Have you heard of AllAuthor?
August 12, 2026 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as allauthor, Denise M. Colby, MarketingHave you heard of AllAuthor? It’s an online platform and community that connects book authors with readers. It was established in 2016. As an author, it’s a place to list your books, enter book cover contests, and build an author profile. As a reader you can search by author name, genre, or by book with direct links to purchase books.
What is AllAuthor?
There is free level for authors. There is also an expanded level where you pay an annual fee for additional services. In either case, when you submit your books, there are several things that need to be answered including genre, questions readers might be asking about your book, and if it’s on Kindle Unlimited or not. There is even a place to to add awards. All of these answers help readers find your books.
If you have a new release, it lists it as new for a short period of time. Again a great way to give more visiblity to a new release. If you are having a sale, you can promote the limited time price as well.
There is a mobile app as well with over 80,000 downloads. I have not looked into this yet, but I’m thinking maybe I should.
Book Cover Contests
For the free level you can have one book cover be entered into one month’s book cover contest (for all time). Book cover contests are based on genre. There are several rounds and each round lasts seven days. The votes build on each round. By being a paid author on the site, I can now do additional book cover contests. I have found it’s a great way to give visibility and have something to post about and ask my readers to get involved in voting.
When you enter a contest, your Author profile will provide some automatic posts you can copy and paste into an email, Facebook, or other marketing vehicle. Right now my fourth book, A Whole New Plan, is in the contest. Here’s an example of one of the posts I can paste in.
Show me some love! Vote for my “Cover of the Month” contest entry. Help me win this thing. https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/21017/
And while we are on this topic, I’d love your vote. My book cover is in the top ten and I’d love to stay there. Just click on the link and try it out.
What is the paid service?
This year I decided to try the additional service. I can feature one book with that. I chose my first book in my series, When Plans Go Awry. Every week they generate an image that gets posted on several different twitter accounts.
I also was provided an opportunity for a written interview. I recently submitted my answers and received a link to this lovely graphic and page for my interview. If you click on the image, it will take you to the interview page.
It’s nice to be able to share the promotional load with an established community. I’m not able to track how many clicks come from AllAuthor, but I’d like to believe it is helping widen my reader reach.
Denise loves to share about her writing journey (see all her posts here), including her word of the year (this year it is BALANCE), writing her Best-laid Plans Series, and all the things in between. You can visit her at her website and blog at www.denisemcolby.com or on her facebook or instagram. Please note: some links include Amazon Associate links where Denise can earn from qualifying purchases.
0 1 Read moreWho needs Vegas? I rolled a Lucky 7 in the London Book Biz
August 11, 2026 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing
When I was seven
Books were my heaven
Tales of princesses and fairies galore
I loved to read more and more
Then I wrote stories about women so brave and good
And lucky for me they found a home at Boldwood!
===============
Happy 7th Birthday to my fab publisher Boldwood Books!!
0 1 Read moreTry an Experiment by Kitty Bucholtz
August 9, 2026 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, life choices, menopause, Perimenopause, writing
I was listening to a podcast recently about confidence and the guest said she tries to look at everything in life as an experiment. Can she do it? Let’s give it a try. Did she fail? She found that it didn’t work that way. Did she succeed? She found that this worked. Listening to her, you could tell this was clearly a personality thing for her.
But it reminded me of choices that I’d forgotten. Between the stresses of nearly six decades on Earth and the personal hell perimenopause/menopause have made of my life the last several years, I’ve found myself with a mostly negative and scared attitude about life. This from someone who was called Pollyanna since I was a kid! Huge change. And it seemed like there was nothing at all I could do to stop this downward spiral. (Thanks, hormones.)
I’ve been waiting for the extra hormones I’m taking to even out my thinking and feelings and it seems to finally be working. (Aside from the worldwide estrogen shortage going on!)So when I heard this super cheerful woman talking about how everything is an experiment, I thought, I could try that. At least try it, that would be my first experiment.
