The Importance of Rest

Are you feeling the holiday "let-down" yet? Go with it!

The hustle and bustle of preparing for holidays has always been enjoyable for me. But when it's over, I'm left with feeling, "Now what?" or "Shouldn't I be doing something?" 

Rest. The only one who can get off that treadmill is you.

Now is not the time to rev up your engine for January 1st. Goal setting can be over-rated. Are we driving ourselves too hard? 

My challenge for you busy writers out there is to give yourself the next 10 days to rest. That means to purposely set aside a routine.

It's going to look different for each of us but here are some tips:

• No cooking. Purchase lost of wonderful sandwich and salad fixings and let everyone know the kitchen is closed. It might be a good time to even have a 3 day juice fast.

• Don't be in such a hurry to pack up the Christmas tree (if you had one). Linger awhile longer with a cup of tea or hot chocolate and cozy up in your favorite spot and enjoy the warmth of candles and lights.

• Read a book. 

• Stay in your pajamas all day.

• Limit or ignore all emails, social networking, and anything that will make you tempted to take care of business. 

• Watch movies.

Be lazy!

If you work outside the home, schedule this time on the weekends and/or after work. If you have children at home, get on the floor and play with them. The key is to do the opposite of your routine. Make the changes.

Consider what marathon runner, Jeff Gaudette says:

"Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes new runners make is not taking enough rest, or downtime as it is called in running circles, between long training segments or after marathons. Not only does resting for seven to 10 days have little negative impact on your current fitness, the long-term gains you will be able to make will enable you to continue to make consistent progress, year after year without overtraining."

Writing is like a marathon. With the finish line in sight we know how to faithfully stay the course. Taking this time off will not have a negative impact on your career. If anything, it will have a positive impact. 

christopherallisonphotography.com / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Part of our success will come from recognizing the need to schedule in rest. We have to take care of ourselves. If we're in it for the long haul we will acknowledge the necessity of scheduling it. And the last week of the year is naturally a great time to do it!

                                                       ~~~

Kathy Moulton is a freelance writer. You can find her passion to bring encouragement and hope to people of all ages at When It Hurts -http://kathleenmoulton.com

Thank You From Writers on the Move

I know it’s a HUGE cliché, but this year has really flown by. On the personal side, I went through hurricane Sandy, got flooded, fixed up, and then moved. I also started a new business, the Article Writing Doctor.

But, the purpose of this post is to THANK YOU for being a part of our online lives, for following our authors and writers, for commenting and sharing our work, and for subscribing to our site.

To further emphasis our appreciation, members of Writers on the Move compiled an ebook of quotes as a gift from us to YOU.

Our members are writers, just like most of you and the following quotes have been inspirational and motivational to them, in writing and in life. It is our wish that these quotes give YOU, our reader, the same motivation and inspiration they have given us.

Without each one of our members and without you, our blog would not be as rich and fulfilling as it is.

Special thanks to Linda Wilson for her contribution to this post.

So, without further ado, here is the link to, Winter 2013 Compilation of Quotes from Writers on the Move: http://www.karencioffi.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/WOTM_Winter2013_eBook1.pdf 

As a bonus, this ebook is SHAREABLE, as long as it remains intact. You can use it as an end of the year gift to your readers, as a freebie, or for some other incentive.

Have a healthy and happy Holiday Season and a Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Happy Christmas

Christmas Eve and those of us who have everything under control can relax and look forward to a more--or less--peaceful day. Me? I'm still winding tinsel round the bannisters and hanging cards, wrapping parcels and eyeing in despair the muddy mess that was my kitchen floor. Yep--feeling just like the cross-eyed penguin in the front row right.

And it struck me that maybe how we cope with Christmas is how we cope with our writing life. I'm a deadline junkie, always flying in at the last possible moment when I know in my heart how much easier everything would be with better planning and, more importantly, sticking to a plan.

Happy. Happy Christmas if you're ready and set to go and scanning this post at leisure.

Happy, Happy Christmas if you're like me in the manic throes of preparation.

And Happy, Happy Holiday if you're managing to take the time out to catch up with your writing life.

My dear husband keeps asking what I want for Christmas. Dare I ask for the day off to plan a new novella?

What's your life lesson from the run up to Christmas? Whatever you're doing, have a wonderful day. And remember, even the disasters will be marvelous fodder for your writing.

