2024 PYA Report from the Chair and Finance Report

2024 Report from the Chair

2024 has been an interesting year for PYA as we grew our membership to nearly 400 from across Yorkshire and welcomed many new members to some of our book selling events. An exciting departure was that we were invited to attend the prestigious Spring and Autumn Harrogate Flower Shows, at the Great Yorkshire Showground and Newby Hall respectively. We have our fingers crossed that this can be repeated in 2025.

PYA held two book fairs in the Ridings Centre in Wakefield and we've scheduled two for 2025 - in spring on 17th May and our Christmas book fair on 6th December. Both were well attended and footfall was favourable despite the weather trying to scupper the December event.

Events like those above take much organising and we're grateful to our small team of organisers and helpers. The book fairs and flower shows wouldn't take place without them and ... you guessed ... we need more of our members to become active in PYA and shape its future.

We've continued our ZOOM sessions and are grateful to Helen Johnson for hosting the evening and afternoon sessions of the monthly Writers' Support Group which helps us all improve our authoring with a ten minute writing exercise against a theme. You'd be surprised what can be achieved in ten minutes and the techniques that you learn in these sessions help you improve your writing skills.

The other monthly ZOOM session is hosted by Linda Jones and is the Children's Author Group. We've had presentations from invited guests and discussed topics of interest to the group's members aiming to share knowledge and experience from our membership. Some of what we over is of interest even if the genre that you write isn't aimed at Children.

Expect more in 2025 and, if you haven't attended one of our ZOOM sessions please consider it. It's an efficient way of encouraging communication between our members from across the ancient Ridings of Yorkshire and we often have participants from as far apart as Hull, Doncaster and Thirsk - not something that would be possible face-to-face.

I met with the head at Knaresborough Library late in 2024 and I hope we can design some great events to be held at the library in 2025.

Finally, PYA were invited some time ago to link up with the writing group Thirsk Write Now (TWN) who meet by ZOOM every two weeks on a Tuesday at 7.30 pm during the year to read out a short story to a prepared theme. We've some regular attendees from PYA now so, if you are interested in attending, please let us know and TWN will add you to their distribution list to let you know of upcoming themes.

PYA Committee

The committee and subcommittees resign at each AGM and those who wish it can put themselves forward for re-election for a coming year. We are also seeking new members for the committee to replace those standing down and to add to the experience of the committee and sub-committees. The current members are:

• Core PYA Committee: Paul Smith (Chair and Treasurer), Linda Jones (Vice Chair), Jane Clack (Vice Chair), Kate Swann, Pam Golden, Ros Kind.
• PYA Advisory Committee: Heike Phelan, Helen Johnson, Phill Featherstone, Stuart Larner, Susanna Lewis.
• PYA Finance Subcommittee: Paul Smith, Ros Kind, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Kate Swann.
• PYA Events Coordination Subcommittee: Paul Smith, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Pam Golden.

PYA 4F

Promoting Yorkshire Authors for the Future - Discussion Document. Please take a look at our discussion document which you'll find on this blog. It proposes a way forward for PYA and we're seeking active members to drive PYA onwards. Please try to read it prior to the meeting.

Finance Report

Date:	31/12/24
Income since PYA Formed
Donations	£341.07
Initiatives	£2,114.16
Interest	£0.00
Membership Fees	£1,171.95
Commerce	£0.00
Other	£2.00
Total Income	£3,629.18
Expenditure Since PYA Formed
Company Formation and Disposal	£230.00
Marketing	£177.96
Technology	£914.26
Other	£716.27
Total Expenditure	£2,038.49
Income – Expenditure	£1,590.69
Gross Current Assets
Cash in Hand	£64.08
Current Account	£1,573.61
Paypal Account	£0.00
Total Gross Current Assets	£1,637.69
Current Liabilities
Committee Loans Outstanding*	£47.00	*Paul Smith £47.00
Expected Expenditure
Accountant	£0.00
Audit	£0.00
Accruals	£0.00
Total Liabilities	£47.00
Net Current Assets	£1,590.69

Agenda - Promoting Yorkshire Authors (PYA) - Annual General Meeting 2025

The PYA Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 22nd January 2025 by ZOOM at 7 pm and we encourage all members to join us as we shape the direction of PYA for the next twelve months and beyond.

To join on the day use this link or ZOOM Meeting ID 815 3498 8938 and Passcode 974772. Please disregard any other joining instructions you may have been sent - only use the ones in the Agenda for the AGM.

