Christian Authors & Readers discussion

It's me again. I'm very new to all of this, so I need all the help I can get from the experienced folks on here. How do you get people to be a fan? Or even a friend for that matter? The only "friends" I have are relatives and a few friends from facebook. I only have 1 book and so far it only has 1 review on good reads (4 on Amazon). How can I reach a wider audience?

I probably shouldn't comment because I'm definitely no expert. The things I use are not new. You can take the initiative to invite people to be your friend on Goodreads. If you see a post you like or read a book by an author who impresses you - ask that person to be your friend. Most will accept. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

In my opinion, blogging is a good way to make yourself and your book(s) visible. It's not immediate - you build up fans and readers over time. I read blogs that I find entertaining or interesting. If the message is always buymybook, buymybook, buymybook I quit reading. Goodreads and other places I don't know about will host your blog for free. Mine is at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/... , not that it's a model! I do talk about my books, but not every post. One thing I really like about Goodreads blogs is the count of the number of views, which helps me see how many people are looking at what I've written. If/when you start to blog, you can leverage your visibility by joining tribes at Triberr.com . I have no idea how this works - my publisher recommended it and had to give me A LOT of help to get going with it. It was worth the frustration; views of my blog went up dramatically after we finally got it going.

Since your post is in this venue, I'm going to assume you are a Christian author. That's not to say everything you write is evangelistic. Yet, for Christians there is no completely secular activity. For all we know, you and I may write something that speaks to a non-believer or encourages a believer. That won't register in your sales statistics, but IMHO it's a higher purpose. So, if you've been to called to write, persevere my sister. And may God be with you!

Thank you, Carlene!

Hi Heidi. I, too, am new. I have just reached the grand total of 16 friends, and I acquired those by using my Twitter contacts and inviting people from my Facebook pages. I guess it just takes time and patience, and joining new groups. I love your advice Carlene, and am trying to do just that. I may also pop over to Triberr and take a look there, so thanks for that.

I'm finding it a great place to be. I love reading all the reviews. I just got my first review here too, only it came in the form of a comment. But it was lovely, and so encouraging. I guess things will progress in His good timing. It's nice to meet you both. Heidi, I hope you're enjoying your time on GoodReads as much as I am. I'm sure, with time, we will build up our fans and friends. God bless.

If you want one more friend, Heidi, you can send me a request if you like. We can be newbies together.

Thanks, Loretta. I've been trying to get into Triberr.com but am having a lot of trouble. Can't seem to get my blog linked correctly. Sent a help request and haven't heard back. I'll just keep plugging I suppose.

Hmmm, if you're struggling I will be, for sure. I'm what is known as er.... Technically Challenged! Lol! Thanks for sending the friend request. I don't know how to chat to you there yet, but it's really nice to meet another Newbie. I'm more familiar with Facebook and Twitter as yet, but I'm learning.

Carlene, any advice on Triberr? I have tried to join about 8 tribes now and have only been accepted into one and inthat one, only one person besides me is talking. I'm finding the whole site really difficult to use. Any help would be great since they don't seem to want to help.
Loretta, I hope you're having more luck than I am with it! Do you have a facebook fan page? Send me the link and I'll check it out. Here's mine https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heidi-...

Heidi wrote: "Carlene, any advice on Triberr? I have tried to join about 8 tribes now and have only been accepted into one and inthat one, only one person besides me is talking. I'm finding the whole site real..."

It's not an intuitive website! The keys are to belong to Tribes (whether you comment or not) and to have your blog flowing to Triberr. If you find the tab called "my posts" you can see whether your blog is being imported or not. Once your posts are coming in to Triberr, other tribe members can repost/tweet,etc, which brings more viewers to your site. I'm sorry I'm not more help. I was so frustrated I was about to give up on the whole thing when my publisher stepped in and led me through it. Triberr changed the whole look & process recently. I hope it's easier, but not yet convinced. All I can say is I think it's worth it when you FINALLY get it going. I wish you luck - been there & know how maddening it can be.

