Reader Monday

I'm so excited to welcome the first Monday of the new year and a new series that I'm going to be featuring on Mondays. I'm calling it READER MONDAY (Yeah, creative...I know.)

The one thing that you should know about me is that I'm all about me readers! I love connecting with them here on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads, and in person. There is nothing more fun than getting together with people who love to read! Go on over to my website and check out my news and events for places I will be traveling to this year. I hope y'all let me know if you live near these places because I would love to hook up!

So when I decided to move my blog to reader friendly, I wanted to let readers have a day where they can talk about books, why they like books, who they like, how they fit riding into their busy lives, or anything that strikes their fancy! I'm pretty open to anything.

I'm excited to have my first guest reader today. Lori Hickey is a member of my STREET TEAM and she is so much fun! When I asked her to guest blog as a reader, I didn't know she was going to talk about me...little ole me;) But I loved it! This is exactly how I want my readers to feel when they meet me or read my novels! Lori summed it up perfectly!

Over a year and a half ago I found a new Author (with a little help from a friend) who writes fun, quirky, magical and laugh out loud stories where you fall in love with the characters. 

Since then I have read all of her books and am eagerly waiting for her next one. Tonya Knappes is her name and let me tell you she is so much like her characters. 

Since reading and finding Tonya, who lives in Kentucky while I live in Vermont, we have become friends. She is very involved with her readers and really cares about them.

She has her Street Team on Facebook which I am a part of. Tonya has book release parties that last for hours giving away lots of wonderful goodies including books that her author friends have written. 

So not only is she sharing herself with us she shares her friends with us too. This is a win win for everyone.  We have book group meetings on our Kindle Fires with Tonya. Not many authors do that. 

We’ve even had fun as a “Big Brother” group during the summer months.

I wake up every morning and turn my iPad on and go to Facebook for our morning hello and fun cartoons. This has become such a part of my routine. I would miss it if it was all gone tomorrow.

I could go on and on about Tonya and her books and everything else that she does for us but I’ll end here and hope that you will read her books and find them as enjoyable as I do.

What about you? Do you have authors that reach out to their readers?

Content Tweet VS Spam Tweet

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about spam tweeting and how people need to stop or they are bad. Regardless of your feelings, spam and content tweeting have a place in the twittersphere.

In fact, most of us are on tweet teams or Triberr to help promote each other. And most of those tweets are what we would consider spam. You do it. I do it. Do we mean to spam people? No! It is a marketing tool. A marketing tool that works GREAT!

BUT. . . you also have to have content tweets.

If you don't, you will lose follwers. Followers that actually get on twitter to find things, to connect, to find an author!

Do you know the difference between a spam tweet and content tweet?

EASY: a content tweet does NOT have a link.

Yep...you read that right. NO LINK!

"But Tonya, how are they going to find my website? How are they going to find my book?"

I know. . .I know. . .we have been so conditioned to use twitter as a middle man to get our name out there. In doing so, have you lost followers?

Content tweeting doesn't mean that you have to be there in person either, although I highly recommend that you get on twitter and physically interact with your followers.

Content tweeting should interest anyone that follows you or your core group of tweeps that interact with you.

A few examples:

Support #indieauthors Great novels at great prices
A wastebasket is the #writers best friend #amwriting #amediting
One random act of kindness is all it takes.....make today the day and #PayItForward!

OR interact with them and expect a tweeterastion (live tweet conversation):

Good morning. What are you doing today? #amwriting #indieauthor

You get the idea? Yes, you do.

You don't have to limit it to writing. You can tweet book quotes, inspiration etc....

The KEY is to interact with your followers, NOT spam them.

Like I said, spam does have a place in the twittersphere and it does work to find new readers. I have found hundreds of readers through attaching reviews to my tweets. BUT you have to interact. Just because you don't put a link in the content tweet does NOT mean you still can't promote your book.

"Wait! What? Tonya, you just said not to spam, which you meant promote your book...NOW you are confusing me!"

I'm sorry. I'm not trying to confuse here. Here is an example of what I mean....
Hanging out with June Heal, #cozymystery #psychic "A Charming Crime" #mustread #bestseller

OR

#ACHARMINGCRIME a @tonyakappes11 #mustread Fun, mystery, and humor all in one!

Remember to keep all your tweets in the 120 character guideline, g-rated, and free from political views.
Go ahead and try to make a few content tweets and see how many responses you get. I'm sure you are going to be surprised with how many true connections you make.

The more connections you make, the more THEY will promote you and your books! Go on! Try it!!

My Experience With KDP Select

Collapse was released on July 6th, 2012.  In the month or so leading up to its release I had made the decision to go exclusively with Amazon in the KDP Select program.  I had done my homework, it seemed like the smart thing to do.  Just before the release, I had several people ask me if they would be able to get Collapse on the Nook.  Not wanting to disappoint them, I figured it wouldn't hurt to make Collapse available on other formats until sales dropped low enough to make the switch to Select.

