Google provides easy ways to boost your author visibility online

At our most recent meeting, several members expressed interest in ways to make their work known to more people. After all, writers write so that their work will be read, right?

Google+

There is a lot of information "out there" about book marketing, author branding, and promotion through social networking -- so much info that it can seem confusing or intimidating. So here is one easy way to boost your online profile, which will help interested readers find your website, blog, or online publications: Use Google+ as part of your social networking platform. This article from Where Writers Win will give you an idea how Google+ can help you:

Its distinct advantages include:

1. Google+ impact on search results (because, yeah, it’s owned by Google!) In 2012, SEOptimise founder Kevin Gibbons tested this theory by looking at the websites of his clients who do and don’t use Google+. Those without a Google+ presence saw a 19.5 percent decrease in organic traffic. Google+ users saw a 42.6 percent increase.
2. It’s easy to post your latest blog link to your Google+ profile. Want credit for authorship? Of course you do, and posting a snippet and link from your latest post onto your Google+ profile helps you get there.
3. You’ll be indexed quickly. When you create a post on Google+, the search engine indexes it immediately. This makes it more likely that your Google+ followers will find your content when they search Google.
4. More bang for your author-marketing minutes. Time is always a consideration, and no author wants to suck up all theirs on social media. Google+ features make it stronger than Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn combined. Google+ has integrated Twitter’s hashtag (#) to track trends and also has mentions, allowing you to interact directly with another user. Google+ Communities allow people to share and discuss information like they do in groups on LinkedIn. You can even pre-edit photos before posting them.

I would add a couple of reasons not covered in the article. First, Google+ makes it very easy to connect with like-minded people, much easier than on Facebook, for example. Google+ communities are easy to join, and there is a goodly number of writers communities (for different genres), as well as those for editors, publishers, etc. And Google+ makes it very simple to expand your circles on contacts.

Blogger & Google Analytics

Another reason to use Google+ is the way it integrates with your Blogger blog. (I love Blogger! I have several Blogger blogs, including this one.) I know, Word Press is supposed to be the groovy, with-it blogging platform, but the truth is that Blogger blogs are much easier to set up, customize, and maintain. And, since Blogger is a part of Google, it is optimized for the Google search engine, and easy to connect to Google analytics. Plus, if you wish, you can integrate your comm box  with your Google+ account, extending the reach of your blog posts and improving your search ranking.  And Google Analytics makes it easy to determine which blog posts are getting read, and how your readers are finding you.

Google Authorship

Even more important than all of that is the fact that you can now use your Google+ profile to make sure the Google search engine links ALL your content on the internet, wherever it has been published. Learn more about the advantages of "Google authorship" here and go here to sign up for it.

If you haven't yet started building an online presence, why not start with the many free products and applications that Google makes available? Get started here with a new blog -- free!

Download member's book for Free

Download Kindle version
free June 14 & 15

I wanted anyone interested to know that my Kindle ebook on diatomaceous earth, "Mother Earth's Best Kept Secret," will be available as a free download again for a couple of days, Saturday, June 15, and Sunday, June 15. There is also a paperback version available , but that'll cost you.

Those who have been a member of the group for a while may remember that I published this little book a few months ago as a "trial balloon" to test out the process of Kindle publishing. Since then it has been selling well -- much better than I had expected, at any rate.

Publishing the Kindle version was so easy that I couldn't resist also testing Amazon's "publish on demand" capability, by redesigning and publishing the Kindle book as a paperback. I am quite pleased with the quality of the printing and binding, and am happy to report that the paperback version is selling even better than the Kindle version, rising to 17th best-selling title in Amazon's "green housekeeping" category. (Rank changes from day to day, however.)

Anyone who would like to know more about Amazon's publishing capabilities should take a peek at their Kindle Direct Publishing site (for Kindle ebooks) or their Create Space site for self-published physical books. You're also welcome to ask me about my own experience with these two (easy! and free!) ways to publish your work through Amazon.

Easily Read and Store Research from the Web

One of the oft-overlooked tasks of the writer is doing research to make sure that you are getting details right. Almost all kinds of writing, from academic papers to works of fiction, require some sort of research. Fortunately, the worldwide web makes it easier than ever to do research, but the proliferation of sources of information, paradoxically, seems to make it ever more difficult to keep track of all the info you're tracking down. What's a writer to do?

