The year is almost over and we have been looking back at all we have written. We started this website/blog earlier this year and have watched it grow. We want to thank all of you for your encouragement, feedback, and continued support you have given us. In this post, we are sharing our top 10 posts from 2013, but besides the posts on our blog, we’ve also published 7 books for authors, written and published multiple Christian books and contributed to other websites as well.
Our Top 10 Blog Posts for 2013…
#1. 47+ Places to Submit Your Free KDP Select Promotion for Your Kindle eBook
Are you planning a Free promotion via KDP Select? You won’t want to miss this post we put together with our personal KDP Select Free day checklist and over 47 places where we submit our books. We’ll also share two new tools that we recommend for saving time. This was by far our most popular post this year.
https://www.trainingauthors.com/47-places-to-submit-your-free-kdp-promotion-for-your-kindle-ebook/
#2. How to Find and Contact Amazon Book Reviewers
Reviews are gold for authors – especially Amazon reviews. They provide social proof that your book is worth reading as well as giving the readers take. In this post, we share how to find and contact readers who post reviews on Amazon.
https://www.trainingauthors.com/how-to-find-and-contact-amazon-book-reviewers/
#3. How to Host a Live Webinar for FREE Using Google+ Hangouts
In this post we wanted to share what we learned about how to host a live webinar for free using Google+ hangouts. We have attended live webinars hosted through Google Plus and have heard many people talk about doing it. But, unfortunately, we could not find many tutorials that could walk us step-by-step through the entire process.
Our learning curve was steep and included trial and error, online research and asking colleagues who have hosted hangouts in the past. Therefore, we decided to take what we have learned and write this tutorial in hopes this it will help many people save tons of time learning how to use Google+ hangouts in the future!
https://www.trainingauthors.com/how-to-host-a-live-webinar-for-free-using-google-hangouts/
#4. Aweber Vs. TrafficWave – And Why We Made The Switch
E-mail marketing has been one of our most successful book marketing strategies. In this post we share why we switched from Aweber to TrafficWave as well as some pluses and minus to both providers.
https://www.trainingauthors.com/aweber-vs-trafficwave/
#5. 6 Essential Books For Fiction Authors
In November 2012, Shelley started the transition from writing non-fiction exclusively to learning to write fiction stories. It’s a VERY different process and she did extensive research. While doing that research, she found 6 essential books for fiction authors that she highly recommends and some of them she will be using as reference books for years to come. Find out what they are and why she recommends them in this post.
https://www.trainingauthors.com/6-essential-books-for-fiction-authors/
#6. Are You Losing Book Sales Over This Common Problem?
We use to get e-mails from readers letting us know that they really wanted to purchase our books, but our links took them to Amazon.com where they were unable to buy them. They usually followed that statement by asking if our books were available in their country. In this post, we share a really cool – FREE – tool that we used to fix that problem and re-direct all of our Amazon links to the correct country.
https://www.trainingauthors.com/are-you-losing-customers-over-this-common-problem/
#7. 3 Keys to Writing Success and Overcoming Procrastination
What does it take to be a successful writer? As Shelley reflected on her own journey, she shared 3 keys to writing success in this post. With over 30 books in various formats to her name, she certainly can be taken as an expert on this subject. Find out what works for her, scroll through the comments to see what works for others, and and then leave your own tips on writing success.
https://www.trainingauthors.com/3-keys-to-writing-success-and-overcoming-procrastination/
#8. 40 Hashtags for Authors
Have you been using Twitter to market your book? If so, you probably are familiar with them hashtags, a hashtag is a pound symbol followed by a word or topic. For example: #hashtag, #twitter, #marketing. In this post, we share a list of hashtags for authors from our own book marketing efforts to share with you. It’s not exhaustive by any means, but it should be enough to get you started.
https://www.trainingauthors.com/40-hashtags-for-authors/
#9. How To Write An Effective Book Tweet
Tweets are made up of different parts. Every tweet should have a hook – the tweet body, but you can also add other things to them to make them more effective. Things like hashtags, pictures, links, handles, etc. Not every tweet has to have each of them, in fact, it’s best to mix them up, but they all help your tweet become more effective. In this post, we covered some basic tweet writing tips to make your tweets more effective.
https://www.trainingauthors.com/how-to-write-an-effective-book-tweet/
#10. 650 Places for Authors to Get Extra Exposure for Their Books through Guest Blogging
Are you looking for ways to get exposure for your books? One effective way is to be a guest on another person’s blog. You can organize a blog tour or simply be featured on one blog at a time. In this post we share some places you can research and contact if you are interested in being featured on their site.
What were your favorite posts by us this year?
Please tell us in the comments!
Our goal is to provide you with helpful information for your publishing and marketing journey. We’re looking forward to bringing you many more helpful posts in 2014.
Did you find this roundup helpful? Share this post with your friends:
Thanks for all the helpful information this year. and many thanks for the branding download. No surprise about your number 1 post! It is a treasure chest, overflowing with treasure! I can’t thank you enough for it!
You’re welcome, Karen! Thank you for your encouragement!
When I try to make a hard copy of your blogs and articles, it is all in code. Most of the time, your resources are so good that I want to refer back to it at my leisure so I can take time to process it. When I can’t copy it, I lose that. What do I need to do to copy it on paper without code?
Hi Sonya,
We’re glad you find our posts helpful, but would prefer if you just bookmarked our site and came back to get the information when you need it.
Shelley & Heather, Thank you for sharing valuable marketing ideas and tools with us as well the gift of Branding-101.
May the Lord Jesus Bless your business in this coming 2014 and beyond.
Wish you and your families – A Blessed Christmas and Prosperous New Year 2014.
John Cyrus
Your information is always so helpful and easily applicable. I was starting to feel overwhelmed. I most definitely enjoy your checklist for KDP. I am getting ready to publish a series of books on Kindle and your information has helped me tremendously. I have to have information directed to me in steps to retain it.
Thank you so much! May God bless your writing business more than you can imagine ask or think according to the power that works in you in 2014.
Vanessa Morrison