An acquaintance (more like a friend of a friend, I'm not sure I'd recognize the guy if I saw him on the street) had already self-published a few books the previous summer and I always kept a close eye on his rankings.  I also kept a close eye on his reviews, which were far from kind.  Some of the most horrible one star reviews I'd ever read adorned both of his books.  One of his titles had many accusations of being plagiarized pornography stolen from an erotic fan fiction forum (dressed up as science fiction for some reason).  "This man is a blight on the literary world, his grasp of the English language is tenuous at best" was one of the reviews that I remember most clearly.  He has since taken both of the books down and figured the third time's a charm with his recently released title.  His latest entry is also suffering similar reviews blasting his poor grammar skills and confusing plot. 

Okay, what does this have to do with KDP Select you might ask.  Thanks to the handy ebook tracking tool at Kindle Nation Daily I was able to track the progress of his work.  His work would usually hover around the 60K neighborhood on the rankings.  The days following his free promos, he would skyrocket into the 1-2K rank, even going as high as 692.  The next day, he would very quickly spend the next two days plummeting back to the 60K range.  This impressed me a great deal, clearly there was something to this KDP Select thing.  If the free promotion could propel a very poorly written book (based on reviews mind you, I only read the sample, which was awful) into the top 1000 then it was definitely worth giving a try.

Collapse had been available on non-Amazon outlets for almost a month and it was time to evaluate sales.  Here is where I was at when I made the decision to go Select. (Does not reflect paperback sales)

Amazon: 162 sales
B&N: 31
Kobo: 2
SmashWords: 1

The decision wasn't hard to make.  I had pointed the majority of my promotion back to the main sales page for Collapse here on this blog.   It's quite clear from those statistics that Amazon truly does hold the vast majority of the ebook market.  Going Select just made sense to me so on August 2nd I pulledCollapse from the other outlets and went exclusive with Amazon.

On August 4th and 5th I had my first free promo weekend.  On August 3rd I spent a great deal of time getting the word out to potential readers.  I was very fortunate to have a comprehensive list at my fingertips thanks to Rachelle Ayala's blog.  I made as many notifications as I could and programmed TweetAdder to start informing the Twitterverse of my upcoming promotion.  I also used the very efficient Tweet Teams at the World Literary Cafe to help get the word out.  For more information on how to effectively use Twitter for book promotion, please read my blog entry.

The free weekend was a huge success. Collapse made it to #17 on the Top 100 Free list and stayed at #1 on the Free list in both of my categories (War and Political).  On Monday morning, the instant my eyes opened I logged on the check the final stats - 13,957 downloads. 

The terrific promotional tool of staying on the Top 20 Free list right next to the Top 20 Paid list and staying at the top of my categories' Free lists was great exposure, but did it pay off in terms of sales?

Absolutely.

For the month of July, I sold 191 digital copies of Collapse on Amazon.  In the two days following my free promo weekend, I sold 218 copies and 51 borrows.  That's right, in two days, I sold more copies than I did the entire previous month.  I should note a disclaimer, I priced Collapse at 99 cents for the four days following the free promo.  Some might think that was the wrong move since I was missing out on a lot of money.  Maybe that's true, but I'm thinking long term exposure.  I am writing a series of four books and my goal is to get the first one out there to as many readers as possible so the series will be an overall success.  Also, I'm not financially dependent on my writing in any way at all so I'm free to gamble on my promos to find out what works best.  I was originally only going to keep the 99 cent price for the day following the promo, but darn it if the book didn't keep climbing up the ranks all the way to 1,159 and in the Top 10 on both of my categories.  Once it peaked and starting slipping back the other direction, I raised it to the regular price.

I have no regrets when it comes to Select, best decision I've made in terms of marketing.  As of the date of this post, my rankings have stayed in the 2K range whereas it was in the 15K to 20K range prior to the free promo.

*******************************************************************
Thank you so much, Richard for being here today and letting me post your honest and open blog about KDP Select. There is nothing better for Indie authors to be able to see numbers from another Indie author. 


Be sure to pick up Richard's award winning novel, Collapse. 
Check him out at his social networking sites!
Facebook 
Twitter

Effectively # Your Way To A New Reader!

The one and most important thing on TWITTER is the # (hashtag). If it weren't for the idea of the #, Twitter would be a nothing!

But you have to # effectively or you will never reach the target audience you want to reach.
There are certain hashtags I use to get to my target audience. For instance, when I want to tweet my blog, I hashtag my tweet with keywords that will help me reach blog readers. Today I tweeted Effectively # To Gain  #reader #marketing #indieauthor #amwriting (url here) or use #amediting #writertip #promoting #writer.
These hashtags help me reach you, my target blog audience.

When I tweet my book, I use #mystery #ebook #2.99 #bestseller #womansleuth #beadedjewelry #streetteam. PLUS too many more to type here, but you get the point. Those hashtags help me reach my target reading audience.

