Saturday, May 12, 2012

No more Britannica ...

Encyclopedia Britannica recently announced that it will no longer be published in print. It will now only be available online.

AS Google has become the FIRST place most of us search for any type of information, it is to be expected that reference materials would move to digital, but for those of us who grew up with the joy of printed Encyclopedias,  this is a moment of nostalgia...

Today's generation will not have the memories of these magical sets of books being sold door to door, and the wonder of having stacks of boxes arrive in the mail --to spend hours of joy immersed in the volumes and making discoveries --of things previously unknown.

Also gone are the days of buying one volume a week at the grocery store until all books in the set are complete. Each week brought joy and wonder as new volumes arrived home nestled in brown paper bags, between the macaroni and mayonnaise.

Encyclopedias were to my generation-as laptops are to today's students--when you had your own set of encyclopedias, your options were endless.  Knowledge at your fingertips.....the world at the turn of a page.

Words and wisdom mixed with wonder.




Friday, May 11, 2012

Clarksville TN Writers Conference June 2012!

http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2012/05/11/eighth-annual-clarksville-writers-conference-is-june-7th-and-8th-with-pulitzer-prize-winner-alex-s-jones-as-keynote-speaker/

Writer to Author to Publisher to Marketer ....a step by step evolution

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/05/from-writer-to-author-to-publisher-to-marketer/

Another great post from the Book Designer!

It’s amazing to read the biographies of writers and hear their stories of how they started writing at age 5 or wrote a novel at age 10. It’s not true for all writers but there’s some kind of impulse that makes otherwise rational people take valuable time out of their day to wrestle out the stories or ideas or teachings or whatever it is that they are compelled to write.

click the link above to read the full story!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Paying Markets for Authors!

http://writersweekly.com/markets_and_jobs/007346_05092012.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+writersweekly+%28WritersWeekly.com+-+Freelance+Writing+Ezine%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

PAYING MARKETS
These markets are NOT recycled guidelines. WritersWeekly.com only features original market listings, received from and approved by the editors at each publication....click on link above to see the listings@

Creating an Author Blog

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/05/overcoming-obstacles-to-create-an-author-blog/

Life Lessons from Cyberspace

This is what getting into social networking and blogging has taught me: You build your author platform one widget at a time, overcoming one obstacle at a time. ...

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

From Deb--Find Your Readers-in local authors!!


As authors in today’s dynamic publishing environment, read, write, and talk about how to gain and keep readers. We often hear about the need for authors o build a web presence, be active in social media, do book readings and signings, and to have a platform. The “to do” list seems overwhelming with no clear path to begin. What is often unclear is that these actions are all about building relationships with readers

It sometimes seems that there is too much to do, not enough time to write and create, and no time left in our days to reach out to readers, especially when we are new or have few items in publication. But there is one type of reader that is easy to reach and interested in building a relationship with you. Local authors.

All authors are also readers! Remember, as an author, one day you will be trying to reach readers—the best way to learn about what readers want is to be one!  The best way to gain support for your own work –is to support other authors. 

Do you remember Coca-Cola’s commercial where they wanted to “teach the world to sing”...
That was a powerful message—as we hummed to the music and the words imprinted messages in our minds, we saw images of people from many nations holding hands across a mountainside….reaching out to each other in relationship.  What would you give to have your readers “sing” about your books? 

Why do so many authors today create reading guides for book groups? Because the members of the book groups not only talk to each other about the books they read, but they also talk to other people…. So, start now, building relationships with readers and authors…

1)     Seek out local authors
a.     Places to find local authors:
·   Goodreads
·   Facebook
·   Newspaper
·   Online events listings
·   Posters in bookstores
·   Festival and fairs
·   Friends and book groups

2)     Attend local author’s book readings and signings
a.     Research them online and come prepared with a question or two about their books, their background, their inspiration, etc
b.    Read the content on their websites-and give them feedback

3)     Buy local authors books, read them and post a review
a.     The greatest gift you can give a writer is to read their work and post a review!

4)     Connect with local authors on Facebook, Twitter, Good reads, etc
a.     They spend a lot of time trying to reach readers—respond!
b.    Writers appreciate feedback from their readers –it’s great to know that someone other than family and friends are finding and reading your work

Be an author’s advocate—one day it may be you who wants others to talk about your work
Practice the Golden Rule –do for other readers and authors what you want them to do for you. Build relationships. Create community.  Listen and learn.  Sales begin with marketing, and marketing begins with relationships.  Start now!

