Quick Links: Author Blogs: 5 Bad Reasons for Authors to Blog and 5 Good Ones

March 7, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I LOVE this post by Anne R. Allen! In my day job, you know the one that pays the bills, I develop WordPress sites for people. I still get people who think that if they put a post or two, the world will throw money at their feet. I feel bad and I try to explain to them that a blog is like a baby. It needs constant feeding and care for many years before you see any results. Alas, there are a lot of people out there that will tell you differently. So go check out Anne R. Allen‘s post on her blog and see if you agree!

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Author Blogs: 5 Bad Reasons for Authors to Blog and 5 Good Ones

By Anne R. Allen

5 Bad Reasons for Author Blogs

1) Getting Rich Quick

Nothing infuriates me more than those books and blogs promising writers they can make a gazillion dollars of “passive income” with a blog in the next month if they take this overpriced course or buy that book of rehashed advice from 2005.

The only people making a lot of “passive income” from blogging are the people selling the overpriced courses and worthless advice. Pyramid schemes always provide “passive income” for the people at the top of the pyramid. That’s not going to be you at this point. The boom is over.

Blogging is work. Writing is work. There’s nothing “passive” about it. Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying.

I used to subscribe to a couple of hype-y “how-to-blog” blogs, but I had to unsubscribe because these people are getting so desperate. One blogger now sends an email 15 minutes after you click through to read his post saying, “You’ve had enough time to read my post. Now share it to Facebook.”

Creepy!! I’d just shared his post to Twitter, but I deleted the Tweet and unsubscribed. You’re not the boss of me, dude. And I’m not responsible for your bad life choices. If you really were making the fortune you claimed to be making a decade ago, why didn’t you invest it?

Read the full post on Anne R. Allen Blog

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Quick Links: Organic Marketing by Kristan Higgins

March 2, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I love this post from Romance University! Marketing is a very important part of being an author. But you don’t want to turn into one of those people who everyone tries to avoid at a party because all they do is try and get you to buy their book. What is needed is organic marketing. What an awesome term! You want to be you, genuinely you, but still find a way to get your message out. Read the post by Kristan Higgins to find out more.

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Organic Marketing by Kristan Higgins

I am so excited to welcome back one of my favorite authors, KRISTAN HIGGINS!

Please no, you’re saying. Not another article on marketing! I know, I know. They’re such a drag (except THIS one, of course). And we authors do so much already. We’re tired!

Don’t worry, my lambs. Organic marketing is different and in some respects, easier, because all it requires is authenticity, an eye for why your readers reach for your books and a little time.

What is organic marketing?

Organic marketing is what you do as an author when you’re not overtly promoting your books. Direct marketing is when I post a graphic on my Facebook page with a cover of my latest book and give all the buy links. When I do a Q&A on Goodreads. When my publisher takes out an ad in People and sends me on book tour.

Organic marketing is me being me…or rather, the me who writes my books. Believe it or not, I don’t share every little thing about myself, my family and my life. The fact that it seems like I do is because I understand organic marketing. I’ve been in the writing world for ten years, so I know by now what readers respond to in my books and in my public presence—social media, speeches, workshops. Sometimes (often) they’re funny —my awkward encounters with the UPS man, the time I ate dog biscuits by mistake. Sometimes they’re sad—a recent blog about when I lost a baby.

Read the full post on Romance University

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Quick Link: Using Twitter to Make Powerful Connections as a Creative Professional

February 5, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Today’s social media post is all about Twitter, a great way to connect to people 150 characters at a time. Posting at Jane Friedman, Daniel Parsons explains the best way for authors to use Twitter.

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Using Twitter to Make Powerful Connections as a Creative Professional

by Daniel Parsons

Today’s post is from Daniel Parsons (@DKParsonsWriter), author of The #ArtOfTwitter.

Finding an audience for your books can seem like an insurmountable task when you enter the publishing space with no prior experience. Thankfully, Twitter can help you become not only an engaged member of the community but—in time—an influencer with a loyal audience.

