Peggy Jaeger's Blog - Posts Tagged "twitter"
Lessons I’ve learned about being a published author.
I found out my first book, SKATER’S WALTZ, had been contracted for publication while I was attending the 2014 RWA conference in San Antonio, TX. Shocked, thrilled, and terrified, I thought the hard part – finding someone willing to publish my novel – was over.
Yeah, not so much.
Lesson one: it’s not over when you type THE END. It’s just the beginning…
After I signed on the dotted line, the real work began. I’d been published for years in literary fiction anthologies and in non-fiction magazines and periodicals. The literary magazines accepted the work as is, the non-fiction articles were sometimes reworked and refined by editors to allow for spacing considerations. My point is that it was someone else’s job to get the piece publishing presentable.
Not anymore. Welcome to the world of book fiction.
Lesson two : the hard work starts after you contract for publication…
My first book went through 3 rounds of edits between my editor and myself before it was sent to galleys for actual publication. And even after it went out to the copy editor, there were still some changes that needed to be made. I was ready to rip my hair out at one point. All I kept thinking as more and more edit suggestions came my way was, “Why the heck did they want this if it needs so much work??”
Lesson three: Editors are the most underrated and undervalued people on the publishing food chain…
All editors are good at their job – they have to be. But the ones who are truly great make a good book even better. They find the little twists and turns of a phrase, or a word change, or a sentence deletion that is key to making the reader want to read more.
My editor is one of the great ones.
Lesson four: you should have taken marketing classes in college…
I will admit this freely – I was unbelievably naïve when I signed that first contract. I thought the publisher was going to do all the marketing necessary to promote my book, get it on a best-seller list, and generally skyrocket me to fame.
Yeah, AGAIN, not so much!
The minute your book is contracted and the editing begins, you need to start promoting it. Often and everywhere. FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, your website, blog tours, newspaper press releases, your Aunt Maimie’s bridge club. Anywhere, everywhere, and as often as you can, so that when you finally have a release date, the buzz about the book will have started, grown to fever pitch and resulted in so many pre-orders your head spins.
Lesson five: before the first book hits the shelves you’d better be working on, or done with, book #2…
As a writer you can never – NEVER – rest on your laurels. It is a true axiom of publishing: you are only as good as your next book. So while you are doing all that dreaded marketing, take time each day and write…write…write. I had book two on my editor’s desk before book one was released. Same for book 3. Keep ‘em coming.
Lesson six: you need to take time to breathe and enjoy…
Yes, I was overwhelmed, naïve, frustrated and generally anxious with the release of my first book. But I was also thrilled at having my dream – finally – come true. It was a long road for me to book publication. I was 54 years old when the first one came out, a time when most people are starting to look toward the end of their working life. Not me. Mine was just beginning and I wanted to savor every moment of how it felt to hold my first book in my hands; see my name in print on the cover of a book I’d penned; sign my first autograph on a copy someone had actually paid cash-money for! Don’t let anything ever take away or overwhelm you from that sense of wonderful, soul-soaring achievement you’ve accomplished.
My fourth book, THE VOICES OF ANGELS was released on March 11. I didn’t feel as overwhelmed this time because I knew the basics. Promotion and marketing were all lined up and ready to go, I pre-ordered by print copies so I had them ready, and a book signing was waiting for me.
But the anticipation, the soul-empowering elation of having a book actually published was as spine tingling and heart-stopping as with that first one. And I think it will continue to be that way each and every time.
THE VOICES OF ANGELS
Love is the last thing Carly Lennox is looking for when she sets out on her new book tour. The independent, widowed author is content with a life spent writing and in raising her daughter. When newscaster Mike Woodard suggests they work on a television magazine profile based on her book, Carly’s thrilled, but guarded. His obvious desire to turn their relationship into something other than just a working one is more than she bargained for.
Mike Woodard is ambitious, and not only in his chosen profession. He wants Carly, maybe more than he’s ever wanted anything or anyone else. As he tells her, he’s a patient man. But the more they’re together, Mike realizes it isn’t simply desire beating within him. Carly Lennox is the missing piece in his life. Getting her to accept it-and him-may just be the toughest assignment he’s ever taken on.
