Email Marketing Archives - Social Media Just for Writers

Indie Author Weekly Update – March 2, 2018

March 2, 2018 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

In this week’s Indie Author Update, be certain to read Amy Collin’s post about Amazon and Chris Well’s post on how to have a media-savvy website.

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Indie Author Updates

36 Smart Ways To Grow Your Email List 2x Faster from Blogging Wizard: “You need to build your email list if you want to grow your blog. Don’t be the person that keeps making excuses for why they aren’t focusing on building their list. I learned that lesson the hard way but you don’t have to. The truth is that email is far more effective at reaching your raving fans than any other tool. That includes social media.”

5 Creative Blog Post Ideas for Savvy Author Marketing from Penny Sansevieri: “You may be a savvy blogger, or maybe you’re still digging in your heels about starting your blog, but no matter where you fall on that spectrum I have to tell you that blogging is a critical piece to your author marketing. If you want to sell more books, I urge you to get on the blog train.”

Three Different Ways to Approach Blogging as a Novelist [With Examples] from Aliventures: “If you’re a novelist, should you have a blog? Opinions differ! You might have been told that you should blog, because you need to build a platform, or because it’s a good way to get people onto your site and then onto your mailing list, or because publishers / readers / the media will want it … or for almost any number of reasons.”

Book Promotion: Do This, Not That – February 2018 from TheBookDesigner.com and by Amy Collins: “Amazon is no longer listing books supplied from IngramSpark as “in stock.” In the past, Amazon would list IngramSpark sourced books as “in stock” because they knew that they could order the book and get them in a day. In the last few months, Amazon has changed this practice. They will only order enough POD IngramSpark sourced books to fill existing orders. Occasionally, they will order a few more when demand shows that they will sell them. Books that previously were listed as “in stock” are no longer and it is dramatically affecting sales.”

Media-Friendly Author Website Content – Part Three from BookWorks and by Chris Well: “This is the last of three posts outlining the essentials that you need if you want a media-friendly author website if you want to get media attention. Still with me? Great! If you recall, in Part One we discussed how to present basic information about yourself and your book(s). Then in Part Two, we went over the different ways you can make it easier for website visitors to contact you to set up an interview, ask questions, invite you to speak, etc.”

How to Put the Joy (and the Impact) Back into Twitter from Alliance of Independent Authors and by Helen Baggott: “Do you have a Twitter account but don’t know why? Do you send out an occasional tweet hoping someone will buy your book? Establishing a presence does take time but it doesn’t have to be hard work – and you might even enjoy it.”

Fiction Contests

Fiction Writing Contests Worth Your Time (Spring 2018) from Writer Unboxed: “This submissions season covers fiction contests with deadlines between March 1, 2018 and May 31, 2018. March is absolutely stacked with deadlines; so no excuses about not submitting! Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests.”

Quote of the Week

Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She’s a regular speaker at the San Francisco Writers Conference. In addition, she’s a contributing writer at TheBookDesigner.com, and blogger and Social Media Expert for BookWorks. She’s written several social media books including the 2nd edition of 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, finding new readers, and selling more books. Her clients include authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for my free email course.

Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

Indie Author Weekly Update – January 26, 2018

January 26, 2018 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

In this week’s Indie Author Update the focus is primarily on book marketing. But also read the post on building your email list by Blogging Wizard because an email list is so important to an author’s success.

Agent Laurie McLean’s Crystal Ball: Publishing Predictions for 2018 by Anne R. Allen and Laurie McLean: “My crystal ball is telling me that not a lot in the publishing industry is going to change from 2017 to 2018. I think publishing was mesmerized by Washington politics in 2017 and were slow to make any forward progress of any sort. Not a lot of new ideas. No new imprints that take advantage of the power of digital publishing and promotion. No exploration of sales innovations that come along with a cheap digital distribution system. Nada.”

5 Easy List Building Techniques To Get You More Email Subscribers from the Blogging Wizard: “Growing your email list is important when starting your online business. Without a list of leads, acquiring business will be difficult. That’s why you often hear from markets that the money is in the list. But how do you go about gaining more subscribers if you already have the basics covered? You’ve invested in a strong lead magnet, made it easy for visitors to sign up to your list, and you even have content upgrades placed in your blog posts for higher conversions. If you are still finding you have little to no sign-ups on a consistent basis, it might mean you need to strategically market your lead magnet or landing page.

