Welcome to another Book Marketing Update.

It’s summer! While fall is my favorite season, this summer is ushering in a lot of changes into my life. First, I’m moving!

No, I’m not moving to Spain or anything exotic like that. But I’m moving to the opposite side of town where I’ll be just half a mile from a beautiful park and a place to walk four miles every morning alongside a lake.

And, I have a puppy. He’s an English Labrador (all of my Labs are black) and a total love bug. Puppies’ brains grow quickly so it’s a prime time for training.

What new changes are being ushered into your life? I’d love to hear from you.

Book Marketing

Chirp Follow Buttons for Authors’ & Narrators’ Websites from BookBub Partners: Confession: I’d never heard of Chirp until I saw this article. If you plan on publishing audiobooks, definitely check out this post.

What’s the Best Way to Keep in Touch With My Readers? Other Questions Answered from Alliance of Independent authors and by Orna Ross and Michael La Ronn: Find out what these two experts have to say by reading this post.

How to be an Everyday Star: Lessons From 4 Famous Authors by Ruth Harris: Ruth shares lessons from authors who have traveled the path from obscurity to success. Don’t miss this post!

How to Market Your Book to Visually Impaired Users from Sabrina Ricci & by Giacomo Rotella: “To expand the reach of your content marketing throughout the web, you’ll need a website. But a successful website needs to be accessible to everyone, including people with visual impairment. This is also a great opportunity to promote an audiobook version of your book.”

5 Ways to Get the Internet Buzzing Over Your Self-Published Book from Entrepreneur and by J.J. Hebert: Are you new to book marketing? If so, check out this article.

Blogging

How To Create An Expert Roundup That Increases Blog Traffic from Blogging Wizard: Expert roundups can bring a lot of traffic to your website. Learn how to make the most of this blogging technique.

Book Reviews

How To Get Book Reviews on Amazon [For Free] from SCRIBD: “Reviews matter. They’re a key influencer of buying behavior and provide important social proof even to non-buyers.”

Of Note

AI for Authors. Practical and Ethical Guidelines from Alliance of Independent Authors, Joanna Penn, and Larry Tesler and from Orna Ross: The Alliance of Independent Authors has developed some practical and ethical guidelines to AI for authors. Be sure to check out this blog post.

Assessing a Book Idea from Alliance of Independent Authors: This was the topic of a recent Twitter chat. See what people had to say.

Quote of the Week

I visited a ghost town recently.

Well, Monterey isn’t known as a ghost town, but that’s how I experienced it.

You see, I grew up there and as I drove and walked around town I would say to myself, “That’s where my father ate his morning donuts. That’s where Carmen lived and where my friends hung out.”

Monterey Was My Ghost Town

Monterey is a beautiful town, and my memories of it were always tied to people who either had died or no longer lived there.

Ghosts were everywhere because I allowed myself to imagine them.

I tied my experience to the past.

The reason I was in Monterey was to see my sister and nephew. In between the meals we shared, I walked with my to the wharf, at a park, around the city, and at Carmel Beach, my favorite beach on the Monterey Peninsula.

By the end of my stay, somewhat to my surprise, I’d begun to create new memories. 

We all know that it’s not good to live in the past. When we do, we are influenced by past hurts and experiences instead of present opportunities.

Social Media Ghost Town

By now you might be wondering how this topic relates to social media? Let me explain.

I frequently encounter writers who are living in any number of ghost towns. Their storylines run this way:

1. I tried using Goodreads, but didn’t like the “meanies.”
2. Someone called me a name on Twitter, so I stopped using it.
3. A friend told me that if I use Facebook, I’ll get my email account hacked.
4. I tried to use Twitter, but then I started getting all these tweets asking me to buy books.
5. These salacious men were sending me messages on Facebook, so I stopped using it.
6. Why does everyone automate their Twitter accounts? I can’t stand it.
7. I tried blogging every week, but it was too much. So I gave up.

In other words, authors make their foray into the virtual world of social media, have a negative experience, and use that incident to leave their accounts behind, making them virtual ghost towns. 

How to an Avoid Online Ghost Town

If someone says something rude to you, don’t abandon your profile in a huff. Do this instead: 

1. When you encounter one or two mean persons on Goodreads, ignore them. Continue to make friends with other readers. 
2. Might someone flirt with you on Facebook or refer to you as a phony on Twitter? Maybe. But don’t stop using your account after one bad episode.
3. Do some poor souls automate tweets thanking new followers? Yes, and they are terribly misguided. Instead of leaving a social media network where you encountered these individuals, ignore them.
4. Might someone send you a friend message and then spam you with requests to buy their books? It’s happened to me but guess what? I still haven’t left Facebook.

Weird men have sent me messages indicating that they “couldn’t take their eyes off of me.” (Ewe!) Some guy called me a phony on Twitter. 

Someone posted a picture of a woman wearing a red bra and tagged me in the image on Facebook. 

And after connecting with me on LinkedIn, people asked me to vote for their book, buy their book, and subscribe to a blog.

None of these incidents have prompted me to leave social media because the benefits far outweigh the few negative experiences I’ve had.

Stick It Out for the Sake of Your Book Marketing

So please don’t give up if you have an isolated encounter on social media that’s negative, or that grosses you out. 

Think instead about the readers you’ll meet and connect with and the colleagues you can help out on social media. 

