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Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
MFRW Monthly Quote - July 2014 #MFRWauthor
-Juila Cameron
Emerald
Emerald is an erotic fiction author whose short stories have been featured in anthologies published by Cleis Press, Mischief, and Logical-Lust. She serves as an assistant newsletter editor and Facebook group moderator for Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW), and she selects and posts the monthly inspirational quote on the MFRW Marketing Blog. Find out more about her at her website, The Green Light District.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Hey #MFRWauthors! Just LINK IT!
Let's talk about LINKING. My rule of thumb is when in doubt, just LINK IT! What am I talking about? Really, everything. All of your social networking accounts, blog, website, tumblr - literally everything - should be linked. Because then you are doing the work once while your impact is huge. It's that easy.
Are there accounts you shouldn't link? Nope but there may be some more geared towards different types of posts. It's still okay to link them because there is always overlap and as long as you aren't spamming out oodles and oodles of promo, your goal should be to extend your reach (and sell more books).
Now time to get to work!
First and foremost, have your blog connected into your social media sites, particularly facebook and twitter. This means each time a post goes up on your blog, it automatically goes to these programs for you. Here's promo without anymore work than setting up your single post. You can set up these links in the SETTINGS account of your blog. Blogger allows you to link with Google+ also and I recommend you do it even if you do nothing else with Google+ (yet).
Link your blog to Networked Blogs on facebook. You can search for the app on facebook and select SYNDICATE to connect your blog. Here is another way for potential readers to find your blog and follow you. It is becoming more and more popular so jump on it! Doing this also means your blog posts are automatically sent out via facebook. If you have an author's page, you can even choose to have them sent there instead of your profile.
Other TOP TWO places to link your blog (that have a bit more to it than just linking):
Triberr - Build your reach exponentially. See my previous post with specifics on this site. This is a bit more involved than just linking though completely worth it.
Goodreads - Thousands of readers use this site. If you don't create an author's page and utilize it by linking, you are missing a big opportunity for networking regardless of the horror stories we see with reviews on goodreads. Check in about twice a week to see if you have any messages, reviews, etc. Most importantly, link your blog to post to your author page! See mine here.
Another place to link your blog is in search engines that give potential readers more places to find you. Most have widgets for you to add to your blog but some just simply place you into a database to be more searchable. My favorites are: BlogNation - BlogTrain - Blog Lovin' - Writing Blogs - Linky - AuthorsDb. Be sure to set up all your links in each of these - most require your blog rss feed so have that handy - so each time you post in one place, your information spreads out across the web.
Finally, make a list of all social networking sites you belong to or any on-line accounts.
Here are some of the most common: facebook - twitter - google+ - Pinterest - LinkedIn - tumblr - stumbleupon - YouTube - Picasa. Go into the SETTINGS options in each of these and be sure you have linked as many of them together (and with your blog!) as possible. There are other sites you might choose to use and regardless of which ones you choose, just be sure to link them.
Remember every time you link it, you reduce your work in half while doubling your reach.
I don't suggest you spend hours a day on these sites.
In fact, linking your accounts means your time spent on marketing decreases even though you are visible in more places. Once these accounts are established (& LINKED!!), you will need to do little more than your regular blog posts. A few of these places I mentioned take extra maintenance but it's minimal and worth it.
How does this help your business?
You will advertise to a wider audience as you increase your reach. You will write more because your time spent marketing will decrease. It's a simple case of Win-Win.
So, what are you waiting for? Just Link It!
And Keep Writing!
Paloma
Paloma Beck is a Romance Author living a life of contradiction... she's a happily married carpooling mom writing erotic romance. It's almost naughty! Paloma writes full-time and has three series in the works with others on the fringes. Her books span both the contemporary and paranormal romance genres.
Paloma serves as MFRW's Blog Director.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Newbie World: Multiple Pen Names for #MFRWauthors
The Question is...
Multiple Pen Names: Good idea, or not?
As writers, we know how important names are. We meticulously research our characters’ names, bandying
about ideas for each with the care given to newborns. And for those of us just starting out in the romance industry, this includes one of our biggest decisions: choosing our own name. We want it to sound romantic, but not porn-star, despite what my husband might think. And we also want it to represent our genre. Someone who writes historicals will probably lean towards something different than someone who writes BDSM stories.
There are many reasons to choose a pen name: our job requires us to protect our real identities, we don’t want our neighbors to know what we write, or even just to keep a distance between the interwebs and our “real” selves. But I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you might have already gotten past the first pen name issue, and now are tackling an even bigger one: do I need a separate pen name when writing in a different genre?
