Nancy I. Sanders's Blog, page 19

Author Platform 101: Time Management

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That’s my cat Pitterpat sitting at my computer. I think she’s trying to friend all the cat lovers in my Facebook groups.

Social media. It’s got its benefits. And it’s got its issues.

Social media can drain our time and creative energy without generating much income in return. Yet it can also hopefully help generate sales for your books.

A couple of years ago I read a survey that interviewed published authors. A few years ago, these published authors earned a certain amount of income and spent a certain amount of time writing and a certain amount of time marketing on social media.

More currently, these same authors spent significantly more time on social media and less time actually writing, and their income also dropped significantly.

I wish I could remember where I saw that survey so you can see the results for yourself.

But this was an eye-opener to show me that I need to spend quality time on my writing first and foremost. I need to keep landing contracts to earn income.

But I also want to spend time marketing on social media because that’s what authors in today’s world need to do. Our role is to help get the word out about our books. So people can buy them and get them into the hands and hearts of children. That’s why I’m working on building social media as part of my author’s platform for the upcoming release of my newest book, Jane Austen for Kids.

The key is time management. Here are some ideas to help you manage your time on social media marketing so it doesn’t drain your creative energy or time from your actual manuscript and writing.

IDEA #1

We could spend 10 minutes every day working on social media to build our author platform.

IDEA #2

We could spend one hour each week on social media.

IDEA #3

We could pick one day a week to focus on social media.

IDEA #4

We could focus on a task instead of the time. We could just pick one task, one bite-sized chunk, to accomplish. Then do it. When that task is done, we pick a new task to accomplish.

What are your strategies for managing social media so it doesn’t drain your time or your creative energy?

Author Platform 101: Twitter Tips

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Want to get your ducks all lined up in a row on your favorite place to tweet?

This past year I attended a writer’s retreat and my roomie was the amazing author, Lisa Amstutz. (I LOVE Lisa’s books about gardening and nonfiction topics for kids. Lisa’s also a fellow Chicago Review Press author who will have her debut book out with them soon!)

Here are some tips on Twitter from Lisa’s desk:

“Just a note for those struggling with Twitter. It’s helpful to install the app on your phone as well as your computer.

I have gotten up to 1700 followers without much effort by just swiping through it once every day or two and ‘following’ several new people each time, usually people Twitter suggests. Most will follow you back.

I follow mainly other children’s writers, teachers, and librarians, as these are the primary people I want to see my book posts.

As I scroll down, I also retweet, comment on, or ‘like’ a few things that look interesting. And on very rare occasions, I actually tweet something.

It really doesn’t take long – like 5 minutes – and you can do it on your phone while watching TV, riding in the car, or whatever.

I could probably build my numbers faster, but they keep growing without much effort this way. So – if Twitter’s a platform you want to use, that’s my suggestion!”

Thanks bunches, Lisa! We appreciate you sharing real info about how you’re really building your author platform.

Lisa Amstutz is a children’s book author and freelance editor. Follow her on Twitter at @LJAmstutz or visit her fun website at www.LisaAmstutz.com.

Author Platform 101: Goals

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This is the pump in the Pump Room in Bath where Jane Austen and her family (and the characters in her novels) came to drink the healing waters. The pump is probably not original, but it’s still very old and very beautiful.

As I’m moving forward on my journey to build my author platform for the release of my upcoming book, JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS, first I thought long and hard about LONG-TERM goals I want to achieve.

Here are some of them:

LONG-TERM GOALS

Build 2000 email list on MailChimp

Send out 1-2 newsletters each year to help market my books

Build 1000 followers of my store at Teachers Pay Teachers

Build 50,000 borrowed platform

Build 1000 Twitter followers

Build 4000 Facebook followers (mostly of my BUYING audience)

Pinterest: Learn How to Maximize Boards for Marketing

As you’re taking notes in your composition notebook or other note-keeping format, take time to brainstorm your longterm goals for building your Author’s Platform.

Your goals may look very different than mine. You may want to do 1 author signing every month or do 4 school visits every year, etc.

After you jot down ideas for your longterm goals, organize them into a more formal list that you can refer to over time.

Next break those down into bite-sized chunks for your first set of SHORT-TERM goals. Here are some of mine:

SHORT-TERM GOALS

Set up a MailChimp account.

Read a tutorial on how to create an email list on MailChimp.

Add 100 emails to my email list on MailChimp.

Build 100 more followers on Teachers Pay Teachers

Contact 10 writer friends and ask them to be part of my borrowed platform.

