Frances Caballo's Blog: 10 Twitter Tips Writers Need to Know, page 24
September 21, 2018
Indie Author Weekly Update – September 21, 2018
It’s time for another Indie Author Weekly Update. I hope you enjoy this week’s posts on Amazon ads, blog design, self-publishing and more.
The 12 Principles Of Effective Blog Design by Peep Laja: “This is a quote by Dr. Brent Coker, who studied the impact of attractive websites on human behavior. Websites that are more attractive and include more trimmings create a greater feeling of trustworthiness and professionalism in consumers.”
Lessons Learned From The Self-Publishing Journey – Guest Post by Melissa Pouliot from Polgarus Studio: “In 2013 I attended a writer’s workshop in my beautiful coastal hometown of Merimbula, Australia, and met an author who was at the forefront of self-publishing technology. She’d been publishing her books on Amazon for a long time and spoke my language. I’d just finished my first crime novel, Write About Me, and a literary agent had returned it to me with a blunt, sharp note attached: Not strong enough for the current fiction market.”
The 4 Most Effective Book Marketing Strategies That Work by Rachel Thompson: “I’m constantly amazed by the sheer number of writers who are about to release their first book, or have already released their first book, and have zero marketing in place. Nothing, nada, oftentimes less than zero. They remind me of the college kid who walks into a final with a hangover and a broken pencil, hoping to pull the answers out of their you know where.”
10 Top Book Marketing Takeaways from RWA 2018 by Diana Urban: “At last week’s Romance Writers of America (RWA) Conference 2018 — one of the biggest annual writing conferences in the US — many sessions and panels covered book marketing and sales topics. We gathered fantastic tips from authors, agents, and prolific book marketers, and we’re excited to share them with our readers! From branding to backlist promotions, panelists were buzzing about cross-promotion strategies, creating launch plans, and optimizing advertising campaigns.”
The Rising Cost of AMS Ads from Alliance of Independent Authors: Self-Publishing Advice Center: “If you’ve noticed a sharp decline in the effectiveness of your AMS ads recently, you’re not alone. An Amazon cash grab may be at the bottom of it. The New York Times reports Amazon’s revenue from on-site advertising has surged by 130 percent in the first quarter of 2018, up to a staggering $2.2 billion. Take a moment to truly appreciate all those zeroes: $2,200,000,000.00. It’s no surprise then that Amazon has refocused its gaze on this sector, intent on adding a few more zeroes to that figure.”
Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize Announces 2018 Shortlist: “Anna Burns, Esi Edugyan, Daisy Johnson, Rachel Kushner, Richard Powers and Robin Robertson are today, Thursday 20 September, announced as the six authors shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.”
Quote of the Week
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post Indie Author Weekly Update – September 21, 2018 appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
September 17, 2018
Chasing the Elusive Shareable Content
Creating shareable content is the holy Grail of social media.
If our friends, colleagues, and fans do not share what we post, then there is little hope that we will succeed in our social media marketing.
Before posting any content online, place your content through a “re-share test.”
Ask yourself whether your content is valuable, bold, informative, or entertaining. Does it provide a useful analysis or does it assist people in some manner?
If it accomplishes any of these goals, your content should be shareable.
Here are three quick tips that are easy to remember:
• keep your blog post headline to 50 characters
• keep your paragraphs short — at most three paragraphs
• use active verbs
In previous blog posts, I’ve shared some amazing statistics on how much faster our brains can process images versus text.
The actual statistic is that our brains can process images 60,000 times faster than text.
Our eyes gravitate to images and increasingly tend to shun large blocks of black letters. This fact explains why it’s essential to include images or video if we want our content to be shareable.
Also, if we include multiple images within a single blog post, your readers are more likely to read the entire post. Color images boost engagement over black-and-white photos, too.
Controversy and Engagement
What I’ve noticed is that when people delve into politics on their Facebook profiles, engagement soars.
But is that the kind of engagement you’re seeking? Will it help you or hurt you in your professional life?
Being sensational always attracts attention. Our current president is sensational in his tweets and he receives a lot of likes and shares on that platform.
But you need to remember that you are your brand.
Everything you post online is available online and remains online. You’re visible to the world.
Personally, I would never tweet about President Trump or state my opinion about him on my Facebook author page. At times, I have delved into politics on my Facebook profile but never on my Facebook page.
Delving into political issues is something I seldom do because I’m looking for shares of my blog posts and book promotions, not my political opinions.
