Welcome to the Writer Groupie podcast. I’m Kim Smith the writing guru bringing you discussions, insights, and insider details on how to plan, produce, promote and profit as a writer.

You can find out more info about Writer Groupie at https://www.kimsmithauthor.com

Welcome to the Writer Groupie Podcast.

[powerpress]https://www.kimsmithauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Writer-Groupie-Episode-7.m4a[/powerpress]

If you would like more information about the show go to https://www.kimsmithauthor.com

Show notes:
Building a following as an author

Everyone is in a tizzy about the best way to build a following as an author. Some in my association are doing live events, including Linda Rettstatt for her book Rescued at the Olive Branch Petco. Her book’s proceeds go to the Tunica Animal Shelter, which is a no – kill shelter. Linda just recently received a fantastic review from Publisher’s Weekly on this book, and I recommend it also. That my friends is my official recommendation. You can be sure this is a great read.
***ps– Kimberly Koz will be there as well with her new kids book Finding Mya. Sorry about the omission Kim!!***
About building your following: Some authors are doing workshops at book stores, booksignings and so on. Live events are a great way to make connections, build your brand, and find new fans. You might even sell a few books so be sure to take print versions!

Some authors are building a following by using tips and tools to make it easier for readers to find them. I created an auto-responder for Twitter so that people who contact me there would get a great little email that said, thanks for contacting me, and if you haven’t checked out my site, please do so here blah blah blah.

The problem with that plan is, it isn’t working, and I am not sure exactly how to fix it so may have to delete that auto-responder. If any of you have gotten my little response email when you’ve contacted me from Twitter, let me know.

I need input people. This podcast slash blog slash reaching out thing is a two way street. Somebody say something!

But I digress: Auto-responders do work, and they can be game changers according to Jim Kukral of Author Marketing Club. He sets them to go out to his email subscribers in intervals of days, months, and even after a year. But he does warn not to sell to your client receiving the email on every contact. People who get “buy this buy that” emails EVERY TIME a contact is made usually unsubscribe and complain about spam. So be mindful of your recipient. Be informative, not pushy and irritating. We authors are information pushers. So remember that and strive to inform not always sell. This is good advice for all forms of social media too. Yes, we want our fans and followers to buy our work, but we don’t need to shove their faces into an ad for it at every turn. As my daughter says, ain’t nobody got time for that.

Some other ways to get traction on your book promotions these days is to remember to feed your audience in the style or manner that they want to receive their content. If you are like me and into the podcast thing, then you should start a podcast. Podcasters can podcast their book, one chapter at a time week by week and build a great following on that alone.

I have recently listened to thirty plus podcasts, watched twenty plus videos, and read a ton of text blog posts ALL IN ONE WEEK. I do not think I am special. I think pretty much over the course of a week, we all do. How do you get your information for stuff? I think everyone would answer GOOGLE-FACEBOOK-TWITTER.

Point made.

Back to podcasting…There is a HUGE podcast audience on iTunes. Which segues nicely into a little promo for this show. Writer Groupie has a home on iTunes too, and it would be so wonderful for you to go out and give us a rating and subscribe there. Having a podcast on iTunes is my absolute favorite avenue for reaching people and you may find it is yours as well.

People want to get their content in a variety of ways as I was saying. Podcasting would give them the audio they like, video-blogging would give them video or visual media which as we all know consumers LOVE. Consumers are going to Vimeo and youTube and other video sharing sites like crazy so if you have the notion, do a video blog or two and see the response you get. I have always said if pictures paint a thousand words then video paints a million.

The point here is this: try different things. Try to promote yourself and your work in as many ways as possible. Reach your potential reader on a media format that they like to get such stuff. There will always be a reader who wants the paperback or hardback. Now thanks to Amazon, they can get it digitally. And tada, on Amazon there is the ACX path. You can get audio versions of books now. If you are an author, why wouldn’t you try that? Get your work in as many places, and on as many formats as you can. Believe me, you won’t be sorry.

Don’t settle for building your following using only one method!

And so it goes…