#MFRWorg Newbie's World: Why Authors Need Facebook @AuthorErinMoore

Facebook: Why we need it, even if it drives us crazy.

Facebook. It’s awesome for our personal lives, letting us share pictures with others, keep up with our schools and communities, find people with common interests, stalk our ex-boyfriends…oh, wait.

But as an author, it can sometimes be a little daunting and confusing. For starters, what type of page should we choose? And then, once we have it, how do we go about liking other pages – some pages wants us to switch back to our “personal” page before we can like them, and I am not entirely sure I want everyone to know when I’ve liked something like “Sex With Romance.”  And once we’ve figured that out, how do we get those cool little tabbies for our blogs and other stuff on there?

And yet, it’s worth it to figure it out. Most of our readers are on Facebook, and Facebook also brings in new readers; a lot of inbound traffic to Amazon and other ebook sites comes directly from Facebook. So we need to be on there, and we need to be on there in a professional manner.

As some of you already know, I’m a big fan of “do as I say, not as I do” on this blog. So some of the advice below will be recommendations from knowledgeable sources that I may or may not have already implemented myself (just in case anyone is checking my Facebook page –which, if you do, make sure to like it).

Ahem. Now, first things first: What type of page should you have?  Well, really, as an author, there is really only one for your author self.  I will put gold stars there in case you are in doubt.  And you will need to start from your personal profile in order to do this – don’t create a whole new page (with a separate email address) from the initial FB log-in page.  Main reason: you can’t usually like another page as your author page, otherwise. 

Types of pages:

Local Business or Place

Company, Organization, or Institution

Brand or Product

Artist, Band, or Public Figure

Entertainment

Cause or Community

Adding a page for individual books:

If you are already sort of big time, you may want to consider adding pages for each of your books. The downside to this is that you may split your audience – people may miss updates if you post to the book, or miss them if you post only to your author page. However, if the book does blow up (in a good way), someone may make that page for you, and you don’t necessarily want to cede that control.  Food for thought.

Now, onto the fun (read: complicated) stuff.

Yes, you can like other authors’ pages. You may have to go to their page and then click on the down-arrow near the like button. Then there should be a line that says “like as my page.” That’s it! But it seems that most authors have gotten with the program – if it’s set up as an author page, then you should be able to like it with the “like” button. 

Help with Facebook Tabbies (aka apps, aka sort of a pain);

So, most of us would like our blogs to be linked to Facebook. The best way is to use an app – you know, those cute little buttons. There are a few different apps to use for blogs: RSS Graffiti, Networked Blogs (though this will now direct you to their spin-off, Symphony), and Social RSS. 

They all work essentially the same way. They are going to ask you for a lot of permissions from Facebook (you can’t escape The Man), and then import your blog (or blogs) to the pages you direct. I used Symphony and found it pretty self-explanatory. And then I got this awesome new tab called “blog” on my page.  It will also post updates to my FB newsfeed any time I post on my blog.  

What else do you need as an app? You can also load in Goodreads, Pinterest, or Youtube videos – entirely up to you.  Goodreads is an easy one – you can do it from Goodreads, and then it magically loads the app onto FB.

For Pinterest, it’s a a little bit trickier. If you use the link here, then only follow steps through #7 – looks like Facebook has had a few changes since 2012 (ya’ think?) and it loads up a little “Pinterest” link fairly nicely with only the first seven.

YouTube: There is either Woobox (which I used for my Pinterest tab, very helpful) or YoutubeApp. Again, make sure to accept all permissions and then edit later.

All in all, Facebook for businesses is not necessarily a walk in the park, but with a little bit of help, it can (and should) be done. Happy Facebooking! Let me know what you think – what do you see on others’ pages and wish you had on yours? What has worked well for you?

-Erin

Just in case you want more to read:

http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/so-facebook

http://socialmediatoday.com/tara-urso/2281751/your-facebook-pages-organic-reach-about-plummet

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/new-facebook-pages/

http://weblogs.about.com/od/socialnetworking/ht/AddBlogFacebook.htm

New Format for MFRW Newsletter

Big changes are coming to the Newsletter in July. They're laid out clearly in the June issue, but here is a brief summary along with the new submissions form and a mock-up of the new format so you can see how the new featured author pages, book pages and advertising pages will look. Here is the link to the files:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MarketingForRomanceWriters/files/MFRW-Newsletter-Forms/

Sorry I couldn't do this as a Bitly link, but for some reason it wouldn't open in a third tab.

Also, with all the new work we'll be doing, we need to expand our staff. My current assistant editors will format the book pages and I will handle the Featured Author, advertising, and final layout, but now I need at least three more proofers, possibly more since the newsletter will likely be more than 100 pages. If you'd like to become a member of the newsletter staff, please contact me at:

mfrwstaff-owner@yahoogroups.com

I think that's about it. Be sure to read the June Newsletter and check out the mock-up and ad-rate breakdown in the files. Grab the new submissions form if you had a book come out in May, June or if you have one coming out in July and your publisher has a "Coming Soon" page with pre-order links to your books. If you have no buy-links, you may want to wait until August to submit your July releases. Each book runs for three months.

Moderating the MFRW Facebook Group: Technical Functionalities #MFRWorg #MFRWauthor

I’m going to get a little technical today and discuss a few of the functions and features of groups on Facebook and how both members and moderators may use them or how they may affect how groups operate. I’ve mentioned in this series how much the MFRW Facebook group has grown over the last year (to sum up: when I started moderating last May, we had several hundred members. We reached 1,000 sometime that summer, and our current count is at 3,658). To be clear, I myself don’t personally do anything that influences this growth. I, as I have described in my other posts, receive and moderate the join requests, but I have no control over how many people ask to join.

