Social Media Just for Writers

Are You Ready for 2019? How to Update Your Social Media

November 19, 2018 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Let’s talk about how important it is to update your social media.

When was the last time you changed your password on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest?

When was the last time you updated your profile on Instagram or checked the about section on your Facebook page?

Once we set up our social media profiles and pages, we tend to neglect them.

We instead turn our focus to finding content to post and schedule every day.

Before the New Year rolls in, take time to spiff up your profiles and change your passwords. Yes, you should periodically change your passwords to ward off hackers.

How to Create Hacker-Proof Passwords

I was listening to NPR one day and heard a program about how to create hacker-proof passwords.

Here’s the formula. Think of your two favorite authors or leaders. Let’s use Hemingway and Faulkner in this example.

Use the first few (or last) letters of their names, stick a numeral sequence in the middle, and add one or more characters.

For example, you could create the following passwords:

Hem357Fau*&
Way731Ner*^
Ing259Ulk%@

Or, you can use a program called 1Password https://1password.com. The application devises a hacker-proof password for each of your social media networks. Then when it’s time to open Facebook, 1Password applies the appropriate password.

This program costs just $3.99 a month. What a deal.

Basic Rules About Passwords

Here are some of my most basic rules for passwords.

Do you use the same password for multiple social media accounts? Don’t. Create separate passwords for every social media network you use and every application you try. I know this can be a hassle but if you use the same password across the web think about how easy it will for a hacker to get into all of your accounts.
Keep your passwords in a safe place. Do not keep them on sheets of paper and do not keep them on e-files labeled passwords. Consider keeping them on an online program such as 1Password.com. https://1password.com
Share your passwords with as few people as possible and only if you have to, such as a virtual assistant.
Use a complicated password with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Never use the word “password” or the numbers 123 for your online programs or ATM cards.

How to Update Your Social Media

Update Your Facebook Page

Go to the About section on your Facebook page and make sure that everything is current.

If you have 35 or more likes on your page, review your analytics. What are the circumstances that trigger engagement on your page? Does it occur with certain types of posts, images or specific times of the day?

Do you know whether more men or women like your page? Do you know their ages? Check out this section and start planning an editorial calendar for the first three months of 2019.

Review Your Twitter Account

First, look at your following and follower numbers and use a program such as ManageFlitter to fine-tune the balance. I use ManageFlitter to unfollow some users who don’t follow back, to whitelist users I never want to unfollow and to block users who have fake accounts as well as spam and bot accounts. I also unfollow inactive accounts.

There are two Twitter follow limits. If you have fewer than 5,000 followers, the maximum people you can follow are 5,000. (The old limit was 2,000 followers.)

So, if 5,000 follow you, the maximum number of people you can follow is 5,500. So be sure to use Tweepi or ManageFlitter to start unfollowing users who don’t follow you back.

While you’re here, click Edit Profile and determine whether you want to update your avatar (your picture), the banner, or your bio.

Also, if you haven’t pinned a tweet to the top of your timeline, consider pinning a tweet about your most recent book or if you’re an editor, a service you provide.

[Read more…]

Indie Author Weekly Update – November 16, 2018

November 16, 2018 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Indie Author Weekly Update. The focus this week is on book marketing. Be sure to read Melodie Campbell’s post as well as Writers Relief’s post on blogging.

New Book Marketing: The Bad Girl’s List for Book Launch Success from Anne R. Allen and by Melodie Campbell: “New Book!! Gak – I have a new book coming out January 29. The Goddaughter Does Vegasis number 6 in an award-winning series (Derringer and Arthur Ellis – yay!) Because of that, I do have some expectation of sales from previous readers of the series (bless your totally wacky hearts.) But still, I have to get the message to them and to potential new readers, that there is a new book coming out, in this very noisy marketplace that scares the pants off me.”

5 Tips For Successful Publishing And Book Marketing from Joanna Penn: “I’m just back from the Independent Author Conference in Philadelphia. Here are some of my thoughts from the trip in this solo show: People don’t buy books, publishing wide is more than just retail, tips for being a better publisher, strategy is what you DON’T do, plus, learn what you need for your stage of the author journey.

