When is Too Much Social Media... Too Much?




In this era of technology and social media, marketing, and getting an author platform built have you ever wondered when too much is too much? A quote above my desk by famous author William Faulkner reads: Don't be a "writer"... Be writing. Note he doesn't say marketing, selling, promoting, or any of the other social media activity that an author must do to get noticed but the simple quote does cause me to ponder.


And this is what I ponder.
  • What do I promote if I haven't written a word?
  • How do I market myself as a writer if I haven't written?
  • Can I develop a platform if all the words are in my head and not on the page?
And most important, do the writers from years ago have more to offer authors of today in the way of mentoring and teaching us how to be writers then we take the time to learn? Can it be that we must sit and truly write?


I believe that marketing, selling, and self promotion are all absolutely necessary to being a successful author. Without a doubt social media has taken an important role in getting an author platform built around the talent of any author. But I also believe there must be words on the page before the hype or the author will be seen as less than substantial and their platform will be weak. To be an author with integrity and one that your target audience will love and follow you must write and continue to write.


Many authors write a blog, small filler pages, and short articles at first. These small steps are what you start with to build a strong platform and to keep your target audience interested in what you write next. These small efforts many times lead to building a strong book project or instructional products for your target audience. In the fiction arena, short -short stories may lead to longer stories that draw your audience in. All of these efforts are action steps necessary for the social build up you seek.


 Regardless of the type of writing you do, social media will be a part of the process but keep in mind it can also be too much. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when deciding if social media is taking too much of your time.
  • If your time online socializing keeps you from writing, then think about what it is you are trying to accomplish. Social media sites can  be very distracting and be a huge time waster.
  • If you check your emails for half a day, eat lunch, and check Facebook until dinner and find yourself still in your pj's,  you may be spending too much time socializing and not enough time writing. Make your time on social media directly relate to your current writing project or promoting a published work.
  • Use an egg timer or alarm to limit your time on social media. Another way to keep your time on social media in check is to schedule one or two days a week for marketing and social media tasks and reserve the other days for only writing.
The best way to keep  your writing first and social media second is to practice discipline. Success is sure to follow. Treat your writing like a business. Don't cheat yourself out of valuable writing time by letting social media take over your time.


How do you rate your writing effort? If William Faulkner would show up at your door would he recognize you as a writer because you are actually writing or would he mistake you for a wanna be?


Terri Forehand is the author of The ABC's of Cancer According to Lilly Isabella Lane and The Cancer Prayer Book for adults. She writes from her home in the hills of Brown County, Indiana. Visit her website at www.terriforehand.webnode.com or http://terri-forehand.blogspot.com


As a Writer Are You Constantly Starting Over?

If you want to build a successful freelance writing career or become a published author, but you haven't been able to build your business or write even one complete book, do you find that you're constantly starting over?

What do I mean by that?

Well, do you get motivated and ambitious from time to time, then post to your blog on a regular basis, get some queries and maybe even a few short manuscripts out circulating with publishers, or even start writing a book, but then you get discouraged and distracted and end up taking an extended break from your writing?

I see this happen all the time.

I was even guilty of this type of behavior when I was first started freelance writing.

But I soon discovered that in order to have a successful freelance business and writing career, I had to treat my freelance writing AS a business.

I had to show up for work every weekday (or at least several times a week), whether I wanted to or not, if I was to become a published author and a successful freelance writer.

I had to look for new assignments and complete current assignments (including book manuscripts) on a regular basis.

Avoid Constantly Starting Over

If you're constantly taking extended breaks from your business or your writing, is it any wonder that you don't really have much of a business or a full-fledged writing career?

The good news is, there's a way to avoid constantly starting over.

All you need to do is stay focused on your business and your writing and treat writing as the business you want it to become.

To do this, plan ahead when you need to be away from your business.

Write your blog posts and newsletters ahead of time, then schedule them for publication at the appropriate times.