A big contributor to that, I suspect, is the addition last year of Facebook’s “Suggested Groups” feature. If you’re on Facebook, you may have noticed the appearance of this list along the right side your profile. I noticed a significant upsurge in join requests when this happened, and I have no doubt this feature has resulted in far more members' learning of MFRW and joining the group than would have otherwise. I have a feeling it also, however, means people request to join without even looking at the group or having much of an idea what it’s for (which, in MFRW’s case, affirms the importance of member screening). If you’re a moderator, you may just want to be aware that people may be clicking on a suggested group without ever having visited the group’s actual page.

As far as I’ve determined, there isn’t a way to control or influence how much or where one’s group shows up in the “Suggested Groups” list. There is, however, a functionality called “Tags” that moderators can utilize. If you moderate a group, there is a link on the right side of the group page just below the “About” section that says, “Set Tags.”

Tags do not get to be whatever you want them to be. Rather, only words/phrases that Facebook provides via auto-fill may be selected. For example, I wanted to tag the MFRW group “Author Resources,” but Facebook didn’t have a category option for that, so it simply erased the tag when I saved it. I thus settled on the less specific categories of “Writing,” “Marketing,” and “Books.” This will at least give someone who glances at them an idea about the group’s focus. As far as how tags might affect a group’s popularity, we’re new enough to using this feature that I haven’t had a chance to observe any potential outcomes yet. I’ll report back if I see anything notable. ;)

Search functions are another area both members and moderators may find helpful at times. If you’re a group member, you can pull up a list of your activity (including posts and comments—“Likes” are not included in the search results) on a particular group by clicking on the magnifying glass icon all the way to the bottom right of the group page’s header (it’s just to the right of the “Notifications”/“Create Group”/settings buttons and icons) and entering your profile name. All the things you’ve posted, as well as posts on which you’ve commented or in which you’ve been tagged, will be brought up for display. This feature may seem useful if, like myself, you’ve been known to forget from time to time whether you’ve already posted something on the group page (lol). You can also do similar searches for other members’ activity.

If you want to simply see whether someone is a member of a group (who may or may not have performed activity in the group, making the above search method not helpful), you can do that by going to the “Members” tab along the horizontal menu bar beneath a group’s header photo. With this function, you can sort the members by name (alphabetically by first name/word of profile name) or by join date. As a moderator, I like the sort-by-join-date feature because it allows me to keep track of how many members have joined within a certain time period (though this is not exact in that the labels don’t have actual dates but rather indicate that someone was added “a month ago,” 8 months ago,” “2 weeks ago,” etc. When I want to keep track month by month, I make a note of the last name I approved on the last day of a month and then use that as the cutoff when I check the list the next month). For example, since my last post here about moderating this group, about 325 members have joined.

If you’re a group moderator, this search function also gives you the option of viewing your list of blocked members. Mine isn’t very long, but I have blocked a few profiles I determined to be spam, etc. On this list, there is a link associated with each profile that says “Remove Ban” if you change your mind about blocking someone or allowing someone to join.

And thus ends this tour of Facebook group technical characteristics. ;) Thanks for reading, and see you next month!


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.

Guest Blogging 101: Basic Tips for #MFRWauthors

I won’t try to tell anyone I know all the nuances of blogging. I feel like a toddler teaching a baby to walk. I’ve never done a blog hop and only just started hosting guests on my blog, but I have been a guest numerous times and feel pretty safe to talk about etiquette when visiting someone’s blog.

1.) Always thank your host. The word thank you goes a long way. This chance to be in front of other readers might not happen any other way. Plus the work that goes into loading your blog, images and excerpts can be time-consuming.

2.) Visit the blog at least once the day it goes live. Always go by the blog and see if there are any comments. If there aren’t then make one of your own. I always thank my host on the blog and check it two or three times the day it goes live. I want the people who stop by to know they are important to me. Show them I’m there and grateful they hosted me.

3.) Make sure you have a clear idea for your blog. Most of us have a theme to our blogs and we’ll ask you to write something that fits that theme. Personally I find that when the host tells me what they want I can find that idea faster. It is one of the reasons I came up with a list of questions. There are times when I’m editing two or three things at a time and my brain refuses to work. If you get stuck I recommend visiting the blog to see what else has been posted. It could spark an idea.

4.) Get the material to them on time. If you are asked to get it to the host three days before it goes live make sure you’re do. Sometimes there are glitches that the host has to work out. I don’t give people dates until I get the questionnaire back from people who contact me because I know not everyone follows through but mine is new and I haven’t been booking it beyond two or three weeks so far.

5.) Help promote the blog you’re visiting. I always send out promos on my guests. I post it on my FB page as well as many of the loops I belong to. I also belong to triberr so it gets tweeted by my tribemates. The funny thing is I never do it on my own posts and should.

6.) Make sure you follow the rules of the blog. Most of us will let you promote your work along with your post so if you write erotica and the host says they take all genres make sure you find out if they have that blog behind an over 18 firewall. If they don’t keep that excerpt clean. Find out if the host has a word count limitation. I was a guest on one that wanted 500 words or more in my post.

