Blogs & Websites

Conferences, Are They Worth It?

Posted on April 18, 2013 by janetsyasnitsick

The short answer is “yes,” but the real question is why are they?

Even after attending several of these, you wonder if you will learn anything new. But as usual, your doubts are put to rest after a conference speaker or two has presented.

Perhaps you are interested in taking the traditional route. Conferences allow you to meet with literary agents on a one-to-one basis. You can pitch your work and see if they believe your story has prospects either in the marketplace or in your ability to tell a good story. Often you bring a synopsis and at least a chapter for them to examine, but other times you just pitch your story. One writer I know has been pursuing this path for a number of years, and an agent at last week’s Nebraska Writers Guild conference requested to see more of her work.

However, today’s conferences also include a lot of advantages for the self-published author. They put you in touch with professionals in the business, such as in graphic design and marketing. One such speaker was a publishing guru and book designer Joel Friedlander.

He spoke on the benefits of each online social media from Facebook, to Twitter, to Goodreads, to YouTube, to LinkedIn to having a blog, stating blogs are the best resource. It is your hub where you can promote, post new ideas, conduct surveys and more, he said. Additionally, he believed LinkedIn to be extremely value in “gaining reputations” through its discussion formats, in being able to ask questions and in building a niche network.

Additionally, these professionals asked the audience which sold better e-books or print books? The audience replied, “e-books.” But these experts said the opposite. Thus, those brick and mortar bookstores are not going out of business soon. In fact, young people prefer print books, but adults favor e-books for their ability to enlarge print size, turn pages for those with arthritis and other e-book features, the field representatives said.

Conferences also allow attendees to interact with their cohorts – writers published or new to the craft. At this conference, there was a Friday night event where those who wanted to could read from their works. You cannot believe the great talent and variety of genres exhibited, such as poetry, memoirs, fancies, romances and humorous pieces. In addition, you got time to sell your books if you wished to do so on Saturday. If going to attend, why not sell your book(s)? You have nothing to lose since you are there anyway.

One thing I loved was putting a face to names seen on the e-mail loop. Nothing is better then talking with other writers, finding out where they are in the writing process and sharing experiences.

Finally, thank those who did the volunteer work to put the conference together. It takes time and a lot of effort from registering participants, preparing name tags, finding speakers, securing a facility and setting up the room.

So once again, get yourself to a conference even if you think there is nothing new to ascertain. You will not be disappointed. See you there and God bless.

Categories: Blogs & Websites, Digital & ePublishing, Marketing & Promoting, Self-Publishing, Social Networking, The Writer & Author, Traditional Publishing | Tags: , , , , , ,

Guest Post: How I Came To Know That Writing An Interesting Article Can Be Tough

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Joleene Naylor

I wanted to share a guest post by Robert Hunt with you today. As authors we often find ourselves writing articles not only for our own blogs, but for guest blogs, blog tours, you name it.  Mr. Hunt has graciously shared some tips that can help with just such a task.

 How I Came To Know That Writing An Interesting Article Can Be Tough

If you told me, a few years ago, that I would become a freelance writer at the age of 28, I would probably say you were talking nonsense. When I was growing up, I had no interest in writing at all. However, when I read various articles and blogs on the Internet, the interest to write slowly crept up inside of me. At that time, I wanted to see if I could write, so I began by writing posts for my blog, which I never found interesting. It was difficult for me to come up with an interesting topic to write about even though I knew there were plenty of exciting topics and things happening around me. It was quite overwhelming but the constant support from my family, friends, and followers made feel as if I had nothing to lose, so I gave it a go and ever since then, I have never looked back.

A question that many people around me ask is, how do I write an interesting article? As you already know, articles are defined as small pieces of details that appear in media such as newspapers, newsletters, magazines, and of course, the many websites on the Internet. These articles offer readers information, and at times, in-depth information, about a certain subject. Questions on a particular issue need to be answered and the answers need to be interesting in order to grab the attention of the readers. Writing an interesting article is not an easy thing to do because the definition of ‘interesting’ differs from one person to the other. Some topics may be interesting and engaging to a group of people, but strongly opposed by other readers. More often than not, the articles will only appeal to a certain group to whom the articles are targeted.

From my experience, in order to write an interesting article, the subject needs to be researched thoroughly. Next, you need to construct an outline for your writing

piece that contains:

Headline

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

And/or Resource Box

Headline

This is definitely the most important part of an article because it is the first thing that attracts readers. Without a catchy headline, you will fail to grab a reader’s attention.

