Beth Greenslade's Blog, page 45

The Do’s And Don’ts Of Writing A Self-Help Book

If you are considering writing a self-help book you need to make sure you do your research and avoid the common pitfalls that could make all the difference when it comes to the success of your book.

So, to get you started, here are some of the do’s and don’t of writing a self-help book:

Do be specific

Make sure that your book has a specific piece of teaching or advice at its core. You need to target readers who are looking for advice on personal improvement. But you also need to acknowledge there are many different areas such as goal attainment, growing confidence, and overcoming fears and anxieties. The more specific you get, the easier it will be to market to your target audience. 

Don’t just write a general account of how to be a better person. This will be too vague and won’t appeal to any one specifically.

Do back up your theories and show readers your credentials

The most successful self-help books are evidence-based. They aren’t just some grand theories plucked from thin air or the random thought processes of one person. They are based on research and scientific evidence. They are proven to work. So if you want people to take you seriously make sure that you can demonstrate to them why you are the person that has the knowledge they need and how you can prove that your methods are effective. 

Don’t make it all about you. This isn’t about you overcoming your personal struggles, this needs to be something more universal than that. 

Do ensure you have a good structure in place before you start

Planning your self-help book is hugely important. Make sure that before you start to write that you have mapped out your structure and that it follows an arc and has different sections to provide clarity and guidance throughout. The reader should feel as though they progressing as they work their way through your book, so you need to start by identifying the problems they have then planning how to overcome them. From here it's all about implementing that plan then addressing how to stay focused and motivated, and then what kind of resolution can be expected when they come to the end. 

Don’t jump from notion to notion or idea to idea. Your book still needs to be readable and to flow, so make sure you take the time to plan

Do make sure your advice is clear and actionable

Readers like to see that there is an obvious game plan from the outset. Make sure you give them advice that they can follow easily so as not to confuse or disappoint your reader.

Don’t forget to show your reader what it is they need to do.

By following the above you can plan a truly useful self-help book that can help change people’s lives. Good luck!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post The Do’s And Don’ts Of Writing A Self-Help Book appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Advice For Writers Starting Their Second Book

Writing a book is one thing, but starting a second can feel even more daunting, overwhelming, and impossible. However, statistics show that writers who keep writing, those who produce their second and third novels are more likely to become successful than those who give up after their first one.

If you are lucky, talented, and hardworking enough to land a publishing deal you may well find that they sign you up to write another one straight away. This can be amazing, but of course, puts pressure on you to keep coming up with good ideas and have the follow-though to see them out. 

So what are some useful pieces of advice to take onboard when embarking on writing a second book? Let’s take a look.

You may need to work on more than one novel at once

If you have published your first book, you’ll no doubt be well versed in all the things you need to do to keep those sales coming in. Continually marketing your novel and keeping in touch with your fans and writing blogs and updating your website, and posting on social media sites is all part and parcel of being a successful author. But you need to make time to plan and write your second novel too. This is where to need to get good at multitasking and find the ability to switch between projects to ensure you are still nurturing your finished book while simultaneously creating your new one to ensure you keep moving forward. 

You’ll need to be comfortable with pressure and able to turn down the ‘noise’

Of course, you’ll want your first novel to be a success. But the pressure you can feel to make it so can become a hefty burdens o bear - one which saps your creativity and plays havoc with your motivation. If your publisher has contacted you to write a second book and you are trying hard to meet the deadline this can add to the pressure - so you need to learn how to handle it. You might worry that your second novel won’t measure up, you might feel like you aren’t dedicating enough time to your first, your head could be so full of questions and what if’s and criticisms and worries that you end up becoming massively unprotecting and paralyzed in fear of doing the wrong thing. To handle the pressure of writing a second book you need to get comfortable with it, learn to thrive on it, and also to learn how to switch off those inner critiques and outer demands and just focus on getting the job done. Tuning it all out can be difficult but with practice, you can learn how to do this and will become a much more prolific and productive writer because of it. 

You’ll need to become mega disciplined

If you thought writing your first novel required discipline get ready to ramp it up even more. Being organized, working out schedules, and aggressively protecting your writing time is so important if you want to complete a second book. Sometimes it might feel pretty miserable, other times you might feel powerful and on top of your game. Either way, you do need to try and carve out as much time as possible and make sure you are putting your writing as your top priority if you want to do well. 