7.) Finding the right host. In the beginning I would keep posts from people who said they wanted guest authors. But after a while that got a bit cumbersome so I started putting a list together of blogs I have visited – one for erotic authors and one who takes all types. It’s on my blog – barbaradonlonbradley dot blogspot dot com, just go to the page tabs and you’ll see them.

8.) If you have a blog a nice gesture is to offer it to the host as reciprocation. I have gotten a lot of offers from the people who have been a guest and I’m grateful. Blogging is one of the few free ways to promote ourselves.

Submitted by Barb 

Writing for Barbara Donlon Bradley  started innocently enough, like most she kept diaries, journals, and wrote an occasional letter but she also had a vivid imagination and wrote scenes and short stories adding characters to her favorite shows and comic books.

As time went on she found the passion for writing to be a strong drive for her. Humor is also very strong in her life. No matter how hard she tries to write something deep and dark, it will never happen. That humor bleeds into her writing. Since she can’t beat it she has learned to use it to her advantage. 

Now she lives in Tidewater Virginia with two cats, one mother in law – she’s 85 now, her husband and teenage son.

#MFRWorg Monthly Quote - May 2014

     “Why should we all use our creative power and write or paint or play music, or whatever it tells us to do?                                     
     Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money. Because the best way to know the Truth or Beauty is to try to express it.”
-Brenda Ueland



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.

Why Blog? #MFRWorg Answers This Question.

Blogging has become very popular. Blogging has become an important part of an author's marketing plan. A blog can be a living, breathing space for creating an online presence and increasing brand awareness. It's a space that can become whatever an author wants it to be. The key is to know its purpose and stay focused.

My blog ROMANCE BECKONS evolved over the years - its evolution mirroring my career as an author. It's taken years to get it exactly how I want it, and even still, I tweak it every so often. Regardless of how I've used it, one thing remained the same: The Mission. My blog's mission is to connect on a more personal level with readers.


So, Why Have A Blog?
77% of internet users read blogs. Over 300 million people view a blog at least once a month. We know readers using e-readers are connoisseurs of the internet. Imagine getting your books in front of this audience. Blogging allows authors to team up with others, share audiences and attract new readers. Blogging is interactive -that's the main difference between a blog and a website- and develops relationships with readers.

So, Why Don't You Have A Blog?
The main roadblock that stops authors from starting a blog is fear of technology. But with two easy-to-use platforms, it isn't as difficult as it seems. Anyone can start a blog for free and, to just do the basics, set-up only takes about an hour. There are two most popular platforms: WordPress and Blogger.

WordPress
WordPress has two different choices; you can choose to use WordPress.com or WordPress.org. Both are web software you can use to create a beautiful blog. The difference between the two (.com and .org) is that one is free and the other is not free. The free site doesn't offer as much functionality as the paid version. Another key difference is your domain name. The free version will limit your domain name selection; your domain name will be www.yourblog.wordpress.com. The paid version gives you complete control over your domain name and your site. In the beginning, the free version might be the easiest to navigate.

Blogger
Blogger is a free, powerful publishing platform that provides you with all the tools you need to start and grow your blog. It's fully-customizable and packed with advanced features like HTML editing, gadget support, mobile publishing, and much more. Blogger seamlessly integrates with other Google products including Google+, Google Analytics, and YouTube. I prefer this platform but I confess to being a big Google fan.

Choose Your Software. Set Up Your Blog.
Both platforms will walk you through the set up. If you don't already have a blog, go ahead and try it. Next time on my monthly column about blogging, I'll spend time talking about different features to be sure to incorporate.

Talk to me.

Do you have a blog? Share your url. Which blog platform would you recommend to others?

Moderating the MFRW Facebook Group: Getting the Most out of Group Membership #MFRWorg #MFRWauthor

So far in this series, I’ve talked a lot about things I do from the moderator side of the MFRW Facebook group. I’m shifting gears a little bit today to offer some recommendations for potential and current group members to get the most out of being a member of the group and using Facebook to help market your work.

Privacy Settings

First, I want to mention a couple things about privacy settings of which some people may not be aware. I want to clarify, however, that I completely understand setting one’s profile to private and am in no way discouraging that or recommending that people change their privacy settings if they’re set the way they want them. It’s completely fine if I go to a profile and don’t see any information about one’s involvement in the literary community due to that person's privacy settings—that’s why I send a message.

This, rather, is for those who mean to have certain things visible to the public and may unknowingly not. For example, a few times over the last month, I’ve received responses from potential members informing me that they do in fact list something like “Author,” etc., in the employment sections of their Facebook profiles. In my response thanking them for replying and indicating that I’ll approve their membership, etc., I’ve just mentioned that for whatever reason, that information wasn’t visible to me.

One author followed up with me to ask if I had any idea why I might not be able to see it, as she intended for the indication that she was an author to be publicly viewable, and her general profile was set to public viewing. I looked into it a little bit and discovered that each “Work and Education” entry in one’s “About” section can be set to its own privacy setting. In the instance in question, the author’s entry indicating she was an author had been set to be viewed by friends only.

To check on this or change these settings, go to your profile, hover over the upper right corner of the “About” section (on the left side of the page), click on the little pencil icon labeled “Manage” when it pops up, and choose “Update Info.” On the screen that then appears, there is a little icon with a downward-pointing arrow to the right of each entry under the “Work and Education” setting. You may click on that icon to choose the privacy setting (public, friends only, etc.) for that particular entry.

