#WWoW! @dochappycamper Discusses How to Share Your Facebook Posts With Your Fans and Followers #MyWANA #ASMSG

Welcome to Tammy's Tidbit's here at Not Enough Time in the Day. I hope all is going well with everyone and their journey through the world of publishing. New Year's Day 2015 celebration around here is extra special since the collection of stories I'd been working on for six months finally went live. Whew! 

With that under my belt I can concentrate a bit more on sharing more helpful hints here with everyone. This week I'd like to talk a bit about how to get around Facebook's algorithm that determines who will see your posts on your wall and fan pages. As you all have heard by now, Facebook is once again changing the way we get to see posts in our news feeds. They've listened to what the users stated they want and don't want to see on their walls.


Unfortunately, that means even less people will see our posts on our pages. Facebook will be cracking down on posts that look too much like advertising. It's important to have a presence there, but you should try to be social and interact more with your followers. Yes you want to share your book links and let your fans know your new one is ready for them, but now you'll have to figure out more creative ways to do it and not come off like a BUY ME NOW commercial.


I know some of you have no idea what I'm talking about so let me back track just a bit.

If you have a author/fan page you've noticed that only a small percentage of your fans (those who've liked your page) actually see your posts. Why? Because those are the ones who actively engage with you and your posts. They like it, make little comments on the majority of them or even just a smiley emoticon. These are the people Facebook and their computers feel are important and want to be updated about you and your page. 

You can get more views for your posts by encouraging your fans and friends to make comments and commenting on the posts yourself. One way to get your post in front of your current fans and friends is to boost it. For only $5, up to 3500 people can see your post. Of course this depends on your current fan base and friend count, but it is an investment that can really pay off.  Some of these people may not have realized they weren't seeing your posts. If they just click the like button, Facebook will register that as an ENGAGEMENT and these folks will be on the list to see your next posts. The more they like and leave even a short comment, the higher up on the list they go.

Sure, these little boosts may not lead to any sales of your books, but it gets your name out there and in front of the people who WANT to see your posts. These are the people who WILL buy your books if they know about them. It's why many of them liked your fan page to begin with—to get news of your events and new releases.

Another thing that's really helped me to get my posts in front of more people who are NOT my fans/friends yet is FREE. In two groups I'm in, we do weekly post shares. Each of us creates a post/status update on our wall or fan page, then we share the URL of the post in our group thread. Each person participating in the thread will then click on the URL, like the post and leave a comment. We also share these posts on our own walls and pages to our fan base. These additional shares make the original posts more engaging and Facebook keeps the lists growing.

Go ahead and give both methods a try. Use them in combination with each other to get more reach. Either way you do it means you get your name and your work in front of more people and in front of those who wish to see it. Isn't that what social media is all about?

For more information on how to get around Facebook's algorithm, please check out this fabulous blog article by Elyse Salpeter: Facebook – Getting Around the Darn Algorithm…


Before I go, I'd like to address another issue with the new Facebook advertising rules that are rolling out this month. You may have seen several posts from authors planning on deleting their pages and just stick with their private profiles.


While this may seem like the best answer, it's not. Profiles have a friend limit of 5k. Those pages allow you to have more than that following your updates. If you let them follow your profile, you set yourself up for anyone to have access to photos you post there. This is one way those Facebook hackers have stolen pictures and set up new accounts pretending to be others.


Facebook isn't going to suddenly present you a bill if you create posts that are too much like advertising. They may delete the post or the link associated with it. Instead of posting a link in the status, why not put it in the comments? It's still there, but it's encouraging readers to check out the comments and maybe even talk with you there. 


While it's true your ultimate goal is to garner more sales for your books, isn't it worth more if you "meet" people and get to know them as people first? These acquaintances could very well turn into fans for life and in turn will happily help you spread the word about your work.


Go on. Give it a try and have fun on your pages with those who visit. What have you got to lose?

Until next time,

~Tammy

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a best selling, multi-published poet and erotic romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their own. 

Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels, Stephanie Ryan and Tawny Savage make up the core authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing. Together they've created the shared world series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out later this year.

Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters demanding to have their stories told.

