AuthorRise Blog

AuthorRise is a set of tools for authors. We connect your social marketing outreach to results, and use data to help you learn what sells books and what doesn’t. The business of being an author is tough. We’re here to help.

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Author Blog of the Day: Almost Fearless

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is Almost Fearless from writer, photographer and traveler, Christine Gilbert.

We love Christine’s site because of its inspiring message to get out and pursue the projects and the life you want. Follow her family’s adventures as she chronicles her experience through posts on travel, food and parenting. 

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more from Christine here and on Twitter, Facebook..

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Author Blog of the Day: Live Write Thrive

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is Live Write Thrive from author and editor C.S. Lakin.

At Live Write Thrive you’ll find tons of resources for the aspiring and working writer. Depending on the day of the week you’ll encounter different kinds of posts: Mondays are generally reserved for Writing for Life, Wednesdays you’ll find The Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing, and Fridays are all about Grammar, Punctuation & Confusables.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more Live Write Thrive on Twitter and Facebook.

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Author Blog of the Day: Women’s Fiction Writers

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is Women’s Fiction Writers where you’ll find, “No heroes. No zombies. No high heels. Well, maybe high heels.”

Created by author Amy Sue Nathan, Women’s Fiction Writers is a place for writers of women’s fiction to share ideas and connect. 

WFW is brimming with lots of perspectives from other writers in interviews and guest posts.  

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more from Amy Sue Nathan on Twitter, and Facebook.

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AuthorRise on the Author Radio Show

Chris stopped by the Author Radio Show to chat with host Viv Oyolu about publishing, digital marketing, and the role of technology. 

Listen to the full interview here. Chris starts around minute 18:50.

Enjoy!

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Author Blog of the Day: Better Novel Project

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is Better Novel Project, an outstanding exploration of what makes a best-selling novel.

Writer, Doodler and “Joyous Outliner,” Christine Frazier, is painstakingly deconstructing the structural elements of bestsellers like Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Twilight. All in the pursuit of revealing a useful framework for writing better novels. There’s no magic here. Just passionate research and a healthy dose of nerdery. We love it! 

Christine’s blog posts are packed with useful methods and ideas she’s learned along the way. And a bit about her writing life, as found here.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more from Christine on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

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Author Blog of the Day: Nathan Bransford

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is from Nathan Bransford, a former literary agent and author of the Jacob Wonderbar series.

Nathan’s terrific blog is often a conversational platform for important issues on the life and business of being an author. For example, check out his Life of a Writer posts. 

Nathan has an enjoyable perspective on lots of author issues, and reminds us to have fun being an author!

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more from Nathan on Twitter.

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Talking Shop with Joshua Danker-Dake

The thing we love most at AuthorRise is connecting with authors. They’re why we exist! Talking Shop is our ongoing interview series where we ask the authors in our fantastic community a few brief questions about their experiences in writing and publishing.

Today, we’re talking with Joshua Danker-Dake, author of The Spare Room and Other Stories and The Retail. Joshua also serves as the Strategy and Tactics Editor for Diplomacy World.

Here’s what he had to say:

AuthorRise: What’s your favorite thing about being an author?

Joshua: How glamorous people think it is when I tell them I am one, when it's not really glamorous at all. In seriousness, it's the creative process--taking the age-old building blocks of story, plot, and character and using them to build something new, something fresh. Like playing with Legos.

AuthorRise: What’s your biggest publishing pain point?

Joshua: The final formatting and proofreading is definitely the least enjoyable and potentially most frustrating part of the process.

AuthorRise: Who are your favorite people to follow on Twitter and why?

Joshua: Two types: people who write meaningful or entertaining tweets infrequently enough to avoid clogging up my feed, and organizations/groups that tweet breaking news on things relevant to my eclectic interests (He-Man, power metal, the Diplomacy hobby).

AuthorRise: What’s the most effective thing you’ve ever done to sell your books?

Joshua: Face-to-face interaction is by far the most effective method because that way, people get both a sense of what the book is all about and what I as a person am all about. Either that or they just feel sorry for me.

AuthorRise: How do you find new authors to read?

Joshua: Two ways, mostly: personal recommendations and stumbling over them while genre browsing.

AuthorRise: Do you think about marketing your book while you’re writing it? If so, how does it affect your process?

Joshua: Not at all. I write the book I want to write and when that's done, I'll look around and see if anybody wants to buy it.

AuthorRise: If you could give a new author one piece of advice about getting started as an author, what would it be?

Joshua: Read constantly with an eye toward improving your writing. It's not enough to have a good story--you also have to tell it well.

Thanks Joshua!

You can find his books on Amazon, and his website.

And follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Talking Shop with Catherine Astolfo

The thing we love most at AuthorRise is connecting with authors. They’re why we exist! Talking Shop is our ongoing interview series where we ask the authors in our fantastic community a few brief questions about their experiences in writing and publishing.

Today, we’re talking with award winning literary mystery author Catherine Astolfo, known for her Emily Taylor mystery series and a new novella, Up Chit Creek.

Here’s what she had to say:

AuthorRise: What’s your favorite thing about being an author?

