Book Marketing

Ever wonder why when some people comment on blog posts or in forums, their photo appears alongside their comment? It’s because the have a Gravatar—a Globally Recognized Avatar. We employ Gravatars here on the Florida Writers Association website, both for commenters and for blog post authors.  Many website commenting systems do, including WordPress which accounts for more than 37.6 million websites worldwide. Using the same profile photo across all social media platforms and for commenting on blogs is an easy way … Read More »

(Negative Content Alert… Read to the end for a positive outcome.) Books are still being discovered (and bought) in bookstores. I have never met an author who didn’t want to have their published work on the shelves of a bookstore. So, authors have books, bookstores sell books…what could be a better match? Here comes the rub: most local authors alienate bookstores, which hurts their efforts and … book sales. Today all authors are on the frontline of their promotional efforts, both online and … Read More »

In a previous post, I wrote that your author website should help you build a mailing list because you have more control over your outreach to followers via email than you do in social media. Email remains one of the least expensive and most effective vehicles for marketing. Are you using it to your advantage? Here’s something that happens a lot. I receive an email that says: “I thought you should know that my new book, The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, is out.” … Read More »

A common thing I have seen in the writing community from attending a lot of groups is that there are quite a few people out there who ignore the marketing aspect of the writer life. They want to hire someone else to worry about that so they can just write. It’s a great thought and one that, in a perfect world, would be the norm. Unfortunately, that is not the reality. Marketing, particularly social networking, is a necessary evil if … Read More »