Sandy Appleyard's Blog, page 10

Stuck in a Twitter Rut? Do This One Thing and Watch What Happens!

Although I was very proud to be at 8900 followers, I seemed to have been stuck there for months and months.  Still utilizing all my Twitter tools and such, I found myself in a rut. 
So I observed some of my most loyal followers to see if they were suffering from the same malaise.  What I found was that I had missed the boat on a very valuable tool:
Giving others a shout out
I mean, I had been doing that before, so it wasn’t anything new to me.  But what I learned is the frequ...

Take a Break! Stop Being So Serious!

Photo courtesy of Inmagine.comNormally I write about serial murderers, adultery, betrayal, and personal struggles, but I felt inspired to take a break from being serious and enjoy some laughs....and share some of those laughs with my friends.
I've been home with my kids this summer, and while I've been busy writing a couple of manuscripts, I've also been inspired to continue with a little piece of work I started when my kids were born.  
As my girls learned to talk, I discovered that some...

Moving to Blogger!

Hi there,

I hope you are all enjoying your summer! This is just a quick note to let you all know that I’m moving my blog to Blogger. If you are currently subscribed to my blog via email or WordPress, you need to subscribe to my new blog by clicking hereand scrolling down to the bottom of the post to subscribe.

Thanks and I hope to see you all there!

Sandy Appleyard

The post Moving to Blogger! appeared first on Sandy Appleyard.

Ten Quick and Dirty Twitter Tips

1.  Only follow people who are of interest to you.  Do not follow back just because they follow you first.  Remember: they could be simply gathering lots of followers just to look good and may not actually add value to you.  Don't waste your time as unfollowing people can be a painstaking process.

2.  Do not follow someone simply because they have lots of followers.  Check their tweet count; if they're inactive or not very active, what's the point following them?

3...

As a Writer; What Comes First?

It seems like a no-brainer, yes? As a writer, writing comes first. But for me, as for the millions of other authors out there, writing our next manuscript comes first.

Blogging, which is another form of writing, is critically important for authors. It helps build our literary platform, gains us necessary exposure and hopefully earns us more readers.

But there comes a time in every author’s career when they have to prioritize. Unlike other bloggers who blog as a primary source of income, writers...

Not-So-Serious Writers Beware: You’ll be Shut Out

Image courtesy of Inmagine.com

Serious writers give. The others take. Which one are you?

Posting helpful blogs, giving away books for free, offering free advice, supporting fellow authors by retweeting, mentioning and sharing throughout your platform; that’s what serious writers do. They give in hopes that others will reciprocate in some way, and most do.

However, there are some not-so-serious writers that don’t give back. They continually take by absorbing retweets, posting book links in forums...

Another Thing About Book Reviews

Image courtesy of www.photographyblogger.net/25-picture.... “Reading by Mark Probst”.

I recently discussed the many benefits of authors posting book reviews. Among them, increased author exposure, review reciprocation, the opportunity to read wonderful books, and many more reasons. To read more on this, see a previous post.

In the two years or so that I’ve been doing book reviews of a multitude of authors; both indie and established authors, I’ve recognized that there is one...

Love and Tragedy in a Different Time: Rainwater

Rainwater is a beautiful yet tragic story about love and devotion in a time where the world segregated people by colour, creed and physical/mental differences.

Ella Barron is a hard-working woman who runs a boarding house in Texas. She is alone with her special needs son Solly. The Great Depression is a major factor in this story where people come to live in boarding houses, camps and many are scraping by to keep their families from starving to death.

One day the local physician comes for a vis...

Five Simple Steps to Feature Books on Your Site

Image courtesy of Inmagine.com

I’ve written about easy ways to create banners and showcase them on your website. I’ve also written about how to prepare your site for effectively marketing your books. Here’s a post where I combine the two using two simple methods.

If you’re a Socrates (WordPress) theme user, or you use a theme where you can display banners within your post or header via a leaderboard (the banner running lengthwise that changes every five seconds-look above), this post is definit...

Book Review: Breath of Scandal by Sandra Brown

Image courtesy of Goodreads

The book begins back in time, when Jade Sperry and her beloved high school sweetheart, Gary Parker, are courting. Bullies aggravate Jade and her beau, causing a confrontation inside an ice cream shop. The head antagonist in the group, Neal Patchett, is a loose cannon among other things. His ruthless father has brought him up with twisted views of how the world works; namely that his son can do no wrong.

The three bullies decide it would be really fun to rape Jade Spe...