By Mark Coker, Smashwords
We asked members of the Smart Author Podcast launch team to share their thoughts on indie authorship.
Here’s what they shared. Their quotes run the spectrum from insightful, to heart warming, to hilarious to downright strange. Just like authors.
If any of these images speak to you, feel free to click to enlarge then download to your device or desktop and share. You can also find these quotes at Facebook at the Smart Author Podcast page, where you can like them and share them.
What does indie authorship mean to you? Add your own thoughts below in the comments.
By Mark Coker, Smashwords
Inside:
Smashwords launches Smart Author Podcast
Helpful Resources
Your Smashwords page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/goodlifeguide
Smashwords account login email: goodlifeguide@cox.net
1. SMART AUTHOR PODCAST LAUNCHES FRIDAY, TRAILER NOW AVAILABLE
Heads up. This Friday October 27 we’re kicking off the Smart Author Podcast!
Hosted by Mark Coker, The Smart Author Podcast guides writers step-by-step from the very basics of ebook publishing to more advanced topics. It’s a free masterclass in ebook publishing best practices.
Whether you’re new to publishing or you’re already a New York Times bestseller, the Smart Author Podcast will help you reach more readers. You’ll learn practical, no-nonsense advice on how to make your books more discoverable and more desirable to readers.
Listen to the trailer now at Smashwords
These first four episodes launch this Friday:
1. 7 Trends Shaping the Future of Authorship
2. Introduction to Ebook Publishing
3. Bestseller Secrets
4. How to Sell More Ebooks with Preorders
And then these episodes release each week through November:
5. 11/3 – Working with Beta Readers
6. 11/10 – Marketing to Libraries
7. 11/17 – Smashwords Survey 2017
8. 11/24 – The Art of Delusion (How to keep writing despite inevitable challenges)
More episodes are planned for December.
Join the Smart Author Launch Team!
If you’d like to help us promote the launch of the Smart Author Podcast, consider joining our Launch Team. You’ll gain exclusive early access to each of the first eight episodes, and you’ll participate in weekly promotions starting this Friday and continuing through November 24. Launch Team members who participate throughout the four-week promotion will receive a super-cool commemorative Smashwords thumb drive containing the first eight episodes. You’ll also receive an acknowledgement and link to your pen name’s Smashwords author page in Mark’s November 24 blog post where he’ll thank Launch Team participants. Thank you in advance for considering joining us for this important project!
Click here to apply – enrollment ends soon
Subscribe now at:
Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-author/id1298180300#
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Inyyeidlihl2vizh4cegieizsvu
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-845581352
TuneIn: https://tunein.com/radio/Smart-Author-p1043483/
Or, you can always listen online at https://smashwords.com/podcast
Enjoy!
Podcast Links
Following the release of each episode, we’ll post supplemental links and resources along with edited transcripts at our Smart Author hub page at Smashwords.
You can read the announcement of the podcast at the Smashwords Blog.
Join us at Facebook at the official Smart Author Facebook Page where you can discuss each episode with fellow listeners, or to pose questions following each episode.
In the meantime, please take a moment to subscribe at your favorite podcast service so you don’t miss any episodes!
2. HELPFUL RESOURCES
How to publish and distribute ebooks with Smashwords
Frequently asked questions
Smashwords Site Updates
Smashwords blog (subscribe today via the email option!)
How to Publish ebooks (4-part presentation)
Smart Author Podcast
Smashwords Video Workshops
Create a Smashwords Interview (self-interviews)
Smashwords Series Manager (Manage series metadata)
Smashwords Coupon Manager (Create custom coupon codes)
Connect with fellow Smashwords readers and authors at Facebook
Mark’s List – Low cost cover designers and ebook formatters
Thanks for choosing Smashwords for your ebook publishing and distribution.
When you distribute with Smashwords, you’re directly supporting our ability to create exciting new tools and opportunities for you.
If you know a friend who’d benefit from the Smart Author Podcast, please forward this email along to them.
Thanks,
The Smashwords Team
To Access Your Smashwords Account:
To sign in to your account: Click to https://www.smashwords.com.
In the sign in box, enter your email address: goodlifeguide@cox.net followed by your password.
If you forgot your password, click “forgot password” link to generate a new one.
You can purchase the book online soon from Smashwords in multiple eBook formats.
eBook formatting and cover design by Shelley Glasow Schadowsky.
By Elsie Johnstone
& Graeme Johnstone
This is the third book in the trilogy – Lover Husband Father Monster, Her Story; Lover Husband Father Monster, His Story and now, Lover Husband Father Monster, The Aftermath.
In Books One and Two, the story is told in two voices – his and hers – of how Stuart Hoare’s abuse and control of Jennifer, his wife and mother of his three children for fifteen years, culminates in a tragic family disaster.
Stuart is a successful businessman, the family live in an upmarket Dublin suburb and the children attend good schools. Jennifer, previously a successful environmental lawyer, is an ‘at-home’ mother who is a slave to her family’s needs. Although unhappy in the marriage, Jennifer endures because all sense of self has been destroyed and she has nowhere to go.
On Facebook, she reunites with her English lover from university days, has an affair and eventually gathers the strength to confront her husband to declare that the marriage is over and that she is leaving to live in London, taking their young daughter Molly with her.
Stuart will not accept her decision, repudiating her right to her own destiny by seeking revenge in the most heinous way.
On the day of their departure a series of events finds him standing arms outstretched in a trancelike state on a motorway flyover while Molly lays injured below amid a pile-up of cars.
Initially it was thought to be an accident, but truth always outs and in ‘The Aftermath’, the real story unfolds as we travel alongside the major players and discover how their lives are changed forever.
What happened next?
Does Molly survive?
If he did do it, did he mean to do it?
Will the law extract a price or will he escape conviction?
Will Jennifer and her lover make a life together?
The story is told in many voices. What of other family members and friends, how will they cope?
The rock has been thrown into the pond and the ripples are immediate and immense, affecting and changing forever the lives of close family and friends. The case captures the attention of the whole of Ireland who are fascinated by how an apparently privileged and well to do family can be caught up in a situation where a father appears to commit the unspeakable crime.
This psychological thriller will keep you enthralled from the beginning to its dramatic conclusion.
You can purchase the book online from Smashwords and/or Amazon at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/593585.
eBook formatting and cover design by Shelley Glasow at goodlifeguide.com
Two childhood friends reunite after nearly a decade to journey to the eastern lands of Bangladesh to attend a traditional wedding under times of severe political unrest. With local help, diverse transportation and the blessings of pure luck on their side the adventure continues into the mountainous regions of Nepals capital, down to the jungled foothills and lowlands. In search of spiritual enlightenment and solace through the veil of misanthropy and disillusionment, these reacquainted companions journey together learning more about themselves as well as their place with each other.
You can purchase the book online from Smashwords and/or Amazon at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/489612.
eBook formatting and cover design by Shelley Glasow at goodlifeguide.com

