Common Mistakes and Ways New Authors Tend to Waste Money

Last October, the one and only Chelle Bliss shared a list of common mistakes and ways new authors tend to waste money on Facebook. She has been so gracious as to let me post this here for the world to read because let’s be honest … I couldn’t have said any of this better myself and it should be required reading for anyone looking to make the leap into the author world.

So if you’re a new author or are considering publishing a novel (or an established author looking for a refresher!), read this post, save it, read it a few more times, and then when you think you’re done memorizing it, give it a few more reads for good measure.

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What GDPR means for Authors and Bloggers

On May 25, 2018 there are some major changes coming through the pipelines under a new law called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s being implemented to protect your constituents (aka readers, fans, i.e. bookish friends you have any type of data on) in the European Union (EU). Now before you mentally go shutting down and closing your browser thinking this doesn’t pertain to you because you don’t live in Europe or because you’re not a “marquee author” or “big blogger” … there is a damn good chance it does. So grab your coffee and listen up!

We live in a digital world where data privacy is of the utmost importance, so I predict this will be the first in a long line of countries creating new, protective laws for their citizens. So adapt early to cover yourself!

Let’s dive in and start at the very beginning, shall we?

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EEEP!!! The Birthquake Audiobook is LIVE!!!

BirthQuake-Audiobook

OMG you guys! I am SO FREAKIN’ EXCITED RIGHT NOW!!! The audiobook of Birthquake is finally live. Last fall my fabulous agent helped me sell the rights to Audible.com and my baby has finally come to life! I couldn’t be more excited or proud!! Go forth and one-click today!

AUDIBLE   AMAZON

And for those of you who have the Audible Romance Package, you can listen to this gem for FREE!!

Thank you so much to my agent, Sarah, to Audible for taking a chance on this book, and to my totally amazing narrators, Kate Udall and Chris Andrew Ciulla! I can’t wait for the world to finally hear the hilarity!

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10 Questions with Erica Cope

OH.MY.GOD. I am mortified. This post was scheduled to go live in JANUARY while I was traveling with the family. That’s like, FOREVER ago, people. And I have no idea why the schedule didn’t trigger. Ugh. I’m sorry for the delay, Erica!!! But I love this segment of 10 Questions and still want to share it with the world!!!

In this very special episode of Blossom, I mean 10 Questions, we have my fellow Kansas girl and YA author, Erica Cope. With novels in fantasy, paranormal and contemporary romance tropes, Erica lives a few hours south of me in the land where there are no Target runs, the only Starbucks brewing is the one being made in her kitchen coffee pot, and the town is known for one thing … Neewollah (nee-uh-wall-uh … that’s Halloween, backward).

I’m always excited to connect with local(ish) authors, so when Erica and I connected, I was tickled pink that she not only agreed to be my pal, but also that I could annoy her with these ten glorious questions. Especially since we both seem to be cheerleaders who never actually stopped cheering (my husband tells me this frequently).

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12 Signed Paperbacks Up For Grabs!!!

Imagine this …

ONE DOZEN BEAUTIFUL PAPERBACKS! All signed. And in your mailbox. Waiting for you to flip through the pages … to smell them … touch them … read them.

SoundsVDayPromo8 glorious, doesn’t it?

Well … this can be you. But it won’t be if you don’t enter the giveaway. It’s your last chance. We’re closing out on March 2nd. That’s this Friday.

So click this link and follow these authors over on BookBub to win! You need to follow all twelve to win!

Good Luck!!

Shortcut to each participating author’s BookBub link!

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Ten Social Media Hacks for Authors

Good gravy. I JUST WANT TO WRITE BOOKS!!!

Have you ever said that as you get sucked into the rabbit hole of social media?

I get it. As authors, we love to tell our stories. We crave pulling those characters from our heads and hearts and getting them down on the page for our readers to enjoy.

But somewhere along the way we get pulled away from storytelling because so much of our success as an author depends on our ability to engage with readers and organically market our books to them.

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SEO for Authors

SEO 101 for Authors

Welcome to the first installment of SEO for Authors, part of my Authors Helping Authors blog feature.

When I first sat down to write about SEO, I was planning on taking some of the helpful tidbits from my brain and plopping them into the blog to hopefully help some other folks out there. But as I started writing everything out and talking to other authors about their SEO questions, I realized there was no way I was going to get all of this done in one blog post. Therefore this is the first of multiple posts over the course of the next month (or so) addressing SEO, what it is, what it should mean to you, how you can easily execute it, and how to make a difference with your online presence.

So what makes me qualified to talk about it? For starters, my 9-5 is digital marketing, and as part of that I am solely responsible for the SEO success of my company. I won’t pretend to know everything about it, but I know more than the average bear and much of it has been self taught. And if *I* can do it, anyone can (and that’s the absolute truth). I have done a lot of things right, and unfortunately some things wrong. But if you can learn a thing or two from my mistakes, it’ll be worth the read. So with that, let’s dip our pinky toe into the vast sea that is SEO …

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