Laina Turner's Blog, page 122

Interview with children’s author Jen Pereya of Mommy & Daddy Work to Make Some Dough

[image error] What would be the first thing you would do if today was your last day?

That’s easy…I would climb in bed with both of my girls and cuddle with them.

What’s your own definition of happiness?

Happiness can be summed up in one joyous sound…my girls’ laughter, especially when they are doing it at the same time!

What do you do in your free time?

Free time?  What’s that? Seriously though, I am 100% committed to my career in corporate America but I also love to write, share, and connect with others so I have my entrepreneurial side as well which limits free time.  That being said, I adore baking with my girls and helping my oldest practice her Irish dance steps.  In terms of just plain old me time, nothing beats heading to the salon for some girl time with my bestie!

 

What tv shows do you like?

I love watching shows where there is something to learn.  I know, kind of boring and maybe I could be accused of being nerdy but then again, I have always been a bit of a nerd.  I love the Discovery Channel and I often find myself watching the History Channel too! J

Where do you see yourself in “5,10″ years?

I try to have a general vision in terms of moving in an upward trajectory no matter what the path but I intentionally avoid trying to be overly specific.  The reason is that I don’t want to pigeon hole myself by looking at opportunities too myopically.  As long as I am moving forward and upward, then I’m good.  Then again, some days I think it would be great to sell it all and live on a beach somewhere serving tourists cocktails.  I guess only time will tell!

 

How do you balance work and life?

I think it’s important for us to change our perspective on how we view balance.  As opposed to trying to assess the balance in one’s life over days and weeks, it is my belief that it should be evaluated over months and years.  If at the end of the year you can look back and say that you feel good about the time you gave to your work, your family, and yourself I think you can say that you have found balance.  It is, however, something that is very subjective.

 

Now that I have that out of the way, here is a piece of practical, actionable advice.  I think that no matter how busy one is, it is absolutely necessary to schedule time for you.  If you don’t, I strongly believe that you will not be able to be as effective in any of your roles as a mother/spouse/friend or employee/entrepreneur.   The key word here is “schedule”.  Put it in your calendar the same as you would any other appointment for work and make sure to keep it.  Schedule everything else around it.  You will be much better off for it!

What do you say to your fans?

I try to just be myself.  As an author and a writer, I am my own brand and therefore, if I’m not genuine with my fans it would be very obvious.  Whether I’m writing blog posts on my website or writing tips for www.30secondmom .com, I am who I am and that’s pretty much all there is to it.  If you read my blog, the posts are geared towards families with working parents.  (After all, the number one rule of writing is to write what you know.)  Looking at my author page on 30Second Mom, it’s a bit all over the place with regard to categories but there is one consistent theme and that is streamlining your life and trying to find ways to be more efficient.

 

How did you come to write Mommy & Daddy Work to Make Some Dough?

Our oldest, Rebeca began questioning why my husband and I dropped her and her baby sister off at pre-school every day. As I began to think of how I would respond to her, I was reminded of my own trials and tribulations as a five-year-old starting kindergarten. The first few days weren’t that bad considering I was super excited about my new clothes and my Buster Brown shoes.  However, the tearful days that followed culminated with my mother finding me on the front porch of our house crying my eyes out. I had actually walked home from school, alone. She had dropped me off one morning at the front door but I never made it all the way to my classroom.  I turned around and made my way back home, sure that I was never going to go back. Obviously, I did end up returning to kindergarten, thanks to my teacher sharing with me the story of The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, and the words, “I think I can, I think I can”. That book became my security blanket of sorts.  Remembering how helpful that book was to me at that age, I began my search for a story that would help me to answer my own daughter’s questions in a simple, yet entertaining way. Shockingly, I found the children’s picture book market to be devoid of stories about families with two working parents.  The rest is literary history!

 

When was the book released?

It was released in April 2011.

 

What is the biggest challenge you have faced since your book was released?

Quite simply, the biggest challenge is getting the word out.  Since I am a first-time author, I am still working on building my credibility with my niche audience to get my name out there and that takes time.  The process would be faster if I was able to promote the book full-time but as I mentioned, I am very much committed to my career so I can’t devote the time I would like.  That’s why I am so incredibly grateful for opportunities like the one you have given me here.

 

What advice do you have for other businesswomen?