 

Posting to the Group

I read every entry that gets posted to the MFRW Facebook group (though if I did more than just skim over them, I’d spend little time doing anything else!). I do this to make sure they’re legitimate posts and ensure I haven’t inadvertently let any spam accounts join. I have thus seen how privacy settings can also affect how things show up when you post in a group.

For example, if you choose to share a book cover from one of your own photo albums on the MFRW group page, your privacy settings for that photo (or your photos general) will affect how it will show up on the group page. Occasionally I see a post on the group that says “Attachment Unavailable.” This can be for a few reasons, but one of them is if your photo privacy settings are set to allow only friends or friends of friends to view them. That will still be the case, then, if you post the photo to a group page, and the attachment will be indicated to be unavailable for everyone else. (It is easy for you yourself not to realize this, incidentally, since it will still show up for you on the group page, so nothing will seem to be amiss.)

One option for posting photos (such as book covers) to the group page, thus, is to simply post a link to the page where a photo appears, such as at the buy link, and let the link preview show the photo. If you do want to share a photo from one of your own Facebook albums or your timeline on the group page, just make sure the photo’s privacy settings are set to public viewing first. You can do this one of two ways:

1. If you want to set the entire photo album containing the photo to be viewable by the public (say, for example, you have an album for book covers that you’d like anyone to be able to see), do the following: Click on “Photos” from your profile page. Once there, click “Albums,” locate the album you want to make public, and click on the little icon in the lower right corner of the album in question. Adjust the settings accordingly.
2. You can also adjust the privacy settings of an individual photo. To do this, click on the photo in question. Right below your name and to the right of the date the photo was posted, you should see the small privacy settings icon with the downward-pointing arrow. Click on it and choose the desired privacy setting.

Links

It also tends to be a good idea to add a link to posts you’re posting on the group page if you're asking people to buy or visit something. Every once in a while I see posts asking people to check something out that don’t contain a link at which to do so. While sometimes a reference to where to find the post or book in question is provided, I think it’s fair to say that viewers are much more likely to follow through if all they have to do is click a link. :)

That being said, I do not recommend posting only a link with no corresponding picture, text, introduction, etc. When I see this, I’ll click on it, but not knowing whether it’s spam or what its origin or purpose is, I won’t really want to—I’ll only do so because of my responsibility as a moderator. Given my feeling that way, I suspect the link won’t get many clicks from others who don’t have that responsibility! This hasn’t happened very often, but I have seen it, and I recommend you just make sure the image or link preview you want to have show up with your post is indeed visible before you post it.

I hope this has seemed helpful to some readers. The MFRW Facebook group is a busy place, and we want all members to receive the maximum possible benefit of being a part of it! Thanks for reading. :)


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.

The Logline: Who Needs It? How Can I Write One?

This post is syndicated from Whitley Gray: The Logline--Who Needs It? How Can I Write One?


This is right up there with synopsis and query and cover letter. It’s the secret weapon that says you know what your story is about and can sum it up in one sentence. It’s the jewel you can memorize and blurt out at any time.

Otherwise known as the “elevator pitch,”—something you might pull out when you have a captive audience, such as an editor while attending a conference—the logline is a twenty-five to thirty word summary of your story. It needs to indicate the main characters, the conflict, and the story question. Whole workshops are given on the topic, and I strongly recommend you sign up for one before you start to pitch your logline to anyone, especially to a captive audience. Elevators work, but so does an impromptu pitch session over dinner, waiting for a bus, etc.

Okay. Let’s take a formulaic approach:
(heroine) must (action) with (hero) to (conflict) or (consequence).

A witch on the outs with her coven must work with the demon she put in jail twenty years ago to extinguish a virus before it annihilates all paranormal creatures. (thirty words).

This logline tells us the heroine is a witch, and she’s done something to alienate her own kind.

The hero is a demon, who likely hates the witch for what she did to him in the past. He also has done something that landed him in jail back then.

These two have to work together, which is going to set up all sorts of conflict.

Their mission is to wipe out a virus. Failing has huge consequences for both of them. As they’re both paranormal creatures, they’ll be susceptible to the virus (danger) and their own kind (both witches and demons) will be wiped out. There’s time pressure in there too. If they don’t succeed in time, the virus will have taken its course.

See how that works?

So our editor in the stalled elevator now knows what your book is about—it’s a paranormal romance with elements of suspense. Two different kinds of paranormal creatures are involved. The premise lends itself to conflict, with a lot of potential for escalation—it’s there from the get-go. They have a larger-than-life mission involving a communicable disease, which is a fresh idea (we hope it’s fresh to her). The consequences are huge, and mean all sorts of friends and family will be at risk and could die—always a crowd pleaser.

Now let’s look at the wording.

A witch on the outs with her coven must work with the demon she put in jail twenty years ago to extinguish a virus before it annihilates all paranormal creatures. (thirty words).

“On the outs with” This could be worded as “alienated by her coven.” Why not word it that way?

“Okay…” you say. “What’s wrong with that? We’re saving words, and we don’t get many to start with.” Because now the coven is doing something to the witch. “Coven alienates witch” is the active construction. But we don’t care about the coven in the logline—they’re not the heroine.

“Witch alienated by her coven.” This is a passive construction. Do we want passive construction? No! We want nice active construction. Both ways mean the same thing, but “on the outs with” is active.

“Must work with” It’s not optional. She has to work with him. Not a friend, not a colleague. A specific guy, and from the sound of it, they don’t like each other. It could be “work with,” and that would save us a word. But it also suggests that the situation may be optional—like they’re choosing to work together. And what’s the fun in that? “Must” is the stuff conflicts are made of.