Here are some tips to help # your way to success:

1) Pick KEY hashtags. Like I said earlier, pick hashtags that are already out there. Don't make up your hashtag that NO ONE will see. If you aren't sure what hashtags to use, go to the search box on Twitter and start typing in key words that will help you find your target audience.

2) Keep your tweet short. Sometimes you can do too many hashtags and the reader gets lost in the tweet. Even though you are limited to 140 characters, that too can be too many sometimes.

Here are some popular hashtags for writers:
#amediting  posts from people who are editing
#amwriting  posts from people who are writing
#askagent  agent questions and answers
#author
#authors
#editing
#fictionfriday
#fridayflash  flash fiction on a Friday
#nanowrimo  national novel writing month
#novels
#novelists
#poem
#poet
#poets
#poetry
#pubtip  publication tips
#publishing
#scifi
#selfpublishing
#vss   very short story
#webfic  web fiction
#weblit   web literature
#wip   work in progress
#wordcount
#writegoal
#writequote
#writer
#writers
#writetip  writing advice
#writing
#writingtips  writing advice
#wrotetoday 
 
Some hashtags are specifically “chats” – which means they work in the same way as all tags, but are mainly used at certain agreed times : 
 
#journchat
#kidlitchat
#litchat
#scifichat
#scribechat
#storycraft
#writechat
#yalitchat   young adult literature chat 
 


So get your tweet on and # effectively to reach your target audience.


Do you tweet effectively?

TIPS to a SUCCESSFUL BOOK RELEASE ON-LINE PARTY!

We spend months writing our novel, editing our novel, talking to everyone we know about our novel, even go as far as a tweet or two or a couple Facebook status' about how many words you completed that day on your novel.

And the time comes. . .

Either you have a publisher that publishes your novel OR you are the publisher. You put a tweet out and make your status on Facebook "happy book birthday" or "it's launch day of my novel." Then. . .silence. You are on to the next one.

What happened? For MONTHS you talked about this book, you boosted about the word count you achieved or we cried with you when your muse wouldn't cooperate. Those were the fun times of saying you had a novel, but when it came time for it to be published and purchased, how did you exactly get it out into the public??

It doesn't matter what journey of publication you find yourself on, you still have to market your novel. Most publishing companies don't even have a marketing department anymore that will set up  book signings, send you your author swag, or pat you on the back anymore. All self published authors have to do their own marketing during a book launch.

So put on your marketing hat and use these sure-fire tips to help launch the best on-line book release party!!

1) When you start writing your novel, start talking about it all over. I mean ALL OVER. Post pictures on Pinterest of your characters, or things that remind you of your story. Talk about your progress on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, the bus stop, anywhere someone will listen.

2) Set your release date in stone! If you are with a traditional publisher, they set your date for you. But self published authors have the option to decide when to release their novels. I suggest you release your book baby on Tuesday. Tuesday is when  all traditional novels are released and you want the same respect for your novel as a traditionally published novel.

With that said, you want your self published novel available in all ebook stores that you can. This means that you have to upload your novel days before your release date to make sure your novel is available the day you say it's going to be available.

I always upload to Createspace a week earlier because you have to get a proof copy of the print or check it out on-line. I also upload to PubIt four days before my release date because it takes them a few days to get it published. I publish on Smashwords the day before the release day and publish on KDP (Amazon) three days before.

I want to make sure my book is available in all forms on the day I say it's going to be.

3) Two months before your release day, set up a blog tour. If your book has a theme, google blogs with that theme. You will be surprised how many blogs are out there. They might not be book blogs, but who cares! You want to reach readers and if you target the market (what better way then hitting the theme of your novel) those blog followers will want to purchase your book! They are invested in the theme of your book and will want to read your book.

My novel, Carpe Bead 'em, has a beading theme. I looked up blogs that had anything to do with beading. It was GREAT! I had a blog tour just for beading enthusiasts. Carpe Bead 'em hit Amazon's Movers and Shakers list in the first couple of weeks of release and made it to number one! I know it was due to blogging on those targeted blogs because they emailed me. They celebrated with me.

You also want to hit reader centric blogs. Those can also be googled. I always ask Melissa at Melissa's Mochas, Mysteries, and More or Dru's Book Musings because both of these sites target mystery readers. I also hit a few reader centric blogs that aren't mystery, but some of the followers could be mystery readers or willing to read a mystery. And I hit a few writer blogs. I make sure I have at least ten guest blogs during the first two weeks of my release day. If you need more help finding someone to host you, ask your groups on Facebook. There are so many authors/readers willing to host you, but you have to ask!

I suggest putting together a press kit that has your author photo, short bio, book list, and all your links in a PDF, as well as a nicely written note about how much you would love to do a guest interview, guest post, or what ever. Offer a ARC (advanced reading copy) of your book, even if it's in the last stages of editing. Be sure to let them know that it's in the final stages of editing, but they will get the point of the novel.

