T.
Teresa´s last blog ..

Glad I found your blog; keep it up.

T.
Teresa´s last blog ..

I’m totally behind you. Is writing about being a writer? Or is it about marketing?

The problem is that unpublished writers think publishing books will get them a career as a writer. The truth is that publishing books will get them published books. If you make contact with a certain number readers, and it turns into a greater community of people all interested in the things you’re interested in, and that leads to appreciation of the work you’re doing and terrific relationships with readers, that’s wonderful. It’s wonderful to have an audience for the work you love.

But don’t confuse an audience for your work with an audience for yourself. You still have to pay the rent. And you still have to live your life in two-way relationships, not one-way sales.

It’s all about the greater community of writers and publishing professionals. If you mistake salesmanship for membership in a community, you might make more bucks than the guy next to you in the short run, but you’re going to find yourself on the outside looking in when it comes to the real value behind writing—community.
Victoria Mixon´s last blog ..Guest blogging

I guess what I am really wondering is what would make MY blog stand out to a complete stranger and make them want to take time out of their busy day to read it? There are thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of blogs out there, how am I supposed to make *mine* facinating enough to attract readers/followers? (I don’t really expect an answer, it’s more of a hypothetical question, but if you DO have any tips I’m all ears!)
Meghan´s last blog ..My nemesis is mailing out queries

- If you’re on Twitter, tweet when you post a new blog entry. There are LOTS of publishing pros and authors on Twitter, and most of them *aren’t* using it to announce what they had for breakfast or that their dog just got back from the groomer. They’re using it to share links to resources, articles and posts of interest to their industry, and to make themselves available for direct comment and discussion with their peers and the public. Look at my Twitter profile as an example:
http://twitter.com/indieauthor

- Use more comment forms like this one, which allows you to include a website link. Use the link field to link to your blog, and comment on high-traffic, high-visibility blogs and sites related to your area of interest. From time to time I’ll do a Google search on topics of interest to me, read a few of the articles that turn up and comment on them. I don’t do any promotion in the comments themselves, but I do use the ‘website’ field in the comment form to let people find my sites or blogs if they’re so inclined. I’ve gotten a LOT of traffic from comment forms I’ve filled out on Huffington Post, Wired.com, and other high-traffic sites. But again, I don’t comment *just* to promote, I try to add something of value to the discussion.

- Facebook is another good way to get the word out. You can have your blog entries automatically pulled into FB with a clickable link and a ‘teaser’ every time you post to it.

- If your book is listed on Amazon, get signed up as an Amazon author; you can have your blog posts automatically pulled in there, too.

- Go to Publetariat.com, a site I founded and for which I still act as Editor in Chief, and click on the “Sell” department link at the top of the home page for LOTS of great, free author platform/book promo advice and instructions. One of the articles there explains in detail how to link your blog to your FB profile.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many easy, free ways for authors to promote themseves and their books nowadays, the main limitation most of us face is time.
April L. Hamilton´s last blog ..Avast Ye Lubbers, And Hear Ye Me Pirate Tale of Two Clicks!

I took the advice of starting a blog to get a web “presence” and guess what. I have ONE follower, who is a friend of mine in real life. After writing six posts I said to myself why the hell am I wasting my time – time that could be used to work on my novel – when no one is reading this??? These agents tell you to get out there and get a “following”, but they don’t tell you HOW. Where am I supposed to get followers from, pull them out of my a-s-s????

If like Keith, you’re already published by St. Martins or Doubleday, of course–use social networking and any other marketing tool at your disposal.

In other words, don’t invite people to come see you compete in the Olympics until you learn to skate.