Writing Articles

30 Facebook Groups for Your Free eBook Days

7/19/2014

So you want to give your book away, huh? All that work, all that midnight oil, and all those lost relationships…for this.

Well, alright. I’ve done it a lot myself, and in fact just got done with a promo last week.

So what did I do? A whole lot of nothing and a little bit of something. One part of that something was copy/pasting…er, sorry, spamming…several Facebook groups.

Now, don’t get your knickers in a knot here – these groups are set up for the sole reason for you have a place to dump your link on your free book days.

Yep, no one gives a fuck. How do I know this? Because I had around 100 downloads on that free book on Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon I put my link in these 30 Facebook groups. By Sunday morning I had 79 more downloads, for a total of 179 during the entire 3-day free KDP promo.

Now, for some those might be astronomical results. For others they might be a joke.

I’ve done lots of giveaways with Amazon KDP before, and you can read about some in my eBook Marketing category.

I’ve done some giveaways and gotten…well, no…those were Kindle Countdown Deals. I did a couple of those and got zero sales. I think the lowest I ever got with a free promo was maybe 20 downloads.

Yeah, that’s when you put it free and do nothing…forget about it.

It don’t work too well, huh? So that’s why I thought I’d throw these links out there, no doubt angering someone that’s trying to sell the same information somewhere, perhaps even in an eBook on Amazon. Hell, maybe these links are even in one of my own damn books…you know, the one you didn’t buy?

30 Facebook Group for Authors to Promote Free eBooks

7 Comments

Free Fiction Friday #19: Shooting Down a Plane in Ukraine

7/18/2014

0 Comments

SA-17 Buk Rocket Missile System

Note: This is the nineteenth post in Free Fiction Fridays.

These are short stories put up each Friday that you can read for free. By the next Friday the post will be taken down and a new one will go up. Enjoy!

Flight MH17 took off from Schiphol Airport and headed east.

“Mommy, how long’s it going to take?” Sally asked as her mother buckled her in.

“Well, once you go to sleep it’s not going to take that long at all.”

“Can you read me my story?” the little 3-year old girl said in an already sleepy voice.

Her mom smiled and pulled out Sally’s favorite pink book. “You bet.”

Across the cabin Mike was busy flipping through and endless stack of papers when his colleague Maureen nudged him with her elbow.

“Will you look at that?” she said, pointing over at the mother and young girl reading. “Isn’t that cute?”

“I’m thinking this new HIV strand is a lot cuter,” Mike said without taking his eyes from his papers, “it could be a breakthrough.”

Maureen frowned. “There’ll be plenty of time for that at the conference.”

The Boeing 777-200 sped onward, reaching the western border of Ukraine.

~ ~ ~

Post removed on 7/25/14...thanks!

0 Comments

Midweek Content Roundup #15

7/16/2014

0 Comments

This is the fifteenth post in an ongoing series of useful and interesting content that goes up each Wednesday.

Here you can find links to different SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, self-publishing, and other various articles from the past week that I think you might like.

This week there are 15 articles. Enjoy!

0

1

0 Post removed on 03/26/15

0 Comments

This is the Writing Blog’s 300th Post

7/15/2014

2 Comments

From the movie "300"

This is my Writing Blog’s 300th post. I’m not going to get all excited and I’m not going to cry on you.

What I will do is give you a few tidbits of helpful advice while foisting old links upon you.

I’m tired. I’ve done 300 posts and I don’t want to go into another one on how to get your blog to 300 posts or some other crap. Who names posts like that anyways?

Of course if you want that you can find How to Get Your Blog to 100 Posts Fast.

I’m American and I figure if I can do something once and get away with it I’ll do it again. That’s why you’ve got How to Get Your Blog to 200 Posts Fast.

I considered calling this post How to Get Your Blog to 300 Posts Fast (And Without Anyone Finding Out) but decided not to.

After all, if you wanted relevant and useful information you could find that on big-name sites and other fancy-pants places where they do wild and crazy things, like take the weekend off.