Build 100 more followers on Twitter

Friend 100 friends on Facebook from groups I joined from my BUYING audience

Now here’s an exciting idea:

After you write down some concrete short-term goals, pick one.

Just one.

Pick one bite-sized chunk and work on it over the next week or two or three. Then cross it off your list.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting about time management so you can work on this without drowning in the ocean of social media.

Author Platform 101: Q and A

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A couple of days ago, Jarm, one of my enthusiastic blog followers, asked me the following question:

“I’m having trouble building my list. All the components are there on my website, but evidently, I’m not drawing people to sign up. Do I need to offer something, or is following my author’s journey enough?”

These are great questions, Jarm! And these are issues I struggle with as well. There are no right or wrong answers, but this is how I try to handle these things for my own career. Maybe you’ll find some helpful ideas for managing your own sites.

I use my website as my calling card. Meaning I set it up and I refer folks to it. But I don’t count on it to generate sales of my newest books. I use my website to let people know about me as an author in a general way.

I decided long ago that I would use my blog to target one group of people: other writers. So that’s pretty much what I talk about on my blog. I post tips and tricks of the trade and actual “look at my author’s journey” here on my blog. I enjoy building this writing community here. But I don’t expect my blog to generate sales of my newest books.

Here’s how I plan on using social media to generate sales of my newest books.

First, I identify my target BUYING audience. Who will buy my newest book? (Each of my books has a slightly different buying audience.)

Next, I’m trying to find out where these people hang out on social media.

One of the biggest groups of people who will buy my upcoming book, JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS, is teachers. So I’m learning where teachers hang out.

Teachers hang out at a site called TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS, so I’m working on building a store there where they can download free teachers’ guides to my books. Plus they can buy several resources I self-publish for teachers to use with their students. I’m trying to build my followers here so they can see when I have a new product come out.

There are also teacher groups on Facebook and on Twitter so I’m currently working to join groups on these sites. And after I join them, I am friending teachers in these groups. That’s so I can reach out to them when I’m ready to share posts about my book’s release in Febuary.

And finally, I have various friends who are teachers. So I’m creating a free e-mail list on MailChimp of teachers I know through cyberspace or as personal friends. I’m planning on sending out a newsletter next February to let all my teacher friends know about the release of JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS.

All of this will take time so I’m working very slowly. I’m trying to manage my time so that I work on my current manuscript projects first in the day and save this social media for my slower times of the day. And I’m giving myself 6 months (and longer) to accomplish each baby step I’m taking.

So to answer Jarm’s question, it’s good to share your author’s journey on your website. Or blog. But to help generate sales for your books by building your author’s platform, it’s important to identify your target buying audience, then find where they hang out on social media, then take steps to connect with them so you can share with them about your book.

Hope that helps!

Author Platform 101: Strategy and Goals

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This was me, on a misty morning in England, standing at the graves of Jane Austen’s sister and mother. What an amazing journey that was gathering research for my book, JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS, as well as taking photographs that will be featured in it.

The journey is continuing as I’m building my author’s platform for the book’s release in February. Here’s my overall strategy:

1. I’m building an e-mail list.

2. I’m designing a newsletter to start sending out about twice a year to my e-mail list.

3. I’m building followers on various social media sites of my target BUYING audience.

4. I’m building a Borrowed Platform.

One of the main goals I’m focusing on as I’m developing my author’s platform is the level of maintenance this platform will require.

Since I want to focus most of my creative energy and time on my actual manuscripts and writing new content, I have determined that I want a LOW level of maintenance for my platform. I want to set it up and then post to it 2-4 times a year.

How about you? What do you want to add to your author’s platform to help sell your books? What strategy do you want to use to get the word out about your books?

Some authors like to do school visits. Some teach at conferences. Some do bookstore signings. Yes, I do all that. But right now I want to focus on building the 4 areas I listed above.

In the composition notebook you got or in your notes you’re organizing, take time to think about what level of maintenance you want to focus on for your author’s platform at this season of your life. Your list may look very different than mine and your level of maintenance may be very different than mine. That’s okay. The important thing is to identify your strategy to build your author platform and your basic goal to maintain it.

We’ll talk about long term goals and short term goals next.

Author Platform 101: Identify Your Target Audience

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It was so much fun to drive in our tour bus and discover this information booth in the English countryside with info about beloved author Jane Austen. Isn’t that a cute idea?

As I’m working to build my author platform in preparation for the release of my upcoming new book, JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS, I’m asking myself, “Who will want to buy this book?”

Who will want to buy your book?

