It’s nearly here. That day we all dread … April 17, 2018. Tax day. [insert dramatic villain sound effect here.]
If you’ve managed to keep on top of things throughout the year, you’re in a great position! But for the rest of us … it’s not too late to start getting your crap together for next year.
This week there have been some changes brewing (yet again) over on Amazon. Recently erotica authors have found their sales ranking stripped from their books without warning or explanation. I’m here today to hopefully shed a little light as to why.
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.
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?
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.
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 …
So you’ve built yourself an email list of readers, fans, bloggers and book enthusiasts. Congratulations! I bet you’re ready and excited to start talking to them via email, aren’t cha?!
Well … not so fast.
Before you start creating your next great email campaign, there are a few things you should stop and think about first.
I wanted to take a moment and ground ourselves in some high level email best practices for authors. I’m not going to address list building today, because let’s be honest … there’s no easy, fast way to build a quality list that engages with you regularly and has the metrics to prove it. These things take time, strategy and mad patience for nurturing the relationship.
And that’s really what email is all about … growing and strengthening your relationship with your readers.
Updated March 12, 2018
Gather ’round author, dear author friends. Let’s chat about Book+Main for a few. I know many of you are wondering, I signed up for a Book+Main Author Account … now what?
Well, let me be one of the first to say, welcome to Book+Main, fellow author! We’re excited to have you onboard and look forward to getting your account verified.
If you haven’t already taken a few minutes to read through my How to Use Book+Main post, I would recommend doing that first to ground you in the below content. And I know that it’s long, but it’s worth the read if you’re considering the platform.
But before I start talking about the ins and outs and perks of being an author on Book+Main, there are a few very important things to keep in mind.
This isn’t Goodreads. It’s not Facebook. Nor is it Wattpad. And it’s certainly not Twitter either. It is not a place for giveaways and sale alerts. And all of this is a very good thing.
Trust me.
We already have an abundance of channels to help us tout new releases and sales and giveaways and run ads and blog posts and trailers and blitzes and promotions and takeovers and live videos and signings and audiobooks and book tours and virtual parties and paperbacks and everything else our little author hearts can dream up. (Phew! That was a lot for one breath.)
But what we don’t have is a safe and unsaturated place, just for our little bibliophile selves to eat our hearts out and devour scenes and discover new and unknown books and authors without any preconceived notion.
But at the intersection of Book+Main (did ya see what I did there?!) is that exact utopia. It is a content-based platform, and your stories are at the heart of it all.
I like to think of Book+Main as a little digital library, sitting on a peaceful cloud, with readers browsing through an anonymous card catalog based on subjects, where they get to read snippets hand-selected by the authors themselves.
Book+Main will give you the opportunity to match up with prospective readers in an unbiased environment. As an author, you control the content that they see. You decide which metatags to leverage to help them find you. You determine how to put your best foot forward.
You don’t have to fight an ever-changing algorithm. And you don’t have to worry about getting lost in a sea of dredge. It’s simply you and a sea of readers, waiting to connect.
Sound like something that interests you? It should! So read on to learn more about becoming a Book+Main Author …
Author BL. Berry 