Visualizing Characters is Critical

I searched for photos I could use to remind me of what my main characters are sorta like. I see Ari as a bit older than the woman in the photo, with a few more pounds on her, and with a purple streak in her black hair, genetically chosen by her parents in utero. Dr. Otts--handsome son of a gun, ain’t he?—is perpetually young looking, in the way of many men. His age is indeterminate.

 

Knowing what they look like allows me to picture them, movie style, in my scenes. I can observe how Ari moves her arms, what she does with her hands when nervous, and how she sits at her desk. Of course, I could describe all that, and many do, without having a picture of her. But I’ve found it’s so much easier to move my characters around if I know what they look like.

Also, while seeing photos of Ari and Robb, I can better imagine how they’d look embracing on the sofa (if they do). Or where her secret tattoo is that Robb discovers (if he does). Or where he must go every night at precisely 11 o’clock. What part of his body does he shield from Ari and why?

What secrets does each conceal and why? They look open and honest and forthcoming. But everyone has secrets. Robb’s will be devastating, initially, to Ari. Her secrets will not bother him, but they bother her and interfere with creating bonds with others. I can see that in her face. Guarded. Cautious. All while appearing to be a free spirit. Appearances can be—and often are—deceiving.

Since setting, in scifi, is often cast in a character role, visualizing Mars is a huge deal for me. I have a map pinned to my office wall, and a globe sits next to my computer. I use these visuals to imagine Ari’s travels around Mars, the three colony sites, and the challenges the Mars geology poses.

Starting a New Genre

I am a dilettante author. I like to say it’s my intellectual curiosity that leads me to try writing in various genres. I wonder what the challenges are, what the pay off is, is it possible for me to switch genres successfully. But that would be lying to myself a little bit.

Sure, those are factors, but probably a bigger role is played by boredom. Sticking with one thing, doing it over and over, is not as satisfying to me as striking out with something new. I’ve said for years, give me a blank page any day over revising and editing a completed manuscript. I say that I know edits and revisions are the what really make a manuscript publishable, but, I don’t think, down in my soul, I’m convinced of that.

Starting a new project always excites me more than finishing an old one. That explains why I am always working on several manuscripts at once. I love the writing. The fixing, meh, not so much. I am hesitant, sometimes, to call myself an author because of that characteristic. I admire my author friends who love fixing their manuscripts. Alas, I am not among them. I do the fixing, but I am not a gleeful participant. For me, it’s like a dental visit. Necessary, but to be avoided as long as possible. Not good, I know!

Not to dwell in anti-matter territory, what’s positive in my predilection to try the new?

Whereas all novels have essential elements in common (character development, story arc, multi-problem/solution scenes, and so on), there is the ability to transfer story components to writing different genres. However, there are also specific elements that make that genre distinct from any other. I make it a goal to find out all I can about the new genre I’m attempting before I write the first paragraph.

An example of an epic fail on my part, is writing middle school biographies of intrepid women. I have dozens of women candidates for engaging books. I have passion for my project. I think it is really important to shine light on women who have gone unrecognized for so long. However, biography isn’t novel writing. It’s such a different skill set, informational text writing in a voice appropriate to the age group and with vocabulary that fits a specific developmental level, that I have struggled. My text is gasping for life. It’s stilted prose at its worst. I haven’t given up, but I don’t know when I’ll have the energy to return to working out the vagaries of the genre.

But, obstacles and roadblocks in one genre do not stop me from attempting others! This National Novel Writing Month, I am joining nearly a half million writers from across the globe as we set out to “win” NaNoWriMo by writing 50,000 words in 30 days. That’s 1667 words a day. Almost 7 pages. Every day. For 30 straight days.

This year I am finally brave enough to attempt a genre I have admired for a long time. I love reading hard science fiction. That’s science fiction rooted in the science, a novel that takes the laws of physics and biology as we know them, and pushes forward to what might be possible in the future. Three authors I recommend for dipping into hard scifi, are Larry K. Collins (The McGregor Chronicles), Kim Stanley Robinson (Mars trilogy), and Andy Weir (The Martian). Of course, I have a pen name for my scifi stuff so as not to confuse readers. River Glynn will be penning and publishing this novel.

River has spent a good bit of time reading up on how to colonize space, what the challenges are, what some solutions might be, and where we are currently in the process of making space living a reality. In a few days, she’ll get a gauge of whether she can pull off a hard scifi novel in the first of her Mars Murder Mysteries.