You need your RSS URL. I hope you know what that is. I didn't, had to have help with the technical "stuff".

Well, I did finally find that, but the only person responding to me says she doesn't see myblog on the feed or whatever it's called. But my blog views have grown tremendously since I joined. I guess it must be working.

Hi Heidi, I took a look at Triberr, but it sounds so complicated and I don't have a clue about RSS feed. It doesn't sound a very friendly place. I really like it here, and find it fairly easy to use. I even managed to set up a quiz. I'm on WordPress and Tumblr, but I don't like them and can't really work them out. I use Squidoo, it helps get the word out about my books although I haven't sold any that way yet. But you can link your books on that if you sell them on Amazon (sadly, I don't) and get a fee if they buy through Squidoo plus your normal Amazon payment. I've sold a few books through Twitter and most through Facebook. I've got an Author group and 2 pages on there, but only sold one through a page, the rest through my Author group. I'll post the URl in a mo and pop over and visit you there. I'm not at all good at the technical stuff. What I do have on there also is a little group called Babes in Business where we try to share marketing tips with each other. There are 4 authors and a selection of others there. You're welcome to join us. I'll get the link for that too. I'll be back shortly.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/35372...
https://www.facebook.com/TreasureChes...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/loret...

Carlene, Triberr sound sooooo complicated. I think I'll wait awhile and see how you and Heidi get on.

I just read your blog Carlene and realised that people can be directed to the blog rather than just the author page. That's pretty useful actually, so I'm glad I had another look.

It's always good to include those links as often as you can! Every little bit helps.

Yup, I shall definitely be using them now I've seen that there is one, Carlene.
Heidi, have you done a book giveaway yet? I've just sent my first one for approval, it might be a way of finding some new readers. Here's hoping it works. I'm tweeting it like a budgie on speed.

Loretta wrote: "Yup, I shall definitely be using them now I've seen that there is one, Carlene.
Heidi, have you done a book giveaway yet? I've just sent my first one for approval, it might be a way of finding some..."

FYI, I read something that said you should send friend invitations to everyone who signs up for your giveaway. I didn't do that, but thought I'd pass it on.

Good idea, but I only have a very few friends here atm and they all follow me on FB so they may feel a bit hounded if I do that. I'll certainly bear in mind for the next one though (I'm always an optimist, hoping to have some more friends by then haha) Thanks so much. I appreciate the advice. It will be noted and filed in my brain for future reference. If I don't get much response I can use that as the ace up my sleeve.

Hope I don't sound pretentious, but Loretta, are you British? you have a very JK Rowling feel to your writing! :) (That's a compliment by the way)

I'm getting really frustrated with Triberr. I tried to join 4 tribes initially and was basically ignored in 3 (or they just aren't being monitored anymore.) Whenever I write sometihng in the commenting threads, no one ever responds. In the one that did accept me, the only people talking are me and the person who started it. I think I realized that all the views I'm getting on my blog are not necessarily people READING it. They just see it on their Triberr feed.

Check out this page on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/SocialM4B

A friend of mine led me to it. IT was started by a friend of hers and she's given me some good tips for social marketing so far. It's brand new so I know more good stuff will come of it.

By the way, you can find your RSS link on your blog page. Click "view your blog" and then on the blog page to the left of your profile picture, there is a tiny orange thing that says RSS. Click that and it will take you to the RSS feed. copy the URL and paste it in the RSS line on triberr or whereever they ask for the rss. Sidenote, I have NO idea what RSS means. I just accidentally found it one day. :)

Ooooh thanks, I will do, and thanks so much for the lovely compliment (JK Rowling is a fab compliment). Yes, I'm most awfully British doncha know? Haha! Only joking, but I am British. And you don't sound at all pretentious. Glad I didn't waste my energy joining Triberr, thanks for the headsup about that. I have ME so have to garner my time and energy wisely. I do have a book reading coming up in a local library which holds a copy of one of my books, so I'm hoping that will generate some interest. There's no date set, but I'm told they want me. I shall glow with that JK Rowling compliment all day now! You made my day.

