Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Predators are on the lookout for scammable new or discouraged writers. by Anne R. Allen As long as there are writers, there will be writing scams. Hungry predators will always be lying in wait, ready to pounce on any tender young scribe who strays from the safety of the mainstream herd. And now there are […]
New Book Marketing: how today’s author launches a book. By Melodie Campbell New Book!! Gak – I have a new book coming out January 29. The Goddaughter Does Vegas is number 6 in an award-winning series (Derringer and Arthur Ellis – yay!) Because of that, I do have some expectation of sales from previous readers of […]
Twitter is important for authors, but not for direct sales. by Rachel Thompson (@BadRedheadMedia) Twitter is a terrible selling channel… …if your goal is to spam your book links and hope for the best. Most writers write their book and then realize, oh hey, there are millions of potential readers just waiting to buy […]
Self-publish fiction successfully by ignoring the trad-pub rules. by Anne R. Allen I wrote a post a few weeks ago that some people found discouraging. I pointed out that a number of changes, especially at Amazon, make it more of a challenge to self-publish fiction successfully than it was a decade ago. Back when the […]
by Anne R. Allen Social Media is both a boon and a curse to new writers. Online writing groups and forums are an excellent source of insider information on the publishing industry—stuff we once could only find at expensive classes and writers’ conferences. But social media is also a major source of misinformation and dangerously […]
Social media is about being sociable. by Frances Caballo. Dan Zarrella, author of The Science of Marketing, said in his book, “I’ve long been interested in the idea that engaging in conversation is the single most important function of social media marketing.” He’s right. And so is David Alston, a startup advisor and TEDx speaker. He […]
By Anne R. Allen. This week, Jane Friedman reports some bad news for new novelists who want to go the traditional publishing route. She says fiction markets are increasingly “more competitive and risk-averse due to continued dwindling sales.” And she tells us that agents and publishers are now combing queries looking for “authors who demonstrate they […]
Aggression, greed, and paranoia do not enhance your author brand. by Anne R. Allen Recently there’s been a bizarre drama going on in the book world. It’s been given the name #cockygate, because it involves a cocky author who managed to trademark the word “cocky” in a deluded attempt to eliminate the “competition” and “protect” […]
Amazon’s paid review crackdown may have punished “over a million” innocent customers. by Anne R. Allen My inbox has been bursting with unsolicited emails for the past few weeks. I must be on a new list of “easy prey” circulating in the the author-scamming community. Several sleazy guys with dodgy language skills have hit me […]
Social media marketing sells books…if you do it right! by Barb Drozdowich Did the title catch your attention? I’m older and the word “Dork” speaks to me. I didn’t grow up with social media in my life. The phone that I talked on was still attached to the wall. A smart phone and communicating electronically […]
It turns out authors make lots of website mistakes. by Gill Andrews You didn’t sign up for this. Writing and sharing your ideas with others – sure. But this website thing? You just wanted more people to read your stories. But now you spend hours agonizing over blog post topics, looking for free images, and […]
Don’t kill book sales dead with a less than enticing “look inside” sample. by Anne R. Allen I never have as much time to read as I think I will, and my trusty old Kindle is pretty loaded up. So I’m a picky book-buyer. Unfortunately, there are a lot of readers like me out here, […]
The Author Blog: Easy Blogging for Busy Authors is here! by Anne R. Allen I’ve made some spectacular blunders in my blogging career. But since we learn from our mistakes, I’ve got a boatload of information now. As Ruth and I say: “We made the mistakes so you don’t have to.” The worst decision I […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris