Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen A year ago I ran a series on how to blog that went viral and got mentions on a lot of prestigious blogs. I went on to teach blogging and social media at the Central Coast Writers’Conference. The following is an overview of part one of my beginning blogger course. […]
by Anne R. Allen Publishing insider Alan Rinzler said in a blogpost last summer that traditional book marketing is no longer working. “That $50K space ad in the New York Times?” he said. “Forget it. It’s only for the author’s mother…not even an appearance on the Today Show can guarantee more than a brief spike in sales. The old ways […]
by Anne R. Allen You’ve probably been reading a lot of conflicting advice recently on the subject of writers and blogs. Some experts are telling us blogging is dead. Agent Wendy Lawton wrote a post on September 15th called “What’s Not Working” and asserted that blogging—and most social networking—is a waste of time for debut authors, […]
by Anne R. Allen We’ve all fantasized about book tours, haven’t we? That glamorous trip we’ll take when our novel makes it big? Our publisher will send us off in a whirlwind of glamorous travel: booksignings, readings, and personal appearances with our adoring fans all over the country—maybe the world! But this week, BookTour.com […]
by Anne R. Allen This week I saw a new item at our local dollar store—hardcover books. Well, actually one hardcover book—hundreds of copies of it, dumped in a big bin. It’s sad enough to see good books remaindered on the sale tables of Barnes and Noble, but these were being dumped for a […]
by Anne R. Allen This blog got a mention from Nathan Bransford in his “This Week in Books” post on Friday. Of course I’m basking in his überblogger glow. Thanks Nathan! He also pointed out a blogpost I’d missed from Smashwords CEO Mark Coker, in which Mr. Coker bestows his blessing on agents-turned-epublishers. As I mentioned last week, some […]
Today we’re proud to have a visit from social media guru and mystery writer, Elizabeth S. Craig, who writes the Memphis-set Riley Adams mysteries. Elizabeth’s blog has been voted one of the Writer’s Digest’s Top 101 Sites for Writers for two years in a row, so she knows what she’s talking about. So here we’ve got seventeen (count […]
by Anne R. Allen Twitter terrifies me. Seriously. It’s been described as the world’s biggest cocktail party and that sounds about right: cacophonous, shallow, time-consuming Hell for shy, writerly persons. But many experts say authors who are serious about publication MUST be on Twitter. So a year or so ago I steeled myself and […]
by Anne R. Allen A friend who saw the film The Social Network last week said she had one of those back-in-high-school nightmares afterward. You know the kind: you can’t remember the way to class, haven’t studied for the Algebra test, and suddenly realize you’re still wearing your pj’s. You may be a successful fifty-something attorney […]
by Anne R. Allen Nathan Bransford has spoken. He says it’s never too early for writers to start using social media. Perhaps one day we’ll all be issued Twitter accounts in the womb. Since Nathan is a Thought Leader in our industry (according to Klout) I have a feeling a lot of writers are scrambling […]
As promised, here’s a guest blog from Janice Hardy. I’m a long-time fan of her blog, The Other Side of the Story. It’s always full of great, solid advice on craft and navigating the publishing business. When she said she was doing a blog tour to promote her new YA Fantasy book, Blue Fire, the […]
by Anne R. Allen New writers get a lot of pressure to start a blog. With good reasons: 1) It’s a free website. Most writers don’t need any other website. A free Blogger.com blog allows up to ten pages of content, and you can even post a link to your “buy” pages at Amazon if you […]
by Anne R. Allen Are you a lurker who reads publishing blogs but doesn’t comment or create your own blog? Do you fail to Tweet or network on Facebook? Good for you! You’re educating yourself about the publishing business without wasting precious writing time. Don’t let anybody pressure you into changing your ways until […]
