Tag: bloggers

Yes, Author Interviews are Worthwhile

InterviewA few weeks ago the Evilest Mastermind of them all had a post about author interviews, questioning whether they are worthwhile. One of the things I do away from Indies Unlimited is run a site called The IndieView. For those who haven’t visited, the content consists of three main things. (Watch me subtly plug the site here. I’ll bet no one even notices.) First, a database of indie friendly book review sites for authors in search of potential reviewers. Second, an index of recent reviews from a slew of different sites which readers can visit and scan looking for books that might appeal to them. And last of all (the only thing I would have mentioned were I not sneaking in a plug) interviews with indie authors and reviewers.

Given The IndieView’s interview content, I almost feel obligated to argue against what the EM had to say about author interviews. The reality is, every point he made (okay, make that almost every point to give me a little wiggle room) was right, for him. However, I’m not sure it is right for everyone. Some of my points were probably made in the comments to the original post, but repetition is good, right? So here’s my rebuttal. Hmm. I think I’ll do this using the same style Joe Konrath uses when fisking the spokesmodels of traditional publishing. That’s bound to be fun. Continue reading “Yes, Author Interviews are Worthwhile”

Are Author Interviews Worthwhile?

Interview ShowWhen we first started Indies Unlimited, one of the regular features here was the author interview. Authors love to be interviewed. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of people love to read author interviews. We like to do stuff that moves the needle, so to speak. Once we realized the interview features were not getting a lot of views and did not seem to be moving books for authors, we discontinued the feature.

Not to say interviews don’t work at all or ever, but the return on investment is often quite small for both the interviewer and the subject of the interview. Continue reading “Are Author Interviews Worthwhile?”

Author Tools: Blogger LinkUp

Being an indie author can be liberating – but it can also be isolating. Maybe you belong to groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Goodreads and more. In an attempt to get the word out to more people, you write guest posts for each other’s blogs – but in the end, you’re really “socializing” in the same circles. How do you expand that?

Author and entrepreneur Cathy Stucker started Blogger LinkUp for exactly this purpose – “to help bloggers get exposure for their content and find content for their blogs.” How does it work, you ask? Well, let me tell you, and yes, it’s free. Continue reading “Author Tools: Blogger LinkUp”