Tag Archives: Twitter

Lesson 76

01 Wednesday Mar 2017

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Hi all, I know I promised a lesson about marketing, but I ended up forgetting it was Wednesday. Whoops! The days are starting to run together, and I’m still trying to get on a regular blogging schedule…

Anyway, it’s Wednesday again, so I’m going to talk about it now.

Marketing. We all hate it, don’t we? Maybe it’s just me, but marketing is something to despise.

A lot of authors (me included) have no idea what to do when it comes to marketing. Well, lucky for me, even though I’m still figuring it out, I have discovered a few things to help with that.

If you have a Facebook page, Twitter account, and any other social media account, you’re going to want to look at when your most popular posts are seen. You’ll want to schedule posts for that time, and more people will see it.

Post often. The more often you post, the more people will see it. Some of those people will want to buy it!

Make connections. If you connect with other authors, they may want to help to promote it. They may want to actually buy your book.

Don’t be spammy. Yes, I just said to post often, but there’s a difference between posting often and spamming everyone. Don’t just send out a ton of links and expect everyone to be okay with it. Don’t message everyone saying, “Buy my book,” and expect to make a ton of money. It doesn’t work like that. That’s not connecting. That’s spamming everyone, and quite frankly, it’s annoying.

Some of these may seem obvious, but I’m still learning. What are you doing to market your book? If you have any tips that aren’t mentioned here, comment below!

Lesson 53

06 Wednesday May 2015

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Another Wednesday, another lesson. If you read up on Monday, you know what we’re talking about today…

Making connections.

I know, I talked about how big of a problem this is on Monday. Today, I’m talking about making the right kind of connections.

Sometimes, if you’re really popular on Twitter, you get all sorts of things thrown at you while people are tweeting you and wanting to talk to you. Or, if you’re like me, you get ignored most of the time and just kind of do your own thing.

Getting tweeted at too many times a day is a better problem to have, in my opinion. At least people notice you.

If you’re like me, you actually have to make a point to talk to people, or at least retweet or favorite their posts. Make sure the posts are relevant to what you’re wanting to say you’re all about, though. I mean, come on guys. Don’t just go retweeting what someone had for dinner. You’re better than that.

If you retweet for someone, or you talk to them, you’re making connections. But make sure to be mature about it. You do know that starting a fight isn’t mature…right?

A few years ago, I had another Twitter account. Someone tweeted me saying I was a fool if I thought I could make a difference in the world. I really thought about replying and saying that they were the stupid ones. But, I decided to make the mature choice. All I did was block them. I’m so glad I made the choice to do so.

I know it’s tempting to either not be mature when it comes to talking to people. I also know it’s tempting to ignore people and hope they ignore you so you can just continue doing you’re own thing. But neither of those will get your books sold. Think about it.

I guess that about does it. Next time you’re on any social media site, think about the connections you’re making, or should be making. I’ll see you on Friday with a prompt!

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The Trouble With Writing

04 Monday May 2015

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It’s another Monday, so it’s time to look at what the trouble with writing is once again. This week, we’re looking at not talking to other writers.

I know, a lot of you are going to protest. Either, “I do too talk to other writers!” or “But I could be spending that time writing!” Shush now, just read. Protest later.

I’ve been on Twitter quite a bit more than I was there for a while lately, and I see links everywhere.

I know, I’m following too many authors and not enough readers. Blah, blah, blah. I’ve heard it before. Not my fault the only people that follow me are authors and people that sell you Twitter followers. I just follow back the authors.

But come on now, that’s not the point, is it? We should be talking to each other instead of just spamming each other with links. Talk to each other, people.

I admit it, I’m guilty of it, too. Too much spam and not enough talk. This post is as much for me as it is for anyone else, so any of my Twitter followers that may want to call me a hypocrite, I’m well aware of what I’m doing. Believe me. At least I admit it.

But guys, let’s be honest, Twitter was made to make connections. Connections are an extremely important part of being an author, so why are we not making them? I don’t know about you, but I consider that to be a pretty big problem.

I guess that’ll about do it until then. We’ll talk more about this on Wednesday. Until then, make more connections!

