What is an anthology? You probably know it as a series of short stories, usually with a common theme, in one neat little package. That is the reader's perspective. From over here in Marketing Land, an anthology is a beautiful bit of promotional genius. Here's why: Even before the self-publishing boom that turned out a lot of... let's say unfinished, books, readers had favorite authors. What is worse than finishing your favorite author's most recent book? Waiting for the next one! Anthologies allow readers to find authors who are similar to their favorites and give them something to read while they wait, possibly even finding a new favorite author. This is awesome for readers and authors alike.

Being in an anthology or boxset is great way to gain readers and exposure, as long you stick to the genre. You don't want to add your epic fantasy to a romance anthology. Hopefully, that would never even be an option, but I have seen stranger things in this new publishing world. 

Here are the three main benefits to having a story in an anthology. 

1. Exposure: If you are in a box set with a more popular author, you will be very likely to gain readership from that one publication. And with new readers come new sales. As long as you retain the rights to your stories and characters, you can use anthologies as tiny little promotional tools to show readers your voice and the world you created. You might also discover a new world and character that spawns full-length fiction down the road. This is also a great way to do cross promotions. When the anthology or boxed set is released you email your list (if you don't have a list click here) and the other authors do the same. Say you're doing the anthology with four other authors and you each have a small email list of about three hundred people. You've grown your reach and exposure by 1200 people. By working with four. This is huge and one of the simplest and most effective ways to grow your business. 
   
   
2. It's easier: If you are not the one putting it together, all you have to do is make sure your piece is polished and will leave the best impression with readers. The cover, formatting and distribution will be left to the people who are creating it. Also, as I said before, each author sends and email and you reach way more people than you could have alone. 
   
   
3. You get experience and can even make friends: If you are submitting your piece and not communicating a whole lot with the other authors, you might not get this benefit. You can always look up the others, and you should do some research on them anyway. You need to make sure your name isn't being associated with people who provide less than finished work, or promote something you don't support. If you buy copies and give them to people you know or maybe use them in a giveaway, you are helping not only yourself, but the other authors as well. Find out if the other authors are planning to do the same thing, and suggest it if they aren't. Suggest making a Facebook group so you can help each other out. Authors supporting other authors is a huge part of the indie publishing boom, and one of the best things to come of it.

So there you have it, three reasons to take part in an anthology, or even start one of your own. Amphibian Press is accepting submissions for their Science fiction and Romance Anthologies now! Click here for more information! 

So this is actually a post on how to use Twitter properly. Which is, as you may have gleaned from the title, not "Shouting into the Void." ​Twitter is by far my favorite of the social media giants, but I know there are many who don’t share this opinion. I’ve met a lot of authors who complain that it “doesn’t work” or that they “don’t get it.” A lot of these authors are fans of Facebook (my least favorite) and think the same rules apply to using Twitter as an author. 
Here are three ways to harness the power of the tweet.
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1. Follow the Write (hehe) People
   I’ve heard a lot of complaints that there aren’t any good people to follow on Twitter. Considering the sheer number of followers some celebrities have, I find it hard to believe that not a single one of those people is worth following. There are a lot of spam accounts, or those “selling followers.” There are also some amazing activists, authors, and just plain cool humans. Follow some agents, some small presses — even if you don’t intend to traditionally publish, keeping your finger on the industry’s pulse is a must. Follow fellow authors, both those who are best-sellers in your genre, and others who have yet to publish. Also, don’t just stick to those in the industry. Do  you write about a chef? Follow some literary cooks (there are many, and @missellabell is amazing). Are you a historical fiction or romance author? Follow some historical societies and museums based in your setting.
   
   With this comes some cautionary advice, however. Don’t just spam-follow. Don’t just follow because someone followed you.  Check out their bios and last few tweets. Curate your twitter feed. If you want it to contain good content, only follow those who you are actually interested in hearing from.
   
   
2. Listen to Others
   This is my biggest suggestion. Don’t shout into the void. Sure, share that picture of your cat lying all over your manuscript. But read what others are saying. Think about their words, their perspectives. See what’s going on under the surface of the industry. News happens literally at the speed of light on Twitter, and you’ve got to be there to see it. I’ve found so many amazing humans just by reading others’ tweets and seeing this cool person respond. Retweet, favorite, and above all, read.
   
   
3. Engage
   Following others and reading their words is great and you can learn so much. The amazing thing about twitter is, for the most part, everyone is equal. The last key step to getting the most out of Twitter, is to engage. If an author posts something that you can add to, or poses a question, answer them! Even if they’re a best-seller. The worst that will happen is that they won’t answer (OK, the worst that will happen is they’ll be a bigot and start to harass you. More on that later). If you differ in opinion, that’s fine. Disagree politely and respectfully. I’ve exchanged tweets with Patrick Rothfuss, Amanda Palmer, Diana Rowland, and more. Don’t be too eager, don’t spam (this includes auto-follow messages!). Converse. You’ll be amazed at the friendships and networking that arises from some respectful exchanges.

So there you have it. Twitter is great, once you get the ropes down. I personally use Tweetdeck to help manage my feed and schedule tweets. There are some awesome opportunities to be found, and even better people to meet. Be real. Be yourself — trust me, the Twitter army is full of millions of freak-flags flying high. And you’ll recognize some of your own flags there, I promise.

If you want to find Cameron and me on Twitter here are our twitter handles: @VS_Holmes and @CamQuinnBooks. Amphibian Press is @AmphibianPress.

​See you there!