So if we’re not going for the easy, political share, what do we do?
Post images. For example, using Pixabay and Canva you can create quotes on images about reading, the value of reading, and about libraries. You can share the stack of books you want to read or pictures of yourself heading into your local library or indie bookshop.
You can take pictures of your office, the cafe where you like to write, or a spot in your back yard where you like to write.
In terms of subjects for your images, the sky is truly the limit.
I never post anything on Twitter without including an image and the same goes for Facebook and Google+. Of course, Instagram and Pinterest are entirely image based so those platforms should help you train your visual eye for all the platforms you use.
Finding Shareable Content for Facebook Page Posts
I haven’t and won’t steer into political stands on my Facebook page. It would be hard for anyone, to talk me out of sticking to my main topics: social media, publishing, and writing.
Even on this page it can be difficult to predict what will trigger engagement. This very simple quote by William Faulkner reached nearly 1400 people and generated 153 Likes, comments and shares.
This quote by Maya Angelou, posted right after she died, reached 173 people and generated 26 Likes, comments and shares.
I thought this image was amusing and had hoped it would generate some shares, but it didn’t. It reached 152 people and generated just six Likes.
I also share what I consider to be valuable content. For example, I include links to my new blog posts, inspiring TED talks,and other bloggers such as Joel Friedlander and Jane Friedman.
These posts typically reach about 50 – 200 or fewer people and rarely generate a Like even though the information is informative, helpful and in some cases entertaining. But I will continue posting informative information because it’s valuable to the careers of my Facebook fans.
How Do We Really Know What’s Shareable?
Your content needs to be valuable, informative, helpful, or entertaining. But isn’t it difficult to predict whether others will find information as valuable as you do or as entertaining as you do?
Are preemptory re-share tests necessary? On Facebook, I look to Insights, Facebook’s free analytics feature that shows me what works and what doesn’t. By returning to the metrics you can, over time, predict what content you audience prefers.
Twitter also has great, free analytics and I encourage you review them. If you have a business Pinterest and Instagram account, you’ll also have access to free analytics.
For example, even though my emphasis is on social media for writers, my audience prefers quotes from writers about writing.
Before you wade through all the potential sources for content and try to decide what to use, review your timelines, retweets, and Google+ shares.
Even without using a metrics program, you can get a sense of what does and doesn’t work with your particular audience. In the end, that is the only re-share test that is infallible.
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post Chasing the Elusive Shareable Content appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
September 14, 2018
Indie Author Weekly Update – September 14, 2018
In today’s Indie Author Weekly Update, hands down the best post to read is David Gaughran’s post on how to sell books. It’s awesome.
Is it too early for a picture of fall? I didn’t think it was. Although the days are still warm in Northern California where I live, the afternoons cool down quickly and the nights are chilly. There’s definitely a change coming.
10 Ways to Build Traffic to Your Author Website or Blog by Jane Friedman: First things first: an author’s website, whether it gets much traffic or not, is foundational to your career. It offers readers as well as the media the official word on who you are and the work you produce. If you blog, then it can also be a way for the public to engage with you. But mainly author websites help you shape the story surrounding your work—and ought to be found when readers go searching for you. It allows you to focus people’s attention and interest to what’s important to you—as opposed to what other sites might think is important.
Podcast Episode 46: Social Media for Authors – Big Mistakes Many Make from Dave Chesson: Social media seems like an obvious choice when it comes to marketing your book. Now, in this episode, we’re not talking about Facebook ads, but we’re talking more about using social media, specifically Facebook, as a way to connect with your readers and attract new readers.
How to Do an Instagram Giveaway: Ideas and Tips from Social Media Examiner: “Wondering how to run an Instagram contest? Looking for Instagram giveaway ideas you can adapt? In this article, you’ll find tips and inspiration to help you plan a successful Instagram competition that supports your marketing goals.”
Marketing Uncovered: How To Sell Books by David Gaughran: “Marketing is more complicated than ever, but the tools we have for reaching readers are fantastic these days, and the rewards for reaching the summit of Mount Discovery are simply immense. Even worth this long-ass intro I’m about to drop! Sometimes we forget. I hear people complaining that things are down across the board and Amazon is squeezing the margin out of everyone, or that the Golden Era is over.”
How to Reach Forgotten Markets for Self-Published Books by the Alliance of Independent Authors: “Looking at the indie publishing community these days, it seems authors can be split in two groups: the “going wide” group, and the others who prefer betting on one outlet (the most relevant) for their book. Anne-Catherine de Fombelle, Chief Globalization Officer for self-publishing aggregator StreetLib, a valued ALLI Partner Member, probes the concept of “the forgotten markets” that can be reached by going wide.”