You need to believe in yourself

Writers often struggle with self-doubt, and you may have thought once you completed your first book that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be the case and you might have to dig even deeper to find the strength, resilience, and faith that you can complete the goals you have set for yourself. You’ve got to believe in yourself. If you won’t, who will? Once you have this core of confidence, it will radiate from you, leave you feeling positive, excited, and ready to achieve anything.

These tips are essential to follow to succeed in writing a second book. So absorb them, remember them, hold them in your heart - and then nothing can stop you!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

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A Simple Guide To Book Writing

If we are being honest with ourselves, there are times when we sit down to write our book and we really can’t be bothered. Many times.

Writing can become a chore and when it does, it is really hard to keep feeling motivated. However, it is crucial that you push past these stages as this is when self-doubt and self-sabotage will start to creep into your consciousness and start trying to persuade you that writing your book is a pointless waste of your time, and you would be much better off giving up. Remember that writing a book is progressive and if you start from the right point and slowly develop your story you will stand a much better chance of success.

So what are some things you can do to try and avoid this decline into boredom, to keep feeling inspired and motivated to write? Here are some simple but useful tips:

Start with an outline

A book outline is a great place to start. Before you start writing you need to have a good idea of what your book will be about and who you are writing it for. If you have an overview of how your book will play out this is something you can always refer back to when your dedication is waning to remind yourself you have a solid idea behind your work. 

Use bullet points to begin fleshing out your idea

From your outline, you can start to create bullet points to examine your idea in more detail and think about where you might go from here. Once you have done that you will have more of a ‘map’ of your book and you can start dividing your story into chapters so you can start to see how your story will flow. 

Start to craft your sentences

From your bullet points, you can start to think about how you will write. Take each chapter and start to craft a skeleton of how it will pan out and then add some sentences. This will get you into the flow of writing creatively, help you to experiment with style, and find your writing voice. 

Flesh out your book

Now it’s time to really get meat on the bones of your book and write it from start to finish. When you write the first draft you need to try to free yourself from criticism and let the words flow. If you are too ‘in your head’ or feel like you have to make it perfect first time you will end up delaying the process and may find yourself losing confidence. 

Begin the editing process

When your first draft is written you can begin the editing process. This is often where writers falter as they worry what they’ve written is dreadful and find the idea of going back to try and make it better rather overwhelming. However, if you edit methodically and refuse to get stuck perfecting every sentence you can work through your book quickly and successfully. You may have to go through your story several times until you are happy with it, and get more precise, detailed, and eagle-eyed each time, but remember that a professional editor should always be used to poised and perfect your book anyway.

These are simple tips that anyone can follow to help you get through the book writing process. So now there is nothing left to do, but start!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post A Simple Guide To Book Writing appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Get To 1,000 Book Sales

Let’s face it, one of the biggest struggles that any author faces is trying to sell their book.

Writing it can be a challenge, the publishing process can be tricky, but there is nothing quite as disheartening as going to all that effort and seeing nothing come of it when you realize that no one is buying your book.

The truth is that most authors find marketing their book really difficult. They want to write, they don’t want to market. This can be the biggest problem and is the reason why so many self-published books fail.

What you need is a smart, well thought out and well-executed plan that is both detailed and methodical. It takes time, effort, and dedication (much like writing a novel does). Let’s look at some of the steps that you need to take to get from 0 sales to 1,000.

Step into your audiences shoes

While some readers might be very sympathetic to how hard it is to buy books, they still aren’t going to part with their hard-earned cash if they don’t want to read yours. Readers buy books for themselves, so you need to market for the good of your audience. What I mean by this is, make them want it. Get to know them. Figure out what makes them tick. Be persuasive. Step outside of your usual network and start listening to conversations, to questions, to desires. By bringing value to those who might be interested in your book you are going to capture their attention and hold their interest. If you genuinely feel as though you are providing value, it won’t feel like marketing, it will feel like you are doing something worthwhile. 

Share snippets of your book and what you’ve learned

While you are writing your book, share snippets of it, teasers to get people interested in it. If you learn anything interesting in the process of researching and writing then you should share this with your audience, get them excited, riveted, and fascinated. The more content you share, the more interesting things you have to say, the more people will become intrigued and become even more eager to get their hands on your book when it comes out. 