Be sure to keep a list of blogs you queried and mark on your calendar the date of your guest post. GET YOUR GUEST BLOG TO THEM A WEEK EARLY!!

4) Make a STREET TEAM!! I have been promoting this street team idea for a couple months ago and I'm telling you that it's so much fun!! I invited a few readers and it's expanded to over 250 members. It's a place where my readers love to gather and we talk about everything from books to the weather.

Just like you, I post when I have good writing days or bad writing days. My readers are there for me. They see what it takes for an author to get a novel completed and all the hard work that we do to get a book into their hands. On the flip side, I'm still in awe how they spend a second of their day invested in one of my books. My STREET TEAM is where I give back to them!

Now that Amazon and Barnes and Noble have made it so easy to gift a book, I hold a give away of other author's books, my swag, gift cards, or even a kind word. Recently I hosted a contest where I asked my Street Team to help me name a character. I gave the characteristics and told them I would mention them in my next novel. Simple. Free. Easy! I had over 47 comments! And got some great names!!!

On release day, I will politely ask my STREET TEAM members to post a link to my book and where their friends can buy it. That is all I ask of them.

5) Have a virtual release day party!!! It doesn't matter if you are an introvert or extrovert PR PERSONALITY~it's an on-line party and you get to hide behind your computer!

I made a Facebook event page on my STREET TEAM page for an all day event of fun! I went to all the Facebook writer groups that I belong to and asked them if any of them want to donate one of your ebooks to my release day. The response was unbelievable!!! I had over fifty authors donate an ebook to my release day!

(This is one of my STREET TEAM TOTES. EASY and FUN! I got the bags at the Family Dollar for $1!!! I made my STREET TEAM LOGO and printed it on iron on paper! Easy! And fun!! These are going to be given away on release day!!)

Not only is it a win for my readers, it's a win for authors for new readers to discover them! I'm able to give a book away every twenty minutes on release day! PLUS I'm going to be giving away a few copies of my own novel as well.

And I've talked it up all over Facebook and Twitter! I belong to a tweet team and the only tweet I have been using is JUNE 12 the release of A CHARMING CRIME (add facebook link) prizes every twenty minutes!! And I have a couple others that are being tweeted, but you get the idea.

These are just a few things that I do and that have been successful for me. What about you? Do you have any great tips to a successful release day?

BTW. . . my new release is next Tuesday, June 12 for A CHARMING CRIME!! Come on over and join my STREET TEAM if you'd like to participate in winning some GREAT novels!!

LIGHTS, CAMERA. . . BLOG EXPOSURE

We blog because we want people to invest in us. We want the loyal reader to come back time and time again. We all have different reasons to blog. Do you want readers, other authors, or both? Either way, without exposure you won't have either.

Last week we talked about how to gain more subscribers, but how are you going to get those subscribers if you don't have the exposure?

Are you ready to generate blog interest?

1) FACEBOOK and TWITTER
Are you rolling your eyes at me?? DON'T! These two social medias are wonderful ways to drive traffic to your blog. Do you belong to groups on Facebook that allow you to promote your blog? I'm on at least ten of these, and every time a new blog is posted, I get on those Facebook groups and add a brief description of the blog along with the URL. Not only is it easy to click on, but it gives a little detail to what the blog is about. You have to be sure to give back as well. Make sure you check out other authors in those groups and visit their blogs too.

Twitter is great to reach that niche using hashtags. These hashtags link you to the target market you want to reach. You can also continue to drive traffic to your blog by using a reoccurring service like SOCIALOMPH.COM to schedule updates of your tweets. Every time I write a new blog, I make a tweet that will reoccur daily for two weeks.


2) NETWORK
There are several Facebook or on-line groups that have tweet teams, or blog teams that will help spread the word about your blog. Remember that you should always give back even when some of those members don't always do it. It's all about networking!

OR you can exchange blog tweets with a group of authors that you might be close to. Kindle Boards have a great thread called HAVE YOU POSTED TO YOUR BLOG LATELY. That is a wonderful place to put your post and find other great blogs to follow.

I'm on two tweet teams and I also exchange tweets about blogs/books with other authors. I also pick out a couple tweets I love from others or blogs that I came across and schedule those through my SOCIALOOMPH account to reoccur. Most of the time I never let the author know I'm tweeting or Facebook or putting a link in my blog.  Always give back and don't expect anything in return. It's good KARMA!

3) HEADLINES THAT POP
Try to come up with something catchy for the title of your blog. It's almost as important as the title of your novel. I have to admit that I'm not the best at coming up with names, but I never give up.

4) LABELS/ SEO
Be sure to add labels to tag your posts. You simply list main words that your blog is about in the label area. This helps get those labels out in the blog sphere and when someone Googles a certain topic, your blog will pop up somewhere in that list. Why are SEO so important? Great blog to check out because I'm really NOT good a explaining it.

The labels I generally use: social media, marketing and promoting, tonya kappes, writer tip, writer blog, inspiration, networking etc....