Quote of the Week
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post Indie Author Weekly Update – September 14, 2018 appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
September 10, 2018
Blogging Can Be A Lot Like Riding a Bike
New to blogging? Read this post, which includes tips on how to write for your audience.
I live in the U.S. and on Labor Day my husband and I went for a bike ride.
Now, I hadn’t ridden my bike in a year so I wondered whether I would topple over as I took off.
I didn’t!
When we ride our bikes, we take the same 17-mile path every time. While the path may be the same, the environment changes, so it’s never boring.
Sometimes we see egrets and during the winter the creek can crest and spill over. Then there’s the pesky squirrel that loves to take a sprint in front of us.
So every time we ride, we notice something new.
Don’t you find blogging to be similar?
You can take a break from it and when you return, the steps are familiar. However, each time you write a new post you cover new territory, have new insights, and share new facts.
And each time you approach a new blog post, you need to explore topics that your audience wants to or needs to learn about.
Are you answering your audience’s questions or helping your audience learn something new or interesting? Or, are you simply writing an article that meets your needs, which can be as simple as “getting something out there” because someone said blogging is good for SEO.
You wouldn’t do that, would you?
In you are still new to blogging I recommend you read this post by HubSpot, which provides an useful formula to follow. Even if you’re not new to blogging, you may find their suggestions helpful.
Now let’s talk about your audience.
How to Write Blog Posts Your Audience CravesUnlike HubSpot’s template, there isn’t a formula for knowing how to reach your audience with your blog. It takes work, patience, experimentation, and perseverance. However, I can suggest these tips:
One way to find your audience is to read blogs written by authorities in your niche. But don’t just read them; leave comments as well. As you build a relationship with these experts, pitch a guest post to them. The more often you write guest posts, the quicker your blog email list will grow and the faster you’ll expand your audience.
Use Survey Monkey to ask your readers what they most want to learn from you through your blog.
Then there’s the issue of length. Some say blog posts should be brief; others say they should be at least 1,200 – 1,800 words. Seth Godin, a master blogger and marketer, doesn’t abide by any of these rules. What I’ve learned is that there isn’t a correct answer. Write posts that most appeal to your readers in topic and length. You’ll know that you’re reaching your audience by the comments your readers leave, the social media shares you receive, and the blog subscriptions that grow.
Use visuals. Our brains can process visuals much faster than text and images provide a break in the blocks of text, which is a welcome relief for our eyes.
Think about expanding into podcasts and videos. People love to listen to podcasts while they travel to work. Then publish the text of your podcast as a blog post. For video interviews, you can embed the html code from YouTube to your blog and provide a summary of the interview’s content.
Each time you write a post ask yourself, “Will this post serve or help my audience?” Think of just one member of your audience and write a post for that person. Imagine what that person tells you that he or she needs to learn and write a post as your response.
Consistent blogging isn’t easy. You need to commit to the task, stick to your posting schedule, and stretch the boundaries of your skills. Read posts on the blogosphere, continually further your education, and strive to learn as much as you can about your audience so you can better meet its needs.
Blogging Topics for Authors
To help new and veteran bloggers who are Indie marketers and struggling what to do with a blog, I created this list of potential blog topics for you. It’s not exhaustive by any means, but it’s designed to at least get you started.
Blogging Topics for Nonfiction Writers
If you wrote a book about how to become a better leader/entrepreneur/business owner, write a series of blog posts that outline the success of a variety of well-known business leaders from Steve Jobs to Richard Branson. Analyze their success, trying to find common threads.
Contact successful business people –in your community and elsewhere– and ask them if you can interview them about steps that led to their success.
Is your book about surviving cancer or living with diabetes or another chronic condition? Keep up with advances in treatment and profile people who are living well despite their diagnoses.
Regardless of your niche – be it grammar or engineering – continue your education in your field, keeping up with the latest advancements. Then write about changes in your niche so that your readership can keep up with the latest trends as well. Include interviews and analyses. Write a post that lists other blogs writing about a new development or write a glossary of terms that your readers need to be familiar with.
Make lists of your favorite nonfiction blogs in your niche and influencers you follow on Twitter.
Write about your favorite books in your niche written by other authors.
Do all that you can to continue your learning curve so that you can simultaneously help your readers with their continued education in your niche.