Make sure people can share your book easily

If people are excited about your book, they’ll happily tell others about it. However, if you don’t make that process easy for them they won’t bother. Make it super simple and obvious for readers to share your content, your news, and your book with others. You should be marketing your book from all possible avenues to all possible connections. Have links to buy your book on all your social sites, add CTA’s to all your marketing material and content. By giving clear direction on how to buy your book, you’ll make sure that anyone who is interested will do so. 

Nurture your relationships

if you work with influencers, you will have more success if you think about what they want first. Don’t just approach them blindly. Think about how you could be of value to them and present yourself to them by telling them of your value, your worth, and why their readers/viewers/listeners would enjoy hearing from you. Be creative, have a positive attitude, and be polite but persistent - this is the key to success.

By following these tips you can hope to start seeing these sales roll on in and will get to your first 1,000 sales before you know it!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

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Writer’s Advice On Academic Publishing and Pitfalls

When it comes to publishing advice, who better to look to than those that have been through the process a few times themselves?

Here is what some well-respected authors have to say about publishing your book, as well as some of the common publishing pitfalls to be aware of:

“If it’s a first book, don’t worry about the money; go for a prestigious university press.. Bear in mind that a successful first book with a good university press generates a lot of secondary income in terms of jobs, tenure, promotion and the like.” - Richard J. Evans

“Don’t be flattered by a publisher’s invitation for a first book. Remember that their aim is to make money, while you are doing this for love – and like anyone in love, you are desperately vulnerable to flattery. I’ve seen the effect of a publisher’s flattery override common sense. Speak to experienced colleagues before agreeing to anything.” - Tim Birkhead

“In my experience – in the arts and humanities – there are now many types of academic publisher. At one end are those that accept a wide range of proposals, but then do short runs in hardback and will print in paperback only if the book is successful. Some of these will leave distribution entirely up to you. In the middle are more reputable companies that put greater effort in and print more copies initially but still pass on as many costs as possible. They are also quite risk-averse and show a definite preference for textbooks (because of the likely sales). At the other end are well-known publishers with a strong academic and international reputation. Their editors act as much tougher ‘gatekeepers’. If you are new to academic publishing, simply gaining good experience of the whole process will be seen as less impressive in the research excellence framework than working with one of the more prestigious publishers.” - Jos Boys

“In general, the more peer review that your manuscript is subject to, the better it will be. You should immediately be suspicious of a publisher with no peer review process. The better presses all engage in lengthy peer review. Despite what REF panel members are contractually obliged to say, where you publish matters. It matters to your community and also to interview and promotion committees. Everyone must submit themselves to others’ withering gaze at some point. It can be painful at times but it makes for a better book.” - Martin McQuillan

“Do your homework. Look at publishers’ lists to see whether your proposal fits with their priorities. A fundamental mistake made by prospective authors is to look first at the status of the publisher rather than at what they actually publish. Do not pay to publish your work. If you are asked for money at the start, you can be sure that the in-house editing will be rubbish, the copy-editing will be left to you, and the distribution will be non-existent.” - Susan Bassnett

“The best editors and publishers are those that trust you and don’t change the ground rules after you have agreed a contract and modus operandi. Some will do anything to get you to do the book/monograph but then constantly interfere, demanding unnecessary minor changes and stopping the flow. Make sure you like and trust the editor as a person, that he or she seems a supportive rather than ‘command and control’ type, and that you clearly define the psychological contract between the two of you before signing anything (modes of working together, mutual expectations and so on). Unfortunately, there is a high turnover of editors in publishing, and it is likely that you may lose your editor during the gestation period of your book. It is important that you meet face to face, with any replacement to make sure that you have the same expectations and that you can work with them. Sometimes there is only one person at a publisher responsible for editing books in your field, and you will be lumbered with him or her – if this happens, you should let him or her know about any ground rules that you and the previous editor had established.” - Cary Cooper

“I experienced in-house copy-editing with my first book, and it was excellent. Indeed, awe-inspiring. Old-school copy-editors at Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press were important figures in the academy: they genuinely improved books and saved authors from embarrassing errors of fact and travesties of style. Some were first-class scholars in their own right. In Italy, Sebastiano Timpanaro, one of the most important Latinists of the 20th century, worked as a copy-editor rather than as an academic. Since my first book, copy-editing has been outsourced and has completely changed in character. In my experience, it is now a perfunctory affair at best and introduces several errors at worst.” - Barbara Graziosi