Agenda

1. Welcome and Chairman's Report (Paul Smith)
2. Finance Report (Member of the Finance Subcommittee)
3. Committee and Subcommittees - The committee and subcommittees will resign and those who wish can put themselves forward for re-election for a coming year. We are also seeking new members for the committee to replace those standing down and to add to the experience of the committee and subcomittees. The current members are:
• Core PYA Committee: Paul Smith (Chair and Treasurer), Linda Jones (Vice Chair), Jane Clack (Vice Chair), Kate Swann, Pam Golden, Ros Kind.
• PYA Advisory Committee: Heike Phelan, Helen Johnson, Phill Featherstone, Stuart Larner, Susanna Lewis.
• PYA Finance Subcommittee: Paul Smith, Ros Kind, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Kate Swann.
• PYA Events Coordination Subcommittee: Paul Smith, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Pam Golden.
4. PYA 4F - Promoting Yorkshire Authors for the Future: Discussion. Please take a look at our discussion document which you'll find on this blog. It proposes a way forward for PYA and we're seeking active members to drive PYA forward. Please try to read it prior to the meeting.
5. Any other business.
6. Date of the Next AGM - 21st January 2026 proposed.

 

Promoting Yorkshire Authors

PYA-4F – PYA for the Future

A Discussion Document

Version 2, 19th October 2024

DISTINCTIVE DIALOGUE

Our subject for May in the PYA Writers' Support Group concerned creating distinctive dialogue - identifying characters by the way the speak.

Every individual has their own unique speech pattern. Hence, distinctive speech is
a valuable way of showing characterisation, making characters memorable, and reducing the need for speech tags.
 

For example, Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby peppers his speech with the colloquialism, 'old sport'. Star Wars' Yoda's unusual word ordering sets him apart.
Tolkien's Gollum uses his own word and names The Ring as his 'Precious'.
 

At the extreme is the comedian's catchphrase - deliberately designed as a memorable shortcut to the character.
 

Famous examples include Michelle in 'Allo Allo', with 'Listen very carefully, I shall say ziz only once.' Note the 'zis' to indicate she's French.
 

Dr Who's Daleks express their single minded obsession of Exterminate! While Blackadder's Baldrick introduces his stupidity with 'I have a cunning plan.'
 

But a novel is not a sit-com, and there is a danger of falling into stereotyping and cliche.
 

So, how to create dialogue that genuinely is unique?

Know your character

Speech is born of the whole of a character's life. Age, gender, class, nationality, education, regional accent, era and fashions, upbringing, friends, where they live, what job they do. All these things affect how that person speaks. Knowing these things about your character informs their speech.
 

Try to listen to lots of different people talk: in the street, on TV, internet clips. What does that person's speech tell you about them? What, exactly, conveys those messages?

Vocabulary

Word choice is vital. Every word your character uses must be of THEIR world, and THEIR experience – not the author's. For instance. do they call a toilet a toilet? Or is the lavatory, privy, commode, loo, bog, john, powder room?
 

What idioms does their social group use? Will they 'break a leg', or perform 'the  Scottish play'? Or will they dismiss something's value as 'a dime a dozen', before they 'hit the sack'?
 

Do they use slang or swear words?
 

Do they use jargon? Will they use 'blue sky thinking' to determine that the best course of action is to 'get the low hanging fruit'.

Do their activities involve specialist knowledge? To an outsider, a car is a car. To a
mechanic, it might be a saloon, a hatchback, an SUV, petrol, diesel, electric, turbo, catalytic, a Renault, Toyota, etc. etc. 

Grammar, rhythm and syntax (word order)

Few people truly speak 'standard' English. But writing fictional speech as real people speak doesn't work – it reads like gibberish. The trick is to introduce a few indicators of non-standard speech.

This is especially useful when it comes to foreign/regional accents and/or dialect. To try to faithfully reproduce an accent in phonetic language is difficult, hard to read, and quite likely will not be understood by any reader who is not familiar with that accent. The trick is to introduce just one or two things that indicate the accent to the reader, without altering the whole text. As in the example of Michelle above, the spelling of only one word is amended to indicate the French accent.
Depending on the accent, you might use the odd apostrophe for a missing part of speech, or change word order, or miss a word out. Someone might switch prepositions, misuse a pronoun, or leave out parts of speech such as 'and';. Remember, use sparingly - just as an indication.
 

