How to Use Goodreads to Promote Your Books by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

#goodreads, #books #reviews

Even though www.goodreads.com is now owned by Amazon, they have left the structure intact as one of the best social media sites for readers and authors to connect on the web. The site has over 5.6 million visitors each month and over 20 million readers total. And unlike many forums, most are readers, not authors. While there are 100,000 authors now participating in Goodread's author programs, there are still 1,000 readers to every author. That's a pretty good ratio if you are trying to reach readers. 

These are avid readers who are addicted to reading. They like to share the news about their favorite books and review them. They create various lists using Listopia and readers' actions are published on a newsfeed to their friends and connections. These readers are social media savvy. They upload book covers and link them to Amazon and have their reviews auto posting to all their other social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.  

Goodreads uses an algorithm similar to Netflix to recommend books to readers who have read and liked certain book genres. In order to get your book into the recommendation list, it will first need to receive a few hundred ratings to get into the recommendation engine. This isn't as hard as it may seem. After your book has been out for a while, offer the ebook version at a discount or for free for a couple of days and those ratings will start rolling in on Goodreads. 

Everyone on Goodreads must first create a basic reader account, which is free. Once you create a reader account, you can then contact Goodreads to be listed as a Goodreads Author. This provides you so much more than a basic reader account. If you are a published author, and you have not done this, I highly recommend it. At Upon the Rock Publicist, we include Goodreads as part of our social media package because we believe it is imperative to authors who are building their platform and trying to sell books. 

Setup an Author Page

Join the Goodreads Author program to get a dedicated author page and link all your books, connect your blog to auto post on your Goodreads Author page, create giveaways, create reader groups, advertise, publicize upcoming events, post videos, post quotes from your books, list a quiz, and get a widget for your personal blog or website to showcase reviews for your books. Goodreads provides a detailed instruction page that will walk you step by step through the setup process. 

List Your Books on Listopia

Search through the Listopia section on Goodreads and find appropriate lists for your book genre. Click the “add books to this list” tab and do a search for your book. You can also add other books to the list. Be sure to vote for your books and ask your friends and readers vote for your books on the lists. Often the difference between 30th and 10th on these lists is only a few votes. 

List Books as Giveaways

List your print books for a giveaway on Goodreads for a limited time. Be aware that ebooks are not allowed. On average, 825 people enter each Goodreads giveaway and over 40,000 enter book giveaways daily. This will expose your book to a huge number of readers that may otherwise not hear about your book and some of them will go ahead and list your book on their "to read" list. 

Provide Book Discussions

Goodreads allows you to host discussions about your book. Readers can ask questions and talk with each other about your book, and authors can be as involved as they choose to be. For the steps on how to start a book discussion, visit Goodread’s Featured Books.

Connect Your Blog to Goodreads

If you choose to connect your blog to the newsfeed on your Goodreads Author page, Goodreads will email your fans once a week of all your new blog posts. This is a great way to reach other readers that may not have subscribed to your regular newsletter and will remind them about your work and keep your name in front of them. This is part of the Goodreads Author Program.

Ask Readers for Reviews

Since Goodreads features books based on the number of reviews, you will want to get as many reviews as possible. While it's natural to want a higher number of positive reviews than bad reviews, even the bad ones increase your overall number of reviews, which is all the algorithm takes into consideration when promoting your book on the Goodreads system. 

Advertise

Advertising is optional and can be creative around various budgets. You can target people who read in your genre, give high ratings for the kind of books you write and target the fans of other authors who write in your genre. Other strategies would be to target people who have rated your books in the past. This will help ensure they hear about your latest book. Ads cost a minimum of $0.10 per click with a default rate of $0.50 per click. This format is more affordable for people with low to moderate budgets. 

Are you on Goodreads? How have you used to the site to boost your platform and promote your books?

Improve Your Blog's SEO Results by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

#SEO #Blogging

Are you using SEO plugins or updated meta tags on your blog(s) for better search rankings? Does Google recognize you as the author of your blog(s)? Some of you might be surprised.

Google Authorship
First, let's discuss Google Authorship. What does it mean and why is it important?