Blogging Topics for Fiction Writers
If you write fiction, you will have fun exploring potential topics. Write about:
The character you killed. Explain why you removed him/her from the story.
The genesis of the story. How did you come up with your idea for your novel, novella, or short story?
How you determined your characters’ names.
Your protagonist’s favorite meal, food, or flowers.
Your first public reading. Were you nervous? Was it well attended?
An alternative ending to the story that you considered. Ask for feedback from your readers.
An obstacle you encountered while writing the book or story. How did you overcome it? How did the obstacle affect the story itself?
The parents of your characters if they didn’t figure in the story.
An illness one of the characters suffered from. Why did you assign that condition to that character?
A scene that you removed from the story. Explain why you deleted it.
Why you chose a particular socio-economic class for your characters?
Your writing process. What time of day do you write and what’s your routine?
How old you were when you first began to write and what that felt like.
Your favorite authors and why you love their books.
Which author you would most like to emulate.
Who has been your major supporter as a writer?
How your love of reading grew into a love of writing if that’s the case.
Other genres you dabble in, such as poetry. Don’t hesitate to publish some of your poems as part of a blog post.
If you wrote a political novel and you have traveled to the country or area where your story takes place, share some of your photographs you took and write about your visit there. What did you learn during your trip and how did you apply that knowledge to your story?
Write about your publishing process. Did you look for an agent? Did you create your cover? Was the self-publishing process arduous or did you have help? Do you have suggestions for your readers who might also be writers wanting to publish someday?
Books by some of your colleagues.
Your struggle with writing sometimes.
Write about your favorite author and include quotes by that author.
Blogging Topics for Poets
Here are some ideas for poets who blog.
Which poet(s) influenced you the most in your writing and why?
Discuss your imagery. Help your readers (like me) to understand references that might otherwise be obscure.
Are you participating in a Slam? Use a Camcorder to videotape it and use the video as your post.
Host a contest by giving your readers a challenge. Give them four words to use in a poem and ask them to submit their entries. Judge their poems and award prizes.
Describe your experience at a poetry reading. In fact, you might also want to create a recording of it and include it on your blog, so your readers can hear your voice.
Did Billy Collins recently visit your town? Write about your experience hearing him in person. What was he like? How did the crowd respond to him? Write about your experience hearing other poets as well.
Write about your writing process. Do you write every morning? What’s your routine like?
If you meditate, write about how mindfulness enhances your poetry.
Write about the story behind the poem.
If you also write short stories or novels, explain how poetry enhances your prose.
How do the outdoors inspire your poetry?
Blogging Topics for KidLit Authors
If you’re an author who writes for the younger audience, here are some topics for you.
Explain why you became a picture book, middle-grade, or young adult author.
What was your experience as a reader when you read books intended for the age you write for now?
Which authors in your genre do you love to read, and why?
Discuss the importance of reading at any age.
Take pictures of your audience at a recent reading and describe how it felt to read some of your stories to the kids.
Write about new advances in how we teach kids to read.
If you write picture books, explain to parents recent studies that back the importance of reading to their kids starting at a very early age.
If you write for the young adult market, describe what you were like when you were in high school.
Write about what inspires you most in life.
Explain the importance of volunteering in the community and include information about a volunteer post you recently held. Include photos of your volunteering.
Please continue this list of blog topics for writers in the comments below.
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post Blogging Can Be A Lot Like Riding a Bike appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
September 7, 2018
Indie Author Weekly Update – September 7, 2018
It’s Friday, which means that it’s time for a new Indie Authors Weekly Update. Be sure to read Mark Dawson’s post on building a successful author career. Anne R. Allen and David Kudler’s posts are also great.
5 Steps to Building a Successful Author Career by Mark Dawson: “I’ll probably say it again before I have finished, but I’d argue that this is the best time in the history of the world to be a writer. I know – pretty grandiose. Let me explain. When I started writing at the end of the 1990s, if I wanted to get my writing out to readers I only really had one path that was open to me. Once I had finished my manuscript, I would send the first three chapters and a covering letter to one of the dozens of literary agencies that accepted unsolicited submissions.”
9 Pieces of Bad Publishing Advice New Writers Should Ignore by Anne R. Allen: “Social Media is both a boon and a curse to new writers. Online writing groups and forums are an excellent source of insider information on the publishing industry—stuff we once could only find at expensive classes and writers’ conferences. But social media is also a major source of misinformation and dangerously bad advice.”