Four years ago, I joined Twitter because I was writing my first book, and every blog post on the internet seemed to be saying the same thing: authors need a social media presence. Starting out, I had one goal, and that was to get 3,000 engaged Twitter followers. Why 3,000? Well, I had heard that you only start to get interactions on every tweet when you hit that number, and publishers wanted authors with ready-made, interactive audiences.

A lot has changed in the last four years. For a start, I discovered self-publishing and decided that I preferred it to the traditional route. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is my focus on Twitter. I now have 93,000+ followers, reach 500,000 people every month, and get over 200 interactions per day. My followers have helped me grab the attention of powerful influencers, got one of my stories 30,000 reads on the story-sharing site Wattpad, and landed me a job at a publishing house. Along the way, they’ve helped my tweets trend above those of A-list celebrities—beating the likes of Craig David and Ryan Seacrest in various hashtag games.

Read the full post on Jane Friedman

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Quick Link: How Authors can Utilize Facebook Live

January 24, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Want a great tool to boost your social media reach and be able to interact with your fanbase? Alan Parks from Indies’s Unlimited gives a great tutorial on how to use Facebook Live.

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How Authors can Utilise Facebook Live

by Alan Parks

Almost every single Indie author that I know is on Facebook. Most of us spend time trying to sell our books to our friends, and many authors I know still insist on spending time copying and pasting a generic post to 20 or 30 Facebook groups and hoping that it will get them sales. STOP. There is a better way.

Facebook is still the best form of social media to use to sell your books, but you have to be smart. In recent months, Facebook has generously given us the best new tool for reaching and interacting with readers that we have had for years, and I haven’t seen anyone using it. It is called Facebook Live.

As authors, we hear a lot about algorithms. Whether it is Amazon algorithms or Facebook, all we hear is that these algorithms are working to stop people from seeing our posts/books. Facebook Live is different. If you have the Facebook app installed on a smart phone or tablet, you have the ability to use the live video to reach new and, crucially, different readers.

How to ‘Go Live’

Read the full post on Indies’s Unlimited

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Quick Link: The Power of Instagram – Marketing Tips for Indie Authors

January 1, 2017January 1, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Social media has to be a part of your marketing plan. But there are so many options and each option is not the same in terms of reaching new fans. Today’s offering by Penny Sansevieri at Writers In The Storm discusses how to use Instagram. Instagram is great, especially if you are looking to reach adults 18 – 30 ish.

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The Power of Instagram – Marketing Tips for Indie Authors

By Penny Sansevieri

Instagram has seen staggering growth since Facebook purchased it. And every day, more authors are beginning to use it, with great success, to engage their readers, build their fan base, and sell books. And here’s why:

First, it’s simple to use. Second, it’s not nearly as ad-driven (yet) as Facebook, despite being owned by them. Third, Instagram is visually-driven, so it’s much easier to engage someone than it is on Facebook. Plus, it drives far high per-follower engagement than Facebook or Twitter, 58 times and 120 times more respectively.

Anyone can create an Instagram account, and there’s lots of information available on how to do so. So I’m going to go beyond the obvious tips like adding a good profile picture, and remembering to add your bio and your site URL. This is certainly important, but it’s not going to drive goal conversion (namely building followers and selling books) to the level that most indie authors prefer. So I’ve pulled together some tips on how to develop innovative Instagram marketing for whatever it is you’re promoting.

Read the full post on Writers In The Storm

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Quick Links: What is a Media Kit and Why You Need One

October 26, 2016 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

There are many extras an author needs to appear professional. You may already have some things, such as a website and social media presence. But according to Rachel Thompson at Bad Redhead Media, you also need a media kit. Find out why you need one and what your media kit should consist of.

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What is a Media Kit and Why You Need One by @MFlicksAuthors

July 1, 2016 By Rachel Thompson

Whether you are a multi-published author or in the process of penning your first novel, an author media kit is an essential time-saving tool. Also known as a “press kit,” a media kit is a collection of information pertaining to you, the author, and your book(s).

Why do you need a media kit?

