Celebrating Independent Authors
If you’re a regular reader of Indies Unlimited, you know how much we love indie authors. We’re committed to helping writers of all stripes get their work down on paper, get it published, and get it out there in front of readers everywhere. What’s arguably the most often asked question we get from writers?
I’ve just published my first book, but I don’t know anything about marketing. Help!
IU to the rescue. Continue reading “Announcing the Author Marketing and Book Promotion Resource Page”
There was a thread on Kboards this week that focused on what authors thought their best writing was. Almost without exception, writers thought their most recent books were their best. That feels like human nature to me, for several reasons. One, we tend to love new things. Our old projects had been sweated over, rewritten, edited, re-edited, and proofread ad nauseum, while our current project is still full of infinite possibilities. Second, we improve as we go. When I go back and read my first book, I admit I cringe a bit. It was the best I could do at the time, and it was professionally edited and proofread, but, if I’m honest, I have to admit that I’d like to get in there and give it a good scrubbing.
For these and other reasons, we tend to spend the majority of our time on our newest releases – seeking reviews, booking promo sites, organizing blog tours, etc. I just want to remind you of the power of your backlist, and ask you to not neglect it too much. Continue reading “Your Beautiful Backlist”
I’ve written about using your author’s Facebook page to build you platform several times before, here and here. Still, in almost every authors’ group I belong to, I hear the familiar refrains: “Facebook sucks.” “I’m not paying Facebook to show my posts to my own fans.” “Facebook stopped working when they changed their algorithms.” Those things may be true for many writers, but they are not true for me. After my mailing list, my Facebook page is my second most effective free platform builder.
In my previous articles, I shared a few of my strategies for building up your traffic and fans on your Facebook page before — post consistently, don’t post about your books constantly, put links that lead off Facebook in the comments of your posts instead of the body of your message. Here’s a new idea for you, though — write. You’re a writer, so write. Continue reading “Writing on Our Walls – Our Facebook Walls, That Is”
If you’re the type of person who sends a spiffy holiday card and newsletter to your family and friends, you may be the kind of author who wants to do the same to your fans.
As a person, I am definitely all-in on the holiday card and catching-up newsletter. We do a picture (in a costume of some sort), a website and a brief summary of the excitement of the year. Lots of fun for family and friends who want to catch up.
So, how do you translate this to your author persona? Simple. Do the same thing, only author-related and send it to your newsletter subscribers. It’s a chance for you to connect with fans in a way that they normally connect with friends and family. Therefore, we want it to be similar to what we’d send to friends and family. Continue reading “Create an Author Holiday Card to Help Connect with Readers”