If you're trying to write a book, plan your book first – so you know exactly what to write – then schedule specific times to write specific sections of your book until you complete the entire manuscript.

You'll never create the momentum that will sustain your business or your writing career if you're constantly starting over.

Plan now for ways to keep moving forward on a regular basis.

Try it!

Need help building your freelance writing business or writing career? Register for this free 5-module e-course, Jumpstart Your Freelance Writing Career and The Morning Nudge now at www.morningnudge.com.

Suzanne Lieurance is an author, freelance writer, certified professional life coach and writing coach, speaker and workshop presenter. She has written over two dozen published books and hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines, and other publications.

She can help you write your first or next novel. Find out more about her Quick Start System to Writing Novels at www.writeanovelstarttofinish.com.



Creating 3D covers in Microsoft Publisher

Over the last week or so, I've been exploring my Microsoft Publisher program (it's part of the Microsoft Office group) to try to get some covers made up for my compilation and one other cover that I needed made up.  For a boxed set, a 3D cover makes sense.  It feels you are getting a box with four to six to even ten books, which you are, even if the stories are short stories. 

I've created two separate covers for my boxed set since iBooks doesn't accept 3D covers.  I don't like the flat cover for a boxed set because the titles just have to be placed randomly on the front and it doesn't look like you have several stories in there. 

So how do you go about creating covers?  It took several hours for me to figure out what I was doing but I've got it down to a small science now. 

First, open your publisher program (this is only for Microsoft Publisher as I don't know much about the other cover designer programs); open a new blank document.  It almost looks like a Word document but it's not.  Publisher was designed to be a picture tool.  If you have a picture you already are wanting to use for your cover, open it.  Once opened, you can stretch it to fit the page or make it whatever size you want it to be.  Add your text boxes (there is a tool on the home page that says "draw text box"; play around with your fonts, sizes, colors, until you get the look you want.  After you are satisfied with your text boxes, click off to the side of the page so no one particular item is highlighted.  Go to you home page and click on select (the drop down will ask if you want to select all objects or another choice); click on select all objects and then the box to the left of where the select button has a group, ungroup selection.  Click on group.  What this does is fuse all the items to make it one picture.  Right click on your picture and click on the line that says "save as picture".  Name your picture and go to the drop down menu below and save it as a JPEG file or whatever type is accepted where you are publishing your books.  Usually JPEG files are the most accepted, so it's pretty safe to save them all as JPEG files.

Now, open a new blank document.  Insert a template for a 3D book.  These are the two I've used for the covers I've created:



The boxed set obviously because I had four stories I combined into one.  The other because I was just playing around with single story covers.

After you pull up your template, then go back to insert and recall the picture you created of the cover.  Stretch it so that it matches the bottom and one or two of the "page" side corners.  Go to picture effects and scroll to the 3D section, play around to see which fits the angle of the book.  For the single story book, the perspective left works well.  Once it slants to the 3D look, adjust your picture until all the edges and corners line up.  Again, go to the select all objects and group them together and then save that file as your 3D cover.

Once you play around with your Publisher program and have the templates, you can do any cover you already have on file as a 3D cover. 

The boxed set is a bit different in that you have to do text boxes and turn them so they are like the spine and this was my first attempt at the 3D covers and it took me a few hours to get what I wanted.

My final 3D cover for the boxed set: 


But because iBooks doesn't like 3D Covers, I had to go with this:



For my Zombies story, again - no 3D for iBooks so everyone but kindle has a flat cover and kindle gets the 3D cover.


Same picture just added to the book template to give it that 3D look.

After I created these two covers, I then decided to take my previously created covers and came up with the following: 




That is how to use publisher to create your own 3D Covers.  Hope you enjoyed this article and if you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll try to answer them as best as I can.

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Elysabeth Eldering
Elysabeth's Blog
Elysabeth's email

The Joy of Reading: is it really such a hard sell?

