This weeks’s Indie Author Updates has some phenomenal posts. Wow!
Do not miss Anne R. Allen’s blog post on publishing scams. There are a lot of them out there so beware.
Mike Shatzkin also wrote an excellent post. His topic is how to make more money from your books. Love that topic!
Contests on social media are fun and really help to ramp up one’s following. So check out Convince & Convert’s excellent post on that topic.
Enjoy the posts and your weekend.
Beware of Publishing Scams
10 New Publishing Scams to Watch Out for in 2020 by Anne R. Allen: This is a stupendous article on all the many scams that an indie author can fall prey to. One of those scams is the Goodreads paperback giveaway. (Yes, it is a scam these days.) So read this post and heed Anne’s advice. She’s a pro!
Indie Author Revenue Makers
Two pretty easy ways to add revenue that most publishers are missing from Mike Shatzkin: This is an excellent post on all the ways authors can make more money from their books. Read this post.
Grow Your Following with Contests
How to Run Online Contests and Giveaways Like a Pro from Convince & Convert: A great way to grow your following on almost any platform, but especially Facebook and Instagram is to hold contests. This is an excellent blog post on how to do just that.
Indie Author Book Marketing
Subscription Marketing for Authors: A Primer by Anne Janzer and from Jane Friedman’s blog: This is a fascinating article. In particular, I love this thought: “If you want to growth-hack your way to success, work on attracting the right readers from day one. Demonstrate and nurture your readers’ perception of value, and they’ll do the marketing for you.”
8 Ways to Make Your Book’s Press Release Work Harder from TheBookDesigner.com and by Sandra Beckwith: It’s difficult, these days, to be successful at marketing to local and regional media. This is a good article on how to make press releases work in today’s world of restricted newsroom budgets.
Author Websites
How to Build an Author Website: Getting Started Guide by Jane Friedman: This is an excellent primer on author websites. Jane basically holds your hand and explains all of your options and what you need to build your website. (Why didn’t I write a post like this?) Yes, I’m jealous but not really. Jane Friedman is awesome!
Amazon
Amazon Book Promotion and the Perils of Also-Boughts by Penny Sansevieri: What Penny writes about in this post was completely new information for me. Apparently, “also bought” lists on Amazon don’t represent books that were purchased. Read this post to learn more about Amazon’s feature that can be misleading.
Quote of the Week
Frances Caballo is an author and social media consultant. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online and building their platform. She also provides content writing and email marketing services. Learn more about her.