Retweeting Your Own Tweets Can Boost Your Reach and Engagement from Buffer: “In February 2018, Twitter updated its rules to prohibit sharing tweets that are identical or substantially similar to one another. Before this rule change, re-sharing top tweets (sparingly) was one of our favorite strategies for increasing our Twitter reach and engagement here at Buffer. And while it was a shame to forgo this strategy, we understand the rationale behind the new rules and are fully supportive of them. So, rather than dwelling on what used to work, we started searching for other strategies to try. Here’s one experiment we’ve been working on (and our results in full).”
Amazon Top Reviewer Secrets: The Must-Read Tell-All by Penny Sansevieri: “When you’re pitching Amazon Top Reviewers, have you ever wondered about the things they love, and the things that will absolutely get you shoved to the bottom of their book review consideration pile? We thought so, too, which is why we took some time to interview several of these top book reviewers. Each of them is anonymous in this piece (with the exception of one).”
10 Instagram Tips for Writers from Jane Friedman’s blog and by Annie Sullivan: “So how can writers use Instagram to their benefit? Here are some easy things to keep in mind to find and engage your target readership on Instagram.”
How to Grow Your Email List With Pinterest by Emily Syring: “Do you have an engaged audience on Pinterest? Wondering how to get your Pinterest followers onto your email list? In this article, you’ll discover how to promote your email opt-in via your Pinterest profile, boards, and pins.”
Words Gone Wild: KDP Keywords Revisited from TheBookDesigner.com and by David Kudler: “I’ve talked about keywords before; they’re an essential piece of metadata that determines how easy it is for the right reader to find your book. They are in many ways the key to discoverability. It is best to think of them, not as single words, but as search phrases — that is to say, groups of words that your ideal reader is likely to search for. Put a different way, what question is your ideal reader likely to ask to which your book is the answer?”
Quote of the Week
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post Indie Author Weekly Update – September 7, 2018 appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
September 3, 2018
13 Steps to Improve Your Facebook Reach
I often hear authors g-r-o-a-n about their Facebook reach.
You know how it is. If you have a Facebook author page, two percent of your status updates penetrate your fans’ newsfeeds, if you’re lucky.
Unless …
The unless is this: you can better penetrate your fans’ newsfeeds if you buy advertising.
If you have a Facebook author page and you don’t buy advertising, I can tell you that it’s phenomenally difficult to get engagement on a Facebook page without advertising.
Difficult but not impossible.
If you’ve been reading the social media blogosphere these past few weeks, you might have noticed that nearly every social media blogger has complained about the same problem: the precipitous drop in our Facebook page posts penetrating our fans’ news feeds.
In other words, fewer of the posts you carefully plan for your Facebook page are visible to your fans.
If you want your posts to reach more fans, you need to follow a two-pronged strategy: provide the best, original content you can and allocate some funds – even a few hundred dollars annually would help – to an advertising budget.
If you can afford more on advertising, super.
Some people are giving up on Facebook, but that move would be shortsighted. Facebook remains the second most trafficked website (after Google), and it has more than 2 billion users, far more than any other social media network.
13 Tips for Better Facebook Reach
Here are some strategies for helping your posts receive more exposure among your page fans without the expense of advertising.
Post more frequently. I recommend twice each weekday and twice on the weekend.
For better Facebook reach, change up days, times. You’ll want to check your Insights to see when your fans are on Facebook. Experiment to determine whether you have better results during the peak hours or right before the peak hours when there’s less competition in your fans’ newsfeeds.
Write short (100-250 characters) status updates. Don’t write lengthy posts. Text overload is rampant these days so if you want your fans to read your post, don’t write more than 250 characters. The ideal post is 80 characters.
Include more personality. I’ve been deficient in this area. People do not buy books from brands; they buy books from writers so don’t be afraid to share information that reveals more of your personality.
Be controversial at times. Don’ttake a stand on abortion or an election. Instead, stake a stand on an issue in your niche, such as should you be exclusive to Amazon or should you publish your books more widely.
Add calls to action. Don’t be afraid to ask your fans to purchase your new book.
Vary your types of posts.
Respond promptly and tag commenters. Try to respond to comments as soon as you can and be sure to type their name (tag them) in your response.
Host Hangouts using 22 Social app. Consider podcasting and using Google+ or Audacity to record them and share your podcasts and Hangouts on Facebook.
Change your cover image. On a quarterly basis, freshen up your cover image using Canva or PicMonkey.