“Put in jail” This goes to plot. When you’re thinking about plot, think about what generates strong conflict. Minor infractions seldom lead to the type of situation strong enough to carry a book. If we said “the demon she turned into a toad for a day” sounds like he could be irritated, but probably not enough to strongly dislike her. Plus it eats up our word count. It could be “the demon who jilted her five years ago.” That would still be conflict—just not as strong, not as much.

So, a criminal act of some kind. It has to be something egregious enough to warrant a jail sentence. It has to be something she did that’s bad enough to make him angry. The fun is you get to decide what that was, and how to weave it into the fabric of your story.

Okay, let’s examine the mission. “Extinguish a virus.” Not “kill,” not “eliminate,” not “cure.” Not “give a ten day course of antiviral medication.” Extinguish is a strong verb. Strong words are your friends. Strong verbs do the heavy lifting in writing. Adverbs—words that modify verbs—weaken construction. Stephen King said “The way to hell is paved with adverbs.”

“Why would Mr. King say that?” you ask. “My eighth grade English teacher Miss Fluffermuffin didn’t say that. She liked adverbs.”

Okay. We could say “Totally wipe out” or “completely eliminate” or “cure in a timely fashion.” Note the –ly, the calling card of the adverb. Editors have strong feelings about adverbs, mostly of the negative kind. If you’re tempted to use one, look at your verb.

Example: How about “ran?” It’s a nice verb, gets us from point “A” to point “B” faster than walking. Maybe “ran quickly.” That makes it more exciting. But look what happens…

The editor is frowning, has out her computer-generated red pencil. “I hate adverbs. Stephen King was right!”

How about “bolted?” or “charged?” “Raced?” The difference is real, and it grabs attention. “Bolted” grabs your attention. “Bolted?” you say. “My, that’s fast. That’s quick. That’s…getting my attention.”

Now we’re getting to the end of our logline. The consequences.“Annihilates all paranormal creatures.” As you’ve no doubt discerned by now, “annihilates” is stronger than “kills.” It’s stronger than “destroys.” The word “annihilates” brings up images of atomic-level destruction, of utter disaster, of cataclysmic consequences. If they fail, it doesn’t mean creatures from werewolves to vampires will break out in an unsightly purple-spotted pox. Nope, they’ll be gone. Finito. Never to be seen again. It’s a big deal if you’re a paranormal citizen.

“It could be ‘annihilates the world,’” you say. Okay, I’ll agree with that. But then why did it require a witch and a demon? How about an accountant and the waitress at that dinner where he goes for lunch every day? It could, but then something has to motivate them to save paranormal creatures. Why would these two humans care about the paranormal inhabitants?

Okay. This is the end of my dissection. Now you try it.

(heroine) must (action) with (hero) to (conflict) or (consequence).

Sit down with your story.

Write down the heroine, and one thing about her. A big thing, not her flaming red hair or startling fashion sense—not unless they impact the plot.

Write down your hero, and a defining characteristic. Keep it tied to the plot.

Why might these two not get along? (Conflict) Write it down.

What is the big thing they need to do? (Action) Write it down.

What happens if they can’t accomplish their goal? (Consequence) Write it down.

Likely you have more than thirty words at this point, but that doesn’t matter. Put these parts together in a sentence that explains your plot. Count the number of words. Don’t despair, we’ll pare it down until it’s svelte.

Look at every word, starting with the nouns. People places and things. Look at your verbs. Look at them again. Are adverbs tagging along? Get out your thesaurus and find a strong verb. Annihilate the adverbs. Make the verbs able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Look at your clauses. Now this isn’t grammar, and I’m not getting into that. I’ve put the descriptive phrases into brackets here:

A witch [on the outs with her coven] must work with the demon [she put in jail twenty years ago] to extinguish a virus [before it annihilates all paranormal creatures.] (thirty words).

Without the clauses, the logline still reads as a coherent sentence. Not a very exciting one, but still a sentence. Use your words wisely in these clauses. The clauses tell about your characters and your consequences.

I’m not a big fan of names in loglines. Some people are. Names tend to use up words, as you still need the descriptions in there. Unless the name has to do with the title or the plot, I leave it out.

Keep chugging away on that logline. Tweak it until it shines, tape it above your computer. Memorize it—you never know when you’ll have to pull it out.

WHITLEY GRAY BIO:
Once upon a misspent youth, Whitley read and wrote stories under the covers at night. At some point, real life intervened, bringing with it responsibilities and a career in the medical field. After years of technical writing, Whitley became enamored of romance and took on the challenge of giving it a try. Inventing characters and putting them through paces in interesting ways turned out to be addictive, and along the way, Whitley discovered that two heroes is twice as nice. A pot of coffee, quiet, and a storyline featuring a couple of guys makes for a perfect day. Stop by www.whitleygray.com and feed your fix for heat between the sheets with erotica and M/M romance.

*Photo courtesy of Squidoo.

#MFRWorg Monthly Quote - April 2014

“It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful, but it is more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. We are tasked to make our lives, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of our most elevated and critical hour.”
-Henry David Thoreau



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.

Party on Facebook with @MFRW_ORG... Here's How!

Participate in MFRW's First Facebook Party!
A facebook party is an event hosted through a facebook page. It has a determined amount of time, a theme and involves multiple posts by the participating authors. Many times, a facebook party is used by authors to celebrate a new book's release.

MFRW is now using facebook parties as a fun new marketing tool for our members. We hope you'll join us!