There are general groups of folks such as librarians, teachers, parents, grandparents, and kids.

But there are also more specific groups who are passionate about the topic of your book. For example, there are lots of folks who love Jane Austen. And these people form groups on various social media sites.

STEP #1

Make a list of people who would want to buy YOUR book. This is your target audience. For example, here is my list of my target BUYING audience for JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS.

Teachers

Librarians

Homeschooling families

Janeites (people who love Jane Austen)

STEP #2

In your favorite social media site (or sites), discover where these folks hang out.

For example, there are various groups of Janeites on Facebook. Plus middle school teachers who have a store on Teachers Pay Teachers (where I will be posting a free educator’s guide). Plus homeschooling families, etc.

STEP #3

Update your profile to reflect how you tie in to each of these groups you want to target.

For example, I updated my “About” section in my Facebook profile to say:

“I am a children’s book writer and teach workshops on writing. I also write resources for teachers (and homeschooling families) to use in the classroom and sell these in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers. My husband Jeff (a retired elementary school teacher) and I live in Chino, CA with our two kittens, Sandman and Pitterpat. We attend and are involved with Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We have 2 adult sons, love our 2 daughters-in-law, and adore our grandkids who are almost old enough to start their homeschooling journey!

I am a Janeite and enjoy all things Jane Austen. Jeff and I traveled through England during the celebration of 200 years of Jane’s legacy in 2017. I took lots of photos that are featured in my book JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS.”

STEP #4

Join social media groups that seem like a good fit where your target audience hangs out.

STEP #5

Start a process of friending and following other members in your new groups. Why? Because when I post marketing blurbs about JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS, these new friends will get them, too.

In upcoming posts we’ll talk about setting goals and time management so that this stays do-able and doesn’t turn into a monster that eats all your time and creative energy.

And just a heads up. I’m starting to build my author’s platform in preparation for my book, JANE AUSTEN FOR KIDS, here in August. My book will be released in February.

Yep. I know I can’t do this overnight. I’m giving myself 6 months to take baby steps and build my platform one piece at a time while I’m continuing to work on my current manuscripts/writing projects.

Author Platform 101

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Last summer Jeff and I toured England to research famous English novelist Jane Austen (think Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Darcy). Here we are standing behind one of the beautiful benches painted to celebrate all-things-Jane during the gala events surrounding the 200th anniversary of her death.

Right now I’m building my author’s platform as I prepare for the release of my new book, Jane Austen for Kids.

I’ve peeked into various strategies on building my author platform but most don’t really address my needs as a children’s author or my interests in social media or my level of technology.

So I’m developing my own strategy for building my platform. With the help of some writing friends. (Thank you friends!!!!)

A writing buddy asked if someone could write “Platform for Dummies,” so I agreed to post the steps I’m taking here on my blog. Hopefully you’ll find useful tips and strategies to build your own children’s writer’s platform, too!

FIRST

I want to say this:

NO! You do NOT have to do it all.

Whew! Breathe a sigh of relief.

Don’t look at anyone else’s platform and cry because you’ll never be able to do it all. You can’t. I can’t.

SECOND

Start in the Social media you already have. Build your platform first in the arena you’re comfortable in. Then try some new ones on for size. If they fit your personality and goals, go for it! If not, move on and try something new.

THIRD

The steps I’m going to share are steps I’m really taking. And they are BASIC. The very beginnings of author platform. That’s why I’m calling these posts AUTHOR PLATFORM 101.

If you like a strategy I’m doing, you can do it too. In your own way. That works best for you.

LAST OF ALL (and most important!)

Manage your time.

Social media can suck up all your time and creative energy.

So I prioritize my writing projects and spend my time writing fresh new content during my most creative time of the day.

For me, this means that I write and work on my current manuscripts every day before noon.

Then, in the evening when I’m thinking of zoning out and watching a movie or reading, I try to spend time working on building my author platform instead.

How will you manage your time?

SO LET’S GET STARTED

First of all, here’s what I did: I got a composition notebook to organize my strategies and thoughts.

Right now I’m really enjoying using composition notebooks for brainstorming sessions and writing first drafts and organizing my ideas. Use whichever method you like to use in this current season as a writer…but plan for a place to keep handy notes and jot ideas as we’re building our author platform.

