This Week Twitter rolled out its new “mute” function for mobile phones. Muting will soon be available on all devices including your PC. That means you’ll be able to mute anybody who tweets too often or annoys you with spam. So it will be more important than ever to avoid annoying your Tweeps. Here’s some […]
Building Platform: What Most Writers are Getting Wrong
by Anne R. Allen Writers know we need a “platform” these days. That means we need to be on Twitter and FaceBook and Google+ and LinkedIn and Pinterest and Tumblr and have a blog with a ton of followers and get 100s of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and drive ourselves batty keeping up […]
Social Media Secrets for Authors, Part IV: How Not to Spam
by Anne R. Allen If you’ve ever wondered why unsolicited Internet advertising is named after a perfectly innocent meat product, blame Monty Python. In a famous 1970 sketch, the customers in a café are constantly drowned out by a chorus of Vikings singing “Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam… Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!” Conversation is impossible […]
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 […]
Social Media Secrets Part II: How to Blog your Way out of the Slush Pile and onto the Bestseller List
by Anne R. Allen “Blogging doesn’t sell books.” “Don’t waste your time blogging.” “Spend more time on Facebook/Pinterest/Tumblr/Twitter/YouTube/ Goodreads/Soliciting reviews/Spamming your friends with newsletters.” You’re hearing this stuff every day. But in a survey published this week, 63% of readers said they discover books most often on author websites (a blog is a website.) Facebook nearly […]
Author Etiquette 101: Do’s and Don’ts for Writers Using Social Media
by Anne R. Allen “Authors behaving badly” tends to be a hot topic on booky forums and blogs these days. A lot of people blame the indie movement, but some of the worst social media behavior I’ve seen comes from Big 5 authors who are following the dictates of their marketing departments. Unfortunately, a […]
Social Media Overload: How Do Authors Reach READERS? Advice from Bestselling Romance Author Roni Loren
by Roni Loren If there is one question that all writers would love to have a definitive answer to, it’d be: How do I reach my current readers and attract new readers? For many of us, the most practical place is online. We don’t have the funds to fly around the country for […]