Check out:

Tammy's Website

Tammy's Blog

Tammy's Books on Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords,  and iTunes 

Sassy Vixen Publishing

Friend Tammy on Facebook

Like Tammy's Facebook Author Page

Friend Tammy on Goodreads

Friend Tammy on Pinterest

Follow Tammy on Twitter

Find Tammy's Videos on Youtube

#WWoW!: @dochappycamper Revisits How to Get the Most Out of Author Support Groups and #Tweet Teams #reciprocation #MyWANA

Welcome to this week's edition of Tammy's Tidbits. This is a revamping of a blog post I did for Writer's Words of Wisdom. The information still holds true...with a few updates. The goal of this post is to share what has worked and what hasn't worked well for me during my journey to becoming a multi-published author. 

As authors our journey stories vary as do our experiences, but that's what makes each of us unique. What works for one, may not work for another but by sharing what we've learned, we help others determine their own course. It's a win-win situation for all involved!

This week I'd like to talk a bit about author support groups. There are many out there. Some are geared more toward specific genres and heat levels, while others welcome everyone and their work. Some focus more on specific aspects of the business such as Marketing for Romance Writers. Some focus on building your brand and connections such as MyWANA (We Are Not Alone) and to a lesser extent tweet teams.

No matter the group they all have one thing in common: rules for participation. These are the guidelines for all members to follow if they wish to participate in the group and be supported by the other members. They have rules for what can and cannot be posted in the groups and whether promotions are allowed at all. If the group is focused on marketing for example, they may only wish to talk about ideas and "how to" market your work, not receive nonstop BUY ME NOW spam. 

If you join this type of group, and you use programs such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck to set up your posts in advance, save yourself a migraine and make sure you don't put the "no promo" group links in your set up. It's bad enough you broke the rules by posting the promotions, but you make it a thousand times worse if you blindly set up your autoshares. You give the impression to the other group members that you're rude and obnoxious. If you can't take the time to respect the guidelines, why should they bother to click on your links?

One set of rules I'd like to focus on in particular are those concerning participation on tweet teams and the blog sharing site Triberr. When you join these groups you are expected to share ALL participating members posts whether it's tweets or blogs. This means you are NOT to pick and choose which posts you want to share and which you'll ignore because you or your followers don't like the subject material.

Unless the groups are set up to allow selective sharing when you participate, you can't do it. Not only is it rude, it's unfair that you expect your posts to be shared by all and you get to be exempt. These support/share teams are set up so all participants get their posts shared across the board and put in front of more potential readers/fans. If you break that chain, you not only screw your team members, you get labeled as an author behaving badly.

You know you don't want to be labeled AABB (another author behaving badly). We've talked about it many times before. You are in this business to build bridges, not burn them down. If you don't agree with the rules of a group, don't join it. Plain and simple. If you find you can't share posts for all members because you are personally offended by the subject matter, then quietly leave the group. You don't need to make a horrible scene as you leave. You don't have to explain yourself other than to say you don't feel you're a good fit. Leave it at that and keep on friendly terms with them. You never know when those connections will come in handy later.

There are so many groups and there isn't any one group that fits everyone. You should scout them out and see what is the best fit for you and your work. If you don't like the confines of the rules one group has in place, don't join. You won't be able to get them to change the rules to fit you. That's not the way it works, so buck up buttercup and either follow the rules or find another group.

To sum it up: participation in author support groups, tweet teams and sites such as Triberr is not a one way street. If you're not prepared to RECIPROCATE, you need to VACATE your spot to someone who will.

Now on to those who are in charge of the groups—The Admins

These people are there to HELP the members use the group effectively and maintain order. They're there to enforce the rules and guidelines and make sure all members get the most out of what the group has to offer. What these people cannot do is tell you how you conduct yourself outside of the confines of the group. 

If some nonmember or former member of the group happens to be using the group hashtag, there is NOTHING any admin can do about it. There is no copyright on hashtags and there isn't any reason to get all worked up about it. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't mean squat. So don't go running to the Admins crying you retweeted someone who isn't in the group. It doesn't matter!

The Admins are your guides and shouldn't have to be your babysitters. You are all adults and are fully capable of following the rules of the group. If you can't do that, expect to be booted out. Don't go crying to everyone and their brother that you were wrongly deleted. If you truly followed all the rules and you feel you were kicked out because the Admins had it out for you, then you are better off without those people in your life. Move on and let it go!

If you happen to have the thankless job of being an Admin, I recommend you invest in the value sized bottles of Ibuprofen and Tylenol. For the really bad days, tequila works well! LOL! 

Seriously, as an Admin you will have to deal with more than your fair share of divas (of both sexes). You don't have to be bullied. If these people disrupt the group, delete them. Your responsibility is to the group as a whole, not to specific individuals. With that being said, admins need to make sure the diva they have to deal with isn't the one looking back at them in the mirror.