Here is an example.
Personality is expressed strongly in speech. A hesitant, shy person will use modifiers to hedge what they say. Words like 'might, could, perhaps'. A dogmatic, confident person will claim that listeners 'must' or 'will' do something. Blunt, to the point people use short words and sentences. Pompous people use long words
and long sentences.
 

Audience.

Consider not only your readership, but who your character is addressing in the dialogue you are writing. People speak differently to different people, especially if power dynamics are in play. Is your characters speaking to, say a child, their boss, a friend, officialdom?

Perception

People's language is coloured by their interpretation of their surroundings. Does the girl walking through linear park at dusk perceive it as threatening, or as peaceful?

Exercise

Pick two characters from your current work in progress, and have them discuss the actions of a third.
 

Or, progress this scenario:
Fred and George are up before the judge.
Fred says, ;I were walking down t'road,;
George says, 'We woz ;ere all the time, yer 'onour.'
What happens next?
 

Here's a link to a blog about regional accents to help too.

 

PYA Writers' Support Group 3rd April - Author Biographies - Crib Sheet

The Author Bio is the bit on the back of a book, on your agent’s website, on your social media, that introduces you as an author

Author bios are conventionally written in third person, and are very short – not more than 100 words.

Many author bios are very bland: I read one that said that the authors lives in Norfolk, with cats.  It did nothing to make me want to read her books.

And that is a marketing failure.  An Author Bio is an opportunity to make people think, wow, I’m interested in this person, I want to read what they have to say.

Two examples:

Trust No One by Louisa Clifford: No author bio at all!  Missed opportunity
The Whale Road by Robert Law: Says he was journalist and traveller until ‘common sense and the concerns of his wife prevailed’. ‘To satisfy his craving for action he took up re-enactment, joining ‘The Vikings’.  The story is historical fiction, therefore, this shows the man has lived it – making the book more enticing.

I think author bios are difficult on two fronts: one is the same as the ‘elevator pitch’: what to leave out from this this large, complex subject.

The other is that, at heart, many writers are shy, and don’t want to reveal themselves.

So think about your author bio as writing another character.  Whether for a pen name, or your own name, it’s a constructed character.  It’s not the inner you: it’s your public persona.  What do you want to show?

What to include?   

1 Name and Geographical location. 

These are standards, that must be included.
Geographical location gives readers their first piece of information about you.  So choose carefully how you describe it.  Does your location in the idyllic Yorkshire Dales provide the setting for your cosy crime/romances?  Does your location in Leeds give you inside knowledge of the post-industrial decline that fuels your crime thriller?

2 Authority

If you’re writing non-fiction, the next stage is to declare your authority to write this book?  Is it a diet book, the result of your PhD studies in nutritional and weight loss?

3 But fiction writers have authority, too.

Travel, work experience, life experience, a city or landscape, its wildlife or history?  What was your inspiration for the book?  This is your chance to share that inspiration, and inspire your readers.

4 What life experience is relevant to your knowledge of your book?  

It might be based on your memories of growing up, or triggered by family history research.  You might have overcome a personal crisis or challenge.  Think of something that relates you, your book, and potential readers.

5 And finally, is there anything else that validates your work?

Won any prizes?  A quote from a positive review?  A celebrity endorsement?  Previously published works?

Round off by mentioning your website and social media.

Children's Author Group 14th March 2024 - A Discussion on School Presentations about your books

Children's Author Group 14th March 2024 - A Discussion on School Presentations about your books

Thank you to everyone who attended the Children's Author group of March 2024. We had a lively discussion on School Visits. There were so many excellent comments and ideas that I've collated notes below. If I've missed anything out, then please let me know.

A huge thank you to Paul for once again providing the links.

Our next meeting is on April the 18th at 2.30 pm. We are going to continue today's theme of School Visits as well as talk through the idea of a PYA database for contacts.

As an aside - we discussed the author visit of the previous month too and regular attendee Julie Venner found the article  Beware the Thorn of the Zéphirine Drouhin) about the use of gardens in crime fiction which might be of interest after our discussion of garden metaphors, etc.

Main points from the Children’s Author group meeting. 14/03/24

Social Media – Instagram.

Instagram algorithms are positively affected by the number of engagements you make. Hearts/likes don’t count – making a comment on someone’s post does. Engaging with posts should be daily.

