Robin Murphy's Blog, page 7

9 Ways to Stop Your Novel from Stalling

Another great article from Writer’s Digest

Tip of the Day from Writers Digest

Find a few creative writing tips from Writers Digest

Make it Now: The Rise of the Present Tense in Fiction

Interesting article taken from The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/21/rise-of-the-present-tense-in-fiction-hilary-mantel?CMP=share_btn_fb

Writing a Novel? Here are Four Things you Need to Know

Taken from the LA Times by Nathan Bransford

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1105-bransford-nanowrimo-tips-20151105-story.html

Remember, Keep on Writing…

Authors – Use Your Local Libraries for Marketing

Here the possibilities are endless. If you choose to get a Library of Congress number, which I strongly suggest, then you will have some amazing opportunities to get your book out to the public. You only need to contact them, I suggest stopping in and introducing yourself. Ask them if they would be interested in having your book or books in the library. I have never had anyone say no, they love local authors.

After the librarian read my book/s I was asked to be a part of a book signing/selling event with other local authors during a town festival, and then they asked me to give a talk on a subject of my choosing. It became a domino effect just because I reached out to them. So don’t be shy. You’d be surprised what opportunities develop from your library.

Another way to get your book out in libraries is to have a family member or a friend, who lives in another area or state, go to their local library and request your book/s. The library will in turn purchase your book wholesale, which is a sale for you, and then add it to their catalogue. It may seem like a small or impossible way to get a readership, but these small steps lead to bigger and better things.

Self-Editing/Rewrites – An Important Tool for any Author

You will find MANY articles, blogs, and self-help posts on the internet or in bookstores, regarding self-editing and rewrites. Everyone has their own way of doing this process, and quite frankly I think it should be left up to you, the writer, to discover what works best. Some wait until they are completely done to begin the editing, others do it while they write. Me personally, I edit as I write, and then again, and again, and again after I have completed the novel. The same holds true if you are writing a non-fiction article.

Some despise this process, while others love it. I happen to fully enjoy editing. It gives me comfort in knowing I’m making my story better, and it allows me to change my mind anytime I wish. Which is what writing is all about, right? That complete freedom to change, add, delete anything you want within your story.

I feel that editing is the most critical part of the writing process. There isn’t a magic number of times to re-read your story, but I was told to re-read my story until my mind squealed and then put it away for a week or two and come back and read it again…more

E-Book Conversion

I’d like to state there are many different software programs and options to choose from to convert your book into an e-book. There are paid services and there are free software downloads. I’m going to discuss the software Calibre, which is one of the free software downloads, and the one I use.

Here are a few of the formats Calibre supports, for example: EPUB, AZW, MOBI, ODT, PDF, HTML, RTF, TXT, and a few of the output formats are: EPUB, MOBI, AZW4, AZW, PDF, TXT. So you can convert EPUB to Kindle AZW format, PDF or other formats easily.

You will need to first download Calibre here: http://calibre-ebook.com/download, notice where Calibre supports Windows®, Mac OS-C, Linux, and a portable device. Once you have downloaded the software, you will see the Calibre icon on your desktop that was loaded during the download…more

Authors – Have Your Marketing Materials Ready

I’m pretty sure just about everyone is familiar with VistaPrint. It’s an affordable online printing company for business cards and/or marketing materials for small business owners. I would highly suggest getting an account, if you don’t already have one. There are many marketing materials to choose from, as well as designs. You can even upload your own design. Be sure to include your website or blog site, email, phone number, your title as an author, and if you write in a specific genre.

Once you’ve received your marketing materials, especially business cards, then distribute, distribute, distribute. I was given advice to drop a card “everywhere” I went, and at first I thought, how can I do that? I had to work through the thought that I was forcing myself on others, when really it’s just another unique way of marketing.

Here are some unique ways to leave your author business cards:

– Place them in correspondence you mail out (i.e. bill payments);

– In books at the library or on the counter;

– Any tack boards found in your post office, grocery store, banks;

– Check with other businesses to see if they’ll allow you to leave your business card on  their counter;

– Leave one on your table in a restaurant;

– If you travel, leave it in your hotel room;

– Use them in a book giveaway;

– If at an author signing/selling event, slip it in your book, they’ll have a place to go to when they wish to purchase all of your books;

– Last, but not least, friends and family.