Recently I've been on the receiving end of a couple of divas on power trips. Some of them happen to be admins of a few of the author support groups I choose to be a part of at this time. Unfortunately, that may change. I don't like the recent chain of events. There is no reason for one group to dictate to it's members they can't participate anywhere else because "it weakens the original group." There have been threats to some members that if they didn't stop participating in the smaller, highly motivated groups, they would be demoted or even booted out of the larger one. 

I. Kid. You. Not.

I stopped participating in the larger group because I was sick and tired of not having my posts shared because I write erotica and erotic romance. I got tired of seeing those group members labeling their books as erotica or romance and they're NOTHING like either. These authors wanted the perks and the exposure that went with the labels but they would be damned if they would share REAL erotica. Heaven help you if your promo photo showed some side boob! Don't even get me started on one author friend being told she should be thankful a group "allowed" her erotica to be posted there. It's bullshit and we don't have to take it anymore.

I left to join like minded authors also sick and tired of no reciprocation. We had a great run for awhile until members of the original group were allowed into our little one. Now we are facing the same issues as the other...no reciprocation of the hot and steamy stuff. Top that off with chastising posts from new admins telling us we need to use the other group and not do duplicate things.

Uhhhh...correct me if I'm wrong here but in order to have duplicity, you have to have the same people posting the same links and ALL RECIPROCATING in both groups. Right?

Yeah, that silence you hear is exactly what I got when I questioned the posts telling me I had to go back to the "original" group. Can you guess what my answer was?

Bottom line is I have to do what's best for me, my brand and that of my other three pen names. The same goes for you. Pick the people and groups who will join you on your journey and not hinder it.


Until next time,
~Tammy

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a best selling, multi-published poet and erotic romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their own. 

Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels, Tawny Savage,  and Stephanie Ryan make up the core authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing and together they've created the shared world series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out next year.

Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters demanding to have their stories told.

Check out:

Tammy's Website

Tammy's Blog

Tammy's Books on Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords,  and iTunes 

Sassy Vixen Publishing

Friend Tammy on Facebook

Like Tammy's Facebook Author Page

Friend Tammy on Goodreads

Friend Tammy on Pinterest

Follow Tammy on Twitter

Find Tammy's Videos on Youtube

#WWoW: REBLOG from @StephRyanAuthor: How to upload files to your #kindle from other retailers and publishers

Welcome back to Not Enough Time in the Day. For this post I thought I would share a post my alter ego Stephanie Ryan blogged about today on Through Stephanie's Eyes. Many readers have expressed their desire to support their favorite authors but haven't a clue as to how they can get books for their kindles if not directly from Amazon. In fact, some thought their kindles couldn't read any files unless specifically coded from Amazon.

They have been misinformed.

Click HERE to read Stephanie's step by step on what to do. She also provides a link from AMAZON that explains the process as well. 

Amazon isn't the only game in town, people. Yes it's a huge retailer and great for one stop shopping, but if you want more ways to use your kindle and kindle apps efficiently, you should know how to upload files to your device. Not only books, but PDF files can easily be viewed through the app and readers. 

As an author who is published with a publisher and self published, I prefer to have all of my books available on multiple retail sites in order to give new readers the opportunity to find me and all of my pen names. I choose NOT to be exclusive to Amazon even though they do offer some nice little perks to do so. They appear nice on the surface, but their benefits don't always add up to more sales. I may put Stephanie's first book in KDP Select for the 90 days period to see how it fairs, but after that it's going out on all venues. 

Why not stay with Amazon and "force" readers to go that route? Amazon demands exclusivity and that includes not being able to give away free books. Everything has to come from them or it's breach of contract. For me, it's not worth the hassle of going exclusive with them, having their systems fail to do the preorders correctly, fail to do Kindle Countdowns correctly, fail to do the free promotions correctly...

Do I need to go on?

I've been been a published author since 2011. I celebrated my three year anniversary with Siren Bookstrand in September. I've self published now since January 2012 with the release of my first poetry book. I've learned a lot and am still learning from other authors, readers, publishers, and editors. Some of those lessons have been heartbreaking and damn near made me want to give up altogether but I didn't. I continue to push on because I love to write and share my stories. I do these Writer's Words of Wisdom posts to share the things I've learned along my journey. It's my way of helping others as I have been helped.

Until next time,
Tammy