Writing and Marketing Multi-Genre for the Indie: March 2014

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Google Authorship for the Indie Author

So you’re an author. What does that mean exactly? Has anyone read your book? Your short stories? Your poems? You’ve probably managed a few sales as an indie, going it alone, and that’s commendable. I know exactly how hard you worked to pick up 10 to 20 sales last month. But what if I told you that there is a new tool out there for us, one that rewards authors for simply writing? And then what if I told you that you could be considered the preeminent expert on your chosen genre? A title like that helps build the street-cred, which builds the leads and then the sales.

Google Authorship is relatively new, but is already seeing great results on search queries. All those blogs you’ve been writing - hoping someone would read - and then become interested enough to click on the link to your amazon page, are just waiting to be repurposed as fresh content when you become a Google Authorship personality. It’s free, and it could change your life!

Google authorship is really just a simple code you include to each blog entry you’ve made for as long as you’ve been making them: rel=author, which will then direct google to your Google+ bio page to access your photo and a short description of who you are and what you like to write about. Still with me? If you’ve been writing about the same subject for the past five years, you are obviously passionate about the subject matter. So why stop now? Once the code is in place and you ‘sign’ your blogs with the code, Google will include a headshot of you along with the sample of your post when a user searches for the subject matter you write about.

Why is this the greatest thing to happen to you, ever? Because it’s a fact that a search resulting in a headshot next to the article or blog entry on the results page brings in 1500% more click through than one without it. What is the big deal about a photo? It’s because people want to put a face to the ‘expert’ who wrote about what interests them. Trust me, you’ll be drawn to it too. Find out more on how to create your Google Authorship code.

Michael Poeltl