How to Increase the ROI of Your BookBub Ads (+ a BookBub Fast Pass) from Writer Unboxed: “Many authors are familiar with BookBub’s Featured Deals, the editorially-selected price promotions included in each daily email. BookBub Ads also appear in these emails, but there are several important differences between the two promotional tools. Most notably, you can run BookBub Ads for any book at any time — full-priced books, new releases, novellas, etc. — without needing to go through any editorial review process. The platform is totally self-serve, allowing you to determine your own budget and timeline.”

How Indie Presses Are Elevating the Publishing World by Jennifer Baker from Electric Literature: “Independent presses are a lifeline in the publishing world. At a time when large publishing houses are merging into even larger conglomerates, writers may feel like finding a home for their work requires a very specific, and at times corporate, mindset. But indies show that there’s another way. Via contests, open calls for submissions (for agented and unagented writers), and targeted requests, independent presses provide an alternate arena, making publishing more of a reality for marginalized artists and those with unique voices and writing styles. Plus, they’re getting more and more recognition. This year Graywolf Press had several titles as finalists or longlisted for the National Book Award. Paul Harding’s Pulitzer winning book Tinkers was published by a university aligned press (Bellevue Literary).”

What Kinds of Social Media Go Viral? from Writers in the Storm: “In last month’s post, I shared social media strategies that support your brand and let you have a life. I don’t know about you, but I like having social media be something I fit into MY life, rather than the other way around. The big question everyone wants to know is: “How do I get my post to go viral?” First, we need to understand what kinds of posts get shared extensively and why. There are many many schools of thought on what gets others to share your content, but I decided to go with science because we want results that can be duplicated.”

Book Promotion: Do This, Not That – January 2018 from TheBookDesigner.com and by Amy Collins: “A publisher client of mine priced his new ebook at $9.99 because he believed that a higher-priced ebook would have more cache. He was concerned that a lower-priced ebook would lower the perceived quality of the novel. So he priced his book at the same level that established authors price theirs (even though he was not as well known).”

Quote of the Week

Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web

The next webinar will be on February 6 at 10 am PST / 1 pm EST and feature Ricardo Fayet from Reedsy. We’ll discuss book marketing and Facebook ads. Sign up now to join the conversation!

SaveSave

Indie Author Weekly Update – December 22, 2017

December 22, 2017 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Today’s Indie Author Weekly Update contains a potpourri of topics and bloggers. Publicity, Twitter threads, and book marketing strategies are just some of the topics covered. Enjoy them all!

Don’t Get Rolled by Bad Publicity from Writer Unboxed and by Porter Anderson: “If the answer from your potential or existing publicist/PR person/press agent is no (“office secret,” “tricks of the trade,” “private information”), run away. They can withhold those journalist’s contact info from you. In fact, I’d prefer they did, for the sake of my inbox. But they need to tell you who’s getting the paper goods and why.”

On email optins: They are the lifeblood of your business as an author. From Shawn Manaher and Book Marketing Tools: “Welcome to the 142nd episode of The Author Hangout. In this episode, Shawn Manager explores what it takes to make the perfect optin, to get people onto your mailing list. Nearly every guest on The Author Hangout has mentioned the importance of mailing lists, and the optin is the make or break moment for your mailing list.”

Twitter officially launches ‘threads,’ a new feature for easily posting tweetstorms from Tech Crunch: “Twitter today is announcing the launch of a new feature that will allow people to more easily post tweetstorms – that is, those series of connected tweets that have grown to become a popular workaround for getting past Twitter’s character count limitation in order to share longer thoughts. The company confirmed last month it was testing the feature – which it’s now calling “threads” – across its iOS and Android apps.”

18 Rock Solid Book Marketing Strategies for 2018 from Penny Sansevieri: “We all want to be better at book marketing and we all want to sell more books. The problem is, it often feels like book marketing strategies are changing all the time and how is an eager author supposed to keep up with that? The reason for this article is to not only share some insight into marketing in the new year, but give you tips for long-term success, not just will work in January. The book marketing ideas I’m sharing in this article, are geared to success the whole year through, and I hope you’ll use all (or as many of these) as you can!”

How to Use Facebook’s New Snooze Feature from Lifehacker: “This week Facebook rolled out a new Snooze feature that allows you to essentially temporarily mute people or pages in your feed.”

A Look Back at 2017 Publishing Headlines: 5 Issues Raised for Authors by Jane Friedman: “At the end of November 2017, Barnes & Noble released their latest earnings report. The news was entirely predictable: the store’s losses grew, driven by a 6.3 percent decline in comparable store sales against last year. (Absence of a new Harry Potter book makes up half of that decline.) The declines have been going on for six or seven quarters now, with more declines expected. Still, B&N has been meeting its profit goals as a result of cost cutting.”

