How to Become An Amazon Best Selling Author

I've done it! I have become an Amazon Best-Selling Author.  However, its not quite what I had thought it would be.  For one thing, it is slightly an overly noble title for what actually occurred.  It is, however, every bit what the many Youtubers and bloggers told me it would be.  It has perhaps opened doors for me too, I've been accepted to appear among Oregon authors at Holiday Cheer - a 50 year old event with authors and their 2014 published books in the room.  My neck began to sweat and my toes tingle just typing that!  I must tell the truth, the genre menus are as important as the webinars say.  And, free promotions help.  Um, okay, they more than help.  To an Amazon search engine, a free promo book is the same as a sale; and, with the Kindle Select

Bad News for Event Rights

Thanks to all of you who stood up for authors copyrights!!  I did think we made sense and our books and writings are not imaginary dreams.

More bad news, the Portland Pioneer Square event is off and wish I hadn't advertised it.  I hope there's better (less beater) treatment of authors at ComicCon in San Diego.  I wouldn't go now, I do think a bad event will ensue.  Thanks!!

Events are important but not if someone libels/slanders you or your work, especially without even asking you about work.  Make an example of proving for privacy act compliances.

Twittering for Authors

I recently set my intention to switch the amount of time I spent pinning on Pinterest to tweeting on Twitter.  I was blessed to have been sent a tweet from author-most-high Margaret Atwood!!  I immediately signed up and clicked 'YES' to the question about having her tweets sent to me SMS. SMS meant receiving the tweets as direct text messages.  I was sure I wouldn't miss a tweet.  I didn't, but I began to delete them 4 at a time without even reading them.  Could Margaret Atwood get annoying? No!!  She's just signed her MaddAddam series with HBO and her tweets were updates like, "Met with HBO directors today - lovely people!"  Although she didn't write 'lovely'.  Every topic caught my eye, like her real-live text from the Book Festival in England's Author Downs (or where-ever it was held buzzing with authors like Atwood and
Gaiman).  But.. I began having to sift through her texts to get to people I really had messaged that day.  Lost in 20 tweet-texts, I'd missed my son and his girlfriend asking to meet up.  Damn!  

Long story short, I KNOW why Margaret Atwood is signed with HBO and can basically do or write anything she wants... she tweets like a champion - twenty, thirty a day - no 40.  Sure, she's a brilliant author - one twitterer texted (me and Margaret) that she'd destroy herself if the series doesn't turn out as good as the books - but she is just as brilliant at twittering.  Somewhere there's a brilliant author who can learn from this experience I'm having (because I can't figure out how to turn Margaret back to tweets on twitter and out of my SMS texts).  What I've experienced is that by upping your tweets - and texting them - people respond.  It's life content not web content, magically.  Write great books, always your best, but for god sakes this SMS twittering could be met the best response - readers reading the books!  There's hope, anyway.  And wow that English book fest sure sounded fun.  Although meeting up with my kids would have been great too - its just that I'm sure Margaret has figured out both in her twitters and texts - she probably uses the Lists feature, too.  And I am sure, from this experience that Margaret pays someone - or has someone with her - a small, walking fish, perhaps, who twitters every passing whim or maybe just tweets us every time she raised her sceptor, I don't know.  Anyway, with HBO now at the MaddAddam helm, I'm sure we'll be pinning characters and costumes with her sensitive fans avoiding self-destruction.