 Anne Duguid is a freelance content editor with MuseItUp Publishing and she tries to pass on helpful writing,editing and publishing tips at Slow and Steady Writers 

Writing and Book Marketing - Pitching the Media (Part4)

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Pitching the media requires courage. And knowledge. It helps to know that the likes of journalists, hosts, and bloggers need you as much as you need them. Without content (that’s where you come in!) they have no reviews, no stories, no interviews.

Think of yourself as building relationships when you approach the media. You present yourself as someone who can help them do their job. You present your book or expertise as something that will interest their audience. To do that, your pitch might include:

• Information that is brand new to a gatekeeper’s audience.
• Something that will solve a problem for him or for his audience.
• Something that will entertain his audience.
• Something that will involve the audience emotionally (a human interest story).
• An idea how he might use your message or skills in a regular feature that appears in his magazine or an idea for an article for his blog.

The time or space you have to catch a prospect’s attention is limited. The journalist/editor/host/producer needs to know what you can offer that will make his job easier. In the sample Tip Sheet I give you in the Appendix of this book are twelve publicity “No-Nos,” one of which tells you that editors you are pitching do not exist to give you free publicity because you want or need it. They are on deadlines and overworked. It is your job to make this editor’s job really, really, really easy for him. Make it clear that you are there to help and that you have all your ducks quacking in unison.

Start your pitch quickly. Make the media person aware of a problem that you can solve for him, then—just as rapidly—outline how information about you or your book is the solution to that problem. He won’t want your life’s story or a synopsis of your book until he’s convinced that he needs you.

Here are some ways you—not necessarily your book—might be interesting to the media gatekeepers:

• Hometown reporters want to know they have a published author living in their town.
• Journals for seniors are interested if you are over fifty-five, but almost all publications will be interested if you are very young.
• Perhaps you’ve changed careers midstream. That might interest editors of newspaper business sections or business magazines.
• You might have a women’s or men’s angle that will work for gender-related periodicals.
• You are a vegetarian or practice yoga and that affects your creative process.
• You can be controversial. Some say there is no such thing as bad publicity. The exposure and sales of Richard Clarke’s book, Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror was helped considerably by controversy and its well-timed release.

Here’s how your book might fill a reporter’s need:

• Some editors like the idea that a novel is set in their locale.
• Are there any premises or themes in your fiction that shed light on what is happening in the news? A book that exposes the corrosive nature of intolerance after 9/11, as an example.
• Is there a literary interest? You might have written in a cross-genre or experimented in some other way. If your concept is unusual enough, that will be news for periodicals marketed to authors.
• Is there a strong similarity in your work to a film or book that everyone is talking about? Sometimes reporters tie one book to another, and some reviewers pack reviews of two or more similar books into one commentary.

When we are squeamish about meeting the media face-to-face or by phone, we often rely on mail, e-mail, and faxes. We shouldn’t. In-person contacts bring a caring attitude to your association with editors. Aesop said, “Do you, while receiving benefits from me and resting under my shade, dare to describe me as useless and unprofitable?” He knew that those with whom you’ve built a relationship are more likely to do you a favor and more reluctant to be negative about you to others.

Hint: Scripting a pitch can help. In fact, when you make contact by phone, you can use your script as crib notes to guide the conversation. Well-known publicist and author Raleigh Pinskey graciously allowed me to use her scripted pitch in Appendix Five of this book. I encourage you to learn from her example.

Why do publishers put the pictures of authors on the flaps of dustcovers? Because human beings relate to faces. Although editors try to be impartial, they are human; they relate best on a one-to-one basis just like readers or anyone else. You will have more success if you get to know your media contacts at close range. When that’s impossible, include your photograph in your media kit or add a link to a video of you on the Web or, second best, a podcast of your voice.

If this feels scary to you, make your first contact a fact-finding mission so the editor is aware you want to make her job easier. You might even arrange to see her in her office. Let’s pretend you’re working on your first, big event—your book launch. This contact will require your short pitch to be as close to letter perfect as you can make it. It will include one or two sentences about your book and then a sentence about the launch you are planning. Then ask her questions like these:

• “How can I help with pre-event coverage?” Word this so that the benefits of covering your event before it occurs rather than after are visible to her.
• “May I give you photos to accompany your stories or would you prefer to have your photographers cover them?” I wrote to ask for a copy of a picture the head photographer of my local paper had taken of me, complimented her on it, and copied that praise to her superior. All sincere. They didn’t charge me for a copy of the photo.     “How are photos best submitted? Electronically? By mailing slick copies? Color or black or white?”
• “Would you be interested in learning about (you fill in the blank about one of the remarkable people associated with your launch) as the subject of a feature article?” In case she shows an interest, be prepared with specifics about your story idea. When an editor uses your idea, she usually mentions you and your event.
• “I would love to have you attend as an honored guest. May I send you a map? A parking pass?” If the editor accepts, formally introduce her to the audience during your presentation.

