On this page, you can find a range of useful resources. Just click on the title to expand for more information. This valuable toolkit will continue to grow and develop over time so be sure to keep checking in.
PODCASTS TO LISTEN TO
There are lots of podcasts out there but these are the five I've found most useful, just do a search for them in your podcast player:
The Creative Penn
Self Publishing Formula
Sell More Books Show
Smarty Pants Book Marketing
The Worried Writer
find your social media stats
Facebook:
Click on the ‘Insights’ tab at the top of your author page. Now click on ‘posts’ on the left. Now scroll down to ‘All posts published’ to see which are most engaging.
Twitter: Go to you Twitter page and click on your profile picture in the top right. Select Analytics (if it's not there, you may need to set up a business / ads account. You won't be charged anything and you won't have to run ads. But what it does do is get you access to stats). Click on ‘Tweets’ at the top to see which tweets worked best in terms of impressions and engagement.
Instagram: Go into your Instagram app and click on the profile icon (the last icon on the bottom right). At the top, you will see a bar chart symbol. Click on this, then scroll down to 'Media and Promotions' then ‘See more’ by posts. Here you can see which posts have been most popular according to a variety of measures, including engagement.
Click on the ‘Insights’ tab at the top of your author page. Now click on ‘posts’ on the left. Now scroll down to ‘All posts published’ to see which are most engaging.
Twitter: Go to you Twitter page and click on your profile picture in the top right. Select Analytics (if it's not there, you may need to set up a business / ads account. You won't be charged anything and you won't have to run ads. But what it does do is get you access to stats). Click on ‘Tweets’ at the top to see which tweets worked best in terms of impressions and engagement.
Instagram: Go into your Instagram app and click on the profile icon (the last icon on the bottom right). At the top, you will see a bar chart symbol. Click on this, then scroll down to 'Media and Promotions' then ‘See more’ by posts. Here you can see which posts have been most popular according to a variety of measures, including engagement.
update your author bios
Amazon's Author Central:
Visit authorcentral.amazon.co.uk (UK) and https://authorcentral.amazon.com (US) and make sure you claim your book
BookBub: Bookbub is a highly influential newsletter for readers. Hopefully your publisher will be utilising it. You can set your profile up at www.bookbub.com/partners/author-profile
GoodReads: Do you have a profile on GoodReads? Sure, the site can be a cesspit of nastiness sometimes. But it can still be useful. Visit www.goodreads.com/author/program to get started.
Visit authorcentral.amazon.co.uk (UK) and https://authorcentral.amazon.com (US) and make sure you claim your book
BookBub: Bookbub is a highly influential newsletter for readers. Hopefully your publisher will be utilising it. You can set your profile up at www.bookbub.com/partners/author-profile
GoodReads: Do you have a profile on GoodReads? Sure, the site can be a cesspit of nastiness sometimes. But it can still be useful. Visit www.goodreads.com/author/program to get started.
COMMUNITIES TO GET INVOLVED WITH
Associations:
Romantic Novelists' Association or the Crime Writers' Association (if you're from the US, google the US equivalents). But don't just join them and forget about it. Also join their communities online (usually found on Facebook), engage with those communities and, if you like, attend events. Writing can be a lonely job. Most authors love to chat to other authors.
Facebook groups:
There are also lots of other groups online you can participate in, such as Book Connectors and The Book Club on Facebook. For the love of god, please don't go in posting links to your novels! Instead, start off by introducing yourself (fine to mention your novels of course but avoid links and book cover posts, I find a picture of my puppy often works!), engage in posts through likes and comments, and ask questions, eg. book recommendations. By becoming part of a community, you can begin to become known by other authors and form friendships. There's also my Savvy Authors' Snug too of course, set up specifically for traditionally published authors.
Romantic Novelists' Association or the Crime Writers' Association (if you're from the US, google the US equivalents). But don't just join them and forget about it. Also join their communities online (usually found on Facebook), engage with those communities and, if you like, attend events. Writing can be a lonely job. Most authors love to chat to other authors.
Facebook groups:
There are also lots of other groups online you can participate in, such as Book Connectors and The Book Club on Facebook. For the love of god, please don't go in posting links to your novels! Instead, start off by introducing yourself (fine to mention your novels of course but avoid links and book cover posts, I find a picture of my puppy often works!), engage in posts through likes and comments, and ask questions, eg. book recommendations. By becoming part of a community, you can begin to become known by other authors and form friendships. There's also my Savvy Authors' Snug too of course, set up specifically for traditionally published authors.
Free stock images
Pixabay
Negative Space
Death to Stock
Picjumbo
Stokpic
Kaboompics
Startup Stock Photos
Freerange
LibreShot
Fancy Crave
Unsplash
StockSnap.io
SplitShire
Life of Pix
HubSpot
Pexels
Gratisography
Jay Mantri
ISO Republic
New Old Stock
Negative Space
Death to Stock
Picjumbo
Stokpic
Kaboompics
Startup Stock Photos
Freerange
LibreShot
Fancy Crave
Unsplash
StockSnap.io
SplitShire
Life of Pix
HubSpot
Pexels
Gratisography
Jay Mantri
ISO Republic
New Old Stock
2017 bestseller lists
UK books:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/30/bestsellers-2017-top-100-philip-pullman-jamie-oliver-margaret-atwood
Amazon US physical books: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2017/books
Amazon US ebooks:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2017/digital-text/154606011
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/30/bestsellers-2017-top-100-philip-pullman-jamie-oliver-margaret-atwood
Amazon US physical books: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2017/books
Amazon US ebooks:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2017/digital-text/154606011