10 Secret Tips For Creative Writers Who Blog from Writers Relief: “Creative writers who blog tend to drive more visitors to their author websites than those who don’t. But what are the secrets behind a successful blog? Here are ten insider tips for writers who blog!”

Book Marketing: Make the Most of Your Great Book Reviews from Alliance of Independent Authors: Self-Publishing Advice Center: “Great book reviews make an indie author’s day – and until you’ve learned to thicken your skin against the less flattering comments, a low star rating can have the opposite effect. So how do you make the most of the best ones, once that initial flutter of joy has subsided? Debbie Young, ALLi’s Author Advice Center Manager, offers a few top tips to help you sustain that good feeling and use readers’ appreciation to fuel your progress as a writer and as an authorpreneur.”

Tips for Adding Radio to Your Book Marketing by Brian Jud: “Performances on radio talk or news shows can be a great way to supplement your book promotion activities. With radio as part of your communication plan, you can reach hundreds, thousands, or millions of people at little or no cost. You can even sell some books, if you do it right.”

How To Reach Readers Better by Diversifying by guest from Rachel Thompson’s blog and by Shannon McGuire: “We all have our preferences, both in real life and with reading. I refuse to order toilet paper from Amazon. And, while I want to be a Kindle gal, I like the feel of real (paper) books. Further, my husband is married to his Audible account and plows through audio books while his paperbacks sit and collect dust.”

Quote of the Week

Want to know all of my best social media marketing tips? Get a copy of Social Media Just for Writers.

Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!

Ryshia Kennie

Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.

Online Book Marketing Strategies for Writers

Indie Author Weekly Update – November 9, 2018

November 9, 2018 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Welcome back to the Indie Author Weekly Update. You’re going to enjoy today’s roundup. The focus is on book marketing and all the ways you can sell your book from book catalogs to swag to keywords. Enjoy the best posts of the week.

Book Marketing: How to Create a Book Catalog of Your Self-published Books & Why from Alliance of Independent Authors: Self-Publishing Advice Center and by Rachel Amphlett: “When thriller writer Rachel Amphlett discovered that someone had created and published a reading guide and book catalog for her work and was charging readers to download it, she decided to take the matter into her own hands and create her own Readers’ Guide. Here she shares her process and the benefits, to help you do the same for your own back-catalog of books.”

How to Use Swag to Support Your Book Marketing from Jane Friedman’s blog and by Dawn Reno Langley: “More than a million books are published every year, and whether you go traditional or indie, you have a lot of competition. Marketing your book falls squarely on your shoulders no matter where on the publishing spectrum you fall—so you need to how to get the most for your buck. “Book swag” is a proven tool for gathering readers and devoted followers.”

Update Your Keywords to Sell More Books over the Holidays by Penny Sansevieri: “Especially around the holidays, take a moment and tweak your keywords/keyword strings in Amazon. Maybe you can’t incorporate any holiday – or Christmas-specific keywords, but tweak the keywords during the holidays and find the strongest ones for your market. Oftentimes searches that include “gifts for…” ramp up in popularity around this time.”

Have You Pre-Sold Your Book? by Joel Friedlander: “One of the biggest lessons you can learn when you start to really look at marketing your books is about creating anticipation. Think of the last big movie you were looking forward to.”

Amazon and the Also Bought Apocalypse by David Gaughran: “A real horror story has been slowly building for the last year or so and I’m getting a lot of emails on the topic so it’s time to deal with this head-on: what the hell is going on with Also Boughts?”

Quote of the Week

Want to know all of my best social media marketing tips? Get a copy of Social Media Just for Writers.

Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!

Ryshia Kennie

Online Book Marketing Strategies for Writers

Every Author Needs Visual Marketing

October 22, 2018 By Frances Caballo 1 Comment

In the past, I theorized that we were moving closer to visual marketing.

Guess what? We’re there. We’ve arrived.

According to this awesome blog post by Hubspot, there are many reasons why you should be focused on visual marketing on your blog and in your social media posts.

Let’s review a few of them.

Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. Okay, the source for this statistic is Buffer, usually rated among the top three blogs in social media so I believe them and so should you.
In an analysis of over 1 million articles, BuzzSumo found that articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images. So, if you want more people to read your entire blog post, include multiple, color images.
Users view 85% of videos on Facebook without sound. What this tells me is that it’s the images that mesmerize people.
Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. You can replace the word images with the word video. Whether you post images or video, you need to do one or the other.
80% of marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing. Convinced yet?
Video (63%), alone, has also surpassed blogging (60%) in usage as a social media marketing asset. Yeah, video is huge. Just look at how popular Facebook Live is.

Also, several sources indicate that including images with your tweets double the chance of a retweet. So don’t tweet anything without including an image.

Finally, I find it interesting that 65% of the population are visual learners. Therefore, it makes sense that we ended up here, in the midst of visual marketing.

Finally, look at the rapid growth of Instagram. The user base soared from 90 million in January 2013 to 300 million in December 2014. Guess where we’re at now?

Instagram has 1 billion monthly users. Incredible, eh?

Free Image Sources for Your Visual Marketing

I’ve written about free image sources in the past but that listed needed to be updated. So here’s an up-to-the-minute list of free image sources that are available today.

Unsplash

When you navigate to this website, the following words greets you:“Beautiful, free photos. Gifted by the world’s most generous community of photographers.”

All images on this website are free to use, which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for commercial purposes, without any attribution to the photographer.

Crediting photographers here isn’t required, but that would be excellent. It’s your choice.

By the way, you’re going to love these photographs.

Pixabay

Another one of my favorite free image sites is Pixabay.

I’ve been using this site for years, and sometimes I’m amazed at the free images I find.

Pixabay greets you with this message: “Over 1.5 million royalty free stock photos and videos shared by our generous community.”

Once in a while, the folks behind this website ask you to buy them a cup of Java. Otherwise, you can avoid the cost by uploading images of your own for Pixabay to make available for its users.

New Old Stock

This website provides vintage imagesfrom public archives that are free of copyright restrictions. Most are black and while a few are in color.

Picjumbo

This website provides stock images for free. If you’d like, you can donate to this website.

Gratisography

This website has some fun and unusual images. They are all high resolution pictures that you can use for free both personally and for commercial projects, such as your blog or website. The photographer for all of these images is Ryan McGuire.

Morguefile

Morguefile has come a long way. When researching it in the past, it seemed as though I could only find stodgy looking images. Its website has had a facelift, too. Visit Morguefile today. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

[Read more…]

Indie Author Weekly Update – October 19, 2018

October 19, 2018 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

I hope you enjoy this week’s Indie Author Update. You’ll find informative posts from Diana Urban from BookBub, Rachel Thompson, Sandra Beckwith, and Amy Collins. Plus, there’s a podcast episode from Dave Chesson. Enjoy!

How Successful Authors Use Social Media: 23 Content Ideas by Diana Urban: “Social media can be a useful part of an author’s platform, helping them connect with readers, fellow writers, and the publishing community. But deciding what content to post next can be a struggle. So how do successful authors use social media to engage with their fans? And what can authors post on social media besides links to their own books?”

What You’re Doing Wrong on Twitter and How to Make It Right from Anne R. Allen and by Rachel Thompson: “Twitter is a wonderful way to connect with readers, book bloggers, and book reviewers if you are connecting with them strategically. Many writers are completely flummoxed how to do that.

Episode 51: The Cold Hard Truth About Book Marketing Services by Dave Chesson: “If you’re worried about marketing your book and are looking into getting a book marketing service, I advise you to proceed with caution. There are some that will work fine with your book, however many will take any book and put it through a conveyor-belt like process for marketing your book.”

3 ways to pitch your book to the press as the perfect holiday gift by Sandra Beckwith: “Every year at this time, newspapers, online news sites, and bloggers start thinking about their holiday gift guides. You’ll start seeing them in late November and all through December.”

Must read post for all writers

Understanding the Current “Dos” and “Don’ts” of Amazon Book Reviews by Amy Collins and from TheBookDesigner.com: “We would like to bring you up to date on the current rules and share some guidelines we have found most helpful when trying to get reviews for your book on Amazon. Here you will find the most frequently asked questions around the Amazon review process and Amazon’s answers. I have gone right to the source and given you the Amazon rules right from the horse’s mouth.”

Quote of the Week

Want to know all of my best social media marketing tips? Get a copy of Social Media Just for Writers.

Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!

Ryshia Kennie

Online Book Marketing Strategies for Writers

20 Tips to Rock Your Social Media Updates

October 15, 2018 By Frances Caballo 2 Comments

Getting frustrated with your social media updates?

Not seeing as much engagement as you’d like?

Everyone has that complaint from time to time. Even I do. (Yes, me!)

Tips to Improve Your Social Media Updates

There are many ways you can boost engagement and feel better about your social media updates.

Shall we get into the meat of this discussion? Let’s!

Here’s my list of tips to increase engagement on all of your social media posts.

Always post images. Always. It’s easy to do on Instagram and Pinterest because, obviously, if you don’t have a picture to post, you don’t have anything to post. So I’m talking about all of the other platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. We can reverse the order of this tip and put it this way: never post anything on social media without including an image or a video. According to CoSchedule, images increase retweets by 150%, and according to KISSMetrics, Facebook photos attract 53% more Likes and 84% more click-through rates than text posts. Besides, Facebook makes it easy to turn a text post into an image post with its array of color backgrounds for your status updates.
Share quick tips with your followers and fans. Remember that Facebook posts limited to 80 or fewer characters receive 65% more engagement. Yeah, this is another example of when less is more.
Ask questions. If you go to a party and ask questions, people will love you, right? The same dynamic works on social media.
Comment on current events such as Warriors basketball season starting 8-), updates from the World Series, or any issue that is fun and not too controversial. They can even be personalized. Did you take a hike last weekend or win a race? Post images.
Post humorous memes. People love these.
Give away a free eBook for the best photo caption to a funny or ambiguous image.
Share a thought or image that moves you.
Get personal. I tend to like to not be too personal online. It has to do with my comfort level. But the few times that I am less private, engagement soars. So, self-reflect before your self-reveal and then decide if you’re comfortable being more personal and opening up more often. People want to get to know the author behind the books they read.
Share a photo from your past and post in on Thursday with the hashtag #ThrowbackThursday. Author Mark Dawson does this all the time on Facebook.
Buffer reported that to make a tweet more popular, focus on length, nouns and verbs. Don’t focus on mentions or hashtags. Also, use positive words and use an indefinite article such as A or An.
Use emoticons. People love these, and they aren’t going away. I use them sparingly in my business-related emails, but I do use them.
Don’t over-promote yourself. Let’s return to the party analogy I mentioned earlier. Nobody — and I mean not a single person — likes the guy who only talks about himself. It’s a turnoff, right? What you need to realize is that marketing isn’t about your or your books or your blog posts, or your courses. It’s about the benefit. What benefit do readers derive from your books? Even when you focus on the benefit, you still have to do your marketing sparingly. Promote other authors. Promote your readers. Share or retweet what they post. Leave comments on their updates. Marketing is never about you. Sure, you want to sell books, but you won’t get sales by over-promoting yourself. You’ll get sales if you promote other authors, do things for your readers, learn about your readers, answer their questions, and ask them questions. Got it?
Develop content aligned with your marketing objectives. Otherwise, you’ll just be guessing in your marketing and never know for certain what to post.
Run polls and surveys. That’s right, ask your fans and followers what they want to read by your on your blog and in your books, and what they prefer to see on your social media profiles.
Engage in conversations. You can ask questions, and you need to answer questions when readers ask questions. Look at your news feeds and take time to share, retweet, and leave comments.
Sharing images is the first step, making sure that they are correctly sized is the next. Don’t use an image designed for a Twitter post on Facebook and vice versa. Resize images according to the platform’s preferred image dimensions.
As best as you can, make sure that all of your images are the best they can be. Never settle for boring.
Everyone loves a smile, right? Well, it turns out that on Pinterest smiling faces get more saves.
Leverage popular phrases or slogans. During the World Cup a few years ago, “because of fútbol” was a favorite phrase. On Twitter, Monday Motivation and Wednesday Wisdom are hashtags that are always used on those days. These sayings can surface suddenly and be time-limited in their popularity. Use them while they’re hot.
Be consistent in your blog images. Always use the same size for the image at the top of your blog post and use the same fonts.