Sep 20
The Playmakers
By Graeme Johnstone
It is the longest-running deception in the English language and the most successful. Four hundred years of duping the world.
A tale of deceit, corruption, love, passion. Of murder, fixing and bribery, centred on the writing of some of the greatest works known.
A tale of two remarkable men, the frenzied times they lived in, and the fixated people that surrounded them.
William Shakespeare.
Christopher Marlowe.
One is the real playwright.
The other is the stooge.
Which is which?
‘The Playmakers’ is the novel that answers the question. An absorbing tale of conspiracy, manipulation, romance and murder when two young men from vastly different backgrounds are flung together by their passion for the written word.
Shakespeare, the savvy, street-wise actor and producer, and Marlowe, the educated brilliant writer. Each has his own dark secrets, aspirations and singular approach to life and love, but they are bonded forever when caught in a web of political intrigue, corruption and ultimately brutal murder.
To escape torture in Elizabethan chambers of horror and save their lives, they are reluctantly cast as the main players in the greatest theatrical performance ever, acting out an extraordinary literary deceit that has lasted to this day.
You can purchase the book online from Smashwords and/or Amazon at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/509995.
eBook formatting and cover design by Shelley Glasow at goodlifeguide.com

Sep 20
The Point
By Aline Strong
eBook formatting and cover variation design by Shelley Glasow at goodlifeguide.com

Sep 20
The Patrons
By Daniella Brodsky
Editorial Reviews of Daniella Brodsky’s novels:
“This is so much fun!” – #1 New York Times Bestseller Nora Roberts
“A super fun read with everything you could want . . .” – #1 New York Times Bestseller Meg Cabot
“You’ll get a kick out of Brodsky’s books.”-NY Post
“Readers will simply love Lane and her wild imagination.” -Booklist
“ . . . powerful stuff and also very funny.” – Sydney Morning Herald
“ . . . poignantly humorous and touching.” – Herald Sun
“ . . . you’ll be cheering her on as she loosens her tight grip on the past and embraces a life on her own two feet.” – Women’s Weekly
THE PATRONS
It’s a simple exchange; but it changes everything. “This is my card,” he said. “You call me whenever you need to.” A saucy romp through the nation’s capital is the most entertaining way yet to take the topic of starving artistry to a practical, raw level. Maybe in the old days they had it right: if you want to make pure, quality art, what you need is a patron.
Two nights ago, in the wake of her father’s fatal diagnosis, Joanie Price told her husband she was leaving him in a Connecticut PC Richards, drove without a plan to DC, and didn’t tell a soul. Her husband proceeded to empty the bank accounts.
“Have you thought of how many men would enjoy your company in this town?”
And so it begins. Compulsively readable, it’s wickedly enjoyable to see ourselves in Joanie’s shoes, and as we do, her erotic experiment hurtles us through a story of self-discovery that’s transformative, witty and enduring.
Daniella Brodsky is the author of six novels published by Penguin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster, most recently, VIVIAN RISING and most famously DIARY OF A WORKING GIRL, which was adapted for the screen by Disney, starring Hilary Duff. She has also had a long career as a journalist and made a name for herself with THE GIRL’S GUIDE TO NEW YORK nightlife, back when she didn’t need a babysitter and a disco nap to stay out past seven. Daniella has taught fiction craft at the ANU and at her Captain Cook Studio. A native New Yorker and enthusiastic Australian, Daniella lives in North Queensland, where she teaches creative writing at James Cook University. Daniella was a Varuna fellowship recipient, and shortlisted for the Katharine Susannah Prichard
You can purchase the book online from Smashwords and/or Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Patrons-Daniella-Brodsky-ebook/dp/B00ZD5XAF4.
eBook formatting and cover design by Shelley Glasow at goodlifeguide.com
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