Buy Links: Amazon /// TWRP /// Kobo /// Nook
If you need to find me, you can: Tweet Me// Read Me// Visit Me// Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me//
Yeah, not so much.
Lesson one: it’s not over when you type THE END. It’s just the beginning…
After I signed on the dotted line, the real work began. I’d been published for years in literary fiction anthologies and in non-fiction magazines and periodicals. The literary magazines accepted the work as is, the non-fiction articles were sometimes reworked and refined by editors to allow for spacing considerations. My point is that it was someone else’s job to get the piece publishing presentable.
Not anymore. Welcome to the world of book fiction.
Lesson two : the hard work starts after you contract for publication…
My first book went through 3 rounds of edits between my editor and myself before it was sent to galleys for actual publication. And even after it went out to the copy editor, there were still some changes that needed to be made. I was ready to rip my hair out at one point. All I kept thinking as more and more edit suggestions came my way was, “Why the heck did they want this if it needs so much work??”
Lesson three: Editors are the most underrated and undervalued people on the publishing food chain…
All editors are good at their job – they have to be. But the ones who are truly great make a good book even better. They find the little twists and turns of a phrase, or a word change, or a sentence deletion that is key to making the reader want to read more.
My editor is one of the great ones.
Lesson four: you should have taken marketing classes in college…
I will admit this freely – I was unbelievably naïve when I signed that first contract. I thought the publisher was going to do all the marketing necessary to promote my book, get it on a best-seller list, and generally skyrocket me to fame.
Yeah, AGAIN, not so much!
The minute your book is contracted and the editing begins, you need to start promoting it. Often and everywhere. FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, your website, blog tours, newspaper press releases, your Aunt Maimie’s bridge club. Anywhere, everywhere, and as often as you can, so that when you finally have a release date, the buzz about the book will have started, grown to fever pitch and resulted in so many pre-orders your head spins.
Lesson five: before the first book hits the shelves you’d better be working on, or done with, book #2…
As a writer you can never – NEVER – rest on your laurels. It is a true axiom of publishing: you are only as good as your next book. So while you are doing all that dreaded marketing, take time each day and write…write…write. I had book two on my editor’s desk before book one was released. Same for book 3. Keep ‘em coming.
Lesson six: you need to take time to breathe and enjoy…
Yes, I was overwhelmed, naïve, frustrated and generally anxious with the release of my first book. But I was also thrilled at having my dream – finally – come true. It was a long road for me to book publication. I was 54 years old when the first one came out, a time when most people are starting to look toward the end of their working life. Not me. Mine was just beginning and I wanted to savor every moment of how it felt to hold my first book in my hands; see my name in print on the cover of a book I’d penned; sign my first autograph on a copy someone had actually paid cash-money for! Don’t let anything ever take away or overwhelm you from that sense of wonderful, soul-soaring achievement you’ve accomplished.
My fourth book, THE VOICES OF ANGELS was released on March 11. I didn’t feel as overwhelmed this time because I knew the basics. Promotion and marketing were all lined up and ready to go, I pre-ordered by print copies so I had them ready, and a book signing was waiting for me.
But the anticipation, the soul-empowering elation of having a book actually published was as spine tingling and heart-stopping as with that first one. And I think it will continue to be that way each and every time.
THE VOICES OF ANGELS
Love is the last thing Carly Lennox is looking for when she sets out on her new book tour. The independent, widowed author is content with a life spent writing and in raising her daughter. When newscaster Mike Woodard suggests they work on a television magazine profile based on her book, Carly’s thrilled, but guarded. His obvious desire to turn their relationship into something other than just a working one is more than she bargained for.
Mike Woodard is ambitious, and not only in his chosen profession. He wants Carly, maybe more than he’s ever wanted anything or anyone else. As he tells her, he’s a patient man. But the more they’re together, Mike realizes it isn’t simply desire beating within him. Carly Lennox is the missing piece in his life. Getting her to accept it-and him-may just be the toughest assignment he’s ever taken on.
Buy Links: Amazon /// TWRP /// Kobo /// Nook
If you need to find me, you can: Tweet Me// Read Me// Visit Me// Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me//
Social Media, Rules....
to see images, click on to https://peggyjaeger.com/2016/08/25/so...
And I don’t mean it like “rules for behavior.” No, I mean social media RULES the universe these days.