Host a Facebook Friday networking party that enables your fans to promote their books.
Drive traffic from other sources to individual post URLs. When you click on the date stamp of your Facebook post, you will see that your post has a unique URL. You can drive traffic to that post, especially if you have a call to action in it.
Embed Facebook posts on your blog. Hover over the top, right-hand corner of your post and click on Embed. Then copy the html code and add it to your Facebook post. You’ll need to navigate to your WordPress website to add the code on the text (not visual) page of your blog.
Some theorize that in the future Facebook reach will continue to worsen. For now, however, use advertising when you have a specific objective in mind, such as notifying fans of a sale price on one of your books or when you introduce a newly published book or an ad to grow your email list. Actually, regularly advertising on Facebook should be part of your book marketing arsenal of tools anyway. Until then, keep providing your fans with the best content you can.
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post 13 Steps to Improve Your Facebook Reach appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
August 31, 2018
Indie Author Weekly Update – August 31, 2018
I hope you enjoy today’s Indie Author Weekly Update. Be sure to check out Carla King’s post on tools for sharing advance reader copies and Sandra Beckwith’s post on three book promotion myths.
Are you enjoying your summer. Well, it’s almost over so be sure to squeeze in as much fun as possible while the sun is still high in the sky.
5 ways authors can save money when working with an editor, formatter, designer or assistant by Chris Kidler: “Time equals money, especially for authors who become indie publishers. That equation becomes all too real when you hire an editor, designer, formatter or author assistant. Sometimes you pay for time explicitly — for instance, you’ll pay an assistant to work ten hours a month to do everything from social media to dealing with distributors. Sometimes you pay a flat fee for a service based on word count or complexity. But when you go beyond the scope of that fee, your hired expert may charge you by the hour.”
How To Win At The Game Of Book Marketing by guest Charli Mills from Rachel Thompson’s blog: “My suitcase on wheels clacked behind me as I followed my boss’s determined strides. Like most business trips with her, we traveled frugal and opted to walk to our hotel from the airport. She opted. In fact, this trip was all about her wanting to leave a legacy for her thirty-plus years as general manager of one of the nation’s most successful natural food grocers. We had flown from Minneapolis to St. Louis to attend a conference among international business leaders of companies that had nothing in common with our industry – most were big manufacturers.”
Then What Happened? 8 Things We Learned Writing Our First Sequel from Mythic Scribes: “In 2017 our team released our first full-length urban fantasy novel. After the frenetic pace of finishing, editing, formatting, publishing, and promoting our first offering, we thought we would take a well-earned vacation before jumping into the sequel. We set out to take a month to regroup, but one month quickly turned into four and we learned our first important lesson about writing sequels.”
Don’t fall for these 3 book promotion myths by Sandra Beckwith: “There’s a frustrating amount of “myth”-information out there about book promotion. I don’t know how the book promotion myths get started, but I do know that they spread pretty quickly. Because I’m constantly educating authors about myth versus reality in author online discussion groups and in my courses, I thought it might help to share three of the most common myths here along with a nice dose of reality.”
Your Advance Reader Copy: 6 Tech Tools for Sharing ARCs by Carla King: “An Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of your book is essential for obtaining reviews from early readers, trade reviewers, paid review sites, the media, influencers, and readers. But as a self-publisher or first-time author, it can be difficult to get book reviews. In this post, you’ll learn about ARC-specific apps and services that help you share your book with reader-reviewers in the format they want to read it in.”
Quote of the Week
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post Indie Author Weekly Update – August 31, 2018 appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
August 27, 2018
What’s New to Pinterest for Writers?
I’ve written a lot about Pinterest for writers in the past, but it’s been a while since I wrote anything new about this platform.
So let’s take a look at what’s new and significant about the changes that are taking place on this channel.
The profile is new and includes a cover image. You can select from some different options for your cover image, such as your latest pins, recent pins from your site, or a specific board.
To select your board image, click the pencil in the upper right-hand corner and make your selection from the list.
Another change is that Pinterest no longer keeps track of follower counts. While follower counts are big on Twitter and other platforms, Pinterest chose to focus more on monthly viewers. Personally, I like that tally better. And that number is situated right next to your profile picture.
But if you really want to know how many followers you have, click “followers” on the tab beneath your profile picture, also known as your avatar.
See, wouldn’t you rather know your monthly viewers than your follower count? I think that monthly viewers are a better number to track.