I think River Glynn has a good story premise and a base from writing contemporary mysteries with another pen name. She’s done character sketches and plotting. She figures the worst that can happen is that she can only turn out a soft science fiction novel. Not the worst thing at all, right? Go, River!

Marketing and Promoting Your Book with a Facebook Event, Part 3

It gets frantic. It gets chaotic. It’s hard to keep track of all that’s happening! It’s a blast!

But if not well-prepared, the adventure can turn ugly. Nobody shows up. People show up but leave too early. Your posts are so far in between that people lose interest. Your posts aren’t engaging so you get little response. Four hours is a very long time! (Or one, even, if it’s dragging.)

I’ve been attending on-line Virtual Book Launch Events for a few years now. Before I became an author hawking her own books, I never knew there was such a thing. But, you know, there’s something about the magic of book contracts and promotion expectations, to thrust one into the midst of figuring things out.

I was part of a group book launch for our romance anthology and each of us only were responsible for a segment based on our story in the collection. It was well-attended and lively.

At each event for other authors I attended, I made note of what the virtual book launches included. Here’s what I found. Features that were the same in each of the events were:

         Themes

Cover art displayed

         Book blurb available

         Purchase info easily found and often presented

         Links to author pages of various sorts

         Giveaways (often run by Rafflecopter www.rafflecopter.com free basic

service, but they have paid plans with more options); tweet,

post, share to win

         Video or audio links (including book trailers for author’s own or others’

                  books; might be links to music or YouTube videos of content

                  related to your book)

         Pictures related to the era/theme/topic

Some of the virtual launches also included:

Trivia questions of the era/theme/topic/book to win prizes

         Pictures of foods you are “serving”; sometimes with recipes

         Opportunities to be named in next book, or vote on a character name

         Links to free stuff on the author’s site--bookmark, excerpts, etc.

Here’s the plan for my Facebook Launch for Pastabilities:

1)   Start the event with the book trailer for Pastabilities and run it once every hour of the event because some don’t stay the whole time and others arrive late.

2)   Provide links to YouTube cooking videos I made.

3)   Provide links to YouTube videos of short mystery stories spaced throughout the event hours.

4)   Provide links to YouTube cooking videos I follow.

5)   Post recipes from the book and accompanying pictures throughout the event hours.

6)   Share pictures from my Pinterest board of what characters look like.

7)   Post pictures of Phoenix and Glendale, AZ throughout the event hours.

8)   Give away free books, recipe cards, and cooking gadgets.

9)    Post fun food facts, kitchen gadget reviews, and provocative statements about the book content.

10)                   Post a link to an excerpt for the second book in the series, Prime Rib and Punishment.

11)                  Post a link to a book club guide for Pastabilities and an offer for me to participate in one via Skype/Facetime or in person.

12)                  Create trivia questions to post about the book, mysteries, cooking, police

procedures, etc.

13)                  Create lists of other mystery writers to invite and questions to ask; feature one or two each hour.

14)                  Prepare a series of tweets and Facebook posts that you ask friends to post to invite more people to the event.

15)                  What prizes will I give out for which questions? (apron, recipe cards, recipe

books, signed copies of my books and others’ book, measuring devices, pot holders, and so on).

16)                  Create an hour-by-hour outline of content/contests/videos/and so on.

17)                  Don’t overplan. Allow time for attendees to ask and respond to questions and to interact with one another.

My big Ah, Ha! was that while writing is a solitary pursuit, a book launch is a celebratory sharing. People want to be part of that energy! This post focuses on virtual (as opposed to live event) book launches and what happens in them.

In last week’s post, I gave you my template for planning a Facebook event. Do all that first, then start on these items.

Posting plans for the Facebook Book Launch of my culinary mysteries:

Here is the tentative plan I drafted for the Facebook event celebrating the re-release of Pastabilities (formerly Mission Impastable) in the fall. I’m planning the event for one week after the release date I’m given to ensure the book is available. That’s just a little insurance policy decision based on past experience!

For my Facebook Event, I’ll invite people from my on-line writing and cooking groups. This is several thousands people. Sadly, the actual number attending will be much less. However, by asking friends to tweet and announce my event on Facebook, I have the possibility of many people I don’t know attending. FB will track invitations and acceptances, but keep the event public so anyone can drop in.

