New Author Advice: Joining Social Media

What's the Key?

This week, my friend Karen Cote' and I talked about what a new author should do to get started in social media. We feel there are several important places to start. Just who are we to give advice? I'm a multi-published author, founder of Marketing for Romance Writers and Romance Lives Forever (two active Yahoo groups with well over 1200 members each) and owner of nine blogs. Karen is the best selling author of Erotic Deception, creator of a unique talking website, a Twitter maven with over 5k followers, and the Promotions Director for Marketing for Romance Writers.

We recommend that before you jump in and start joining social media everywhere, you take time to read MFRW member Cassandra Carr's guides for Twitter (there are two). You can download them on our resources page. http://marketingforromancewriters.org/resources.htm

Then, do the following things to begin your journey.

To me, the top thing to do is join Marketing for Romance Writers and stay actively involved. After that, start here:

1. Make a Facebook page, and start friending the members of MFRW Authors https://www.facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/

2. Get a Twitter account and follow people who use these hashtags: #mywana #mfrworg #amreading That will make more sense after you read the Twitter guides.

3. Create an Amazon Author page https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help

4. Blog at least three times a week. Use Networked Blogs to gain readers, plus, when you post a blog, it will automatically feed to Facebook, saving you time. You can pull your blog post automatically into Goodreads, and other sites as well.

5. Join Goodreads, post your books on your page, and link your blog. http://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to

6. Shelfari is a good spot.  http://www.shelfari.com/help

7. Get social by joining WANA Tribe http://wanatribe.com/  (we are not alone - authors helping authors)

Marketing for Romance Writers

Above all, be open to learning new things. Take them one at a time, and don't try to do everything at once. Have a daily schedule. I start my day by checking email, then check my Facebook account, Twitter page, and jump over to my blog, and then stop by my other accounts. I repeat that round of visits during the day. Sometimes, depending on what else needs to be done, I'll do it again in the evening. We need time for writing, a social life, and family. Social media is important, but if you don't have a new book -- what good is it?

Remember, balance doesn't mean that everything is stable. It means you are always in motion, making the fine adjustments to keep your career and life on track.

When you decided to take the plunge and join a social media site, which one was it? Why that one? Would you recommend it to a newbie?

MORE ABOUT MFRW

Group site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/
Facebook https://facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/
Twitter https://twitter.com/MFRW_ORG
Newsletter http://issuu.com/MFRW

eZine http://is.gd/mfrwpaperli
Website http://marketingforromancewriters.org

MFRW Summer Camp on BlogTalk Radio

MFRW Promotions Director Karen Cote' shared the Marketing for Romance Writers Summer Camp program on "The Best People We Know" radio program. Deb Scott's show is inspirational and features people who write and market their work. You can enjoy the show in its entirety by clicking below. I was invited to take part as well. I hope you'll give this a listen.

Drop by the site and see other programs Deb has to offer.

Listen to internet radio with Best People We Know on Blog Talk Radio

Focus: An Important Element of Storytelling

Books by Julie Eberhart Painter.

Focus: An Important Element of Storytelling

By Julie Eberhart Painter

Of all the skills I've learned in this last quarter of century’s worth of concentrated writing, it's that three elements are key to a successful piece of writing: point of view, story and focus.

POV is a learned skill. There are many articles around to guide writers through that tunnel. And story tells itself providing we stay true to it and the POV characters living it. The easiest way to accomplish this is to put the POV camera on the shoulder of the character with the most to lose and let that character see and react to the story unfolding.

A Slippery Issue...

Focus is a slippery issue, easily lost when we are distracted by a cute joke or a sidebar kind of addendum. The “let's include this,” mindset will not get a story past the first editor. I find flash fiction, a good place to put those distracting asides.

But truly focusing, “Now there’s the rub.” With focus the writer must stay on point. Characters must speak as themselves, act in their own style and have a clear voice—so clear that very few dialogue tags are needed. The characters must dress and look like the person the writer is portraying. (No tart clothes on a nun.)

Some bit players will not be thoroughly described. The days of a person entering the room, followed by a full bio and inventory of their appearance are gone. Minimalism is in. Get to the point. Elmore Leonard says he leaves out the parts people skip over. That might be extreme, but it's a good measuring stick to apply when you get verbiage in your wordage.

When choosing a way to tell any story, it must come from the most visceral place, the heart of the character. 

Characters...

Focus on how this character is acting and what part of the back story must be included. For instance might he have just gotten out of jail? Is she not wearing a wedding ring but obviously expecting? There might be a physical disability that can only be caused by the back story itself.

How we chose to tell the story means everything. Over all, whose story is it? That will determine the point of view and focus; and what method are you going to use to bring this story from your inner being to haunt your readers.

If all else fails, keep your focus by taking that distracting little gem you're just dying to use and make it the focus of a short-short or flash fiction story.

Application...

Applying the disciplined pen to the focus of your piece will get your readers laughing in the right places and crying as you might have when you first wrote the scene. Weed out the extraneous details cluttering the point of the story. And, never forget writer Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried saying, “When you come to the end stop!”