“The level of control you retain will depend on your contract, so read it carefully. You need to ensure that you have the final say on the jacket illustration. Sometimes designers make crass errors (a colleague writing a book on Prussia sent back the proposed design because the designers had reversed the ‘R’ in the title – ‘Well it’s Russian, innit?’). For a first book, you’ll have to get permissions yourself. You have no control over format but look carefully at the small print for e-book royalties; in general, there’s always a bit of leeway to increase the royalty rates in the contract. Insist on a bibliography and index. Footnotes at the bottom of the page are a bonus. If you’re writing a commercial book, you won’t be able to stop them from being put at the end. Check the books produced by publishers in your field; average prices charged even by university presses vary widely, so go for the publisher whose prices are lowest (£50 is definitely too high!).” - Richard J. Evans

“Forget about an advance for a first book unless it’s with a commercial publisher such as Penguin, Bloomsbury or Little, Brown. Just think of the secondary income it can generate and benefits to your academic career.” - Richard J. Evans

“There are several high spots in the process: one is sending the manuscript off; another (and better) is getting the proofs; better still is getting the book itself. Having the book physically in your hands, turning the pages and remembering the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it, is a moment of euphoria…and, of course, getting good reviews is great, too.” - Tim Birkhead

Publishing your book can be a stressful time. Use these excellent pieces of advice to guide you, and you’ll feel more confident and assured in your work and the publishing process in general. Good luck!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

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Why It’s Pointless Polishing Your First Draft

You might think it’s a good idea to edit as you go or perfect your chapter before moving onto the next one. However, polishing your first draft can be a pretty fruitless exercise. Here’s why:

Your first draft will change so much

If your book is any good, the truth of the matter is that your first draft is going to look very little like your finished draft. So why bother making an effort to edit it in detail now, when the reality is that the section you are editing could well be one that you completely change or be eliminated from your story before the final draft? Accept that a first and even second and third draft is about structuring your account, developing your characters, and understanding how to ensure your plot is fast-paced and riveting. Only when you’ve got these down should you bother looking at how you can refine your writing and polish your text, and this should be much further down the line than a first draft. 

You’ll waste your time and could lose motivation

Trying to isolate a single section of your story and make it shine without being able to do this in context with the rest of the story is a pretty wasteful exercise. It would be best if you were sure of your plot and the journey each character takes before you should attempt to perfect anything. Do yourself a favor and stop wasting your time by attempting to polish your first drafts. You could risk spending so long frustratedly tinkering with it that you lose motivation to complete the rest of the book. 

You’ll never get it the way you want it to be

It can be tricky to ignore elements of your book that you suddenly realize are flawed or not to flow as they should. However, if this is your first draft, it makes sense to wait until you have the whole book written and then rewritten before you even think about polishing the writing. You’ll end up tinkering away again and again at those first few chapters, never quite getting them perfect, and this could spell disaster for the future of your book. By focusing on creating that imperfect first, second, and even third draft finished, you’ll then be able to polish and refine your writing knowing that you have a really solid story to work with, and that could make all the difference when it comes to the success of your novel!

From you above, you can see why you need to wait before you start to edit your novel in detail. Early chapters or scenes may well become totally different as you realize what you need to do to ensure your story unfolds the way you want it. Setting time aside to check your language or sentence structure will only delay your writing process. 

There is no doubt that polishing and editing are necessary. Getting your novel polished will draw upon many of your writer’s skills and creative thinking. But editing and polishing should only be done once you have written multiple drafts and undertaken significant rewriting and reshaping of your work. So make sure you are patient and willing to skip the polish until this point so you don’t waste your time and give your book the best chance of turning into something you can be proud of. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

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How To Use The Rhetoric In Your Writing

Rhetorical devices are commonly used in sales pitches, by politicians, and in stories. They are a device to persuade someone. With politicians, it might be persuading someone to vote. With sales pitches, you are persuading someone to buy. With readers, you are persuading them to keep on reading.

Here are some different types of rhetorical devices and how they can be used in your work.