 I am planning a four-hour event. The book cover and buy button will be prominent, as will the book blurb and early reviews. I’ll post a link my web page, blog, and Twitter account in a pinned area at the top. When the party is happening, messages scroll by fast.

In the invitation, I’ll tell attendees to bring cream cheese, chutney, and crackers with them. The first post is a recipe from Pastablilites for a quick appetizer to munch on throughout the event.

Four Hour Event:

Welcome to all and show book cover. Thank them for attending. There’s still time to invite other friends to drop in (give the link to invite others). Give overview of what’s coming up

Post the recipe for “Alli’s Super Easy and Elegant Cream Cheese Appetizer” from Mission Impastable

Post question 1

Post the book blurb

Post early reviews

Announce prize winner for question 1

Post question 2

Food Facts you might not know

Play book trailer (or reviews, cover, blurbs) for guest author

Interview/interaction with a culinary mystery author who wrote TITLE

Post a recipe from Pastabilities with a picture

Play book trailer for Pastabilities

Give Pinterest link to the board for Pastabliities’ characters and scenes

Announce prize winner for question 2

Show YouTube cooking video I made for Hermosillo Salsa.

Post question 3

Post a link to an excerpt for the second book in the series, Prime Rib and Punishment

Post a link to a book club guide for Pastablilities and an offer for

me to participate in a book club meeting via Skype/Facetime or in person.

Play book trailer (or reviews, cover, blurbs) for guest author

Interview/interaction with culinary mystery author who wrote TITLE

Announce prize winner for question 3

Post question 4 (winner announced at beginning of next hour)

Links to short mystery stories on-line

Share titles and synopses of the six books in the series

And so on.

Continue in this vein--some repetition, some new content. Your helper person(s) might be in charge of the posted answers to questions and determining winners as well as managing the posting of on-line videos and other content like pictures or recipes, freeing you to respond to questions, conduct interviews, and facilitate interactions with other authors.

Next week, in Part 3, I’ll give the nitty gritty of setting up the actual event on Facebook. See you then! In the meantime, start planning your event.

Marketing and Promoting Your Book with a Facebook Event, Part 1

A Facebook author event is an on-line Facebook page set for a specific time frame and either an invited or open-to-the-public happening. Most often there are games, giveaways, contests, and content provided.

It’s not that planning and running an author event on Facebook is so difficult, but there are a lot of moving parts, so I split this post in two with Part I this week and Part II next week.

Part I will focus on the prep for a Facebook event.

Part II will focus on how to set it up and what happens during and after the event.

Planning an event or happening on FB is a little complicated, but not too difficult. Just be well-planned before you go to set it up, then fill in the blanks. Set it up. Let ‘er rip.

With adequate prep, the event should go off smoothly. But before the event there are decisions to be made and materials and/or resources to accumulate.

Planning your Facebook Author Event:

1)   What kind of event are you planning?

A book launch? A connect-with-you event for fans? An “Author Takeover” event to allow connection with multiple authors? Fundraiser for some cause important to you and connected to what you write?

In an Author Takeover, gather a variety of authors in your genre (from around the world if possible). Or perhaps you are in an anthology. Get those authors to participate. An example of the fundraiser might be raising money for Desert Labrador Retriever Rescue if your books feature a rescue dog as an on-going character.

Name your event and select a picture to represent the event! Choose something memorable but short like “Pastabilities Book Launch.” The picture, of course, would be the book cover. Create a description that is concise, punchy, and use hashtags to aid in the spreading the word of the event.

2)   Allow 2-3 months prep time.

You need this time for planning and gathering materials and resources, but mostly for building buzz about the upcoming event. Drop hints on your FB author page, your blog, and your website. Post things like “Save the date! July 15^th is a BIG event coming your way.” Or, “Be my date. I want to spend time with you on July 15^th? Got a couple of hours?”

If there are multiple authors involved, set up the schedule for when each must be available for their part of the event. Have them promote the same way you are on your social media avenues. Provid them with copy so all they have to do is copy/paste.

Be sure to invite those attending to follow you on your FB author page and to subscribe to your website. Post that information periodically throughout the event (people come and go) or have it permanently available on the event site.

3)   What is your timeframe?

Will this event be a marathon 24 hours? Happen for two hours? What time frame works best for your fans in various time zones? What date has the least conflicts with other stuff in your life?

Make it easy for people to attend by making the time and location easy to find. Ask them to respond to the invitation for attendance and to spread the word to others.