Bonus Items

Award and Content Ratings by the Alliance of Independent Authors: “ALLi is willing to work with any service that wants to improve its offerings and bring them in line with current best practice for authors services. Contact the Watchdog Desk at any time if you would like to inform us about a contest or award, or discuss a rating. Please use the form on this page.”

Writer Emergency Pack: “Writer Emergency Pack is your portable tool for story resuscitation (or simply creativity rejuvenation). Each pack contains 26 illustrated idea cards, 25 detail cards with helpful suggestions and specific tips, and instructions for individuals and class use, plus a bonus story game.”

Quote of the Week

Want to save time with social media? Get Avoid Social Media Time Suck for FREE.

Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web

SaveSave

Indie Author Weekly Update – November 17, 2017

November 17, 2017 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

This edition of the Indie Author Weekly Update is chockfull of helpful tips. From Facebook ads to author websites to cross-promotion, you’ll find information to help you sell more books.

Indie Author Updates

Unpublished Writers and Websites: Should You Have One and What Should It Say? by Jane Friedman: “If you plan to pursue writing as a professional, long-term career, I recommend starting and maintaining an author website even if you’re unpublished. Your website serves as an online home and hub for everything that you do, whether in real life or in the digital realm. You fully own and control it, tell your own story, and connect directly with the media, readers or influencers. It’s hard to overstate its importance over the long term. Consider it the cost of doing business in the digital era, a necessary business card and networking tool.”

Use Your Author Website To Make Readers Care About You As A Writer from Web Design Relief: “As a writer, your job is to create a narrative that hooks the reader, raises curiosity, elicits empathy, and leaves the reader satisfied. But have you ever considered how these fundamentals of storytelling can be harnessed to improve your author website?”

Email Marketing: The Complete Beginner’s Guide from Blogging Wizard: “If you’re a small business owner doing business online, the thought of not making any conversions can make you lose sleep at night. You work hard at creating your website – or the online version of your brick and mortar business – with a distinct brand and logo. You even heard that blogging can generate up to 67% more leads, so you start your own company blog.”

Pronoun Is Dead: The Ebook Retail Universe Redux from TheBoodDesigner.com and by David Kudler: “I’m bummed. On November 6, Macmillan’s Pronoun, the distributor that I had begun to rely on more and more over the past year, announced that it was shutting down its operations. No new books can be uploaded; Pronoun will remove all existing books from distribution on January 15, 2018.”

The 4 Best Types of Facebook Ads for Authors by Andrea Vahl: “Are you an author who wants to promote your book with Facebook Ads? It can be overwhelming to know what is going to be most effective. In this post, I’ll show you the 4 best types of Facebook Ads for Authors and how to approach your marketing strategy on Facebook. The first thing to clear up is that there are different types of authors and different goals for your book. And once you are clear on the next step a reader should take with you, your marketing strategy becomes clearer.”

14 Ways Authors Can Cross-Promote Each Other’s Books from BookBub: “Many authors cross-promote each other’s books to gain visibility with a relevant new audience of readers. It’s a mutually beneficial way to inexpensively boost book sales and word-of-mouth buzz — and to make new friends and build relationships in the publishing community!”

Awards News

Jesmyn Ward Wins Second National Book Award in Fiction from Publishing Perspectives: “Jesmyn Ward led Wednesday evening’s (November 15) National Book Award honors, for her Sing, Unburied, Sing, becoming a two-time winner of the prize.” Her earlier award came in 2011 for Salvage the Bones (Bloomsbury USA).

Fiction Writing Contests

Fiction Writing Contests Worth Your Time (Winter 2017 Edition) from Writer Unboxed: “Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your exceptional work.”

Quote of the Week

New to blogging? Check out Blogging Just for Writers

Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web

SaveSave

Indie Author Weekly Update – November 10, 2017

November 10, 2017 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

This week’s Indie Author Update covers everything from social media marketing to growing an email list to guest blogging. I’m sure that in the posts below, you’ll find some that speak to you right now.

You’ll want to sign up for the Amy Collins webinar this month. The sign-up link is at the bottom of this post. Amy is awesome and a wealth of knowledge.

Indie Author Updates

How to Tame the Social Media Beast by Chris Syme: “When it comes to book marketing, there is no bigger potential time waster than social media. There are approximately 210 social media sites listed on Wikipedia (global numbers). Of those 210, there are about ten that you can probably name and of those ten there are three to five that authors feel they have to be active on.”

[Read more…]

Indie Author Weekly Update – September 29, 2017

September 29, 2017 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

This week’s Indie Author Update includes posts from Adam Connell, Joanna Penn, Ali Luke, Buffer, and Writers in the Storm. I hope you enjoy the selections.

