Writing 101: Being Accessible

I used to think all authors were tortured, anti-social artists who locked themselves in dank attics in order to create their amazing words. This is how I would probably behave, if I could.

But I'm an indie author. That means my main job description is availability. As an indie, you have to be accessible. Not just to readers, or other writers. You have to be available to the entire world.

Being Available

The idea that authors are untouchable and aloof is an old one, and untrue. Today's tech makes it possible for just about any two people to connect, and no author is an island anymore. That is especially true for indie authors.

Being accessible is about more than having social media profiles, or maintaining a blog. True accessibility means answering and responding.

What I mean is this: having a blog isn't helping you if you never respond to comments. Writing all those tweets is less meaningful if you aren't checking your mentions throughout the day and responding accordingly.

Accessibility isn't in the way you respond; it's all in the fact that you're responding. Being available to the world makes it easy, and more desirable, to buy your books. Readers like authors they can touch, metaphoricallly speaking, not that weirdo who's hiding up in the attic. 

So be accessible. Respond to emails, respond to blog comments, answer Tweets and give replies when people take the time to contact you through Goodreads, your website or any other medium. This is where you'll find new readers...not in that dank little attic.

Blog Tour Stop: The Oracle of Delphi

Oracle of Delphi Giveaway 

Prizes are listed

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Prophecy of the Author's Genius Contest  

Solve the prophecy, win a $25 Amazon Giftcard 

(must guess the classic book title and author)

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

About the Author

Diantha Jones was born the day thousands of turkeys sacrificed their lives to fill millions of American bellies on November 22 which also happened to be Thanksgiving Day (Her mother says she owes her a turkey). She is a Journalism graduate who wants to be a career novelist (of books, not Facebook posts). When not writing or working, she is reading on her Nook, being hypnotized by Netflix or on a mission to procure french fries.  

The Oracle of Delphi fantasy series is her first series. She is also the author of Mythos: Stories from Olympus, a companion series, and there is another fantasy series in the works. She also writes (new) adult fantasy/paranormal romance under the name A. Star. Invasion (An Alien Romance) is her first title released under this pen name. Future releases under A. Star include, the Love & Steampunk series, the Purr, Inc. stories, and more.

Website  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon  |  Pinterest  |  DJ's Book Corner

Email Diantha Jones at: theauthor (at) diantha-jones (dot) com


Book One

eBook: Amazon  |  Barnes&Noble

Paperback: Amazon

Goodreads

Book Two

eBook: Amazon  |  Barnes&Noble

Paperback: Amazon

Goodreads

Come back to the blog next week for a guest post from author Diantha Jones!

Writing 101: Go Google Yourself

If you aren't checking Google every day, you're missing a ton of marketing opportunities for you and all your books. Find out why you should go Google yourself at least once in every 24-hour period, and find all those missed promotions that are falling through the cracks. 

Powering the Indie Engine

You should already be doing periodic searches of your pen name to avoid plagiarism (or at the very least, catch it when it's happening). But an occasional content check just isn't enough, not if you're going to catch all those potential marketing opportunities that are just out there waiting for you.

To do that, you're going to have to perform a search every day. Narrow down your results by time frame, an option you'll usually find above or below the search bar (depending on the search engine you're using), to look at results from the past 24 hours. Do this every day, and you're going to catch all those marketing opportunities you'd be missing otherwise. 

If you've been sending out those review requests, like you're supposed to, this is the best and most effective way to catch all those new reviews. Not every blogger is going to personally email you to tell you that a post about your book is about to go live. Some do; most don't. Only by doing a regular, daily search are you going to find them all. And you want to find them all, because you want to promote all of the good ones. 

A daily search will also alert you to any mentions that you would be missing otherwise. When someone refers to you in a blog post or talks about you and your books in a forum post, you might miss it completely. Doing a search on a daily basis will make sure you don't. This allows you to respond to those mentions, keeping yourself more accessible and engaged with readers and potential readers. 

If you aren't searching for yourself every day, you aren't getting all those marketing opportunities that are passing you by. Tweeting about someone else's blog post is some of the easiest promotion you're likely to get, so it's well worth your time to do the daily search. So quit reading -- and go Google yourself, already.

Judgment Now Available in Paperback!

Tired of your ereader? Stick of straining your eyes to look at a screen? Now, you can enjoy the thrilling conclusion to the Deck of Lies series on good old paper.

Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4) is now available in paperback. Get every exciting moment, inside the courtroom and out, and never worry about your battery power.

Here's what other readers are saying about Judgment: 

"It is everything I could have asked for (had I known what to ask for) in an ending!!"

       -Theresa Jones

"All I hoped it would be... I couldn't and didn't put it down."

       -Leslie Chadwick

"A must read!"

       -Sienna, Lost to Books

Cashing Out 

Do I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? How can I, when the truth will destroy us all? Now that I've started telling lies, I can't stop. Not until all this is over, and I'm free of the family that never felt like mine. 

Maybe it's wrong. Maybe I'm a bad person. But it's definitely the only way I'm ever going to escape them. I have to take this opportunity to end things between us once and for all, no matter what it takes. 

Don't I?

Indie News: Self-Publishing Spreads to Gaming

Reports are circulating that Microsoft may put indie software developers on equal footing with the big-name giants. If the rumors are correct, a whole world of indie gaming may open up to you on Microsoft's ultra-popular platform XBox Live. 

