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Category: WordSowers Blog

Think of your website as your home on the web. Where you invite guests to come hang out with you a while. Just like you would prepare for guests to come to your physical address, you need to prepare to have them visit you online.
 
You want your guests to be comfortable staying around awhile, you want them to come back and you want them to bring their friends. In order to create such a place, your website should be inviting, easy to navigate and full of the kind of good stuff they will enjoy.
 
There are a lot of neat add ons you can have on your website, but there are 5 basic things everyone needs to incorporate into their plan for a winning author website.

A Professional Appearance

Take a look at the business websites out there. Stroll through their pages and get a feel for what it looks like. Generally speaking, they will be uncluttered with plenty of whitespace. Don’t add too much color. Keep the font simple – don’t go crazy with this, even if it is fun.
 
When there is too much busyness, it is hard to know where to go on a website to find what you need. And it can simply give you a headache.
 
Create an awesome about page: not just about who you are, but what can they expect on your website.
 
There needs to be blogging activity on your site. Not just quantity, but quality content.  This is generally where people will find the good stuff they like. The stuff they want to hang out a bit to consume.
 
Tools: (free) website building: Blogger, Weebly, WordPress 

Quality Images/Graphics

Every image should be sharp and clear. Your author picture needs to be professional quality. Having an image in each post creates visual interest. And according to Buffer, (https://blog.bufferapp.com/blog-images) visual content is more than 40 times more likely to be shared.
 
Tools: 
My pick where to find images: 

Photo Editing: Canva

Newsletter Sign Up Form

The best thing you can do for yourself is to start collecting emails of those people interested in what you write! When they give you their email, they are giving you permission to contact them directly and they are more likely to buy your materials than followers on social media.
 
Do this through a newsletter. Offer something of value to convince them to sign up. Then when you send out your newsletter, give them valuable information and share when your books are coming out.  
 
Tools: Mail Chimp, Canva (see link above)

Follow Buttons for All Your Social Media Profiles

Make it easy for people to find you! Put those buttons where they are easy to see.
 

Sharing Tools

Make it easy for your audience to share about you and your content without leaving your website. Some of the tools available are: social share buttons, Click to Tweet, Memes (make your blog photo something people will want to share), Pin it hover buttons.
 
Tools: 
Bitly to shorten your links 
Click to Tweet : How to create 
Canva (see link above) 
Images (see links above) 
 
Once you have your basics in place, there will be plenty of bells and whistles to add. Look around at what other people are doing then google how to get it done. There is a tutorial for just about everything!
What tools have you found helpful on your website?



photo credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net // cooldesign

Mind Mapping works for me:
My Mind Map 
In a critique group I asked the writers to list the people they’d rubbed shoulders with that day or that week. I also took the challenge and drew out my diagram. Each of us were amazed at the lives we touched.

 

Joyce, Karen, Audrey
The same happens with our fiction characters. If I want my main character to amount to anything, the reader needs to see them connecting with others:
Hiding Goals?
  • Those who appreciate them and those who don’t.
  • The people they choose to ignore.
  • The neighbor they haven’t spoken to in years.
  • The childhood friend who disappointed them.
We also need to see their dreams and goals.
  • Will they see the dream come to pass?
  • How will they respond if they never see the dream fulfilled?
  • Are their goals realistic?
  • Do they share their goals or hide them, afraid others won’t understand?
I’ve written and sold non-fiction, but last November I took the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge to write 50,000 words in one month. I managed to first draft over 68,000. What a great reminder on character building. One of my big problems—I have a couple faultless characters.
New goal—create flawed humans!
Not Necessarily Physically Flawed 
I Dreamed Big!
The dreams came to pass.
Now I can say I’ve taught at
and several times at
 
(HACWN) in Kansas. 
 
I also teach for our local 
 
Does that make me an expert?
 No, silly, an expert is simply a drip under pressure. 
 
I am a writer who loves to share the bit of knowledge 
I have and continue to glean with others. 
 
