Latest Articles from The Vandal AKA Derek Haines

Yes, HAL in Brisbane!

It has been quite remiss of me not to have addressed all the Aussies who regularly read The Vandal. Being an Aussie living in Switzerland for the last ten years hasn’t diminished my sense of being ‘Ocker’, so a hearty G’day to you all, and by the way, yes I do still miss cricket, AFL, State-of-Origin matches and pies with tomato sauce. But I do have to be honest and say I really don’t miss the flies and mosquitoes. Second remiss item on my Australian agenda is not to have mentioned (here comes the plug, here comes the plug) that my last book HAL is set predominately in Brisbane, with notable mentions of

Social Media Automation – What Is Acceptable?

There can be no question that Social Media or Social Networking has become almost a fact of life now. In particular, Facebook and Twitter with Google+ making rapid progress. In a previous post about selling your book, I mentioned the three pillars of an effective Social Media presence; Twitter, a Facebook Page and a great blog. The only problem is that they can really suck up a lot of your time and often without any great benefit. So the logical thing to do is automate some of the routine tasks. I can already hear the screams on anguish from here. ‘Automation? That’s spamming. How dare you? I’ll never lower myself

A Message To Garcia

I want to share something I have read so many times. If you haven’t read it, read it. If you have read it before, then you’ll know why I have posted it and how powerful the message is and why it is worth reading yet again. “A Message To Garcia”  by Elbert Hubbard 1899 In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba – no one

Twitter Followers – Building A Quality Following

Twitter has become a must have tool for authors, however it can be daunting for a Twitter newcomer. While there many ‘How To’ guides available on the Internet, one area that is not so well explained is how to build a quality following that is relevant to your area of interest. The following tips can be applied to any niche you are interested in, but I’ll stay with books, authors and writing. 1. Your Twitter Account. No one will follow you if you are an egg. The egg is the default avatar when you start a Twitter account, so your very first task is to change this and add an