Indies, Not Equals

But, don't run right out and buy that year-long subscription to the online service just yet. Microsoft hasn't confirmed that it's involved in any game-changing talks, and the whispers are saying that the platform won't be open to all indies. Small single-man and two-man operations still won't find a foothold for publishing their games with Microsoft, but small indie development firms will find themselves on more equal footing with the big boys.

The news is important to indies of all types, including authors, because it represents a growing trend that even the little guys and the smallest operations could have the chance to put their products "out there." If even Microsoft is considering the self-publishing bandwagon, big corporations could become next year's dinosaurs.

Writing 101: The Power of Video

If you want to sell more books and get more visitors on your blog, don't underestimate the power of video. There are a lot of reasons why you should be using YouTube's powers to enhance your own reach. The biggest? Google gives YouTube a little extra search engine bump.

Video Killed the Book Star

It's because Google owns YouTube (and I believe they will one day own everything on the Internet). So naturally Google gives websites that have a lot of YouTube higher rankings, and you'll see links to YouTube videos all the time during normal web searches. So it behooves you to create your own YouTube channel, and add those links to your blog. 

If you're going to create content to promote yourself and your books, create good content. And if you're going to use that content to drive more traffic to your blog, create it regularly. There are lots of reasons why an indie author might make a YouTube video. Start with my ideas, and let me know if you come up with more of your own: 

• Book trailers: Naturally. Make a trailer for each and every one of your books. Add those videos to your blog, your Goodreads page, your Smashwords profile, your Twitter and anything else you can find. 
• Book reviews: Review books in your own genre to attract readers of that genre to your channel. Video book reviews are fun if you keep them short and sweet. Use the video as a supplement to your text-based reviews, and link the videos to those posts
• Book excerpts: Make videos of yourself reading excerpts from your own books. Be expressive, be interesting. Think about adding some effects or images to the video to enhance the story. Because once again, you want to create good content if you're going to create any sort of content at all.
• Mail call: Add a link to your blog so readers can ask you questions about anything and everything through email or a comments section. Answer the questions you want to answer through video mail call sessions, and upload them once a week. You can write a little blog post to go with it and add all sorts of content to the Internet in one fell swoop. 

Harness the power of video to gain more exposure, and gain more readers. It's a given that you're going to take advantage of text-based content on the Internet to spread your message. But as an indie author, every little bit helps -- so get on YouTube, too.

Writing 101: You Need Shorter URLs

Tweets too long? Are you forced to squeeze those glowing review quotes down to fewer and fewer words? Are you struggling to add your own little comments every time you tweet about your newest blog post? You need shorter URLs. The right URL shortener can help you keep track of your stats, so you can tailor your tweets to get more mileage out of every single one. 

This is the Tweet That Doesn't End

Amazon may be a convenient place to buy books, but it's not at all made for easy linking. Amazon's URLs are huge, and they'll take up a whole bunch of space in a tweet if you let them.  Lots of URLs are very long, in fact, too long to allow for inventive, interesting tweets. 

So start using a URL shortener. If you use the right one, you can keep track of how many clicks your tweets are getting. This way, you'll know what's working and what isn't when you're sending out those little bits of promotion. According to my research, currently there are two "right" URL shorteners. Choose whichever one you like.

• Google: Google has its own URL shortener because Google has its own everything. If you have any sort of Google account whatsoever (Blogger, Plus, Gmail, Drive, and on and on and on), you can use this URL shortener to keep track of all your link stats. It's easy to use if you're already signed into Google, like I always am. 
• Bit.ly: But if you're always signed into Twitter, maybe Bit.ly will work as the better URL shortener for you. It's easy to use and has a pretty display that shows you all your important link stats. Bit.ly will link right up to your Twitter, so if you're signed into your account you can easily sign into your shortener service.

Add more interesting words to your tweets, and get rid of all the URL junk. Keep track of your links to find out what works, and target your promotion. If you aren't learning from your social media marketing, what are you getting out of it?

Writing 101: Why SEO Matters to Indies

As a freelance writer, I have to deal with SEO all the time. But even when I'm moonlighting as an indie author, it's an issue. I found out why SEO matters to self-published authors. Have you?

Why SEO?

SEO is search engine optimization. This basically refers to keyword usage in any given piece of text that's put on the Internet. When an optimal number of keywords are used in any article or blog post, that piece of content will be much easier for search engines to find. 

When search engines can find you, readers can find you. This is why SEO matters to indies. 

As an indie author, you should already have a blog. You want people to buy your writing, right? Well don't rely on your clever promotions and the reviews you can scrape together. Start blogging to get readers. If they like your blog, they will be tempted to buy your book. But once you start blogging, you've got to start thinking about SEO-ing (no...that's not a real word).

So here's the question you have to ask yourself: what are your keywords? Think about the words that people would use to find you and the keywords that you want them to use. Remember that the keywords you focus on must directly relate to your blog. If you're blogging about movies you like, focusing on phrases like "self-publishing" isn't feasible. Make a list of words that relate to you, your books and your blog. That's your focus. 

Start optimizing your blog posts, and start getting more people to your blog. Once you're drawing readers in, you'll get more of them as long as you continue to provide content. People share links to blogs they like, and eventually word of mouth will help you gain new readers. But first, you need to throw some bait in the Internet waters...so get to cracking on those keywords.