(See my WHY I promote authors HERE)

Simply put, I promote Authors on my blog by introducing them as Guests for others to meet, learn about and hopefully read their book / stories.

WHAT is involved?

I give submissions guidelines to work on.

These are not definitive guidelines, my intention is not to restrict their natural talent, only give them an idea of what I need to make their articles into blog posts.

These guidelines include sending me a list of all the online places they and their books can be found.

I’ve found that many authors don’t actually appreciate or realise WHERE they can be found online and forget to send me, or omit, places I know they are to be found, so I often spend time researching for them, then they express surprise when their article contains otherwise unknown links to places where they and their books can be found 😀

Another common omission is forgetting to send me non-Amazon photos of ALL their book covers, so I need to check and find them myself for inclusion in the article.

Research is time consuming and slows up the processing of articles significantly but I try to do my best for each author and they have made the effort to comply to the submission requirements.

However, I’ve also had authors contact me ‘On Spec’ because they’ve found my blog through Search Google, Yahoo, StumbleUpon and the like, or have noticed an article I’ve posted on Twitter, a Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn Group.

These ‘On Spec’ contacts almost invariably start with the words “Read my book / like my FB page / follow me on Twitter / see my book at / etc.

The more considerate of them say “Hi there” or “Hi Ape”, however, it’s ONLY their BOOK they want to push (sorry – Promote)!

I realise the name of my blog and persona leaves me open to such requests and generally speaking I don’t mind and try to accommodate if my read / review backlog permits, but I do wish they’d remember that readers are people too and be a bit more circumspect in their messages instead of acting like a Salesperson jamming their foot in the door until the poor soul BUYS IT just to get rid of them, I’m afraid it makes most people nervous and try to avoid contacting them at all. I wish they would use the imagination that, as Authors, they should have more of.

My advice to all authors is always, INTRODUCE yourselves the way you would when meeting someone you’d like to have as a friend for the first time.

It also pays to check out any submissions guidelines your target (sorry – NEW BLOG FRIEND) may have and try to stick to them, it really does make life a little smoother for all parties concerned.

Please don’t misunderstand, I don’t say any of the above to offend anyone, I just want to help authors in their endeavours to succeed.

Next week I’ll explain what happens next, after a Guest Author or Book Promotion article has been posted on my blog.