Category: Guest Posts

How My Novel Became a #1 Bestseller

bestselling author virginia grayGuest Post
by Virginia Gray

My goals in writing The Carrot were that it be seen and read, but after nearly a year of posting, sharing, tweeting and pinning and Google Plussing, hoping to catch a reader’s eye, I found my novel drearily hovering around an Amazon sales rank of 200K (I don’t even want to talk about B&N, Kobo, or iBooks). After perusing some interesting blogs, banging my now concussive head against the social media marketing wall, and discussing strategies with other authors, I decided to do what all major publishers do: pay for advertising. Continue reading “How My Novel Became a #1 Bestseller”

Amazon Steps in as Big Brother

Amazon.comGuest Post
by Brenda Perlin

Even though I am an author, I still love reading books of my choice and enjoy the luxury of being able to leave an appropriate review. I know how nice it feels to receive a positive one myself. More than that I do feel good writing should be rewarded. You can see this by my Amazon top reviewer raking which is 1,746 at the moment. Seems I have left 633 reviews on Amazon since June 27, 2012.

Last month while I was trying to leave a review for a smashing new release, one that I paid for and indeed read, I was told by Amazon via email that my review was removed because it didn’t follow the Amazon guidelines. I scratched my head. Did I use any strong language? Give away too much information? I couldn’t imagine what I did wrong until the Amazon review moderator got back to me via email explaining that as a reviewer you must NOT know the author. They stated that, and I quote, “We are unable to post your review because your account activity indicates that you know the author. We encourage family and friends to share their enthusiasm for the book through our Customer Discussions feature or Editorial Reviews feature.” That blew me away. I mean, most of us indie authors know each other in one form or another. Mostly we know each other from social media. I mean, isn’t that why SOCIAL MEDIA got its name? Continue reading “Amazon Steps in as Big Brother”

Some Tips on Press Releases for Independent Authors

mickie kennedyGuest Post
by Mickie Kennedy

So you’ve written your book and self-published. Time to get started on the next book, right? Wait, wait, wait — hold up. You’ve missed a step. After your book is out there in the world, you can’t just leave it hanging.

When you’re looking to tap into new markets without the benefit of a publisher marketing your book for you, you’re obviously going to need to put some time and effort into making the international community aware of your work. Continue reading “Some Tips on Press Releases for Independent Authors”

Trying Something New – Serialized Episodes

Author Mark HamnerGuest Post
by Mark Hamner

One of the benefits of being an independent author is the ability to try new things. This has lent itself well to a recent experiment I’ve undertaken: telling a continuous, cover-to-cover story via a series of short story episodes – or, basically, serializing.

How did I come to the point of giving this a shot? Continue reading “Trying Something New – Serialized Episodes”