"Spring Cleaning" and The Secret of Mill Mountain
/I'm blogging today over at VIRGINIA IS FOR MYSTERIES. Stop in and see why I chose Mill Mountain in Roanoke as my story's location.
New Year's Resolutions for Writers
/It's resolution-making time again. Are you ready for the new year? Here is my list of resolutions for writers...
1. I will make time to write. I will never finish my manuscript if I don't work on it.
2. If I want to be a published author, I need to work on my craft. I will look for ways to improve my writing this year (e.g. classes, critique group, writing partner, etc.).
3. I will invest in my writing business this year. I will create or update my website. I will make sure my social media sites have the same professional look.
4. I will update my headshot. It is noticeable when you're using a ten-year old photo.
5. If I am prepublished, I will send out queries or look for ways to have my work published.
6. I will look at my marketing plan, or I will create one. Where should I spend my time publicizing my blog or my work? How often do I advertise? What platforms work for my type of writing?
7. I will commit to a blog schedule, and I will post regularly.
8. I will strive to be more social on social media platforms. I will share others' information and look for groups with similar interests. I will build relationships and resources.
9. I will strive to balance my writing with all the other things that life throws my way.
10. I will exercise more.
What else would you add? Happy New Year!
Social Media Analytics And Why Numbers are Important to Writers
/When you reach certain milestones on Facebook fan pages and other sites, you gain access to analytics, insights, and other metrics. Your website should also have this information. Even if you are not a numbers geek, this data is valuable to you. It shows progress and gaps in your marketing efforts.
While you shouldn't fixate on numbers, followers, retweets, and likes, you should use them as a measure of the post you're creating. Writers also need to remember the social part of social media. You need to build relationships and followers by interacting with each other. If you only use these sites to dump announcements about your reviews and sale items, you're not going to be that successful.
Facebook and Twitter offer a lot of good information. You can see things like which day you get the most traffic. Target those days for posting new material. You can also see which posts get shared or commented on the most. This can help you figure out what type of content works for you. Facebook gives you a lot of information, including the age group/ demographics of your audience. Twitter tells you your reach for the week. You can see which tweets get the most action, and how many lead to link clicks. You should use Twitter and other sites to drive traffic to your blog or website.
If you boosted a post or ran an ad campaign, you can see the results. This can help you decide which types of posts to pay for next time.
Your website should also have metrics you can use to track visitor patterns and what types of content are most popular. I use Bitly to shorten my blog URLs for posting on social media. It has an analytics page that lets me know how many people have clicked on that link and on what days. My website visits were up and down until I committed to post a weekly blog and post links to it on Google+ and Twitter. My Google+ numbers aren't as high as my Twitter ones, but they do help me with my placement in Google searches (SEO).
The charts, graphs, and information can be overwhelming. Start with one item like your reach or the key days of the week. If you need help, Facebook and Google have good help files that explain what the numbers and different charts mean.
All of this information should help you decide what's working for you. If you're scheduling tweets, and you're not getting a lot of retweets, replies, or favorites, then you probably need to look at the content, frequency, and timing of what you do. You're doing a lot of work for not much reward. Also know that if others looks at your recent tweets, they can see the action or inaction too. Mix it up and see if your numbers improve. Make sure to add a couple of relevant hashtags to get the attention of interested readers.
Also note that Facebook changes its algorithms frequently, and this affects what your friends and fans see. I wouldn't depend on it as my only marketing method. To date, I haven't paid to boost any posts, but I'm working on a marketing campaign for my first solo mystery for next spring. I'll let you know how that goes.
Finally, there are way too many social media sites to have an active presence on each. Pick what your readers like and focus your time there. Don't let it overwhelm you. Make small changes and see if your numbers improve.
Happy marketing! And let's connect so we can build our reaches and resources.
Why You Need a Critique Group & The Things It's Taught Me...
/Nobody writes a perfect first (or third or fourth) draft. And as much as we all like to think what we create is brilliant, we need honest feedback to improve as writers. I absolutely adore my critique group. We meet monthly and turn in about 50 pages for each session. Everyone is a thriller or mystery writer, but the subgenres vary. Our backgrounds vary too, and everyone brings amazing skills and experiences.
I appreciate the feedback, and the monthly deadlines keep me on track with my writing. I learn as much from the conversations about others' work as I do when they review my submissions.
Here's what I learned from last month's meeting...
Backstory - Sprinkle in the history of the story. Don't do a large data dump of character or biographical information. Spread it through your chapters.
Yawn! - If you're bored, your readers will be too.