“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.” - B.F. Skinner

In the Chronicle of Higher Education Alan Jacobs raises the old "nature versus nuture" chestnut by stating that it's impossible to teach children to love reading.  Taken at face value, Jacobs may have a point.  After all, by the time a student reaches university, they've already decided what kind of person they are and attempting to "inculcate the practices of deeply attentive reading" or instill a 'love' is no easy task for a teacher, and may be outside the scope of a class built around a specific text or era.  But I have to say that I strongly disagree that genetics are the only indicator of a love of reading and that one either has the reading gene or they don't. Surely if a sense of humour is a learned trait, influenced by family and cultural environment, then a love of reading must also, at least partly, be learned. 

Deep love comes, not only with a natural inclination and innate capability for sustained attention to story, but also with positive experiences, ideally those that happen early.  I doubt that even the most dedicated genetic ("nature") proponent would argue against the notion that parents can influence a child's feelings towards reading.  Reading outloud, early, and with enthusiasm has got to have an impact on how children feel about reading.  Living in a household filled with books, enriched with off the cuff quotations, and where the pre-bedtime read-outloud moments are among the most enjoyable times in the day would have to make a huge difference over one where books are considered solely the province of academia - to be used for learning and not entertainment.  Once children make that all-important connection between 'story' - the magic of narrative and discovery, and texts, then the move to reading becomes a natural one.   

Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives ForeverOf course reading will be easier for some children than others, and that may well be genetically determined.  As Mem Fox argues beautifully in her book Reading Magic, it is incumbant on parents first, and then teachers, to share their own passions and help children and students make the link between those moments of joy when you immerse into story, and the 'book'.  Teaching of literacy has to be infused with love - love for the children and love for the books.  Inbue your teaching with meaning, reality, vitality and passion as Fox puts it and children will get it.

I personally started school with an innate great love of reading that was encourage and strengthened by my parents and their early praise of my reading and their own joy of the written text (and I still get that little frisson of pleasure when I read a book like Little Bear, Where the Wild Things Are, or Ping -- books that my parents read to me often when I was very young), but a few great teachers who shared my joy in books strengthened that love considerably.  The opposite also might have happened if I had been thrown into classes with bored teachers who passed on their dislike for what they were teaching.  Fortunately that didn't happen. To suggest that teachers don't have a truly powerful potential impact on children's love of reading is to severely and incorrectly I think, downplay the value of our teachers.  When my sons, both great book lovers, come home from school and tell me that English is boring, it makes steam come out of my ears and a tendency to reach for the phone to call the school.  Sustained dullness in a lesson that should be filled with drama, enthusiam and moments of self-recognition, self-expression and greater understanding (and of course laughter) will dampen and put back many a child's love of reading.  

By the same token, a wonderful teacher can change the way a child (or student) looks at books - enabling a connection between other forms of entertainment (after all, films and television are often based on stories; popular music is often built on poetry), and awakening a desire for more.  So let's not overplay the limitations of genetics and underplay the value of teaching.  A good teacher can indeed teach students to love reading, not by having "reading loving lessons", but rather by sharing their own enthusiasm for books, encouraging children in their attempts, and finding existing loves and linking those to the written text.  

Magdalena Ball is the author of the novels Black Cow and Sleep Before Evening, the poetry books Repulsion Thrust and Quark Soup, a nonfiction book The Art of Assessment, and, in collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Sublime Planet, Deeper Into the Pond, Blooming Red, Cherished Pulse, She Wore Emerald Then, and Imagining the Future. She also runs a radio show, The Compulsive Reader Talks. Find out more about Magdalena at www.magdalenaball.com.




How to Improve Your Strength, Determination, and Endurance

Image Copyright © 2014 Joan Y. Edwards
"How to Improve Your Strength, Determination, and Endurance?" by Joan Y. Edwards

When I taught at Hemby Bridge Elementary School in 1988, a teacher shared with me Bjorn Secher's handout about your attention and how it was the key to your success. This was one of the many helpful statements on that handout. 