4)   Who is going to help?

Even if this is a “simple” event lasting two hours, you will need at least one other person to help out. So get a good friend or friends to pitch in. Doing what, you ask?

If you have contests going on, someone has to monitor the entries and decide on the winner. If you have a successful event, you will have multiple conversation threads occurring simultaneously. When people post something, someone on your team needs to respond quickly.

I accumulate memes, questions to answer, lists of culinary books and authors, recipes, cooking tips and hacks, giveaways, polls, mini-mysteries to solve, etc. that are posted every several minutes. Accumulate enough to post at least 15 times per hour. See why you need 2-3 months?

You have to keep things happening, moving. You 

want people to stay for a long time and not leave 

because the event is boring. With so much 

happening, you need helpers to post and to respond 

with you.

Okay, you’re now ready to set up and run your Facebook author event. Come back next week to see how that works. If you have some suggestions to add, please comment below. I’m always trying to get better at this promo stuff!

10 Tips for Passive Advertising for Authors

Marketing a book requires more than picking out your business cards and setting up a Fan Page on Facebook. One big area authors often neglect is identifying a budget for marketing. How much do you have available to spend and where will you spend it?

Of course, we all know that the best advertising is word of mouth because you wrote an incredible book. That’s a given. But what else can you do?

There are two types of marketing in any business, and book selling is no different: active and passive advertising.

Active marketing is aggressive, requires campaigns, money and people resources, and is deliberate and purposeful. The point is to make each dollar and each hour spent return more than was spent.

In passive marketing, authors create materials/experiences and then let them spread the word in an on-going, rather than event, way.

Sometimes authors combine active and passive advertising, and, in fact, I think they should. Before a book’s release and immediately after, the author should assign a major part of marketing dollars to spread the word on availability. Linked to simultaneous passive advertising, the author should see some effect from the efforts. One of the hardest areas to gauge is the effect of various marketing strategies on sales given the lag time for sales data. And who knows who might later remember your book when going through paperwork and happening on your business card? How would you know that new sale was tied to the card?

This post focuses on passive advertising. We want to create maximum exposure with minimal effort or money. Here are xxx ideas for you to try, too.

1) One of the first recommendations here is to establish a Fan Page on Facebook. This is a place to interact with your readers, link to your blog posts, announce book signings and book releases, share content connected to the kind of book you write, and keep readers updated with what’s going on in your personal life and your writing. You can link readers to your website and blog to expand the content available to them.

A Caution: do provide more related content than in-your-face book selling. Nobody will come to your fan page to see you running the same book ads continually and solely.

2) My business cards take advantage of the valuable real estate on the back of the cards. See what I wrote about business cards when my first two books were published. Rather than use the back to list more about me or about my books (list of books, synopsis, etc.), I created content related to each book and gave people a reason to keep my card rather than trashing it.

For my culinary mystery, I printed a recipe on the back from the book title on the front. It’s an easy recipe that even kids could make. And it’s delicious and fast. A quick and cheap dinner recipe is content to keep!

For my erotic romance, I listed my protagonist’s “Top Ten Sex Tips.” That gets peoples’ attention, and I give away lots of those cards. Some people even ask for additional ones to give to friends. Now that is passive advertising!

Here’s a tip from an author friend of mine. When dining out, write a brief thank you to your server on a business card and leave with the tip. You never know who might see that card!

A Caution: Make sure the content is engaging enough that people will hang onto your business card and make sure the content connects to the content of your novel.

3) When I first saw the ad for car magnets, I knew I had to have them. They come two in a package and in different sizes. Lots of printing companies provide them. Probably your business card vendor has them available. The book title and your name should attract attention. I’ve had people in the grocery store parking lot ask me about my book.

A Caution: Getting the right size graphic to fit the space was a challenge for me. You don’t want to cut off your name or the title. I am spatially challenged on a good day. On a bad day . . . well, don’t ask.

4) Pens and other swag have been around a long time, but don’t discount them just because they’re not a new idea. People love getting useful stuff. I get pens printed with my book titles and names and hand them out in lots of venues. Again, there are lots of sources for stuff like this. My advice to go with a middle of the road pen, pricewise. Too cheap and they give out early, frustrating your potential customers. Too expensive and it’s not cost effective to give them out at book signings and other events.

5) Include your author name, book title, and publisher in your e-mail signature. Very easy to do and as passive as can be, not to mention free!