The biggest piece of advice I can give is to make your intentions known and to go for it.  Study after study has shown that men are more likely than women to let their career aspirations be known.  The reason this can become a problem for a woman in business is others cannot champion you or sponsor you if they don’t know where you would like to go, thus placing you at a strategic disadvantage compared to your male counterparts.  The reason I say to just go for it is there are always going to be reasons why you shouldn’t take that next step or go out on a limb and try to make a go of it on your own.  I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be prudent in our risk taking rather, I suggest using a T-sheet.  Draw a T on a sheet of paper and on the right side of the line down the middle, list all of the positive things that could happen as a result of whatever change you are facing.  On the left side of the line, list the potential negatives.  The important part here is to share it with a trusted friend or colleague to get someone else’s perspective.  It’s a great way to add some science to the process as opposed to just going with your gut.

Jennifer Pereyra has sought balance between her career and home life. Working as a Regional Account Manager for one of the largest manufacturers of health care products worldwide, Jennifer and her family have successfully survived two corporate relocations, no small feat with two young children.

Currently serving on the Board of Directors for the New Jersey chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Jennifer has one foot successfully and solidly placed in corporate America.

 

She is also a mompreneur who sought publication of her recently released children’s book, Mommy & Daddy Work to Make Some Dough. Since being published in April 2011, Jennifer has received numerous accolades as her book truly meets an unmet need; helping the children of working parents understand why their parents must work each day.

Most recently, Jennifer joined a team of select contributors for the launch of a new website, 30Second Mom A stream-based mobile website and app tied into the leading social networks, 30Second Mom’s goal is to provide mobile moms with quick and helpful tips from other moms – each in about 30 seconds or less – delivered straight to their phones.

 

Whenever possible, Jennifer enjoys speaking to other working parents about the challenges they face while attempting to “do it all”. She has been quoted in numerous articles of varying topics ranging from issues facing working women to raising bilingual children. In addition, Jennifer was recently featured on ABC6 Philadelphia news.

Jennifer and her husband Ignacio currently reside in Columbus, NJ where they are raising their two young daughters.

Make sure you stop over and visit Jennifer’s blog where you will find posts that will be of particular interest to working mothers.

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Working mothers and working fathers, finally there is a children’s picture book that you can use to explain to your children why you both work.

Rebeca doesn’t want her parents to leave every day. But then Mommy explains why she and Daddy must go, to make a living and provide for their girls. Young children will love the fanciful rhymes and find reassurance when they understand why Mommy and Daddy Work to Make Some Dough. Jennifer Pereyra’s charming tale is an excellent story for the children of working parents.

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Blog Tours

I have had several people ask me about the blog tours I’ve done and if they’ve been worthwhile. I would say yes they have. Maybe not financially but in terms of exposure they were great. I spent the money on having someone organize them for me as I didn’t want the headache but I also know many authors who have organized their tour themselves to great success. Here is a good article.

Original post here.

Original post by Nava Atlas on She Writes.

The blog book tour is one of the most economical and potentially high-impact publicity tools, but the sad truth is that in this age overworked publishing employees, your publisher won’t have the time or resources to organize one for you. If you want to avail yourself of the benefits of a blog tour, you’ll have to organize it yourself, unless you or your publisher want to pay for an outside entity to do it for you.

 

There are probably a multitude of approaches to organizing your own virtual book tour around the blogosphere to coincide with your title’s release date; I’ve gathered these tips from my own personal experience. I’ve organized a handful of blog tours for myself, and they cost nothing but time, a few books, and if you’re handling the shipments, some postage. If you’re lucky, your publisher will offer to ship the books for you, but this is less likely once it’s a backlist title.

 

Your goal is to have your book covered (in a review, excerpt, or interview) on a good number of blogs with decent traffic, within a month or so following your book’s official release date. Organizing a blog tour doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are the basic steps:

 

1.If you’re not already connected with a blogging community that relates to your area of expertise or your book’s topic, you need to do a bit of research. If you’re starting from scratch, go to Google’s Blogsearch.Putting in search words or phrases related to your topic, say “cupcakes” or “women traveling alone” will not really narrow the list to blogs about exclusively about cupcakes or female travelers, but blogs that have mentioned these words in a posts. Still, a place to start. You might also search in Technorati in the same manner.  Once you have a handful of top blogs in your subject area, a great way to find others is to click on links to other blogs listed in the blogrolls of good, relevant blogs.