[Read more…]

Indie Author Weekly Update – October 12, 2018

October 12, 2018 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Welcome to another Indie Author Weekly Update. We’re entering the season of NaNoWriMo and to mark it, there are two blog posts on that topic today. Be sure to read Anne R. Allen’s post on legitimate and seedy publishers as well as David Gaughran’s post on Kindle Unlimited. Finally, Jane Friedman’s blog is always worth a read.

How Can You Tell Legitimate Publishers from the Bad Guys? by Anne R. Allen: “New writers have much to be wary of these days. New publishing scams are landing in writers’ inboxes faster than we can send out warnings. Probably the most dangerous predators for the newbie writer are phony publishers, because they can shatter dreams as well as drain bank accounts.”

To Nano or Not To Nano by Jenny Hansen: “NaNoWriMo, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is National Novel Writing Month, where hundreds of thousands of writers gather to bang out as many words as they can in the month of November. Many writers skip it and many writers treat it as a yearly pilgrimage to Writing Mecca.”

How Do You Create? by Grant Faulkner: “When I begin a story, I sit down with an itch of a story idea stirring in my mind, and I write a sentence, without too much thought, without any maps of logic, and then I write another sentence, and then another, one thing leading to the next, writing in pursuit of faint inklings and distant whispers, writing to discover, writing just to write.”

Kindle Unlimited – A Cheater Magnet by David Gaughran: “I don’t hate Kindle Unlimited. While all my own books are currently wide, I also work on marketing campaigns for others which regularly get 10m reads per month, or more. I’m not saying that to brag — the respective authors are doing the hardest part of the equation by writing books which resonate so widely — I merely state this to show that I understand how to (ethically) work Kindle Unlimited, and that I have nothing against it per se.”

How to Write Better Marketing Copy by Jane Friedman: “Overexposure: every writer has experienced this problem. You work on a manuscript for so long that your perception of it dulls. You become blind to its weaknesses and ignorant of its strengths. Though that’s a well-known phenomenon when it comes to editorial perception, overexposure is less acknowledged by marketers. When you’re marketing what feels like your 100th thriller—as an author or for a publishing house—you might feel like you’ve run out of things to say. You’re bored by your go-to descriptions and want to break out of the box and offer a fresh take. But this can be a dangerous strategy.”

5 Tips for Selling Your Books at Events—on a Budget by ChrysFey: “Being one of many authors at a book festival or signing event can be pricey when you add together the cost of the table, books, swag, travel, meals, and anything else the event requires of you. Sometimes it’s challenging to make back the cost of your books and the price of the table. So, finding cheap but cool things to use at book events is essential.”

How to Understand Your Reader’s Level of Awareness to Grow Your Fanbase from Jane Friedman and by Dave Chesson: “Imagine a reader who thinks they like science fiction books, as compared to one that can specifically tell you they love sci-fi military space marine adventures. The latter is more likely to know what they are looking for and quicker to buy the book when they see it.”

The Death of a Social Media Network

Google+ to Shutter After Reports of Exposed User Data from Social Media Today: “Google announced Monday it would slowly shut down Google+, the search giant’s long-struggling social network, after finding a software bug that divulged the private data of as many as 500,000 users to hundreds of third-party applications, according to a company blog post. The company fixed the flaw in March and didn’t find any evidence that developers misused users’ personal information.”

Quote of the Week

Want to know all of my best social media marketing tips? Get a copy of Social Media Just for Writers.

Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!

Ryshia Kennie

Online Book Marketing Strategies for Writers

25 Tips for Posting on Social Media

October 8, 2018 By Frances Caballo 7 Comments

Note: This is a completely version of a previous post.

Posting on social media can be a quandary for some authors.

Regardless of all the tips posted online, when it comes to a personal decision, many writers don’t know what they should say, especially once they learn that always talking about their books and blog posts is verboten (forbidden).

I get it.

Here’s my confession: I sometimes struggle with what to say on my Facebook profile. My life just isn’t that exciting, you know?

And I’m not into posting selfies. I’m just not that photogenic.

But when it comes to my professional social media accounts — my Facebook page, and Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ accounts, I have no problem.

Why? Because I know that on those accounts I need to balance inspirational and education information. I want to encourage people, post images, and ask questions.

I have those platforms down, so to speak.