Julie Eberhart Painter is the Champagne Books author of Mortal Coil, Tangled Web, and CTRR award-winning Kill Fee, also recipient of Champagne’s Best Book for 2011 Award. Web site at www.books-jepainter.com Check out http://bewilderingstories.com to read Julie's latest flash fiction stories and articles and stories in Cocktails, Fiction and Gossip Magazine, an online slick.

Good Author Signatures for Yahoo Groups

Sign Here, Please.

Which of the following is the point of a signature?

1. To identify you
2. To reinforce your brand
3. To create interest in your work
4. Drive traffic to your site
5. Sell your books
6. All of the above

If you answered 6 - you're right, but identification - item #1 - is the key to accomplishing the rest. Your name is vital. Your author name. If you write as Mary Jo Smithe, sign as Mary Jo Smithe. You are your author name when you are on Yahoo groups. If you don't use a pen name, then it doesn't matter. Or does it? If you use a non-writing-oriented email to post messages, it might be costing you readers. For example, if you sign your posts with only "Mary" but your email address says "BobbysMom2012" - how is anyone supposed to find that wonderful book you just told them about? If they hop over to Amazon and search for Mary BobbysMom2012 -- are you going to show up? Sign with your author name - Mary Jo Smithe.

Do you need a signature for every email? That depends. Are you posting as an author? Do you hope this post will accomplish the items listed above? Then you must post as a professional. Sign your emails. It is not hubris to identify yourself. You are there to accomplish a purpose.

What belongs in your signature?

At a minimum, your name and website. If you have a brand or tag for your writing, don't be afraid to use it. I sign everything with my name, my tag (unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, unforgettable passion), and a link to whatever website(s) pertain to the message.

What does "pertain to the message" mean? If I'm replying to a question about blogging, I use my blog url. If it's about Twitter, I use that one. In most cases, I include my website's home page, my Twitter account, and my company's site, The Author's Secret. I have a signature page on hand with all the pertient links available, which makes it easy to click/drag the info into my message as needed.

What shouldn't you include? 

It depends on where you're posting. On some Yahoo groups, be aware images might not translate well. A group that disallows embedded images might turn your embedded cover into 3-4 inches of white space.

Multiple colors in your signature can be hard to read. Some people are color blind and cannot differentiate various shades. To them, your list of books might go from looking like this:

Book 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4 

to words run together like this:

Book 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4

Likewise, using embedded links and substituting the site name can give you more room, but if you write your signature as:

Twitter Facebook 

readers who receive their messages as text see: 

Twitter Facebook

How long is long enough? 

If you are posting to a Yahoo group, you are limited to what the group allows. Read the rules. If you post regularly to a group that permits only three lines, create one you use for that group. In general - you are safe with three lines that are short enough not to wrap around and start accidentally making a fourth line. I use the one below for most situations.

Kayelle Allen
Unstoppable heroes, Uncompromising love, Unforgettable passion
http://kayelleallen.com  ~  http://twitter.com/kayelleallen  ~  http://theauthorssecret.com

If I'm promoting a new book, and I'm on a group that allows longer signatures, I've found one like this is effective:

Kayelle Allen
Unstoppable heroes, Uncompromising love, Unforgettable passion
Surrender Love  |  Not rebound, payback, loneliness, or great sex, and far beyond love. This is surrender.
Loose Id: http://www.loose-id.com/Surrender-Love.aspx  |  Kindle: http://is.gd/surrenderlove_amz

It's better to err on the side of caution. If you are banned or placed on moderation for violating rules, you can't accomplish your goal.

How long is too long?

How many times have you seen signatures that seem to go on forever? They include lists of every book the author has written, where it's been reviewed, the various places you can buy it, mini-images of the book, a banner... 

Simple is better. Follow the rules of the group where you're posting.

Signature, please...

Okay, so what's the best signature?

Your author name
Your brand, book name, or book tag
Your website, Your blog, Your Twitter/Facebook

Less is more. You want to identify yourself, reinforce your brand, create interest in your work, drive traffic to your site, and sell your books. To do this, be professional. Using a signature that underscores this message will help you accomplish that.

What other questions do you have regarding signatures for a Yahoo group?

Kayelle Allen is the founder of Marketing for Romance Writers, a Yahoo group focused on learning marketing and publicity. 

Group site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/
Newsletter http://www.issuu.com/MFRW

Writer's Blah by Shashauna P. Thomas

Shashauna P Thomas. 

You've finished all the other crap you had to do and finally it's that time of day you've set aside for writing. Your mind has been a buzz all day with story ideas, plot lines that make your heart race just thinking about them, and memorable characters practically screaming at you to write their tale. There is so much to do you can't wait to get started. You sit down at your computer, open word, put your fingers on the keyboard, and…and nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. You write one sentence and immediately delete it. Then you re-write that sentence only to once again delete it. You repeat this cycle over and over again. You find that you're easily distracted; much more than usual. It takes an hour to finally write something that normally would only take you a few minutes and you aren't even sure if what you managed to write is any good. Despite knowing what you want to write and exactly where you as the author want your work in process to go there is still something preventing you from writing? Yourself. And I'm sorry to tell you this, but I believe you're suffering from a case of Writer's Blah.

