Tag: tools for authors

Tutorial: NovelRank

Do you often wonder how many books you are actually selling? Of course, you’ll get your report from Amazon each month and maybe even a report from your publisher once a year or quarter, but what if you could find out how many sales you were making on a daily basis, or even on an hourly basis? Even better, what if you could spy on your rivals and see how their books are selling? Well, gather round everyone, you can!

Now, don’t spread this about, but I am going to give away a secret I have hung onto all year. It’s allowed me to check out other authors’ books and compare my sales then go off and cry in a dark room. I discovered a site that can tell you what sales you have made. It’s called NovelRank. Here’s all you need to know. Continue reading “Tutorial: NovelRank”

Author Tools: AddThis/ShareThis

Some people are really good at using nifty little plug-ins and widgets and what-have-you. I’m not one of those people. I do know, however, that making things easy and convenient is important. So when I saw that people couldn’t easily share my website with the click of a mouse, I decided to do something about it.

AddThis (www.addthis.com) is the “largest sharing and social data platform” per their website. They offer way more tools and data tracking information than I will ever look at. Why? Because a) I’m lazy; and 2) I just don’t care. Some people love to know how many people are sharing their web information. AddThis can tell you that. And other stuff.

So, I went and got me one of them thar AddThis accounts and started messing around. It was really easy (and actually kind of fun) to customize the sharing buttons so they’re non-invasive, yet still present for sharing. For my website, I made them teeny tiny and put them down in the left-hand corner of each page. Continue reading “Author Tools: AddThis/ShareThis”

Author Tools: Help a Reporter (HARO)

HARO LogoHelp A Reporter (HARO) is a handy tool for authors in two ways. HARO can help you find a source to interview when researching a book, and it can provide you with publicity and other related opportunities that you couldn’t have found on your own.

HARO Email
Email from HARO

Signing up for HARO is free. Just go to their home page and click “sign up today.” Yes, HARO does now offer pay packages, but if you scroll down to the bottom of the page – you will see the Basic page is still available for free. What does this mean? Well, three times a day you will receive a HARO email with a list of stories being worked on by reporters who need sources to interview. Not all of these are newspaper reporters – they are bloggers, authors, television shows, magazines and more. The stories are organized according to category, and if you see one that interests you, just click on it and it will bring you to the details further down in the email. The key to getting reporters interested in your “pitch” is to make sure you respond immediately. These emails go out to thousands of people, and whoever replies first is going to get their attention. Be concise with your pitch and be quick. Continue reading “Author Tools: Help a Reporter (HARO)”