Blurb Etiquette

Guest Blogger: Mike Duran (@CerebralGrump ) One of the most uncomfortable realities of being a writer is asking for blurbs (a.k.a. endorsements). On the enjoyability meter, it ranks somewhere between Irritable Bowel Syndrome and having bamboo spikes driven under your toenails. Before my last novel The Telling released, I determined to aim high for endorsers. Nothing but “big names.” I contacted a dozen high-profile authors, most of whom I’d had personal contact with, about blurbing the book. When the publication deadline was reached, I had approximately… ZERO ENDORSEMENTS. Needless to say, the process was quite a let-down. For whatever reason, I am now in the weird position of having authors ask me for blurbs. Which kind of sucks. Don’t get me wrong, it is...

5 Ways Authors Can Use Pinterest as a Marketing Tool

Guest blogger: Erin MacPherson We’ve been talking about Pinterest as a marketing tool for authors (here and here) and today I want to get your creative juices flowing by telling you about some innovative approaches to Pinterest marketing. There are many more, so please share your ideas in the comments and we can turn this post into a great Pinterest resource for writers. Here are my favorite ideas: 1. Recruit a Guest Pinner I’ve used this strategy to great success for about six months now and it’s not only helped me to build my Pinterest boards up, but it’s also allowed me to have new, fresh content to share on my Facebook page each week. I love it. And it’s so easy! Invite another author/blogger/writer to pin on one of your existing boards (or a secret...

Legal and Effective Pinning on Pinterest

http://www.rachellegardner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/erinheadshot1-198x300.jpg Guest Blogger: Erin MacPherson Last week, I kicked off our “Pinterest for Marketing” series with a blog post on using Pinterest as a content marketing tool. This week, I want to spend some time talking about some of the nitty gritty details of effectively (and legally) using images on Pinterest, Pinterest is primarily an image sharing tool. If your pin doesn’t have a great image, it’s probably not going to be noticed. Which means the images you repin and upload can make a big impact on your marketing efforts. So, what types of images should you be pinning? And how do you find them or make them? And how can you make sure you don’t break any laws while you’re doing it? Let’s get the boring legal stuff out of the way first. There was quite a bit of...

MyBookTable – A Better Way To Sell Your Books

http://www.rachellegardner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Thomas-Umstattd-200x300.jpg This is a guest post from Thomas Umstattd (@ThomasUmstattd). Today he’s introducing a terrific new idea for authors that I thought you all should know about. * * * Most publishers require authors to have a website before they will publish them. The reasoning behind this is simple. The purpose of the website, for the publisher, is to sell books. The problem is that books can be really hard to sell on your website.     5  Problems With a “Books” Webpage Most authors add a “books” page to their website, listing all their books along with links to buy them on Amazon. It sounds like a simple solution but it often creates problems, such as: Bookstores get mad. Barnes & Noble gets ticked when excluded from the list. They have threatened to pull...

Don’t Think of Pinterest as Social Media

Guest Blogger: Erin MacPherson Grab a notepad and a pen and write this down: Now circle it, add a few stars or a few exclamation points or some bright purple glitter.  Anything it takes for you to convince yourself that it’s a very important note.  Now go hang it on your fridge right where you can see it. Of course, Pinterest is social media.  (Your little note is a total lie.) It’s quickly becoming one of the most popular and most-used social media tools.  In fact, it has been called a social commerce game changer and the best social modality to heat up your brand.  Pinterest is an important social media enterprise. But I’m asking you to push that thought aside.  Because when you start to think of Pinterest as social media, you fail to see Pinterest for what...