I love being part of World Indie Warriors. They have been one of the highlights of my 2019. The members are incredibly supportive and creative. They have encouraged me to push myself to try new things and above all, believe in myself.
We have been chatting online for a while. We meet via video on Zoom. And, some of us have even met up in person. Together we are developing a community on Facebook to support more Indie Creatives.
One of the projects we are working on is to create a brochure with products by Indie Creatives. We want to make discovering products and books by indie creatives easy. The brochure can be downloaded or printed, and is accessible to anyone interested
We needed someone to create the brochure. Guess who volunteered? Me!
It was a bigger project than I anticipated. I had to juggle it around my other commitments and doing NaNoWriMo, but I pulled the first copy together in time for the deadline.
The December edition is another great resource for gifts during the Holiday season. You can discover the brochure on the World Indie Warriors website. Please visit: https://worldindiewarriors.wordpress.com.
We welcome all indie creatives and want to support each other. If you are self-published, an artist, a musician or any type of creator, pop along and find out what we are all about. You won’t be disappointed!
We also want to connect with small businesses that provide services to support indie creatives. We love getting to know book bloggers and product reviewers.
You are going to want to save this blog post. This post is going to share all the links to the previous hashtag series in one place but it’s going to do more than that. It’s going to share my final tips to help out any writer getting started on Instagram.
Have a public profile
If you are looking to connect with writers and promote your writing, then you need to be visible. If you make your content private people won’t be able to see if they want to follow you.
Complete your bio
Tell people what you are about. If you are a writer/author put it in you bio. I feel I need to add some more detail to mine but it’s way better than nothing.
Create a Link Tree
Instagram only allows you to share one link. Link Tree is a clever site that enables you to link to a page where you have listed all your links. This is useful to sign post people to your other social media accounts (I.e. Twiter, Facebook, etc), your website and/or blog, and sign up to your news letter.
Make use of the name space
I only discovered this recently but when you fill in the field for your name you can also write “author” or whatever else you want to be identified as. This gets picked up by search engines.
Don’t exceed 30 hashtags
You can have up to thirty hashtags on your post. Every hashtag helps you get discovered. However, don’t only use the most popular hashtags. These are good as the hashtag will have lots of followers but your post could get lost in the volume.
Mix up your hashtags
Don’t use the same hashtags all the time. Instagram will think you are spam and ‘shadow ban’ you for using a hashtag too frequently. This means that the algorithm won’t favour you and you are less likely to be seen.
Use different volume hashtags
I don’t know the technical phrase for this but this is what I mean. Some hashtags are very popular I.e. #writersofinstagram (275k posts) . Using a hashtag like this means your post could get lost in the volume as your competing against lots of images being posted frequently with the same hashtag. However, popular hashtags also have more followers and you could be spotted by someone you’ve not connected with yet.
Low volume hashtags tend to be more niche. For example #writersblocksucks has 1k+ posts. People searching for this are likely interested and your post has less competition. Recent posts stay near the top for longer.
Follow hashtags
Follow hashtags that relate to things you are interested in. This will help you to see what others are posting and discover new accounts to follow & engage with.
Create a hashtag collection
Note down hashtags you find useful. It’s useful to store these on your phone so you can copy and paste when you need them. To discover more hashtags to add to your list, look at what others are using that post similar content to you. So, if your a poet, what hashtags are other popular poets using?
Take part in follow loops
Choose a loop that feels relevant to what you wish to achieve, I.e. similar interests. Follow the loop rules but remember if someone is posting content you don’t like, you don’t have to follow them. What you should not do, is follow to unfollow – it’s just bad etiquette and not how you engage with others.
In addition, a lot of people have ‘follow apps’ to tell them when someone does that. Plus Instagram will detect accounts that follow and unfollow a lot and delete them as they will think you are a bot. The same goes for liking then unliking lots of posts.
Use apps
I have an iPhone and love certain apps for creating content:
Unsplash has so many free stock photos.
Canva is easy to use to create images and add text and embellishments.
Typorama is great for addding text.
B612 has great filters for taking selfies or animating pictures.
Preview to see how your posts will look in your feed prior to posting.
Planoly to schedule posts enabling you to create your posts ahead of time.
Try new things
I have figured this out over the last few months by daring to try new things. Social Media and trends are constantly changing and you need to move with it. Keep it fun and do what you enjoy. You may even start a new trend.
THE HASHTAG COLLECTION
Click the picture to go to the part of the guide you want to read.
Extra Advice
Stay true to yourself. People like personal posts, so post selfies. It’s social media, be social. But, don’t get hung up on followers, likes, comments, etc. Remember, if it gets too much, you can take a break. Writing is what is most important to a writer.
One last tip that works for everything… Create a Pintrest Board to save useful tips and advice.
Writing a novel is mainly a solitary project that you work on for months. And, when you type ”The End” it is a huge achievement, but what do you do next?
For me, I sat alone at my PC. After editing 85k words there was nobody around to celebrate with me. To be honest, that isn’t the end.
If you have been following my blog, you are probably aware that my novel is posted on Wattpad so when I finished editing, it was very easy to submit my novel into their annual competition.
Beta Readers
While it is sitting on Wattpad being judged by the judges, I decided to send my novel to a select group of beta readers to get feedback. 07I will take their feedback into consideration and make any necessary amendments and then I will decide whether to query agents, self publish or enter other competitions.
I am also part of World Indie Warriors which is a collaborative group that are supporting authors in the self publishing industry or those aspiring to self publish. Meeting them has been a very enlightening experience and as a result I feel more motivated and informed about self publishing. It no longer feels like a scary unknown.
I am also attending a marketing course with Pagan Malcolm on book prompting which will be beneficial whichever route I take.
Next Project
Although I’ve taken a creative break, I have already started plotting the next novel. I am going to rework and finish Diamond of the Sky. This will be my project for Camp NaNo (July 2019).
Read
This summer, I will be catching up on my reading. Reading is a great way to continue to develop my writing skills as I soak up the methods others have used. It is also a great way to support other writers.
What do you do when you have finished writing a novel?