5) LINK TO OTHER POSTS
If you talk about another author or blog or give information written by someone else, you should always link back. Or if you talk about a blog you previous wrote, make sure you link back to that post.
Have you noticed all the red words in my posts? Those are link backs to different things. It could be a previous post, another blog by someone else, links to book, etc....
This makes it easy for the reader to click and be exactly where they need to be instead of going through the hassle of trying to figure out what you were trying to say. One click and they are done. This makes your blog reader friendly.

How do you get blog exposure? There are so many ways to discover new readers!

YES, I'm a HYBRID!

Many, many times I have stated that I believe the publishing industry is so different from when I first started out.

Years ago, the only way to get your novel published was to get an agent, and then hope the agent sold your novel to a publishing house. My, my have times changed.
Over the past couple years the ebook revolution came barreling through like a tornado and has left the publishing industry in a mass destruction.

Many of us really saw this as an opportunity. I was ready to take the leap.
The leap was really like a big heave. I had already been promoting myself, creating my voice through blogging, going to writer's conferences, building a platform all without having my first novel, Carpe Bead 'em, out there.

Why did I decide to go the self-publishing route? I had written a couple of women's fiction novels and women's fiction was really hard to break into going the traditional route. Plus it had some chick-lit in it, which everyone told me that chick-lit was DEAD! DEAD!
So my journey began. And it has been a super successful journey. I've been on over 32 bestsellers lists, Amazon Movers and Shakers list three times, and sold over 35k ebooks in five months. Nothing to turn your nose up at.

But as I stated earlier this week in my blog AT WHAT POINT DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'VE SUCCEEDED, my dream still continues.
I've succeeded in the indie journey. I've gotten some really GREAT readers that I probably would've never found. The indie journey has given me some great opportunities. I've met so many indie authors and have shared a great deal of information between us.

Not only have I met some great indie authors, I've met some REALLY amazing traditional authors and industry professionals.

I've continued to keep a toe in all parts of the publishing industry by blogging, conferences, I'm a guest speaker for writer's groups, networking, marketing and promoting others, and being on social media 24/7 all while being a mother of three wonderful teenage boys, wife to an amazing man, and friend to many.

I've always maintained that I want an agent, I want to be traditionally published, I want a movie, I want it ALL!

I hear many indie authors say that going indie is the best way to reach readers. I whole heartily agree with that, but I also believe you can reach readers the traditional way too. The distribution channels are much different than being indie.
Bookstores may be going on the extinct list, but they are never going to go away. And I mean books in grocery stores, Targets, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Walgreens, etc. . .

I want to be everywhere, including the internet and all the stores above. It's never been about the money for me. (That is why I went to college, went back for my masters, and have a day job.)
It's about a dream. It's about showing my boys that when you want something so bad, work so hard, and continue to have a great attitude while accomplishing it, dreams do come true.

My dream of obtaining and agent has finally come true. I didn't haphazardly query agents from query tracker or Publisher's Marketplace. I had to have the right fit. I wanted someone who has grown as the industry has grown, embrace self-publishing, realize that no matter what that I'm there for my readers/authors and continue to pay it forward, as well as still promote and market myself 110%.
Not only did I find all of that in one agent, but also the entire agency.

I accepted representation from agent Barbara Scott at Wordserve Literary Agency. Not only do they embrace the indie journey, they promote it and me. They were so impressed with how far I have come and the trail that I've blazed in my career.

I will continue to self-publish as well as try to get traditionally published.

Why lose the money to an agent when I've been so successful?

Success can not be measured by money for me. Success is peace of mind, knowing I have made my dreams come true, knowing that I've gone as far as I can, personal fulfillment, and at the end of the day-being a good role model/example for my boys (who, btw, are over the moon that I have an agent) by teaching them that they can do anything in life with a little elbow grease.

My true readers will follow me no matter where I go. I've had nothing more than wonderful outpouring of support from readers over the past couple of days, as well as authors.
After all, a writer can't have too many readers.

So. . .Yes! I'm a true HYBRID WRITER!

Top Three Things To Boost Your Career

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of speaking on a couple of panels at The Jeffersonville Crossing Writer's Conference. I was on the mystery panel, since I write mystery, and the "journey to publication" panel that discussed traditional vs self vs small publishing.
Over the past couple years of doing speaking events, most authors that I've come across at conferences always tend to ask the same thing, no matter what panels I'm on. This weekend was no different.
This is GREAT for me! This is exactly how I came up with the idea of my non-fiction craft book, THE TRICKED OUT TOOLBOX~PROMOTION AND MARKETING TOOLS EVERY WRITER NEEDS.
"What is your top three advice tips for social media?" is the number one question I'm asked.
Social media still takes author's breath away.  No matter what road of publication you've decided to take, all three of these will work.