Google wants to know that your blog is legitimate and written by you. This means that you must take a few extra steps to prove that your blog is owned by you and not hacked by someone else. By doing this, your photo will be linked with your posts in search results and it will stand out among worded results that have no image. It's like a free ad. According to a study on Catalyst, it increased click through rates by 150%. Below is a preview of what my search results look like when I did a search on the title of my new 3-book series "The MacGregor Legacy". The first image is of my personal Google+ account and the second image is of my Google+ author page and is why the images are different. Notice how having an image stands out from the rest of the search results almost like an ad.

Also, by being legit according to Google's standards, it allows Google to recognize when people try to copy your posts and paste your words as their own--taking credit for your work. Who doesn't want to help fight the war on copyright infringement and piracy?

Search for yourself on Google. When you see your blog or website listed, is there a photo beside your post? If not, you need to link your blog to your Google+ profile. If you do not have a Google+ profile, you need to create one. Please note, that if you have a Gmail, YoutTube or Blogger account, you can use that same account to set up your Google+ profile.  Go here for more information.

SEO & Meta Tags
It used to be that we inserted a long list of keywords in the meta tag area of our websites and blogs. Things have changed and that is history. Keywords are now more important in labels and hashtags. If you have a Wordpress blog, you need to insert SEO plugins. Here is a great article on which ones to research: 10 Essential Wordpress Plugins to Improve SEO & Usability.

If you have a Blogger blog, there are no SEO Plugins, but you can enable the meta data on your blog. You need to login to your Blogger account, go to your dashboard and click "Settings". Scroll down and click "Search Preferences". Click the box for "Enable" under the Meta Tag heading. A text box will open allowing you to type in a summary of your blog. You only have 155 characters--similar to a tweet. Think of it as a slogan for a commercial. According to iAcquire, 43.2% of people click on a search result link due to the meta tag description.

Was this helpful? What steps have you taken to improve your SEO? Post your questions in the comments below.

Facebook Tips for Authors by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

#Facebook #SocialMedia

Social Media is like writing. You have to work at it through trial and error before you figure out your voice and discover what works best for you, your personality, your goals, and connections. Plus, keep in mind that goals change, so your social media will go through stages, just like your writing.

Here are some perceptions that we are going to have to accept and figure out how to work around:

1) People prefer to friend personal profiles over liking fan pages. The word "friend" sounds better than "fan" or "follow". I think this is why Facebook changed "fans" to "likes".

2) We can ask FB friends to like our author page, but we can't force them as you have probably discovered.

3) People can "unlike" a page just as fast as they can "like" it.

4) Readers do want a glimpse into our personal lives. They like praying for us, connecting with us, and knowing all the news. I consider them my online church family, but I don't share everything. 

I started out trying to keep my personal profile separate and luring everyone to my author page, but I gave up. I couldn't change other people's perception, so I had to change mine--the way I think about FB and my place/role there. I'm on FB to network and make connections to people. Being able to see and communicate with my family are an extra bonus. FB isn't private. They own every piece of content and photo we upload onto their site, regardless if it is on a profile page or a public page. If a hacker wants my info, he/she can get it. If we are careful and don't upload anything we wouldn't want people to see or know on our personal profile or author page, then it doesn't matter.

Here are some suggestions that have worked for me. These suggestions will not work for everyone, so please keep that in mind.

1) I recommend my author page to every person who friends me. Over half of them have not liked my page. I don't know why, but I do know that I don't want to lose my connection to them, so I've made the decision to sacrifice my profile page to accept others. Some people who have NOT liked my author page did buy my books. I don't understand it, but I stopped trying to analyze it a long time ago.

2) For those who have both friended me and liked my page, I make sure I post different things on each so it doesn't feel repetitive to them. I'm so used to it by now so it doesn't seem like extra work. It's merely part of my job.

3) The social culture of FB and Twitter are so different, that I don't link them. I tried this, and I started losing likes because FB people don't like as many posts as Twitter people. Therefore, I use Twitterfeed and I've set certain blog posts to go to FB and others to Twitter. That way some of it is automated and does free up time for me to post things I want to generate discussions on and to do other things.

4) If you want to generate discussions, ask a question. People love giving opinions and sharing ideas. Be careful not to get too political or controversial.  