Catherine: Those moments when the writing flows so fast I feel as though I have completely connected with my subconscious and the whole story is right there!

AuthorRise: What’s your biggest publishing pain point?

Catherine: Marketing! Oh I hate the marketing. I can sell anyone else's, but ask me to sell my own books and I freeze like a deer in headlights.

AuthorRise: Who are your favorite people to follow on Twitter and why?

Catherine: I love people who are funny or who have something to teach me.

AuthorRise: What’s the most effective thing you’ve ever done to sell your books?

Catherine: Long long ago in a galaxy far far away there was a thing called the FREEBIE on Amazon. Give away for three days and after that, the sales are huge! Doesn't seem to work much any more; we saturated the market, I think. It was fun while it lasted.

AuthorRise: How do you find new authors to read?

Catherine: I surf on my Kindle or I ask my friends.

AuthorRise: Do you think about marketing your book while you’re writing it? If so, how does it affect your process?

Catherine: I never seem to be able to think about marketing while I'm writing. I wish I could, but then my quirky, off-beat, sub-sub-sub-genre books would never be born.

AuthorRise: If you could give a new author one piece of advice about getting started as an author, what would it be?

Catherine: Keep writing and reading and pursuing your dream of a publisher (or go ahead and self-publish). Don't stop, no matter the obstacles you encounter. It's a great time to be an author! (Well, other than the marketing ha ha, but that's just me.)

Thanks Catherine!

You can find her books on Amazon, and her website.

And follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

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Talking Shop with Nick Thacker

The thing we love most at AuthorRise is connecting with authors. They’re why we exist! Talking Shop is our ongoing interview series where we ask the authors in our fantastic community a few brief questions about their experiences in writing and publishing.

Today, we’re talking with author Nick Thacker. When not found on his site WriteHacked, Nick is writing works like his novels The Atlantis Deception and The Golden Crystal.

Here’s what he had to say:

AuthorRise: What’s your favorite thing about being an author?

Nick: The freedom to create. I've always enjoyed creating "something from nothing," and writing lets me explore awesome ideas that excite and motivate me.

AuthorRise: What’s your biggest publishing pain point?

Nick: Marketing and promotion, as always. There's a lot of competition, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it's tough to do the work day in and day out. I wish there was a magic bullet (that only I knew about!).

AuthorRise: Who are your favorite people to follow on Twitter and why?

Nick: Jeremy Robinson (@jrobinsonauthor), James Rollins (@jamesrollins), Kevin Tumlinson (@kevintumlinson). They're favorite authors of mine, and Kevin is probably the most hilarious tweeter I know. If you like one-liners, he's your guy.

AuthorRise: What’s the most effective thing you’ve ever done to sell your books?

Nick: Write more books. Period, end of story.

AuthorRise: How do you find new authors to read?

Nick: Amazon is creepily good at recommending new authors I might like, so I can often be found journeying down the rabbit hole of Amazon lists.

AuthorRise: Do you think about marketing your book while you’re writing it? If so, how does it affect your process?

Nick: Always. I was a marketer before I was a writer, and in a lot of ways the marketing/promotion stuff comes a lot more naturally to me than the writing. It doesn't really affect what I write, but I do tend to try to speed up the writing/editing/release process to aim for a release date that might land me close to a good promotion holiday (I released four books this year just in time for Good Friday).

AuthorRise: If you could give a new author one piece of advice about getting started as an author, what would it be?

Nick: Write, and keep writing. Don't be afraid of anything except not finishing. Also, don't be a loner. Whatever struggles/challenges you're facing, someone's faced it before. Find people who write, in your genre and outside of it, and get to know them.

Thanks Nick!

You can find his books on Amazon, and his website.

And follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Author Blog of the Day: Kristen Lamb’s Blog

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is Kristen Lamb’s Blog. Kristen is a best-selling author, coach and guide to other authors, and CEO of WANA International.

Kristen’s blog is a beautiful combination of humor and hardcore writing advice that is based deeply in both theory and experience. We can’t get enough of it here at AuthorRise!

Check out her posts on the anatomy of a best-selling story here.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more on Twitter and Facebook

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What we’re digging: Do you know your Author KPIs?

Over here at AuthorRise headquarters, we’ve been serious since day one about building great tools for our authors. But these days we’re also trying to grow as a business, which means getting serious about keeping track of how things are going. 

We’re proponents of data, but only if it serves clear ends. Data for its own sake may lead to lots of pretty charts, but it doesn’t tell you WHAT to do. So we’re working with this great tool called Dashing to build our KPI Dashboard. We’re building it now and look forward to having a real-time view into what’s happening with our business.

Not a business geek? KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators, in other words, the few select numbers that tell you how well you’re doing to meet your goals. For us it’s things like new signups and how well those signups convert to active members. If you want to know more, check out this great post from the team at Tintup: http://www.tintup.com/blog/how-to-create-a-kpi-dashboard/

Authors have KPIs too, but they’re not just sales per month, after all, Sales is a great goal, but knowing that they’re up or down doesn’t tell you much about HOW to get more of them.