Caveat: Match the editor to the kind of coverage you’re seeking. Study the newspaper’s roster to learn what each editor covers. Call TV and radio stations and ask the receptionist to direct you to editors interested in different kinds of stories. Check Web sites. Pronounce names correctly. You may want to contact more than one editor for a given event. Here are some possibilities for newspaper editors who specialize:

• Calendar Editor.
• Feature Editor.
• Weekend Editor.
• Book Review Editor.
• Assignment Editor (usually TV).
• City Editor.
• Beat Reporters. (These can range from business to arts and entertainment.)

When you work with the media, you may need more than one pitch. You’ll need one for what your book is about. That can be wrapped in a pitch about how your story can benefit a specific audience. And you’ll need a pitch about you!

That's it, the last part of this December 2013 four-part series on pitching you and your work.

~~~~~
Excerpted from the multi award-winning Frugal Book Promoter, http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo

Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Instructor for nearly a decade at the renowned UCLA Extension Writers' Program
Author of the multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally books including the second edition honored by USA BOOK NEWS
Web site: http://www.HowToDoItFrugally.com

Finish Your Last Minute Holiday Shopping with Books

Are you still trying to finish your Holiday shopping?  Books are the perfect present for young and old and can easily be purchased without the hassle of the crowds.  Here is a list of books I’m giving this year, as well as, two that were on my wish list.

For the Writer:

• Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott -- An inspirational book for any writer.

  

• Freeze Frame: How To Write Flash Memoir [Kindle Edition] by Jane Hertenstein  -- This is a must read for anyone interested in writing memoirs or flash fiction.  Great exercises and resources are included.

• The Frugal Book Promoter by Carolyn Howard-Johnson --This is the perfect gift for someone out there marketing their book or still writing it! 

• Writing It Right!  by Sandy Asher -- This book is a must for any writer in the middle of the revision process.

 

For the Adult Reader:

• Sublime Planet [Kindle Edition] by Magdalena Ball, Carolyn Howard-Johnson -- This is a beautiful book from their poetry celebration series. A great read for for any nature lover or occupant of Mother Earth.

For the Tweens:

• The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez --- Combing the struggles of coming of age, with loss and cultural assimilation the author provides a engaging story that will connect with all readers. Martinez’s lyrical writing makes this story a great read for tweens and their families.

For the Younger Child:

• A Troop is a Group of Monkeys by Julie Foster Hedlund.  This book app is fun and educational. Children will learn the collective nouns for a group of animals, and if you are like me….you will learn the names of a few groups too!

•  Seeds of Change, Planting a Path to Peace by Jen Cullerton Johnson -- Through her poetic text Johnson weaves the story of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.  The batik style illustrations combined with Johnson’s powerful story make this a wonderful gift for any child.

I love giving books…getting books…and sharing some of my favorites.  What some of your favorite books to give?

Mary Jo Guglielmo is writer and intuitive life life coach. For more information check out  www.donorth.biz   or folllow her at:

http://theadvantagepoint.wordpress.com

http://twitter.com/do_north

http://facebook.com/DoNorth.biz  

Friends in the Marketing Business ~ Part II

Last month we looked at some questions about our marketing. We asked,

• Where are we marketing?
• Who are we marketing to?
• Do people really follow our marketing attempts?
• Are we missing the point with our marketing?
• How can we be social and still market?

If you didn't read part 1 you can read it here. I shared a catchy advertising jingle that first appeared in South Africa in 1970. It says, “You’ve got an uncle in the furniture business: Joshua Doore!” (Click on the link to enjoy the original version.)  

I pointed out that although it has changed through the years, the original gimmicky statement remains and is a well-known catch phrase that is played virtually every day through our media—43 years later! Now that to me is a successful marketing device. When you want to buy furniture, the name Joshua Doore springs to mind. 

Surely, that's what we want of our marketing. When someone hears of a loved one diagnosed with Breast Cancer, I want that person to immediately think, Strength Renewed, by my friend Shirley Corder.

Today I want to look further at that final question. How can we be social and still market? How can we effectively use social media to market our books (or articles) while not losing the concept of social media?

Social media is what it says. It's meant to be social. We want to make friends or, at the very least, get to know a little about the writer of the post. The various social sites are places where we can talk, laugh, and share information of mutual interest.  Look at Facebook pages and see the number of "likes" posts receive when they are about topics that create an emotional reaction. (And in that connection, if you're an author, yes you do need an author page (a.k.a. "fan page"). There are plenty links that will walk you through this if you don't already have one.