What about you? 
Share your writing dreams.
For the month of January I think about what I can possibly do in one year. I post notes in my Bible, my Jesus Calling book, and on the walls in my office.
Not everyone works with written goals. Charles Schultz, otherwise known as Sparky, said he knew his deadline. He mapped out the cartoon squares he needed to fill on large paper. Then he looked out the window. He said he did some of his best work while doing what others would call nothing.
From Charles Schultz Images Online

Sometimes if someone entered his studio while Schultz looked out the window for fresh inspiration, he dashed to his desk in order to look busy. After all, we don’t want those looking on to think writers, illustrators and cartoonists do nothing,I liked Sparky’s idea. We all need to laugh at ourselves more.
So what are my writing goals for 2015?

1.      Finish my WIP “Unscheduled Life.” The novel I started in November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
2.      Publish “Kat’s Lion Tales.”
3.      Write —“My Thirteen Husbands.” Non-fiction, full of fun and laughter.
4.      Begin novel: “The Oil Change Said it All.”
What are my impossible dreams?
1.      Find an all terrain vehicle for Enoch Stalcup.
Enoch Stalcup

My friend in Estcada, Oregon, who loves to fish and hunt…his wheel chair doesn’t give him freedom. (Enoch built the website for Creating Memories for DisabledChildren.)

2.      Raise money for Creating Memories for
DisabledChildren—(blog) CMFDC needs more dollars to  rebuild the cabins in Ashley’s Park and add more wheel chair accessible trails.
What about you?
Are you trusting God for the impossible?
Share your writers goals and your dreams.
photo credit: Free Digital Photos // Stuart Miles
photo credit: Free Digital Photos // Stuart Miles

You’ve gotten started on social media. Facbook, Twitter, maybe another. Are your profiles working for you?

A profile is more than the image you see at the top of Facebook, Google+, Twitter and any other spot on the web. It’s the about section, the presentation, the images.
If used well, profiles can be a window display for your business. A part of your branding. How people know who you are and why in the world they should follow you.
Here are 6 tips to make your profile work better for you.
  1. Be consistent among all your profiles. You don’t want visitors to your profile to wonder if they have reached the right spot. Use the same author picture (or at least from the same photo session), same colors, same feel.
  2. Use a professional quality author photo. It looks vastly different online from just a snapshot or selfie. If you want to be taken seriously (even if your act is comedy), then present a professional image.
  3. Use quality images for any graphics in your profile header. Make sure you own them or you have the appropriate permission to use them. Sometimes you have to pay and sometimes a simple attribution works. But, DO NOT just grab them from the web. Being on the web does not make them public domain.
  4. Fill out your profile completely. This is often the place where people connect with you. Because your message resonates with them. Because you went to the same school. Because you both love pets. Lots of reasons to connect and this is where you provide those reasons if they don’t already know you from somewhere else.
  5. ALWAYS have links to other places online they can find you. They may stumble across you in one social media, but prefer a different one. Don’t make them work to find you there. Make it so easy they can’t do anything but follow you.
  6. Be active on your profiles. This does not mean you have to tweet 30 times a day or post on FB a zillion times in a week. But when people stop by there should be life. No one wants to hang out where no one else is. How much is the right amount? Whatever you can keep up with. If you can only post once a month or once a day, do it faithfully.
Suggested Resource: Check out Canva to create great headers and covers for your profiles.
Have you found a creative way to use your profile?
May 2008 our oldest daughter called to ask what I wanted for Mother’s Day.

“How about a trip to Oregon.”

free digital Photo
“Mom, be real?”
“Well I need a new computer.”
“Mother, something attainable, please.”
“Honey, I don’t have a want list these days. I don’t really need anything and what I do need or desire are impossible to buy or attain.”
“Mom, that’s really sad. You are the one that taught me to dream big.”
After we discussed my lack of faith, I hung up, opened my Bible and wrote my list.
1.   I’d like to teach a workshop at a writer’s conference.
2.   I’d like a trip to Oregon to see our family

3.   I’d like a new computer.

Marcus, Karen, Me and Kaitlynn
4.   I’d like a tapestry banner with a lion.
(can’t remember #5 but received it)
The next week a virus hit my computer and killed it dead. Deader than dead.
I whined to the Lord, “I didn’t think we’d have to buy one—how will we pay for it?” Husband made sure I bought the best of the best desktop computers. We put it on a payment plan. (Sidenote: can you believe, in only three months an unexpected check arrived—we paid for the computer without interest.)
 

Three weeks after my conversation with my daughter a huge tapestry arrived. 

“Found this in the backroom where I work—it was on sale,” daughter said.
 