1) AMAZON CENTRAL PAGE is a must. This is where you can list everything you can about you (the author) to help reach readers and other authors. Not only does it link all your books to you, you can put in your own bio, all your book trailers, any pictures you want to display, link your blogs, link Twitter feed, Facebook feed, EVERYTHING!
You can even create pages about your characters, setting, your novels in general. This might seem like a lot of work, but it's not. Once you take a few minutes to do it, you don't have to do anything to maintain it unless you need to change something on it.
Every so often I will update my bio or add a new book trailer. Setting up this account should be first on your list.

2) LINK, LINK, LINK! I'm sure you are on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and now AMAZON CENTRAL. You can link your blog, Twitter, and Facebook to these sites. This will save you so much time because once you post to your blog, it will automatically go to your feeds  and you won't have to go in and manually tell your social media peeps about your blog. The feed will do it for you. This gives you more exposure. All of this just takes a little time and it's FREE!

3) PAY IT FORWARD. Give back! Give a little KARMA. Visit a few author sites, leave a comment, share a couple of someone's Facebook status', or retweet a few of your tweeps.

The only thing these TOP THREE require are time. AND NOT A LOT OF IT! I know you are creeping on Facebook, playing around on Twitter, or even hanging out on the Kindle Boards. You can use that time to create these and you will be actually doing something to help boost your career.

Do you have a top three that you want to share?

I'm so sorry. I'm kicking you of my limb!

Last week we discussed hashtags and why they are important for you to use when you use Twitter. This week it's important to understand how Twitter works with follows and unfollows.

I don't know about you, but when I follow someone on Twitter, I hope they follow me back. My following was going up but my followers weren't. I would look up a hashtag that interested me, like #amwriting, and began to click follow on everyone.  Of course they were going to follow me back! They used #amwriting too!!

WRONG!!!


Oh, well. . .I continued to follow everyone and everyone that followed me I would send an automatic follow. PERFECT, until. . .I was stuck! Twitter only let me follow 2k tweeps. 
TWO-THOUSAND? That's nothing!! But I was stuck, I couldn't follow anyone back. What to do?
I knew that if I just emailed Twitter, the Twitter God would see that I'm truly a nice person and let me put my nest higher up in the tree. Right?


WRONG!!!


Twitter God: “Follow limits are based on several things, one of which is our belief in a person’s good standing and intention. The behind-the-scenes portion of follow limiting varies by account, relationship, and changes over time. Based on current behavior in the Twitter community, we’ve concluded that this is both fair and reasonable. While we figure out what works best for everyone, the limits may change occasionally, but this is the nucleus and future limits will be based upon the success of these.”
Me: **sigh** 


Now what? How was I going to figure out how to unfollow my Twitter peeps? What if I unfollow someone that is following me? Am I going to get hate tweets? Cyber bullied?
I began to go through the list of tweeps I was following and couldn't believe how many weren't following me back. Not that their tweets didn't matter to me, but they were taking up my limb on the part of the tweet tree! And my limb can only hold 2k tweeps. 

I used my good old buddy, Google. I was happy to realize that Twitter God wasn't only holding me to 2k, but everyone has a 2k limit until their follow to follower ratio allowed them to follow more. (Don't even ask me the ratio, because I still haven't figured that out!!)

Fine. I went to Twitter and and opted out of auto follow, and then began to unfollow the "egg head" gravatars,  movie stars, and some authors until Twitter stopped me after I reached the 100 daily limit.

WHAT? Another limit? **big sigh**

It was going to take me forever to unfollow just so I can follow again. 

I went back to visit my old friend, Google, because I knew there had to be something out there that would let me unfollow more than 100 tweeps. Guess what! I found several sites that not only tell you how many people aren't following you back, it lists them for you. And when I saw a few of "my friends" on there. . .sigh. . .

The best part, I could mass unfollow and Twitter let me. 

So I started my walk down my limb on the Twitter tree and kicked off some tweeps that was taking up valuable and LIMITED space.


I didn't unfollow just anyone. Using MagageFlitter.com, I found out how many people weren't following me, and over 200 of my tweeps hadn't twittered in months, years!


I had never thought about those tweeps who have dumped Twitter and taking up space on my limb. 


ManageFlitter.com also lets you know who are the talkative tweeps on your limb and who are the quiet tweeps. This really helps you decide who you should be tweeting or not wasting your time. I'm not saying that the quiet ones are a waste of time, but you are on Twitter for a reason. Copy blogger has a great blog post on how Twitter really does help you as a writer.


I'm not saying to go and unfollow all of the tweeps not following you. All I am saying is that you use Twitter as a social media tool for your writing, and you need to think long and hard about the tweeps your tweets are getting to. If someone is not following you, your tweets aren't getting to them unless you mentioned (@) them. Or those tweeps who you are following that hasn't tweeted in over a year or TWO? I had 200 tweeps that haven't tweeted 9 months to two years and what a waste of space they were taking on my little limb in the Twitter tree.