 

2. Once you make a list of possibilities, how do you know which to choose? First of all, you’ll want to select blogs that people actually visit. You know this if posts get a decent number of comments, say, 8 or more. The more, the better, of course. If there are no comments on posts, or just one or two, this blogger is doing the cyber version of an online personal journal.

 

Second, you want to choose a blog that is not solely dedicated to the blogger’s own content. Some bloggers use this forum to develop a book, so they are unlikely to want to interject someone else’s content. You can also get some idea of a blog’s (or site’s, for that matter) popularity by putting its URL into the search function on Alexa. This ranking system is not foolproof, but if a blog’s rank is 2 million, you shouldn’t bother. Anything 750,000 or lower is promising.

 

If your book is a novel aimed at general readers, there are tons of general book blogs. Again, a bit of legwork and investigation is called for; search the term “book blogs” and you’ll come up with many ways to start searching. Note, though, that the most highly ranked general book review blogs are highly competitive, and these bloggers are inundated with requests to review books.

 

3. I recommend starting with a list of 25 to 30 good possibilities and aiming for 10 to 12 blogs for your tour. If you get more, so much the better, but 10 is very solid. Most bloggers have contact information somewhere on their site, usually in their profile. Some bloggers actually don’t have contact info, and the only way to reach them is by commenting. It’s not really cool to ask a blogger if they’ll deal with your book in a comment, so those you will just have to skip. Some bloggers will answer right away, some after a while, and some not at all; that’s why I suggest starting with more than you’ll need.

 

With about 6 weeks lead time, decide what you will offer the blogger for your blog tour. You can offer to do a guest post, or prepare an excerpt, or to do an author Q & A. If yours is a how-to book or a cookbook, you can offer a set of tips or a recipe. If you have an illustrative photo to accompany a post, you could offer that as well. If your book is a novel, and you don’t want to just ask to be put on the line for a review, be creative in what you might offer a blogger. Most bloggers have a day job so many are all too happy to post something fresh and interesting that comes their way ready made. Many bloggers appreciate the idea of guest content. Give them a few options.

 

What about giveaways? They’re awfully popular these days, and do garner more attention, but I really have mixed feelings about them. On one hand, the recipient of a giveaway copy has the potential of continuing word-of-mouth, actual or virtual; on the other, giveaways mean more copies needed, more copies mailed, and may actually discourage spontaneous purchase of your book, as the giveaway participants wait to see whether they’ve won, and there’s no guarantee that the non-winners will purchase, once the moment has passed. I’m really not clear on the benefits of giveaways; my guess it that they’re popular because they work, but it is something to consider carefully.

 

4. Once you’re ready to outreach, e-mail bloggers with something like:

——————————————————

Hello [blogger’s name],

My publisher and I would really appreciate it if you would consider being part of the blog tour to launch the publication of Swiftly the Sands do Flow. Would you consider either running a brief review or an excerpt from the book on ots publication date [insert date] or within the week thereafter? The excerpt can be of your own choosing, or I can supply you with one and as such, be a guest blogger for that date. Or, if you prefer, I will be available for a Q & A via e-mail.

 

I appreciate your considering this and hope you will participate. Please let me know at your earliest convenience; send me your mailing address and I will have a book sent to you.

——————————————————

 

If you like the blog and are familiar with its content, let the blogger know, but don’t sound like you’re just pandering.

 

5. Follow up: Once you know the book has gone out to the bloggers who have responded positively to your outreach, about 3 weeks before the pub date, contact them again and ask whether they’ve received the book, and if so, if they’d still like to participate in the tour. Ask if they’d like assistance choosing an excerpt or suggestions for a Q & A. If any photos are available, ask if they’d like to use one.

 

A couple of days before the tour, follow up once more. Be excited and upbeat, and very grateful, with something like: We’re all set for the launch of Swiftly the Sands do Flow! I appreciate your participation in the tour on [date] or within the week thereafter, and if I can reciprocate in any way in the future, please let me know.