Like any good question, the answer is a little gray.
First, here are some reasons we might choose (or have the decision chosen for us by an agent or publisher):
· Our first books didn’t sell very well, and we (or the publisher) want to distance ourselves from that. A re-branding, if you will.
· Or, we are writing more books than our current publisher can publish/market (oh, what a nice problem to have), so some authors choose to go with a different pen name and avoid the contract issues by going to another publisher with a different series or book.
· We’re writing something that is very different from our “normal” genre – something that our fans might not be expecting. Even in staying within romance, if you’ve previously written sweet historicals and are now branching into grittier, racier, contemporaries, your fans might not be expecting it. This seems to be especially true if switching to a totally different genre.
· From Kim Harrison: big book retailers have a habit of purchasing only the same number of books that an author sold on their last release. If it was a bad release, then the store will only by that many books of the next release, but if it's an unknown author, the stores will buy more in the hope that it will be a blockbuster. So you write under a different name, and get a better shot at selling through your books.
Great. We know why, but now, how?
Like with our first pen names, here are the rules:
· Keep it easy. No hyphens, no strange pronunciations – you want it to be something that your readers can easily look up. Should be easy to spell.
· Keep it memorable. Jane Brown is probably not going to stick for someone. But I love the way, for instance, Kresley Cole rolls off the tongue. (Though I would say “Kresely” probably breaks rule #1. As in writing, know the rules and then break ‘em.)
· Keep it unique. It’s pretty easy now to do a Google search on names and see the number of hits generated. Don’t expect that a reader will use “author” when searching for you; you want to be one of the very few that comes up when someone searches for your pen name.
Here’s the thing that needs to be emphasized, though...
Multiple Pen Names: Good idea, or not?
As writers, we know how important names are. We meticulously research our characters’ names, bandying
There are many reasons to choose a pen name: our job requires us to protect our real identities, we don’t want our neighbors to know what we write, or even just to keep a distance between the interwebs and our “real” selves. But I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you might have already gotten past the first pen name issue, and now are tackling an even bigger one: do I need a separate pen name when writing in a different genre?
Like any good question, the answer is a little gray.
First, here are some reasons we might choose (or have the decision chosen for us by an agent or publisher):
· Our first books didn’t sell very well, and we (or the publisher) want to distance ourselves from that. A re-branding, if you will.
· Or, we are writing more books than our current publisher can publish/market (oh, what a nice problem to have), so some authors choose to go with a different pen name and avoid the contract issues by going to another publisher with a different series or book.
· We’re writing something that is very different from our “normal” genre – something that our fans might not be expecting. Even in staying within romance, if you’ve previously written sweet historicals and are now branching into grittier, racier, contemporaries, your fans might not be expecting it. This seems to be especially true if switching to a totally different genre.
· From Kim Harrison: big book retailers have a habit of purchasing only the same number of books that an author sold on their last release. If it was a bad release, then the store will only by that many books of the next release, but if it's an unknown author, the stores will buy more in the hope that it will be a blockbuster. So you write under a different name, and get a better shot at selling through your books.
Great. We know why, but now, how?
Like with our first pen names, here are the rules:
· Keep it easy. No hyphens, no strange pronunciations – you want it to be something that your readers can easily look up. Should be easy to spell.
· Keep it memorable. Jane Brown is probably not going to stick for someone. But I love the way, for instance, Kresley Cole rolls off the tongue. (Though I would say “Kresely” probably breaks rule #1. As in writing, know the rules and then break ‘em.)
· Keep it unique. It’s pretty easy now to do a Google search on names and see the number of hits generated. Don’t expect that a reader will use “author” when searching for you; you want to be one of the very few that comes up when someone searches for your pen name.
Here’s the thing that needs to be emphasized, though...
Each of these names needs to be managed. Think website, Facebook, Twitter, etc. And while not every one of these needs to be an entirely separate account, you will have to have virtual real estate built up around each name; at the very least, a website.
You’ll want to think long and hard about your time management and how much effort it will take to keep up various other online personalities, Sybil. My other caution here is that readers read not just for genre, but also for voice. What I’ve seen on many reader forums while researching this topic is frustration from readers for a perceived lack of intelligence. They are fully aware that an author can write across multiple genres, and get frustrated when they can’t find a backlist because of a pen name. So I would just say here that if you do choose an additional pen name, make sure it is abundantly clear in your books’ bio so that readers are able to easily track you down.
Talk To Us.
As with everything, it’s a very personal decision. Let us know what you think – have you chosen a second (or third) pen name? What are the pluses and minuses?