So a few potential KPI’s that you might want to track as an author:

audience growth on different social media sites

audience growth on your blog and email list

social media and blog post engagements

If you know and track a few key numbers you can ask yourself questions like “on average, how many twitter followers does it take to get a new email subscriber?” “How many email subscribers does it take to get one sale?”

You don’t need to be super data driven, just curious and willing to put in a little time to keep track of the things that you think are important. The business of being an author is just that, a business. So ask yourself, “Do I understand exactly what I can do to improve my business?”

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Author Blog of the Day: Inkygirl!

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is Inkygirl, a delightful look into the writing life of writer and illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi. 

Debbie shares a fantastic range of resources, illustrations, and perspectives from her community. It’s easy to wander her pages for hours!

She has wonderful vignettes like This

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more from Inkygirl on Twitter and Facebook

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Are you getting the most from your Readership?

We talk to a lot of authors who are looking to draw a bright, clean line between a Tweet or a Facebook post and a sale. What we explain to all of them is that very few people just up and buy a book. 

Here’s the thing... readers buy books for two reasons above all others: name recognition, and recommendation from a friend. What that means is that your objective with a Tweet or a post shouldn’t be a sale, it should be to increase your followers’ ability to recognize your face in the crowded banquet hall that is social media.

So that brings me back to the original question. Now that you’re not just looking for a quick buck, are you getting the most from your readership? This is your COMMUNITY, not just your paycheck, so treat it like one. To make it easy for yourself, create a list of categories that you can create posts for that aren’t directly promoting your books.

A quick starter list could look like:

Ask for feedback on a passage.

Poll your audience for name ideas.

Share what you’re reading and ask for recommendations.

Share your travel plans and ask if readers would like to meet up.

It doesn’t really matter if you need a new name for your novel or if you’re looking for a new book to read. You have only one goal: engagement. The more opportunities people have to interact with you, the more likely they are to buy your book and recommend it to friends.

In the coming weeks we’ll be sharing specific strategies to help you focus on engagement, but for now, take a few minutes and make a list. What are ten things you could do to get more from your readers?

Photo: Lost in a Crowd by Keoni Cabral

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Author Blog of the Day: Write Nonfiction Now!

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is Write Nonfiction Now, a site packed with tips, advice and motivation to get your work done and published.

Author and Inspiration-to-Creation Coach, Nina Amir, along with guest contributors, knocks out some superb motivation to keep writing and the to do it well. 

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more from Write Nonfiction Now on Twitter and Facebook.

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Talking Shop with Jo Michaels

The thing we love most at AuthorRise is connecting with authors. They’re why we exist! Talking Shop is our ongoing interview series where we ask the authors in our fantastic community a few brief questions about their experiences in writing and publishing.

Today, we’re talking with author Jo Michaels. She’s the author of a number of books including the Mystic series and The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Bo​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ok​.

Here’s what she had to say:

AuthorRise: What’s your favorite thing about being an author?

Jo: Writing. Words are my everything.

AuthorRise: What’s your biggest publishing pain point?

Jo: Getting the word out about new releases, or getting people interested in engaging with me on social media.

AuthorRise: Who are your favorite people to follow on Twitter and why?

Jo: There are too many to list here, but my page @WriteJoMichaels has a couple of lists you should check out.

AuthorRise: What’s the most effective thing you’ve ever done to sell your books?

Jo: Collaboration with other authors who write in the same age range I do.

AuthorRise: How do you find new authors to read?

Jo: I watch social media like a hawk. If someone has a new release, I grab a sample and go from there. Also, there are a couple of book blogs I watch to see what the reviewers are recommending.

AuthorRise: Do you think about marketing your book while you’re writing it? If so, how does it affect your process?

Jo: No. I write because I must. If someone enjoys the words I put on the page, that's enough for me.

AuthorRise: If you could give a new author one piece of advice about getting started as an author, what would it be?

Jo: Never give up. I know it's hard, sometimes seeming impossible to achieve any level of recognition, but define success before you begin, and reach for those stars.

Thanks Jo!

You can find her books on Amazon, and her website.

And follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

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Author Blog of the Day: Janice Hardy’s Fiction University

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today’s featured blog is Janice Hardy’s Fiction University, a wonderful how-to for writers of all levels to improve their writing. 

Sticking to the golden rule of “show, don’t tell,” Janice and her contributors provide lots of examples for HOW to improve your writing, not just WHAT you should be doing. The site has a helpful resources page, and offers regular themed columns like How They Do It and Indie Authors.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to sharpen a few skills, Fiction University is worth a visit. 

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Find more on Twitter.

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Author Blog of the Day: Writer Unboxed

The Author Blog of the Day series is where we regularly feature blogs or websites that support authors and provide valuable insight or resources to help them succeed.

Today, our featured blog is Writer Unboxed, a voluminous resource of writing tips and support.

The host of guest contributors offers a chance to learn from lots of perspectives. And the posts here go into great depth on the issue at hand. So get ready to learn.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more featured blogs!

Follow them on Twitter.