As a new writer I thought there was something wrong with me whenever this happened. I'd sit down to work on my writing and all of a sudden feel zapped of energy. Like I needed to take a break or a nap despite the fact I'd just sat down to work. I couldn't concentrate the way I usually do. I found myself needing to check my e-mail numerous times. Or I'd begin singing along to the music I play as background noise as if it were my favorite song of all time. Right in the middle of working on my manuscript. And worst of all the words that usually come so naturally to my brain, almost as if the characters were standing right beside me and telling me what to write, didn't seem to flow. I tried forcing myself to write and just work through it, but that didn't work. I either was completely unproductive or whatever I did manage to write needed a lot of work or if I were being completely honest with myself needed to be trashed completely.

I feared I might be on the verge of burning myself out so I'd take a day or two off from writing, but that too didn't work. When I wasn't writing it seemed as if my mind was on creative overload. I'd be in the middle of something else and all of a sudden a new idea would pop into my head. Like watching a TV commercial would inspire me to write a brand new story. I'd see it as clear as day then, but get me back in front of the computer and I'm once again having trouble transferring my ideas to paper. Almost as if adding insult to injury I'd feel completely guilty every time I took time off from writing. With so many story ideas yet to be written I felt as if I couldn't afford the time wasted not writing. I was in a funk and I didn't know why or how I got there or most importantly how to get out of it.

When I tried explaining the problem to friends they automatically thought I was suffering from Writer's Block or I was somehow overworking myself and was beginning to burn out. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it wasn't either of those. It wasn't 'til recently when a fellow author in one of my writer's group, Rose B. Thorny, brought up the topic of Writer's Blah for discussion did I finally realize what was going on with me. Listening to her description of Writer's Blah, a wonderful term she coined, and the responses of other writers in the group I quickly realized two very important things. One, she was describing what I'd been going through to a tee. And two, that it wasn't just me. There were other authors out there going through the same thing. That knowledge alone helped relieve some of the anxiety and stress I was having. And one of the main points I learned from the group's discussion was that for many of us stress was the main trigger for Writer's Blah.

Deck the Halls

All types of stress can affect your writing. Stress at home; stress at work; stress with family, friends, or loved ones; financial stress; writing stress; and of course my personal favorite future stress. When you worry and stress out about something that hasn't even happened yet. I learned a long time ago that stress kills creativity, but everyone has stress. They just learn to block it out or work around it. And that is what I thought I did, but apparently I wasn't as successful as I thought. I asked myself, 'if the stress that I have are the same ones people deal with every day then what was my problem?' and that's when it clicked. They dealt with their stress. They didn't block it out or work around it; they worked through it. And once they began working through it they realized something very important, that a lot of it is out of their control.

Once they realize what isn't in their control they can begin to focus on what is. We can't control how our family and friends act, but we can control how we react to them. If the company we work for is downsizing we can't control who they decided to keep and who they decided to let go, but we can continue to work hard and make sure the company sees us as invaluable. We can't control if our manuscripts are accepted or rejected, but we can make sure what we submit is great. And we can remind ourselves that we can resubmit our rejected manuscripts somewhere else. Often times we don't have control on how quickly money comes in each month, but we can make sure we do what we can with the money that does come in; especially in this fickle economy. No one knows what the future may hold, but we do what we can to make sure we're prepared for whatever may come.

Making sure to keep a clear perspective on my stress helped me to deal with Writer's Blah when I had it. Realizing I'm not the only author who has had Writer's Blah and talking about it with other authors helps me to know how to deal with it in the future and it helps me to become a better author. And As Rose B. Thorny did to our writer's group I pose this question to you all. Have you ever experienced Writer's Blah? And if so how did you snap yourself out of it? What triggered it for you? Are you suffering from Writer's Blah now? If you are, don't worry you're not alone.

Christmas Do Over

Info about the Author:

            Shashauna P. Thomas graduated from Cornell University and SUNY Stony Brook with two BAs' before returning to the Bronx where she was born and raised. It wasn't until after college that she first began writing erotic romances for open call submissions. That is when she discovered that writing was her true passion and she's been crafting the vivid tales she sees in her head ever since. With the love and support of family, friends, and her sorority sisters the D.I.V.A.S. of Lambda Fe Usöñ Sorority Inc. she has had a number of her erotic stories published. One of her greatest hopes is that her stories inspire her readers to be open-minded and to not be afraid to try new things. And most importantly to follow their hearts no matter where it leads them.

Her website: http://sptpassions.weebly.com.

Her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/sptpassions.

Her Blog on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/shashaunapthomas

E-mail: shashaunapthomas@yahoo.com

Buy Links:

Deck the Halls:

http://pinkpetalbooks.com/Deck-The-Halls-by-Shashauna-P.-Thomas.html

Christmas Do-Over:

https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/coming-soon-c-2/christmas-do-over-ebook-p-695

Bondage by the Bay – Tales of BDSM in San Francisco:

http://shop.renebooks.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CHRISTIAN-08