In my upcoming posts, I’ll share:

*How I identified my buying audience for my genre

*My overall plan to start to build my author platform

*Short-term and Long-term goals

PS. For those of you who want to continue with my posts about creating worksheets to sell on your Teachers Pay Teachers store, thank you for your patience! I will continue to post ideas for creating an educator’s guide to help market your book, as I develop the educator’s guide for my upcoming book, Jane Austen for Kids. I’ve been busy editing and finalizing stuff like first pages (this week!) but that is now behind me and next on my plate will be the educator’s guide. I’ll post as I work on it so you can learn how to create one, too.

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Help for Writers

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Are you looking for help as a children’s writer? Do you want a paid critique, one-on-one coaching, or some other service to help you take the next step along your writing journey? Some of my writing friends provide various services that could just be the helpful hand you’ve been looking for. Check out the following information and get connected today!

Michelle Medlock Adams

Website: www.PlatLit.com

Michelle Medlock Adams is the president of Platinum Literary Services and PlatLit Books.

Services include:

Marketing consultations

Book proposal services

Premier editing

Ghostwriting.

Mini-Conference Prep Packages:

This service is provided to help writers get ready to meet with editors and publisher at an upcoming conference. Cost is $99.

 

Lisa Amtutz

Website: www.LisaAmstutz.com

Lisa Amstutz is the author of more than 80 children’s books for the educational and trade markets, including Applesauce Day (2017), Finding a Dove for Gramps (2018), and Amphibiology (2019) Her work has also appeared in a variety of magazines and newspapers. Lisa serves as a volunteer judge at Rate Your story and as Assistant Regional Advisor for SCBWI: Ohio North. She enjoys sharing what she’s learned and helping other writers to succeed.

Lisa critiques:

Picture books

Nonfiction proposals for any age

Work-for-hire packages (resume, cover letter, writing samples)

Lisa also does proofreading and copyediting.

For more details, please visit Lisa’s website.

Susan Kralovansky

Website: http://www.susankralovansky.com/

Susan Kralovansky started writing for the children’s magazine market and published stories and poems in places such as Cat Fancy, Our Magic Window, The Mailbox, and Humpty Dumpty. Her first book, There Was a Tall Texan Who Swallowed a Flea,was released in 2013 from Pelican Publishing along with her first nonfiction series, Library Resources, with Abdo Publishing. Susan has written twelve nonfiction books and illustrated her second picture book, Twelve Cowboys Ropin’, which was released in 2015. She has three books forthcoming, two with Pelican and one with TCU Press. A former librarian, Susan has led writing workshops and served as the Austin SCBWI Picture Book Mentor.

Critique Services:

Picture Book Manuscripts

(under 1,000 words, although higher word counts can be prorated) $125.00

Susan will review your manuscript multiple times and will touch on the strengths and weaknesses of the following:

Age appropriateness

Voice, pacing and language

Overall story concept

Possible mentor texts to study

A 30 minute Skype or telephone call is included with every critique.

Second Looks

For a look at a manuscript I’ve already critiqued – $50.00.

Nonfiction Picture Book Work-for-Hire

(up to 1000 words, although higher word counts can be prorated) $125.00

Nonfiction Work-for-Hire Submission Package

(up to 1000 words, although higher word counts can be prorated) $200.00

Susan will review your submission package multiple times and critique the following:

Query letter

Resume

Outline and or project summary

Writing samples

Susan will check for age appropriateness, voice, flow, and reading level. She will provide recommendations for submission strategies.

Unsolicited Children’s Book Submissions

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I love learning about open doors for us as writers.

And I’m excited to learn about two small publishing houses that publish children’s books.

Isn’t that great news? To discover new places that are publishing books for kids?

But even better news is that both of these houses…yes, I repeat BOTH…are open to unsolicited manuscript submissions!

So if you have a children’s book that you want to submit, check out these amazing presses. Read their current and past book catalogues. Follow them on social media. And READ. THEIR. BOOKS.

Then submit to them if you think your manuscript would be a good fit at their house.

Drum roll please.

Little Lamb Books

Ripple Grove Press

CLICK HERE for the links to get their submission guidelines and explore a list I’ve collected of publishers who are open to unsolicited manuscripts for kids’ books.

 

Happy submitting!

Beginning Readers

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I know a lot of you love to write and many of you have a special heart for beginning readers.

Today I want to share about a writer friend who just discovered that one of her stories begged to be a beginning reader instead of the picture book she started out to write.

CLICK HERE to read more about her journey where she also discovered my book, HOW TO WRITE BEGINNING READERS AND CHAPTER BOOKS.

And CLICK HERE to read the very helpful and informative post she shared with tips on readability!

Thanks, Jean Matthew Hall, for the shout out on my book. And best wishes on your writing journey!!!