Introduction

Your introduction needs to be appealing, as well, because those few lines will determine whether the readers will want to continue to read the rest of the article or not.

Body

The body of your article is usually filled with possible solutions to the question of the subject or with useful details or information on a particular product or topic. It is imperative that you break down the solution/details to separate paragraphs or points, and then, discuss them in-depth in the body. This will make it easy for users to access the targeted articles when they search for them using one of the many popular search engines.

Conclusion

This final outline of an article should contain a brief summary of the entire topic and it should call for the readers to take action. For example, if you are writing an article about the latest fall wedding fashion trend, you should conclude it by asking the readers to make a decision on which style to choose.

Resource Box

If the article you are writing is about medical issues or law and regulations, then you should provide links to websites that you used to research on the topic. This helps readers to access the websites and learn more about the topic that you might not cover.

Therefore, if you feel the itch to write an interesting article but you do not have the confidence to do so, my advice is to stop contemplating and just go ahead and write one. You might just surprise yourself, as well as your loved ones
Robert Hunt is a freelance writer and single father living in Seattle, WA. When he’s not contributing to online education resource DegreeJungle.com, Robert spends his time tutoring local high school writers and playing with his 3 year old daughter.

Categories: Blogs & Websites | Tags: , , , ,

4 Steps to Creating Enjoyable Reader Experience on Your Fiction Author Website

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Stephannie Beman

About a year ago I decided that I wanted to attract more readers to my website, so I used my mad researching skills on the internet to learn more. What I learned is that there are thousands of articles on the subject and very few that have any useful information or helpful advice.

There was write about what you are passionate about, but don’t write about writing. Readers don’t read blogs. Fans come to websites looking for more books and blog posts are not our books so they aren’t interested. Pick a niche or topic to blog about, however be aware that readers of our niche blogs might not be interested in our fiction or that our fans might still be uninterested in reading our blog.

After the initial shock of “What the He!!” are we suppose to put on our empty websites wore off. I started to think that either no one has found the secret to attracting readers or we’re all doing it wrong. I felt so confused and stressed I screamed. Yes, you read that right, I didn’t want to scream, I actually screamed in frustration. Think about it. We’re all told about what we have to have and what we have to do, etc., etc., etc. It’s enough to make a sane person go insane. And I’m not the most sane person to start.

All the research has led me to my newest question. Why blog? I haven’t really found a good, convincing argument for doing it. Changing a blog into a news feed and writing articles seems a better alternative that has all the pros of blogging. It also frees me up to write, post to social media, and update my website articles.

But this post isn’t about blogging so much as creating a friendly and enjoyable reader experience for your fiction author website.

_______________________________________________________________

Step 1: Keywords and Readers

Creating a website for fans to enjoy and prolonging the readers experience means that you’ll probably have to throw out all the misinformation you’ve learned over your career and start from scratch. Before you start throwing web pages together I want you to do this exercise.

On a piece of paper create three columns and label them keywords, topics, and readers. Now I’m going to ask you three questions and I want you to list anything that comes to mind. Don’t skip ahead. These are a very important questions that will aid in creating your website.

Column #1: What keywords would you use to describe you and your writing?

Column #2: What topics are you passionate (interested in) about? 

Column #3: Who are your perfect readers?

I’m going to use my answers as an example:

1. What keywords would you use to describe you and your writing? rancher, mother, wife, speculative fiction writer, romantic, mythology, coffee and book lover, randomness and macabre, a seeker of knowledge, crafter, short attention span, and book cover designer.

2. What topics are you passionate about? Cooking, books, mythology, criminology, writing, coffee, ranching, publishing, business, book design, reading, random facts, psychology, religion, and my kids. While I could find people who would love to read about these topics, having them all on one website could make it chaotic. Readers would never know what to expect when they came. Most readers would leave and it would defeat the purpose of a website.

3. Who are your perfect readers? My readers would be women between 25 and 40 who like  romantic and erotic speculative fiction. They like more of a plot with their romances. They are women who like mythology but are tired of the same old story being retold over and over with the same plot. They want to read a myth with a new twist. This is my target audience. I don’t always hit it, but it gives me an idea of who I’m writing for.

So when I combine the results of all three columns and narrow them to the keywords, topics, and reader characteristics common to all three, it means that my blogging topics and author brand should focus on speculative fiction, romance, sex, relationships, and mythology.Yeah, I can occasionally thrown in stuff about being a mother and rancher, my love of coffee, the latest romance or fantasy novel I’ve read, and writing. But focusing my efforts on my brand will bring quicker success.