6) Seek more book reviews. If you have 20, set a goal for 50. If you have 50, set a goal for 100. On Amazon, we all look to see how many reviews (and the rating) that books we’re considering have. We are more likely to buy a book that a lot of people read and reviewed than one that few or none have read and reviewed. I don’t know the ratio of books read to how many end of being reviewed, but I know that more read than read and review. So if I see a book with 50 reviews, I would guess that thousands read the book. That gets my attention.

There are services that will provide you lists of people who review books like yours. Consider spending some of your marketing dollars on a service, then contact those people to ask for reviews. Once you have done that, the reviews that follow provide you with passive advertising for years to come as people dip into past articles and find you.

7) Seek more followers on your Fan Page. Keep building your list of people who follow your author page on Facebook (or Twitter or other social media sites you use). Continually add to your list by posting a request to be followed in various groups you belong to. The more people who see your Facebook listings the more potential book buyers you have.

By the way, do you follow me on Facebook? I’d appreciate it if you would. I have four Fan Pages for the different genres I write:

https://www.facebook.com/SharonArthurMooreAuthor/

https://www.facebook.com/RomanceRighter/

https://www.facebook.com/RiverGlynnAuthor/

https://www.facebook.com/carolineadamswriter/

8) Guest blog to get exposure beyond your own fan base. Provide a link to your website, blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook pages, and how to buy. Each person you guest blog for has a set of readers who are likely unfamiliar with you. Give them good content and a way to connect to get more followers and buyers.

9) Set up a Pinterest page with a story board for each book. Also provide content on other boards that relate to your book contents. I have recipes and cooking tips on my site for the culinary mysteries as well as beauty tips and elegant clothing for my romances. Check mine out (and follow me, please) at:

https://www.pinterest.com/authorsam/

10) Create a short PDF book to give away on your website or when people subscribe to your newsletter. Once the book is done, the passive part kicks in. The book can be past blog posts collected on a topic like how to keep romance alive or recipes you posted. It is sent to them for following you or for participating in a contest or as a bonus if they send proof of a book purchase. Make sure the free booklet has your book titles and how to buy.

There are lots more ways to passively advertise your work. Please share your favorites below. I’m always looking for ideas!

Newsletter: Black, White, and Blue All Over

An apology. I have been remiss in posting here. My daily Month-of-Recipes on another blog interfered with keeping up with the other three blogs. But, I’m back and will post weekly again.

I’ve been working on the development of a monthly newsletter, Murders with Taste. The newsletter will include information about my books, upcoming events, the occasional book review, and a recipe or kitchen hack, among other things. Isn't the graphic for the newsletter too, cute? I think it signals "cozy mystery" very well.

So what’s the problem? Why am I blue? Well. Here goes. My confession.

I’ve never had a natural affinity for spread sheets or desk top publishing programs. I’m pretty good with Word, and that’s about all I can claim.

When my new publisher suggested her authors should all consider doing a periodic newsletter, I perked up. I love new projects. I love the challenge of identifying interesting content. I can work to deadlines (I write two monthly food columns). And I love new projects. Did I already say that?

How hard could it be, I told myself. Writing content is pretty easy for me. After all I keep up with four blogs weekly, what’s the big deal about a short monthly newsletter?

Uh, a lot, as it turns out.

I didn’t even know the questions I needed to ask until I hit the hurdles, road blocks, and detour signs. I thought I had done my due diligence. I had read newsletters. I read about how to produce newsletters, but there were a few gaps between reading about and doing that had escaped me.

The articles I read about producing newsletters were about creating fresh content and keeping the newsletter a balance of news and promotion and using appealing graphics.

But, um, how do you get readers? How do you let people know you exist? How do people have 10K subscribers?

So I read a few more articles about how to attract followers to your blog/website/Facebook page, et al. I attended a couple of workshops on social media and how to build a following.

Here’s a news flash: This.Does.Not.Happen.Overnight.

Yeah, naïve of me, eh?

So I put out a call to get people on my mailing list and I finally (after viewing a tutorial) learned how to add names in MailChimp. I do not know a whole bunch of other stuff, however. For example, can I just send the newsletter to new subscribers after the initial mail out or do they have to wait until the next month. And there’s more, but I won’t bore you with what I’m still trying to figure out.

I also learned, to my dismay, that I must use the publishing program in MailChimp. I can’t create it in Word and import it. See above for me and desk top publishing issues.

