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March 19, 2017 By Anne R. Allen 94 Comments

Your Author Blog: What Should an Author Blog About?

Your Author Blog: What Should an Author Blog About?

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. […]

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Filed Under: Blogging for Authors, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: Anne R. Allen, Author blogs, Blogging, Boomer Women, Elizabeth S. Craig, How to Blog Your Book, Insecure Writers Support Group, Joel Friedlander, Kristen Lamb, memoir writing, slow blogging, Tara Sparling

May 22, 2016 By Anne R. Allen 69 Comments

Book Pirates—ARRGH! Have Pirates Stolen your Book or Blog?

Book Pirates—ARRGH! Have Pirates Stolen your Book or Blog?

  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 […]

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Filed Under: Blogging for Authors, Scams and Alerts for Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: AISNs, blog pirates, Copyright laws, ebook piracy, Helen Sedwick, How to file a DMCA notice, Intellectual property theft, Joel Friedlander, Kathryn Goldman, William L. Hahn

January 17, 2016 By Anne R. Allen 215 Comments

Writers: How Succeed at “Building Platform” Without Really Trying

Writers: How Succeed at “Building Platform” Without Really Trying

by Anne R. Allen   Welcome to all our new subscribers! We had one of those crazy lucky streaks this week when one of my older posts 10 Things that Red-Flag a Newbie Novelist, suddenly went viral. Somehow moving the blog from Blogger to WordPress made some of the old posts hit social media radar […]

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Filed Under: Blogging for Authors, Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: Alexa Ratings, Blogging for Writers, building platform, Google+, Gravatar.com, Jami Gold, Jane Friedman, Joel Friedlander, social media etiquette

August 23, 2015 By Anne R. Allen 73 Comments

What Should a Novelist Blog About? Do’s and Don’ts for Author-Bloggers

What Should a Novelist Blog About? Do’s and Don’ts for Author-Bloggers

by Anne R. Allen   When I teach blogging to new writers, the most common question I get is: “What should I blog about?” My answer isn’t the same as you’ll hear from the major blogging gurus, because most of them are teaching people how to blog for its own sake. They will all tell […]

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Filed Under: Blogging for Authors, Social Media and Marketing For Writers, Writing Craft Tagged With: agent blogs, Alex J. Cavanaugh, blogging for authors, blogging for beginners, Elizabeth S. Craig, Insecure Writers Support Group, Joel Friedlander, Romance University, Tara Sparling

October 5, 2014 By Anne R. Allen 142 Comments

Do Authors Obsess Too Much About Book Reviews?

Do Authors Obsess Too Much About Book Reviews?

by Anne R. Allen Let’s Face it: Getting Reviews is Tough Whether we’re newbies or superstars, traditional or self-publishers, pretty much all authors stress about reviews: getting them…and surviving them. From the time our first book launches, we’re told our number one job is to get reviewed. We send out ARCs, desperately query book bloggers […]

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Filed Under: The Publishing Business, The Writing Life, Writers Dealing with Reviews and Rejection Tagged With: Amazon reviews, Amazon rules, bad reviews, Barbara Morgenroth, Book Marketing, Book review blogs, Book Reviews, Joel Friedlander, Mark Coker, Molly Greene, online reviews, Reviews and Rejection, tell-a-friend

February 2, 2014 By Anne R. Allen 68 Comments

Six More Pieces of Bad Advice for Writers to Ignore

Six More Pieces of Bad Advice for Writers to Ignore

by Anne R. Allen   Two weeks ago I wrote a post listing some of the bad writing advice that can stand in the way of launching a successful publishing career. But I had too much to run in one post, plus I got some great suggestions from readers in the comments. So this week we have […]

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Filed Under: Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Publishing Business, The Writing Life, Writing Craft Tagged With: Elizabeth S. Craig, How much do writers make?, Joel Friedlander, Lexi Revellian, what if somebody steals your plot?, Writing myths

August 25, 2013 By Ruth Harris 22 Comments

METADATA 101: A Non-Techie Does Her Best to Explain Metadata (and Why it Matters) In Plain English

METADATA 101: A Non-Techie Does Her Best to Explain Metadata (and Why it Matters) In Plain English

by Ruth Harris   First of all, what the &%^# is metadata? AccordIng to Wikipedia, it’s “data about data.” But we’re writers and we’re talking about books, so, huh? Let me try again: when it comes to a book, metadata can be defined both by what it is and what it isn’t. Metadata’s everything in […]

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Filed Under: E-Books and Technology for Writers, Self-Publishing, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: Amazon categories, Back Matter, Blurbs, Front Matter, ISBN, Joanna Penn, Joel Friedlander, Metadata, Product Description, Ruth Harris, The Chanel Caper, Writers Cafe

August 18, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 53 Comments

Social Media Secrets, Part III: What Should an Author Blog About?

Social Media Secrets, Part III: What Should an Author Blog About?

by Anne R. Allen This is the third in my series on my “Social Media Secrets.” If you haven’t read the first two yet, you might want to check out #1: How to Avoid Twitter-Fritter and Facebook-Fail and #2 How to Blog Your Way Out of the Slush Pile and onto the Bestseller List.When I teach blogging, the […]

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Filed Under: Blogging for Authors, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: Alex J. Cavanaugh, Blog hop, Blogging, blogging for authors, how to blog, Jason Kong, Joel Friedlander, Nina Badzin, social media for authors, Tawna Fenske

August 11, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 24 Comments

Why Go to A Writers Conference? 10 Reflections and 10 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Conference Experience

Why Go to A Writers Conference? 10 Reflections and 10 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Conference Experience

I kind of have a love-hate relationship with writers’ conferences. I’ve been to some that left me dazed and confused (and considerably poorer) but I’ve attended others that energized and inspired me. So are conferences necessary to launch your writing career? No, but it can be a great way to  learn the basics of the […]

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Filed Under: Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Writing Life, Writing Craft Tagged With: Bear State Books, Central Coast Writers Conference, Colonel Baker's Field, Joel Friedlander, Judy Salamacha, Meghan Ward, Sara LaPolla, writers conferences

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writers digest 101 best websites for writers award

Anne R. AllenAnne R. Allen writes funny mysteries and how-to-books for writers. She also writes poetry and short stories on occasion. She’s a contributor to Writer’s Digest and the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market.

Her bestselling Camilla Randall Mystery Series features perennially down-on-her-luck former socialite Camilla Randall—who is a magnet for murder, mayhem and Mr. Wrong, but always solves the mystery in her quirky, but oh-so-polite way.

Ruth Harris NYT best selling authorRuth is a million-copy New York Times bestselling author, Romantic Times award winner, former Big 5 editor, publisher, and news junkie.

Her emotional, entertaining women’s fiction and critically praised novels have sold millions of copies in hard cover, paperback and ebook editions, been translated into 19 languages, sold in 30 countries, and were prominent selections of leading book clubs including the Literary Guild and the Book Of The Month Club.

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