Sandy Appleyard's Blog, page 9

Advertising Done Differently; How?

Recently, I signed up to a free online course from Outthink, which enlightened me to do a few things differently. Namely, it inspired me to create my own online course, which I’ve already launched on my site called Writing Secrets Revealed.

But more importantly, what it did was change the way I think about promoting/advertising my books, so much so that I’ve decided to switch gears completely with the topics and the way that I blog.

In case you missed last week’s blog about how your pet can get...

Writers: How Your Pet Can Get You Free Advertising!

If you’re a writer like me, and you have a pet (dog, cat, bird, heck even a horse!) that sometimes won’t let you get your work done, here’s your chance to get yourself some free advertising!

Here is how your pet can help you:

Submit a picture or video of your furry friend (it doesn’t matter what animal it is-could be anything from a dog to an alpaca-doesn’t matter) preventing you from writing or whatever other activities you do to put pen to paper to rsappleyard@hotmail.com with the title ‘Pet...

Authors: Where Would You Spend Your Money?

I’ve often perused the internet, dreaming of places I could spend money if I had it. As an author, I can think of so many things I could do to help market my book; so I wondered what other authors would do if they had extra cash lying around.

Of course, the first thing you would do is something you’re pretty sure will get you more sales, right? So where is the best place to spend money to get better return on your investment?

Here are some ideas of things I would do if I had the money:

1. Custom...

So You’ve Written a Query Letter, Now What?

We generally know where to find agents, and there is a plethora of knowledge out there on how to create a query letter, but do we all know how to organize our query-sending experience so it doesn’t become a full-time job?
If not, this post will help.

The two websites I used in my search for agents: The Association of Authors’ Representatives or AARPandWriter’s Market.com.

Filter your agent search by genre and voila!

One thing I strongly recommend is to create a spreadsheet that records all pertin...

A Free Twitter Tool I Wish I Knew About Long Ago

Perusing potential new Twitter friends, I discovered a remarkable tool I did not know about called ‘Pinned Tweets’ .
The way it works is you can ‘pin’ any tweet you want to the top of your tweet list.  Meaning that you can select a tweet that someone else tweeted about you (or one you tweeted yourself); perhaps book accolades, reviews, free day plugs, etc., and pin it to your profile.
What is the advantage? Well, one is it highlights this tweet so that anyone hopping on your profile wi...

5 Things to do When You're Stuck in a Following-Follower Rut

Twitter is quite the mystery to most.  It’s telling by how many books are published about  the workings of the site. 
One day you have retweets, mentions and followers coming out of the woodwork, then the next you’re scrimping to find people to thank for all those mentioned. 
It’s inevitable to go through a lull every now and again, but if you find your numbers have hit a wall and are stuck there, this post will help get you past it.
First, use a service like www.justunfoll...

Before You Download That Image for Your Blog, Read This

I don’t know about you, but I got so sick of hearing about copyright issues and constantly scrolling through image after image in what was said to be a free database, only to find it was watermarked.  
Are you with me?
So I did some research, and found this handy-dandy little website called myecovermaker.com.  
And guess what?  It’s not just for making covers for your ebooks!  And, best of all, it’s FREE! 
Note:   There is a paid option, but you can get wha...

What is the Key to Writing Successfully?

One of the most important things to have as a writer, more important than knowledge, experience or a great writer’s platform; is momentum.
Momentum is the key to writing successfully, and it is what you get when you’re on a roll, when you’ve got your story in mind or already started, and you have the drive to continue working on it until it’s finished, regardless of whatever else you are doing.
So how do you get it? 
Here are the ten practices I use to maintain constant writing momentum.
1. ...

Before Submitting to an Agent, Make Sure Your Book Has These Ten Things

This post is not about making sure your book has the obvious like a catchy title, professional formatting, editing and cover design.  In this post I’m going to discuss the things that are beneath the surface, and only visible once the reader begins diving into a story.
1.  Gripping first chapter
In today’s literary world, the first chapter is so critical.  Not only must you capture your reader’s attention (sometimes on the first page), but you also have to nearly synopsise your e...

10 Simple Things You Can do to Minimize Twitter Time!

Don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE Twitter!  It’s a fundamental tool for all authors or anyone who wants major social media exposure.  But do you find yourself spending a lot of time on it?
What I’m going to talk about in this post is how to do increase your Twitter following, increase retweets of your material AND increase engagement, all while CUTTING the amount of time you spend on Twitter by half!
1.  Place all the posts you want to schedule in a Word document.  I recomme...