I want you to feel the same way. I don’t want you to ever feel insecure about what you’re posting or sit in front of a blinking cursor wondering, “What the heck should I say?”

So let’s get to it.

You Need Great Content on Your Blog & on Social Media

Sometimes content you found on the internet years ago can still apply. I know that I use these tips that I found a few years ago from Search Engine Land. I consider their advice the meat and potatoes of everything I write online.

Is the content informative?
Is it authoritative on the subject matter?
Is it interesting?
Is it well-written?
Is longer content broken up into well-organized sections by headings? You may have long paragraphs in your books, but that style doesn’t work for blogging or for your social media posts.
Does the content make good and interesting use of visual elements? Remember, you need to include images with your blog posts. Multiple photos keep people reading your blog posts. On social media, pictures are a must.
Is the writing free of embarrassing spelling errors or remedial grammar problems? I use Grammarly to check my writing and punctuation. Are you using an editing application to check yours?
Is it written appropriately for its intended audience? How well do you know your audience? Are you writing for women in their 30’s or men 40 and older? You must know your audience if you expect to sell any books. The same is true for your audience on your blog and on social media.
Is the content free of industry-insider jargon, focusing instead on terminology your readers would use (and search for)? Get rid of all jargon and cliches before tapping the publish button.
When appropriate, does the content show your unique voice or even a sense of humor? Are your snarky or quirky? Don’t be afraid to show your real self. Being authentic will enhance your brand. Embrace who you are and don’t be afraid to show those sides of yourself online.

The above suggestions apply mostly to blog writing, but you can adapt some of them for social media.

You can also use these suggestions to evaluate blog posts written by other people you might want to share. Since 80% of the content, you discuss on social media will be from sources other than your own, ask yourself if that content incorporates the above suggestions.

If it doesn’t, don’t use it.

So what will you post 20% of the time when you can talk about yourself? When you think about it, you’re still going to be posting quite a bit of information that emanates from you.

What should you say?

25 Tips for Posting on Social Media

Here are some examples of great content for your social media profiles:

[Read more…]

Indie Author Weekly Update – October 5, 2018

October 5, 2018 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Today’s Indie Author Weekly Update focuses on book marketing. Be sure to read the Forbes article and Debbie Emmitt’s post on SEO for writers.

Well, the weather has definitely changed here in Northern California where I live. The temperature has dropped and rain has visited us several times. But I love autumn so for me these are all welcome changes.

Speaking of changes, if your book marketing strategies aren’t working, I hope you’ll read all the posts below. They are terrific and will help you implement the adjustments that you need to bring your more sales as an indie author.

$400M Fiction Giant Wattpad Wants To Be Your Literary Agent by Hayley Cuccinello of Forbes: “It took a less than an hour in 2013 for Anna Todd to change her life. The Army wife and part-time babysitter had spent a lot of time reading fan fiction, stories by amateur writers about existing fictional universes and real-life celebrities. So her erotic tale about Tessa and Hardin—a wholesome college freshman and a tattooed bad boy who is a thinly veiled stand-in for singer Harry Styles—came together quickly when she sat down to type the first chapter of After on her phone. Todd posted it to Wattpad, one of the world’s largest destinations for online reading and writing.”

How To Find and Fix Your Book Sales Problem With Dave Chesson and from Joanna Penn: “Dave writes books under multiple pen names and is best known in the Indie author community for creating KDP Rocket and also for his useful blog and podcast at kindlepreneur.com. And today we’re actually going to talk about a number of things that I’m quite excited about, search engine optimization, and also how to find and fix your book sales problems. So a really exciting show today.”

The Four Bios Every Author Needs by Nate Hoffelder: “If you Google author bios you will find a million different articles, each with their own recommendation. Be short and too the point. Use the third person. Simply say who you are, and give your publishing credit. Be formulaic. A lot of this advice is good, but I also think it is incomplete.”

How to Sign Up for eBook Gift Cards Through Dropcards from Indies Unlimited: “Recently I heard about this new (to me) thing: putting eBooks on a gift card to give away or sell at events. I have often thought that having eBooks to sell for a lower price than paperbacks would be a nice alternative for potential readers who balk at a typical paperback price. Coughing up $2 or $4 is infinitely more appealing to some folks than coughing up $10 or $12. It sounded like a pretty cool idea, so I did a little digging.”

