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The Ins and Outs of Blogging as a Professional Writer

Monday, April 28, 2014 by Sabrina Ricci

Social media is a big part of indie author marketing strategies these days. But for those just starting out, it may seem daunting. When I first began using social media for platform building, I felt slightly overwhelmed. But now, after lots of practice and just incorporating social media into my daily routine, I've come to embrace it. And instead of seeing it like a chore, I see it as another way to connect and interact with people, and I've been able to build real relationships through it. Here are a few things I've learned along the way. (And if you want guidance on how to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed, read Your Writer Platform's "Are You Building Your Writer Platform at Gunpoint?") Don't use social media just to sell books Kristen Lamb's "Social Media, Book Signings & Why Neither Directly Impact Overall Sales" goes into depth on why this is not a good strategy, but basically you don't want to spam people/just make noise, and you will not develop any real relationships this way (meaning, you won't attract real fans). Rachel Thompson suggests spending more time online finding people who may be willing to review your books, and she gives a list of suggestions in her article "Why ‘Read My Book!’ Doesn’t Work…And What To Do Instead" Focus on one or two platforms first, then build from there Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Pinterest. Google. Youtube. Goodreads. LinkedIn. Tumblr. The list goes on and on. You can be active on all these channels, but it's probably best to pick one or two and work on growing an audience there first. Every social media channel works a little differently, caters to a different audience, and has savvy users who expect others to use the network a certain way. The Book Designer's "Do You Make These Online Marketing Mistakes?" offers tips, such as establishing one audience per channel and using landing pages. Social Media Just for Writers also recommends researching your target market and then choosing your social media platform based on that in "How to Stop Wasting Time and Focus Your Book Marketing." For advice on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and YouTube, read DBW's "The Book Marketing Social Media Hierarchy: Which Sites to Use for Which Purposes." Business Insider broke down the demographics of some of the social media platforms. According to them, the 45- to 54-year-old demographic is growing, "27% of 18 to 29-year-olds in the U.S. use Twitter," LinkedIn and Google+ are mostly male, Pinterest is mostly women on tablets, and Tumblr is mostly teens and young adults. Eventually you can expand into other platforms. For a case study on why, read Kate Tilton's "Why I Use Different Social Media Networks (And You Should Too) by @K8Tilton." For help determining which platform is best for you, read these articles: "Instagram: Should You Be On It?" on Indies Unlimited "How Tumblr Turned a Book Into a Bestseller" on GoodeReader "Pinterest Unveils Buyable Pins, A Way To Purchase Things Directly Within Pinterest" on TechCrunch "Pinterest Update: More Ways Authors Can Use Pinterest!" on Writers Win "Indie Author Marketing Guide: Pinterest" on Musings and Marvels "How I Made it to the Front Page of BuzzFeed Twice, and How You Can Too" on Matthew Barby "Surprising News in Social Media – And a Twitter Tip" on Social Media Just for Writers "Indie Author Marketing Guide: Twitter" on Musings and Marvels "Guest Post: 8 Secrets to Increase Your Twitter Followers" on Musings and Marvels "Guest Post: What Everybody Ought To Know About Facebook Account Management" on Musings and Marvels "Guest Post: Want to Step Up Your Facebook?" on Musings and Marvels "Indie Author Marketing Guide: Goodreads" on Musings and Marvels "Indie Author Marketing Guide: LinkedIn" on Musings and Marvels "Indie Author Marketing Guide: Google Plus" on Musings and Marvels "Which Social Media and Marketing Tools Are Publishers Actually Using Successfully" on DBW Strategize how you will build your platform Erindor Press's "Platform Building Primer" is a good start, and advocates setting expectations and figuring out the best way to share content, either via blogging, email newsletters, or something else (and you can use social media to promote that content). The Loneliest Planet shared a post, called "One Writer's Platform (Part 2) Events and PR," which goes over techniques of marketing offline (such as doing public readings and lectures) but also adds that it's worth taping these performances and uploading them to Youtube to share. Use lots of images/visuals People tend to engage more with posts, tweets, etc. that are visual. According to Rebekah Radice's "5 Steps to Get Massive Engagement With Your Visual Content," "43% of social media users share pictures." She recommends having consistent colors, using templates, appropriate fonts, and to create infographics, images, and videos. Build Book Buzz recommends creating different types of images, including picture quotes, tipographics, and infographics. For tips on how to actually create these images, read Social Media Just For Writer's "Writers: Use Visuals to Market Your Books." Make use of social media tools Here's a list of resources, along with helpful tips and links to additional tools: Kate Tilton Social Media Resources Kate Tilton Authors on Instagram Kate Tilton Book Bloggers on Instagram Social Media Examiner Storyfinds Momentum RelayStation Magnolia Media Network Books Go Social Keep up to date on new platforms and tools Lastly, the social media landscape is constantly changing, so it's good to stay up to date. One example of a relatively new tool/platform is Aerbook, which according to PW turns social media into a virtual bookstore. Earlier this year, Social Media Just for Writers wrote about how indie authors can use Aerbook, which allows you to share previews and even sell ebooks on social media networks, as well as see analytics on your shares. According to the article, there are three product plans to choose from: Aerbook Retail is free, no credit card required. It gives you the social look inside the book, email capture popups within the sample, stats on how the book is used, and the ability to share the link and also get web page widgets that launch the Aerbook. This plan lets you sell the book directly through Aerbook, and our service earns 15% of the purchase price after credit card fees are deducted. Aerbook Plus gives you everything Aerbook Retail delivers, plus lets you add links to other retailers, like Amazon, iBooks, or even your own purchase page. Aerbook Plus is $49 per year. Aerbook Flyer includes everything above, but there’s no direct sale through Aerbook’s commerce service. You’ll add links to other retailers. Flyer also lets you do book giveaways, and includes 500 directly delivered, complete books annually. Flyer is $99 per year. Got any social media tips? Please share in the comments!