5) I give a glimpse of my personal life, but I don't share anything I wouldn't want anyone on the Web to see or know. I post fewer family photos on my author page, but I do post some. I post more on my personal profile. I'm careful not to post images of my teenage daughter in her swimsuit or talk about vacation until we are back home. I monitor her FB page and I don't allow her to accept people she doesn't know. Other authors have sent her friend requests, but I don't let her accept them unless there is real viable connection. For instance, some of my author friends she has met, others had something in common with her, and I personally know them and trust them after having met them several years at writing conferences.

6) I screen each friend request and the profile of anyone I send a request to. If someone doesn't have anything about themselves on their About section, then they aren't being transparent enough for me to accept their friend request. I realize that some people are private, but FB is a "social" network, and if I don't know you, I need to know why I would want to know you. What do we have in common? If their timeline is available, I check to see what kind of posts they have. If it is nothing but games, I don't accept. If a man sends me a friend request and everyone of his friends are female, something is wrong and I don't accept. If someone sends me a friend request and their entire page is in a language I don't understand, I don't accept. I won't be able to communicate with them and I am not interested in having to click on translation options. 

7) When I reach my 5,000 friend limit, I'll have the perfect excuse to send people to my author page, and they will know it isn't because they didn't pass muster to be my friend. It puts the blame on FB's rules, not me. Plus, I won't have to screen people anymore.

8) I don't worry about keeping up with 3,800 friends. I create my friend lists and use them as needed and I don't worry about it. I have enough pressure. I don't need to add more to myself. If I happen to see a post on my newsfeed and I want to comment, I do it and I forget about it. I don’t worry about trying to comment on everyone’s post. Based on some of the comments I've seen from others, I'm concerned that many are putting too much pressure on themselves to try and keep up with everyone. Don't do that. Just relax and let go.

9) I've set all my social media on an email address that is NOT my main email and I've turned off notifications that I don't want. That way, I'm not annoyed by tons of alerts. I don't need to know that 20 people commented on a post after me. Also, if one of my social media accounts is compromised, they don’t have access to my main email. This has happened to me before and I had to start all over creating a whole new FB account, so I know what it's like to build it up from scratch, TWICE!

10) Be strategic about placing ads on Facebook. I place ads on FB every so often and they have worked--ok, but I did not get tons of new likes, but I did gain a few. I think FB ads works better than individual post promotions. You can set a daily cap and target people who are not already a friend or fan. What is your goal? Is it to sell books? Is it to build up "likes" on your author page? Knowing this goal will determine where you send people when they click on your ad. Also, I recommend setting up a separate credit card just for online purchases so that it isn't linked to anything if it were to be compromised or stolen.

I hope these Facebook Tips are helpful to you! What other tips do you have?

Happy Easter from Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Good Friday! I'm deviating from my usual Friday posts to say - I hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with promise and time with family, friends and cherished moments of celebrating the birth, death and Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST!

Right now there is a series on the History Channel called The Bible that has stunned critiques, TV stations, and film makers around the world with a whopping 10.9 million people who have been watching this documentary. The series is created by husband and wife team, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. The final episode is this Sunday 8 pm est. However, you can catch parts of it on YouTube or purchase the entire series from the History Channel on DVD.

The first episode of the mini-series was seen by 13.1 million viewers, the largest cable television audience of 2013 to date. The second installment continued "to deliver blockbuster ratings" for the network, attracting 10.8 million viewers. The third installment on March 17, 2013 was once again the #1 show on all of Sunday night television with 10.9 million total viewers. 

The Bible - the greatest TRUE story ever told!

 

Blurring Lines - Personal & Professional Social Media Profiles

Social Media for business and personal use is becoming a hot topic and people's opinions range all over the place. Those who have resisted creating Social Media sites often feel overwhelmed and pressured to take the plunge or miss out on valuable connections. Others are dipping their toes in Social Media without whole heartily diving into all the major sites, wondering how best to represent themselves.

How much personal info should a person divulge on a profile? As Social Media becomes more integrated in business, the lines keep blurring even for savvy Social Media users, especially those who use Social Media in their profession as part of their job. Many employers now search prospective employees' Social Media sites to determine character, connections, and to view online portfolios. If you ever need a job outside of writing novels, every post, photo, and video could be viewed by potential employers at some point in the future.