What about those people who you really want to follow that teach you something about writing?
They might not follow you, but you get something out of their tweets. That's great. You should be following them, but not if you are at you 2k LIMIT. 


Go ahead. I give you permission to walk down your Twitter limb and kick off anyone that isn't on your social media bandwagon. I give you permission to knock those tweeps off! You spend too much time on your social media to have sleeping tweeps.


Now I'm off to figure out how to get more followers.


If you want to gain more followers, Missy Biozarre has a great blog post about how she reached 25k followers!


Social Media Guide has a list of a DOZEN tools to unfollow tweeps that aren't following you.


Have you reached your Tweeps limit? How did you get Twitter to let you follow more than 2k tweeps? This is my goal! I'm going to get my followers up, so I can follow more!


Leave you Tweet handle in the comments!! I will follow:))

Tweet Your Way Marketing Plan

Believe it or not, most writers aren't on Twitter. They find it a little to fast or just plain confusing. Admittedly, they are right.

Twitter can be a tad bit confusing. When you tweet, there can be 25 more tweets from other people before you even finish typing in your tweet. PLUS who can write their thoughts in 140 characters?

If you are anything like me. . . I have a lot to say and 140 characters don't cut it.

But I have found so many helpful authors that were willing to help me learn the in's and out's of tweeting and I've got my own twideas (my made up word for tweet ideas. Hey, I'm a fiction writer in my own world!) up my sleeve.

Twitter is a powerful tool for you to use to reach readers, writers, and other industry professionals.
Using the proper hashtag (#) is the way to reach your target audience.

Before we talk about hashtags, we need to talk about etiquette and how to use Twitter effectively. There are so many times I get tweets from authors that are "buy my book," "check me out," and this is a turn off to me. That in your face marketing really doesn't work for me and my personality, and most people don't like that type of marketing. Think about it this way~ you know those unwanted sales people that show up at your door selling knives, carpet cleaner, magazines? I just saw you roll your eyes! YES! If you get on Twitter and YELL "BUY MY BOOK" "HERE IS THE LINK TO MY BOOK," they will slammed the door in your face or click unfollow.

People want to get to know you, and like you. Trust me, if you establish a likable relationship with your readers or tweet followers, they are more than likely to buy your book because they like YOU! The best advice I can give is to make yourself likable by paying it forward to others.

How do you do this?

Simply by retweeting other's tweets, or even commenting on tweets that you find interesting. It only takes a few minutes a day to get on twitter and tweet back. Reply to simple things that make you personable. Someone might tweet, "what's for dinner" and it only takes a second to reply to that tweet. But be careful not to get sucked into tweeting for hours. It can happen!

I insert hashtags in my tweet to reach the target audience. An example of one of my tweets: I have two kinds of days, happy and happier #inspiration #payitforward

Hashtags help those who seek similar content to discover your tweet.

Another tweet I will have is RT @tonyakappes11 How bad do you want success http://bit.ly/Aod6nh #inspiration #amwriting #indieauthor

Okay...so this is about my blog, I'm not saying don't promote yourself, just don't be in your face. I want to help others with my blog, so I write things here to help do that.

Let's break down the tweet. RT (Retweet abbreviation because we only have 140 characters! UGH!) is a way for me to gently tell people that I would appreciate them to retweet my tweet. @tonyakappes11 is my twitter handle and this is how I can track who is retweeting me, and what tweets get the most tweets. The http link is a link to the blog I'm tweeting using the bitly.com website, and since we can only use 140 characters, I highly recommend using this site. Bitly.com will also tell you how many people have clicked on your link from your tweet. Lastily, I have the hashtags of the target audience.

How often do you tweet?

This is another big thing. Statistics shows that someone has to see something between seven to ten times before they recognize "hey, I think I've seen that before." Ten to fifteen times to remember the name. This is why scheduling tweets can be a good thing. There are a lot of people who say scheduling tweets are not personable and I agree, but that is why you jump on twitter a couple times a day and quickly respond to a few tweets.

I use Twaitter.com to schedule tweets. I schedule hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly. And the tweets that I schedule are upcoming events, blog posts, promotions for others, and a few quotes. This allows me to keep a presences on twitter when I am at the day job, sporting events for my kids, or even out to dinner with my husband. But I also jump on a few times a day and make live tweets.

Ghostwriterdad.com has some other great site besides Twaitter that you can use.

Top writer hashtags (taken from Novelpublicity.com):

1. #amwriting – This is the reigning champ of Twitter hashtags for writers, and should be used early and often while writing…

2. #amediting – …and this is for when you’re editing your work.

3. #askagent – Some agents will answer questions that are tagged with this. You are following agents, right?

4. #fridayreads – So you can tell people what you’re reading. Happens every Friday. This is a great place to get your name out if you can get friends and fans to tweet your book as a Friday read.

5. #WW – This can mean a couple of things, but for the literary types, it means “Writer Wednesday.” This is sort of like Follow Friday. Name some of the writers you follow and tag them up. Some will even return the favor.