Next up, is that if you select “following” from the upper taskbar, you’ll see pins (aka images) from the people you’re following. So instead of just going to the general newsfeed, you can now check out what your followers are saving to their pinboards and uploading.
This year, Pinterest changed its algorithm. Now, Pinterest prioritizes content that people you follow are engaging with.
Hashtags were introduced some time ago but in a new move – perhaps to mimic Instagram? – Pinterest is now recommending that you use up to 20 hashtags. Remember, on Instagram, you can use up to 30.
With this new move, hashtags will are now more critical regarding finding content.
Something else that’s new is that group boards are less important for engagement. I’ve never been a fan of group boards, except between authors and readers, so I’m not particularly sad about this move.
5 Pinterest Tips That Are Important to Remember
Check out this list of tips you need to know to do well on Pinterest.
Pinterest board titles and keywords are essential so relent with the fun and unusual pinboard titles and go for those that will improve your SEO on this platform.
Make sure you remember to pin images from your website, in particular, your blog. Pinterest is fantastic at referral traffic so take advantage of this aspect of this browser/social media channel.
You have a business account, right? If not, get one right now! Pinterest business accounts offer free analytics, and you get the opportunity to validate your website, which improves your SEO.
Design your images for Pinterest. Twitter and Facebook images are too small for this platform.
Just like other social media platforms, use Pinterest regularly. Don’t use it one day and then skip a month or two weeks. Save images here on a regular basis.
Here are some previous posts I’ve written about Pinterest:
8 Tools for Writers Who Use Pinterest
How to Use Pinterest as an Indie Author
Want to Sell More Books? 23 Pinterest Tips Every Author Needs to Know
Pinterest Tips for Authors (Plus 57 Pinboard Ideas)
Social Media Just for Writers is now just $1.99! (And there’s a big chapter on Pinterst in it.)
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post What’s New to Pinterest for Writers? appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
August 24, 2018
Indie Author Weekly Update – August 24, 2018
There are some great posts in this week’s Indie Author Update. Be sure to read the post by Derek Murphy and Write to Done on how to entice email newsletter signups.
Summer is drawing to a close and fall will soon be upon us. I hope you’ve enjoyed your summer writing and reading.
10 Mistakes I Made as a New Indie Author from Anne R. Allen’s blog and by Derek Murphy: “Book sales are not a complete mystery: if your book isn’t selling, there’s almost always a reason. Often it’s because new authors continue to repeat the same mistakes. Sometimes they’re following bad advice. Or they made choices stemming from their ideologies about doing creative work and the assumed value of their writing. I’ve been self-publishing for almost a decade. Even though I’ve learned a lot about how to sell books, it took me a long time and some very public failures.”
Branding For Authors with Kristine Rusch and by Joanna Penn: “Branding helps readers find your books and enables you to build a long-term career as a writer – but many authors get branding all wrong. In today’s show, Kristine Kathryn Rusch explains what branding really is and how to build your author brand in the most sustainable way.”
10 Ways to Survive Your Debut Author Year from Women Writers: “Find a supportive community of published authors. Make friends with other debut authors. Make friends with other authors who have recently published a book. You need someone to cry to about all the frustrations of the publication process. You need someone to vent to about all the stress and excitement of the book launch.”
Walmart’s eBookstore is Launching Today by Nate Hoffelder: “Walmart is in the process of setting up new ebook sections in the book departments of its stores, Kobo has let slip a promo video for “Walmart eBooks”, and multiple references have been found in Walmart’s help pages.”
How to Get Hordes of Subscribers With an Easy Opt-In Gift from Write to Done: “If you want to ramp up your subscriber numbers, you need to offer an attractive gift for your visitors in return for subscribing. This is called an opt-in gift or lead magnet. But what to offer? Many writers don’t know how to create an opt-in gift. It can be daunting.”
What’s Going On With CreateSpace and KDP Print? from TheBookDesigner.com and by Amy Collins: “Are you curious about all of the changes going on at CreateSpace and seeing new offerings being announced at Kindle Direct Publishing? I have been, too. I will admit that I have not paid as much attention to KDP Print as I should have. I have been happy with CreateSpace for my Amazon printing and distribution and just did not have the bandwidth to turn my attention to yet ANOTHER platform for my paperbacks. Knowing that CreateSpace could get my paperback on Amazon while IngramSpark/Lightning Source was handling the wholesalers/bookstores/libraries, I thought I had all my bases covered.”
Quote of the Week
The second edition of Social Media Just for Writers is now just $1.99!