I also would like to use MailChimp for mailing to subscribers content that isn’t created in the Mail Chimp program. But at this point, I can’t see a way to do it.

So the newsletter is done—content-wise. I can’t get the formatting right. I can’t get the pictures/graphics right. And I am very frustrated.

I learn best by doing with someone who know what to do. I read well, but there’s a big step (for me) from reading how to do and learning how to do.

I’m a pretty visual person. So show me. Don’t tell me. Don’t give me only written instructions. Written instructions work best (for me) as a back-up, a reminder of what I was shown to do.

Oh, and so much more is tripping me up. Can you tell I’m frustrated?

So, if you’re one of those already subscribed to Murders with Taste, I apologize that a newsletter I wanted to publish in mid-January still isn’t available. I am working on it, but it’s like working in the dark.

Hey, are you interested in subscribing to my short monthly newsletter? If so, give me your e-mail address, and I’ll pop you into MailChimp. This will happen. I promise!

Facebook: Have you struggled with creating, publishing, and distributing a newsletter? Have you had any of these struggles or are yours different? Sharon Arthur Moore bares her pages for you. http://bit.ly/2FdnpuJ

Twitter: #Authors, have you created a newsletter? Did you struggle with these issues as @Good2Tweat describes? http://bit.ly/2FdnpuJ

Facebook Author Pages

I’ve mentioned in this series of posts that I’ve been attending workshops, reading books, and finding articles about using social media outlets as an author. “Marketing R Us” should be emblazoned on any work about becoming a writer.

Don’t like it? That’s kinda too bad. ‘Cause this is the reality for a professional writer. And that’s you, right? Professional writers do what they must in the craft and business parts of the professional writer’s life.

One aspect that I’m paying more attention to after one such workshop, is my Facebook Author Pages. That’s right. Pages. When you write more than one genre, you need an identity for each, even the as-yet unpublished ones. I subscribe to Christina Katz’s perspective, Get Known Before the Book Deal.

That book was the first book I read on marketing. The year was 2010. She convinced me since I wasn’t known and had no book deals yet. Since then, I’ve published with two traditional, if small, presses and will publish with a third this fall. I’m a believer.

Back to Facebook Author Pages, I didn’t have all four at first. In fact, number four, Caroline Adams Writer, was added this summer. I think by next summer, I may add number five, Olivia Lucas, who writes women’s fiction.

By the way, I’d love it if you’d follow me on all four! Links below. Is that a cheeky ask, or what? Just click on a name to go to the Facebook author page.

So what do they all write, in the order I created the pages, and what do I post for each of them every day? As a side note, the postings I suggest here also work for Twitter! Get a two-fer by posting the same content both places.

Sharon Arthur Moore-Author writes cozy culinary mysteries. Her first book, now unavailable, was MISSION IMPASTABLE. The book will be re-issued from a different publisher as PASTABILITIES this fall. The “Murders with Taste” series is planned as a six-book series with recipes that mostly reflect the titles. A second culinary mystery series (in the planning stages) will be set in Alaska.

She belongs to several affinity groups on FB related to mystery writing and to cooking. On her FB page, she posts recipes, mystery book links, food holidays, and cooking tools and facts. She is also starting a newsletter she is trying to get subscribers for.

Angelica French writes about relationships: romantic, familial, friendship, and business. She is all about communication and empathy. Her first book is an erotic romance (180 degrees from culinary mysteries, thus the need for a pen name. STREETWALKER is a story of trust and redemption.

She belongs to several Facebook affinity groups for romance writers. On Angelica’s FB page, I post links to books I get from other Facebook groups, articles I find online, and links to articles about popular culture.

River Glynn-Author has a bit of an identity crisis. She is, as yet, unpublished, but she’s written a novel with a ghost story and has written a full-length play with a “ghost” in it. She also likes science and science fiction and has some books outlined for topics like the Voynich Document and a future dystopian society. River is also a high fantasy fan and would love to do a fantasy series with paranormal elements.

She belongs to some FB paranormal groups and also follows a lot of them as well as science folks on Twitter.

She posts science events (past and present), weird holidays, links to paranormal, scifi, and fantasy books, links to articles about science facts and paranormal tales.