Your author media kit will come in handy when you are reaching out to book bloggers, setting up book tours, contacting event planners, inquiring to publishers and agents, planning online promotions…etc. Imagine having to search through your computer files every time someone requests your author and book information. What a pain! Having it in all together in one doc will cut down on wasted time and let you get back to doing what you love- writing!

(Here’s an example of Rachel’s media kit. We update it frequently.)

Making your media kit available on your website and blog is also a great way for others to easily find information on you and your book. You can add your media kit as an individual page, on the sidebar in a downloadable link – either way, be sure to label it clearly.

What should you include your author media kit?

Read the full post on Bad Redhead Media

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Quick Links: How Goodreads Can Help Writers Grow Their Readership

October 23, 2016 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Every author knows that social media is important in the hunt to find readers. But how much time have you been spending on Goodreads? If you are like me, you pop in occasionally when you remember or need to do something. Frances Caballo at Live, Write, Thrive presents her case on why you should spend more of your social media time on Goodreads and the benefits thereof.

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How Goodreads Can Help Writers Grow Their Readership

July 1, 2016

Today’s post is by social media expert Frances Caballo:

Goodreads has become the most important networking site on the Internet.
—Forbes

Goodreads has a storied beginning. This is how founder and CEO Otis Chandler describes his epiphany to start what has become a powerful online reader resource and social media network:

One afternoon while I was scanning a friend’s bookshelf for ideas, it struck me: when I want to know what books to read, I’d rather turn to a friend than any random person or bestseller list.

So I decided to build a website—a place where I could see my friends’ bookshelves and learn about what they thought of all their books.

And thus in January of 2007, Goodreads began.

The Goodreads of Today

As of January 2016, Goodreads had 40 million members and featured 1.3 billion books and 47 million reviews.

What I find interesting is that many Goodreads users attended college, and even more of them attended graduate school. Goodreads members are educated, love to read, and love to talk about books. Women read more and review more books than men and dominate this online venue. While men aren’t as active on this site as women, they still participate and are a growing force here.

Authors and Goodreads

Many authors join Goodreads and quickly set up their author dashboards. Then perhaps they want to set up a giveaway. What do they do next? Well, a lot of authors I know then start to neglect Goodreads when the giveaway ends.

Too many writers don’t understand the benefits of maintaining a presence, reviewing books, adding favorite quotes, or joining groups.

Some writers neglect Goodreads to their detriment.

Read the full post on Live, Write, Thrive

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Quick Links: Finding Your Audience Part Two – Think Long Term & Build Relationships

October 17, 2016 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

This is the second article in Angela Quarles’ series on finding an audience, hosted at Fiction University. She has some great points about being genuine and building a connection instead of bombarding people.

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Finding Your Audience Part Two – Think Long Term & Build Relationships

By Angela Quarles, @AngelaQuarles

Thursday, June 30

Part of the Indie Author Series

In last month’s post, I talked about the pre-release steps you can take to find your audience. Today, I’m tackling finding your audience after your book’s launch.

Lessons to learn from non-fiction writers

As you’ve probably already noticed, it’s easier to find articles on this topic for non-fiction writers because their book’s subject helps direct them on where to find their audience. Plus, there are clear strategies one can take to build a platform. The challenge is slightly different for us, but I think it’ll be helpful to understand a little why it’s easier (not easy, but relatively easier) for them so that we can find the right approach.

Why is it easier for them? Non-fiction writers can go to where their audience is, since humans are great at organizing around shared interests and goals. If their non-fiction book is about grooming long-haired dogs, they can search out forums and blogs and podcasts on the subject. They can also set themselves up as subject matter experts by creating their own platform through the internet and through speaking engagements.

Think beyond sales

I think most writers worry about finding their audience because they’re staring at the barely moving needle on their sales dashboard. So most will go about it by thinking the solution is to blast their book anywhere and everywhere on social media. That will make people buy it, right? Or they think that’s the only way, and they hate even the thought of it, so they bypass looking at it in any other angle. Instead, they hope that if they put their best book out there, the writing will speak for itself and the audience will eventually come.