The major benefits of using group facebook parties as part of your book's marketing strategy are (1) sharing readers with other participating authors and (2) utilizing a social media forum preferred by the majority of today's romance readers. Your reach will be larger than going it alone when you participate in an event that involves other authors.

This first MFRW facebook party is scheduled for May 1st and is specifically for our contemporary romance authors, all heat levels welcome including GLBT. Throughout the year, each genre will be featured to be sure every MFRW author gets the opportunity to participate.

Upcoming MFRW facebook EVENTS (coming in future months): Historical Romance | Romantic Suspense | Science Fiction | Paranormal Romance

MFRW facebook parties will be hosted as events on the MFRW facebook page. Authors: Join the MFRW facebook page NOW if you aren't already a member. It's best for authors to be a member of the page to participate but it won't be necessary for the readers you invite. You will be able to invite readers/ fans/ reviewers/ followers to this event soon and we'll provide the tools and instruction for doing this.

Are You Ready To Party?
As a participating author in a facebook party, you'll be expected to advertise on your blog/ website using the party badge, invite your facebook friends and share in as many other social outlets as possible. Our twitter hashtags are #MFRWorg and #MFRWauthor. Include these for bonus re-tweets! *When sharing the badge, include party link: https://www.facebook.com/events/239565416167458*

Participating authors will sign up to host for one or two hours. During that time, you'll be expected to post up to two excerpts, PG-13 or below, share cover art, give away at least one free book using a contest format and otherwise interact with attendees through the posts.

More Details will be provided to those who sign up as it gets closer to the event. For now, click on both links below to become a participating author.

Authors: CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN PARTY PAGE.

Questions?
Just Ask Paloma. Leave A Comment.

Newbie's World #MFRWorg @AuthorErinMoore What is my brand?

Branding. It’s a question that new authors have a lot. And it should be one that we can define
easily for others. But how do we know what it is? And what do we do about it once we know?

credit to Miguel Anxo at deviantart.com

First, a definition, for which I give heartfelt thanks to Theresa Myer’s amazing white paper: Today when we talk about an author brand we are talking about building an image, perception or identity that is used to create "emotional Velcro" first, a perception of higher quality second and that little "something special" that no one else can offer third.

If you happened to read my article on a similar topic on Savvy Authors (of course you did!), we discussed getting readers to 1. Know us, then 2. Like us, and 3. Love us. This is the same concept. The example Theresa gives is a reader walking into a bookstore and asking for the latest Nora Roberts book. They are not asking for the title – they are asking for the brand, Nora Roberts.

So how do we get the Nora Roberts brand?

1. Define your own brand.
Writing Exercise: (some my own, some stolen from Ali Cross’ amazing post). Answer any or all.

• Look up your favorite authors, musicians, artists and see what resonates. What emotions are they evoking, and is it something that grabs you, or turns you off?
• List out seven adjectives for your books.
• List out seven adjectives for your ideal reader. 
• Determine what makes you unique – everyone can be hot, smexy, playful – let’s dig a little deeper. 
• What message do you hope that your readers will walk away from their interactions with you and/or your books? 
• What do you bring to the world – not just to writing, but to the world? 
• Do you need one brand, or multiple? Perhaps an umbrella brand could work, keeping in mind keeping up with various brands. (Though, if you write in many different and distinct genres, trying to keep it all together may be even harder…)

2. Refine your brand.
a. Tagline – this should be the synthesis of everything you went through in the exercises. Short, different, and easy to remember.

b. Website/blog—blogging on your topic, at least 25% of the time, will help readers come to trust you on your expert subject.

c. Logo—what images define you/your brand? This may be something you need some help with, in which case, experiment by yourself first so that you have an idea of what you do and don’t want before paying someone else.

d. Twitter/Facebook—Again, talking about your expert knowledge at least 25% of the time will bring readers back to you. They will come to know and expect your advice/insight/humorous take on whatever subject(s) you have chosen.

This will be a continually evolving process, one that will always need refinement. But the core of your brand should not change drastically. And if you find that it needs to, then it’s possible that you will need to create a different brand entirely (with all of the same work involved) for that new brand.

In closing, I would like to say “please do as I say, not as I do” on this topic. I’m a WIP. Now, talk to me... let me know about your brand! What has worked for you?

Erin
Erin writes paranormal romances as Erin Moore and has only just begun to learn all about marketing them! She contributes to the MFRW Marketing Blog with her monthly column, A Newbie's World.

She is usually found on Twitter, but may soon be on an Amazon binge, so look out! She manages two monsters and one unruly husband in Atlanta, main-lining chocolate and tea. Look her up on www.AuthorErinMoore.com or, of course, on Twitter: @AuthorErinMoore.

