Adam Blumer

4 Ways to Improve Your Web Presence

By Adam Blumer April 20, 2012 Blog, Marketing, Novel News, Technology, Weekly Post 4 Comments

A month or so ago, I had a one-hour phone consultation with Thomas Umstattd at Authormedia.com. This site offers Web guidance for authors and provides a number of fee-based services to make the most of one’s Web presence. Tom asked a lot of questions and talked through my author website and my marketing strategy (or lack thereof). What I learned wasn’t all that surprising. I’m not doing nearly enough online to promote myself as an author. He said my website  didn’t even rank on Alexa.com (I had no idea what that was). I checked this morning, and now I rank. Now that I’m informed, I’m taking steps to improve. Because other authors (or really anyone trying to do online marketing) may be in the same boat, I’m happy to pass on some important things I learned (Authormedia.com didn’t pay me to say any of this). 1. Purchase the Domain for Your…

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10 Common Misconceptions of the Wannabe Novelist, #5

By Adam Blumer April 13, 2012 Blog, Weekly Post, Writing 4 Comments

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.  #5: If a publisher accepts my novel for publication, I’ll be rich. Ha! Don’t quit your day job just yet. This is one of the most ridiculous myths of all, and it’s fueled by those glossy back covers of New York Times-best-selling authors in their expensive clothes and watches, hair perfectly coifed, wrinkles air-brushed away. For whatever reason, this image propagates in the general public, including newbies who don’t know better, the notion that anyone who publishes a novel must get paid a lot of money. The fact is, most published novelists aren’t rich—not even close. Once in a while, we hear about a struggling author like J. K. Rowling suddenly making it big. But those stories are definitely not the norm. The Reality Most published novelists I’ve gotten to know online (because I know few up here in the woods) continue the rat race…

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