 

6. And after they actually run something, thank them again.

 

From my experience, I find the blog tour format very effective. Many bloggers link to Amazon.com (I didn’t have to ask them to do this, it’s pretty much automatic—it gives them another way to make a little money from their sites) and my books have gone from umpteen million to within the top 10,000 or better once the tour has started. Then, if you’re lucky, you’ll get the viral effect: Readers of the blogs, many of whom are bloggers themselves, will get the book, and may mention it on their blogs, and on it goes from there.

 

If this still sounds daunting, you can ask your publisher to spring for a blog tour that’s organized by another entity. It was one thing for me to organize a blog tour in the vegan community, where my name is known, and in which I was familiar with many blogs and bloggers, and quite another to organize one for my latest book, The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life. I thought a blog tour through the writing blog community would be a good idea and asked my publisher to book a very reasonably-priced tour through WOW-Women on Writing.The tour lasted around 6 weeks; and while some of the participating blogs (16 in all) were quieter than others, as a whole it was quite worthwhile and a great value if I consider how much legwork I would have had to do in an unfamiliar niche. The tour launched with an interview in their newsletter, which included most of the tour stops (others were added along the way). Here’s a link to my WOW tour launch.

 

There are other blog tour organizers; you need just search “blog tour,” but as I’m not familiar with any other services I won’t mention them here. Bottom line: Will your publisher spring for an organized, paid blog tour? If not, would you? Or are you familiar enough with your niche to outreach to fellow bloggers who may appreciate the personal touch. Above all, have fun with the idea of a blog tour. It’s a relatively easy, inexpensive, and potentially very effective way to reach a decent-sized audience that’s just the right one for your book.

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Answer to yesterday’s Question of the Day

What is the tallest building in New York City?

After the placement of the 100th floor, One World Trade Center surpassed the height of the Empire State Building. When complete, it will stand at 1,776 feet, including a 408-foot-tall antenna.

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Question of the day

Answer the question of the day and be entered to win a free copy of my new book Books Aren’t Just for Reading.

What’s the tallest building in New York City?

 

Answer will be posted Saturday!

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Can you have a career as an author?

Some of you are like me and hope (translate need) to make a living with your writing. We have all heard the saying do what you love and the money will come well there is also an element of practicality that comes with that. Here are a couple articles I came across that helped motivate me and give me the confidence that YES I can do this! (Well today anyway:)

Fiction Writers on the Business of Writing: Best Practices of the Digital Generation
Self-published authors find e-success
Self-Publishing Success Stories

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Top 10 likes

[image error]I have a variety of interests and there are so many things I want to learn about and experience and enjoy. I decided to try and narrow down my general top 10 likes and then continue each week with a top 10 list of whatever tickles my fancy.

 

My 10 ten

1. music

2. books

3. kids (especially my own)

4. wine

5. guacamole

6. my friends

7. my family

8. travel

9. writing

10. did I already mention wine??

 

What are your top 10??

Laina

 

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One of my Favorite authors D.D. Scott

When I decided a year ago to really start to focus on ebooks and that whole world of book writing and promotion I did so in part because I came across author and marketing extraordinaire D.D. Scott. She had been in the trying to get published game for over 10 years and decided to take her future in her own hands and go the self publishing route. To that effort she has been wildly successful. She co-founded websites The Writers Guide to E-Publishing which is a great resource for writers such as myself and for those readers who keep buying our books The Readers Guide to E-Publishing.

She has written such books as:

BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS

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And STOMPIN’ ON STETSONS

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And many, many more you can check out here.

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in the water they can’t see you cry – a memoir Amanda Beard

[image error]I recently was asked by Simon & Schuster to read and review the autobiography by Amanda Beard, in the water they can’t see you cry. Amanda Beard is an Olympic swimmer, for those who don’t know, who medaled first in the 1996 games at age 14 and went on to compete in 3 more Olympic games winning a total of seven medals. Amanda also has enjoyed success as a model and at one point was the most downloaded female athlete on the Internet.

In her book, Amanda tells a story of how life as a premiere athlete isn’t all glitz and glamor and an easy road. The sacrifices made to practice and compete at that level combined with insecurity, low self-esteem and the deep rooted thought that she wasn’t worthy of success caused Amanda to find comfort first in bulimia, drug and alcohol abuse and to the extreme of cutting herself to make the pain she felt in her head go away with the physical pain she was inflicting on herself.

What I truly enjoyed about this book was how raw and honest Amanda was about her thoughts and feelings during those dark times. She was easy for me to identify with and the telling of her story made me want to root for her, her success, and her happiness.

