Celebrating Independent Authors
Exposure: that dreadful word that signifies potentially wasted time. Its evil stench lingers on the writing world like a hobo at a back alley dumpster behind an Italian restaurant. You wish it wasn’t real, but it is.
Here’s the thing, exposure isn’t going to kill you anymore than watching hobos eat out of a dumpster. Should you take every little thing that comes your way and do it for free? Continue reading “Exposure Doesn’t Have to be a Dirty Word for Authors”
Unfortunately, LinkedIn has discontinued this Amazon.com reading list feature.
LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to show off your books without ever saying a word. Yes, it’s true. And for those of you who whine “but these people don’t know I write and I don’t want to tell them” – you don’t have to. That’s the beauty of it all.
LinkedIn has an option called “Reading List by Amazon.” Sure, you can add whatever you’re reading to that list – but why do that? Add your own books, and they’ll show up every time someone looks at your profile. Genius, eh?
So, go to your profile. Click on “More” on the Nav Bar across the top, then click on “Reading List by Amazon.”
That will take you to a new screen, with books that other people in your networks are reading. There is also a big blank box where you can type in the name of your book. So go ahead and do that, then click “Search Books.” (See next image.) Continue reading “Tuesday Tutorial: Strut Your Stuff on LinkedIn”
Each Wednesday morning at 5 a.m. Pacific time, we here at Indies Unlimited host a “like-fest.” Sometimes it will be for Amazon.com author or book pages, Facebook pages, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Goodreads or other social networking platforms. One thing is certain – every Wednesday a large community of authors, readers and reviewers stop by and a good time is had by all.
This past Wednesday, we ran an Amazon.com like-fest. The turn-out was great and we had lots of new participants and books. An interesting question was posed to me by an author: Maybe you can explain something to me about this amazon.com Building Your Empire-Fest. Why should I care about other writers following me or liking me on Amazon? I’m trying to get readers to read my work, not other writers.
Valid question. It’s debatable what technical purpose “likes” serve. There have been rumors that Amazon.com “pushes” books up in the search results if they have over a certain number of likes. I have not been able to corroborate this from an actual source, so as far as I know, it’s still a rumor. Continue reading “What to Like about Like-Fests”