10 Reasons Authors Should Claim Their Goodreads Author Page

10 Reasons Authors Should Claim Their Goodreads Author Page | Southern Authors

 As an author, one of your primary goals is to attract readers to your work. Goodreads is great way to do that. Here are 10 Reasons Authors Should Claim Their Goodreads Author Page.

1. If your books are on Amazon (that now owns Goodreads) or Barnes and Noble, more than likely your books are already on Goodreads and you have a blank author profile waiting to be claimed

2. It’s completely free

3. Reach your target audience — passionate readers.

4. Write a blog or link your existing blog to your profile and generate a band of followers.

5. List a book giveaway to generate pre-launch buzz.

6. Participate in discussions on your profile, in groups and in the discussion forums for your books.

7. Publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements

8. Add the Goodreads Author widget to to your personal website or blog to show off reviews of your books.

9. You can add the Goodreads Author tab to your Facebook page to display ratings and reviews for your books

10. If you are using the free MyBookTable plugin, you can also have your reviews show on the book pages on your self-hosted WordPress blog/website and allow readers to write a Goodreads review of your book from your site.

To learn more about how to claim your author profile visit the Goodreads Author Program page.

This article originally appeared on our sister site Arkansas Authors.

 

Getting a Head Start on Holiday Sales

Getting a Head Start on Holiday Sales | Southern Authors

You know I used to laugh at the “Christmas in July” ads until I promoted my first Christmas-related book. We actually started the promotion in July and it was the perfect time. Why? Well, maybe no one is buying or thinking about December in July, but the holiday buying season is tough. In order to make any kind of headway you must start early, not just to capture the December sales but also to get in front of any early shoppers. Once those Christmas in July ads start to hit radio and TV, consumers (those who like to shop early) start to gather ideas for their own shopping lists.

When is it too late to start thinking about the holiday market? November is definitely much too late, October is iffy, but if you’re staring September in the face and haven’t done a lick of marketing towards holiday sales, that might be your last chance. Better to start early – mid to late summer is always great. Here are some tips to help you get a head start on the holiday buying season.

Events: start early. If you’d like to do events in December I suggest you start calling stores now. Many stores don’t do in-store events after Thanksgiving, but if you have local connections or some independent stores they might be open to this. Speaking at non-bookstore venues falls under the same category: start early.

Promos: start planning your promos in the fall. I recommend starting the promo roll-out right after Thanksgiving and planning a succession of promotional announcements all the way through late December. If you need to get special pricing on books, or if you’re going to bundle your book with some other items, this will give you plenty of time to plan for that.
Website: now is the time to make sure your website is ready for your holiday marketing. As you begin planning your promos make sure your web designer is ready to go to make any changes your site might need.

Targets: definitely define your target markets as soon as you can, the earlier the better. If you don’t have a good, solid idea of who you’re marketing to yet don’t use your holiday campaign to test this. Test market early. You’ll be glad you did. Don’t waste a holiday promo if you don’t have to. Knowing who you are going after will save you in costly marketing mistakes (and this goes for any time you are marketing).

Ebooks: I suspect with all the e-readers that have hit the market in the last 12 months – and with both Target and Best Buy carrying e-book readers – you’re going to see a lot of promotion for this over the holidays. Make sure your book is keyed into this market, what I mean is: if you had planned to get your book converted to an ebook, now is the time. Also, you might want to offer a special promo, if someone buys your e-book have them forward you the receipt for an additional special holiday bonus.

Social media: if you’re not on Facebook or Twitter yet, now is the time to join, and even if you are this is a great time to maximize your efforts and plan how you’ll use your social media to enhance your holiday promos. Will you offer specials to your social media “tribe” only? Will you have exclusives just for them? Consider early on what your social media strategy will be.

