Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Christmas Book Fair – #Authors – Blogging Anne R. Allen, #Networking Lizzie Chantree, #Inspiration Harmony Kent

Welcome to the Christmas Book Fair where I will be featuring all the authors currently on the shelves of the Cafe and Bookstore.

Today some books that offer information and assistance to writers, always a welcome gift for new and seasoned bloggers and authors.

The first author today is Anne R. Allen with a review for her non-fiction guide – The Author Blog: Easy Blogging for Busy Authors

About the book

Book Authority named The Author Blog to the “Best Blogging Books of All Time” in September 2019. It’s a fun, easy-does-it guide to simple, low-tech blogging for authors who want to build a platform, but not let it take over their lives.

An author blog doesn’t have to follow the rules that monetized business blogs do. This book teaches the secrets that made Anne R. Allen a multi-award-winning blogger and one of the top author-bloggers in the industry.

And you’ll learn why having a successful author blog is easier than you think.

Here are some things you’ll learn in this book:

*How an author blog is different–and easier to maintain–than a business blog
*What authors should blog about at different stages of their careers
*Choosing the right blog topics for your genre and audience
*How one type of blogpost can build your platform quickly
*Basic SEO tips that don’t make your eyes glaze over with tech jargon
*How to write headers that will grab the attention of Web surfers
*How to keep your audience by learning the tricks of content writing
*Essential blog and social media etiquette rules
*What happens to your blog when you die?

One of the recent reviews for the book on Goodreads

Nov 07, 2020 Nancy Kuykendall rated it Five Stars

I’m an author who’s been blogging for a while, yet this book answered some ongoing questions I’ve had. I had a few aha moments in which clarity was gained. This book was a very beneficial read because of that.I felt this author did a good job of updating information. She mentioned Google + but also that it is defunct. She also gave information on other online sites that may or may not continue. Things do change.Overall, this basic information is helpful even for those already blogging.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

A selection of other books by Anne R. Allen

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK –  follow Anne on: Goodreads – blog:  Anne R. Allen – Twitter: @annerallen

Another useful gift for a writer in the family is the non-fiction guide to book marketing from Lizzie Chantree – Networking for Writers: A Fun Way to Sell More Books

About the book

Are you swamped with book marketing and looking for a way to find new sales? Learn simple and effective networking techniques, to grow your readership and connect with other authors and book lovers, today!

Whether you are a new or an experienced writer, self-published or traditionally published, this book will show you how to grow your readership and author network, through some of the most powerful of all marketing tools – word of mouth and recommendation.

This book will show you:

• How networking can help you sell more books.
• Why author branding is important.
• How networking hours work.
• Specific Facebook groups for writers
• How to utilise social media to grow your readership.
• How not to waste valuable writing time.
• How to make our marketing more effective.

Throughout Networking for Writers, we will explore running or attending book signings, hosting seminars, finding a writing buddy or mentor, author networking groups, social media planning and so much more.

One of the recent reviews for the book

Anita Dawes 5.0 out of 5 stars Networking made brilliant!  Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 November 2020

I have been an admirer of Lizzie Chantree for some time now, always impressed by her books and online personality. An excellent writer (I have read several of her books) Networking for Writers shows how brilliantly she manages everything else.

Writers all over the world need to read how Lizzie achieves so much, seemingly without much effort, and manages to stay sane!

I thought I had learned a lot in my eight years of writing/blogging, but after reading this professionally written book there is so much I hadn’t thought of before and implementing them all has to make me a better and hopefully, successful writer.

I found many helpful tips in most of the chapters, but chapter 13 – Marketing made Simple – will be the most important one for me. I found so many things that I have ignored in the past, thinking them unimportant and quite a few I never heard of before.

Life is a balancing act, making sure we simplify our marketing plan to ensure we make time for writing and marketing! ;

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon UK – And : Amazon US

Also by Lizzie Chantree

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon UK – And:Amazon US – Follow Lizzie: Goodreads – website:Lizzie Chantree – Twitter:@Lizzie_Chantree

And the final author today with a help for writers is Harmony Kent with Creative Solutions for the Modern Writer

About the book

Creative Solutions for the Modern Writer is the perfect gift for the writer in your life.

Do you want to be an author? Are you struggling to find inspiration? Do you ever find it difficult to put words on the page? Or are you simply looking for novel ideas? If so, then this book is for you.

This little guide will help you unlock your story ideas and fire your imagination. The text covers things such as writing from various prompts, to using Chess, Tarot, and even nursing Triage (and much more) for developing your characters, story, and plot.

From the award-winning author of Polish Your Prose: Essential Self-Editing Tips for Authors—an excellent companion text—Creative Solutions focuses on the creative side of writing rather than the technical.

This book gives you the tools you need to make writing fun, as well as tips and techniques on creating characters and stories that will stay with you and your readers forever.

Crammed with easy-to understand examples, this guide is for writers of every genre—both fiction and non-fiction, literary, and commercial. But most of all, it’s about having fun and making friends with your muse.

One of the recent reviews

Robbie Cheadle 5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable writing tool  Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2020

I read and enjoyed one of Harmony Kent’s fictional works and I was sufficiently impressed by her writing to pick up this non-fiction book about writing techniques and inspirational tools when it launched last year. I was not disappointed and learned a lot a developing good writing habits and ways of discovering inspiration for this book.

I have always edited as I write, this is largely due to the fact that I am a perfectionist and leaving something half done is difficult for me. This book encourages writers to not edit as they write but rather to ride the wave of your creativity and go back and edit later. I have tried this over the past week and have added double the words to my WIP. I didn’t not edit completely, but I did a lot less and felt I got a lot more words on paper this way. It is difficult to pick up on an incomplete idea so this advice makes perfect sense so that you get a piece of writing written down while it is fresh in your mind.

This books sets out lots of ideas for writing prompts which I find a great way of sharpening my writing skills. The author’s prompts have given me a lot of food for thought and I certainly won’t be running out of ideas in the foreseeable future. There are also great tips on using Tarot cards, horoscopes, chess boards and other items to generate ideas or to move your story along if you become bogged down or stale with your writing.

I thought this was a valuable writing tool and I will certainly be referring back to it going forward.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

A small selection of books by Harmony Kent

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon UK – And : Amazon US –  Follow Harmony:Goodreads – Website:Harmony Kent – Twitter: @Harmony_Kent

 

Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you have enjoyed this selection of books in the Christmas Book Fair, thanks Sally.