One of my favorite tools for keeping web-research in an easy-to-read and easy-to-keep-track-of format is Amazon's free Send to Kindle applications. Whether it's the browser plug-in (available for both Chrome and Firefox) to capture sources from the web or one of the other applications, these handy little pieces of software convert your documents to Kindle format, and store them in your Kindle cloud archive so that you can never lose track of your documents. You don't have to own a Kindle ereader device to use it, either -- you can install a free Kindle reading app on your computer or smart device, or just read your documents in Amazon's Cloud Reader in your web browser (nothing to install!).

I really love the browser plug-in -- when I find a useful article, I just hit the Send to Kindle button and then I can read it whenever I want, on just about any device I choose, perfectly formatted for easy reading. The browser plug-in lets you preview before you send, so that you can make sure you've captured the text you need. If it's not quite right, just make sure you first highlight the text you want and select "preview" before you send. When your document shows up in your Kindle reader, it will include a link to the URL from which you captured it, so you don't need to worry about making a special note of the source.

Amazon also has a version of Send to Kindle for your PC, Mac, or Android device, which allows you to convert and archive your own documents -- from your writing or page layout software, choose the "Send to Kindle" printer driver, or right click on a document filename on your computer and select "Send to Kindle." The document will be converted and uploaded to your Kindle archive -- if anything should happen to the original, you'll always have your Kindle copy "in the cloud."

My favorite version is one I haven't even tried yet, the new Send to Kindle button now available for websites and Wordpress blogs. Now you can make sure that your readers on the web can send your blog posts or other online copy to their own Kindle devices.

Give it a try -- chances are you'll find that you love being able to "send once, read anywhere."

A Freebie to Help You Market Your Book

I just discovered a new web site, the Author Marketing Club, that may be of interest to any writer (especially self-published writers) who manages to finish writing a book and needs to think about marketing. I have only just discovered it, so I can't testify to its usefulness or effectiveness, but so far I'm impressed.

Let's face it, for many of us, having to think about marketing makes us want to do almost anything else -- write another book, take a nap, flee. What makes a good writer is not the same thing as what makes a good publicist, so we need all the help we can get. The Author Marketing Club (AMC) offers lots of help.

This web site is apparently still quite new, but it seems to offer lots of good free (and low-cost) help to making sure your book is well-packaged and well-known. Essentially, they offer a network of freelance editors, cover designers, links to resources, and even free resources on the site, such as video tutorials on book marketing and helpful ebooks you can download for free. I just downloaded two nice freebies:   The Ultimate Digital Book Promotion Handbook: The Author’s Guide To Finding Places To Promote Your Book Online, and The Write Word’s Easy Editing and Spiffy Style Guide. I would include download links for those, but they are available only to club members. However, membership is free, so anyone who would like the free books can get a free membership first. A very nice freebie is their offer of a free book landing page, along with discounted hosting if you need it.

AMC also offers a tool for getting the word out when you run a free promotion on your Amazon ebook -- allowing you easily to submit your freebie to a number of sites that list free Kindle books, such as Pixel of Ink and The eReader Cafe. While some of what the Author Book Club offers seems geared toward ebook publishers, most of the resources will serve as well, regardless of the medium in which the book will be published, such as networking with other writers, finding guest-blogger opportunities, and ways to get your book featured on their site, simply by writing a blog post or posting an AMC badge on your blog or website.

I'm planning to test out some of the club's offerings, using the ebooklet I've already published as a test balloon while I learn book marketing techniques, and I'll let you know how it goes. If anyone knows of any other nifty resources for marketing books, please leave a comment.

By the way, I learned about the existence of the Author Marketing Club from a mention in Steve May's Kindle book, You Too Can Moonlight As An Amazon Bestseller (Beginner's Guide to Publishing on Amazon),
which I snagged when it was being offered for free (it's now $2.99). 

Member Publications: Free Kindle Download!

I wanted you all to know that my Kindle ebook on diatomaceous earth, "Mother Earth's Best Kept Secret," will be available as a free download again for a couple of days, Saturday, 9 February, and Sunday, 10 February (just click the link in this sentence). There is also a paperback version available , but that'll cost you.