Anyone who enjoys reading about real people and the struggles they face as real people should read this book. You will finish the book rooting for Amanda beard and her quest to compete in her 5th Olympics this year.

Laina

Purchase on Amazon

Purchase for Kindle

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in the water they can't see you cry – a memoir Amanda Beard

[image error]I recently was asked by Simon & Schuster to read and review the autobiography by Amanda Beard, in the water they can't see you cry. Amanda Beard is an Olympic swimmer, for those who don't know, who medaled first in the 1996 games at age 14 and went on to compete in 3 more Olympic games winning a total of seven medals. Amanda also has enjoyed success as a model and at one point was the most downloaded female athlete on the Internet.

In her book, Amanda tells a story of how life as a premiere athlete isn't all glitz and glamor and an easy road. The sacrifices made to practice and compete at that level combined with insecurity, low self-esteem and the deep rooted thought that she wasn't worthy of success caused Amanda to find comfort first in bulimia, drug and alcohol abuse and to the extreme of cutting herself to make the pain she felt in her head go away with the physical pain she was inflicting on herself.

What I truly enjoyed about this book was how raw and honest Amanda was about her thoughts and feelings during those dark times. She was easy for me to identify with and the telling of her story made me want to root for her, her success, and her happiness.

Anyone who enjoys reading about real people and the struggles they face as real people should read this book. You will finish the book rooting for Amanda beard and her quest to compete in her 5th Olympics this year.

Laina

Purchase on Amazon

Purchase for Kindle

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How to create an editorial calendar

As an author we all know that blogging is important to building our platform, building our brand, and increasing our exposure. However, it can be difficult to figure out what to blog about, at least for me. With the novels I write I have an idea of what's going to happen and although it may be loosely structured, I have at least some idea where I'm going and I can write down that path. With blogging I have found it makes it so much easier when I have a planned calendar of topics and things to blog about. I have read and researched how others put together their editorial calendar until I finally have reached a formula that works well for me. So well in fact I thought I would share my tips and best practices with you in hope it may be helpful.

For the purpose of this post I am assuming you have a target reader in mind, a topic your blogging about, a focus. If not, before you create your editorial calendar you need to decide what that audience and focus will be. Click here for an informative article on choosing your focus.

Step 1 – Decide what types of blog posts you want to have. Informative, promotional, lists, product reviews, personal rants etc. Here is a great post by Karol K with 52 different types of blog posts. Choosing what type of posts you feel comfortable writing will help you when it comes to scheduling.

Step 2 – Chose how often you wish to post. Most people say 3 times a week minimum is what you should post to get yourself noticed. It's better to err on the side of caution because whatever you chose to do you need to stick with as consistency is the key. Better to commit to posting 1 time a week, on Mondays, and holding to that than being sporadic (although we are all guilty of it at some time).

Step 3 – Let's say you have decided you want to post 3 times a week, Monday-Wednesday-Friday.. So now you want to create a cadence of what type of post you want to post on each of those days. For example Mondays will be informative posts, Wednesdays a list of your top 10, Fridays a product review. Now you will know what type of post you need to write and just need to determine the topic.

Step 4 – Brainstorming ideas for each of the types of blogs you are going to write. As I go through the week things will happen that make me think "I should blog about this" and of course I write them down. But brainstorming or mind mapping will help get a bunch of ideas on paper. Not all of them may become a blog but you would be amazed at how many great ideas you will come up with.

I plan a week in advance and therefore on Fridays I am planning the follow week. I schedule at least 2 hours to create a list of ideas and then make rough notes for each day I am going to post. I keep all this information in a simple excel worksheet. I will then write Mondays post and schedule it. On Monday I write Tuesdays post and so on. On the weekends, time permitting, I will often write an extra post or two that I can throw in if my schedule gets off kilter.

Now I know none of this seems very difficult and it's not. For me, and I know it's the same for many of you (based on feedback from my blogger friends) that it's staying on task to the calendar you have set up. It can be easy to get sidetracked but with creating the calendar, and therefore a routine, it will be easier for you to stay on track.

Because I by no means have the best method for creating a editorial calendar, it's just what works for me, I would love to hear your thoughts on how you decide what to blog about.

Laina

 

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