Simple Steps to an Author Auto-Responder

By Marcy Kennedy, @MarcyKennedy

Part of the Indie Author Series

One of the topics I’d heard other independent authors talk about a lot was auto-responders, but for years, I put off actually setting up one of my own.

Being an indie author means we’re constantly juggling demands and having to prioritize. I didn’t understand how valuable an auto-responder could be, so it never seemed to jump to the top of my list.

I was also intimidated. I didn’t know what to write in my auto-responder.

This year, I tackled it.

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.

Get Noticed: How to Submit Your Author News to Newsletters

By Ann Meier
 
Part of The Writer's Life Series

JH: Many organizations rely on volunteers to handle things such as newsletters and blogs, and the harder you make it for them to piece together your writing news, the less likely they are to use it. Ann Meier, newsletter guru for the Florida chapter of MWA, visits the lecture hall today to share tips on how you can make sure your news gets out there.

Ann Meier lives in Orlando and writes Mysteries with a Theme Park Smile for both adult and middle grade readers. Her humorous adult cozy series features an Orlando attraction manager, who unfairly catches the blame when a parade float crushes her boss. Ann’s middle grade mysteries feature an eleven-year-old boy named Buddy, who on the Orlando Area Attractions Kids’ Advisory Board. As he roams the parks, he finds lots of fun mysteries to solve.

The books’ parks are fictional, but Meier was a manager on the Universal Orlando Resort opening team. She also worked at Walt Disney World. She’s received five Royal Palm Literary Awards from The Florida Writers Association for her manuscripts. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and Florida Writers Association. She has co-authored a college textbook, written journal articles, and worked in human resources for a Fortune 100 company. She earned an undergraduate degree in English from Ball State University and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is represented by Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli of the JET Literary Agency.

Website | Facebook

Take it away Ann...

Cleaning Up Your Mailing List: The Why and the How

By Marcy Kennedy, @MarcyKennedy
 
Part of the Indie Author Series

A key tool that we have as indie authors for keeping in touch with our readers is our newsletter or mailing list. Building and maintaining a mailing list is considered foundational to a strong author business for good reason.

Unlike social media sites—or even our website—email is a direct means of communication. We’re not hoping they come to our site or hoping that our status update shows up in their social media feed. We’re also in control of our list so that, if a particular social media sites dies a dramatic death, our list doesn’t go with it.

But mailing lists still require maintenance. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been doing my regular “clean up” on my mailing list, which made me think this might be a good time to write about it as well.

Announcing the Fiction University Newsletter!

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

I’m excited to (finally) launch the Fiction University Newsletter!

It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but I wanted it to fit in with the site’s educational theme and my goal of helping writers improve their craft and careers. Naturally, I had to try dozens of different options and ideas before I found the right path for me.

The Fiction University Newsletter will focus on tips, tricks, and advice about writing, being an author, and the crazy world of publishing. And like on the site, you won’t find advice just from me—I’ll be bringing in the occasional guest author or publishing professional to share other perspectives and processes to a problem or skill.

Indie Publishing Paths: What’s Your Master Plan? Part Three

By Jami Gold, @JamiGold

Part of the Indie Authors Series

After taking a month off for me to deal with health issues and so Janice could offer her wonderful Revision Workshop, we’re back with the next installment of the Indie Publishing Paths series. Over the course of this series, we’ve covered a lot of information. Indie authors can understandably feel overwhelmed by all the decisions we have to make, especially as each of those decisions comes with pros and cons for us to consider.

In this series where we’ve been covering our options, we first focused on how to decide which path will work best for us. We figured out our goals and priorities and walked through our options for the where, when, and how much of putting our book up for sale.

Indie Publishing Paths: What’s Your Newsletter Plan? Part Five

By Jami Gold, @JamiGold

Part of the Indie Authors Series

So far in this Indie Publishing Paths series, we first focused on how to decide which path will work best for us. We figured out our goals and priorities so that when we’re ready to put our book up for sale, we could decide on:

• the where (such as whether we use a distributor or we sell direct through a retailer or go exclusive with Amazon’s KDP Select),
• the when (whether we delay, use a preorder, or go for immediate sales), and 
• the how much (whether we price high, in the middle, or low, whether our pricing strategy is a good match for what we want to accomplish, and whether a freebie is a good idea for our situation).

Indie Publishing Paths: What’s Your Newsletter Plan? Part Four

By Jami Gold, @JamiGold

Part of the Indie Authors Series

So far in this Indie Publishing Paths series, we first focused on how to decide which path will work best for us. We figured out our goals and priorities so that when we’re ready to put our book up for sale, we could decide on:

• the where (such as whether we use a distributor or we sell direct through a retailer or go exclusive with Amazon’s KDP Select),
• the when (whether we delay, use a preorder, or go for immediate sales), and
• the how much (whether we price high, in the middle, or low, whether our pricing strategy is a good match for what we want to accomplish, and whether a freebie is a good idea for our situation).

Indie Publishing Paths: What’s Your Newsletter Plan? Part Three

By Jami Gold, @JamiGold

Part of the Indie Authors Series

So far in this Indie Publishing Paths series, we first focused on how to decide which path will work best for us. We figured out our goals and priorities so that when we’re ready to put our book up for sale, we could decide on:

• the where (such as whether we use a distributor or we sell direct through a retailer or go exclusive with Amazon’s KDP Select),
• the when (whether we delay, use a preorder, or go for immediate sales), and
• the how much (whether we price high, in the middle, or low, whether our pricing strategy is a good match for what we want to accomplish, and whether a freebie is a good idea for our situation).

Indie Publishing Paths: What’s Your Newsletter Plan? Part Two

By Jami Gold, @JamiGold

Part of the Indie Authors Series

So far in this Indie Publishing Paths series, we first focused on how to decide which path will work best for us. We figured out our goals and priorities so that when we’re ready to put our book up for sale, we could decide on:

• the where (such as whether we use a distributor or we sell direct through a retailer or go exclusive with Amazon’s KDP Select),
• the when (whether we delay, use a preorder, or go for immediate sales), and
• the how much (whether we price high, in the middle, or low, whether our pricing strategy is a good match for what we want to accomplish, and whether a freebie is a good idea for our situation).

Indie Publishing Paths: What’s Your Newsletter Plan? Part One

By Jami Gold, @JamiGold

Part of the Indie Authors Series

We’ve covered a lot of information in this Indie Publishing Paths series so far. In the first section, we focused on how to decide which path will work best for us.

Once we know our goals and priorities and are ready to put our book up for sale, we need to decide on:

• the where (such as whether we use a distributor or we sell direct through a retailer or go exclusive with Amazon’s KDP Select),
• the when (whether we delay, use a preorder, or go for immediate sales), and
• the how much (whether we price high, in the middle, or low, whether our pricing strategy is a good match for what we want to accomplish, and whether a freebie is a good idea for our situation).