Amanda Shofner's Blog, page 5

What You Need to Know About Amazon Keywords

Amazon—it’s both a source of income and frustration for indie authors. For many, Amazon remains the only retailer that supports a writing career. And yet.

And yet!

Gaining traction on Amazon can be incredibly difficult. It’d be nice if it were as easy as uploading a book to KDP and sitting back to watch the sales roll in. But it’s not. It’s a little painful how far from reality that thinking is.

Keywords help you gain visibility on Amazon… but only if you’re already selling books

Here’s the...

The #1 Reason Indie Authors Fail at Marketing

Marketing is practically a swear word with indie authors. No one wants to be spammy or annoying—especially with the number of authors out there doing it poorly—but few seem to have found the so-called sweet spot.

That’s because good marketing isn’t really a spot—it’s a mindset. Or a definition, really, if you don’t like the idea of yet another “mindset” you need to adopt.

The reason indie authors fail at marketing? They don’t understand what it is.

Misconceptions abound:

Marketing and sales...

The Hunted in The Huffington Post!

It’s no secret that I’m proud of being indie and self-published. So I was delighted (and incredibly honored) to find The Hunted (the complete series!) listed in The Huffington Post.

In the article, Katie Li interviews Jenny Bravo about her challenge to read indie books in 2016. Jenny shares what she’s learned about only reading indie books (professional editing can make or break your book), and both Katie and Jenny put together a list of indie books they recommend.

As awesome as it is to see...

When the Word Well Runs Dry

Authors with full-time day jobsaren’t uncommon. Likely more the norm than anything. We toil away at work, whatever that may be, come home, and write. (Or in a different order, but the end result is ultimately the same.)

We work, we write, we blog.

And while I’m lucky enough to have crossover between my full-time job and my writing, it also means that I write all day, write at home, then must somehow look my online presence in the eye. It’s usually more of a side-eye as Iattempt to pretend it...

*magically resurfaces* *introduces new site for self-published authors*

Hello brilliant and amazing readers!

While I’ve been off in not-novel-writing land (a sad, cold place, if you ask me), one bright spot has been working on Published Magazine, a great new site for self-published authors.

Even though Published Magazine (more on that in a bit) is awesome on its own, it’s actually part of a larger site, called Published, which is a productivity tool for authors (think Asana for books, but better). Our IT department is hard at work getting Published up and runnin...

How a Desktop Detox Saved Me from Total Burnout

Remember when I said I had to take time for myself?

Sometimes the decision is made for you. If you listen close enough to your body, it’ll tell you when you need break. And if you ignore it long enough, you’ll wish you didn’t.

Which is sort of what happened to me lastweek.

News flash: You can’t keep going and producing and working constantly without hitting a wall eventually.

So I decided to do something I haven’t done in nearly a year—I took a break from writing. I took a break from editing...

The Life of an Author with a Full-Time Day Job

Authoring is hard.

Authoring when you work full-time and edit for a few return clients on the side is even harder.

Every morning, I get on the light rail to go into work, and I’m filled with thoughts and plans and ideas, high on the fact that I just got 30 minutesof quality writing or editing accomplished.

Authorvictory!

On the way home, I’m usually composing some kind of message to someone. (Why is that? Is it just this week? I don’t know. Apparently light rail time is quality email-composin...

Where Has Amanda Been? (2015 Recap, Plus 2016 Goals)

*claws back into the blogging world*

I’ve gone pretty silent in the past few months, and the last couple especially, but I promise it’s not because I fell off the face of the planet… just that my life got so busy that blogging lost priority.

It may or may not be a goal of mine to get better with blogging this year, but that’s getting ahead of myself.

To know where to go, you have to know where you’ve been

That means we have to discuss 2015 before we can dive into 2016. Last year marked my re...

First Line Friday — More Redemption!

Sometimes when you’re writing, you create a character whojust sort of… makes you laugh. In Redemption, that’s Hal. (Whose name will probably change, although his personality won’t.) Unrequited feelings are tough, but Hal doesn’t let that stop him from attempting to “romance” Mel.

I’m still in the process of edits, so that means things might change, but here’s a general idea of what Redemption isall about.

They say you can never go back.

Eight years ago, Ian Anderson left Minneapolis and swor...

Tag Line Tuesday — Mel from Redemption

Tag Line Tuesday is all about sharing the—you guessed it—tag lines from books. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about a book; our tag line could be about characters, series, or settings. Whatever helps us create buzz about our writing.

I’m in the process of working through Redemptionand because I shared Mel’s first line last week, I figured this week I’d give you her tag line. Because although Ian drove the original idea for the story, Mel kinda stole the show.

Some heroes need saving. Mel’...