Blogging is one of the best ways to build a platform, both as a book author and as a freelance writer. I plan on posting more about the specifics of being a freelancer, now having done it for a while, but blogging seems a good place to start, since it applies to both types of writers. There are a lot of benefits to blogging, especially if you do it regularly. In the past few … [Read more...] about The Ins and Outs of Blogging as a Professional Writer

Turning Your Ebook Into an App

Monday, April 21, 2014 by Sabrina Ricci

Sometimes it makes sense for a book to be transformed into an app. Forbes wrote a piece back in 2012 about whether the future of books will be as apps. Two years later, and it doesn't seem to be true, but in some cases it could work. New tools have made it easier for authors to create their own apps. Karen Robertson, creator of the book app Treasure Kai, said in a Good … [Read more...] about Turning Your Ebook Into an App

Indie Authors: Offline Marketing Strategies

Wednesday, March 19, 2014 by Sabrina Ricci

By Santjo2011 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Although online marketing (emails, social media, etc.) are important and can be an effective way to encourage sales of books, offline marketing can be just as powerful. And passing out tangible goods and interacting face to face can help create more loyal fans and stronger networks. Tangible Goods Journey of a Storyteller writes about creating promo cards. Basically, you can … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Offline Marketing Strategies

7 Strategies and 110+ Tools to Help Indie Authors Find Readers and Reviewers

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 by Sabrina Ricci

By Daren (IMG_1713) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Self-publishing is growing, and with it come new resources. One of the biggest hurdles of being an indie author is finding readers and getting reviews (which helps find more readers). Some people may still consider self-publishing a stigma, and some writers may think that promotion takes away too much time from writing. But many sites, including Outramp, Your Writer Platform, … [Read more...] about 7 Strategies and 110+ Tools to Help Indie Authors Find Readers and Reviewers

Kindle, Kindle, Kindle: Amazon’s Latest Publishing Tools

Thursday, November 7, 2013 by Sabrina Ricci

In the last week, Amazon has made three big announcements, all of which I think have the potential to greatly help indie authors. Kindle Countdown Deals The first, and most exciting in my opinion, is the Kindle Countdown Deals. What this means is that authors who publish e-books on Amazon have an easy way of price pulsing/discounting their books, and then advertising it. The … [Read more...] about Kindle, Kindle, Kindle: Amazon’s Latest Publishing Tools

BookExpo America 2013

Thursday, June 6, 2013 by Sabrina Ricci

By Heffloaf (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I attended my last BEA as a resident of the east coast (though I'm sure I'll find a way to get back there next year). Although I was pressed for time and unable to make any of the panels this year, I met some really amazing people, publishers, and startups. One of my favorite booths was Indie Bestsellers, where six indie best-selling authors talked to fans and signed … [Read more...] about BookExpo America 2013

What Self-Publishing and Internet Marketing Have in Common

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 by Sabrina Ricci

For those of you who don't know, ClickBank is an affiliate marketing website. People can sign up to either sell their information products, or to promote products and receive a cut of the sale. Recently I was looking through ClickBank's site, and I stumbled across their tips for Internet marketers. Many of their tips can also be directly applied to self-published authors, or … [Read more...] about What Self-Publishing and Internet Marketing Have in Common

What Do Authors Want?

