Alliance of Independent Authors Archives - Social Media Just for Writers

Indie Author Weekly Update – January 27, 2017

Welcome to today’s Indie Author Weekly Update. You’ll see new bloggers on a range of topics from ebook sales to Snapchat spectacles to hashtags.

On a personal note, we received a break from the storms. Yes, finally. The sun has even shined a few hours every day. Thank you for your patience as I return to my regular blogging schedule.

Indie Author Weekly Updates

A Powerful Shortcut for Discovering Keywords to Increase Ebook Sales from Digital Book World: “Indie authors and ebook publishers have a powerful tool for increasing book sales that costs nothing and already exists in their online book selling setup: keywords. The keywords associated with an ebook in an online store can help drive readers to your sales page. When you attract more people to your book’s sales page, the more opportunities you have to make sales.”

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Indie Author Weekly Update January 20, 2017

January 20, 2017 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

This is the first Indie Author Weekly Update in two weeks so it makes sense that it would be an expansive treasure trove of information for you to glean.

As I write this, we are in the midst of another storm. It’s the first of three scheduled to punch Northern California over the next five days. Wish us luck as we tend to lose power and experience flooding.

Top Tips on TIming for Indie Authors from the Alliance of Independent Authors: “At this time of year, we’re likely to spend more time thinking about forward planning, so today on the blog we’re sharing some top advice from ALLi partners and authors on timing the launch and marketing of your self-published books in 2017.”

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Indie Author Weekly Roundup October 14, 2016

October 14, 2016 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

This week’s Indie Author Weekly Roundup is longer than most but that’s because it is completely chock-full with information you need at your disposal. I hope you enjoy this week’s selection!

And don’t forget that …

The next episode of Conversations with Frances features Jane Friedman. Jane is a columnist with Publishers Weekly, a professor with The Great Courses, and she’s been a keynote speaker at several writers’ conferences. She speaks regularly at industry events such as BookExpo America and Digital Book World, and has served on panels with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund. On November 1 at 11 am Jane will share her thoughts on book launches. She’ll also be available to answer your questions. Join us on November 1st.

Indie Author Weekly Roundup

Time Management Tips for Busy Authorpreneurs from BookWorks: “You know what you’re supposed to do—write your book, start a blog and website, and turn to social media to help you market everything you’ve created. But where do you start? Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? And how can you write your next book if you now need to spend time writing blog posts, posting social media updates, and chasing after Likes and followers?”

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Indie Author Weekly Roundup October 7, 2016

October 7, 2016 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Indie Author Weekly Roundup. This week you’ll find posts on how best to market your books plus other great resources. Don’t miss Joel Friedlander’s interview of Dana Kaye and the list of twelve resources that authors need to be aware of. I hope you enjoy this week’s selection.

Free Book Promotions: Are They Worth It? by Frances Caballo and from Joel Friedlander of TheBookDesigner.com: “The continuing controversy among self-published authors is whether you should sign up for Kindle Direct Publishing’s Kindle Select Program and use the free promotion feature. The secondary questions are:

Is it worth it to be exclusive?
Are the free promotion days that tend to entice some authors – and readers – worth it?

There seem to be almost as many opinions on these controversies as there are, well, books. So what’s my take?”

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Indie Author Weekly Roundup September 23, 2016

September 23, 2016 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

This week’s Indie Author Weekly Roundup includes six posts. You see, I just couldn’t cut the list any more. Each post is chock-full of information that indie authors need to know to be successful in today’s market. And that is the purpose of this blog; to help you attain your goals.

On another note, if you missed Wednesday’s webinar with Joanna Penn, well, you missed a real treat. She revealed great tips that have helped to fuel her success. We also discussed her new course, How to Write a Novel. I’ve reviewed the course and plan to use it when I return to my novel. it’s awesome.

My next webinar will feature Joel Friedlander. The date for that webinar is October 4.

Indie Author Updates

Unusual Ways to Promote Your Book from Alliance of Independent Authors: “Each month we step away from mainstream marketing ideas and highlight creative, fun and sometimes downright wacky ideas that our members have dreamed up to help promote their self-published books to more readers. Here’s September’s top tips, with thanks to all the authors named (and the one who prefers to remain anonymous) for generously allowing us to share them here.”

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Indie Author Weekly Roundup August 22 – 26, 2019

August 26, 2016 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

This week’s Indie Author Weekly Roundup features an array of posts, all written to help authors with their No. 1 goal: sell books. I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I did.

I chose the above picture because I love oak trees (even though they appear scary at night). And I think this picture is pertinent to our conversation about selling books. We and our books are the trunk, our social media profiles are the larger branches, and the smaller branches and twigs represent all the people we meet on social media. With social media, we create an endless outreach to readers, influencers, journalists and reviewers, all of whom can help you achieve your goals.

How to Use Amazon Categories, Themes and Keywords to Sell More Self-published Books from Alliance of Independent Authors: “Think of Amazon as a search engine, like Google. This makes it easier to understand how to make your book stand out by correctly using keywords, categories, and themes. Tip: Amazon is actually two sites, one for print books, and one for ebooks (this is the Kindle Store).” [Read more…]

Friday Roundup April 15, 2016

April 15, 2016 By Frances Caballo Leave a Comment

Welcome to Friday’s Weekly Roundup, my collection of the week’s best posts. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection.

How to Use MailChimp and Bookfunnel to Grow Your Author Mailing List by Aimee Coveney via Alliance of Independent Authors: While you may not have the intention of sending newsletters on a weekly or even monthly basis, when you have a new book available, what easier way is there to share the news with your existing audience? It’s therefore well worth going to the trouble of attracting new subscribers to your mailing list. Note: This post explains how you can use Bookfunnel to get your lead magnets (giveaway books) into the hands of your readers so you can grow your email list.

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