Author Buzz

Where Authors & Readers find each other

Matthew Brown

About Matthew Brown

Matthew is a writer, web dev, and geek from Kent (UK). He is the founder and current chair of Thanet Creative as well as head geek for Author Buzz. His ambitions include seeing a film or TV series based on something he wrote. Matt is also responsible for fixing stuff on AuthorBuzz.co.uk when it breaks.

photo of people holding glasses — One way to get discovered by readers and fellow authors is to seek out author blogs. Once there take the time to leave a great comment, good feedback, or a solid review. If you have been blogging for any length of time you will know how hard it is to […]

Platform Building: Give great comments

18th June 2022 in Platform Building Prompts tagged Author Platform / blogs by Matthew Brown

girl writing on a black keyboard — The humble blog is a powerful author platform building tool. It gives you somewhere for your social media followers and mailing list subscribers to come to engage with you. If you do not have a blog, you have a number of options: The best solution: Inexpensive hosting and your own […]

Author Platforms: You do have a blog right?

11th June 2022 in Platform Building Prompts tagged Author Platform / blogs by Matthew Brown

three women posing for photo — Before you can develop a network of thousands of people hanging on to your every work, you need to start by establishing friendships. At its heart, an author’s platform is simply a large collection of people with whom you have built some degree of relationship. This first tip is simple […]

Platform building tip #1 – develop friendships

4th June 2022 in Platform Building Prompts tagged Author Platform / friendship / social media by Matthew Brown

white dandelion flower shallow focus photography — We have a new and totally free resource for writers and authors launching soon – weekly tips and prompts for author platform building. These prompts and tips will publish at 10am (London time) each Saturday. So far, we have scheduled tips well into next year. You can find the archive […]

Weekly platform building tips and prompts

3rd June 2022 in Platform Building Prompts by Matthew Brown

assorted books on shelf — In this post, I will try to make the case that Author Buzz UK is a suitable host for the distributed directory of conversations started on OpenMentions.com. What is OpenMentions? OpenMentions is a project to create a distributed directory of conversations on the IndieWeb. OpenMentions is something I started but […]

Possibilities with OpenMentions and Author Buzz

29th April 2022 in Author Buzz tagged IndieWeb / OpenMEntions / plans / Webmentions by Matthew Brown

books in black wooden book shelf — At last, we are back with part three of our series taking a look at everything you need to know about self-publishing. In this instalment, we will look at services, marketing, and book cover design. Previous instalments Services for self-publishers In part two, we looked at topics such as proofreading […]

Self-Publishing: Everything you need to know – part 3

11th April 2022 in Self-Publishing tagged Author Platform / book covers / design / fails / self-publishing by Matthew Brown

Maus, by Art Spiegelman, is a graphic novel about the Holocaust. McMinn County School District is a school district headquartered in Athens, Tennessee.MacMinn decided they did not like Maus and banned it. MacMinn claimed the ban was due to profanities (swearing) used in Maus. However, there have been many loud […]

Us school board bans Maus – it shoots into the ...

13th February 2022 in Writer News tagged America / Art Spiegelman / book ban / Maus by Matthew Brown

man in brown long sleeve sweater and black pants sitting on brown sofa chair using laptop — A commonly held business truth is that people hate to be sold to but they love to buy. Hard selling your books is unlikely to work. I covered part of this in the article about how to run a terrible Twitter account – sell sell sell does not work. Most […]

Don’t sell books, allow people to buy them

6th February 2022 in Sell more books tagged Author Platform / George R. R. Martin / guide / sell more books by Matthew Brown

Waterstones has arranged an exclusive edition of Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & the Light. Hilary Mantel has already been awarded the Booker Prize twice. The first time was for her 2009 novel Wolf Hall, a fictional account of Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power in the court of […]

Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & the Light: Waterstones’ Exclusive Edition

1st February 2022 in Authors tagged books / Hilary Mantel / historic fiction / The Mirror & the Light / Thomas Cromwell / Waterstones by Matthew Brown

green leafed tree — Did you know that acorns and squirrels can teach us something about selling books? Stick with me, and you will see exactly what I mean. 1. Grow then flower: Build your online presence first A tree does not invest effort into blossoms until it has first established itself. Likewise, if […]

10 things trees can teach authors about online marketing

31st January 2022 in Sell more books tagged Author Platform / books / readers / social media / trees by Matthew Brown

person holding white ceramci be happy painted mug — I hear regularly that writing is not a real job but writing is a real job. As a teen, I wanted to dedicate my life to art and writing. This did not go over well with adults. I was told to start being sensible and get a real job. That […]

Yes, writing is a real job

4th January 2022 in Opinion tagged money / paid work / real job / Writing by Matthew Brown

man in blue suit — Do you want to know how to use Author Buzz to generate SEO, book promotion, and buzz generation? I assume you do. After all, you just clicked on this article. Author Buzz UK Basics At the heart of a good Author Buzz strategy is a well-defined user account. It pays […]

How to use Author Buzz UK like a boss

3rd January 2022 in Uncategorised tagged Author Platform / blogs / groups / guide / readers by Matthew Brown