Would you like to recommend an Indie Author for the #AtoZChallenge in April?

Last year we did writing tips for April's A to Z Challenge. It was immensely successful, marking the beginning of a traffic boom for this site, which has enabled us to recommend and promote dozens of Indie authors. I want to continue this trend with our second annual participation in the ever so popular challenge.

And I want your help. Just like last year, the material will be provided by our fans and readers (and anyone else who runs across this post).

I don't want you to brag about yourself!

I'm taking a few steps to discourage authors from signing up for this and recommending themselves. That's not what I want. I want the Indie community to come together and recommend each other. That means that if you want to be featured, don't ask me. Go to your fellow Indie writers and tell them about this opportunity. Y'all can recommend each other.

What about the letter X?

I'm taking a different approach to the sign up process this year. Instead of trying to keep track of what I have and don't have, I'm going to let everyone turn in what they want. In a week or so, I may blog again to update the blogosphere about what I have and don't have, but that will probably be the only update.

Another way to make it easier I think will be to allow people to be a little more creative with their letter assignments. The letter of the post could be for a first name, last name, first letter of the Twitter handle, or even the first letter of a phrase describing the author. This should make it easier to fulfill the difficult letters, such as X and Z. Hopefully someone will turn in a guest post for an author whose first name is Xavier. Don't need to worry about Z. I've got that one myself.

Another thing I've done to make it easier is limit the amount of material needed for a post. There's no need to correspond via email (though I do ask for your address just in case). Two paragraphs and a series of easy-to-fill-in blanks about the author and yourself — that's it. That means that if I have to find an author for a letter myself, I'll be able to do that without pulling my hair out. But I don't want to do that. I would rather just fulfill Z.

What if we all want to do the same letter?

Because I'm not going to worry so much about what letters are coming in, there is a good chance one letter is overdone while others are neglected. First of all, I can handle more than one post per day. Second, if I have too many of one letter, I might be able to switch that same author for another letter. For example, if an author's first name is Abbey and I have too many A's but her last name is a letter I don't have, easy fix.

After that, I'll just have to wait and see. Based upon what is said about the featured author, I might be able to substitute a phrase instead of a name. For example, if the author primarily writes murder mysteries and I don't have an M, easy fix.

One final thing: I'll do my best to get all of the guest posts in during April, but I reserve the right to put a guest post in May if I have way too many for April or if an author has already been recommended with a different letter. With that said, I encourage everyone to turn in more than one author for April. I will eventually get every guest post on the site (unless you recommend the same author with all 26 letters ... that's a little much).

If you have any questions, email me.

msl_007@live.com