But that’s not you, is it? No, for you the 9-to-5 realm cut off your balls and stuck them in a large masonry jar in the boss’s office, just like those of your coworkers. The trick is getting them back, and thankfully it can be done.

Getting a blog up to 300 posts is a vital step in that process, and I’m glad you’ve been along for part of the journey. I don’t think anyone’s been around the whole way except me, but I could be wrong.

So what does this mean? Not much, expect that the same general principles that allowed me to get to 100 and then 200 posts apply to me getting up to 300 posts. I could blow a lot of hot air at you and smile and ask for money, but like I said…I’m tired.

Here are some helpful links that might get your blog where it needs to be. (Hint: It’s not in a masonry jar in your boss’s office).

Planning Your Blog 50 Days in Advance

Always Be Increasing Blog Traffic

Claiming Your 2014 Blogging Authority

Why’s Your Website’s Most Popular Blog Article So Popular?

2 Comments

The Mystery and the Mystique of Tarot Cards

7/14/2014

0 Comments

One book of mine I know you’ll love is called Tarot: The Mystery and the Mystique. How do I know you’ll love it? Simple – you’ve always been intrigued by Tarot.

But hey, really…can’t we say that about anyone? I mean, even granny did a double take when those cards were lying around in the curiosity shop. There’s just some kind of hypnotic hold…and pull…and power that Tarot cards have over our consciousness.

And that’s why I know you’ll love this book. More than 150 people have already concluded that fact for themselves, and even more people downloaded this book for free when I had it listed under the Smashwords Summer/Winter promo back in 2013.

But how can this book help you…besides curing that little itch of curiosity you’ve always had? Simple…it will solve all your problems (past lives most likely).

A Divine Tarot eBook

This book will allow you to tap into your divinatory powers. I spend a lot of time in the Tarot eBook talking about the different suits in the Tarot deck. There are four main suits, which are referred to as the Minor Arcana. They include Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles or Coins.

The Major Arcana is everything else, or what we’d generally think of as face cards. These are the most recognizable of the Tarot cards, with such images as The Fool, Death, The Lovers, and The Hanged Man. Each of them has a different meaning depending on how they are placed in the spread and what direction they’re facing.

There’s a complete rundown on all 22 Major Arcana cards and several Minor Arcana cards are explained in detail. How I worked Tarot: The Mystery and the Mystique is that I only did the first two cards of each suit. Some people might not like this, and I actually got a 2-star review out of it on Barnes & Noble. That’s probably one of the reasons I wrote my second Tarot book, Ten Minute Tarot.

The book also tells you how to use the cards with spreads. Tarot Spreads are how the cards are laid out to provide divinatory insight into your past, present and future. This book includes two Three Card Spreads that are great for past-present-future readings or to tell you about your day.

The Celtic Cross is explained in more detail. It’s much more helpful for those just starting out with Tarot.

This Celtic Cross Spread involves ten cards drawn by the Querent. The Querent is the person who is having the reading done for them, and the more they handle and touch the cards, the better. Many people believe this imparts cosmic energy into the cards, and results in a more accurate reading.

Having a Tarot eBook is a great way to learn about the cards and have that accurate reading, especially if you’re a writer. You can do a reading, getting plot ideas as well as ideas of how you should proceed with the work. It’s easy, and everything you need to know to get started is in my Tarot eBook.

Anyone looking for a good introduction on Tarot cards, what they are and what they can tell you would get a lot of great information from this Tarot eBook.

Besides explaining how to conduct a great reading, what each of the Major Arcana cards mean, and what most of the Minor Arcana cards mean, it also tells you how to handle, shuffle, and clean your cards, as well as what they hold for your future. Dreams are discussed, and how Tarot cards can help you interpret them. Oh, and did I mention the complete history of how the Tarot came about is also told in detail?

That’s right, this Tarot eBook details the history of Tarot cards, and how they didn’t come into their current form until about 100 to 150 years ago. When Tarot cards first came out they were used as playing cards, just like we use common cards today. It wasn’t until the French occultists began using them for divination purposes that they really came into the area that they’re known for today.