Group E-Mail Etiquette: How to win friends and avoid scolding while staying in touch with your group #MFRWOrg

E-mail is a great method of communicating, giving us instant communication with minimal expense. In a group setting, e-mail helps you get in touch with a large audience with no more effort than you would expend contacting a single recipient.
This wonderful opportunity to communicate can also be a wonderful opportunity to irritate. Following a few guidelines can avoid irritation from your fellow posters and list moderators. You see the requests to please trim, please change the subject line, please please please... Sometimes the impression is one of nannies fussing about table manners, and you might wonder what difference does it make if you don’t trim your post. Having the whole conversation in one place just makes it easier for someone to follow.
    Doesn’t it?
    It certainly seems like it would be easier, and it’s absolutely faster to dash off a reply and hit send.
    Except: not everyone in a discussion group receives messages as individual e-mails. So when you write: “Does anyone know where the pearl is?” And someone answers “The pearl is in the river” it comes out on e-mail:

***
The pearl is in the river
Cindy Lou Who Whoville Seussland

Does anyone know where the pearl is?
Sandy Paws, Beach City Ozland

Then another writer joins the conversation with :

What kind of pearls are you finding in the river?
Furry Fawcet, Happyland South Branch

The pearl is in the river
Cindy Lou Who Whoville Seussland

Does anyone know where the pearl is?
Sandy Paws, Beach City Ozland

***
And so on. Each successive message includes the entire train of preceding messages. For someone on digest, this becomes a never ending mass of missives. This example includes one line messages. Imagine how this would read with longer messages and complex signature lines. Yeah, it can get really messy.
Trimming messages depends on your mail program, but you can generally block out the extra verbiage and then click control and X (cntrl+X) If necessary you can leave in one or two lines from the original post. Your loop companions will thank you fervently.

SUBJECT LINES:
Often a group discussion segues into multiple other topics. The initial discussion might concern formatting e-books and by the time the posters finish every facet of contracts and agents and rights might have been covered. If the subject line is still “E-book Formatting in Traditional Romance” then some valuable information might be missed by readers who are not interested in formatting their e-books. It helps to add a word or two relating to the added information. “E-book Formatting in Traditional Romance/agent contracts” will let readers know additional information is available.
However if there is a radical change in subjects it might be a good idea to start an entirely new subject, which will establish a new message trail and make it easier to follow the new subject. This also makes it easier to find and follow subjects of interest in the Yahoo group.

How, you might wonder, do we get to the Yahoo group? Glad you asked.. If you scroll down to the bottom of your loop message, you’ll see:

Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/
Website: http://marketingforromancewriters.org/

Visit Your Group

By clicking on the Group link, or on Visit Your Group, you’ll go directly to the Yahoo group home page, where you can search messages and follow the message trails. Kind of nifty, isn’t it?

Following these few simple suggestions will ensure good communication and uncomplicated messages. Even better, you won’t receive moderator messages imploring you to PLEASE trim. This might not be all sunshine and roses but it will make everyone involved much happier!
---
Posted by Mona Karel, Bloghop Coordinator and Moderator for Marketing for Romance Writers

Website http://mona-karel.com

Blog http://mona-karel.com/blog/

Twitter http://twitter.com/MonaKarel

Facebook https://facebook.com/pages/Mona-Karel/101308129961137

Goodreads http://goodreads.com/author/show/4878639.Mona_Karel

Moderating the MFRW Facebook Group—Pinning Posts (and a Membership Landmark!) #MFRWorg

First, a short announcement: since my last post here about moderating the MFRW Facebook group, the group reached (and passed) 3,000 members! The Facebook group has seen considerable growth since I started moderating it not quite a year ago. At that time, there were several hundred members. We reached 1,000 last June, if I remember correctly, 2,000 sometime late last fall, and now here we are at (as of this writing) 3,147 members!

In messaging with potential members during the request moderation process, I’ve often found myself suggesting that they consider joining the Yahoo Group as well. Since many potential members have mentioned where they are in their careers and what kind of marketing help they’re seeking or why, the conversation has often segued naturally into this invitation. MFRW’s Yahoo and Facebook groups serve notably different purposes at this point—since promotion is allowed on the Facebook group, it is used mostly for that right now, whereas the Yahoo Group (where no promotion is allowed) is where most of the group’s discussions about promotion, marketing, resources, etc., take place. So I personally see it as well worthwhile to be a part of both.

Which brings me (slightly indirectly) to the main topic of this post: pinning posts. A pinned post is a post on a group page that remains anchored to the top of the page irrespective of other posts. It is thus very useful as a reference point or to impart evergreen information that you’d like everyone who visits the group page to see, since it always appears as the first post on the group page.

In this case, since I found myself writing similar things over and over in private messages about the Yahoo Group and including the link to join, it eventually occurred to me that it would be much easier if I could just put this announcement somewhere and send people to it. Even better if it were somewhere group members and the public could see it.

Enter the pinned post. I wrote a short summary of MFRW’s Yahoo Group and other resources (such as its website), included links to all of them, added a note summarizing the process I use to moderate join requests, and pinned the post to the top of the group page. Now when I am in touch with potential members, I simply say something like, "Please see my pinned post at the top of the group page for information about MFRW’s Yahoo Group.” I have found this much more efficient. ;)

Only the moderator(s) of a group can pin a post, though any post on a group page may be pinned (i.e., the moderator doesn’t have to be the author of it). To pin a post, locate the post in question, hover over the upper-right corner of it until the little drop-down arrow appears, click on the arrow, and choose “Pin Post.” If at any point you want to unpin the post, follow the same directions and click “Unpin Post.”

Facebook currently only allows one pinned post at a time on group pages. Sometimes my post has been unpinned on the MFRW group in favor of special-event pins, such as when Summer Camp took place last year or when MFRW was up for several awards in the 2013 Preditors & Editors poll (the MFRW newsletter won for “Best Writers’ Resource”!). In these cases, Kayelle composed alternate posts that she pinned with these announcements, and the introductory post was unpinned and thus automatically returned to its original place in the group’s timeline. When it was time to put it back, I simply located it again and repinned it. Pinning and repinning may be done to any post that exists anywhere on a group's timeline. The “Likes” and comments remain intact, as pinning and unpinning don't actually alter a post in any way but rather just move it to a different place on the page.