The KOOK movie trailer and more...based on the Heavens Gate Cult !

http://thekookmovie.com/film/


Fa is a gentle and unassuming member of an eccentric religious sect cloistered in The Catskill Mountains.  On the eve of her group’s scheduled “departure from Earth” Fa discovers that their leader, who appears to them as an alien hologram transmitted from a distant galaxy, is crossing signals with a man named Malcolm who lives close by.  After failing to convince the others of what she’s seen, Fa sets out alone into the “real world” to find Malcolm and confront the awful truth face to face.
The Kook is an off-beat comedy that’s at times chilling and poignant, and targets the state of truth in our society.

click on the link to read the full dexcription and see the movie trailer

Social Media--to pursue or not?

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/05/02/book-marketing-giving-up-social-media/

Principle #2 – “Go where people already gather, rather than gather a crowd around yourself.”
According to Shiv Singh, social media guru for PepsiCo,
“The holy grail of social influence marketing is increasingly considered the ability to identify which referent influencers are the most powerful and have the highest impact on brand affinity and purchasing decisions. After you’ve identified them, the next question is, how does a marketer reach these referent influencers that surround their customers?”
Applying this principle to marketing my personal finance book, Enjoy Your Money!, I found the top 200 personal finance blogs and offered free copies to the bloggers for their review. Almost one in four asked for a copy. Eighteen came through with a review and/or giveaway. It was both cost and time effective. My sales tripled and I didn’t have to keep posting several times a week on my blog. Instead, I went into seclusion to write my next book

click on the link to read all of the principles..

Monday, May 7, 2012

Don't think you have time for blogging? Here are some ideas!

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/05/author-blogging-101-finding-time-for-blogging/

I am often asked how I get so much done  in a day....full time job, reading, doing book reviews, judging ebook competition, marketing my own books, and being President of the Tennessee Writers allliance....and a mother and grandmother...

I use tips like this from the phenomenal Joel Friedlander.....

I maintain an IGoogle page with my GMail and google reader (for the blogs I follow) and my Google Alerts (for the topics i follow) all feeding to my google home page---I check this a few times a day to see if there is anything of interest and when there is, I quickly share it on this blog...

This blog is set up (with feedburner) to forward to Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook......and I often Google + to cover the new and upcoming social network...

I hope this is helpful..and I'd love to have comments about what you want to see....on this blog. 

Tips for Not Going Insane Keeping Up With Your Blog
Keep in mind that you might be hearing about or reading about a lot of these tasks at once, but you don’t have to do them all at once.
If we list all the things we do in a day, it can quickly become pretty overwhelming, even to us!

But realistically, many of these tasks take very little time in themselves.
For instance, checking out a couple of forums to see if there are any posts or questions relating to your topic of interest only takes a few minutes, and leaving a comment only a few more.

You can easily do this task in about 10 minutes a day, and if that’s too much time, you can do it every other day.

For more tips, click on the link above to read the full article ...

The tricky balance of our creative energy ...and the drive to succeed

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/05/07/is-the-drive-for-success-stealing-your-joy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiveWriteThrive+%28Live+Write+Thrive%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

As writers we all want to be a success. We want to have our words touch people’s hearts; we want to somehow be immortalized through our work, and at the end of the day we want to sell books. That seems pretty normal—but percolating under the unconscious surface, could there be deeper reasons that being a success is so important to us? And, is the drive to “make it”

Stealing Our Joy?

click the link above to read the full article

This really spoke to me, as some of my joy has been diminished in the past few weeks...Closing The Gate has not sold as many copies as I had hoped it would.  I am finding that I need to address my own inner expectations (and isn't that always fun! Not!) ...as my creative energy has been drained---marketing a book, doing readings, signings, talking to booksellers--all a necessary part of the marketing and sales today---has taken my time and energy for creating new writings.  and I find myself resenting the time it takes and wanting to hide away in a locked room for a couple of weeks and just recharge. 

This article was a good reminder that I am in control of that --my expectations, my reactions, my time.....

It's all a balancing act ....like the people who used to balance plates on stick and try to keep multiple sizes and shapes spinning at different speeds .....it's never easy..and sometimes not a lot of fun....

Does anyone have tips for managing  this tricky balance?