It’s only been a week or two, but I think it’s helping me to feel calmer and less stressed overall. And it reminds me of another experiment I started doing a month or two ago that is helping me stay calmer even more — keeping my feelings in the now. Partially because of the hormone changes (and I can’t tell if it’s 50% or 90% or 100%), I’ve been suffering from a lot of anxiety and a fair amount of depression the last few years. But I’ve been remembering to try to bring my thoughts and feelings back to Now and ask myself how I feel right in this moment.
Not thinking about what’s “probably” going to happen in ten minutes or tomorrow or the scary thing I don’t know how to deal with that’s on my calendar for next Tuesday. Just right this second. And if right this second I’m happy because I’m eating a delicious meal my husband made or I woke up to realize I’d slept well or I have time to read five minutes of my favorite new book…then I savor that one moment of being happy and try to keep my thoughts from running into the future fears.
I mention these things because they have helped me as a person trying to survive and thrive in the world, but also as a creative writer who needs to figure out how to continue to be creative when my brain is struggling through the menopause process. For me, it’s working. And I hope the ideas help you too. Anything we can do to help each other live a more joyful, peaceful life — it’s worth it!
2 0 Read moreAlina K. Field August Featured Author
August 1, 2026 by Alina K. Field in category Featured Author, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Alina K. Field, Featured Author of the Month, Regency Romances
Award winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature, but her true passion is the much happier world of romance fiction. Though her roots are in the Midwest, after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California where she shares a midcentury home with two furry four-legged girls and keeps a dependable stash of lollipops for the munchkins in her life.
She is the author of several Regency romances, including the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner, Rosalyn’s Ring. She is hard at work on her next series of Regency romances, but loves to hear from readers!
Books by Alina K. Field
Fish Tale by Dianna Sinovic
July 30, 2026 by Dianna Sinovic in category Quill and Moss by Dianna Sinovic tagged as A lifetime, Bartender, Celebration, marriage
Two months into the job, and Cordi knew every regular’s preferred beverage. She could sift the deadbeats from the barflies who had dough, and had memorized The Bartender’s Guide, from the Apple Martini to the White Knight. Mostly, she poured and listened.
The Flying Fish did a brisk business at dinner of seafood and burgers, and then stayed open until two with a part-time night cook in the kitchen for late-hour snacks. Cordi worked the Thursday-Friday late shift, the shift with the best tips.
“Fish and rings tonight, Skip?” Cordi set a frosty glass of ale in front of her favorite regular. He might be fifty—or eighty. She didn’t know, and at twenty-two, anyone older than thirty seemed ancient. Skip Jowett’s beard was more salt than pepper, and he wore a battered captain’s hat, the only remnant left, he said, of his long years skippering a fishing boat off the Jersey Shore. He was quiet. Even as the hours passed and he asked for yet another tall one, he never grew belligerent – or fell asleep, spilling his drink.
“How about the halibut?” He was more somber than she’d seen him.
“Everything okay?”
He waved her away. “Fine, fine. Tell Drew I want the fish extra crispy. And the onion rings, too.”
After passing on the order to the kitchen, Cordi switched her attention to the others at the bar but kept an eye on Skip. He sipped his ale and watched the basketball game, but he was distant, distracted.
Drew’s fish platter momentarily brightened Skip’s face. He pushed his ale aside, tucked a napkin into his polo shirt, and with a wink at Cordi, got down to business.
“If you want to talk, I’m here,” she said. “Scout’s honor, whatever’s bothering you stays here. It’s like client privilege, for barkeeps. We don’t gossip.” Then she walked away, to let him think it over.
At a quarter to midnight, Skip finally motioned to her.
“Another Belgian?”
He shook his head. “I’ve had enough, too much probably.” He placed a fifty on the smooth wood. “That should cover it.”
Cordi put her hand on his, feeling the roughness of the skin, the prominent veins. “You need me to call a cab?”
The clink of glasses and the roar of the crowd on the TV filled the silence he let linger. “In a few minutes, I’ll have been married forty-five years. That’s a lifetime. Tomorrow she’s going into hospice. Hell of a way to celebrate an anniversary.”
More of Dianna’s Stories
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