Bjorn Secher said, "The secret to your strength, determination, and endurance is your attention."
Copyright © 1988 BSAS  Bjorn Secher Achievement Systems.

To improve your strength, determination, and endurance, control your attention. Ask yourself or your characters these questions.
  • What gives you strength?
  • What makes you more determined than ever to keep on going?
  • What gives you so much encouragement that 50 obstacles do not stop you. Each obstacle seems to make you even more determined not to give up?
  • What keeps you alive and helps you endure when others in your same shoes bit the dust years ago?
Not everyone's answers are the same.

My mother, Ethel Darnell Bruffey Meyer, said many witty things. Here is one thing she used to say: "If all the women in the world liked my Johnny, there would be a lot of hairless women running around."

What sparks a woman to say something like that? Love, jealousy, confidence, and determination plus physical, mental, and emotional strength.

  • Physical strength comes from using your body in exercise or in work using your muscles.
  • Mental strength comes from using your brain to think. 
  • Emotional strength for endurance comes from self-confidence, love, and support of others and successful experiences and accomplishments.

I believe that God is the source of all energy. Energy comes from the sun, from an electrical power plant, and from every cell in your body.

You become what you give your attention to - attention is thoughts, words, and actions.
 
Where do you focus your thoughts? On your bad experiences or on your good experiences? Choose to focus on what you want as if it is already true now beecause what you focus on will become your reality.

Where do you focus your words? What kind of words come from your mouth? Pay close attention to the words you speak. They are powerful. They speak your present and your future. They let you know your emotional interpretation of people and events.

Where to you focus your actions

Joel Osteen said, "Do what you can and God will do what you can't." 

If the key to reaching your goals is down the street three miles, you might not get it unless you walk, ride, or fly there. Take the action that bubbles up from your heart, your "gut" feeling. Your belief in yourself and your goal will give you physical, mental, and emotional strength to "git her done" as Larry the Cable Guy would say.

Just keep on going, even though your humanity takes you on a few detours along the way, revamp your focus, run a video in your mind of you crossing that three-mile marker to find the key to your goal.

Please leave a comment. It makes me smile to hear from you. Good luck in reaching your goals.

Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Copyright © 2014 Joan Y. Edwards


Flip Flap Floodle, delightful picture book that teaches children to believe in themselves and Never Give Up - even mean ole Mr. Fox can't stop this little duck.


Joan’s Elder Care Guide, Release December 2014 by 4RV Publishing

Joan's Never Give Up Blog

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Avoiding Common Punctuation Errors Part 2: Dialogue

Commas and Periods in Dialogue

We all love dialogue in books, but your readers will love it less if it’s punctuated awkwardly. Here is the solution to a common error in dialogue punctuation.

First, make the distinction between what I call “dialogue tags” and “action tags.”

A dialogue tag uses said or another similar speaking word.  For example, “he said,” “I asked,” or “she whispered.”  As long as you don’t get carried away with attention-grabbing synonyms like ordered, commiserated, murmured, contradicted, these dialogue tags are good because they’re short and almost invisible.  They let the reader focus on the dialogue itself.  However, you don’t want to use them with every line of dialogue, or you’ll sound repetitive and choppy.

An action tag does not contain a synonym for said.  Instead, it’s simply an action the character performs before, during, or while speaking.  Example: “Magda slammed her fist on the table,” or “Simon carefully untangled the knotted rope.”  These are great because they break up the dialogue while giving either a better insight into the character or a better image of the scene as a whole.  When using an action tag, you don’t have to put in the dialogue tag—and usually should’t—because the reader understands that the person doing the action is the same person speaking.

Magda slammed her fist on the table.  “I’m not going to ignore this any longer.”
“So, you think I’m manipulating you.”  Simon carefully untangled the knotted rope.