ANOTHER TIP Facebook and Instagram bots do not like copied and pasted remarks in posts. If you do have to copy something and re send– add something, or change a few words.

When posting on Instagram use hashtags’ (trending ones if possible). Things like:  

#Childrensbooks
#ChildrensFiction etc.

QR codes.

Those quirky boxes you can scan that will take the person directly to your website/page. They can be added to pretty much anything. Bookmarks, flyers web pages. Linda has offered to make personal ones if you email her. They can link to Amazon or your websites… let me know.

Mastodon UK

A social media site that is not owned by anyone - it is what is called a Federated Network. It takes a little time to get your head around. I suggest you google and go from there – or ask the oracle that is Paul!

Paul is on Mastodon @wisegreyowl@mastodonaoo.uk

SCHOOL VISITS

Payment for school visits.

A variety of options were discussed.

It was agreed that it will depend on the circumstances and what you are offering to the school.

Schools often have a limited budget so one solution is to ask the school to purchase 5 -10 books for their library.

Ask the school to promote your visit. Send the school a flyer/s and ask them to add the visit to the school website and newsletter. This would give parents the opportunity to pre-order a book.

Working your visit to tie in with the school curriculum – this would help the school to tick those boxes.

Practical ideas – use activities where possible. Could be puppets, a writing exercise – funny poems. Depending of course on the age you’re talking to.

Potential issues with visits

Teachers or classroom assistants should be present throughout the session.

Using technology for the session – Most schools use TEAM not Zoom. Check out any tech details well before your visit.

Who to contact to arrange a visit.

The school office might be able to help by providing an appropriate contact within the school. A librarian, (if they have one) literacy co-ordinator – head teacher.

When emailing, make it clear you are a member of Promoting Yorkshire Authors and provide the website address. www.p.y.a.org. Being a member of PYA is going to add weight to your request. 400 members and counting!

Discussed – the potential for school visits where a few authors would attend the event together. This might be attractive to schools/libraries etc. and would provide support for each other.

DATA BASE

Begin to set up a Yorkshire wide data base for PYA, listing contacts for schools – libraries and Indie Bookshops. Individuals to begin sourcing contacts local to them. Telephone the schools libraries etc. and ask for an appropriate person to email. Once you have a few, send the contact details to linda.jones2703@gmail.com and I’ll begin to collate them. Jane has an old list which she will be updating over the coming few months

 Linda Jones - Deputy Chair, PYA and Chair Children's Author Group

 

February's Children's Author Group featured our guest, Crime Writer David Gatward who gave us the benefit of his experience.

Thank you author David Gatward who gave an inspiring talk to the PYA Children's Author Group in February by Zoom. Thanks also to John Clewarth for inviting David.

David self publishes his work and makes monthly sales that would be envied by many in the group. The lessons for me from the talk were:

1. Write, write, write. 4 books a year isn't an unachievable target. Make time, don't procastinate.

2. Choose a genre that has lots of readers - crime, fantasy, sci-fi.

3. Write a series and keep it going.

4. Build a following of avid readers and give them what they want. Someone who reads book 1 in the series is likely to read all of the books.

5. Focus, focus, focus. You need to want to be successful & take steps to make the dream come true. The harder you try, the luckier you become.

6. Focus on eBooks. David's sales are 80% eBooks, all on Amazon.

It was clear that David is a driven man and I think everyone was wowed by what he's achieved. It has certainly put a rocket up me!

David sent us some notes after the session and they're reproduced below.

Notes for indie authors

If you want to be really strategic about writing before you write your book: Write to market – Easier to market a book if it is targeted at a specific market rather than a mish/mash of genres. Obviously this is personal choice but if you want the biggest chance of earning, then doing research into the genre/subgenre you want to write in will pay off. What are common tropes? What are the best-selling books in the genre/subgenre do? Etc. This doesn’t mean you have to target the biggest audience. Targeting a niche audience can be very successful as long as you write what they want to read. (e.g. romance is a huge, highly competitive market so drilling down a bit into subgenres and writing something that those audiences love could be the best way to go).