You’ll want to think long and hard about your time management and how much effort it will take to keep up various other online personalities, Sybil. My other caution here is that readers read not just for genre, but also for voice. What I’ve seen on many reader forums while researching this topic is frustration from readers for a perceived lack of intelligence. They are fully aware that an author can write across multiple genres, and get frustrated when they can’t find a backlist because of a pen name. So I would just say here that if you do choose an additional pen name, make sure it is abundantly clear in your books’ bio so that readers are able to easily track you down.
Talk To Us.
As with everything, it’s a very personal decision. Let us know what you think – have you chosen a second (or third) pen name? What are the pluses and minuses?
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE LINKS:
http://www.writing-world.com/business/pen.shtml
http://jamigold.com/2011/06/branding-101-to-pen-name-or-not-to-pen-name/
http://www.justaboutwrite.com/A_Archive_What'sInAName.html
Posted by Erin
Erin writes paranormal romances as Erin Moore and contributes to the MFRW Marketing Blog with her monthly column, A Newbie's World. Her latest book is a sexy minotaur shifter story set in Crete.
She manages two monsters and one unruly husband in Atlanta in between writing and main-lining chocolate and tea. Look her up on www.AuthorErinMoore.com or, of course, on Twitter: @AuthorErinMoore.
http://www.writing-world.com/business/pen.shtml
http://jamigold.com/2011/06/branding-101-to-pen-name-or-not-to-pen-name/
http://www.justaboutwrite.com/A_Archive_What'sInAName.html
Posted by Erin
Erin writes paranormal romances as Erin Moore and contributes to the MFRW Marketing Blog with her monthly column, A Newbie's World. Her latest book is a sexy minotaur shifter story set in Crete. She manages two monsters and one unruly husband in Atlanta in between writing and main-lining chocolate and tea. Look her up on www.AuthorErinMoore.com or, of course, on Twitter: @AuthorErinMoore.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Authors Making a Difference on Twitter #MFRWauthor @MFRW_ORG @AuthorNicMorgan
 |
| MFRW on Twitter |
What does a Twitter Coordinator do? Here's the job description from the group files.
Twitter Coordinator
Like all staff positions in MFRW, the Twitter Coordinator and assistant are an unpaid
positions. Either looks great, however, on a writing resume. The Coordinator needs a solid understanding of how Twitter works, and should be an
experienced user. This position is a highly visible aspect of Marketing for
Romance Writers.
Main duties (same for
both positions):
Sign in as the owner of the MFRW Twitter account.
Share tweets requested on theMFRW
street team.
Follow MFRW members.
Send tweets for the MFRW blogs.
Assist Pinterest Coordinator with sending tweets if needed.
Use lists on Twitter to make it easier for members to find and follow each other.
Launch and run a program to get MFRW members to follow the MFRW Twitter account.
Communicate with staff via email in the separate MFRW Staff Yahoo group.
Share tweets requested on the
Follow MFRW members.
Send tweets for the MFRW blogs.
Assist Pinterest Coordinator with sending tweets if needed.
Use lists on Twitter to make it easier for members to find and follow each other.
Launch and run a program to get MFRW members to follow the MFRW Twitter account.
Communicate with staff via email in the separate MFRW Staff Yahoo group.
Other duties:
Attend staff meetings with other members of the MFRW staff (approx
every four weeks) using Google Hangouts or other software as decided by the
staff.
Time involved: one hour per week, slightly more for attending staff meetings. Total time invested is up to the individual.
Time involved: one hour per week, slightly more for attending staff meetings. Total time invested is up to the individual.
Ownership:
The MFRW Twitter account is registered under the MFRW Admin
Email.
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As you can see, there's plenty to do, and Nicole needs help. We're looking for an assistant who can do pretty much the same thing. Having help means Nicole gets to take time off, attend conferences, meeting writing and editing deadlines, and so on. If you're interested, please apply by emailing mfrwstaff-ownerATyahoogroupsDOTcom.
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We've seen an increase in followers, and we are busy sending out messages for our members. The MFRW Pinterest account also shares tweets. When our members' books are posted on our Pinterest boards, we tweet about it. You can learn more about MFRW and its benefits here.
We urge you to follow our Twitter account, and also the account of our coordinator. You can find us here:
MFRW_ORG http://twitter.com/MFRW_ORG
Nicole Morgan https://twitter.com/AuthorNicMorgan
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Other MFRW Social Media
Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/mfrworg/
Goodreads http://is.gd/mfrwgoodreads
Marketing for Romance Writers http://marketingforromancewriters.org/
Marketing for Romance Writers Yahoo http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/
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