In good writing, you use both dialogue and action tags.  But in good writing, you also remember to punctuate them correctly.     

Rule #1:  Use a comma with dialogue tags.

“I love you,” she whispered.
He said, “That’s unfortunate.”

Rule #2:  Use a period with action tags.

“I love you.”  She twined her fingers through his.
He coughed.  “That’s unfortunate.”

Miscellaneous Rules: 

When combining the two types of tags, you’ll usually need the comma.

He rose to his feet and shouted, “Not guilty!”
“Order in the court,” the judge demanded, slamming down his gavel.

If your dialogue ends with a question mark or exclamation point, capitalize as if it were a comma.

“Do you love me?” she asked.
“Absolutely not!” he yelled.

Don’t be fooled by words like smile.

Incorrect:  He smiled, “Welcome to your worst nightmare.” 
Correct:  He smiled.  “Welcome to your worst nightmare.”

Be careful with "said" when it has its own direct object.  That makes it its own sentence, and should be punctuated like an action tag.  
Incorrect:  "I'm tired," she said it with an apologetic smile.
Correct:  "I'm tired."  She said it with an apologetic smile.
OR:  "I'm tired," she said with an apologetic smile.

The Gray Area

There is room for debate here, on some verbs like laugh, sob, spit, etc., which involve the mouth or throat, but aren’t really speaking words.  For example, I think that you can sob out words, so I can use “sob” as a dialogue tag or an action tag.  I also think you can laugh and talk (rather unintelligibly) at the same time, so I sometimes use laugh as a dialogue tag.  When you’re really angry, I think you can spit words.  Others disagree.  I believe, however, that if you make the conscious decision on a gray-area verb, it’s a matter of style, not a mistake.

Examples: 

“I killed him,” she sobbed. (Sounds good to me, as if she’s crying and talking at the same time.)
“I killed him.” She sobbed.  (Sounds awkward to me, like she said it and only then started crying.)
“I killed him.” She sobbed into her bloody hands. (Sounds good.  If I want to use these gray verbs as action tags, adding a little extra detail usually gets rid of the choppiness.)

Punctuation is a guide for your readers.  Make it work for you and for them.

Join me next month for more about the exciting world of punctuation.

Note that these examples and rules are for Standard American English (SAE).  Punctuation in other regions may differ.  If you have any examples of difference, we'd love to see them in the comments below.  Thanks!

Read Melinda Brasher's free short story, "A Learned Man," on Electric Spec's current issue.   It's a bit of a ghost story based on a two-page folk tale she read in a library in small-town El Salvador.  Inspiration will sneak up and whack you on the head if you're not careful.  You can also find more of her work on melindabrasher.com 

Are Your Writing and Marketing Efforts Really Productive? (2 productivity strategies to keep you moving forward)

By Karen Cioffi

Sometimes the moons and stars align and information that is relevant to your life bombards your week, directing you onto paths you should take.

Well, this happened to me.

Time management is one of my ongoing struggles, as with probably most of you reading this. So, what do you do? How do you create more hours in the day? How do you accomplish all the writing and marketing tasks you must, aside from keeping up with everything else in your life?

Ah, the $25,000 question.

Productivity Strategy Number One – Keep a List and Stick to It

I found a great site (JamesWedmore.com) that offers some very useful content. Interestingly, the post I read on this site pertained to being productive. This was the fourth article I came across within a few days dealing with time management, prioritizing, and productivity.

Part of the content discussed a $25,000 lesson by public relations and efficiency expert Ivy Ledbetter Lee.

The story (true story, just not sure of the exact account) goes that Charles Schwab, steel magnate, wanted to increase his company’s efficiency, so he contacted Lee. Lee requested 15 minutes with each of Schwab’s managers. Schwab asked how much would it cost. Lee told him that after three months, if he saw productivity improvement he could send Lee whatever he thought the training was worth. Three months later, Schwab sent Lee a $25,000 check. This was back around 100 years ago.