Have your book edited and proofed

This goes without saying, doesn’t need any further explanation. Employ professionals and you’ll get a professional job. Don’t just ask your mate to do it …

Blurb

Make sure your blurb is catchy and appropriate – this will probably require some research because people who can write novels, can’t necessarily write short, snappy copy (especially not about their own books, which they may know too well). Look at top 100 in your genre and read their blurb, ask for feedback on relevant author Facebook groups – a neutral observer will be able to tell you if your blurb is enticing and makes them want to find out more about your book (and if not, why not). It’s something that writers often overlook or misjudge (e.g. it’s not about giving a synopsis of what your book’s about, it’s about creating suspense, intrigue, curiosity that makes potential readers want to find out more). Bryan Cohen (who runs the Author Ad School for indie authors) has written a book on writing blurbs. How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good. I haven’t read this though but he and his team know a lot about writing blurbs.

Covers

Make sure you have a professional looking cover: Don’t do your own cover unless you are REALLY good at Photoshop/graphic design. You can usually spot a homemade cover from a mile off and they don’t look good. Back in the early days of self publishing, readers may have been drawn by homespun covers as it indicated something different from trad published books. That doesn’t work nowadays. You only have a couple of seconds to attract a reader’s attention. They are scrolling through Amazon and you only have a very short space of time to grab their attention. And you have to do this with a professional-looking cover that fits in with your genre. You don’t have to spend hundreds of £s to do this. There are websites out there that do very cost-effective covers e.g. getcovers.com, you can get an ebook cover for as little as $10, ebook and print cover for as little as $20 (there are varying price packages with different service levels). Or 100covers.com, their packages start from $100. If you have more money to spend, then you can look at more specialist design agencies e.g. www.derangeddoctordesign.com There are lots of agencies and freelance designers out there, so makes sense to do your research, ask for recommendations in online forums etc. You can also look inside the front covers of best-selling books in your genre and see if the author has credited the designer/artist and contact them. But make sure you do this good time and don’t leave to the last minute as most agencies and designers will have lead times.

BUT you do have to do research on your covers – your cover has to fit seamlessly into your genre. It has to look like all the others in the top 100. This is because readers judge books by their covers. They want to know that your book tells the kind of story they want to read. So if it looks like the stuff they like, they are more likely to click on it. This means you have to look at the following factors that are most common in the top 100 books in your genre:

What images are used, how big are they (what 5-age of the cover do they take up)

What are the dominant colours used in the images

Type, colour and size of font (for the title and the author name)

Where is the title positioned?

Where is the author name positioned?

When looking at the top 100 in your genre on Amazon, drill down into your specific subgenre. You can use the menu in Amazon or just Google the relevant e.g. ‘best seller paranormal werewolves shifter romance amazon uk’. When looking at top 100 make sure you discount any non-relevant books e.g. Amazon crime fiction in the US used to contain loads of dark mafia romance books (lots of broody, bare-chested males draped in scantily clad women), which isn’t what you want on a crime fiction book. Being as accurate as possible helps – e.g. drill down to police procedurals, tradition detective stories, scandi noir, cosy culinary etc. whatever genre fits your book best.

The more information you can provide a book cover designer with, the easier the design process will be (with fewer revisions necessary).

Join good online forums – there are lots of Facebook groups for authors. Lots of them are free. They are great places to post cover and blurb drafts and ask for feedback. Be open to constructive criticism – try not to be offended if your blurb or cover is critiqued.

Advertising:

Amazon and Facebook ads are the most common platforms for advertising. Both can be very effective if done right. I would recommend doing some research here as they can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. There are various courses and books out there that teach indie authors how to navigate Amazon and Facebook ads. Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing courses are probably among the best known? They’re fairly all encompassing and cover most aspects of writing and self publishing. It is costly, though. I haven’t done much of his stuff so can’t say much either way, but could be interesting for people to look at.

Amazon ads

The Author Ad School’s Selling for Authors course is another well-known course. It is also a paid-for course that covers most aspects of marketing and advertising a book via amazon (does not cover Facebook ads). They run a free 5-day Author Ad Challenge on Facebook several times a year. It’s a good free introduction to Amazon ads and guides you to creating your first amazon ads. Also something that they might want to check out. The next one will be in January (search for The 5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge on Facebook and join the group). The instructor, Bryan Cohen has also written a book: Self-Publishing with Amazon Ads: The Author's Guide to Lower Costs, Higher Royalties, and Greater Peace of Mind. I haven’t read this though.