6. #pubtip – Agents and authors will often throw out some useful tips with this hashtag, for querying and for publishing in general.

7. #yalit or yalitchat

8. #wordcount – Writers love to commiserate, especially over word counts. Share yours because it might inspire you – or something else – to keep at it.

9. #writetip – This is another great opportunity to find, or share, some inspiration.

10. #FridayFlash or FictionFriday – This is a good way to stay loose. Write some quick fiction on your blog and share it through these hashtags on Fridays.

My top writer hashtags


#inspiration - I love quotes and want to make people feel good about their daily life.
#payitforward - Again, I want to help anyone I can. I believe in it!
#indieauthor -I'm also self published and want to help my fellow authors.
#beading - I write cozy mysteries with beading elements, so I want to reach that target audience.
#cozymystery - This is a target audience for me.
#promotion - Another target audience.
#marketing - Target audience
#sharethelove - Another pay it forward audience.

I'm adding to the list! What are some of your favorite hashtags or twideas? Do you have an twitter questions?

BTW. . .if you would like to have some tweets tweeted for you for free, check out WoMen's Literary Cafe! Sign up! IT'S FREE! Great promo and it's easy!!

Secrets to Successful Social Networking

Fantasy author Ty Johnston’s blog tour 2011 is running from November 1 through November 30. His novels include City ofRogues, Bayne’s Climb and More Than Kin, all of which are available for theKindle (http://www.amazon.com/Ty-Johnston/e/B002MCBQRU/ ), the Nook(http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/ty-johnston ) and online atSmashwords(http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/darkbow ). His latest novel, Ghosts of the Asylum, will be available for e-books on November 21. To find out more, follow him at his blog tyjohnston.blogspot.com.

The secret to successful social networking

More and more writers today are finding social networking important for building an audience. Whether it’s authors touting their latest book, bloggers promoting their site, or other writers, reaching out to an online audience is one of the strongest, and easiest, promotional tools a writer can have.

Unfortunately, some writers hate it, and others just can’t seem to figure out what to do.

The basics are quite simple. You sign up for such sites as Twitter and Facebook, you start making “friends” on those sites, then you start letting your “friends” know about your book, blog, whatever.

However, that easy step opens up three potential problems for the promoting writer.

First, pushing one’s writing on the unsuspecting or the unwilling is often called spam, and others online won’t hesitate to call you out on it. Yes, you are joining such sites to promote your work, but to do so constantly only makes you annoying to others. There’s nothing wrong with mentioning your new blog post or new article from time to time, but making a nuisance out of yourself does a writer no good. How to judge if you’re spamming? Ask yourself how you feel when others are pushing their products on you.

The second possible problem with the basics of social networking is a lack of diversification in the sites. Yes, everyone knows Twitter and Facebook, but are you familiar with StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit and a thousand other sites. Do you know about tumblr? What about more writing-centric sites such as GoodReads or LibraryThing or Kindleboards? Obviously it is far too time consuming to be on all sites all the time, but it would not hurt to pick a few as favorites and to have at least some presence on the others. The popularity of networking sites can wax and wane, so if you already have an account on one, it will be much easier to start taking part in the online community there.

A third potential problem for writers and social networking is that often it can seem no matter how much work you put into it, social networking never seems to pay off. You keep trying and trying, but your book sales aren’t going up, or your blog views are staying flat.

All too often I see writers who have 20,000 Followers on Twitter, but it does them little good. Or there are those who have thousands of Facebook friends, but without it helping their writing career.

How can this be? You’ve put all this time and effort into clicking your way to connecting with people, but none of them seem interested in your writing.

Too often, writers will become frustrated, throw up their hands and give up on social networking. They figure there must be some secret they don’t understand, or they believe they aren’t “cool” enough for others to latch onto.

The truth is, such writers are missing the trees for the forest. Yes, you read that correctly.

Signing up with a networking site and gathering thousands upon thousands of followers is only the beginning, a mere step in the right direction. It takes more effort than that, and more time.

There is one simple trick to successful social networking, and it’s not really a trick. What is it? You have to keep in mind the “social” aspect of social networking.

You have to chat with others. You have to talk online with them as if they really are friends. And you have to do so without constantly bombarding them with pressure to read your latest post or book or what-have-you.

The age of the hard-sell has passed us by. Today’s consumers are savvy enough to know when they’re being sold something, when an advertisement is slapping them in the face. Most of today’s consumers and readers don’t like that. To them, it feels as if they are being forced into something, and no one enjoys that feeling.

If a writer wants to successfully utilize social networking, the writer has to take the time to make real friends online. It’s not easy. You build relationships one at a time, but it needs to be done. Join in those twitter hashtag conversations. Let others know you appreciate their stumbles on StumbleUpon. Take part in the jokes on Facebook.

You never know? You might just start selling a few more books or drawing more people to your site. And better yet, you might actually have some fun and make a whole bunch of new friends.