Ok will take a look there. x

Ha ha! You're welcome! good luck with the book reading! I'm speaking to a bunch of middle schoolers at the school where I used to teach on Friday. Getting a little nervous! :)

Haha, all the best for that.

Hey Heidi, how did it go Friday?

Not too bad. I don't know if you ever work with middle schoolers but they are very squirrely. Some of them seemed interested. Others couldn't have cared less! that's normal though. I was supposed to speak about the imortance of reading, so I read a few excerpts from my favorite books like Anne of Green Gables and the Hobbit. I didnt' have time for Harry Potter or Hunger Games, but I did read a little of my book. Several took my flyers and I left a few with the teachers. Overall, not bad. have you had your reading yet?

Haven't worked with them for years, but yup, I know they can be...um...variable.
As for the reading date. Not yet, the librarian's sister keeps telling me her sister wants me to do it, but I'm not pushing it. This one I have to leave in God's hands as I'm not feeling too great at the mo and I have a lot of family stuff coming up this year. Some major birthday parties, visitors from Australia, so I'm guessing the Lord will keep it off 'til He knows I can handle it. My hubster and I were praying for my healing this morning and we prayed for all your family too. I guess timing, healing and selling our books is all in His hands. Happy Sunday, God bless.

This is a fascinating thread. Thank you Loretta, Heidi, and Carlene for sharing. I have been running into the same problems that others have described here. Despite having over 313 friends of FB, I only have 49 likes. There seems to be so much "noise" out there that it seems hard for people to pay attention to something they may find interesting.

I hadn't heard of Triberr. I recently started joining various Google Plus communities. Not sure if they have been helpful in raising my visibility, but there are some interesting articles on their potential to increase your ranking on Google searches.

Triberr seems completely useless to me but I haven't given up yet. Unfortunately, it's one of those things where you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. So while my blog views have jumped drastically, I'm now automatically posting other people's blogs to my fb and twitter accounts. I'm sure that will get old for my friends real quick!

I'm trying to dredge up some interest by linking my goodreads page to the articles I write on Squidoo. I can post a link if anyone is interested. :)

I just set up an acct on Triberr. It will be interesting to see if there are any results. I continue to be shocked by the amount of time I spent on various social media. It is a huge time suck. I need to figure out a way to limit it.

Kerry wrote: "I just set up an acct on Triberr. It will be interesting to see if there are any results. I continue to be shocked by the amount of time I spent on various social media. It is a huge time suck. I n..."
I am with you, Kerry. It sure does take up a lot of time.

Heidi wrote: "Triberr seems completely useless to me but I haven't given up yet. Unfortunately, it's one of those things where you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. So while my blog views have jumped dras..."

FYI, when you set up your Triberr profile, there's a checkbox to allow Triberr to post to FB on your behalf. I always uncheck such boxes - prefer to main personal control over what goes out under my name. Might want to review your profile & change this.

Does anyone know if the giveaways are fairly successful in getting fans or reviews? I just did two, one for the US and one for GB, I'm hoping it might have a good result.

In case anyone is interested, this website http://www.humanmade.net/ lists books for readers AND it's free. Authors can click on "submit your talent" to list your work. Main information you need to keep handy for their on-line registration are the URL for locating your book(s)on Amazon, blurb, and a bio. I listed my books there yesterday - small number of views so far, but more than I would have had if I hadn't signed up.

Thanks, Carlene. I'll try it. And yes, just one more site to check everyday!

Heidi wrote: "Thanks, Carlene. I'll try it. And yes, just one more site to check everyday!"

I took the option to let readers contact me thru the site. So not much to check (unless you want to enjoy the number of views or "votes" recorded) once you're listed.

Just did it. We'll see what happens. :)