Let me ‘splain it you, Lucy…..
A little over a year ago I was an unknown, about-to-be-first-time-published author who had 15 Twitter followers on a good day. They were all friends and family who knew me and thought it was cute we were Tweeting one another inane things. My publisher recommended I increase my online presence to find more new readers for my books and to help promote those books through the free marketing Twitter encompasses with every tweet you send. I said, “okay” because, really, what was I going to say, NO? They were the experts. I was just a little unknown romance writer looking- hoping-praying- someone ( anyone) would buy a book from me.
I asked my daughter – the techy maven – how to go about finding new followers and she gave me a sage bit of advice. In order to get more followers, you have to…wait for it.…follow more people.
social-media1
Really? Could it be that easy?
Well, I’m here to tell you that, yes, it is that easy.
I found people who liked the same things I did: writers, romance readers and writers, and book lovers, and started following them, retweeting posts I liked, and interacting with complete strangers. In one month I increased my followers from 15 to 150.
When my book came out, I started tweeting about it, using those infamous and oh-so-beneficial-hashtags, and my following soared to 300.
With the next book, I did the same thing, finding trending hashtags that compared to what I was sharing and hastag-jumped onto those tweets. This brought me even more followers. At one point I was tweeting all my new followers every time I got one, thanking them for joining and following me. This got old pretty quickly when I spent almost an hour of each day doing it, so I stopped. I thought I might lose some followers by not pointing them out, and I did lose a few. But in the world of twitter math, for every 2-3 followers I lost, 10 more came on board. Today, I woke up to 811 followers.
Folks, I don’t even know 811 people!!!
social-media2
Now that I’m with a new publisher, I’ll be following more authors, and in turn, will increase my own followers even more. You can take everything I just wrote and apply it to Facebook, Google, and Pinterest as well. The more social media sights you troll on, the more “people” you will “meet.”
So, this is what I mean when I say Social Media rules. Because it does. Really. Go ahead and Tweet this and you’ll see what I mean!
And if you want to find me on Social Media, here’s where I am…ALL THE TIME!!! le Sigh!
Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me// Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me//
And I don’t mean it like “rules for behavior.” No, I mean social media RULES the universe these days.
Let me ‘splain it you, Lucy…..
A little over a year ago I was an unknown, about-to-be-first-time-published author who had 15 Twitter followers on a good day. They were all friends and family who knew me and thought it was cute we were Tweeting one another inane things. My publisher recommended I increase my online presence to find more new readers for my books and to help promote those books through the free marketing Twitter encompasses with every tweet you send. I said, “okay” because, really, what was I going to say, NO? They were the experts. I was just a little unknown romance writer looking- hoping-praying- someone ( anyone) would buy a book from me.
I asked my daughter – the techy maven – how to go about finding new followers and she gave me a sage bit of advice. In order to get more followers, you have to…wait for it.…follow more people.
social-media1
Really? Could it be that easy?
Well, I’m here to tell you that, yes, it is that easy.
I found people who liked the same things I did: writers, romance readers and writers, and book lovers, and started following them, retweeting posts I liked, and interacting with complete strangers. In one month I increased my followers from 15 to 150.
When my book came out, I started tweeting about it, using those infamous and oh-so-beneficial-hashtags, and my following soared to 300.
With the next book, I did the same thing, finding trending hashtags that compared to what I was sharing and hastag-jumped onto those tweets. This brought me even more followers. At one point I was tweeting all my new followers every time I got one, thanking them for joining and following me. This got old pretty quickly when I spent almost an hour of each day doing it, so I stopped. I thought I might lose some followers by not pointing them out, and I did lose a few. But in the world of twitter math, for every 2-3 followers I lost, 10 more came on board. Today, I woke up to 811 followers.
Folks, I don’t even know 811 people!!!
social-media2
Now that I’m with a new publisher, I’ll be following more authors, and in turn, will increase my own followers even more. You can take everything I just wrote and apply it to Facebook, Google, and Pinterest as well. The more social media sights you troll on, the more “people” you will “meet.”
So, this is what I mean when I say Social Media rules. Because it does. Really. Go ahead and Tweet this and you’ll see what I mean!
