Guest Blogging Builds Platform and Sells Books: 5 Tips For Landing Guest Blogging Spots.

By Anne R. Allen, @annerallen

Part of The Writer’s Life Series

JH: Guest blogging is a fun and easy way to get your name out there without pestering your fans or scaring off potential readers. Anne R. Allen visits the lecture hall today, to share tips on the benefits of guest blogging for authors.

Anne R. Allen is an award-winning blogger and the author of 13 books, including the hilarious Camilla Randall Mysteries, and the Amazon #1 bestseller The Author Blog: Easy Blogging for Busy Authors, named one of the “99 Best Blogging Books of All Time” by Book Authority. She’s also co-author, with Catherine Ryan Hyde, of How to be a Writer in the E-Age. Anne blogs with NYT million-seller Ruth Harris at Annerallen.com.

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Take it away Anne…

The Indie Publisher’s Toolbox – Part 2: Blogs & Newsletters

By Ray Flynt

Part of the Indie Author Series

Last month, in Part 1 of the Indie Publisher’s Toolbox, we examined an author’s website, including domain name and registration, options for hosting, and a brief look at content.

Now we want to look at two vehicles for direct communication between authors and readers. Specifically, more “long form” communication as opposed to what might be found in brief social media posts (Stay tuned: Social Media will be the subject of a future “Indie Publisher’s Toolbox).

Two months ago, in my first post here about writers as entrepreneurs, a reader posted the following comment, which I consider a cautionary tale as we consider today’s tools.

Why Should Fiction Writers Blog?

By Anne R. Allen, @annerallen

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: When I sold my first novel (back in 2008), everyone told me I needed to start a blog. All the authors were doing it, and if I wanted to be successful, I had to jump in. As a teen fantasy author, I had no idea what to blog about (or why anyone would care that I was blogging at all), so I fell back on what I knew--writing. For me, it worked out great, but not all writers have been as lucky. For those facing the "to blog or not to blog?" question, the delightful Anne R. Allen visits the lecture hall today to share her expertise on blogging as a fiction writer.

Anne R. Allen is the author of 12 books, including her new release from Kotu Beach Press: The Author Blog: Easy Blogging for Busy Authors. Her award-winning blog, Anne R. Allen's Blog…with Ruth Harris was named one of Writer's Digest's Best 101 Websites for Writers. She's also the co-author of How to Be a Writer in the E-Age, with NYT bestseller Catherine Ryan Hyde.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter |

The Author Blog: Easy Blogging for Busy Authors is available in ebook for $2.99 for a limited time at Nook, Kobo, Apple, and Amazon. The paper version launches in February 2018.

Take it away Anne...

How Do You Feel About Re-Posting Old Blog Posts?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Blogger/author Jami Gold wrote a great post about writers plagiarizing themselves several months back. She said something that has stuck with me ever since:

Many of us who blog will occasionally rerun blog posts, sometimes with updates and sometimes without. If we don’t acknowledge that we’re re-posting material, are we misleading our readers by implying the post is new and original? What about when we post material we’d previously submitted for a guest post?

I post old posts. Monday's article on theme is a perfect example. I've also posted things I've done for other blogs (those I always credit and link back to the original post) Early on in the blog's life, I'd title reruns "Golden Oldies," but I stopped when tweeting got popular because long titles get truncated and all those extra words meant the actual title was getting lost. (My favorite example of this is my recent post on characters screwing up their decisions. I saw one tweet where it was accidentally shorted to "When Your Characters Screw" and the tiny url. Maybe that's why that post got a lot of hits?)