How do we organize our bi-monthly BookMachine tweetups alongside full time jobs? Well, doing this has only become possible in the last few years, and all thanks to social media. We spend just 2 – 3 hours a week on promoting our events, here are the top five free tools that help us out. Read more
Today is #WriterWednesday and also the second anniversary of #amwriting – which has got me thinking about hashtags. There are now many Twitter hashtags out there that are useful to help writers promote their work, connect with other writers, and – well – write. How do you use them, and which should you use? Read more
Looking for a job in publishing? As with all social networking, when it comes to job searching there are some big ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’. Twitter on its own is unlikely to find you a job: you may see jobs advertised (and you’ll need to respond quickly if you do), but it should be used as the means to finding a job, and your personal marketing tool.
Suzanne Collier of www.bookcareers.com shares her top ten tips for using Twitter for your job search. Read more
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in The Wall Street Journal: In a feat that even the best-selling writers might envy, young-adult author John Green’s latest novel is No. 1 on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com even though he’s still working on … Read more
Today, authors have an amazing advantage. Not only are there millions of bloggers whose collective audience is larger and more engaged than that of the traditional press, there are also millions of consumers who are one click away from sharing your work with their friends on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Power to the people!
If you can make it easy for people to share and get excited about your book, you won’t need to spend big bucks or hope you make the list of some old newspaper that no-one really reads anymore. Read more
You may have noticed how TV has finally started to get to grips with hashtags. So why not do the same for books? An official hashtags for each book, printed on the flyleaf, on the cover – even at the top of each page – would encourage discussion, community and word of mouth on Twitter. Read more
Blogging is a great way to raise your profile, connect with readers and encourage sales. But how do you get started? Science fiction author Keith Mansfield started on the road to blogging with a workshop his publisher sent him on – and he’s never looked back. Here he explains how he got started, how he’s benefited from blogging, and shares his top blogging tips. Read more
A Facebook page is a great way to promote your book: you can use it to connect with your readers, encourage discussions around the topic of your book, automatically pull in your latest blog postings, and send updates to your fans.
By default, a Facebook page has tabs for Wall, Info, Photos, Discussions and Boxes, with the Wall tab being the first thing you see. But you can also personalize your page with a customized tab that offers more information about your book, draws people in and gives them a clear call to action. You can even make it the first thing people see when they visit your page for the first time. Follow these 5 easy steps, and you too can have a customized Facebook page. Read more
There can be few publishing people who didn’t see #bloomsburyglee in the few hours it was assumed to be a viral marketing video. It cheered publishers up no end. For those who missed it, it was a very entertaining song and dance number with the kids from Bloomsbury performing “Don’t Stop Believing” prefixed by a reassuringly robust anti-agent rant from Executive Director Richard Charkin, whose views are well-known in the trade. Trouble is, it was never supposed to go public. Read more
By Jody Hedlund on jodyhedlund.blogspot.com: At some point in our writing careers, most of us will feel the pressure to blog. I’m not really sure where that pressure comes from. Maybe there are some agents and editors who tell us it’s important. Or maybe … Read more
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