Spend more time on writing and less on social media. There. I said it. I mean it. Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google + can suck your precious time. I see many authors use these social media platforms like megaphones to shout out into the wilderness “Buy my book!” One author, who shall remain nameless to protect his guilt, spent four hours one evening spitting out such… [Read More]
Pop-up book club. Literary trading post. Community book swap. Wrap your head around this growing global phenomena: Little Free Libraries. In 2009 Todd Bol built a wooden box, made it look a bit like a schoolhouse, mounted it on a post in his front yard of his home in Hudson, Wisconsin, filled it with books, and stuck a note on the front door to take… [Read More]
Managing what is private and what is public on Facebook is a matter of concern to an author. To use your personal profile on Facebook rather than an Author Page, you will need to change your privacy settings to public. Don’t fret. You can still keep those things private that you don’t care to share with the entire world, by using the privacy setting on… [Read More]
You need to consider using Facebook if your target audience uses Facebook. There are 1.11 billion users of Facebook, so there is a good chance some of your readers are there. It is a great tool if you are just beginning to build an audience platform; which should start a year before you submit a book proposal and two years before the publication date. Don’t wait… [Read More]
College students these days are incredibly well versed in the post-grad talk. I can’t count on my hands how many times I’ve received the “good luck with that” look after I tell people I’m an English literature major with a studio art minor. And, I must admit, for good reason. It’s hardly a secret that it’s a tough time to find employment. There are expectations… [Read More]
If you are not J.K. Rowling, or perhaps especially if you are J.K., you need to recognize the power of name recognition and work on building the value of your brand as an author online. The merits of your writing only take you so far in today’s publishing environment. How will readers find your writing if they don’t already know you? Before you’re finished with… [Read More]
Why do you need two email addresses? You’ve already got a personal email account with your internet service provider, or your webhosting company, or from Yahoo, AmericaOnLine, or Windows Live Mail. (previously known as Windows Outlook, previously known as Hotmail). Managing another email account sounds like twice the trouble. Relax. Your primary personal email account will remain the address where your personal mail should be delivered. Have… [Read More]
Facebook is important to your marketing strategy, but don’t use Facebook to sell books. Facebook is an online site that extends your social networks beyond face-to-face interaction. Despite the IPO (initial public offering) of Facebook and many attempts to monetize the site, most users ignore commercial advertising on the site. Don’t think of Facebook as a megaphone to try to sell your books or you’ll… [Read More]
Once upon a time, you could make sweeping changes to your privacy settings with a single click of the mouse. Those times are now history – but by knowing all the different aspects of privacy on FB, you can better control who has access to your information on this platform. General Facebook Privacy Settings On the top right-hand corner, past the Open Graph search bar… [Read More]
There was no warning for the average writer when their WordPress Twitter widgets went silent on June 11th, 2013. Suddenly, all their posts and retweets disappeared from their website. Their engagement went haywire as tweets no longer seamlessly streamed into sidebars, and footers, and landing pages. The developers knew what was coming – Twitter was updating their API (Application Programming Interface) from v1 to v1.1…. [Read More]
