by Thomas Umstattd | Jan 14, 2016 | Blog Posts, News
Barnes & Noble has announced that it has ended its affiliate relationship with Rakuten Linkshare and is moving to Commission Junction Affiliates by Conversant. Unlike Amazon and iTunes, Barnes & Noble outsources its affiliate program to a 3rd party. So, this...
by Thomas Umstattd | Nov 26, 2015 | Blog Posts, News
We are excited to announce the following Cyber Monday deals: MyBookProgress: $5 FREE We are offering the base version of MyBookProgress for free for Black Friday. More Info | Download | Buy Upgrade MyBookTable: 50% off A WordPress plugin to boost your book...
by Thomas Umstattd | Oct 27, 2015 | Blog Posts, Website Tips
Have you ever been irritated by a website? Did you know that readers may be having that exact same experience when they visit your website? Ticking off your website visitors is a bad way to get more readers. Here are seven ways author websites annoy visitors and what...
by Thomas Umstattd | Apr 20, 2015 | Blog Posts, Website Tips
Today the folks at Securi announced that over 300 Popular WordPress plugins had a security flaw that could allow a website to get hacked in certain situations. It is critical that you update your WordPress plugins immediately. Insecure plugins include plugins such as:...
by Thomas Umstattd | Mar 16, 2015 | Blog Posts, Writing Tips
WordPress started off as a hobby by a teenager living in Texas. From those small beginnings, it become the number one website platform in the world. Understanding how and why WordPress took over the Internet could be the secret to turning your next book into a...
by Thomas Umstattd | Mar 15, 2015 | Blog Posts, Website Tips
A lot of folks contact us wanting to add MyBookTable to their WordPress.com blog. Unfortunately, MyBookTable requires WordPress.org to run. But the next best thing is adding an Amazon widget to your blog’s sidebar. Amazon widgets are a lot of fun to create and...
by Thomas Umstattd | Mar 12, 2015 | Blog Posts, News
So far, MyBookTable 2.0 has been a huge hit. In just two months, it has already outsold MyBookTable 1.0 (excluding Kickstarter backers). But, just because MyBookTable is the #1 Bookstore plugin on WordPress doesn’t mean we have stopped working hard to make it...
by Thomas Umstattd | Feb 25, 2015 | Blog Posts, Uncategorized
As CEO of Author Media, I’ve coached authors on marketing for over five years. During that time, some of the most common questions have been related to taxes, LLCs, and all the business-related elements of being an author. Many authors tend to ignore the...
by Thomas Umstattd | Feb 9, 2015 | Blog Posts, News
It is hard to imagine, but MyBookTable is almost two years old. Over that time, we have rolled out update after update, making the plugin easier, more compatible, and more powerful. Our little plugin has come a long way from the version the community funded on...
by Thomas Umstattd | Nov 17, 2014 | Blog Posts, Writing Tips
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | Spotify | RSS | MoreMany authors are terrified that readers will steal their work. They don’t realize their true enemy is obscurity, not piracy. If...
by Thomas Umstattd | Oct 1, 2014 | Blog Posts, Crowdfunding, Platform Building Tips
At Author Media we work with a lot of professional speakers. Their websites all need an event calendar to help build enthusiasm for upcoming events. The problem is, all the WordPress event calendars either were either way too complicated or did not work…. or...
by Thomas Umstattd | Aug 27, 2014 | Blog Posts, Blogging Tips
“You don’t need to write a book to change the world with your ideas. A good blog post can reach more people in one month than the typical book reaches in a lifetime.” This is a common refrain of mine as I speak at writers’ conferences. I had the chance to prove...
by Thomas Umstattd | Jul 22, 2014 | Blog Posts, Crowdfunding, News
We’ve spent quite a bit of time at Author Media talking about crowdfunding– what it is, how awesome it is, and how to make it happen. A few months ago, we turned that talk into action, and put our own “Crowdfunding Is Awesome” theory to the...
by Thomas Umstattd | May 21, 2014 | Blog Posts, Crowdfunding, How To
Kickstarter is changing the way that self-published authors are raising money (and awareness!) for their books. Here are some hard lessons we learned on our first project. What is Kickstarter? Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website that lets you attract backers for a...
by Thomas Umstattd | May 19, 2014 | Blog Posts, Crowdfunding, Platform Building Tips, Writing Tips
Did you know that there’s a way to self-publish with any company in the world without having to pay out of pocket for the cost? Here’s how. The Fine Print By “free” I don’t mean going with a predatory publisher like Publish...