So, the $25,000 lesson?

It’s reported that Lee said to write a list of six must-do items that each manager needed to accomplish the next day, in order of importance. Whatever wasn’t completed that day would go over onto the next day’s list of six must-do items.

According to QuotationsBook.com, Lee instructed:

Write down the most important things you have to do tomorrow. Now, number them in the order of their true importance. The first thing tomorrow morning, start working on an item Number 1, and stay with it until completed. Then take item Number 2 the same way. Then Number 3, and so on. Don't worry if you don't complete everything on the schedule. At least you will have completed the most important projects before getting to the less important ones. (2)  

Pretty simple, right?

Simple and powerful. Having a list of what you need to do gives you focus and that focus helps clear your mind, which in turn boosts productivity, allowing you to get the job done.

One thing James Wedmore said that I thought is also a good idea is to have a “brain dump” folder or notebook. If something pops into your head that you don’t want to forget, put in in the ‘brain dump file.’ This too helps keep your mind clear of clutter.

I call my ‘brain dump file’ My To Do List. If anything pops into my head, I open the file and type it in, leaving my mind free of the worry of remembering it.

Productivity Strategy Number Two – Meditate

If you make time for meditation, you’ll have more time. I read this or something like it recently, but forgot where or by who (if you know the author, please let me know, so I can give attribution). A case in point of information overload.

But, how can you have more time if you take time out of your already hectic day to meditate?

According to Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, the average person has 70,000 thoughts per day. Since there are 1,440 minutes in a day and 86,400 seconds, this means you’re having thoughts almost every second of every day. Is it any wonder many of us have trouble focusing?

Meditation is another mind clearing tool that allows the brain to take a breather. It helps create a calmer you, thus leading to a more focused and productive you.

My acupuncturist, who was a neurologist in China and has been practicing Chinese medicine for over 35 years, says that the number one thing you can do for your health is to meditate.

Give it a Shot – Incorporate these two strategies Into your writing and marketing work week.

Every Sunday, make a list of the top six must-do items for Monday. Don’t just breeze through your list of to-dos, take the time to think whether a particular item is REALLY needed. Will it move your goals forward? Will it earn you money?

At the bottom of your to-do list for each day, add: TAKE 15-30 MINUTES TO MEDITATE.

Do this for 90 days, as Lee instructed, and see what happens. Then let us know – leave a comment!

Note: I also read that Lee sought Schwab out to propose he could increase his company’s productivity. Whether Lee sought out Schwab or Schwab sought out Lee, it worked.
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References:

(1) http://www.jameswedmore.com/how-to-be-productive/
(2) http://quotationsbook.com/quote/39188/#sthash.HWf9P8Dl.dpuf
(3) http://www.loni.ucla.edu/About_Loni/education/brain_trivia.shtml
(4) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meditation/HQ01070

Original article source:  http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2013/12/are-your-writing-and-marketing-efforts.html

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Want more followers? Want more subscribers? Want more sales?

If you’re an author or writer, or even home business owner, you had to say YES to all three questions listed above.

You know that in order to succeed in your writing career you need visibility. You need traffic to your website. You need social media followers. You need subscribers to your mailing list. Bottom line, you need to make sales.

So, now that you know what you need, how do you get it?

Well, the number one marketing strategy to increase traffic, build authority, and make sales is blogging.

Check out this new video workshop I have over at Working Writers Club: Blog Your Way to Traffic, Authority, and Sales

It's only $20! You can't go wrong!


Karen Cioffi, the Article Writing Doctor
Prescription for Your Content Marketing Needs
Content Writing Training and Services for Small and Home Businesses

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Audio Books – Make Your Own or Hire It Out

    Contributed by Margot Conor The fast-growing industry of books on audio has become a compelling reason to go that extra distance as an ...