freedom. It's a shield. They could vanish backward into anonymity, again, if they felt it.

Trouble is: that anonymity, that protectedness, that outcast mentality, it's burnt deep into the internet's bread and butter now. While once, it was a shield, now it's acid. The anonymity homogenizes and wounds online writing.

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Topics: storytelling analysis, self-promotion, Download free ebook, online etiquette

Isolationism Is Death: A Brexit Response

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Jun 24, 2016 12:00:00 PM

diffused-resized-600.pngAt the time of this writing, the United Kingdom has voted by a margin of 52% to 48% to leave the European Union. As far as I can figure, the motivation to do so was because aging racists were afraid of immigrants.

This is troubling because the country that invented Peter Pan, Harry Potter, and Bilbo Baggins has decided to age horribly, kill magic, and stay isolated in the Shire.

I lived in Scotland for a little while. Ask a Scot if they're British and the least that they'll do is laugh at you, so I won't pretend I've lived in Britain, but I technically lived in the United Kingdom, as it was. As an American in the early 2000's, well into the Bush administration, and months after Hurricane Katrina left a city of predominantly non-whites to die, I understood that isolationism and rejecting our planet truly is death.

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Topics: storytelling analysis, Download free ebook

Ultimate Frisbee Is Just World Of Warcraft For Extroverts

Written by: Alex Crumb | Follow on: Twitter, Facebook

Published: Aug 10, 2011 12:00:00 PM

"When the ultimate frisbee sports-club that you're enamored with—which is meant to be the healthy evolution from competition-driven traditional sports—quickly turns into a clusterfuck of LSD and wardrobes of unaddressed sexuality, you've got a contradiction on your hands."

frisbee-resized-600In the grand scheme of personal vices and obsessions, we'd rate Ultimate Frisbee just below World of Warcraft and just above Bible Club.

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Topics: Download free ebook, How to write about

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The Ghost Little blog publishes EVERY WEEKDAY. It's sometimes immediately relevant to the books' development process. Other times, it's only thematically-relevant. Thoughts and ideas influence the creative process in ways that you wouldn't initially anticipate. They're all worth detailing and discussing!

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