So what are you waiting for? Light your incense, gather your crystals and grab your cards. You’re about to learn firsthand about Tarot: The Mystery and the Mystique!

0 Comments

A Frank Talk on SEO & Content Marketing

7/13/2014

0 Comments

I'm not going to beat around the bush, I'm going to tell you what I think, and it might offend you.

0 Comments

Free Fiction Friday #18: Bringing Hitler Back

7/11/2014

0 Comments

Note: This is the eighteenth post in Free Fiction Fridays. These are short stories put up each Friday that you can read for free.

By the next Friday the post will be taken down and a new one will go up. Enjoy!

The Second Occupy Wall Street Protests were getting worse. They covered more than eighteen square blocks now, and looked ready to expand further. Mike Kincaid wasn’t going to let that happen.

“What is that?” a voice shouted out.

Mike felt the back of his neck, where his own hairs were rising. It felt like electricity, static…something. Something was in the air! Lighting?

Mike looked up, then his eyes went wide as a shimmering blue…cloud – that was all he could describe it as – suddenly appeared out of nowhere. People around him were shouting and beginning to scream, and for the first time in weeks the line of protesters broke.

Mike wanted to run along with them, but he couldn’t rip his eyes from what he was seeing. Lighting or electricity or…something right out of the movies…rippled and crackled along the cloud, and suddenly the thing fell or expanded or…Mike just didn’t know what was going on.

The cloud touched the ground and the light blue shimmering…pool…in the middle suddenly became white, then yellow, then so bright that Mike had to look away, no matter how much he might not have wanted to.

He could see the light under his eyelids and beneath his arm, but noticed too when it began to fade. He turned back, and slowly lowered his arm from his face, then his eyes went wide again. There before him was a…doctor or some sort, and at his feet was…Adolph Hitler?

The doctor had the scruff of the Nazi leader’s collar gripped tightly in his hand, and when he saw Mike standing there he nodded and started forward. Hitler – if that’s really who it was and this wasn’t some crazy joke (was Prince Harry in New York again?) – scrunched up his face in a wicked scowl, but then his eyes went wide as he was drug across the ground.

“Officer, I was wondering if you could help me.”

“What can I…do for you,” Mike said, looking from the doctor to Hitler.

“I’d like you to arrest this man.”

Mike laughed. “For what? Wearing a stupid costume.”

“No, for war crimes.”

“Hey, mister–”

“Holen Sie sich Ihre verdammten Hände weg!”

Mike looked down at Hitler then to the doctor. “So he’s taken some German lessons, so what?”

“So you’re not going to help?”

“Well, maybe if you’d just stepped out of a taxi, no, I wouldn’t help. But considering you just stepped out of some magical portal I’d only expect to see in a superhero movie…then yes, I’ll help.”

The doctor smiled. “Good.”

Rest of Story Removed on 7/18/14...thanks!

0 Comments

Write Now! 20 Simple Strategies for Successful Writing That Made Me a Full-Time Writer

7/11/2014

2 Comments

Staring at a flickering computer screen is no fun, and in fact can be quite daunting. The page is long, empty, and intimidating. How can you ever hope to fill it?

The best way is to sit down and move your fingers over the keys, the faster the better.

I’m not going to lie to you – that’s about all there is to it.

But if you want more, if you want some ideas, tips, trick, strategies, and other winning combinations that could propel you to the next level then I urge you to buy Write Now! 20 Simple Strategies for Writing Successfully.

I wrote 1,243,780 words in 2013 and so far this year I've put out 678,616 words.

Last year I published 21 books and already this year I’ve put out 22 more. I transitioned out of a job I hate into one I love and I’m going to give you the same strategies I followed to do all that.

That’s why you should buy this book.

Since following the strategies in this book I’ve managed to make enough money each month from writing to support my family. That’s 18 months now. And for about 15 of those months I was the sole-breadwinner. Yeah, there was no spousal income to prop me up.