So if we want to be effective with our marketing on social media, maybe we need to look at these three main elements:

• Make friends
• Talk, laugh, create emotion
• Share information

1.   Making Friends:

I recently made friends through a social media site with a young woman way younger than me, who belongs to a different faith system. She lives in a foreign land that is at war with the countries most of us regard as “civilised” and safe. The other day she told me, “About 15 people die in our area every X days.”

We have very little in common as women. In the “real world” we would never be friends, but she has been following me on Facebook. She has read my book of Christian meditations for those doing battle with cancer. She has passed it on to family members. And she asks me to pray for her and for her family needs. We are friends. Does she follow my links? You betcha!

How do we make friends on social media? Well, how do we make friends in real life? The first thing we do is introduce ourselves.

    We share our names. These are our most important asset. Think of Max Lucado, Francine Rivers, Janette Oke, J.K.Rowling, C.S.Lewis, William Shakespeare, Stephen King, Ernest Hemmingway, William Faulkner . . . we know them all by name. So on social media, we need to use our names, and we need to introduce ourselves. Give a little about yourself in the profile or "about the author" section of the site.

    Use a photograph on your profile, showing you to be a real flesh and blood person. Cute icons of furry bunnies might look good on the cover of your book, but how many people want to be friends with a furry bunny? (Okay, don't all stick your hands up at once! You know what I mean. Look like who you are.)

HINT: For your author page on Facebook, use a photo with your book if possible. As soon as you log into Facebook, switch to the author page and use that to leave comments on other's posts. Whenever you post, that little picture shows up together with a link to your author page. If you say something clever or witty, they can hover their cursor over your name and they will see you're an author.

     Watch for your friends' birthdays and send a greeting. It doesn't have to be long, but it reminds them you're there, and your link will show up on their page—another reason for using your real name and a suitable picture.

2.   Talking, Laughing, Showing Empathy:

    Engage others in conversation. 'Like' posts that interest you. Add the odd comment. Avoid always promoting your work. You are trying to build relationships, and again they will see your title and your picture. If all you do is promote your own work, you will quickly bore your readers and they will pass by your posts . You don't need to spend hours but do try to show an interest in them. If your friend posts a picture of her new baby, "Gorgeous!" will make her smile, and remind her of you. If she posts bad news, "So sorry" doesn't take you any time at all. But it shows that you read the post.

     Create emotion: Every post or image has the power to create emotion. Don't waste time on this. When you see a picture, a post, or a video, that makes you laugh, click on share. Do the same if it is something thought-provoking or even sad (if there's a point to it!) Add a comment and make sure your link is clearly visible.

     Show empathy: Look for ways to relate to your readers to help them feel less isolated, especially in your niche area. For example, I make a point of connecting with those who are struggling with cancer. I have sold a number of books as a result of this policy.  People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. (John C. Maxwell.) 

3.   Sharing Information
     There is no need to spend hours on social media. Learn to use the scheduling facility that is available on most sites. Facebook recently simplified the scheduling process on the author (fan) page, and it really takes very little time. Here are the three steps:

•      Author page - type or paste your message into the status box.
•      Click on the little grey clock icon and select the date and time you want it to appear.
•      Hit "Schedule". That's it!

For example, I spend about an hour once a month, copying and pasting sentences into my Facebook Author page. I then schedule posts so that twice a day a post appears on my page.

     Every odd day, I post a quote from my book, Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer. This is not an outright promotion. I use quotes that I believe have something to encourage my visitors, regardless of whether they have cancer or not. Nevertheless, it has the title of my book and of course a link to a sales page.

     Every even day, I post a quote from another famous writer. I collect these from Goodreads, where the quotes are easy to come by. At the same time I 'like' the quote on Goodreads, which draws attention from the writer of the quote.

     The second post varies. Alternate days I post "ENGLISH TRIVIA", using a statement that I've found on the Internet. If I'm not certain if it's accurate, I add "Do you agree with this?" and that almost always gets a response. During the ten days of world-wide mourning for Madiba, our past president, I posted a quote by Nelson Mandela, one of the world's greatest ever political leaders.

Two or three times a day I pop onto my Facebook profile and page and respond to any comments. They are my friends, after all.

