Last week Paula Hendrickson wrote a great guest post for Lori Widmer’s blog on vetting writing experts. This topic is near and dear to my heart because I’ve had more new writers come to me looking for help after taking horrible advice from pseudo experts than I can count. I feel for those writers. It’s easy to get sucked in because some of these charlatans are masters
I’ve been ranting for the last week or two about atrocious examples of marketing from companies like Upwork, Freshbooks, and Canva. So it feels like a good time to change gears and get back to the things writers should focus on rather than avoid. This week’s quick tip for writers is a bit of a lead-in to Friday’s podcast episode. There, we’ll explore ways indie authors
When you promote a new book release, chances are good you’ll send out at least one press release. And one of the biggest book launch press release mistakes I see authors make is sending a release with nothing newsworthy to say. That fact that you’re releasing a new book is very rarely newsworthy on its own, unless you’re a well-known author. Instead, you can increase
The latest episode of the All Freelance Writing Podcast is now live. As promised in my last post’s comments, it includes an extension of the Elance / Upwork fiasco with their lame blogger relations attempt. Then I move on to offer a few tips to bloggers who are tired of finding themselves on these lists. Also in this episode: Is there really a difference
Planning a virtual book tour on a series of blogs can be time consuming, both for you and your hosts. One way you can make the most of your time is to diversify the types of posts included in your blog tour. Let’s look at some of the most common types of virtual blog tour stops for authors. Some will save you time directly. And
Is your marketing helping you reach the best freelance writing prospects? That depends on your target market and how successful you are at reaching members of that group. One of the biggest mistakes a new freelance writer can make is having no target market. That’s when you simply take any gig that comes along, whether or not you enjoy the work, whether or not you
Are you earning as much as you want to from your indie published books? Many authors aren’t happy with their sluggish sales. And when they come to me with marketing questions hoping to improve their situation, I often ask two questions: What does your marketing plan include? What other revenue streams have you set up around your book’s brand? If you’re still working on your book marketing plan,
This week’s “weekend reading” collection is a follow-up to the last podcast episode, covering branding for writers. Enjoy! How Your WordPress Blog Can Build Your Author Brand By Bob Dunn at BobWP.com If you still aren’t sure what branding is, or how it applies to you as an author, this post is a good place to start. It guides you through some of the most
We have an interesting question for authors this week from an anonymous reader who created a soundtrack for their upcoming book. This is a topic that’s been on my mind recently as I was looking into BookTrack and also happened across an Amazon Prime music playlist featuring classical music for reading. While I’ve used soundtracks to help me write stories, listening to soundtracks or reading-specific playlists while I
Earlier this week we looked at ways you can write a better book launch press release. But what you do with that finished release is just as important as how it’s written. So today I’d like to share a few press release distribution tips for authors — things you can do to help your announcement get more attention, without being immediately dismissed. Here are three distribution tips