Exposure: if your exposure online is minimal, now is the time to ramp it up. Contacting blogs, websites, doing article syndication, participating in blogs, doing guest blogging… all of these things are great ways to gain exposure online. Remember, it’s not just about the holiday promos, it’s about making sure you are searchable online. That way, if someone searches on what you’re offering, you’ll come up in the search results. This will help you capture holiday shoppers who haven’t been exposed to you or your message yet.

The key to successful holiday promotion is planning and enough advanced marketing so that you’re not spinning your wheels in the Fall wondering why you’re not making any traction. If you’re ready to explode your holiday market start early, it’s the best way to make sure you have a spot waiting for you when the busiest shopping season of the year comes around again!

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller, which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. In the past 24 months their creative marketing strategies have helped land 11 books on the New York Times Bestseller list. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, The Book Marketing Expert newsletter, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2014 Penny C. Sansevieri – See more at: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/12-ways-create-mailing-list-will-sell-books-tip-33-52-ways-market-book/

8 Free Must-Have WordPress Plugins for Authors

8 Free Must-Have WordPress Plugins for Authors | Southern Authors

Are you using WordPress as the basis for your author website or blog? Here are 8 Free Must-Have WordPress Plugins for Authors that we believe will make your life easier. Please Note: These plugins are not available for wordpress.com sites.

MyBookTable allows you to have your own book page(s) that links to online bookstores where visitors can buy your book. We use the Developer version of this plugin for our bookstore and book ads. The free version is very robust yet is easy to use. There are also two paid versions that can help you earn more when books are sold through your site. We highly recommend this plugin for presenting and selling your books.

Social Media Widget is a simple sidebar widget that allows users to input their social media website profile URLs and other subscription options to show an icon on the sidebar to that social media site and more that open up in a separate browser window.

WordPress SEO is the most complete WordPress SEO plugin that exists today for WordPress.org users. It incorporates everything from a snippet preview and page analysis functionality that helps you optimize your pages content, images titles, meta descriptions and more to XML sitemaps, and loads of optimization options in between. In non-technical terms, it helps make your site and blog posts easier to find on search engines like Google and Bing

Newsletter – If you aren’t doing a newsletter, you need to start NOW. Most of the big email service providers ( MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact) have a plugin so that you can add a signup form to your site.

Social Media Sharing – You have written a great post, now you want your readers to share it. In order for them to share your words, you need a sharing plug in. There is one built into the standard jet pack plugin, however most “experts” suggest that you use an additional plugin as well. We currently use the free version of SumoMe. In addition to making it easier for readers to share you posts, this plugin will make it easy for your readers to join your email list, and more.

NOTE: If you use Twitter as part of your social media platform, when choosing a social sharing plugin make sure that when your post is shared via Twitter, that your twitter name appears in the text generated for them to tweet. This makes it easy for you to see who and how often your post is being shared.

Editorial CalendarAs an author, you are used to planning and deadlines. Did you remember to write a post for next Tuesday? What about the Tuesday after that? WordPress doesn’t make it easy to see when your posts are scheduled. The editorial calendar gives you an overview of your blog and when each post will be published. You can drag and drop to move posts, edit posts right in the calendar, and manage your entire blog.

WPtouch Mobile more and more people are accessing the internet with their cell phones. You need to make sure that your site is readable on any cell phone. This plugin is easy to set up and other than installing plugin updates, you usually will not have to tweak settings.

Related Posts – Quickly increase your readers’ engagement with your posts by adding Related Posts in the footer of your content. There are numerous related post plugins. We recommend Yet Another Related Post plugin.

Authors, are there any WordPress plugins that you can’t live with out? Please share.

Not sure how to build or update your  WordPress website? We can help with our design service.

 

Interview with Hunter S Jones

Interview With Hunter S Jones

When did you start writing and what inspired you to start?

What a great question! Writing is something I have always done. It’s a part of my existence. I don’t know when it began nor do I know what inspired it.