Facebook ads

For those on a limited budget, a good, no-nonsense book on how to set up and run your first Facebook Ads is: Help! My Facebook Ads Suck: Second Edition by Mall and Jil Cooper. £7.99 Kindle and £8.99 paperback. It’s an easy-to-follow, step-by-step book, and I found it very useful. I’d suggest getting the paperback as it’s easier to flick backwards and forwards through while setting up ads. Mal and Jil also run a facebook page called The Writing Wives Ads & Marketing Group (search in FB) and have a regular live chat called Lunch with Mal where Mal talks about Facebook ads and trends in FB advertising. They also run a free 5-Day Facebook Ads Challenge Group periodically in the year, but I’m not sure when the next is (search 5-Day Facebook Ads Challenge Group in Facebook)

One thing to note is that whereas it can be a challenge to get amazon to spend your budget on ads but Facebook will burn through your money in no time at all. So be careful there. Always set yourself a budget you can afford and keep an eye on ad performance and how much you’re spending. Some people find that one platform works better for them than another. E.g. Facebook didn’t seem to be having a big impact on sales, so I stopped the ads there.

It definitely helps to take a strategic approach here – testing different types of ads for x amount of time, stopping ones that don’t work and spending more on ads that do work… it pays to be strategic and analytical here (something that I am not!)

General rule of thumb = only run ads to your first in series (if you write a series). You can run time-limited campaigns to new releases, but you want to funnel

Newsletters:

It’s generally regarded as good practice to send out regular newsletters to your readers. This is because it gives you a direct means of communicating with your ‘superfans’. Even if you have an active author Facebook page where you engage with fans, if your account get blocked by Facebook, or if anything should happen to Facebook, then you lose access to these people. A mailing list is yours and yours alone.

There are lots of different email providers out there, but as far as I know, Mailerlite is the best one (it’s not perfect, but better than a lot of others). There is a free version (without customer support) that you can use until you reach a certain number of subscribers. Once you exceed 1000 subscribers, you have to switch to a paid-for account.

To get people to sign up for your newsletter, you will need a cookie, e.g. a free short story related to your book (or the world in which your books are set). There are lots of different things you can offer here. A useful resource for creating newsletters is the book Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi L. Labrecque. It’s another no-nonsense, easy-to-follow guide on all things newslettery. She has also done a follow-up called: Newsletter Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie: Supercharge Your Author Mailing List With the Perfect Reader Magnet, which I found useful. She also runs a Facebook page called Newsletter Ninja: Author Think Tank, where you can post questions.

General comments:

You can spend A LOT of money on really in-depth courses that will teach you every aspect of self publishing from planning a book for a specific genre to marketing it to readers. But if you’re on a budget, there are also plenty of free resources out there. Lots and lots of podcasts, for example Dave Chesson at kidlepreneur.com., The Self Publishing Show Podcast with Mark Dawson, Sell More Books Show with Bryan Cohen and H. Claire Taylor. Free courses and resources (5-day challenges on Facebook). I would suggest that people looks at the low-cost of free stuff before spending £100s or even £1000s on courses. There is so much you can learn from other authors and industry experts for free.

Useful resources for indie authors

This is by no means a definitive list. These resources may not even be the best options out there for your genre but they are all resources I have either used myself or heard good things about from other authors and industry experts.

Blurbs

Book: How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good by Bryan Cohen

Cover design

Low cost options:

www.getcovers.com

www.100covers.com

Advertising

Amazon ads and self publishing in general

Free:

The 5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge on Facebook run by Bryan Cohen (the next course starts in January)

Paid-for: https://selling-for-authors.teachable.com/p/amazon-ads-made-easy (Bryan Cohen)

Facebook ads

Book: Help! My Facebook Ads Suck: Second Edition by Mall and Jil Cooper.

Facebook groups:

The Writing Wives Ads & Marketing Group

5-Day Facebook Ads Challenge Group

Amazon and Facebook ads (and all aspects of self publishing)

Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Formula

https://selfpublishingformula.com/

Newsletters:

Free email service provider:

www.mailerlite.com

Book: Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi L. Labrecque

Book: Newsletter Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie: Supercharge Your Author Mailing List With the Perfect Reader Magnet

Facebook group: Newsletter Ninja: Author Think Tank

Self publishing in general:

Dave Chesson – not read much of his stuff but he’s highly respected in the indie author community and offers a lot of free resources (and a podcast) on his website. Worth checking out.

https://kindlepreneur.com/

Podcasts:

The Book Marketing Show with Dave Chesson

The Self Publishing Show Podcast with Mark Dawson

SELL MORE BOOKS SHOW with Bryan Cohen and H. Claire Taylor