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Lesson 52

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Today, we’re looking at lesson 52. Do you know what that means, guys? One full year of lessons!

Today, we’re looking at marketing. I know, I’m probably the last person you want to hear about marketing from because I’m inexperienced and hired someone to do that for me. Hey now, she approached me. Quit rolling your eyes.

We’ll go through this journey together. I mean, my publicist surely can’t reach everyone, so I have to do some of that marketing myself. Right? Of course right.

Okay, so, where was I?

Oh, yeah, marketing.

Marketing is an evil word to all writers. We should spend time writing instead of marketing our books…right? Do you want them to sell? We have to market.

I’ve seen a lot of authors on Twitter being…noisy, let’s say. They’re screaming, “BUY MY BOOK!” and putting a link. Um…yeah. Don’t do that. I unfollow those people because they’re annoying.

Instead of just screaming and posting a link on social media, make relationships. That’s what I do. Well, let’s be honest, I tend to talk to the same people over and over again, but on some social media sites, I’ve actually talked to people who are actually excited to see Days of the Kill come out, and I already have a few buyers.

So, are you using social media to market? Are you being noisy, or are you forming relationships? Think about that next time you get on any social media.

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One Year Later

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

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I know, you’re all expecting a lesson today. Sorry, that’s not happening. Instead, I’m going to share some news: It’s been exactly one year since I started this website! Wow. Who would’ve thought I could keep something up for that long?

It’s crazy to think how long I’ve kept this up. I know, one year isn’t really a big deal but keep something in mind: I started a website a while back. I kept it up for…about two months. If that long. I guess this time I was serious about it so I actually kept it up.

One year ago, I had no idea what blogging was all about, and I really had no idea how I was supposed to get the word out about it. I admit, I’m still not that great… I guess I’ve just gotten better at it.

I used to not have my posts connected to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, and for the longest time I was stuck on 13 views. That’s not really a lot, is it? No, it’s not. I was devastated. Where was the famous level I was supposed to be at? (I was naive, I know)

Then, I discovered connected it to all the social media sites, so they were automatically posted for me. I loved that. I was so happy to have them all posted! And wouldn’t you know it? My views exploded.

I’m happy to report that now, my posts are seen almost every day. I’ve been seen in over 70 countries, and over 1,100 times!

Thank you to everyone who has followed me for any length of time, and thank you to those who just take the time to read what I write. And thank you to anyone that comments on my posts or even likes them. Without all of you, I wouldn’t be where I’m at right now.

On Friday, it’s back to the regular schedule. I just had to take a moment to say thank you to all of you.

Until then, keep on writing.

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The Trouble With Writing

02 Monday Mar 2015

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It’s another Monday, so it’s time to look at what the trouble with writing is once again. This week, we’re looking at blank screens. I give credit to my conversation last night with one of my Twitter friends for this topic.

Blank screens are the enemy of every writer. I don’t care how experienced you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re completely new to writing, or if you’ve been writing for years and have several books out. A blank screen is still you’re enemy.

It freaked me out when I started a second book. The first book (okay, I guess it’s technically my second, but the first one didn’t go anywhere so I’m calling this first) I didn’t really think about it. I was just some kid (okay…legal adult. I was 19. I still consider myself a kid) with this great idea completely different from anything I had every heard before. So, I began writing without stopping to think about the blank screen.

Then came November. You know what that means, right? Of course you do. NaNoWriMo came around. At first, I wasn’t going to do it. I really wasn’t. Then it filled my Twitter page. That was all I saw. So, guess what I did? I gave into peer pressure. Sigh.

The blank screen for my NaNoWriMo project freaked me out. It was the first time I really realized that I was looking at a blank screen that I was expected to fill with words that people would read. You can imagine how much that made my anxiety go up!

Then came my third book. Again, the blank screen freaked me out. I didn’t know how I was going to fill that entire screen up… I’m managing, though. Somehow.

That’s the trouble with writing, though, isn’t it? We all look at blank screens and they can intimidate us.

I use deadlines to overcome the blank screens. What do you use? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

 

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