Author: Carol Wyer

Carol E Wyer is a Contributing Author for Indies Unlimited and an award-winning and best-selling author of humorous novels including MINI SKIRTS AND LAUGHTER LINES, SURFING IN STILETTOS, and HOW NOT TO MURDER YOUR GRUMPY. Carol has been featured on NBC News, BBC Radio, and in The Huffington Post. For more about Carol, go to her website or her Amazon author page.

How to Make Your Book Signing Event Completely Successful

carol tankSome of my ideas for marketing might be considered a little outrageous – but this one, however wacky it might seem, could attract the right attention for a book signing.

Recently, I had the good fortune to be invited to do a book signing at a hotel. The manager who hosts a weekly cocktail party wanted to surprise guests by having me there, signing copies of the book that features his hotel. Attendance to these events has been dropping off and he wanted to make it a little more interesting. Continue reading “How to Make Your Book Signing Event Completely Successful”

Wattpad for Writers

wattpad logoWattpad has about 20 million monthly users, both amateur and professional (including Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale who joined about a year and a half ago). Writers retain all rights, and upload anything from short stories to full e-books. A story is uploaded every second, with users from 200 countries posting in 30 languages.

Anyone can access Wattpad via a phone, tablet or computer and it is used by all sorts of people. Relativity Media used Wattpad to promote the release of the film Romeo & Juliet, serializing script excerpts online. Publisher Harlequin used Wattpad to host a new adult genre writing contest. Boy band Emblem3 has even used the platform to connect with fans through stories about teenage issues.

I first decided to try out this site after watching a news item about Lily Carmine who began sharing her novel, The Lost Boys, on Wattpad in February 2010. It clocked up over 33 million reads and became the platform’s most read book. Her publishing deal with Random House UK came from an editor who’d read her work on Wattpad. As a result, Lily secured a deal to publish three books in The Lost Boys series. Continue reading “Wattpad for Writers”

Should a Writer Have a Blog?

Typing via PresentationPro MSPubA reader asked: “I’m curious about one thing in particular, at this moment. How important is having a blog and lots of comments to a writer’s success? Reason I ask: I started blogging almost a year ago, and got sidetracked with blogging. I’m now thinking of changing my schedule from posting twice per week to once every two weeks, just to make more time for my writing projects. ”

How important is a blog to a writer? Continue reading “Should a Writer Have a Blog?”

How to use Pinterest to attract new readers

I am one of those people who has struggled to see the point of Pinterest. I followed the tutorials here on Indies Unlimited, put up a couple of boards related to writing and got fed up with it. I couldn’t see how it would help me as an author. [L.A. Lewandowski has blogged about Promoting Your Brand With Pinterest and more.]

Imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago I discovered that Pinterest is a fantastic marketing tool for writers and I have been a complete dummy not to see its potential. The key is to think visually. [Here’s an article on Visual Social Networking with some helpful links.] We spend all our time describing places or people in our books but Pinterest allows us to actually put up pictures to help our readers. We can now show readers the locations in which our books are set. We can use our boards to give an idea of our characters and much more.

Yes, you can load your book covers onto Pinterest but to attract more interest in your books, what you should be doing is producing interesting storyboards about your novels. These can also be rewarding for your fans. Continue reading “How to use Pinterest to attract new readers”