promoting your work | Indie Scriptorium — Self Publishing Collective

Part One – Understanding how search engines work

Having a website is a great idea for authors. It allows them to showcase their books and builds relationships with readers. You can sell your books on-line through links to your book publisher. You can write blogs or newsletters for distribution, provide information about your life and writing career, advertise future releases and connect to social media. You can advertise author events and book signings. It is a marketing tool with a personal focus and while it can be tricky to set up it gave me a lot of satisfaction having a website. But mine hasn’t performed and languishes unread. Time to make some changes.

But where do you begin? There are millions of author websites in existence, and they all are competing for attention and sales. So how do you get your website noticed? Let’s find out.

Let’s start with the biggie, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION – SEO

When I want to research a topic, I fire up Google and then work out what information I want. For example: I want to find out about SEOs. So, I type in “what is a SEO?”

(Some popular alternatives to Google are DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo but there are over 1500 others to choose from including one called Dogpile?)

The response to my search is overwhelming. I initially got a very long and complicated one sentence explanation which didn’t make much sense. I then scrolled down to 76 (enough, there were more) companies giving explanations about SEOs. There were also several You-tube videos available with lovely people wanting me to find out visually what SEO’s are all about. They all invited me to click on their website and swallowed up in their advertising and sign up for expensive services to improve my website’s SEO.

I scrolled down to Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia and regularly donate when they put out requests. Yes, I know it’s not perfect but it’s a great first stop that can provide you with good information and directions for further research.

Wikipedia defines SEO as the “Process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or web page from search engines.”

Okay, what do I, as an Australian author need to improve my website’s SEO. Well, the Key Words are Australian and author. These narrow down my search to what is relevant to me. I Google again and get another long list of companies and individuals who want me to look at their websites and sign me up for their services.

I chose three web sites to explore:

Australian Writers Centre – it looked professional and offered a course on SEOs.
Jin and Co. Caught my eye with the proclamation “Two simple steps for authors to found in Google with SEO.
Amazon SEO for authors.

I chose the Australian Writers Centre because it looked professional. The tag “Two Simple steps…” caught my attention as it offered a quick and simple solution. I chose Amazon because they are a big brand and should know what they are talking about.

So, these services and companies drew me in with their presentation, that includes their titles, their choice of words to advertise themselves and their brand name. It is these factors that draw readers and potential customers. It is these factors that you must address to improve your own website.

The other big consideration is, Do I want to pay for a SEO improvement service or do it myself?

There are information websites for free. These are referred to as “organic” or “natural” traffic and is hard to find amidst the other monetarised websites. Many YouTube videos fall into this category, as does Wikipedia. I also found a Business.gov.au website and looked at Wix and LinkedIn sites for free information.

The second, and more prolific websites available are called direct traffic, which is really advertising. Advertising on-line includes emails (think Spam) Banner advertising where an advert decorates the bottom of a page. Pop – ups jump out at you at unexpected times, some webpages encourage you to join in a chat with a robot. The aim of these services is to get your money, which is fair enough if they provide a good service and you can afford them. All these websites are geared to draw you in and some of them make it difficult to escape from their greedy clutches. Ever found yourself in a website without a log out or delete button and you keep on going around and around looking for a X.

All these multiple forms of websites are guided by Algorithms.

Algorithms have been around since 2500BC in Babylonia. They are formulas that take complex date from a variety of sources and make it more user friendly.

In modern times algorithms are programmed by computers to work out what words and sentences are popular and gain the attention of browsers. They do this primarily through keywords, and getting the right key words, the name and the visual presentation of the site. It’s what draws attention to your website and, the books that you hope to sell.

Website marketing is a huge area to research and understand. I have found just this first step edifying. Watch out for more blogs on this complex topic.

References used in this Blog:

Wikipedia
LinkedIn SEO – 6 steps to optimise your profile.
Wix – Free SEO tutorials
Australian Government – Business.gov.au – Improve your search engine rankings.

Photo: Attributed to Stock photos

The spark of the idea for an Indie Writers’ collective came out of belonging to Marion Art Group; a group of painters who meet together every Monday morning and exhibit their works in shopping centres.

With that premise, I thought, ‘Why not draw together a group of writers who help each other, with their different gifts and talents to publish their books?’

Fellow MAG artist, Elsie King thought this was a great idea and with Mary McDee, Indie Scriptorium was born.

Currently, Marion Art Group is holding an exhibition at Brighton Central (Foodland) in the mall area. If you are in Adelaide, South Australia, come and have a look. The exhibition is on for another week until October 29, 2023.

So, on that note, I have included below a story of the beginnings of my journey with art which combines with my love of Central Australia.

Mount Hermannsburg

My father and I sat in the dry river bed of the Finke River painting Mt Hermannsburg which towered above the river gums and spinifex. We painted our muse on site; Dad painted in watercolour and I painted in acrylic.

After a couple of hours, Dad packed up his brushes and palette and returned to the town of Hermannsburg. I stayed, in the creative zone, dibbing and dabbing, the setting sun casting shadows over the river bed and a cool breeze pricking me with goose bumps on my bare arms.

I made the final touches as the sun sank below the horizon and I was called in for tea. I signed with my maiden name, naturally, as I was only 18.

Dad’s painting and mine sat side by side on our host’s piano where all who saw, admired our work. I kept walking past and gazing at my painting. Did I really do this? Wow! Did I really?

Feature: Mt. Hermannsburg, MacDonnell Ranges Northern Territory, Australia. Painting by Lee-Anne Kling (nee Trudinger) in acrylic 1981.

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