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Get People Talking When 'They Pay With A Tweet'
Many of you probably realise by now that the majority of writers I feature on this blog are mutual Twitter Followers. In other words we follow each other on Twitter. For aspiring authors one of the best pieces of adviceI can give you is get on Twitter. It is a unique platform for getting your voice out there. By now you all now my feelings about Google+ and Facebook. Whoever eventually dominates the social mediauniverse Twitter will still bean essentialingredient for success.
Word of mouth is by far the most effective and powerful means of letting others know about your book or blog. Follow authors and readers within your niche and if they like what they see or hear they will spread the word and once the 'tipping point' is reached your book or blog becomes viral.
I recently 'discovered' a simple free app that has the potential to accelerate this 'word of mouth' process. It's called Pay With A Tweet and like most great ideas is based on a simple concept. At the moment this app is only compatible with Facebook and Twitter. Once Google+ begins to provide similar apps the potential will increase exponentially. For now, I am going to focus on its use with Twitter.
Why not let the creators of this app explain the concept in their own words:
Sell your products for the price of a tweet.
In today's world the value of people talking about your product is sometimes higher than the money you would get for it. Pay with a Tweet is the first social payment system, where people pay with the value of their social network.
Its simple, every time somebody pays with a tweet, he or she tells all their friends about the product. Boom.
All you have to do is download a Pay With A Tweet button by filling out a simple form.
Although it's called Pay With A Tweet as authors we will be doing exactly the opposite. We shall in fact be selling our work, or a portion of it, for tweets rather than money. For example I am in the process of writing a childrens/YA paranormal fantasy called BILLY: Family Secrets. Lets see how I can utilise Pay With A Tweet to start creating an interest in my book while I am still in the process of writing it. So let's take a closer look.
The first thing you are asked to do is provide your name and email:
You are also required to provide Your Filename. Stating the obvious this is the name you will give to the file you are selling for a tweet. For example, in my case I will be giving away a chapter from my book and therefore I can simply namethe file TheAlbum. You can upload a word or pdf file. Providing it is not too large, and as a text file it shouldn't be, you do not really have to compress it as a zip file.
The next section assumes you have a website. If you don't, as an aspiring or established author this is something you need to remedy. It is absolutely essential for every indie author to have a web site of some description. Your file needs to be uploaded to your website and this is the url you will be required to provide in the next field:
For example , I will upload the pdf file I have created TheAlbum.pdf to my website http://www.indieauthors.net . The url will now read http://www.indieauthors.net/TheAlbum.pdf
The next thing I am required to do is create a Tweet. You are restricted to 110 charactersas this allows people to modify or customize your tweet.
Remember this is what you want people to post in exchange for your chapter.
e.g. "9 or 90! Get your FREE chapter of BILLY:Family Secrets and discover
what lurks within the family album.."
Next you must include the url that will be attached to every Tweet. In other words the url that sends people to the web page your Pay With A Tweet Button is on. Note, this is distinct from your download file url you provided earlier. I will probably host the Pay With A Tweet Button on this blog so people can see how it works. My url would be http://kindleauthors.blogspot.com This is more than the permitted 29 characters so you are advised in the next box to use a short url like the ones you get from bit.ly. A link is provided for you to use this service if you need to.
Finally all you do is fill in the CAPTCHA code and you are good to go.
Your button will be provided with the button code to place on your website.
It will look like this:
Let me know how it works for you.
Aplogies to everyone who was expecting the next Chapter of GENRE WARS: Science Fiction v Fantasy. It's been a little hectic this week and I simply have not had the time to create all the links to the blogs and books. Rather than downsize I decided to hold fire for a week or so. Thanks for your patience.
As a teenager struggling with my hormones I never fully recovered from the seismic impact of certain young movie star. I suspect I was not alone and there are a generation of us with our hormones still in mourning. I refer of course to the incomparable Marylyn Monroe.
The blog is intriguing and though a reference is made tothe book I have not been able to find a link from the blog. You can access the blog HERE
Here is a synopsis of the book:
Authors K.R. Hughes and T.L. Burns have provided us with an intriguing work of fiction. . .or is it?
And now it's good to welcome a friend. Croeso Gaynor Madoc Leona rd.
Gaynor hails from my native Wales originally but now lives in London. Her passion for her home county of Camarthen is evident in her writing. Camarthen is indeed a very mystical place and Gaynor's books reveal a hidden and mysterious world concealed from the eys of the casual passers by.
The ancient town of Carmarthen appears to be little different from any other
town, with its chain stores and market, but beneath its busy little streets and
behind its respectable doorways, another Carmarthen exists.
This
'alternative Carmarthen' is a town riddled with secrets, vice and betrayal, but
no secret escapes the attention of Carmarthen Intelligence; its brave agents
display constant vigilance in the fight to keep Carmarthen and the rest of Wales
free from its enemies.
While the townspeople go about their business,
beneath its very centre lies Carmarthen Intelligence HQ, where our heroes, along
with their colleagues at the Welsh Bureau of Investigation in Swansea, take up
arms against a sinister cabal.
Could there be a traitor among
them?
Why does Myddfai have a sheriff?
Does Betti Williams make the best
breakfast this side of Llangollen?
I am really looking foward to discovering this secret Camarthen.
Gaynoralso has another
book available from Lulu hot off the press - 'A Meeting Of Dragons'
Click the image to go to Gaynor's page on Lulu.
Good luck Gaynor we need all the Welsh authors we can get.
Next week we consider the most important promotional tool of all.
Featured authors will be from theFantasy genre.
Thank you, Philip. The Twitter thing is a very interesting development and something I must look at seriously as someone whose book sales rely on word-of-mouth recommendations. Thank you also for the "boost"! I'm very grateful.
Interesting
Wondering how I could best adapt that system for use on AC. Diolch for posting.