Bibliocrunch Twitter #Indiechat for Self-Published Authors: My Takeaway

I participated in a great Twitter conversation hosted by Bibliocrunch on Tuesday called #indiechat. We ended up discussing all sorts of topics, but the main conversation centered around how to ask book bloggers for reviews on their sites.

On Blog Book Tours

A "blog book tour" is an online, promotional event during which an author schedules "appearances" on a collection of blogs related to authors, writing, the subject matter or genre of his/her book, etc. It's a great way to get people talking about your work, and it can be more effective (and less expensive!) than a "real world" book tour.

@emmalarkins You DO have to be careful who you use. I got a blog tour request today for a genre I don't blog about. Not okay. #indiechat
— Julie (@JulieHeartBooks) April 3, 2013

@emmalarkins I use tribute-books for my 'review' tours #indiechat
— lmpreston (@LM_Preston) April 3, 2013

For my tour I send a nice email to the bloggers on my list and directed them to the tour media page I had set up for them. #indiechat
— Alicia Kat Dillman (@KatGirl_Studio) April 3, 2013

Friday Roundup: Crowdfunding Thoughts, As Seen Around the Web

Call it laziness, or call it industriousness, but today's post is going to be a roundup of some of the stuff I've been spreading around the web recently :)

The View From Inside the Kickstarter Trenches (on the Knodes blog): I started writing about my experiences with the project to date, and it turned into a surprisingly personal take on the whole crowdfunding process. Great if you're looking for some real-time insight into my frazzled brain!

Crowdfunding for Writers: Which Platform Should I Choose? (on Bibliocrunch): You've heard of Kickstarter, but what about Pubslush, Unglue.it, or Pave? Before you commit to a platform for your writing project, make sure you do your research!

7 Writing-Based Ways to Fund Your Fiction (on Rob D. Young's blog): There's a whole spectrum of ways to get paid to write fiction; traditional publishing and self publishing are only two discreet points in the array. For example, ghostwriting and grants can both help to juice your creative writing coffers.

5 Reasons Crowdfunding Is Hard (And Why To Do It Anyway) (on the Knodes blog): We're developing products in the crowdfunding industry, so we certainly don't want to turn anyone away. Still, the more people get burned out from the process, the harder time we'll have trying to promote it.

6 Ways Authors Benefit From Crowd Funding by Emma Larkins (on Writer's Fun Zone): It's not all about the dollars and cents. Nurturing reader and writer relationships, generating buzz, and other great perks await the successful crowdfunder.

Lots of Great Crowdfunding/Writing Goodness

I've got some great new publication news to share! Read on if you want to learn more about crowdfunding, crowdfunding for writers, and a great place for general fiction writing tips.

First up is an article that I recently wrote for the Knodes Knows blog called 5 Reasons Crowdfunding Is Hard (And Why To Do It Anyway). Yeah, it's kind of a funny title as we're trying to ENCOURAGE people to use sites like Kickstarter and Rockethub. At the same time, I discovered a lot of pain points during my last couple of months spent researching the industry. I wanted to address them so that I could give people a better idea of what it takes to succeed.

Next is Crowdfunding for Writers: Which Platform Should I Choose?, which I wrote as a guest post for the great folks over at Bibliocrunch (a site for connecting self-published authors with editing, design, art and other professionals). This comparative look at the platforms from a writer's point of view is a good resource for sorting out which site will work best for you - an important early step in the crowdfunding process.

And finally, I'd also like to give a shoutout to the "Prentious Points" section of the Awkward Pegasus blog. Funnily enough, I met the owner of this blog at a New York Gaming Meetup, and he provided some fascinating insights into the similarities between storytelling for games and storytelling for, well, stories. I've been following along for a while now, and I always find tips that help me in my own personal fiction-writing journey.

Image source: Flickr.