Sandy Appleyard's Blog, page 13
January 30, 2014
Writing Style-as Individual as your own Reflection
Image courtesy of Dorothydalton.com
I’ve read hundreds of books; thirty two in total during the year 2013, and I have to say that each of those books reflected a different writing style. Some were better than others, but all were individual in their own way.
During a conversation with a fellow author working on her first novel, it occurred to me that aspiring writers may be struggling with establishing what their writing style is; and more importantly, questioning it and second-guessing it.
When...
January 28, 2014
What is Important About Google Analytics?
Image courtesy of Iconfinder.com
Besides the obvious: knowing how much traffic is visiting your website (which you can also uncover using your website’s analytics), there is one other benefit that I’d like to talk about.
Up until a few months ago I had been ignoring Google Analytics simply because I found it overwhelming. So many blog posts were outlining all the different ways to look at it and the number crunching associated with it and what it means….I was pulling my hair out trying to under...
January 24, 2014
Five Ways to Avoid Guest Post Spammers
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Recently I’m finding a lot of people soliciting me to submit guest post material for my blog. This is great, as I do support this and always have, however I find guest posting is becoming more and more about spamming.
I receive several emails per week from others offering to send me articles to post on my site. This is a great indicator that my site is doing well and engagement is good, but this is also becoming a breeding ground for those blogging for less-tha...
January 22, 2014
Book Review: Sugar’s Night
Image courtesy of Goodreads.com
Star Rating: 4 Stars
What the book is about
Sugar Walsh struggles with worldly ideals of what a mom, a dancer and a business woman should be, and pictures herself as sub-par based on the fact that she’s an amputee. Sugar finds herself short-changing her abilities, heart, intelligence and drive, but only when her loved ones bring her low self-worth to her attention.
In this novel, the third in the series, Sugar discovers that her abilities, once again, are above and...
January 20, 2014
Relax, Being an Author is a Process
It can become very overwhelming as an author with all the options, effort, money and time that can be spent trying to market yourself and your work.
That being said, it’s important to remember that nothing will happen quickly. It’s best to tackle just one or two things at a time and learn as much as you can from each.
A huge mistake that many authors make (myself included) is taking on too much at one time. We discussed this briefly in a recent post about spreading yourself too thin.
The other s...
January 16, 2014
10 Things you can do to Help Support Indie Authors
Image credit: www.therainmakerblog.com
And it won’t cost a thing!
Like their Facebook fan page
Like their Amazon author page
Follow them on Twitter
Subscribe to their website and/or blog
Tweet one of their social media profiles
Review one of their books (I bet if you ask them, they’ll even give you a copy for free-I do!)
Tweet one of their books
Recommend the author to your audience (to follow, read or check out one of their profiles)
Comment on a blog post
Download their book during a free promotion
As...
January 14, 2014
Book Review: Only Love Twice
Image courtesy of Goodreads.com
Star Rating: 3 Stars
What the book is about
Saleem, a prince in a long line of Saudi Arabian descendants, meets Madison, an independently wealthy, widowed American woman. They find each other via the internet and months later meet up in person to discover that despite the fact that they’re from two entirely different worlds, they have very much in common.
What I enjoyed about the story
It was very interesting reading about the lifestyles of a Saudi Arabian prince an...
January 13, 2014
Authors: What Should you Post on Social Media Sites?
The question seems obvious, yes? Authors should be posting book-related material on their social media sites…yes? Well, yes and no.
It is important to offer a blend of information on social media; especially if you want people to follow you on multiple platforms.
If you’re offering the same posts and material on all your platforms, chances are you’ll get one person following you on only one since they’ll generally get all your stuff from there, right?
What I recommend is choosing one of your pla...
January 10, 2014
Social Media: When is it too Much?
Image credit: www.wisebread.com
There is a plethora of articles available discussing how joining too many social media sites can be stressful at best, but that is not what I’m discussing in this post.
What I’m talking about is creating multiple social media accounts, using pen names and ultimately trying to saturate ourselves in the social media marketplace.
I’m guilty of this myself. In a previous post ‘ we glossed over the benefits and disadvantages of using a p...
January 8, 2014
How do you Create Memorable Secondary Characters?
Secondary characters are important to a story. They enrich and bring out the character traits in the primary characters. Without them authors would have to rely simply on back story to portray the way that the plots unfold.
Generally, back story is boring and can break a scene if overused. Therefore, using another character is a much better method to use so your reader will keep turning the pages.
I love creating secondary characters because they can make a huge impact in a scene. Vulnerable on...