*A Word on Trolls and Other Internet Monsters
The internet welcomes everyone. Which is, ultimately, a good thing. But this means that it requires a certain level of awareness to navigate safely. It can be an incredibly dangerous place for certain subsets of humanity. If you are experiencing hate-mail, or see someone who is, block the perpetrator. Don’t retweet the nasty comments, even to show your support for the victim. You can support them without sensationalizing or giving fame to the bully. Don’t engage with those kinds of people and ignore them if you can. If not, the block button works great, no matter how many times you press it. If you are concerned about a real threat, tell people -- real, live, in-your-area, people. If you can safely ask police for help, do so. And, for the love of dog, don’t be a bully yourself.

Guys, it happened. I got my first bad review before my book was even a month old. And I did what all artists do, I cuddled up to my honey, ate more ice cream than one would think is humanly possible and I got back to it. Why? Because you can't please everyone. Bad reviews happen and I am going to sit here and think up reasons even bad reviews are a good thing until I believe it... I mean you believe it.

• Not everyone will like your book: I know this is hard to understand because your book is awesome sauce, but, in a world of thousands of readers, there's no way every one will like it. Maybe your MC has a best bud who is selfish or something. The reader might hate that the MC puts up with them. I'm sure you have a good reason for this character being there but maybe we don't know that reason until the next book. 
• I don't want people who won't like my book to buy my book: If people who don't like your book don't review it, other people like them will buy it and not like it. I don't want a sale for the sake of a sale and I'm betting you don't either. "Bad" reviews are helpful because they will help people who won't like your book keep browsing. I know this is the opposite of what you usually want but I promise it's a plus.
• They make it clear that your only reviews aren't from friends and family. I don't know about you, but when I see a book with 20 five-star reviews and nothing else, I'm immediately skeptical. I assume they either bribed people, or they happen to have more friends than I do and just asked. This is especially true if all these five-stars claim it's the "best book eveerrrrrr." I always check out the lower reviews to determine if it might hit certain reader pet-peeves of mine. I won't go into stats here, but I look for a good distribution curve, with a smattering of five- and one- or two-star reviews, with many four- and three-stars.
• They can help you improve your craft: At the time of my bad review I was feeling like my bad boy MC was too soft. And yet, the review stated he was "too bad" for her tastes. I'm pretty sure this means he's right where I want him. There were also comments about silted dialogue which I can use. Now I know I need to watch my dialogue a bit closer and hopefully resolve the issue for future works. The last critique she made was about how the end jumped around. Something I also felt was an issue, but as a new author I was unable to figure out how to convey all the information without it being like that. Since I finished that book, I have had this in mind and have been able to work around it by not letting it occur int he rough draft. Occasionally I feel I have to sacrifice information, but I would rather it flowed better and found another place for those particular tidbits. Improvement is kinda the point, don't you think?

There you have it folks! Three very good reasons even bad reviews are good. I would like to mention that there is a difference between a bad review and a nasty review. A nasty review is one that is just mean and may even indicate that the person didn't read the book. Those are something you should ignore all together -- most of your readership can tell the difference, too. And whatever you do, don't engage your reviewers, regardless of their review. Don't let those kinds of reviews get to you. In fact, don't let any reviews get to you. Use them to make your next project better. 

Most indies have heard having three books in a series is the magic that starts to get us noticed. We'll talk about why that is in another post. If you have three books out and your sales are remaining stagnant you may want to take a look at your marketing tactics. Here are four things to look at:

1. Pricing: Pricing is your first line of marketing in this instance. In a world where anyone can and does publish, readers have learned to be weary. Weary of unfinished works and unedited books. As a result, it is in your best unrest to severely discount the first book in your series. Some even go as far as making it free and see amazing results. I know a lot of you are thinking, "Hey this is my hard work, I don't want to give it away or charge less then $3 for it." But guess what, your first books value isn't in the money it brings it on its own, its in the money it brings from the rest of the series. That's right, your first book is the bait to get readers to try you out. Making that first book free or $0.99 (once you've published the others) will help you get readers to give you a chance.
2. Blurb: The blurb on the back of your book is lot more than a summary. It's copy. As in marketing text. If it doesn't make people want to download your now-discounted first book, you need to rewrite it. If you are having trouble ask an author friend for help or hire a copywriter. The idea is to get people to look at the sample in the beginning of the book. I have left free books on their virtual shelves because of a bad blurb, or one full of typos, so be sure to read it over and have your editor and betas take a look.
3. Covers: Professional looking covers are even more important than pricing and equally as important as the blurb. I usually try to create my own covers and if it doesn't work out I then seek help from a designer. The trick is to know the quality you want and realize when you are unable to attain it. If you can tell you cut a guy out of white background and pasted him next to a girl in a field... just stop. There is a lot that goes into the process and if you don't know enough to do it well (and in proportion) you need to find someone to help you. Keep practicing and keep someone who will be honest with you close to help you progress.
4. Reviews: Reviews are important. We all know this. That being said, if you have all 5 star reviews, readers are going to think only your friends and family have read your novel and be turned off. Readers might also be skeptical if many of your reviews contain typos and other errors or are poorly written. In a forthcoming post, "All Reviews are Good Reviews, Even the Bad Ones," I will go into more detail on this. However, if you get a 1 star review, and they explain why they didn't like it, that is a good thing. You don't want people to buy your book if they won't enjoy it so those reviews help readers make an educated decision about purchasing your novel. 

​There you have it! Four things to look into if your series isn't sell as well as you'd like. 

**DISCLAIMER** If you have not professionally edited your book these things won't help you. Editing comes long before publishing. If you have published your book and found minor typos you can simply fix them and upload a new version, but if you find yourself making major changes, you need to do the professional thing and pull the product until you have made the necessary changes.