Authors – The Art of Blogging

Choose Your Niche – Share Information, Don’t Make it a “Me” Atmosphere

Blogging is such a huge topic and if you were to search “how to blog”, “how to create a blog”, you would find a great deal of information to help you, and I suggest you do this because I believe we learn something every day.

I do believe blogging is a needed tool and it’s a whole new language. There are many platforms, and the largest is WordPress .com and .org. The .com is free and the .org usually comes with a monthly fee. There are others such as, Drupal, Typepad, Blogsmith.

There are pros and cons to using either the free (.com) or paid (.org) versions of WordPress and it’s really up to you on which one you wish to use, both are productive in blogging. Some of the pros going the free route are that it’s free and easy to set up. The technical maintenance, such as upgrades, spam, backups, and security are all taken care of, which is a plus. Your blog will be on hundreds of servers and will remain available under high traffic.

Some of the cons for .com are, although you can choose from over 200+ themes, which you can customize; you won’t be able to upload a custom theme you may have designed. You won’t be able to upload your own plugins, which is a tool that can be added to enhance the blogging performance or provide added features.

For me, I chose the .com of WordPress simply because I am a novice in understanding the mechanics behind running a blog. Plus, I always like when something is free and easy, because let’s face it, we prefer to be writing, don’t we? There are two processes behind blogging, one would be the way you blog on your site and the other is posting or blogging on other sites.

I’d like to first discuss making posts on other blogs. The first step would be to find blogs that cater to your audience, knowledge, or genre of your writing. This can include fiction and nonfiction. Once you have found a blog, please be mindful and actually read what the topic is about and what others have posted. The real art of blogging is to actually care about your blog posts and to create credibility on your part. You do not want to begin “spamming” about yourself when it has nothing to do about the topic.

Leave a comment that is useful for others by sharing links to other helpful blogs, share your own knowledge, and answer any questions that you feel you have information about because we are all out there to help others. This should be your main goal in all of your marketing platforms.

The next part of blogging is how you post on your blog and what type of information you share. Naturally our first instinct is to talk about our books, events, book signings, and reviews, and that’s all well and good, but if you want to increase a following, you really need to share helpful information. Even if you aren’t really sure if you have the knowledge base to post about what you know, then share links of other bloggers who have some great information. If you find a blog that talks about writing a query, leave a comment that you loved reading about this post and ask if it’s okay to share on your blog. Nine times out of ten they won’t have a problem. This is where relationships begin and it will increase your credibility.

Next you’re probably wondering how often you should blog, and that’s entirely up to you, but what I’ve learned over the last several years is that a weekly post works well. You can post more or less depending on how much time you have, but the main thing to do is…post. This is where you can get creative and it gives you another venue in which to write, and that’s always good.

Always be mindful and courteous in your responses, no matter what types of comments are left. You never want to enter into an argument in any area of marketing; it’s just not worth it. But the main thing to do is have fun and enjoy sharing your thoughts and ideas, but have a main focus on what you wish to blog about, and of course, every now and again, post about your new book coming out, because after all, you do want to establish new readers.

Authors – Internet Radio/Podcast Interviews

This is something that you are either the interviewer or interviewee. They can be talk shows, radio shows, interviews, or you can talk about your book. Basically it’s an audio file that you distribute over the internet.

Throughout your author platform you will be making connections and it’s through these connections that an opportunity to have an internet radio interview may develop. I was approached by someone through LinkedIn® who did author interviews using Blog Talk Radio. This also allows the interview to remain out on the internet as long as the host allows.

I found a great website for authors and contacted them for an interview through The Authors Show, found here http://www.wnbnetworkwest.com/WnbAuth.... There is a plethora of information to get your book out to the public. There are free and paid options, and they also have some great tools to help with marketing. Remember the no stone unturned theory.

If you have the experience and choose to host other authors through an internet radio interview, then you can create an account on BlogTalkRadio and follow their tutorials or demos. If you don’t have any experience being a host, you’ll want to be sure you learn the tips of the trade because the questions asked are extremely important. It could be the difference between success and failure.

You can also do an online podcast interview using video. You can do a search for people who do podcast interviews for authors. If you wish to be the host you can look for the many products or software used to do a podcast. One I have used is Skype (www.skype.com). You can actually record yourself doing an informational video to be posted on your website, or do the interview with another author, publisher, or agent. Again, this is something you really should have experience in because the better the quality, the better the interview, and the better credibility you’ll have.