Category: Tutorials

How-to articles for writers.

Tutorial – Using Goodreads Listopia to Your Advantage

This week’s Tuesday Tutorial is written by our own Melissa Pearl. Thank you, Melissa!

For those of you who haven’t spent much time on Goodreads, it is an amazing site. I love it. There are some fantastic features that benefit both authors and readers.

From a reading point of view, adding books to my “TO READ” list, totally rocks. It’s such an easy way to keep track of all those books I want to read.

Goodreads EXPLORE!Another feature that is really beneficial to both the reader and writer is LISTOPIA. You can find this by looking at the top of any page (if you’re logged in). You will see EXPLORE with a drop down menu. Listopia is first on the list.

This then takes you to a page where you can search for specific lists or see which ones are recommended based on your personal preferences (the types of books you’ve rated highly). Here is a direct link to the most popular lists.

Most people glance at the Top 10 – 20. This no doubt sparks reading ideas and multiple books are added to people’s “TO READ” lists.

This is where Listopia is completely brilliant for authors. Getting on one of these lists is simple. You can either Create Your Own List or you can find a list that suits your book and ask someone to add your book to it. Continue reading “Tutorial – Using Goodreads Listopia to Your Advantage”

How To Get A Gravatar by Zoë Lake

Are you like me and ever wondered how all those other bloggers, and the like, have their image on their posts? Have you spent hours trawling over a website looking for the magic button that will allow you to upload your image too, only to be disappointed when you just couldn’t find THAT MAGIC BUTTON! and ended up feeling downright frustrated with a headache to boot?

Well wonder no more my friends, because this is how you can have your image on your blog and forum posts too.

Gravatar.com is where you can access this great, free (Yippee!), online program that will allow you to do all of the above! Following is a short tutorial to help get you started.

Continue reading “How To Get A Gravatar by Zoë Lake”

Amazon.com Monetize! Tutorial

K. S. Brooks Ironing Money
Monetize your links & next thing you know, you’ll be laundering money!

In my first post about utilizing the tools given to us by Amazon.com, I covered setting up your Author Central page. No matter how many books you have available, you should take advantage of this. The tutorial is here. I’ve also shown you how to set up your own book store using Amazon’s engine. That tutorial is here.

Now that you’ve gotten yourself set up, the next step in this grand scheme should be monetizing links. Yes, this applies to you. You have a blog, right? A web site? A web presence? Anything you post anywhere with a link to your book or author page on Amazon.com should be monetized. Why not make a commission on your own books? And better yet, if you’re providing another author the platform to promote their work, why not see some commission off any sales you generate for them? Honestly – if you post a link to my book on YOUR blog or web site – THANK YOU. Go nuts…post them all! And go right ahead and monetize them. You deserve a commission for doing me that favor. Capiche?

Amazon makes this ridiculously easy to do. You can use your existing account to set up your “Amazon Affiliates/Associates” account, which you should have already set up in order to make your book store. If you haven’t done that yet, please use the link above to the book store tutorial and follow the instructions there. Amazon gives you the ability to set these accounts up for the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and more. We are only going to cover the US today – but in essence, the techniques are the same. Continue reading “Amazon.com Monetize! Tutorial”

Twitter Tutorial Tuesday – Don’t Be a Mystery

Author K. S. Brooks
Author K. S. Brooks

Yeah yeah, I know.  You’re on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, LibraryThing, Google+, LinkedIn, eHarmony and who knows what else.  If you’re like me, you’re wondering if these things are helping at all in the promotion of your book(s).

Sometimes it’s not about where you are, but “how” you are using those tools.  Here’s a tip on how you can use Twitter just a little bit better – and it’s something you only have to do once!

Now you’re saying “It’s 140 characters. Who cares?” Well, honestly, think about it – you probably get those emails all the time which say: “so and so is now following you on Twitter”. All it says under the person’s cryptic handle is “likes cake”. Sure, I like cake too, but who is this person? Do they write? Are they a reader? A publisher? A reviewer? Do I want to follow them back? Is that what people think when YOU follow THEM?

Stay with me here. This is very quick and very easy. All we’re going to do is “spruce up” your profile. It’s really about making yourself more accessible – and giving people the opportunity to find out more about you in a quick and convenient fashion. Continue reading “Twitter Tutorial Tuesday – Don’t Be a Mystery”