Wow. The lion and the lamb are beautifully woven into a huge tapestry. Much larger than I dreamed about.
 
Before long I found an airline ticket at half the usual price. I flew to Oregon and enjoyed family.
 
In the fall a friend I met online sent me an email. “Would you teach a workshop at our first IDAHope writers conference next year.” ‘
 
Can you see me? I jumped, yelled, hollered and called our daughter.
 
“Guess what? I’ve been asked to teach at a writer’s conference.”
 
Feeling blessed beyond belief I sent out emails to everyone I knew. Many friends congratulated me. Then I found out I needed to pay for an airline ticket from Omaha, Nebraska to Boise, Idaho.
 
I backtracked. 
 
Sent out another email saying, “It sounded too good to be true and I guess it is. I’m not going, but I’m thrilled with the invitation.”
 
But God wasn’t done.
 
The next day an email from a friend in Florida arrived.
 
“How much is the ticket? I’m sending the money in today’s mail?”
 
I did go to IDAHope.
 

I met many new authors—some are still in touch with me.

Author Carol Colson
 
I did spend three nights and four days with Carol Colson, a new precious friend whose book will come out soon.
 
I did teach, not one workshop, but two and critiqued twelve manuscripts in all genres’.
 
Now it’s 2015, time to set goals for the new year?
 
How big can I dream?
 
God is the God of the impossible.
 
If I can find it, pay for it, 
plan it in my budget—that isn’t dreaming big. 
I don’t need God if I can do it all myself.
More to come.
Somewhere around early 2008 I desired to teach writers workshops. When a conference leader asked for those interested in teaching to send an application with qualifications, I wrote a short note about my desire to teach and the following:
 Qualifications: Published in twelve anthologies, sixty magazine articles, and wrote for the Plattsmouth Journal for eighteen months. Published Capsules of Hope Survival Guide for Caregivers, and held numerous book signings for A Cup of Comfort. I started a critique group in 2006 and today everyone in the group is a published author.
I thought myself well-qualified, but I didn’t get the job. 
Not even a reply from the Leader. 
Does that mean I did something wrong? 
No, however I did feel disappointed. 
Did I stop sending out requests to teach?
Absolutely not. 
 
And at that time Husband kept saying, “Mook, dream BIG.” 
 
And I did.
More To Come.

 

photo credit: Free Digital Photos //Stuart Miles
photo credit: Free Digital Photos //Stuart Miles
When deciding which social media to use, ask yourself, “Who and where is my audience?”
If your audience is 20 something, don’t hang out at an AARP forum. Determine what kinds of things your audience enjoys and be a part of it.
What is your purpose? Each Social Media platform (Twitter, Facebook, blog, Google+) has its strengths and purposes. Do a bit of research and see which fits with your needs.
Where are you already? Don’t get caught up in doing it all. Not everything will be a fit. Are you already online? Start where you are. Build it up. Keep adding as you discover those places that are a fit for your message and your audience.
What do you enjoy? If you get a profile on Twitter, but hate it, you aren’t as likely to use it. Its better to have no profile there than an unused one. Your fans will want to see you active. Give a new spot a try, but don’t bang your head against the wall if its not working for you.
Remember from last week: your platform must be sustainable. It must work with your life if you’re going to maintain it.
Do you have a platform or marketing question you would like answered?
~ ~ ~
Writing Prompt:
The following paragraph is wordy! And pretty boring (serves the purpose of this exercise). Two challenges:
1) Tighten up the word count. Right now its at 60.
2) Give it some zing. Some interest.
Have fun! Leave a comment and let us know your new word count for challenge #1.
They went down to the store where there was a guy working that had sold them a broken toaster. They needed a toaster so bad because they didn’t have an oven, so they needed to get their money back. Then they would go and get one at a different store where their neighbor told them a sale was going on.
Resource Suggestion: JeffGoines
 “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” ― Toni Morrison

 

www.angeladmeyer.com

Platform/Marketing Tip

Start now to work on your platform. Don’t wait until you “need” it. A platform takes a while to build. Start early so you don’t feel pressured to do it all at once. Find a pace that fits you and your life so you won’t burn out.

