WEBCAST: Bryan Cohen performs book description magic

There's nothing like watching a wizard show you how he performs magic. That's the feeling we got as we watched Bryan Cohen critique our viewers' book descriptions in real-time! If it still doesn't sound like your cup of tea, hire Bryan and his team to write a...

WEBCAST: Dave Chesson is the Keyword Master!

We were thrilled to speak with Dave Chesson of KDP Rocket, an author, entrepreneur and MAJOR nerd! Get the latest scoop on keywords, categories and the evolution of the Amazon API.

WEBCAST: Best-selling author, Eric Asher, breaks down the Facebook pixel

We were fortunate enough to talk to Eric Asher about one of the metaphysical wonders of marketing, the Facebook pixel 😉 Eric takes the guesswork out of it and shows how powerful a tool it can be for today's author. Eric Asher breaks down the Facebook pixel for the...

WEBCAST: AMS Ads with Bonnie Paulson and Elana Johnson

John and I got to speak with Bonnie Paulson and Elana Johnson about how to get your AMS ads rockin'! The two bestselling authors run a workshop that John has taken and he's found it to be really helpful to his business. If you're interested in learning how to make AMS...

WEBCAST: Author Alchemy Biz Ops with Joe Solari

We had a chance to sit down with Joe Solari to talk about the nuts and bolts of treating your writing like a business. We met Joe when we first launched ReaderLinks. He was impressed with what we're trying to do with the service. We spent some time with him, talking...

WEBINAR: How to manage your Reader Team with ReaderLinks

Are you curious about how ReaderLinks handles Reader Team/ ARC Team/ Street Team projects? The first set-up will take you about 30 minutes. From that point on you'll hit the road running within five minutes. It's a great tool. See what the buzz is all about and click...

WATCH: Tracking sales on ReaderLinks

John and Ben talk about how to track sales with ReaderLinks. What should you look out for? How can you get the most out of the data you see? Oh yeah, and Twitter! Tracking sales on ReaderLinks from The Author Helper on Vimeo.

ReaderLinks Webinar: How to manage links in ReaderLinks

One of the top questions we get from customers is, "How do we manage links in ReaderLinks?" We've built a system that is very book-centric, which makes it a powerful tool for book marketing. Here's how to use it for your author business...

ReaderLinks just made marketing for authors easier (now includes Amazon KDP historic data!)

We're excited to announce a bundle of tweaks to ReaderLinks. We've been listening to your excellent feedback and we agree with it. So Rafal and John got to work... We think we've addressed some of the details that annoyed, well, pretty much everyone! #1 Amazon KDP...

ReaderLinks KDP Sales Data

A question that comes up now and then is, "How does RL handle the sales data coming in from KDP?" Before we get started in answering that question, please note ReaderLinks uses the actual data from service reports, such as KDP, to build an income picture. We use...

ReaderLinks introduces the ability to track return on investment for authors — PER BOOK!

ADS, PHASE 2 HAS BEEN RELEASED! Tracking return on investment for authors has always been a challenge.  If you run Facebook ads and/or AMS ads then you'll be happy to hear the news... As of today, you can track ROI on a per-book basis with ReaderLinks! This will help...

ReaderLinks is proud to announce two new features: KDP Auto-Scraping and Rankings!

We're always improving ReaderLinks. We want to use a tool that helps us free up time for writing and that gives us a mountain of tools to focus our marketing efforts. So it's with great pride that we announce the roll-out of two features, one much-requested and the...

ReaderLinks Book Marketing Webinar: Basic Ads Tracking Using ReaderLinks

If you’re an author who considers their writing their business then you need to track profits as part of your book marketing routine.

WATCH: Set up your ARC Team (i.e. Beta/Reader Team) the right way

ReaderLinks ARC feature from ReaderLinks by The Author Helper on Vimeo. We call them ARC Teams (for Advanced Reader Copy). Or Reader Teams. Or Beta Teams. But, in the end, they're our tribe! We love the support and help that a Reader Team supplies us. So we wanted to...

Learn how to run a Reader Team with ReaderLinks!

We're delighted with the response to ReaderLinks so far! We're already hearing stories about how it's helping authors get a handle on their business. John and I want to run a series of webinars for you. We hope you'll join us. They'll focus on tackling the biggest...

Simplify your publishing process with ReaderLinks

Most of today's authors use a pile of software and services to track their writing business. Google Calendar for scheduling, To-Doist for tasks, Excel to track promotions, a text file to keep notes, Buffer to automate tweets. There are dozens of options out there for...

How libraries can help authors sell more books

We’ve been hypnotized by the power of social media to get the word out about our books.  It is, indeed, a powerful tool. But if your dream is to make a living with your books then local library branches are invaluable.

Twitter tip for authors and writers: A little friendly competition lifts all boats!

A vast majority of authors will enjoy any kind of friendly interaction on Twitter because it’s just so hard to come by! So here’s a Twitter tip for authors and writers.

Twitter for authors: The fundamentals (UPDATED)

One of our guiding principles is to offer authors a solid ground to stand on. Social media can be confusing. But finding the right network can give authors a strong platform to work with.

How to use keywords to make your eBook as visible as possible

What are keywords? They’re the words you use to describe your book. Sometimes you’ll hear them called keyword phrases, but that just means keywords that are more than one word long. For example, “hero” is a keyword and “android hero” is a keyword phrase. Amazon asks...

