Online Tools to Becoming Successful as an Author

I got connected to Stephanie through a common acquaintance and as soon as we got introduced, we connected because it seems like we speak the same language: self publishing and blogging. I put out a call for guest bloggers recently and after Stephanie commented on one of my posts, she offered her expertise.

I know some people don’t put much value into this, but she has a Phd and I think anyone that has studied for that long have something worthy to say. I am going to do a review of her latest booklet, but before I do, I think it’s great for you to hear from her first. Following is Stephanie’s first guest post here at Authopublisher.

Publishing a book makes you an author.  Selling the book makes you a successful author.  That requires a large presence in the virtual world:  blogging, using Twitter and Facebook, being active on other social media sites, the list goes on.

Rather quickly, you find that you spend all your time promoting and none of it writing what you love.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

RSS to the rescue

One of the neat things about the internet is that where there is a problem, someone has come up with a solution.  In this case, the solution uses your RSS feed to send your blog, or a teaser for your blog, to many different places where your readers can find you.  RSS is said to stand for many things, but the easiest to remember is Really Simple Syndication.

Your RSS feed is like a radio transmission of your blog.  If you tell a site the frequency, they can tune in and your fans can read what you have posted on your blog.  This is how you get blog posts in your email, if you sign up for that, or in a reader.  There are other sites that will provide your fans a way to read your posts that are particularly useful to authors.

Author oriented sites

If you have published a book with an ISBN on it, that book is considered to be in print.  Goodreads.com is a site for readers to review books, interact with authors, and win books.  You can request an author page if your book is in print and then feed your blog to that page.  Since the whole point of the site is to connect readers and writers, you have a very motivated audience.

Amazon.com also furnishes an author page for authors whose books can be ordered through Amazon.com.  Again, you can feed your blog to that page to provide content that is seen by people who are probably shopping for books when they look at your page.

The Kindle is emerging as one of the dominant eBook readers.  What many people do not know is that you can put your blog on Kindle.  Readers buy a monthly subscription to the blog and can read it along with the books they purchase.  If someone buys a subscription to your blog, you get a royalty.  It is small, but something is better than nothing.

Social media sites

The other two sites that are important to maintain a presence on are Twitter and Facebook.  Many younger individuals use these almost exclusively for news, socializing, and finding things to purchase.  However, it can be time consuming to use them enough to make a difference in the breadth of your platform.

Using a client application such as Twitterfeed, it is possible to automatically post teasers of your blog on both Twitter and Facebook.  Twitterfeed picks up your feed, uses the first few sentences and your title, and tweets it to the universe. [Ivin's note:  I have noticed recently that it allow you a Twitter Prefix (like RT or From xxx) and a suffix like (please RT/Comment)] It even sends it as an update to the wall of the Facebook page you specify.

Using the tools mentioned here will broaden your platform while giving you more time to write.  Once they are set up, things progress more or less automatically.  You simply check for comments periodically and go about your business.

If you have a publishing company you may want to also have a look at Mavis Nong’s online business tools.

Subscribe to the Authopublisher blog feed here (like TwitterFeed).

Follow Ivin Viljoen @authopublisher on Twitter and Stephanie @lambdakennels1.

Subscribe to my Self Publishing Youtube Channel here.

Hustle and make your dreams happen!

Ivin Viljoen

Stephanie Suesan Smith, Ph.D.

Stephanie Suesan Smith mainly uses her Ph.D. in clinical psychology to train her dogs. She is also a master gardener, member of the Garden Writer’s Association, and woodworker. Stephanie writes on almost any nonfiction topic and has had some unusual experiences that contribute to that ability. Getting pooped on by a rattlesnake probably ranks tops there, but things just seem to happen to her. Read her blog here. Have a look at her photos here. Read about here woodworking endeavors here.

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