Read the full post on Fiction University

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Quick Links: How Authors Can Get More Fans and Book Sales with Less Social Media

September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

You know you need social media as part of your overall marketing strategy, but there are so many different types of platforms. There just isn’t enough time in the day to really utilize them all. At Digital Book World, Chris Syme helps you to use your social media time wisely.

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How Authors Can Get More Fans and Book Sales with Less Social Media

By: Chris Syme

June 20, 2016

My brain on social media — Social Media is NOT Pokemon. You don’t need to catch them all!

Expert publishing blog opinions are solely those of the blogger and not necessarily endorsed by DBW.

A mind-boggling 78 percent of Americans have a social media profile. According to Statista, 2.72 billion people will be social media users worldwide by 2019.

It is a given that authors can develop loyal audiences and sell more books with the help of social media. But as numbers of users rise, the pressure to “be on every channel” also rises, as authors succumb to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Even though it may be true that you have potential readers on every social media channel, it may be a waste of your time and resources to try to connect with people everywhere.

It’s Not About Numbers Anymore. It’s About Engagement

Internet users have an average of five social media accounts (Global Web Index), but they do not engage on them equally or use them for the same purpose. Numbers do give us information about social media, but numbers can be deceiving, as their meaning can shift with time. For example:

• In the pre-algorithm world of 2011, the race was on to build up as many fans on social media as possible. The more followers you had, the more people would see your content, as Facebook was yet to become the first social media channel to institute an engagement-choking algorithm.
• In 2016, numbers are a function of baseline reach as they have always been. But today, three of the major five platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) have engagement algorithms that restrict reach. Because of the sheer volume of online information, users have cried out for a better way to see the information that’s important to them. The result: constricting engagement algorithms. Today, your fan and follower numbers are only a baseline. The effectiveness of your content to get fans to like, share, comment and click will determine how many people actually see your content.

Read the full post on Digital Book World

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Quick Links: Twitter For Writers – More Proof That It Works – Updated

July 12, 2016July 12, 2016 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

With only being allowed 140 characters, many writers put their social energy into other areas than Twitter. But Twitter can be a great way to meet other writers, find out great resources, and yes – even sell books. At BooksGoSocial Book Marketing Blog, Laurence O’Bryan goes into great detail on how to use Twitter and what tools are available to help manage your Twitter accounts.

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Twitter For Writers – More Proof That It Works – Updated

May 23, 2016

Laurence O’Bryan

Twitter has hundreds of millions of daily users worldwide. It is both a way to engage one to one with people and a way to broadcast information. Writers use it every day for both. Search for #amwriting on Twitter and you will see some of the activity writers are engaging in on Twitter. Some of it is broadcasting. Some of it is looking for engagement.

If you use it consistently you will get noticed. It’s not a magic wand, but it does reach readers.

Twitter sells books too. On this page you will see actual Tweets from real people who have bought books because of Tweets, and a table showing thousands of people going to book pages on Amazon as a result of book promotion Tweets, all tracked by an independent hit tracking service. You can also see other comments at the bottom of this post from people whose books sold more because they were Tweeted about.

There’s a lot of misinformation around about the value of Twitter for writers. Much of it is written by writers who struggle with how to use Twitter effectively. Often it’s assumed that one or two Tweets to your followers is enough and that if that approach fails, it’s because Twitter isn’t effective at selling books. That adage about workmen blaming their tools comes to mind.

Read the full post on BooksGoSocial Book Marketing Blog

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Author Blogs: 5 Bad Reasons for Authors to Blog and 5 Good Ones

5 Bad Reasons for Author Blogs

1) Getting Rich Quick

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Organic Marketing by Kristan Higgins

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The Power of Instagram – Marketing Tips for Indie Authors

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What is a Media Kit and Why You Need One by @MFlicksAuthors

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How Goodreads Can Help Writers Grow Their Readership

The Goodreads of Today

Authors and Goodreads

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Finding Your Audience Part Two – Think Long Term & Build Relationships

Lessons to learn from non-fiction writers

Think beyond sales

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How Authors Can Get More Fans and Book Sales with Less Social Media

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Twitter For Writers – More Proof That It Works – Updated

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