Welcome Authors and Writers!
This is a hand-picked list of my interviews, presentations, tools, and resources that I recommend if you are interested in building and expanding your career as a writer whether you are pursuing an indie published or traditional focus.
I have personally used or vetted the recommendation on this page and find each section critically important to running my business. I encourage you to work through the conference materials, presentations, blog posts, articles, and podcasts. They come from conferences that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to sign-up for, not counting hotel and transportation. It’s free for you to use here!
As always, there are links on this site which include affiliate links. For more information, please read our Privacy and Use Policy.
Blog Posts, Articles, and Podcasts
How I Doubled My Annual Kobo Sales in 2015
Self-Publishing Roundtable (Episode 35 with Cristin Harber)
Author Hangout – How to Find Your Readers (Episode 3 with Cristin Harber)
Hugh Howey on the Liliana Effect
Conference Workshop Materials and Presentations
C-Level: Being Your Own Executive (PowerPoint slides)
Book Launches (PowerPoint slides)
Books on Indie Authors / Self-Publishing
Naked Truth of Self-Publishing
Write. Publish. Repeat.
On Writing
The button below will take you to my Goodreads writing-and-craft shelf:
Online Support and Critique
Critique Circle
Romance Writers of America
Author Marketing and Advertising Services
1-800 Postcards offers affordable custom print, design and mailing services with fast delivery. specializing in printing: business cards, postcards, flyers, brochures, banners, posters, bookmarks, booklets, hang tags, stickers, calendars and more!
PROMO: 10% of your purchase!
Design, Printing, and Mail Services | Envelope Printing | List of all products
24-7 Press Release is in the business of building awareness. They disseminate their news (press releases) to consumers, editors, journalists, bloggers, and websites. Their database is approximately 60,0000 contacts in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Pricing plans are reasonable and start at $19 per release.
Docucopies.com does copies on the cheap (about $0.05), makes booklets and postcards, digital color copying, and offers free shipping!
Minted is more than weddings and baby announcements! They have beautiful, personalized cards (think thank yous or for holiday cards), announcements, and can be in print or digital/ online. One of my favorites is the online cocktail party invitations! There’s so much that can be done to make a book signing, local event, or new release standout with your street team or VIP readers. They honestly have all kinds of things–even party decor!
Financial Tools
There are a ton of great things about this AmEx. The travel concierge is a biggie, and I’d have to rave about how the site is easy to use. But, by far, the best thing I can share about this card is (as of right now) the opportunity for 3x the Membership Rewards points when I use my American Express Gold Card for using social media marketing. Do you spend a lot of money on Facebook ads? Yeah, me too. This card is worth the annual fee.
Tech Tools
A sizable portion of our sales is generated by social media advertising. There are a number of keys to designing an effective ad – presenting a striking image is the most important aspect. We use a variety of stock photo vendors, including DepositPhotos to supply pictures for the dozens of ads we have running everyday. DepositPhoto is easy to use and has a pricing plan that allows you to download 30 high-resolution and vector files every month for just $29 a month.
Purpose: Stock photos and graphics for online ads
Price: $29/month flexible plan for 30 high-res/vector files a month
Once you have the photo/graphics you need in order to construct an effective ad, you may have to crop, resize or modify the picture before using it. There are a number of applications you can use to do this; however, we strongly recommend PicMonkey due to the ease of use and the affordable price. PicMonkey has free access to some of its tools, and a free trial for its premium services.
Purpose: Resizing, cropping, editing pictures
Price: Some services free | $5.99/month premium account provides access to more editing and effects tools
Social media advertising is a significant, driving force in our unit sales strategy. There are a number of tools that help us create, manage, and monetize our online advertising. Leadpages is a tool we continuously utilize that allows for the easy construction of effective landing pages that converts interested readers into buyers and fans. We also use Leadpages to collect email newsletter sign-ups via text message, helping us feed a growing segment of readers with whom we communicate on a regular basis.
Purpose: Convert advertising traffic into buyers and fans / Add to newsletter via text message
Price: Free trial followed by $25/month for a standard account
Staying in-touch with readers and fans will fuel new book sales, positive reviews, and a steady revenue stream from a loyal fan base. We use MailChimp to manage the tens-of-thousands of people on our newsletter subscription list, and help us format effective email marketing campaigns that keeps our readers and fans engaged. Fortunately, MailChimp’s pricing structure grows with the size of your list, allowing you to grow your list up to 2,000 members before being moved from their free plan into a pay-by-the-month plan.
Purpose: Create effective newsletter and email marketing campaigns | manage subscription lists
Pricing: Free up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month
We spend a lot of time and focus trying to maximize our social media presence due to the amount of sales generated through those channels. In addition to posting daily, we have integrated an automated Facebook messenger bot that can recommend books and direct readers to their preferred vendor for the book that best matches their interest. Chatfuel also allows us to deliver messages to any person who had previously interacted with the bot on our page, giving us a chance to follow-up on a book recommendation and notify the reader of new releases.
Purpose: Artificial Intelligence-based Facebook messenger bot
Price: Free | additional features starting at $30/month PRO account
We give additional offers to our readers and fans by operating a Shopify online store (MillCreekBooks.com) that offers signed paperbacks, links to our books on all vendor platforms, as well as a large selection of custom merchandise inspired by our written works and the Romance genre at-large. Shopify is essentially a hosting and website builder that is built for e-commerce platforms. Additionally, our Shopify store links to Facebook and allows users to purchase items from our store directly in Facebook. Shopify handles credit card processing, and automates order fulfillment.
Purpose: Sell additional offerings to readers and fans
Price: $29/month for basic account + one-time fee of appx $120 for a theme
The nasty truth about publishing is that someday someone will republish your work without your permission in an effort to siphon money away from your rightful sales. Blasty is an excellent service that monitors the Internet for any and all copies of your work, allowing you enforce your digital rights by removing illegal copies and keep your revenue and audience from being hijacked by pirates located half a world away.
Purpose: Monitor content online, removing illegal copies with one-click
Price: Free | Full Power plans $12.99/month
This is the perfect solution for discovering content, scheduling posts, and amplifying your reach on Pinterest and Instagram. Tailwind’s tools are critically important, as is Tailwind’s Tribes which connects you to specific pockets of content for your genre or focus: Romantic Suspense/Military Romance Genre Tribe (free to join) | Fiction Book Quote Tribe (free to join)
Purpose: Find content and manage/schedule posts for Pinterest and Instagram
Price: Free Trial | Plans start at $9.99/month
I have attended Social Media Marketing World in the past and HIGHLY recommend that authors add it to their list of annual conferences. SMMW conference gives you access to information and applications that are on the cutting-edge of upcoming trends. In a lot of ways, SMMW provides a crystal ball for what will drive content and engagement in the coming year. I found the conference to be incredibly helpful.
Purpose: Equip yourself with new applications and a better understanding of upcoming trends
Price: Registration packages starting at $697
Reader Events
OneTravel.com makes travel decisions cheap and easy. They have packages to locations where many book signings are held: Las Vegas, New York, international cities, and they have a hook-up for Business Class sales. Plus, they do car rentals and hotels!
Use Code FLY30 and Save up to $30! Book NOW!
Another great one to check out! CheapOAir has additional business class deals and check out their last minute flights. They do transportation and lodging as well!
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