Well written, well researched – well thought out. This book is a must have!
Ryshia Kennie
Author of this blog: Frances Caballo is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She wrote several social media books including Social Media Just for Writers and The Author’s Guide to Goodreads. Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, and finding new readers. Her clients have included authors of every genre and writers’ conferences. Not sure how you’re doing online? Sign up for her free email course.
Practical tips for marketing your books on the social web
The post Indie Author Weekly Update – August 24, 2018 appeared first on Social Media Just for Writers.
August 20, 2018
10 Great Resources Writers Need to Know
Here is a list of resources for writers that I love and that I believe will make your lives easier. Some will save you money and others will help you to polish your books.
So let’s get’s started with my list of 10 great resources writers need to know about and in some cases start using today.
Make Banners and Images for Pinterest & Social Media
Have you ever experienced Facebook banner envy? You know, those beautiful Timeline banners that some people pay a great deal of money to graphic designers to create?
Guess what? Canva, a free application, is a tool you can use to create Facebook banners, Twitter headers, cards business cards, photo cards, other image-based messaging, and even book covers. It’s an easy, intuitive tool to use.
Here are a few samples of items I recently created with Canva. First, here’s my Facebook banner.
Here’s a promotional image I made for an upcoming promotional sale of my book.
I created this image for a client.
I also made this book cover on Canva.
Canva offers free and fee-based templates and images for book covers. See this sample.
Find Canva’s book cover templates and image on this page.
Canva features some images that you can purchase for $1 or you can upload your own. Many of the images and features are free of charge.
I’ve used PicMonkey to resize and crop photos. But recently I wanted to create some images for Pinterest so I upgraded to the paid plan, about $7.99/month or $71.88/year for the basic plan. Here are a couple of examples of my creations.
And here’s a holiday collage for Pinterest I created just for fun.
Once you create and save the images, you can share them directly to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, or Tumblr as well as send them via email to a colleague. You can also use this tool to create Facebook covers or perhaps a collage of some of the books you’ve written. You can also upload your own images.
Pablo is a great little application from the people at Buffer, which is a scheduling tool. Anyway, Pablo is perhaps the easiest image app on the internet.
When you navigate to Pablo, you’ll see a column of free (yes free!) images. Just select the image you want to use, enter the text, select the size, and the contrast and your set.
Here’s a simple image I made using Pablo.
What’s great is that once you create an image, you can schedule it to Buffer in one easy step.
Pixabay is my go-to place for copyright free images. When you need pictures for your blog or to use as a background for a quote, this is the place to go.
Images are free and in nearly every conceivable topic area. Upload your own images as you sign up for hassle-free downloads. You’ll love this site.
Social Media Scheduling App
I’ve been using this social media scheduler for years and love it. It’s only practical for LinkedIn and Twitter so if you want to also schedule to Facebook (bad idea because Facebook downgrades scheduled posts in the newsfeed), or Pinterest or Instagram, then use Pinterest.
But with SocialOomph, you can schedule posts, set a recurring update so the post can reappear, have access to analytics, monitor interest channels, and see your feed without going to Twitter, this is the app for you.
As a backup, I recommend Buffer. It’s super easy to set up and use and the customer service is awesome. (The customer service at Social Oomph is great too.)
DIY Tools for Designing Your Next Book
After writing your book you need a great cover. You can hire a designer or you can try to create a cover yourself.
Self-published authors on a tight budget might want to try a DIY tool. Cover designer Derek Murphy of CreativIndie Covers has put together a package of book cover design templates.
Although it sounds like an unlikely pairing, the templates look clean and professional, not only for simple non-fiction covers, but also for all types of fiction. If you’re familiar with using MS Word, customizing the templates to make them unique shouldn’t be difficult.
There’s even a tool on this website to help you make a 3D mockup of your book.
Endorsed by Matt Stone, Pat Flynn, and Joanna Penn, this tool is the real deal.
Book Design Templates and More
Are you tired of paying the high cost of a graphic designer for the layout of your book? Joel Friedlander’s Book Design Templates let Indie authors quickly and easily create the interior layout of their books. There are templates for fiction, memoir, narrative non-fiction, reference, and technical and non-fiction books. In addition, there are templates for children’s books and more.
Plus, Joel offers templates for book covers, and toolkits for blogging, social media, public relations, book launches, and self-publishing on Amazon. Here’s the link to all of his other toolkits, including mine. 
10 Twitter Tips Writers Need to Know
- Frances Caballo's profile
- 274 followers