Building an author platform must be sustainable 
to avoid burnout. (Click to Tweet)

Writing Prompt

photo credit: Angela D. Meyer
  • Set your timer for 10 minutes.
  • Write as much of a story/scene as you can.
  • Do not edit.
Suggested Resource: Michael Hyatt
Do you have a question you would like answered?

“Nice job,” my husband said when he read one of my articles published in the Sunday School handout called The Standard for the Church of the Nazarene.

 “Yes, I’m glad it’s published. Thrilled to see my name in print. Like the payment, but my goal is to be the feature story.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I want the front cover story.”

A month later I opened a packet with three copies of my latest article, ‘Basket of Goodness’ published in LIVE, a Sunday School Handout for the Assemblies of God church.

Although my hubby watched the Nebraska Husker football, I waved a copy of my story in front of his face.

At first he pushed it away. When I continued to pester him, he grabbed the paper and glanced at it.

“You did it, Babe. You have your feature story.” He grinned.

“I still wish to be published in Chicken Soup.”
“You’ll get there, Babe. You’ll get there.”
And last year I did. What a thrill.

Okay, I’m back to a few who say, “Well where is your book?” They know I published “Capsules of Hope: Survival Guide for Caregivers” five years ago. They also know I have a few hundred other ideas floating in my head for a novel, but for right now—well

I’m thrilled once more to say, “Hey, gang, this year I’m published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Touched by an Angel . What a thrill. Wish my precious hubby were here to celebrate with me.
Several years ago I joined an online writers group where a published author posed the thought for a couple days and others responded.
When we talked about pacing, author Brandilyn Collins said:
I base my opinions on the fact that the actual wording of a sentence creates a rhythm within the reader. We live by rhythm. It’s so common to us we don’t realize it. But as writers we need to understand how to use sentence rhythm to create a desired effect in a scene.
 
When we are scared, our hearts beat faster. We tense. Our eyes move more quickly. Everything about our bodies picks up a heightened rhythm. In creating an aura in a scene, we need to pay attention to the rhythm of our readers.
I pulled a couple books from my shelf to see if I could sense what Ms. Collins calls rhythm.
“Why are you here?” she asked him.
“His Majesty has summoned you to the throne room.” He gestured to the

door and waited for her to lead the way.

Abijah’s heart began to race. Ahaz had never summoned her to the throne room before. “Perhaps…would he like to see his new son?” she asked.
“The king said nothing about his son. He sent for you.” (Austin, Lynn; God’s & Kings page 190.)
We can feel the tension in only those few words. And what about this short scene:
Miles passed by.
“I think I’d like to kiss you good-night sometimes.”
“Okay.”
“I heard that smile.”
“Did you expect me to say no?”
“I’m just thinking about it.”
Bryce glanced over. Her eyes were closed and she was drifting. He smiled, and didn’t break the silence. He was thinking about it too.
Slower paced—awe, but feel the rhythm.  (Henderson, Dee; Unspoken; pg 358)
HACWN friends, editors and publishers 2013

Do you love writers sitting around chatting and learning together? Me, too. I used the photo above to illustrate the family feel. Unfortunatly, all critique groups don’t feel like family.

When I first attended a critique group years ago, a woman I didn’t know well bluntly said, “You write in purple prose.” I didn’t have a clue what she meant.love the color purple, I did write poetry, but I submitted a double-spaced typewritten article in black and white, where did she find purple or even rhyme?
Unsure of myself, I didn’t ask what she meant. (Besides, you weren’t supposed to ask questions, just listen to the critique.) When I arrived home I called a writer friend, she explained the critique to me.
I survived six weeks in the group—seven well-published women and me. They taught me more in that space of time than in any critique group since.
Tough, yes. After each session I drove home in tears. My husband couldn’t understand why I returned, but I developed a tough hide.
 
I knew those women wanted the best for me.
So what is purple prose?
  • The flowery speech of King Jameth,
  • Too many descriptive words to convey a simple thought.
  • Lengthy convoluted sentences.
  • Paragraphs of descriptive dialogue.
Editors and readers like concise sentences made up of active verbs and specific nouns. After you write, edit. Edit again. Cut more. Remember many editors pay by the word. Edit your work as if every word cost you $1. Now practice cutting your word count by 200 or 400 words.
One last thought–our move to another city took me away from the woman with a harsh critique, but not from writing. It pays to take what feels like harsh criticism handed to us for our good.