Those who have been a member of the group for a while may remember that I published this little book a few months ago as a "trial balloon" to test out the process of Kindle publishing. It was so easy that I couldn't resist also testing Amazon's "publish on demand" capability, by redesigning and publishing the Kindle book as a paperback. I was quite pleased with the quality of my proof copies.

Anyone who would like to know more about Amazon's publishing capabilities should take a peek at their Kindle Direct Publishing site (for Kindle ebooks) or their Create Space site for self-published physical books. You're also welcome to ask me about my own experience with these two (easy! and free!) ways to publish your work through Amazon.

Best Free Stuff for Writers

Since we started this new blog for our local Catholic Writers Group, I thought it would be a good place to post information that may be of use to group members, and others who may be trying to get started as writers. I don't know about you, but I love great free stuff (not the crummy free stuff that seems to proliferate on the internet). So I thought I would share with you, from time to time, some of the great free resources I've found that are particularly helpful or valuable to writers (I've actually used each of these). And I invite you to let me know if you can recommend others!

Writing productivity

• Scrivener (free 30-day demo, $40 to buy.) – Okay, only the demo is free, but it's great! Try it and you'll get hooked. Scrivener is a writing program that helps you organize your writing and keep track of your research. It has lots of useful features that make it super-useful for large, complex writing projects (I wish I'd had it when I was writing my dissertation!). Some features are: 

• cork board view (with virtual index cards) that makes it easy to reorganize sections of your document,

• outline mode allows you to plan before writing, or to get a sense of the structure of what you have already written; 

• an area to gather your research for easy access; and lots more!

The trial is good for 30 days of use, not 30 calendar days, which gives you plenty of time to get to know this program and fall in love with it. Available for PC or Mac.

• yWriter – This is completely free software for developing, writing, and keeping track of a novel, with lots of features to help the novelist keep track of chapters, scenes, characters, etc. yWriter is similar to Scrivener, but optimized specifically for fiction writers (although it would also work well for other kinds of writing project). It was developed by Simon Haynes, a computer programmer who is also a novelist, to help him with his own writing process. Completely free, and really helpful, yWriter is availabler in Windows version only (the author recommends Scrivener for Mac users).
• yEdit  – This is a simple text editor with countdown word counter. A distraction-free window in which to write. Set your word count goal per session, and yEdit keeps track of your progress toward your goal. yEdit is great helper for anyone who wants to establish a writing routine of writing X words per day/week/whatever.

Writing Advice

• Randy Ingerman’s Snowflake Method of developing a novel.  This is genius -- a brilliantly simple method of creating a well-developed novel from scratch. The method takes you from original concept, through outlining, character development, and writing, all the way to submission to a publisher.
• Free critique groups online (Critique.org). This web site offers great, fee-free online critique groups for all kinds of writing and other creative output. Workshops are available for a variety of fiction genres, as well as non-fiction. I haven't actually taken part in this one yet, but it looks like a great way to gain experience and get lots of intelligent reader feedback. The founder and moderator stresses, and enforces, civility and kindness in the way critiques are offered. Well-established, published writers are among the regular contributors. Here's what they say:

“Critique.org is for serious authors, artists, and creators in any field who wish to improve their craft — those who seek to gain professional stature within their field or increase it. Critique.org workshops focus on in-depth critiques of your works, a process which helps both the recipient and the reviewer to grow. In addition to depth of analysis, much of critique.org's secret is our emphasis on respectful and diplomatic critiques.”

Funding and Markets for Your Writing

• FundsforWriters website and free newsletter. Among other things, Funds for Writers lets you know about writing competitions with cash prizes, and occasionally lists grant opportunities for writers. I'll let the site founder describe this herself: 

"FundsforWriters is an online resource for writers. You can be a thirty-year veteran or a part-time wannabe, but here at FundsforWriters (FFW), we consider you a writer none-the-less. We emphasize finding money to make writing a realistic career. Of course, you’d write anyway. That’s the way of a writer.

"Other websites provide guidance on how to write, how to query, how to format manuscripts, and so on. We give you direction on the funding streams. We focus on markets, competitions, awards, grants, publishers, agents, and jobs for your writing abilities, with motivation chucked in."

I hope you find some of these helpful. Use the comment box to let us know if you've tried any of these, or can recommend other great free stuff for writers.