How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

Phoenix Rising is my third book on Amazon, along with two short stories from The Fortune Series. It’s difficult to name a favorite because they are all favorites for many reasons. September Ends was written as I assisted in end of life care for my mom, so there are many emotions captured in that book and it’s follow-up story, September Again. The Fortune Series are fun, imaginative short stories about the fictional country musician Dallas Fortune. Phoenix Rising is my first venture into my own favorite reading topic, history and historical fiction.

“Sell” your latest book in 120 characters – Tweet style

PHOENIX RISING “Compelling, captivating, moving” Claire Ridgway. @AnneBoleynFiles

The current trend in publishing is toward series novels as opposed to stand-alone books. Is your most recent release part of a series? If so, where do you see the story going (ie how many books in the series)? If not, do you have a series you’ve written or plan to write, and if so, what is it?

I love short reads, and believe other readers do, too. The September Stories and The Fortune Series are ongoing, but Phoenix Rising is a stand-alone novella.

When your latest title is adapted to film, and the producers ask for your dream cast, what will you say?

Please use your imagination.

Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?

Each story has a different meaning. Often stories have many meanings, but I don’t have a ‘message’ that I attempt to promote except love. Love is always the right thing to do.

Do you have a new book coming out soon?

Phoenix Rising launched May 19, 2015.

Who are some of the authors you particularly admire or who’ve had some influence on your own writing?

There are so many incredible authors, I can’t narrow it done for one interview. This is a topic for a book, isn’t it?

List your favorite quotation or words you live by.

“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Mark Twain
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Thank you very much for featuring me today. Many thanks to readers. Your support means everything!
You can purchase “Phoenix Rising : A Novel of Anne Boleyn” and Hunter’s other books through our bookstore and connect with her on social media through her author page.

Book Spotlight on Phoenix Rising: A Novel of Anne Boleyn by Hunter S Jones @HunterSJones101

PHOENIX RISING
By
Hunter S. Jones

Chattanooga, Tennessee
May 2015

Long ago, when our English ancestress immigrated to the American colonies in the late 17th century, she brought with her a star chart, the stories it revealed, and a golden ring. My grandmother told me this, and her grandmother had explained it to her. This story has remained in our family for generations. The star chart tells the story of the last hour of Anne Boleyn and the rise of Lady Jane Seymour as predicted by an astrologer to the King of England, Henry VIII. The family legend and the chart reveal what happened in the last hour on that English morning of May 19, 1536.

The star chart is a map of the planetary movement for a particular time. It is divided into twelve segments called houses. Each house represents a different area of life and individuals within a person’s life. Every house literally provides a home for the planets stationed there, giving that planet a place to manifest its energy through various individuals. According to the stars and the twelve houses of the star map, zodiac wheel, or astrology chart, as we call them today, this is how the King, the doomed Queen, and various members of their family and court spent the last hour of one Queen’s life and the beginning of the next Queen’s reign. As the falcon badge of Anne Boleyn began its descent, the phoenix emblem of Jane Seymour began to rise.

The star map remains in my possession, as does the golden ring. So it was explained to me and now I can reveal to you that which has been a mystery. The mystery of how that one moment in time came to be.

Ann Boleyn's Star Chart©2015

 

