Published! ALL FOR ONE by Sophia Beaumont

We could not be more pleased to announce that the 2017 ShoreIndie Runner Up's book has been released into the world! All For One by Sophia Beaumont went live on Amazon this month, and Sophia took time out of her busy launch schedule to do a brief interview with us about her book and her experience with the ShoreIndie Contest. Read on to learn about this gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, what Sophia got out of the ShoreIndie Contest, and what advice this self-publishing author has for those who are considering the path.

SI: Congratulations on the publication of your novel All For One! What inspired this book? 
SB: I love reading classic literature, and one of my all time favorites is The Three Musketeers. I love the comedy and the setting and the characters, and I just wanted to do something with that. But so many classics are rife with sexism, racism—every form of bigotry imaginable. If I was going to work with an old story, I wanted give it new life through a more modern lens.

My mom also happens to be from Montreal, so when I was playing around one day, brainstorming, combining the two just seemed natural. Adding elements of the American Civil War, steampunk, women’s rights, immigration issues—it all just came together very naturally.

Writescast E29: Self-publishing Part One

So you have a book, and you've decided to self-publish. Now what?

This question will be the focus of the ShoreIndie community for all of 2018. This year we're excited to bring you content and Twitter chats designed to help you prepare to self-publish your book. And who knows? Maybe there will be a giveaway or two. ;*)

So what do you do once you've decided to self-publish? One place to start is this Writescast podcast episode, hot off the presses today, featuring ShoreIndie editor Sione Aeschliman.

"Sione Aeschliman walks us through the early steps of the self-publishing journey. In this episode, we talk what you need to have done before looking to publish, the platforms through which one can self-publish, cover design and cover art resources, and best case practices for each of these critical phases."

 Self-Publishing Part One: a How-To Featuring Sione Aeschliman

Writescast is a writing and publishing podcast created by author and freelance editor R.R. Campbell, whose debut novel, a romantic suspense titled Accounting for it All, is slated for release in November 2018 from Nine Star Press.

Jan. 26, 2018 UPDATE: Part Two is now available!

And now we'd love to hear from YOU: What questions do you have about self-publishing? What topics would you like the ShoreIndie community to address this year to help you on your journey? Leave a comment below or email us at shoreindiecontest(at)gmail(dot)com

Published!: WHAT WE KNOW NOW by Mo Parisian

We are positively thrilled to welcome another ShoreIndie Round 1 winner's book into the world! What We Know Now by Mo Parisian went live on Amazon on November 17th, 2017, and Mo was kind enough to do a brief interview with us about her book and her experience with the ShoreIndie Contest. Read on to learn why Mo decided to self-publish What We Know Now, what it took to get it publish-ready, and Mo's advice to emerging indies.

SI: Congratulations on the publication of your novel, What We Know Now! What inspired this book?

MJP: Thank you! I am so excited to finally be able to share this book with everyone. The idea for What We Know Now started in Frankfort, a small beach town in northern Michigan. We were vacationing over Labor Day weekend and checking out some of the lighthouses. There is a row of beautiful beach homes located on the beach in Frankfort, and one in particular caught my eye. I knew immediately this was the setting for my book, and it was just a matter of figuring out who lived in that house and what the conflict would be! Obviously, it isn’t that easy, but the setting never changed for me. I can still see it so clearly.

SI: Tell us a little about why you decided to self-publish this novel.

Published!: MALFUNCTION by J.E. Purazzi

Today on the ShoreIndie blog we're celebrating the publication of one of the books that was a 2017 Round 1 Winner, Malfunction (The Malfunction Trilogy, Book 1) by J.E. Purazzi, which went live on Amazon on Sunday, October 8th. J.E. was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to do a brief interview with us about her book and her experience with the ShoreIndie Contest. Read on to learn about the inspirations for Malfunction, what it took to get it publish-ready, J.E.'s advice to emerging indies, and more.

ShoreIndie (SI): Congratulations on the publication of your novel Malfunction! Will you tell us a little about the inspiration for the trilogy?

J.E. Purazzi (JEP): Sure! The original idea was just going to be a short story for Wattpad, something to try to gain an audience for my fantasy project before I really knew good marketing practices. My first glimmer of the idea was focused on the virtual reality and was about a kid (a blend of Menrva and Cowl back then) in a subterranean city, escaping through Virtual Reality only to find out that the game they were playing was real. As I worked on the concept, hammering out the plot holes and applying existing science, I ended up sticking with the one image of the climax in the second book and wrote the first draft of Malfunction in about a month.