Well, we are firmly into fall, my favorite season. How does your writing change with the seasons? I’d love to know!

Indie Author Updates

How To Launch Your Own Facebook Group And Get Loyal Fans from Adam Connell: “Facebook groups are powerful. They’re a perfect place to start real conversations about things that matter to you. And because your audience members are already on Facebook (Facebook addiction is a real thing, people), they are far more likely to engage with you and your brand in Facebook groups than they are on your blog. With Facebook Live, you can now do live training right inside of your group.”

[Read more…]

Indie Author Weekly Update – August 25, 2017

August 25, 2017 By Frances Caballo 2 Comments

Today’s Indie Author Weekly Update includes posts from Jane Friedman, David Baer, Hugh Howey, Social Media Examiner, and the Alliance of Independent Authors. Topics range from Facebook to email marketing to tools for writers.

The eclipse is over and summer is nearing its end. What are your goals for the fall? Whatever they might be, I with you the best with your writing.

23 Powerful Ways To Connect With Your Audience on SocialMedia from David Baer: “Perhaps you’ve suffered from thinking “Who cares what I had for breakfast?” – or maybe you’ve just wanted to retain a sense of privacy and not share the small details of your life with the world.”

Writing Insights Part One: Becoming a Writer from Hugh Howey: “I started writing my first novel when I was twelve years old. I was thirty-three when I completed my first rough draft. That’s twenty years of wanting to do something and not knowing how. Twenty years of failure and frustrations and giving up. A big part of the problem is that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t know which questions to ask, much less who might have the answers.”

How to Set Up a Creative Facebook Cover Video from Social Media Examiner: “When users visit your page, your Facebook cover photo is one of the first things they’ll notice. For new visitors, your cover photo can help represent your brand and portray your story in just a few seconds. It only makes sense that a short video can accomplish this better than a still photo.”

Best Tools of the Self-Publishing Trade: Running An Author Business from Alliance of Independent Authors: “What tool is indispensable when it comes to running your author business? Jay Artale consulted with ALLi members to find out the writing and self-publishing tools they couldn’t do without. Here’s her roundup of the software, tools, and services they use and recommend.”

MailChimp Alternatives for Authors from Jane Friedman: “When authors ask me for marketing advice, one of my first questions for them is: “Do you have a mailing list?” Too often, the author will say no. So my first piece of advice tends to be: Sign up to MailChimp and set up your mailing list.”

5 Ways to Use Facebook Pinned Posts to Hook Fans from Chris Syme: “Facebook pinned posts are the most underused piece of real estate on your Facebook page. They have the ability to entice people to walk in your door. But let’s start with why. It’s all about the numbers.

Quote of the Week

Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web

Get a free copy of Avoid Social Media Time Suck from Smashwords!

SaveSave

Indie Author Weekly Update – July 28, 2017

July 28, 2017 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

This week’s Indie Author Update includes posts from Chris Well, Penny Sansevieri, Buffer, Social Media Examiner, Book Riot, and Authority Pub. Topics range from email lists to using Facebook as a substitute for a book club to Amazon ads. The topics are diverse this week.

Meanwhile, I hope you’re enjoying the summer and finding pockets of inspiration wherever you are.

18 Experts: Why Every Author Needs an Email by Chris Well: “Despite all the tools available for promoting your books and building your author presence online, it would be a mistake to discount the value of a healthy email list. Building a list of email subscribers allows you to engage with your readers, drive new book sales, and insure your author platform against inevitable changes in search engines and social networks. Don’t believe me? Here are 18 influencers–including authors, bloggers, podcasters, and other online teachers–who explain why you need an email list.”

[Read more…]

Secrets of Successful Book Launches with Howard VanEs

May 15, 2017 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

In this webinar, as part of my Conversations with Frances series, I interviewed Howard VanEs about successful book launches. A master at selling books, Howard shared some of his best strategies.

Here are some notes from our conversation:

[Read more…]

Blockbuster Author Kevin Tumlinson Reveals His Writing and Book Marketing Secrets

March 20, 2017 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Several months ago I used Draft2Digital to convert one of my books to an ePub and distribute it to online book retailers. I was impressed by the customer service I experienced and how easy the staff made the entire process for me.

Then, I recalled hearing Kevin Tumlinson of Draft2Digital speak on Joanna Penn’s podcast about eight months ago and decided to invite him to join my Conversations with Frances webinar series.

Earlier this month I interviewed Kevin Tumlinson, marketing director for Draft2Digital and a bestselling author. We had a wide-ranging conversation about Draft2Digital and Kevin’s writing and book marketing tips. Here are some of the points we covered:

[Read more…]