Introducing the BookSworn
Writing is a lonely business, which is why we budding authors tend to be a gregarious lot given half a chance – we love to meet up and share both our writing woes and our useful tips for making it in this tough world of 21st-century publishing. Conventions are a great way to do this, but there are only so many one can go to each year, so we also communicate a lot through social media. Just as important as talking to one another, if not more so, is communicating with readers – but as new authors, how do we get our voices heard? When a bunch of us were invited onto Reddit last year for a very successful AMA (Ask Me Anything), we decided we didn’t want the fun to stop. So, we began exchanging emails, and what came out of that was a plan for a joint...
Read MoreWeb presence 101.9 – Google Alerts
So, you’ve put yourself out there online, with a website and social media – but that’s only half the story. If your self-promotion is successful, then other people are going to start talking about you online. Sometimes they’ll let you know, but often they won’t. That’s where Google Alerts comes in. What kind of information will Alerts find for you? Basically, anything that you could find out by manually searching on, say, your author name and/or title. That includes: <ul> <li>your website</li> <li>your social media profile pages</li> <li>interviews and guest blog posts</li> <li>book reviews</li> <li>online bookshop listings</li> <li>piracy...
Read MoreWeb presence 101.8 – Pinterest
Pinterest in the new kid on the social media block that debuted in 2010. Taking a leaf out of Tumblr’s book, it’s a social media scrapbook, encouraging you to share pictures with your friends. Each image is called a “pin”, and you can organise them into “boards”, or categories. As with other social media, you can follow other people and they can follow you; images pinned by you and your followees appear on your homepage. You can then pin them to your own boards, so that your followers get to see them, or just comment or like them, as on Facebook. At first, Pinterest was invitation-only—I picked up an invitation earlier this year through fellow author Jody Hedlund, whose blog I follow (somewhat erratically)—but it’s now...
Read MoreWeb presence 101.7 – Goodreads
Goodreads is an online reading community that’s grown rapidly in the past couple of years, easily outstripping LibraryThing and other rivals. You can use it to help manage your book collection, post reviews and ratings, and join in online bookclubs. And if you’re a writer, once you have a book out (whether self-published or through a conventional publishing house), you can upgrade your account to “Goodreads Author”, which makes it easier to find out what your readers think of your book! As I don’t get a lot of time for reading these days, I don’t have much experience of the reading side of Goodreads. I’ve added a selection of books from my shelves, though it’s by no means comprehensive, and I use it to maintain my...
Read MoreAsk Me (and 9 other debut authors) Anything!
Justin Landon of Staffer’s Musings is holding a special blog event this July, Debut Authorpalooza, which will showcase the work of ten debut fantasy authors from 2011/12, including yours truly. Visit Staffer’s Musings on the dates below to read about the trials of writing the second novel in a series, read exclusive extracts from forthcoming novels, and enter giveaways. Yep, that’s the first public release of Chapter One of The Merchant of Dreams, plus a chance to win copies of my books! There will also be an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit on the evening of July 19th (7pm CST, i.e. 1am the following morning UK time), where you can ask us all questions. Since it’s at a crazy time on this side of the Pond, I’m not sure if I’ll...
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