One of the ideas that carried through all the drafts was that of human beings being reduced to objects in order to provide safety and pleasure to others, a concept that I think is really relevant to the issues of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

AskAuthor chat with Rebecca Syme (& giveaway!)

We're kicking off our ShoreIndie AskAuthor series on Sunday, June 11th at 8pm ET with USA Today bestselling romance and cozy mystery author Rebecca Syme!

Rebecca Syme writes small town romance as Becca Boyd and cozy mystery as R.L. Syme. She is a long-time foodie and loves fancy cheese. Becca calls the mountains of Montana her home and draws inspiration from the beautiful vistas and heartwarming people. She is the USA Today bestselling author of the Line of Fire series of sweet romances and part of the Chick Tales continuity series set in Somewhere, TX. Her newest series, The Matchbaker Mysteries, falls into cozy culinary mystery and releases on July 1st. You can find her on Twitter talking #fancycheese or #Chopped, and on Facebook with her fans in Becca Nation. She is represented by Lane Heymont of the Tobias Literary Agency.

Connect with Rebecca: Website   Twitter   Facebook

Editor's Note: Not only is Rebecca is the author or co-author of over a dozen published books, but she also co-hosts the Smarty Pants Book Marketing Podcast and teaches courses on craft and indie authorship through the Margie Lawson Writer's Academy - including the excellent Indie Insider course, from which I learned everything I wish I'd known about indie authorship when I was starting out - and is a ShoreIndie sponsor. Bring all your questions about self-publishing and indie authorship over to the #AskAuthor hashtag on Twitter, and get ready to learn TONS.

We're also running a giveaway all day Sunday of Rebecca's latest book, VANGIE VALE AND THE MURDERED MACARON, due out August 1st! Enter below before 11:59pm on Sunday the 11th to win a paperback or an ebook copy of her new foodie cozy mystery!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

10 Reasons I'm Excited about ShoreIndie

by Sione Aeschliman

[Note: this post was updated on June 1, 2017 to reflect last-minute changes to the submission process.]

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called "6 Reasons to Follow #ShoreIndie," in which I gave some arguments for why writers should follow the ShoreIndie Contest regardless of whether they intend to submit. Today I'm going to focus on my own personal reasons for being excited about this contest - as its creator, as an indie author, and as a member of its editing team.

1. I know of no other contest like this for indie authors.
Existing contests open to indie authors fall into two main categories: published manuscripts and unpublished manuscripts. This contest falls into the latter category, and it distinguishes itself from existing contests in that 1) it is run by freelance editors, not by a self-publishing service; 2) TEN authors, not just one, will win professional editing; and 3) the prize packages are designed to include services and resources to help emerging indie authors begin to grow and sustain their careers, not just publish a single book. So yeah, I'm pretty darn proud of what we've put together. The contest being the first of its kind? Bonus.

2. Supporting indie authors as leaders in the publishing industry.
I am a person who is driven by a fierce independent streak and a strong commitment to social equality and self-empowerment. So it makes total sense that I'd be excited about the fact that we who write the books now have access to the means of production and distribution. But it goes beyond that, too. One of the biggest opportunities that self-publishing authors have is to push the boundaries laid down by traditional publishing - by publishing content deemed too risky for traditional publishing, by blending and inventing new genres, by introducing readers to voices and perspectives that aren't yet making it through the gates of traditional publishing. I firmly believe that once the self-publishing community has proven that there is a market for a wider range of voices and perspectives, more traditional publishers will be willing to take these projects on. Everybody wins.

Meet ShoreIndie Judge Ember Casey

We are jumping up and down with excitement to have USA Today bestselling author EMBER CASEY as a 2017 ShoreIndie Contest judge!

A prolific indie author since 2013, Ember was a powerhouse straight out of the gate with her debut NA contemporary romance, His Wicked Games, which, to date, has a whopping 626 reviews on Amazon. Since then, she's gone on to finish the Cunningham Family Series and write books in four more series, plus a standalone. And every one of her books has higher than a 4-star rating on Amazon. Ember is a master at keeping her readers engaged with her platform. One of her brilliant strategies is to release novellas and short stories related to her ongoing series in between novels. She also has a fantastic website, newsletter, and Facebook presence that are great models for how to do this indie author thing right. (Seriously, go check out what she's doing. She's an absolute genius.)