The Buzz

“Compelling, captivating and moving.”
-Claire Ridgway, The Anne Boleyn Files
~~~
“Historically accurate yet suspenseful – although we know the ending, this page-turner has many surprises.”
-Dr. Beth Lynne, Editor
~~~
“An interesting look at the events of May 19, 1536 from an unexpected angle!”
-Cyndi Williamson, blogger, QueenAnneBoleyn.com
~~~
“Thought provoking, esoteric and heart wrenching.” –
-R.J.Askew, blogger, reviewer, author and journalist.

How To Purchase:

You can purchase Phoenix Rising: A Novel of Anne Boleyn by Hunter S Jones through our bookstore.

About The Author:
Hunter S JonesDeb Hunter writes fiction as Hunter S. Jones. Her best-selling poetic romance novel September Ends won awards for Best Independently Published Novel and Best Romance, based on its unique blending of poetry and prose. Her story The Fortune Series received best-selling status on Amazon in the Cultural Heritage and Historical Fiction categories. She has been published by H3O Eco mag, LuxeCrush, Chattanooga Times-Free Press, and is now a freelance contributor for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. She has recently been accepted into the prestigious Rivendell Writers Colony. Her arts, music and culture blogs on ExpatsPost.com are filled with eclectic stories regarding music, writing, the arts and climate awareness. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her Scottish born husband. Her undergrad degree is from a university in Nashville, Tennessee where she graduated with a degree in History, with an emphasis on the English Renaissance and Reformation.

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Book Spotlight: Natural State Escape by Tamra Kidd

Book Excerpt

In a rural delta town that was forty minutes from the Arkansas border, an arrest was being made in Tallulah Louisiana. Just hours before, in Eudora Arkansas, the southernmost tip of the state, a grisly scene was unfolding of a murder that had taken place, which had shocked the townspeople. It was actually the first murder of multiple murders that started in Eudora and ended on a fishing dock in Lake Providence, Louisiana.

The killer had been a local who lived in Tallulah, and was known to “have problems” with his temper. He had been involved in several assaults and domestic disturbances lately with people he didn’t like, or had a history with, and anybody else who crossed him. Everyone was, to put it mildly, scared to death of him. He was a tall and well-built man, with broad shoulders, long arms, and big hands. He had a head of thick, dark brown hair and wasn’t a bad looking guy, but always seemed to have a scowl on his face no matter when he was seen.

He was a hard worker at his job at the Wrench Right station as a “tire maintenance tech”, and had been there for years. He had never given the boss or co-workers a day of trouble, but for no apparent reason, he had gone on an angry killing spree, that started sometime after he had left work that day. The last place anyone saw him, was at a restaurant in Eudora called the Southern Style Steakhouse and it was there that witnesses placed him at the scene of the crime.

There was a biker gang that had pulled up to the restaurant, and when everyone was questioned, no one at the restaurant saw or heard what happened as the killer was claiming his victim, but the biker gang stated that one of their members got up to go get something from his motorcycle during their meal, and never back in. Finally someone went to check and see what was taking him so long, and they found him sitting astraddle of his Harley, with his hands on the handle bars and his helmet in his lap. The only problem with that, was that his head was still in the helmet. It had been severed completely off of his neck, and left sitting right between his legs, at the base of the gas tank. The fellow biker that found him, turned and vomited into the bushes a few feet away and saw a man who was covered in blood getting into a truck, that later matched the description of a truck from another homicide report which had come in that night, and racing away.

On down the road about twenty miles away, there was a car that had pulled off the road, right next to a giant red sign in the shape of a piece of pizza, which read Pepperoni Pizza Palace.

The Buzz

The story takes place in a town that my husband and I have grown to love. The research that was done to prepare to write book was very complete. Not just the directions from point A to point B, but the descriptions of the neighboring towns and countries and the wonderful people. The story line was a bonus, I enjoyed the description of how the characters converged and the drama began! ~ 5-Star Review, Jamie Blakely, Amazon

Enjoyed the story line, felt like I was there. Good character development. Made me want to visit again soon. Look forward to more from this author. ~ 5-Star Review, Linda Boever, Amazon

How To Purchase

“Natural State Escape” is available for purchase through our bookstore.

About The Author

Tamra KiddI was raised in Prim, Arkansas. Have always loved writing and love photography. Most of my writing is centered around living the country life and enjoying being outdoors. As a little girl my aunt read me mystery books and they are still my favorite to read and now to write. I graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with an Associate Degree in the arts of Law Enforcement and hope that has helped enhance my writing. One of my favorite vacation spots to go is Panama City Beach and would love to write a mystery in that setting someday.

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