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Email Lists, Book Covers, Periscope, and Other Assorted Jazz

In my research as to the proper way to have a career as an indie author, I’ve read a good few useful books and absorbed what some successful authors have had to say. The boys over at Realm and Sands, who do the Self-Publishing Podcast, have coined the phrase “Write. Publish. Repeat.”, which is the title of their indie author self-help book, which I’ve read, and found useful.

Then, scrolling through my twitter feed today, I found this:

You need not watch to the whole thing, as his cheeky meta-obvious promotion might or might not be your cup of tea. But he’s a success, what he and Write. Publish. Repeat. have in common is the insistence on the importance of an email list.

I’ve resisted this, because I get so much email that I barely bother to read it. But apparently it works, so I’m going to have to get a list going. I’m leaning towards MailChimp right now, based on initial research, and also because it’s free until I hit 2,000 subscribers. Free is the right starting price for an indie author.

Also, I have this urge in me to start Periscoping. I think it might add something to my social media presence and help get the word out when I have some new content to talk about, like a book or a new issue of Unnamed Journal. Speaking of which, did you see this?

uj8cs

February 1st, people. Mark your calendars.

I made this on my iPad using Adobe Spark, which is a fun little photo design app that’s allowed me to up my book cover design game. At least, I think so.

For example, here’s the current cover for The Devil Left Him, along side a cover I just did on Adobe Spark:

thedevillefthim

devil-1

The second one just Pops more to my mind. What do you think?

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Changes and Additions

First off, I’ve ditched the custom URL. Decided it wasn’t worth the cost. I’ll keep the address as plain andrewjpatrick.wordpress.com, unless I decide to buy a custom Content Blues. Which I might do.

Secondarily, another theme change! Last one was too artsy. The content was getting hid, and I was never satisfied with the typeface on the background.

Third, I’ve added a page to link all my Tablo books. Those are where all the production is being done now, anyway. Both Void and Party at the Last Tomorrow have been updated since I last posted.

I think an Unnamed Journal page may be necessary as well. Back later!

 

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Good-Bye to All That.

I’m done with blogging about politics. It no longer interests me. This election has driven from me the desire to man the digital barricades. In the years I’ve spent shouting from my soapbox here, I’ve accomplished nothing.

Gun to my head, only vote that matters, forced to choose between Trump and Clinton? I’m not voting Clinton. That’s about as much as I can say.

For further details, hit this Medium article. If I have anything to say about political drama, I’ll say it there.

View story at Medium.com

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I Just Figured Out How To Tumblr. Possibly How to Blog.

So I mentioned that I was re-vamping my Tumblr from having a no real purpose to having a purpose. In the past 2 days I’ve gained nearly 500 followers.

Granted, it’s Tumblr, so following is easy and doesn’t necessarily lead to connection or interaction with contact. It’s like Twitter that way. Of all those followers, there are only a handful of likes, and I think one reblog. But I only have 654 Twitter followers, and I’ve been tweeting for years.

To what do I owe this success, such as it is? I think the following:

  1. People get what my Tumblr’s about, and are interested. People like talking about music, and my posts are short and to the point.
  2. Bro, Do You Even Tag? In doing music reviews, it always helps to tag the band name, the song name, the album name. Then people who check the tags see the content, and decide to follow if they like what they see.
  3. YouTube is the New MTV. After (which is to say, above) every review, I do a separate video post which has either a favored deep track or a live version or something else that I think noteworthy. YouTube is great at giving you options, and people like to hear music when they’re done reading about music.

So, Focus, Reach Out, and Consistent Content. Hopefully this continues.

Check out the noise at Every. Damn. CD.

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