Caroline Adams Writer is my newest persona. She writes historical fiction and Intrepid Women biographies for middle grade readers. She has an historical fiction romance, LUCINDA, that is as-yet unpublished, though there has been some interest in her work from agents and editors at conferences. She wants to write about a Singuan woman she thinks was one of her previous incarnations. She also has plans for a Viking-settlement historical fiction novel. She is fascinated by many eras in history. Too many? Possibly.  

Caroline belongs to historical fiction affinity groups on FB. I post for her links to historical fiction books, archaeology finds, articles about historical eras, and historical trivia facts.

See, it’s easy to find stuff to post for your FB author page and Twitter. Just keep the focus for your persona.

FACEBOOK: Authors, do you struggle with what content to post on your FB author page or Twitter beyond links to buy your books? Struggle no more with these suggestions that will help. http://bit.ly/2EjWU6b

TWITTER: #Authors sometime struggle with what to post on Facebook and Twitter that isn’t just links to their own books. Try some of these ideas from @Good2Tweat. http://bit.ly/2EjWU6b

10 Tips to Build Your E-Mail List

BookBaby says your number one marketing goal is to build your email list.

If you’re an author, and not just an indie one, you know the mantra about the need to have a mail list. This is a tidy way to contact your followers, and most of us don’t spam readers with multiple e-mails in a month. And we NEVER sell or share our lists. Readers have an expectation of our professionalism when handling private information and taking their valuable time. We honor that.

In fact, quite the opposite of too many emails, lots of authors start a monthly newsletter and after a while it ends up being “periodic”. There’s just so darn much to do as an author and we have the same 24 hours the rest of the world has. But somehow it seems we’re supposed to fill all 26 of them.

Being able to get in touch quickly and easily with a large number of people is important to authors. So, I buy books on social media presence and attend workshop sessions in an effort to learn how to build a list organically. I might be able to buy email addresses, but really??? I want fans and followers, not bots.

So, one very important tip I’ve picked up is to have sign-up buttons everywhere. Now, have I done that, yet? Umm. No. But I’m working on it. Give me a break. I’m still figuring out MailChimp!

So on MailChimp, I can get a url that I can attach to social media sites I have (website, Facebook, Twitter, et al.) so that folks just click and they are added to my email subscribers list. So, I’ll figure that out and do it.

The other important piece, however, and this is the hard part, is how do folks know you exist with this amazing content?

One of the most interesting ways I’ve found is from Jeff Goins (whom I subscribe to for marketing tips. Contact him at jeffATjeffgoinswriterDOTcom) and an interview with a guy who went from 0 subscribers to tens of thousands. In a short time. With almost no effort.

Did that get my attention? Oh, yeah!

His guest interviewee, Benjamin Hardy took blog posts that had lots of hits and posted them on medium.com. He was discovered there. And with the url button available he got thousands and thousands and thousands of people following him on his website and blog.

Let me repeat. He took content he already produced and re-posted it. And sometimes, he tweaked it a bit and re-posted it again. He has a huge following on medium.com now.

Of course, I did it, too. I have not been discovered. Yet. By the same token, Ben said he wasn’t discovered immediately. He kept posting. Once one post hit big, he grew incrementally. And, I have only put up a few posts. My new marketing plan includes posting once a week at medium.com. Easy peasy since the posts are done. A past post that has 500 to 1000 page views should attract attention on medium.com, too.

What are some other tips on building an e-mail list that I’ve garnered?

1)   Put a link at the back of your book for readers to follow and click to be subscribed.

2)   Good content in a newsletter gets shared and your name gets out.

Keep your content relevant, not overselling your books, and keep it interesting. Word will spread. In fact, ask people to share your newsletter with others.

3)   Offer something of value when someone subscribes and require e-mail to get it.

(I am creating a PDF of recipes for one mail list. Another blog post is coming on this one.)

4)   An informative blog is the most common way to grow an e-mail list since people liking your content will often subscribe and tell others about you.

5)   Put an e-mail opt-in form on your website.

6)   Seek guest blogging opportunities and let people know they can be on your list.

7)   Encourage people to forward your newsletter so others will read it and subscribe.

8)   Vlog and give your address for e-mail opt-in to get more content.

9)   Create a closed section on your site that can only be accessed by members who gave an e-mail address.

10)  Collect e-mail addresses at events like book signings.

Facebook: Need tips on building your e-mail list? Here are ten ideas Sharon Arthur Moore culled to share. http://bit.ly/2BCJrkz

Twitter: 10 tips for #writers for building an e-mail list from @Good2Tweat http://bit.ly/2BCJrkz