Writing Advice Links

Links for Feb. 11, 2019: Jane Friedman on Pinterest, and Learning about Book Covers

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Jane Friedman published this guest post by Christina McDonald on starting and growing an email newsletter. It has some good advice for beginners, but I’d be wary about giving away books and using Facebook to boost your posts.

What can you learn from a video discussing every Marvel movie poster? It can be a great introduction into learning how to design a dynamic book cover. Even if you’re working with a cover designer, explaining what you want will put you closer to getting a smashing cover.

Speaking of covers, BookBub has 12 Questions you should ask a book cover designer you want to hire.

See how other writers are killing it on Facebook and Pinterest. The website Social Media Just for Writers offers 14 Facebook Pages for Authors to Review as well as 20 Pinterest Accounts to Follow for Writers.

What can you learn? That Anne Lamott includes her event schedule out to May. That Mark Dawson offers videos as well as free books )on the lefthand side of the page). Nick Stephenson uses his banner to direct readers to his sign-up button. Lots of ideas to steal to improve your look.

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Links for Dec. 24, 2018: Podcast Guests, Amazon Reviewers

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How to be a Good Podcast Guest contains some great ideas. I especially endorse rehearsing a week ahead of time to make sure the tech bugs are worked out.

This might not make it into the “Writers Gone Wild” sequel, but only because there’s too many stories ahead of it. “Poet” Ailey O’Toole caught plagiarizing, well, everyone.

Amy Collins at The Book Designer has discovered it’s much harder to find Amazon reviewers these days. But it’s not impossible, and here’s how she does it. Bonus: I found a new frontier for getting my face up on the Zon.

For the new year, why not improve the look of your Facebook page?

Charging clueless artist fees for public domain photos wasn’t making Alamy co-founder Mike Fischer enough money, so he’s slicing another 10 percent off photographers’ commission and pocketing the savings.

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Curated Advice Links for the Week of Nov. 26, 2018

by • Writing Advice Links

This week in curated advice, I want to direct your attention to videos from the 20Booksto50K group’s convention in Las Vegas, tweaking your marketing during the holiday months, and why Amazon wants you to make only clean links.

M.K. Williams posted the first of a five-part series on YouTube to talk about how to land a lot on one and how to make it profitable. Only one vid’s up, but it’s less than 5 minutes long.

If you’re not a member of the 20Booksto50K group, nor went to their convention in Las Vegas, you’re still in luck. Most of the presentations are up on YouTube. Day One features talks by Chris Fox / Bryan Cohen, Chrishaun Keller Hanna, and Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle. Day Two has talks by Michael Laronn, Dean Wesley Smith, and more.

What are clean links and why does Amazon care that you share them? Karl Drinkwater has the answers.

Just because they keep repeating the lie doesn’t make it true: ebook fiction sales are not down, they shifting away from traditional publishers.

Using Apple’s Pages? Did you know it can now publish to Apple Books?

Indie Reader has advice for how to take advantage of the holidays next month.

Do you have an author media kit? If you don’t, here’s Bookworks with part 1 on how to make one.

Finally, it’s the end of the year, so it’s a good time to update your social media outposts.