Cate Russell-Cole's Blog

CommuniCATE has been hacked – all blog services are down.

Just after I put this post up, the new blog crashed under the weight of bandwidth theft and 15 hacker attacks. I am trying to fix the problems, but doubt I will be successful. The new blog has been deleted. Please be patient with me while I try and sort all this out. The fixes … Continue reading CommuniCATE has been hacked – all blog services are down.

Author Etiquette for Contacting Book Bloggers

Cate Russell-Cole:

Yes the blog has moved to here, but that leaves me with a hole, where I can’t easily share great content. This post needs to be shouted from the rooftops, so please, enjoy it here and also pop over to the new blog. You can see the new address all around you.

P.S. Some people are still having follow by email and comment problems on the new blog. I am working my tail off to fix the problems, so please hang in there with me. Check @cateartios for new posts if you’re missing out.

Best wishes everyone.

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Originally posted on Tricia Drammeh:

Hello, everyone! It’s me again with another author advice post. Warning: This post isn’t for everyone. If you’re an author who finds etiquette posts tiresome, this post isn’t for you. If you’re already an expert on book marketing, this post will probably seem pretty basic, but I hope you’ll read on and add your advice in the comment section. This post is for people like me – people who came into the writing world with limited social media knowledge. It’s for people who didn’t realize book bloggers existed until they were told to go out and promote their book. If you’re intimidated or overwhelmed by the idea of contacting reviewers and bloggers, or if you’ve sent requests to bloggers and only received a lukewarm response, this post is for you.

DO read the blogger’s FAQs, Policies, or Submission Guidelines. Each blogger is different. Some bloggers want you to contact them by email. Others have…

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Filed under: Awesome Posts by Other Writers

CommuniCATE has moved… to survive.

[image error]Over the past few months I have noticed a few things about WordPress.com which have driven me batty.

– They keep “updating” their user interface to one which is more annoying and harder to cope with, with my migraine affected eyes.

– The number of “I am only following you to get a courtesy follow back” spam/junk followers I am getting is ridiculous! For example, out of 1295 subscribers, only about 17 or less,  read any one of my posts. I no longer have any pride in my follower stats. I have seen this before on new blogs, where for 10 post reads I had 35 followers. What???

– I am really over logging in to check the blogs I want to read, and having my reader crammed insanely full of many people I don’t follow. It does introduce me to great new people, but I don’t have the time for this! I complain, WordPress ignores… It has become a service generated spam attack.

So, I have moved to my own server… and if you are an email subscriber, I will migrate you over with me… soon. I am waiting on WordPress to assist.

As I am a chronic pain patient, I haven’t been able to hunt down and accept more business clients and financially, I am in a very dire situation. Moving also means that I will save money on the extras I pay for, such as ad suppression on the blog, my own domain name, etc. The new web host is 25% of the price of my current one too, so it makes sense to leave.

 

I will miss the reblog facility… but honestly when I carefully weighed up the pros and cons, that was the only down side.

I will leave CommuniCATE as is, just in case this all falls through for some crazy reason, so don’t hit the unsubscribe button just yet

Please come on over to http://www.cateartios.net/CommuniCATE_Blog

Have a great week!

Cate

 

Filed under: 2015

I’m Not a Celebrity, So How Do I Sell My Books? Six Steps to Becoming a Successful Indie Publisher

I am the writer, the marketer, and the public relations person for my own books. I’m not a celebrity with a six-figure budget to market my books. I’m just like you. So how do you publish and market your books with the integrity of a six-figure budget, without having a six-figure budget? You do everything […]

The Secret Use of Semicolons

Originally posted on Karelia Stetz-Waters:
I once taught alongside a professor who would give an A to any final exam that properly employed the semicolon. She gave very few A’s, so few, in fact, that I hesitate to bring up the secret use of the semicolon. People have enough trouble with the conventional use. The…

Resources for Combatting Clichés

Are You Creating Your Own Cliches in Subsequent Books? Deconstructing a Cliché by Cy Porter  Filed under: 2015, Writing Resources Tagged: author, books, cliche, Cy Porter, fiction, horror, imitation, Indie publishing, K M Weiland, master, novel, problem solving, writer, writing

The Stories Worth Telling, by Guest, Susan Weidener

When I wrote my memoir, Again in a Heartbeat, it felt like taking a leap into unknown waters. Why hadn’t I been a better wife to John at the end? Was my anger rooted in loss of control? A lack of maturity? Remembering – and writing – about that time in my life felt scary. The […]

What Horse Behaviour Taught Me About Being An Author

Some authors love to write without needing research and I don’t know how they do that. I love the research. It morphs from a voyage of discovery about a subject, to a lesson in life and often, to lessons on how to succeed as an author. I began to study horses so I could accurately […]

Belinda Witzenhausen, you’re it! #AuthorTag

This week it’s my pleasure to tag Belinda, who has been a great source of support, inspiration and practical information for me. She’s not just an author, she is a resource for all writers. Follow and support her, please. From her site:  Hello I’m Belinda (McGrath) Witzenhausen ~ in a nutshell; I am a Writer, […]

The books that helped form my sense of identity.

Australia is an odd kind of place. We are a mashup of Irish, Scottish, British and Welsh origins, with many more nations added since. Most of our television and pop culture comes from the United States and United Kingdom, it always has. As a young nation, it took the Australian television and movie industries a […]