Month: January 2014

Writing conferences are extraordinarily valuable. We work in a creative field and sure, we can sit at a keyboard and write a book. But, without training and guidance, we can make our path to successful publishing far longer than it might have been with outside expert help. We open ourselves to learning by trial and error, which can cost time, money and be a real ego beating.

I joke that I should have called my social media book, I Did All The Dumb Stuff So You Don’t Have To. I did everything wrong. I believed because I was “smart”, I didn’t need help.

Yeah.

When it came to writing a novel, I spent four years trying to fix a train wreck. With social media, I spent two years undoing building a brand under a cutesy moniker. When it came to blogging, I blogged for a year and a half before I…

Call me superficial but I will bring books home based solely on the first sentence. It’s true, the story could get better after an opening as mundane as, She didn’t like the gluten-free pasta, but I like to be wowed right away. Okay, that’s not totally true. I am a patient reader and will give the book at least a page or two. Just for diversion, here are some first sentences that compelled me to carry home a heavier bag.

Later, she would ask herself how she could possibly have missed all the danger signals emanating from the man. –Stormy Challenge by Jayne Ann Krentz

Hello, it’s THE Jayne Ann Krentz. And haven’t we all been there–ignored a million red flags and run headlong into trouble? Maybe Mr. Trouble will work out this time!

I still can’t believe Myra Jean, the trailer park psychic, was right about everything! –Wedding…

Just recently my critique partners returned a couple of chapters I’d submitted of my latest WIP with “POV?” marked prominently throughout.

[Deep and profound sigh] We all know what point of view is—that’s the angle or the character who’s telling about or seeing the scene. Usually I like to flatter myself that POV is something I have a handle on, more or less—as much as I have a handle on anything. But sure enough, this time I’d “head hopped” all over the place. It’s beautiful in my head. In their heads, not so much.

As a social media expert, I run into all kinds of strange behavior and tips that make me scratch my head. Social media is social, meaning it’s supposed to be an extension of how we might interact with other human beings in person. Today’s post (obviously) is tongue-and-cheek, but humor can be the best teacher even if we’ve oopsed.

Tip #1—Only Use Automation

Writing a 140 characters is SUPER time-consuming. We aren’t Jack London. Besides, people LOVE talking to robots. I know when I feel lonely, I call AT&T because I know a human being will NEVER answer…EVER. Humans can be so boring and don’t offer us the option of hitting 6 if we want to hear everything they just said all over again. 

Real Life Application: Program cell phones to call friends and family at regular intervals to ask for money. They’d dig that.

Tip #2—Make Sure All Preprogrammed…

We’ve been talking a lot about the new publishing paradigm and all the options writers have. Being the WANA Mama, I feel it’s my duty to feed you guys the grow-up stuff. So, if you want a fluffy kitten hug? This is the wrong place. There are plenty of people who offer a magic algorithm or promotion package or SEO package “guaranteed” to launch a writer to fame and fortune. Yet, these can be misleading and take our focus away from activities that have a better chance of translating into long-term success.

Hoo-Doo Voo-Doo for Sale

What many of you might not know is I sometimes help small businesses. I recently started doing some work for my brother’s company. Why did I step in? Because he (like many others) paid thousands of dollars for a Mega-PR-Expert…who then did NOTHING.

My brother hired this well-known PR expert to create his social…

On Wednesday, we talked about all the types of publishing paths and how the new paradigm is becoming increasingly flexible and author-friendly. There is no “right path” only a path that is right for you, which we will talk about in a moment.

To keep up with all the changes in The Digital Age, we created WANACon, which is a virtual conference and as close to the real thing one can get without a holo-deck. No travel, no hotel, from home, and all recordings are included so you can fit a writing conference to your schedule no matter where in the world you happen to live. Also you can listen to anything you miss or might need to revisit. Talk to agents, editors and professionals without ever stepping outside.

Over 20 presentations on craft, social media, platform-building, web design, cover design, and agents…delivered straight to YOU. No matter which publishing…

If you’ve been following Eight Ladies recently, you’ll know I’m finally finished my first draft…it’s time to revise and polish.

This is the first time I’ve done revision. On my first book.

Translation: I’ve never done this before.

(Embarrassing admission: I’m afraid of the magnitude of changes I have to make, so I’ve been procrastinating.)

When I’m faced with something I’m not sure how to tackle, or if the “something” is huge and intimidating, I procrastinate. For instance, I’ve spent a lot of time lately working on my timeline (necessary, but not required…I have plenty of scenes that I need to write that are not really timeline-dependent), I’m creating a “bible” of notes, observations, characters, settings, facts, etc. about Napoleon and the Regency to support my story (could definitely do this later), I’ve been jotting notes for the next book (um, hello? Finish the first one!), and of course I’ve…

“I’m publishing posts every day, but where are my readers?”

While there’s no exact science to successfully building a readership, you have a number of built-in tools on WordPress.com to share your work with the world. Our advice? Hook up your various social accounts to WordPress.com and let us do the rest. We want to emphasize, especially to our newest users, that no blog is an island. Clicking Publish is just the first step, and sharing your work across the internet is key to expanding your audience.

What is Publicize?

With Publicize, you can automatically push out your new posts to social networks: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Path.

Connecting to your accounts is easy, and you can select which ones to link to your WordPress.com account. To get started, head over to Settings → Sharing. At the top of the page, you’ll see the options pictured…

We writers live in interesting times. The same digital tsunami that toppled Tower Records and collapsed Kodak has now consumed the world of publishing. The world we knew five years ago is gone. Traditional is reinventing, indie publishers are growing and self-publishing now can be a viable part of any author’s long-term career plan. This is one of the main reasons WANA has never taken sides and embraces publishing as a whole.

Granted, some authors may find a singular path that fits all their needs, but a majority of us will mix it up and venture on a hybrid path. Traditional houses are encouraging writers to self-publish prequels, short stories, or even stories involving supporting characters to keep the fan fires burning between books.

Indie houses are helping established authors breathe new life into backlists and new authors get a start under the care of professionals. Self-publishing is a fantastic…