That’s why when I go back and look through this book I just shake my head. Here I was, an author that didn’t know anything but was able to devise a set of winning strategies that enabled me to change my life.

Those 20 simple writing strategies are all in this book. Topics include:

How to Write an Introduction
How to Get Started
Style and Tone
How to Write Non-fiction
How to Write Biography
How to Write an Outline
Academic Writing
Expanding on Facts
Elaborating on Sources
Using Google Books for Writing
Using Wikipedia
Freelance Writing
How to Write Articles

It’s not a long book, just 16,500 words and 70 pages. But it does have good advice.

Now, will it allow you to quit your day job like it did mine? I’m not sure...

Do you also want to sit at the computer for 12 hours a day while losing a lot of weight from barely eating?

Do you want to neglect your family and just about everything else?

How about no more reading books?

There’s not a lot of time for all that kind of stuff when you’ve got success in your eyes, after all.

If you can do that, however, then maybe you can do the same as I did. It wasn’t that easy, but with determination it can be done.

Find some of that determination by following these 20 writing strategies today – you’ll be happy you did.

Available Exclusively on Amazon

2 Comments

Managing Your Google+ Communities

7/10/2014

2 Comments

You don’t know your communities, do you?

It’s alright, for a long time I didn’t know mine and the reason was simple – I never visited the damn things.

First of all, what is a Google+ Community? Simply put, this is a place where people sharing the same interest get together and talk, discuss current news and issues, share artwork, post links, and generally thrive amongst likeminded individuals.

Great, that’s wonderful, but how does that help you, and frankly, is it worth the damn hassle? I mean, it sure sounds like there’s a lot of hassle involved, right? Or at least a lot of my time. And don’t tell me I’ve got to pay money!

Whoa…hold on! It’s pretty much ‘no’ to all that shit.

Here, take a look at my Google+ Communities:

You can see I’ve got a lot of groups, 41 in fact. So how do I find the time to keep up with all of them?

Simple truth…I don’t. Some of those groups I rarely visit anymore because they rarely add anything new.

Take that last group on the bottom there, the China ESL group. I don’t visit it much because it’s got just 58 members. Clicking on it now tells me the last post was June 30, which was 11 days ago.

I can tell that group has one new message since I’ve last been there because it’s got that little red box in the lower right-hand corner, which shows a “1” in this case.

Some of those groups you can see have much larger numbers, like these:

That Amazing Photos From Around The World Group is pretty good and has 99+ messages in it. Funny, I was just in there yesterday.

Obviously that’s a very engaged group (they’ve got nearly 300,000 members!) but it’s easy because you put a photo up and leave…pretty simple.

Take a group like Writing Resources there, which has just 17 messages since I visited yesterday. That group has more useful content than the photo group, which let’s face it, takes longer to put together and share.

In this writing group you’ll get discussions and links to helpful blogs. The photo group is just kind of where you go to take a rest from the brutal internet landscape around you.

I like my communities and I go to my favorites each day to share helpful links, my own content on occasion, and relevant photos or quotes. I’ve done this enough over the past few months to bring my number of followers up from under 100 to nearly 1,000.

It’s why I’m putting together this Google+ Guide for Self-Published Authors that I talked about awhile ago, which is coming along.

But until then I’ll regale you with some of my groups and why I think they’re helpful to you.

Helpful Google+ Communities for Authors

Here’s a list of my favorite Google+ groups and communities. I visit these ones daily and learn a lot.

The Creative Community: This group is run by Ginni-Lee Naylor and only has 450 members or so. But they get lots of interesting things, a real mish-mash if you will. There’s fun photos, interesting blog posts from around the world, and some good quotes. It’s also a nice place to share your own links if you’re also sharing and being engaged.

Writer’s Discussion Group: Run by John Ward, this group of nearly 20,000 is really great for getting discussions going, as its name implies. I’m also able to share some links to my own articles because I routinely go in there and comment on posts and reply to comments on my own posts. It’s all about engagement, folks, and if you can do that you’ll have a successful Google+ experience.