Instead, follow the advice of Blind Boy Fuller in the song “Trucking My Blues Away” and keep on truckin’.

I hope you enjoy today’s Book Marketing Update. It is the most comprehensive roundup I’ve ever compiled.

Through Ruth Harris, I discovered an important article on Amazon reviews. It’s an interesting read.

Also, don’t miss the blog post from the Alliance of Independent Authors. It is a truly insightful post on reader magnets. This is such an important topic.

I hope you like all of the posts listed below. I did!

Book Marketing

25 Authors Running Fantastic Book Promotions on Instagram from BookBubPartners: There are a tremendous number of readers on Instagram. If you want to reach them, check out this blog post.

The Ultimate Guide to Reader Magnets for Indie Authors from Alliance of Independent Authors: Blog posts from the Alliance of Independent Authors keep getting better and better. This post is another great one about the importance of reader magnets as part of your book marketing strategy.

Monopolize Your Indie Author Real Estate from Writers in the Storm: This post explains all of the online components you need to have a strong marketing platform.

How to Develop a Marketing and Promotion Plan as an Indie Author from Jane Friedman and by Emma Lombard: This is a fantastic book marketing blog post from an indie author’s perspective. Don’t miss it!

Publishing

Debunking Myths About Self-Publishing and Indie Authors: Advanced Self-Publishing with Orna Ross and Joanna Penn and from Alliance of Independent Authors: In this podcast, “Orna Ross and author Joanna Penn explore the top ten myths about self-publishing and indie authors.”

What You need to Know About KDP’s Newest Updates from New Shelves Books: KDP now accepts EPUB files for reflowable format eBooks. However, don’t get rid of your MOBI files. This post explains why.

Enterprise self-publishing is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s from Mike Shatzkin, The Idea Logical Company: Mike Shatzkin explains why he thinks the book business is in “the early stages of its third great disruption in the past quarter century.”

Of Note

Amazon’s Open Secret – The Review System Is Broken from the New York Times: “This week, Amazon acknowledged reality: It has a problem with bogus reviews.”

9 Key Internet Safety Tips and Notes [Infographic] from Social Media Today: This post obviously isn’t about book marketing. However, it’s an important topic and I hope you’ll read it.

Cancel Prime: The subscription service is Amazon’s greatest—and most terrifying—invention. from The Atlantic: “Prime Day is a singular and strange artifact, but then again, so is Prime.”

Quote of the Week

Hey, I’m Frances Caballo and I’m a social media expert for writers, building and managing author platforms to enhance book sales. A writer all of my life, I also provide content writing and email marketing services. If all you need is some training, I enjoy offering one-on-one training sessions as well. Of course, check out my free, email-based social media training course (you’ll get a free, 64-page Twitter ebook with it). Or, sign up for one of my social media audits to find out how you’re really doing.

Today’s Book Marketing Update is a whopper. There are nine blog posts to choose from on every aspect of book marketing.

Matt Holmes wrote an incredible blog post for Jane Friedman about Facebook ads for authors. If you read just one post on my list below, that is the one you have to review.

I also enjoyed reading about Lucy Score and her success as a romance writer.

If you gather names for your email marketing program, don’t miss MailerLite’s article.

Finally, enjoy these blog posts, your writing, and the upcoming weekend.

Book Marketing

Happy Ever After: The Rise to Romance Stardom with Lucy Score and by Mark Dawson and James Blatch: Find out how Lucy Score skyrocketed into romance writing stardom.

How to Be a Great Podcast Guest: A Guide for Authors from Jane Friedman and by Sue Campbell: Sue Campbell provides an excellent guide for incorporating guest spots on podcasts as part of a book marketing strategy.

Facebook Ads for Authors

How Authors Can Leverage Facebook Ads to Sell More Books from Jane Friedman and by Matt Holmes: This is an amazing blog post on Facebook advertising for authors. If you only read one blog post on this list, this is the one to read.

Podcasting

Podcasting as an Indie Author from Alliance of Independent Authors: I used to have a podcast and what I learned is that podcasting takes a lot of time. I would spend five hours producing a 20-minute episode. If you already feel burdened by your marketing, don’t start a podcast. Instead, look for opportunities to speak on podcasts. If you have your heart set creating a podcast, check out this blog post.

Social Media News

Instagram Provides a New Overview of How Its Algorithms Work by Andrew Hutchinson and from Social Media Today: If you want to have a better understanding of Instagram and how its algorithms work, read this post.

10 Best Instagram Growth Services for Organic Followers from Jeff Bullas and by Johnny Pulling: This post offers viable media to grow your Instagram presence. Check it out.

Facebook’s Developing a New Way To Re-Create Text Styles Based on an Example Image from Social Media Today and by Andrew Hutchinson: “Facebook is developing a new, machine learning powered system that would enable users to re-create the style of text in virtually any photo ….”

Email Marketing

7 Essential Email Marketing Metrics and How to Improve Them from MailerLite: Be sure to read this post. “By tracking the right email metrics, you can slowly make small changes and optimize your email campaigns.”

How to Write an Engaging Email from Lisa Tener: Lisa discusses an email she received from Chris Winfield and what she learned from that experience.

Of Note

How Much Money is Enough to Make from Your Writing? from Rachel Thompson and by Colleen M. Story: Is making money your goal as a writer? Or, is publishing your best work possible your goal? This article explores these questions.

Quote of the Week