Prep your book for its KDP Select free promo days

A step-by-step guide, with best practices! Once you sign up for KDP Select and figure out what you can do with your exclusive Amazon ebook, you may find a small bump in the road. Actually it may look more like a big, honking wall. The wall is spray painted with large...

First adopters of Amazon Ads for authors have a big advantage (if they look at history)

Amazon is a big search engine. Now that they offer ads, how can we leverage it to sell books?

Serial Box promises readers an HBO for books. Interested?

Serial Box promises an HBO for eBooks. Is this marketing or a really good idea?

The Author’s Toolbelt: Send to Kindle

Have a thousand book marketing posts ready to read? Make it easy on the eyes with Send to Kindle!

You Should Be Writing! Episode 19 | Tripwire pages! Yes, you need one.

Tripwire pages are an excellent way to make some extra dough. Get John's breakdown of how they work and why you should have it in your author marketing arsenal.

You Should Be Writing! Episode 23 | Litsy social network & Launch Team management

Litsy, Launch Team management and holy/holey Harry Potter.

How authors can use Amazon Giveaways to get more Twitter followers

Did you know Amazon Giveaways allows you to create a contest for your eBook?

You Should Be Writing! Episode 3 | Bookbub, keywords and Adwords, oh my!

John and Ben cover a lot in 30 mins! Try to keep up!

You Should Be Writing! Episode 22 | How to Get Likes from Facebook Ads

Wait, aren’t the days of getting Likes from Facebook ads waaay over? Yup! But not if you do this…

Author tip: How to use Hashtagify

Here’s a quick run-through of Hashtagify. What is it? How can it help authors tweet better? I answer these questions and more! Or less!

You Should Be Writing! Episode 2 | Amazon Blurb Tool & Twitter Video!

John and Ben discuss the Amazon Blurb Tool and the Twitter Video product!

You Should Be Writing! Episode 1 | Here we are! Ta-daaaah! [crickets]

The first episode of You Should Be Writing! proves that, well, you should really be writing…

You Should Be Writing! Episode #21 | Author, Orlando Sanchez

We talk writing, marketing and coping with author Orlando A. Sanchez on the You Should Be Writing! podcast

Twitter Cards for Authors

Here’s a step-by-step video tutorial on how to use Twitter Cards to market your books.

You Should Be Writing! Episode #20 | Get your book into Barnes & Noble!

We discuss a new way to get your books into Barnes & Noble (hint: It’s about time, B&N!)

Where to promote your free ebooks

Promote your free ebook on one of these sites.

Using Scrivener to improve your Words-Per-Hour

If you’re looking to improve your typing speed, you can utilize Scrivener’s Session Target tool and a timer/alarm to build up your chops!

Interviewing your characters

Want to breathe life into your characters? Looking for more than just the flat, one-dimensional voice that seems to keep coming out? There’s a solution to this that’s both fun and enlightening!

The fundamentals of Facebook for authors

You know what we love around here? We love things that work. If it helps us sell books, our hearts flicker aflutter. But you know what we love more than things that work? Simple things that work.

Twitter is an excellent tool to find your target audience

You hear the one about the two authors who walk into a bar? One has a mailing list. The other one has zip. Nada.

Use Google Sheets to track your book’s issues

I don’t know about you, but when I hand my pre-releases out to my Launch Team, I end up getting a bunch of emails with fixes. This is great, but I’m often juggling all the reports and wishing there was a way to streamline things a bit. Turns out that there is!

Building reader surveys using Google Forms

Reader surveys are a great way to get feedback from that mailing list you’ve got running. But how exactly do you go about doing a survey? There are many options out there, but if you’re looking for some quick, easy, and FREE… check out Goolge Forms.

The Author’s Creed

Some things never change. As authors, it's a good thing to know which of those things apply to us. Look at it this way. It's a noisy world, with busy people and seven seconds of attention span to spread out among them all. There are new tools, tactics, networks,...

PC Scrivener – Importing Word documents the easy way

Instead of painfully copying your Word documents chapter by chapter into Scrivener for PC, you can make some pretty simple changes to your Word doc and then import it into Scrivener in one hop!

Check out our podcast, ‘You Should Be Writing!’

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Humor author John Logsdon and I (Ben Zackheim) are having a blast with our new author podcast! It’s called You Should Be Writing! (With the exclamation point! Just because!) We’re up to episode 2 and each one has been more fun to do than the last....

The Top 15 tips from Bookbub on how to market your book

We take a look at Bookbub’s advice on how to market your book and we JUDGE them. It is our way…

Amazon Blurb Preview Tool

This tutorial will show you how to use the ablurb tool so that you can preview what your Amazon descriptions will look like *before* you post them.

Mac Scrivener: Pocketbook for CreateSpace – Part 3

This is part 3 of 3 for my method of setting up a CreateSpace template for the pocketbook sized book. This is the 4.25×6.87 paperback size.

Mac Scrivener: Pocketbook for CreateSpace – Part 2

This is part 2 of 3 for my method of setting up a CreateSpace template for the pocketbook sized book. This is the 4.25×6.87 paperback size.

Mac Scrivener: Pocketbook for CreateSpace – Part 1

This is part 1 of 3 for my method of setting up a CreateSpace template for the pocketbook sized book. This is the 4.25×6.87 paperback size.

Custom Table of Contents

If you have the Mac version of Scrivener, this tutorial will show you how to set up a manual table of contents for your book bundles.