Thursday, March 14, 2013 by Sabrina Ricci

Digital Book World hosted a webinar a while back, called "What Authors Want." The webinar was meant to promote DBW's survey of 5,000 authors. The survey was submitted to the Writer's Digest community (whose writers tend to be female and over 35, and write fiction), as well as SFWA (mostly male fiction writers), Romance Writers of America (mostly female writers), and perhaps a … [Read more...] about What Do Authors Want?

Penguin Becomes First Big-6 Publisher to Disrupt the Book Business Model

Thursday, July 19, 2012 by Sabrina Ricci

By D. Gordon E. Robertson (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Pearson, the parent company of Penguin Group, acquired Author Solutions, a self-publishing platform, for $116 million. This makes Penguin the first of the big-6 publishing companies to provide full services, including editorial, marketing, and design, to self-published authors. Penguin will also be the first big publisher to start learning about customer acquisition and data … [Read more...] about Penguin Becomes First Big-6 Publisher to Disrupt the Book Business Model

The Reader Revolution: Recap of How the “Publishing Game” is Changing

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 by Sabrina Ricci

By Scott LaPierre from boston, ma, usa (city of readers) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

BEA offered an education series, where many experts participated in panels about a wide range of topics relating to publishing. One of the most interesting panels was called "The Reader Revolution: Changing the Game for Readers, Writers, and Everyone in Between." … [Read more...] about The Reader Revolution: Recap of How the “Publishing Game” is Changing

BEA Day 1

Tuesday, May 24, 2011 by Sabrina Ricci

First day of my first BEA, BookExpo America. Fortunately, because of this publishing blog, I was able to attend for free! I spent about five hours today at the Expo, and I still wasn't able to cover everything. It can be a little overwhelming, as some attendees may agree, but totally worth it. This year, BEA was held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. BEA took up … [Read more...] about BEA Day 1

This Week in Publishing

Thursday, January 13, 2011 by Sabrina Ricci

Penguin Group is embracing new technologies. They've started a TV and Radio Satellite Media Tours department, so that they can "produce TV and radio satellite tours for Penguin authors," according to Publisher's Weekly. Penguin Brings TV, Radio Satellite Tours In-House Amazon has been working to make it easier and more profitable for authors to self-publish. New features, … [Read more...] about This Week in Publishing

12/13/10: This Week in Publishing

Saturday, December 18, 2010 by Sabrina Ricci

Have hope, all of you who have declared print books as dead. According to David L. Ulin, the Los Angeles Times book critic, "print books aren't going anywhere." E-books complement print books, and the real issue "is that we read, that we continue to interact with long-form writing; by altering the conditions of the conversation, e-books and e-readers have already served an … [Read more...] about 12/13/10: This Week in Publishing

Book Launch 2.0

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 by Sabrina Ricci

Here's a good example of how some (usually older) authors are reacting to the changes in the writing world, mostly to how they're now expected to market themselves. It's a pretty entertaining video. … [Read more...] about Book Launch 2.0

What’s Happening in the Publishing World

Thursday, November 11, 2010 by Sabrina Ricci

Every week for my Interactive Media class, I post links to current articles about what's going on in the publishing world. So here's a list of what's happening this week: First, here is an argument against the agency model for e-books. Annette Green writes about how, through the agency model, publishers are basically screwing themselves. Print versions of books are … [Read more...] about What’s Happening in the Publishing World

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Books for Indie Authors

Books for Indie Authors

Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book
Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book
by Tim Grahl
tagged: indie-publishing and to-read
The Author Training Manual: Develop Marketable Ideas, Craft Books That Sell, Become the Author Publishers Want, and Self-Publish Effectively
it was amazing
The Author Training Manual: Develop Marketable Ideas, Craft Books That Sell, Become the Author Publishers Want, and Self-Publish Effectively
by Nina Amir
Other reviewers have called The Author Training Manual a must-read, and I have to agree. Nina Amir has compiled a great amount of research, experience, and real-life samples that can help any other, self-published, traditionally publishe...
tagged: indie-publishing

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