Use Instagram to Sell Books and Get Your Writing in Front of People

book newspaper and snack ontable-1162230_640Guest Post
By Chris Armitage

So you wrote a book, now what? We all know social media is a powerful tool for introducing your work to new people and eventually helping them become fans who will buy more of your work in the future. While many authors do spend money on this sort of thing, you can actually do this with a budget of zero dollars and zero cents. The incredible democratization that social media offers means that quality work has more of a chance than ever to shine. Once upon a time, a writer needed a deal with a publisher or a gig with a well known media source; those days are gone. Continue reading “Use Instagram to Sell Books and Get Your Writing in Front of People”

2016 Social Media Platform Cheat Sheets Part 2

social media cheat sheets social-1148035_960_720The need to keep your social media presence accurate and viewable is increasing every year. Optimizing your profile pictures and sharing the best quality layouts goes a long way to representing you and your brand.

This week, we continue our adventure through the maze of social media platform specs. In this installment, our 2016 Social Media Cheat Sheets focus on LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and … new this year … Instagram. The Instagram cheat sheet was supplied by our friends at Buzzoid, so a big thanks goes to them for wanting to educate our readers!

Unfortunately, each social media platform is different … of course! We here at Indies Unlimited are trying to make life a little easier. If you missed my last post, you can find the cheat sheets for Facebook, Twitter and Google+ here.

So, without further ado … the 2016 updated Social Media Platform Cheat Sheets for image size and general rules.  Each downloadable cheat sheet (just right click and hit “save image as”) gives you an overview of the best image sizes for each social network. Continue reading “2016 Social Media Platform Cheat Sheets Part 2”

How Repost Helped Me Become An Instagram Fan

Repost Logo for InstagramFinding material to post on Instagram can be the hardest aspect of using the app. I had heard so many wonderful things about Instagram and I really wanted to get into it, but I was struggling to post daily because I just could not find enough things to take pictures of. I’m a writer — I work at my desk all day! There are only so many pictures of my fingers on a keyboard that I want to share.

But then I discovered Repost.

Yay for Repost!

It has opened up a huge door for me and I have turned from Instagram reluctant to an Instagram megafan. Now that I have more things to post, I am able to post two or three times a day and my traffic has gone from 20 – 30 likes per post to 180 – 300 likes per post. It’s awesome!!

So – how does it work? Continue reading “How Repost Helped Me Become An Instagram Fan”

A Beginner’s Tips for Setting Up Instagram

Is Instagram for Authors?A few weeks ago, our Jim Devitt wrote a tutorial on How to Get Started on Instagram. Since I am always taking photographs, I figured this would be a great app for me. It seemed like everyone else was on Instagram, so it made sense to finally take the plunge. I was very grateful to have Jim’s article to guide me through.

Being a technological dinosaur – and that’s Ms. Megapnosaurus to you, thank you – I needed a little bit more hand-holding. So here are some tips that might help those of you new to smart phones and apps, and all that other newfangled stuff. Continue reading “A Beginner’s Tips for Setting Up Instagram”