20 Podcasts for Authors on Writing, Publishing, and Book Marketing from BookBub Partners: “Wish you could get a free education in writing and publishing? Publishing-related podcasts can provide just that, and the number available has exploded within the past couple of years. Many aim to provide writers with craft tips, career inspiration, productivity hacks, book marketing advice, the latest publishing news, or inside scoops from industry pros.”

Improve Your Author Website With Search Engine Optimization with Debbie Emmitt and from Joanna Penn: “In the last 10 years, I’ve used the principles of content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) to build my multi-six-figure creative business off the back of this website. In today’s article, Debbie Emmitt delves into some tips for how you can use SEO on your author website.”

Quote of the Week

Get your copy of Social Media Just for Writers and learn all of my best tips.

Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!

Ryshia Kennie

Online Book Marketing Strategies for Writers

Email Marketing or Social Media? Writers Need Both

October 1, 2018 By Frances Caballo 1 Comment

Social media workshops are all the rage at writers’ conferences but what about sessions on email marketing?

When was the last time you attended a writer’s conference that focused on email marketing: how to set it up, the benefits, what your giveaway should be, and how to use this tool to make the most of your book marketing efforts?

It seems like conference planners are more interesting in workshops on understanding Amazon, Facebook advertising, and social media marketing in general.

Don’t get me wrong. Those are all vital subjects for authors to master.

Yet, email marketing is also an important component of any indie author’s marketing strategy. In some ways, it’s more important than using social media.

Email marketing is a vehicle for book launches and a way to recruit street teams and mail advance review copies.

ARC readers can review your pre-published books to give you insights on editing, inconsistencies in your story, or input into technical aspects of your book.

According to thriller author Mark Dawson, if he’d had ARC readers when he started out he wouldn’t have made a mistake about a gun that a character used in one of his earlier books.

Whenever I do a social media audit I always include a review of an author’s website and one of the items I discuss is email marketing and whether there’s a lead magnet (also known as a giveaway) to entice website visitors to sign up for an author’s email list.

Consider These Email Marketing Statistics

Campaign Monitor offers this support of email marketing:

Email marketing generates $44 for every $1 spent. Think of Joel Friedlander. If you are on his email list, you receive his blog updates via email as well as his marketing emails, which pitch the many products he sells as part of his toolkits and templates. He’s an excellent example of what can be achieved with email marketing. Mark Dawson and Joanna Penn are excellent role models for fiction writers.
Email ties all of your marketing techniques together. You can use email marketing to send blog updates, encourage people to Like your Facebook page, and let your readers know about new releases. Email marketing is nimble.
Email connects with more consumers than social media. More people use email than social media.

OptinMonster also has data on email marketing. If we compare email marketing to social media and for that comparison specifically use Facebook in our examples, you’ll discover some interesting facts.

58% of adults check email first thing in the morning vs. 11% for Facebook
91% of adults use email daily vs. 57% for Facebook
66% of adults make a purchase as a result of email marketing vs. 20% for Facebook

Collect Addresses for Your Email Marketing Program

What does this mean for you? I have a few tips for you.

Sign up for an email marketing application such as MailChimp (that’s what I use), Constant Contact (I don’t like it, but plenty of people do), or AWeber (many people love this application).
Establish a newsletter schedule and stick to it. If you don’t want to send newsletters – and I don’t blame you for deciding this – then collect email addresses through your email subscription application. You can do this with MailChimp, AWeber or a number of other apps. The idea is to collect email addresses. Don’t use an RSS feed subscription program that doesn’t allow you to identify who’s subscribing to your blog because that would be pointless, and a huge waste of an opportunity.
Use your email list to send quality content to your readers on a regular basis, as well as calls to action for books and contests. The content you select will depend on your genre and niche.
Offer the best giveaway you can create. You’ll notice that on this website, anyone who signs up for my email-based social media course receives a 65-page ebook on Twitter.
Don’t ask people for more than their first name and email address. The more information you request, the less likely they will leave an email address for you.
Never use the word subscribe. You’ll notice that for my free email course my opt-in language is I Want In!!

Are you wondering now whether you should even bother to use social media?

Yes, use both.

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