Fantasy Writers: Chris Andrews runs this group of just over 5,000 members and I think he does a pretty good job. There’s good discussion, and one of my favorite things to do is put up an old fantasy book cover or some fantasy art. People will stop in and leave comments and it’s just fun. You’ll also find interesting new books and discussions on the fantasy genre.

Author Rank & Google Authorship: This is a pretty back-alley kind of group. You get some seedier link-dropping and people from third-world countries. You also get some interesting perspectives and new ideas. The group has more than 20,000 members and I routinely get quality articles from surprising places, like the Philippines and even India. New perspectives don’t hurt, and you’ll find them here.

Google+ Book Promotion Groups for Authors

So what if you’re a self-published author that’s got a promotion today and you need to do some serious link-dropping…and fast?

You can go to several groups for that, but will it make a difference? This is where that +1 Button really comes in handy, and it’s easy to track that from your Google+ Profile page.

If you’re actively involved and engaged on Google+ you’ll have people commenting or +1ing your posts. I often post the same blog article or promo post to three groups and then see which got the most engagement a week or so later. That’s how I know which groups are giving me the most marketing juice.

So I went to my profile page and scrolled down all the way until June 21, which is nearly 3 weeks ago now. That’s a lot of stuff and it took me a few minutes. And in that time I saw many books I’d promoted along with other posts and photos, but hardly any had a single +1.

What does this mean? It means promoting your books in book groups and communities on Google+ is kind of a waste of time. Two groups that did give me a few likes (+3 on a G.I. Joe book and +2 on an author marketing book) were eBook Publishing and Kindle & eBook Writers And Reviewers.

Conclusion

I think the best way to promote your book on Google+ is to post helpful and relevant content for others. I put up a lot of writing advice from the great authors that are dead, and people like this. I put up photos of places people would rather be when they’re at work, and they like that too.

I can’t help but think those will eventually get them to click on my profile, someday head to my site, and perhaps if I’m lucky to Amazon to buy one of my books.

So that’s what Google+ community marketing is all about for self-published authors. Good luck!

Optimizing Your Google+ Circles

Increasing Your Social Media Presence for Free

Expanding Your Authorial Reach with Goodreads

Increasing Your Exposure and eBook Sales with Blog Tours

Taking the Plunge with a Facebook Author Page

2 Comments

Who Runs The Passive Voice Publishing News Website?

7/10/2014

3 Comments

Who is The Passive Voice?

I wrote this article a few days ago because my comments were not getting through on this popular site. I had a similar problem on Anne R. Allen's blog last year, and you can read about that here.

Since then I've received an email from The Passive Guy telling me that the site's spam filters are blocking comments. You can read about similar situations involving Copyblogger here.

This is a huge problem that plagues many sites, and I'm sure you could make a lot of money if you could solve it. If your site continues to have problems like that you might be accused of being fascist, which is what I did with this article originally.

I think that was a mistake and I'm apologizing and altering this article to instead offer a biographical glimpse of who runs The Passive Voice publishing news website.

Why is it so difficult for sites to run properly? God damn, they're big sites with thousands of visitors - why are they or their tools more inept than me?

Who is The Passive Voice?

Run by David P. Vandagriff, the site started on February 26, 2011, and quickly found a following with its interesting take on publishing news. There’s not a lot of information on Vandagriff out there, although you can check out this 2012 interview with Vandagriff on The Book Designer. Most of the following information comes from Vandagriff’s LinkedIn profile.

Educated at Northwestern University, Vandagriff next headed to Pepperdine University School of Law. Following law school Vandagriff got his start with Wanlass Technologies in 1976, serving as vice president of the high-tech startup company. After that he became a free-wheeling lawyer until he’d had enough of that and became director of the law programs for LexisNexis, helping to create the first web-based research product for the company. In 1999 he headed over to Ancestry.com as a contract lawyer and then in 2002 he was at Corda Technologies as vice president of marketing.

