What to look for in technical help
Today we are going to talk about a couple of things. First off, I want to introduce you to a couple of friends – Anne R. Allen and Ruth Harris. You can find their blog here.
I had the honor of working on Anne’s site this past week. I know, you are saying I’m frequently working on sites – and that’s true – but I’ve been a fan of Anne’s for a long time. I’ve probably been reading her blog for 6 or more years. Anne and Ruth have the gift of cutting through the crap and calling a spade a spade. They do it in a way that educates and never belittles authors on the lower end of the steep learning curve that authors are expected to climb. At the same time they have something for every skill level.
I actually quoted from one of Anne’s blog posts in my first book. The blog post I referenced was The New Gatekeepers: How to Query a Book Review Blogger. This post was from 2011 and even back then, Anne understood how important book bloggers can be to an author’s career. I religiously read Anne and Ruth’s blog posts every Sunday. Some weeks I’m more interested in the subject matter than others, but I always find some pearls of wisdom to share with friends.
This brings up our next topic: Technical Help
Anne and Ruth have been dealing with a problem web designer over the last few months – resulting in a huge amount of stress being added to their lives. Sadly, these things happen.
In the next few weeks, I’m going to create a checklist for authors looking for technical help, but for now….
Authors are a niche group with needs that most web designers don’t understand!
Things like Goodreads review widgets and Amazon author pages are outside the realm of the usual business world.
As I say in my books, just because your neighbor’s son is pretty handy with a computer, doesn’t mean he is qualified to help you.
Here are some key things to think about:
any technical help you approach should have experience with authors IMHO
any technical help you approach should be able to offer references of happy clients that had similar needs to yours
anyone who offers to monetize your blog so that THEY can make money is a red flag
any technical help should be able to create a site that matches your skill level – don’t be talked into a site that is so complicated that you can’t possibly manage it. There is nothing wrong with getting help with maintenance type activities to free you up to write, but you should be able to post and update content yourself.
As I frequently say – authors seem to have turned into a cottage industry and people are coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of them. 
One more thing before I go back to folding laundry….I haven’t been able to get my blog to do that for me…yet…..I wanted to share the exciting news that the paperbacks of my latest book, Blogging for Authors, arrived this week.
SO EXCITING!
Here they are in the newly opened box…
I’ve been getting some great reviews so far:
I LOVED Blogging for Authors. AS much as Barb’s books have taught me, I learned more here. This book is for sure for more than authors new to blogging…I’ve been blogging since 2002 and I can see some things I want to change. ~ Cindy Harrison
I love Drozdowich’s friendly tone, far from that of a teacher at the front of a classroom, and her style in this highly technical content is readable and digestible. The detailed table of contents acts as an index, so I can easily find the nugget I need at any time in the future. All of Drozdowich’s books create a how-to library for authors, publicists, bloggers, and even online consumers … readers, we call them, who love to learn how it all works and how to “use” blogs better. This one is a rather large gold mine for authors who want to succeed at blogging. ~ Kay
I must admit Kay was one of my early beta readers. Because of her pages of suggestions, I took what I had at the time and ripped it to shreds. The book that I published is a completely different book than what she originally looked at and I’m happy to read her thoughts!
Enough for now. News next week about a boxed set that is now finished proofing and heading towards formatting! If you know of anyone who could be helped by today’s post, use the little share buttons below to share with them. Also, if you haven’t subscribed to my Tech Hints – please find the badge on the side. For now….got visit Anne and Ruth and say hi for me 
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