And if you want to find me on Social Media, here’s where I am…ALL THE TIME!!! le Sigh!
Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me// Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me//
Where I hangout when I want to be #social; #MFRWauthors
Until I became a professional writer ( and by that I mean, one who writes full time and actually gets paid! Yippie!) the biggest social media presence I had was on Facebook, and then it was only because my daughter was away at college and on it, and I wanted to ensure she was okay. And of course by okay I mean that I stalked her posts! She knows this so I’m not worried she’ll be mad at me.
But when my first book was contracted, the publisher suggested – heavily and often! – that all their authors needed to have a very visible social media presence to garner sales and book promo, since they did relatively little in the way of book promotion. It was all on my back. If I wanted my books to sell, I had to get the word out there, so I became a social media junkie.
I joined Twitter, Goodreads, Tumblr, Google+, LInkedIn, and of course I made my own Facebook author page in addition to my personal page I use for friends and family. In addition to Instagram and Snapchat. Oh, and how could I forget? My own website that I use for announcements and blogging 4-5 times per week.
And with the arrival of Tribber, well, I’m there, too.
Keeping these sites updated takes a lot of time… a lot of time. Let’s read that again so you get it: A LOT OF TIME.
Time I could spending, well, writing!
One of these days I’m going to be rich and successful enough to hire a publicist and let her take care of all the updating. Ahhh….. to dream.
Here’s where you can find me most of the time when I should be writing books and not updating you on my life:
Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triberr
and since this is week 15 of the #MFRWauthors 52 week blog challenge, click on some of the names below and see how they’re faring with all this social media stuff.
1.
My Social Media Meeting Places
2.
Out and About – Cailin Briste
3.
Hanging Out On Social Media–Sara Walter Ellwood
4.
Robin Michaela: Social Media
5.
Maureen Bonatch – Why I Love Facebook & Other Cyberspace Hangouts
6.
Ellie Mack – My Social Media Hangouts
7.
Words and Pictures (Shari Elder)
8.
Linda McLaughlin/Lyndi Lamont
9.
Cathy Brockman – A Mix-up
10.
Alina K Field – My Hangouts
11.
Peggy Jaeger – Where I hang out when I want to be social
12.
Meka James – Come Find Me
13.
Kenzie Michaels – Kenzie’s Place
14.
Sherry Lewis – Where I hang out online
15.
Helen Henderson – Where Do You Hangout?
But when my first book was contracted, the publisher suggested – heavily and often! – that all their authors needed to have a very visible social media presence to garner sales and book promo, since they did relatively little in the way of book promotion. It was all on my back. If I wanted my books to sell, I had to get the word out there, so I became a social media junkie.
I joined Twitter, Goodreads, Tumblr, Google+, LInkedIn, and of course I made my own Facebook author page in addition to my personal page I use for friends and family. In addition to Instagram and Snapchat. Oh, and how could I forget? My own website that I use for announcements and blogging 4-5 times per week.
And with the arrival of Tribber, well, I’m there, too.
Keeping these sites updated takes a lot of time… a lot of time. Let’s read that again so you get it: A LOT OF TIME.
Time I could spending, well, writing!
One of these days I’m going to be rich and successful enough to hire a publicist and let her take care of all the updating. Ahhh….. to dream.
Here’s where you can find me most of the time when I should be writing books and not updating you on my life:
Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triberr
and since this is week 15 of the #MFRWauthors 52 week blog challenge, click on some of the names below and see how they’re faring with all this social media stuff.
1.
My Social Media Meeting Places
2.
Out and About – Cailin Briste
3.
Hanging Out On Social Media–Sara Walter Ellwood
4.
Robin Michaela: Social Media
5.
Maureen Bonatch – Why I Love Facebook & Other Cyberspace Hangouts
6.
Ellie Mack – My Social Media Hangouts
7.
Words and Pictures (Shari Elder)
8.
Linda McLaughlin/Lyndi Lamont
9.
Cathy Brockman – A Mix-up
10.
Alina K Field – My Hangouts
11.
Peggy Jaeger – Where I hang out when I want to be social
12.
Meka James – Come Find Me
13.
Kenzie Michaels – Kenzie’s Place
14.
Sherry Lewis – Where I hang out online
15.
Helen Henderson – Where Do You Hangout?