We are thrilled that Ember has agreed to do an interview for the ShoreIndie blog - stay tuned to find out more about how she has achieved her indie awesomeness - and that she's allowing us to host a giveaway of a signed copy of The Billionaire Escape Plan (date TBA). In the meantime, we highly recommend checking out her website, Facebook group, and BookBub listing; signing up for her newsletter to get a sense of what a great, engaging newsletter looks like; and following her on Twitter @embercasey.

Meet ShoreIndie Judge Bill Cameron

We are over the moon to have mystery author BILL CAMERON as a 2017 ShoreIndie Contest judge!

A hybrid author of adult and young adult mystery novels, Bill also writes short fiction, some of which has been included in anthologies edited by Lee Child (yes, THAT Lee Child - the bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers). We recommend checking out the interview Bill did with Sentence to Paragraph about his latest book, Property of the State (2016, Poisoned Pen Press), for an engaging discussion about how to capture the modern teen voice and writing about social issues without the book becoming a polemic.

Bill is a generous human being who has supported other writers for many years. Sione met him, in fact, through a weekly community reading series Bill organized that was open to writers of all ages, genres, and skill levels. In addition to judging the inaugural ShoreIndie Contest, Bill has agreed to field questions about writing and his decision to become a hybrid author in an #AskAuthor chat (date/time TBD), and we are thrilled to host a giveaway of Property of the State on that same day. We are so grateful to have Bill as a ShoreIndie judge, and we hope you'll help us show him the love!

Bill tweets @bcmystery. Be sure to check out his website, www.bill-cameron.com. 

6 Reasons to Follow #ShoreIndie

The submission period for the ShoreIndie Contest is just a little over a month away, and we are SO EXCITED about how this community is coming together to support emerging indies and all the amazing opportunities we're able to offer! Whether you plan to submit to the contest or not, here are 6 compelling reasons to follow the contest.

1. Learn from professional editors
Ten amazing editors have volunteered to donate a significant amount of time as well as their expertise to this project. Not only will they each choose one author to work with for free for seven weeks to get the authors' manuscripts much closer to publication-ready, but they will also provide opportunities for the whole community to learn more about craft by tweeting anonymous feedback about about the submissions they receive June 3-10 (check out the #RevPit #10queries feed on Twitter to get a sense of what this looks like) and hosting weekly-ish revision parties during the editing round, June 12-29. Announcements about what kinds of novels each editor will be excited to see in their submission inboxes come June 3-5.

Meet ShoreIndie Featured Author Ruthanne Reid

#ShoreIndie #AskAuthor chat: Thursday, March 23rd at 6pm Eastern on Twitter

Ruthanne Reid, Sci-fi and fantasy author

When Ruthanne Reid was a child, her friends were imaginary. Being an adult meant writing them down and introducing them to other people.

Proudly self-published since 2014, she's led convention panels on world-building and taught writing classes on finding the writer's voice. Her blog posts are shared by real live people, and her Twitter following is a pretty darned fun one.

Ruthanne has lived on both US coasts but currently dwells somewhere in the middle, loathing the hot summers and avoiding cholla cactuses. In the meantime, she writes a lot while dealing with Potential Multiple Sclerosis (or fibromyalgia or something) and looking way cute in cotton hospital duds.

She's happily married, is owned by two cats, and has little else to say in a third-person format.

To learn more (and begin an ordinary conversation), subscribe to her free email newsletter or send her an email.

Connect with Ruthanne:  Website   Twitter   Facebook

Editor's Note: Ruthanne launched her latest book, HALF-SHELL PROPHECIES, on March 14, 2017. It already has 26 reviews (and a 4.8-star overall rating). The ebook version is on sale for 99¢ March 14-24, 2017, and those who buy the book while it's on sale are eligible to receive several bonus materials, including two short stories and a 28-minute video about world building.

She will be answering questions about her experiences as an indie author on Thursday, March 23rd at 6pm Eastern on Twitter under the #AskAuthor and #ShoreIndie hashtags.