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Step 2: Goals and Brainstorming

Now that you know your keywords and target audience, it time to make goals for your website and blog. Please keep your readers and author brand in mind as you plan, otherwise you’ll lose focus of where you are going and you’ll lose your readership. Also, sometimes you attract the wrong readership to your blog because your talking about mystery novels you love but you write erotica. Unless it’s an erotic mystery, then it could work.

1. What is the goal of your website? Is it to draw readers to you? Is it to share your stories? Is it to sell books? Once you know your goals, brainstorm some things you can do to accomplish this goal. You can using the list of topics you are passionate about and keywords to enhance your goals. The goal is to draw readers to your website and you need to  Brainstorm some ways you can draw your potential visitors to your website and reach your goals.

2. For those who have a website, what can you change to reach the goals for your website? Is there anything you could do better or add to help your readers find what they came to your website to find? Remember, you have seconds to catch and hold your reader’s attention before they click away from your site.

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Step 3: Basic Pages for your Website

This can either be the easiest or the hardest part. Write down all the pages of your website you think you need. Blog? Book pages? Store? Links? Biography? Newsletter? Contact me? You can downsize or expand upon this list later.

The five most important pages are:

#1 is the Home Page: The landing page is one of those controversial pages that no one can agree if you need or not. My opinion, you need it. This is the page that should have a welcome message, newest releases, coming soon, and links to various pages on your site. This page is a call to action for your readers.

#2 is the Book Page(s): A page or pages that show your books are a must. You are after all selling a product and your books are that product. There are different ways to set this up. Some writers like all their books on one page. Others like individual pages. Or use some combination of the two.

#3 is Blog or News Page: Either, or, or both. It’s important to have some way for your readers to know what is going on. Periodic updates or insights into your writing helps them.

#4 is the Author Bio: Readers want to know the author behind the books and the blogs. So write a bio. You could do an official bio that is more formal as well as an informal bio that is more friendly. I use both on my website.

#5 is the Contact Me Page: Some readers like to contact writers and you should have a way for them to do this, even if it’s just a form they can fill out.

________________________________________________________________

Step 4: Now its time to Create the “Enjoyable Reader Experience”

As interesting as the other pages are, they won’t be drawing in readers, unless you’re an exceptional blogger. I’m not. The hits on my blog in a year might equal the hits on one of my books in a month. You see readers seek out the author’s website because they want to know more about the book they read. They want to see inside the creation of that book. And I don’t mean a how you wrote the book.

I’m going to share a secret with you and I hope you tell all your writer friends about it. The best way to attract readers to your website is to pattern your website after movie website or DVD.

I don’t mean website design. I mean the content. I know it seems strange. But it works.

So I’ve already gone out and study some of the movie websites in various genre as well as the backs of every DVD in my collection. I found some common threads that I really think works for the websites and blogs of fiction authors and created a list of ideas that can be used as pages or blog posts to enhance the readers experience.

  • About the Series: If you write a series, tell the reader about the series or the mythology. You can also place links to books in the series or covers to…
  • About the book: this is your individual book page. Put more than the blurb and buy links on this page. Think of it like an about the movie page and put links to your special features.
  • Deleted Scenes, Excerpts from the Book, and Book Trailers: these should be on their own pages and linked to the books they belong to. These are like the movie trailers.
  • Behind the scenes, Inside looks, Author’s Notes: What was your inspiration for the book, the characters, and/or the world you created, why did you write a scene or add a character, the facts and fiction behind the story, etc. Think about questions The topics are endless.
  • Freebies: Who doesn’t like a free stuff. Games, trivia, galleries, wallpapers, icons, screensavers, printable stuff, scrapbooks using Pinterest, etc.
  • About the Characters, People, and Places in your world: Fun profiles about your cast of characters, or news updates from the characters posted, like cast and crew blogs for TV series can be fun as long as people know it’s for fun. Interviews. Information about the races in a book or series. A brief about the world it takes place in.

Word of warning, if you are doing behind the scenes/inside looks/author notes, be careful not to over do it. One or two per book is more than enough.

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Summary

Alright, we’ve come to the end of my long post, still unsure of why I have to blog if no one reads it, and if you are still with me, congratulations, you deserve a reward. I think a Truffle Kiss will be mine, maybe two, I did after all write this long post and edit it so that it was half the size it was and less tangent-y.

To finish, I would like to say that making your website fun for you fans isn’t hard. Use your writing talent and recycle your book research by making it count double for you.Have fun creating your website and if you have a question, ask me. I’d love to help. Or you can tell me what you think in the comments.

Categories: Author Platform & Branding, Blogs & Websites | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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