Guest: Bethany Ramos Published and unpublished authors alike need to have one discernible skill to stand out in a sea of competition: the ability to market themselves. If you are a new author hoping to make a break into the publishing industry, you can take the first step in the right direction by creating a […]
Using Your Blog As A Virtual Hand Shake
Guest Expert: Tony Eldridge As authors, it’s not long before we realize that networking is an integral part of spreading the word about our book. In a workshop I did in Richardson, Texas last week, I told the attendees that no one will love your book as much as you do, so you need to be […]
Ten Reasons Why You Should be Blogging
Guest Expert: Penny C. Sansevieri With all the Tweeting, Facebook Liking, and LinkedIn connecting going on, it’s easy to forget about blogging and finding the time to do so. Blogging, however, can be extremely useful for more reasons than just populating your website with content (although that’s important too). Let’s look at some reasons why […]
If You Have a Book You Need a Website (You Can Update Yourself)
Guest Expert: Yael K. Miller Just to get something out of the way – yes, at Miller Mosaic we do put up WordPress-based websites for book authors, but that’s not why I’m saying authors need a website they can manage themselves. How do I know that, if you have a book, you need a website? […]
Author Blogging and Reader Engagement
Guest Expert: Joel Friedlander The instructions to authors have been repeated up and down the publishing line over and over: blog, blog, blog. Last year, Simon & Schuster instructed all their authors to start blogging. Every author I’ve spoken to in the last year has told me they are either trying to get a blog […]
Can Blogging Really Be an Author’s Best Friend? :: The Writerly Art of “Pollination”
Guest Expert: Laurel Marshfield On Earth Day this year, Friday, April 22, I found myself reading a book about beekeeping, appropriately enough — given that bees pollinate flowers and, as a result, make the Earth fruitful. And so, that book (A Book of Bees by Sue Hubbell – pictured in her vintage bee-farming truck above, […]
The Right (and Wrong) Way to Comment on Blogs
Expert: Dana Lynn Smith Commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to get visibility, build relationships with bloggers, subtly promote your book, and get links back to your site (if the site gives “do-follow” links). But you can hurt your credibility if you go about it the wrong way. Here are some tips […]
Twelve Big Blog Booboos
Or How to Make Your Blogging Efforts a Big Waste of Time Expert: Carolyn Howard-Johnson Blogging is easy. Blogging is fun. That’s both good and bad. The downside is that the ease and fun of it often obscure the need to take it seriously enough to make it worth an author’s time. I often coach […]
A Birds-Eye View of iBooks, iBookstore and iTunesProducer
Expert: Claudia Jackson Dear PC user, if you want to upload your books to the iBookstore, it’s time to find a friend with a MAC (sorry). The intent of this article is to give you a brief overview of the iTunes Producer application that is available free from Apple. iTunes Producer is used to upload […]
Determine Your Goals to Help Promote your Book
Guest Expert: Teresa Morrow Your goal is to sell your book, right? However understanding the goals for your book will also be instrumental in your long term promotion efforts. Determining your goals will give you the measurement of where your best efforts will be beneficial. Is your book going to be a connections tool, business supplement […]
How to effectively publish and promote your books to iPad and iPhone owners
Guest Author: Piotr Kowalczyk Users of devices with Apple’s iOS mobile operating system (iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch) are a very attractive group of potential readers. There are two major reasons: 1. iOS is a very versatile system, allowing the author to distribute books via different sets of tools and channels. 2. iOS users are […]