Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen “The one with the biggest email list wins” is the current mantra of pretty much every book marketer on the planet. The author newsletter is supposed to be the most important weapon in your book marketing arsenal. Marketing experts tell authors their #1 goal should be to collect as many email […]
An author blog can be fun if you ignore the rules intended for business blogs. by Anne R. Allen The most common question I get from authors who are thinking about starting a blog is: “What should an author blog about?” My answer isn’t the same as what you’ll hear from the major blogging gurus. […]
Author blogs: Are you blogging for the right reasons? 5 Bad Reasons for Author Blogs 1) Getting Rich Quick Nothing infuriates me more than those books and blogs promising writers they can make a gazillion dollars of “passive income” with a blog in the next month if they take this overpriced course or buy that […]
Book length memoir is a hard sell, but short essays can be a goldmine. Memoir is the most popular genre at any writers’ conference, and the most common genre in any agent’s slush pile. Unfortunately, it’s the hardest to write well—and the least likely to be successful if you’re an unknown newbie writer. That’s because […]
Want to land a guest blogging gig? Don’t clown around. by Anne R. Allen Marketing gurus will tell you guest blogging is one of the best ways to get your name out there to sell books and/or writing services. And they’re right. Here are some reasons why. But the gurus don’t often tell you how […]
Blog traffic problems? by Anne R. Allen Attracting traffic to your author blog is probably the biggest challenge for new author-bloggers. (After actually getting around to starting the thing in the first place and writing some posts.) The problem is that most of the stuff you read about blogs isn’t terribly useful to authors. Blogging […]
Is your author blog getting crickets? by Anne R. Allen You finally did it! You started your author blog. And put up your first post..and the second and third and fourth… Now…you’ve got crickets. Nobody’s reading your deathless prose. Sigh. Don’t give in to despair. It takes a while to build a readership. Usually a […]
Book review bloggers are friends, not foes–get to know them! by Barb Drozdowich So…who are book bloggers anyways? I know that Anne periodically talks about book bloggers on this blog – but many authors that I talk to seem a bit fuzzy on the subject. I’m going to see if I can help you understand […]
Blogging authors can break the”blog rules”! by Anne R. Allen Authors get lots of conflicting advice about blogging. Most of it isn’t terribly useful—and some can hurt or even destroy your career. It nearly happened to me. That’s because most of the blogging advice out there is: Out of date. Aimed at bloggers who want […]
by Anne R. Allen Piracy has become big business in the age of e-publishing. If your intellectual property is available on the Web—in ebooks, blog posts or other web content—chances are pretty good you’re going to be pirated at some point. If you have a Google Alert on your name and book titles […]
by Anne R. Allen I’m a big fan of author blogs. I think blogging is a great way to build your platform and connect with readers. But not all writers are cut out to blog. Author blogs don’t just take time, commitment and discipline—they require the ability to switch gears from a WIP […]
by Cat Michaels Writing is a solitary experience, but it needn’t be a lonely pursuit. In addition to discoverability, writers use social media to share ideas and find support. First, however, they must be R*A*R*E and learn the unwritten ‘rules’ of virtual interaction. Whether you’re an author, blogger, or budding entrepreneur, read on to […]
by Anne R. Allen Bloggers sometimes feel like Rodney Dangerfield. We get no respect. This week, we heard how Amazon is banning 100s of book review bloggers and removing their reviews. Some of the bloggers may be violating “affiliate” rules, but others have no affiliation with Amazon and are having all their reviews removed anyway. […]