Please note that the pinned post functionality is also available on “Pages,” so in the same way I described above to pin a post on the group page, you may pin a given post on your author page. This post will remain the first post listed on your page until you unpin it or replace it with another pinned post (the “one pin at a time” rule also applies to pages). To see an example of a pinned post and how it appears on the page, just visit the MFRW Facebook group and see mine (under my legal name, Emily McCay) at the top of the group page. :)

Thanks for reading, and see you next month!


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.

#AuthorTips: What to Keep on Your Calendar by Kayelle Allen #MFRWorg #author

What kinds of things do authors need to keep on their calendars? How can they stay organized and on top of things? There are two basic types of info to track on a calendar -- personal and professional. To be sure they're included and planned for, list personal and family items first. They are your priority, aren't they?

Personal

• Personal items such as family events, like picking up the kids from practice
• Date night with that special person in your life
• Birthdays of friends and family
• Personal time off - TV shows that you don't want to miss; a movie you want to see. For eight years, I had the TV show 24 on my regular schedule and never missed an episode. It was a big event in my household and we all gathered to watch it.
• Vacation. If you don't rest, your mind won't be clear. Carpal tunnel syndrome is real -- overwork can injure your hands. You'll end up needing more time off than you would have than if you'd simply allowed your body to rest properly. Your body will thank you.

Professional

• Clearly indicate deadlines for long term projects (books, articles, drafts, edits)
• The release dates of your next books, if you know them.
• Contests for which you are either entering material or are serving as a judge
• Conventions
• Book signings or other appearances
• Workshops and training
• Birthdays of fellow authors, friends, and fans
• Work backwards from book release dates to plan pre-publicity, advertising, guest spots, interviews, blog tours, and submissions to review sites
• Plan as many events in the three months following your book's release as possible.
• Assuming you'll have at least one book release per year, request guest blog spots throughout the year. Try to be a guest on other authors' sites every month. It will keep your name in front of readers. If you release books more often, this is doubly important.
• Release day events
• Follow up events for a new book
• Chat dates
• Guests on your blog - other authors will bring fresh readers to your site. Take advantage of that by inviting others to share material you think your readers will enjoy.

The Last Vhalgenn 

Set up your calendar with a routine reminder period for scheduled items. For example, being reminded four days prior to a chat or blog so you have time to do last minute work and promo. Be flexible in your planning. The only thing in life that's permanent is change. Accept life as it comes along. Some things can't be avoided. Deal with them and move on.

---

The Last Vhalgenn

By Kayelle Allen

Duty to king and country has shaped Raik's life since birth, but to protect them, she must perform a ritual that betrays all she holds sacred.

http://is.gd/amazon_vhalgenn

About the Author

Kayelle Allen is a multi-published, award-winning author, and the founder of Marketing for

Romance Writers. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary characters, futuristic immortals, covert agents, and warriors who purr.

Homeworld http://kayelleallen.com

Unstoppable Heroes Blog http://kayelleallen.com/blog

Twitter http://twitter.com/kayelleallen

Facebook http://facebook.com/kayelleallen.author

#WWoW Use Tweepi with Twitter.

Post reblogged from Writer's WoW Blog with permission.

Tweepi is my favorite tool to use with Twitter.

Tweepi helps you make sense of your Twitter social graph with stats. You will be able to learn about the number of people you haven't followed back, the number of people who aren't following you, search people who your friends follow and much more. It makes it simple to manage your account by doing the following things much easier than manually through twitter...

FLUSH UNFOLLOWERS

This tool allows you to unfollow users who aren't following you back. Sometimes there are people we've followed that are no longer relevant and if they aren't following you, you may choose not to follow them.

RECIPROCATE

This tool helps you find all the users that follow you, but you don't follow back. Then you can follow them back with a click of a button.

CLEAN UP INACTIVE FOLLOWERS

This feature allows you to unfollow users who no longer keep active twitter accounts. It's likely that you're following more than a few hundred people on Twitter. You must've noticed that many of these users either don't engage in conversations, never retweet anybody, or simply just ramble about nonsense stuff all day long (no links to useful content whatsoever!). You can use Tweepi cleanup tool to filter these people out and unfollow them. The Clean-up tool enables you to filter out those inactive and unwanted tweeps by letting you check out their details and decide for yourself!

FIND NEW FOLLOWERS

This feature gives you a resource for finding users with similar interests. The most common way to find and add people with the same interests as you, is to find a popular user within your area of interest and add people who follow these known users.

Tweepi helps you analyze and filter tweeps out -the geeky way,

with numbers in a table- based on their activity and sociability. 

How do you start using Tweepi?

It's only 5 simple steps.

1. Go to http://tweepi.com/
2. Choose "login" (to start using Tweepi for free which is all you need)
3. Enter your username/email with your password and click "Authorize app"
4. Create a Tweepi account with your first and last name and your e-mail
5. Start using Tweepi!

The first time you go through your account, it may take awhile but as you then update it every few weeks, it

becomes less of a chore. You'll find it worthwhile to create a SAFE LIST so you never accidentally unfollow someone you want to follow regardless of any stats. For example, you might be following a celebrity who doesn't follow people but you won't want to unfollow them. You might be surprised though at how many people you follow that aren't  following you and vice versa. Tweepi gives you the tools to make your Twitter account be exactly what you want. Make it work for you using Tweepi.