Originally posted on Ari Meghlen – Writer | Blogger | Bad card player: It’s Monday Marketing time, people! Today I thought I’d talk (more) about social media. Last year, I did a series on Social Media but I think discussing it specifically for Marketing is important. Not all social media is the same. Ones such as Twitter…
via How to use Social Media for your Marketing — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
Social media has a big problem.
Facebook is losing users due to data privacy concerns. Google+ is closing down. Twitter is becoming more political than social.
All these negative factors have and will make social media marketing far less effective.
Apart from the current issues that are concerning people about privacy and personal data use, there is a more fundamental problem with social media marketing.
If you are trying to promote your books, blog, services or you are affiliate marketing; there is an issue of intent.
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Aggression, greed, and paranoia do not enhance your author brand
Recently there’s been a bizarre drama going on in the book world. It’s been given the name #cockygate, because it involves a cocky author who managed to trademark the word “cocky” in a deluded attempt to eliminate the “competition” and “protect” her author brand.
She ended up doing the opposite.
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I thought of this post when I heard of a problem plaguing one of the groups I belong to. People are using its Twitter hashtag without actually being members of said group. This both confuses readers and dilutes the group’s rather successful brand. Even worse, these authors are taking advantage of the hard work others have put in without ever contributing anything themselves.
This reminded me of a series of posts author David Gaughran has written since June 2017. In them, David complains about scammers breaking the Kindle Store and about Amazon’s frequently heavy-handed approach to dealing with the problem. The main culprit is so-called click-farmed titles and other dodgy marketing practices. Based on David’s observation, I, too, mentioned the issue in my post, Fake Books: Amazon’s Latest Headache.
If anything, the problem seems to have grown worse since then. This is because of the…
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…to end the ridiculous professional versus amateur writer argument!!
For a few days several months ago various highly inflammatory articles appeared across the internet voicing differing opinions regarding independent writers, claiming that they were not professional in their approach – whatever that is supposed to mean.
Certain commentators delivered vitriolic attacks accusing independent writers of being nothing more than an editor’s worst nightmare and a monumental pain to deal with. When they were quite rightly challenged for making such statements, they immediately went on the offensive, under the illusion that attack is always the best form of defence when you’ve been caught out! By reacting in the way they did, they instantly lost the argument. Apart from venting their spleen, what was the point? I suspected when I read the articles at the time that the attackers were probably jealous of the sales success of some independent writers. Of course…
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It’s a dilemma that many in my circles are puzzling over: in today’s world, authors have nearly limitless creativity and research sources and opportunities to get their stories out to a wider audience…but fewer people are willing to pay for them.
I’m an administrator for a few dozen authors’ Facebook pages, and from time to time I glimpse notifications of another message with the same question, phrased in a few different ways: “Why is your book (or ebook) so expensive?”
If you’ve ever wondered that yourself—and I don’t blame you, because I did too before I started working in publishing—here are a few thoughts that authors probably want to say but feel they can’t, because it seems a little too direct, a little too self-serving (even though it really isn’t).
It’s the same reason restaurant owners can’t give you a free dinner: because that’s how they make a living. Sure…
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on The Book Designer site:
Image from Bigstock Photo
Every writer’s dream is to publish a book that soars in popularity and sells oodles of copies.
And perhaps every writer’s nightmare is learning how to market a book and then doing the marketing.
What’s a writer to do?
It’s like the chicken and the egg quandary – which came first? Well, in the world of publishing, the marketing starts before the book is finished. The idea for the book comes first, followed by the simultaneous acts of marketing and writing, and finally the book appears on virtual shelves, followed by even more marketing.
Whew! Is that a collective groan that I hear?
If all you want to do is write and publish books, cool. Go for it! But if you’d also like to sell books, the inevitable question is when will you commit yourself to learning how…
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Originally posted as the Dun Writin’—Now Whut? series on this blog, EDITING 101 is a weekly refresher series for some of you and brand new for others.
If you’ve written a book, what was the goal of the book?
If you’re not sure, you’re also not alone. A lot of writers don’t examine their goals in writing at all. They know they want to write, and perhaps they know exactly what they want to write—a memoir, a science-fiction series, a literary novel.
There are two types of goals, as I see it, in writing. One would be termed “writing goals”—setting goals in order to assist you with the actual put-your-butt-in-the-chair-and-write action. That will be the subject of a later article.
Today we’re going to discuss “book goals.” What was the idea or purpose behind writing your book? Marketing yourself or a business? Leaving a…
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A couple of months ago there was a bit of a kerfuffle (to put in mildly) in the publishing world when Amazon announced a change in their “buy box” policy when it came to books. That magical little box that looks a lot like this…
Previously, the buy box for books was always Amazon (see above) which meant that when someone bought a book it was (a) brand new and (b) the publisher (and by default the author) were paid for it. Recently, Amazon changed their policy to allow other third party sellers to “bid” for the buy box and sell “as new” copies of books as if they are new “new”.
So now, we have a buy box that can now look a little something like this…
The impact is huge because, honestly, who really looks at who the vendor is in the buy box? Most people just assume…
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Licence to use obtained Copyright : amasterpics123 at 123RF Stock Photo
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