Chapter Endings - Avoid ending a chapter with a character going to bed. The reader needs a reason to turn the page and not look for a good stopping point.
Crutch Words - Look for words that you overuse. Use your word processor's search feature to find them. Mine are "in a few minutes," "very," and "just." I have a list now, and I search through the draft when I'm self-editing to get rid of them.
Dashing off - If you use dashes, make sure that they're the em dash and not two hyphens.
Semicolons - Watch your use of semicolons. They can be an indicator that your sentences are too long and wordy.
Cut the Fluff - Get rid of useless words and phrases. It makes your writing tighter. Look at your adjectives. You don't need two or three to describe the same thing.
Jump to It - Use "jumps" to indicate the passage of time. You don't have to account for every minute of your character's life. To fly from New York to Paris, you can move from one scene to the next. You don't have to write about driving to the airport, parking, checking in, buying coffee, and sitting in the lounge, unless it's key to the plot of the story.
What's in a Name - Be consistent with what you call your characters. Don't refer to them by multiple names or titles. It confuses your readers.
Best wishes with your writing. Keep at it. It's work, and it takes a lot to revise and rewrite.
Ways Writers Can Use Pinterest
/I love Pinterest. It's my big electronic scrapbook for thousands of great pictures. I didn't get interested in the site until I ruptured my Achilles tendon, and I was stuck on the couch for months.
I have boards (the containers you create to group pictures) for crafts, DIY projects, funny memes, recipes, and places I've been or dreamt about.
Writers can use this social media platform to highlight their books.
1. Build a board for your book. Post pictures of what characters would look like, what actors you want to play them in the movie, locations where they visit, and things they like. I have a board for the anthology series that I'm a part of. It's Virginia is for Mysteries, and I have pictures of all the sites mentioned in the stories.
My author friend, Mary Miley, has a board for her 1920s mysteries with all the items from that era.
2. Build boards of your favorite books and authors.
3. Make boards for themes in your book (e.g. pets, historic sites, locales, fashion, foods, knitting, etc.) My writer friend, Mollie Cox Bryan, writes a scrapbooking-themed series. Her Pinterest boards are loaded with ideas and templates.
4. Create boards for your author events and upload photos of signings, panels, and workshops. Make sure to include links in the descriptions when you upload photos.
Let's connect on Pinterest. I can be found at: https://www.pinterest.com/crazyforwords13/
I Have News...
/I have a signed contract for the publication of my debut mystery novel, Secret Lives and Private Eyes. It's slated to be published in May 2016. I'm also have a story, "Spring Cleaning," in Virginia is for Mysteries Volume II that comes out in February.
The novel has been years in the making. I stared this about three years ago after burying two other manuscripts in the bottom of my desk drawer.
And now the fun really begins...
Thanksgiving Snuck up on Me...How to Balance Your Writing Life with the Holidays
/I have been so busy lately with reviewing ARCs for our anthology (Virginia is for Mysteries Volume II - February 2016), doing the preliminary work for my debut novel, Secret Lives and Private Eyes (May 2016), my day job, preparing to moderate two panels, doing a book signing, and well, just life. I'm still wondering where June went, and Thanksgiving has come and gone.
And now it's time to think about decorating and presents. As a kid, it seemed to take years to get through the year to Christmas. Now, I blink and it's the holiday season again.
My normal day starts at 5 AM, and I'm at work by 7:15. I tend to work 9-10 hour-days and then write and do all the other things that come along. I don't want the holidays to fly by without enjoying them. Here are some ideas to help your writing life stay on track during the craziness that is this time of year...
1. Write blog posts in advance and schedule them. You can schedule Facebook posts and tweets too.
2. Get your holiday shopping and decorating done early. I'm doing a lot of online shopping this year. I hope to be done by the first week in December.
3. I use my TV time to do my social media updates. I also do quick updates in the morning during breakfast.
4. Take a good look at your free time. Are there time sucks? If you cut down on TV, game time, or perusing the Internet, you make free up some chunks of time.
5. I use my lunch hour at work to write and edit. That's five hours a week of extra writing time.
6. I record the shows that I like to watch on TV, so I can speed through the commercials. It does save some time.
7. I have a 35-45-minute daily commute twice a day to work. I listen to a variety of news programs on my satellite radio during the ride, so I don't usually have to catch up on news later. in the evening.
8. Look at your schedule and the activities that you've committed to doing. Are there things you can cut back on or jettison? I had to cut down on some of my volunteer work when I committed to writing.
Holiday wishes and happy writing!