The Ancient Greeks were the first to identify and label the rhetoric. They split it into different categories, to serrate how they were designed to appeal to different cohorts of people:

Logos — appeals to logic and reason. Here it would be the use of facts and statements that would persuade someone to take action.

Ethos -appeals to ethics. Here it would be by appealing to someone's morality, their sense of what is right.

Karios -appeals to time. Here is it by focusing on a particular time and using what is going on in this time to convince someone to take action or be persuaded of a specific belief.

Pathos —appeals to a person's emotion — this includes encouraging sympathy, empathy, or even anger to motivate them.

From this, there is a whole realm of different devices within these categories. Let's take a look at some of them and how they might be used effectively when writing a novel.

ANACOLUTHON

Challenging a person's assumptions is a fantastic way to get them thinking and keep them interested, and this is what anacoluthon does.

APOSIOPESIS

Is where a writer might leave readers guessing or attempting to fill in the blanks by not finishing a sentence or train of thought. Don't overuse this one; otherwise, you make your readers work hard, but leaving them wondering what would come next can heighten anticipation and intrigue. 

ASTERISMOS

This rhetorical device is about beginning a phrase with an attention-grabbing word or exclamation point. The only purpose is to make readers sit up and pay attention, but it can be quite useful if not overused. 

ANADIPLOSIS

This is a way of convincing readers of some kind of logic by repeating the same word at the start of a new sentence that made the last work of the precessing one. An example from Star Wars would be:

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

ZEUGMA

This device makes readers pay better attention as it is where the writer would create a list of items or words that wouldn't usually go together. This list follows a word or phrase that could be applied to each item on it but resulting in different meanings. For example, in Dicken's Pickwick Papers:

He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.

The above examples are just a few examples of the art of rhetoric and how it can be used to capture the attention of your readers. Doing so will make your work more captivating, innovative, and enticing, so practice using the rhetoric, and your writing will improve because of it. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post How To Use The Rhetoric In Your Writing appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Write Beautiful Descriptions

Describing the world in your story is so important. Beautiful, vivid, compelling descriptions create a sense of place and let the reader in. The way you describe the setting will allow your reader to visualize the world in their mind's eye and also fully immerse themselves in it. In short, getting your descriptions right is pretty important.

So how do you find the perfect words to describe your setting to ensure that you paint a vivid image, while also convincing your reader that this world is real and tangible? Here are some useful tips.

Don't delay

Your reader needs to be able to imagine where your characters are from the outset. So don't wait to describe the place and the world and what they can see around them. You need to start early. A common mistake is to launch excitedly into a scene without grounding the reader first. You need to add descriptive material from the outset, otherwise, the scene will feel placeless, and this will put readers off, even if you do add in some detail later.

Get specific

Writing detailed descriptions is all about being careful with your language and choosing specific words and phrases that help to conjure up images for your reader. If you are vague or imprecise, it will be difficult for readers to do this. Take the opening of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, for example. 

'Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs.'

He chooses super precise descriptions, he gives his readers all the help they need to step into his world and believe that they are there in it too. Don't be generic; instead focus on exactly what you are trying to capture and find those precise words that work to do just that. 

Be selective

Don't confuse being precise with describing everything you see. While it can be very tempting to share absolutely everything going on in the surrounding areas, this will quickly become overwhelming, if not boring, for your reader. Select arresting and necessary details to create a sense of place. Remember, you are trying to evoke a particular atmosphere, not overload your reader with information. 

Use the senses

Remember, we have lots of different senses, and we are using them all the time. Make sure that your characters do the same. So don't just describe what they see; explain what they feel, taste, and smell as well. This will create a much richer and more lifelike picture for your reader to absorb. 

The following tips can help ensure that you create beautiful and exciting descriptions that work hard to satisfy your reader and allow them to get to know the world in which your characters reside. Without this, it will be like two actors talking in an empty white room. So make sure you pay attention to your descriptions as you write; your readers will thank you for it. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

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How To Create A Character Your Reader Will Love To Hate

Creating a villain that hasn't been done to death is more challenging than you might thing. Lots of villains end up seeming carbon copies on one another. Without considering how to make your villain genuinely unique, you could well end up putting your readers off as your villain is too run-of-the-mill or just another stereotype that doesn't keep them gripped in the way you'd hoped.

So how do you go about writing a villain that will interest readers and get agents and publishers sitting up and paying attention to your submission?

Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

Create a genuine antagonist. 

An antagonist is a character who continuously gets in the way of your protagonist's end goal. However, an antagonist doesn't necessarily have to be evil; they don't even need to be aware that they cause so many problems and obstacles. What is important is that this character acts in perfect parallel to your hero. So the character arcs curve oppositely. If your hero suffers a blow or setback, your villain suffers a victory or progression. When your protagonist moves forward and has a stroke of luck, the opposite will be true for the protagonist. This makes for an interesting character because you end up rooting for them sometimes. They have human qualities and fates, and if their circumstances had changed, they could have ended up being the hero themselves. Give them particular charms. Give them admirable attributes such as wit, intelligence, passion, and so on. But simultaneously make sure that instead of overcoming their weaknesses or learning from them (as your hero would do), they are instead overwhelmed by them, and ultimately that will be their downfall.

Go for OTT insanity

Another excellent villain type is one who is just totally insane. Their motives are bonkers and dramatic and ill-placed; they are compulsive, impulsive, obsessive, and maniacal. The unpredictability of characters like these and their creative ways of exuding their wickedness make them irresistible to readers and will keep them turning those pages. 

Create empathy for the villain

Some villains are so devious, vicious, and exciting we can't help but love them. These types can become the stars of your novel. However, another route to go down is to create a villain who we can't help but feel sorry for. Give them motivations that readers will understand. Put them in circumstances that make their actions somewhat justifiable. Have them change and grow at the end of the novel, so they transform into something more likable by the time the story concludes.

Remember, it's all too easy to focus on your protagonist that we sometimes don't consider our villain well enough. We spend so much time getting to know our fictional hero and understanding what makes them tick. The same should be true for our villains - get inside their heads, and learn what drives him to act the way he does.

By following the tips above, you'll feel assured that you have created a truly memorable bad guy - one that your readers will undoubtedly love to hate.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

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Social Media Tips For Authors

When it comes to successful social media, many authors are at a loss. We just want to write our stories and for people to enjoy them as much as we do, and the thought of self-promotion via social media platforms is not so appealing.

However, writers need readers, and if you are serious about doing everything within your power to find people who will become fans of your work, you need to use all the options available to you.

There is no denying that social media platforms are extremely powerful, and if used in the right way, can help build up an army of loyal readers who will help to promote your work and will be eager to purchase your next novel.

So what are some social media tips that every author should take on board? 

Don’t make sales your main goal

Social media is all about communication and community. If you think you can just keep boasting about how you’ve written a great book and everyone should read it, you won’t get very far. You need to make connections, provide valuable content and insights, make friends, and build your social media following slowly but surely. Make an effort to get involved in the writing community, talk to your fellow writers, reach out to booksellers and librarians. Be friendly, helpful, social. Your aim is to get people to like you and engage with you, not to sell your book. 

Follow the 80/20 rule

When posting content via your social media platforms, make sure that 80% of what you put out there is not about you, and only 20% focuses on your work and what you are doing next. Think about being at a party and ending up sitting next to that one person who never asks any questions but only talks about themselves - it’s not endearing or exciting, is it? But a person who listens, who asks questions, who provides insightful comments or makes you laugh - they are a person you want to get to know better, right?

Use scheduling to your advantage

We understand that even if you do start to enjoy using social media, you still would prefer to spend most of your time writing, and that’s OK. Here’s where scheduling becomes your best friend. If you spend some time creating and scheduling your posts at the start of the week, you are going to appear to be posting consistently when actually you are free to do what you love to do best. Tools such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck are handy and will let you plan everything in advance. Obviously, it’s still good to check in to reply to comments and so on, but this will make it so much easier to get on with your writing in the meantime.

Be in it for the long haul

Unfortunately, social media is not for the impatient. It takes a long time to build up a following, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t get lots of followers right away. Keep at it, and slowly but surely, you’ll see your following grow. 

Remember to be thankful

Anyone who takes the time to write something nice about you, to follow you, or comment on something you’ve posted deserves some appreciation. The more love you show for your readers, the more that will be reciprocated, so don’t be silent and make sure your followers are given a chance to interact with you.

By following the above, you can hope to build up your social media platform and use it as a tool to promote your work - good luck!

http://www.bethanycadmancreates.com

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