Perhaps you're wondering what this has to do with marketing?
I believe it is building a network of cyber friends, who in turn will become part of your "tribe" as it's often called. These are the people who will watch out for your next book, read, like and maybe even share your next post, RT your tweets, and talk about what you've shared.

Instead of constantly promoting our own posts and links, we will have moved out there into the big bad world, making friends and chatting to readers. If we hang out in areas where we can fit in and add the occasional comment or post, people will get to know us. As we allow them limited access to our personal space, they will see us as real and come to see that we care about them. Then when we have something to share, they will be interested.

Let's truly try to be an “uncle (or aunt, or friend) in the marketing business”. Then when people need our products, they will know where to come knocking—because they know we care. 

Surely that is what social media is all about? Being social. Making friends. And then sharing information that our friends will be interested in.

SHIRLEY CORDER  lives in South Africa, with her husband Rob. She is author of Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer, the e-book of which is on special right now at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Shirley is also contributing author to eleven other books and has published hundreds of devotions and articles internationally. 

Visit Shirley on her website to inspire and encourage writers, or on Rise and Soar, her website for encouraging those on the cancer journey. Do pop onto her Author's page on Facebook and introduce yourself so she can be your friend. 

All Kinds of Ways to the Means.... What is Yours?

Writing advice comes in all styles and for all types of genres. A beginner writer can be so wrapped up in reading and researching the best advice about writing that the real writing takes a back seat. The fact is there are all kinds of ways to the means of being an author.... and there are all kinds of acceptable ways to get published but the successful writer will find the way that keeps them moving forward with their story.

And it also may not matter to others if you are writing an essay, a blog post, a magazine article, a picture book, or a 80,000 word novel the premise is the same. You need a story. You need an audience. And you need to market your work so your target audience can find your words.

If your story is fiction, you need believable characters that your reader will relate to. It won't matter if you write better with an outline, a story arc, morning pages, or free write ideas into little clouds on the back  of a napkin. What matters is that you see, feel, and know your character so well that you have no other way than to describe it for your readers on the page.

If you write nonfiction, you may not have a particular character but you will have a specific subject or topic that your reader will relate to. Your job will be to make the reader care about that subject. They won't know if you write with an outline, a story arc, or standing upside down. The reader wants a beginning, middle, and an ending that makes them want to care about or learn more about your subject.

Marketing on the other hand does matter. If the author doesn't market their work, no one will see it. That may not be a big deal if you are keeping a personal journal but if you want to attract more readers, an agent, or a traditional publisher you want to be noticed and noticed in the right places.  And it really matters if the writer wants to make an income from those words because your need that audience to find buyers for your work.

Advice books, writing circles, and social media are all sources of information on marketing your work but each writer must still find the way that leads to the means so to speak. What works for picture book writers may not work for nonfiction medical writers and so on. The market or target audience will be different as will be the publishers for different types of writing.

Self publishing is slightly different when it comes to marketing because most of the marketing becomes the responsibility of the author and may then take time away from the actual task of writing.

Authors, no matter what is written or how it is published must keep in mind the ways to their own means.... another words.... find what works. Finding the balance between writing, marketing, publishing, and managing the business of writing is individual yet we can all take tips and advice from others and continue learning from those that are successful. In that way we will all find our way to our means and be able to call ourselves writers.

As the year draws to an end and celebrations occupy some of regular writing time, make sure to take note of what works and what doesn't in your own writing career. Look at your audience, your marketing techniques, and where you want your career to head in the New Year so the start of 2014 will be  focused.

• Note any lack of knowledge or skill you need to improve and be ready to find the sources for information that will give you more confidence.
• Network within social media where your genre or niche fits best and reach out to others to offer what you can to help them too.

It takes a village to raise a child as they say and it takes a village of marketers, authors, mentors, publishers, and agents to help writers succeed.