By 2006 he was again on the move, becoming vice president of Helius, a position he held while still working for Corda. 2008 saw him help start up Proxy Research, LLC, a company that worked to monetize patents. After that it was to the C.L. Oakwood Corporation for five years until Vandagriff opened his own private practice. And of course he has his site now and all his followers.

What the hell are all those jobs? I have no idea. Like many jobs that require a lawyer, their use can be questioned. I’m sure Vandagriff is a super smart guy and can cheat you like no other if he wanted to, but…well, what’s his value to society?

Contract law, monetized patents, ensuring that the shouting in self-publishing is put up loud and clear for all to hear? Yeah, I know it’s not exactly feeding lepers in India, but gosh darn, some people want this!

One of those people might be Jesus, or even Brigham Young. Vandagriff converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was 25 years old. Also called Mormonism, this religion is centered around Utah, an area the group called their own in the mid-1860s, fought a war with the government over in the 1870s, and still to this day declares their right to marry as many women as they choose. Well, some of them.

Vandagriff made this choice because of his wife, author G.G. Gibson, who now goes by G.G. Vandagriff and has several romance novels selling on Amazon. Together they have three children and, from everything I can tell, live in Provo, Utah.

Don’t think that Vandagriff hasn’t tried his own hand at publishing, he has. The result was 2011’s I Need Thee Every Hour: Applying the Atonement in Everyday Life, a book about…well, I think you know what it’s about. Mainly, however, he spends his time collecting the writing of others and putting it up on his own site.

God damn, what a book! And what a fucking price, huh?

That’s great – there’s lots of useful information there. But like any content curator, what’s going up, what’s staying out, and why? Those are important questions.

I will tell you that this article will probably never be put up on the site, and for one simple reason...I’m a low-level self-publisher and I’m not saying anything important. Only important things go on The Passive Voice.

That's not to say I haven't had an article on the site before, I have, way back in April. Well, that was someone writing about an article I wrote so I'm not sure if it counts.

Oh well. Maybe one day I can have my own category listing on the sidebar of The Passive Voice...<sigh>...but until then, I'll rattle on over here and whoever wants to listen can...and hopefully comment too.

Haunted Lighthouses and What They Can Teach Us About Self-Publishing

Do Hippos Belong in Self-Publishing?

What Happens When You Write Something That Pisses Off Everyone?

What is the Eye of the Beholder?

3 Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

30 Facebook Groups for Your Free eBook Days

30 Facebook Group for Authors to Promote Free eBooks

Free Fiction Friday #19: Shooting Down a Plane in Ukraine

Midweek Content Roundup #15

0

1

0

0

Post removed on 03/26/15

This is the Writing Blog’s 300th Post

You Might Also Like

The Mystery and the Mystique of Tarot Cards

A Divine Tarot eBook

A Frank Talk on SEO & Content Marketing

Free Fiction Friday #18: Bringing Hitler Back

Write Now! 20 Simple Strategies for Successful Writing That Made Me a Full-Time Writer

Managing Your Google+ Communities

Helpful Google+ Communities for Authors

Google+ Book Promotion Groups for Authors

Conclusion

You Might Also Like

Who Runs The Passive Voice Publishing News Website?

Who is The Passive Voice?

You Might Also Like

Writing Blog
by Greg Strandberg

Top Ten

Categories

My Books
(By Publication Date, New to Old)

Archives

30 Facebook Group for Authors to Promote Free eBooks

0

1

0

0

Post removed on 03/26/15

You Might Also Like

A Divine Tarot eBook

Helpful Google+ Communities for Authors

Google+ Book Promotion Groups for Authors

Conclusion

You Might Also Like

Who is The Passive Voice?

You Might Also Like

Writing Blogby Greg Strandberg

Top Ten

Categories

My Books(By Publication Date, New to Old)

Archives

Writing Blog
by Greg Strandberg

My Books
(By Publication Date, New to Old)