You will need to decide if you want to keep a personal profile that is separate from your work-related profiles. If so, you will need to maintain both on all the Social Media sites you create, and you will need to stay on top of the ever-changing security and privacy settings. After a while, this can become quite daunting, especially for those who feel like their schedule is already overwhelming.

I prefer to keep my personal profile separate from my work profile since I blog and post for our organization. I do this under our logo instead of a personal photo because I want to build my company's brand, not me. I realize it may seem less personal, but I think it will be better in the long run to allow me to transition out and others to transition in. Also, it avoids potential lawsuits where some brands have been forced to sue for a profile that a former employee built and took with them when they left by blogging and posting status updates under their photo, own name, or a pseudonym.

As an author, I'm finding it more difficult to keep my personal profiles separate from my author profile since I write under my real name. I started out trying to keep these two separate, but I have evolved into doing what seems natural, depending on the culture and setup of each individual Social Media site. For instance, I have a personal profile on Facebook and I "consciously" post status updates to either be "public" or "friends only".

Since LinkedIn operates more like a professional network rather than a Social Media site, I have merged  my  personal profile with my work and my author info through my resume, of course, without my address and phone number. For a long time, I struggled with how much of my personal writing to put on my resume. For over a year, I didn't include the fact that I was a published author.

I was concerned that potential employers would think I couldn't handle focusing on a full-time job and write in my spare time, but I came to realize that it was like saying I couldn't have any other interests or hobbies. Second, I was concerned that some potential employers would fear that I would use their company platform to promote my Christian beliefs. Of course, I would not do this, but I have learned that fear provokes strange, irrational thoughts in people. I prayed about it, consulted my agent, and decided that I would not want to work for someone who could not trust me to be myself as Christian fiction author and at the same time respectful to the company for which I work.

For Pinterest, Twitter and Google+, I merely use my author profile as my personal profile. Most of my posts are author related, about writing, or inspirational. I rarely post personal status updates, but once in a while I do this to give my readers a personal connection. For instance, most know that I have a daughter with Epilepsy and Asperger's Syndrome, so I may post something regarding her progress. I appreciate their prayers so much.

What about you? Have you struggled with where to draw the line from personal to professional on your Social Media sites?

Other Articles
Should You Combine Your Personal and Business Social Media Identities?
Social Networking Strategies for Personal and Professional Use
Drawing the Line Online: Business or Personal Social Media?

A Lesson on Spamming by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

I'm seeing a lot of people spamming others and myself. Some do it on purpose and don't care. Others only want to promote themselves and have trouble understanding the blurring boundary lines of acceptable promotion and real spam. Another select group are newbies to the social media world and don't know any better. They are still learning about the unspoken etiquette's of the do's and don'ts.

According to spam.abuse.net, spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. 

If you believe this only applies to emails being sent out, or email loops and groups, then think again. It also includes unwanted and unassociated comments on blogs and social media pages, and private messages sent through these systems. If you reply to a person's status on a social media site, it should always be related to the original post. It's inappropriate to post something totally and completely unrelated to the discussion. 

What happens if you do this? You will get unfriended, unfollowed, blocked, muted, put on restriction, reported as a spammer, and possibly locked out of your account. Trust me, it isn't worth it. It doesn't help your reputation, the reputation of your business, and your credibility will dissolve among your peers and competitors. It's the complete opposite of what you are trying to achieve.

Spam Pitfalls to Avoid
1) Don't send out emails or email newsletters unless you offer the ability for people to subscribe and unsubscribe to your email list.

2) If you belong on email loops and other social media groups and forums, be sure that you read and understand the rules of the group. Some will not allow any kind of promotion at all. Others will allow certain kinds of promotion, while others allow it on certain days of the week or certain times of the month.

3) If you are on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and etc., only post comments on other people's pages that pertain to their status updates and discussions. For example, if a person posted a review of their book and a link to it on THEIR page, you should not post a reply comment about your church youth choir and link to your church no matter how proud you are of your church. Post those kinds of things on your own page or on your church page.

4) If you decide to post a comment on a person's page that is not a reply comment to a status post, I would caution you to first post a general comment of encouragement or complimenting the person whose page you are on. Be very selective in posting links back to you if you do not personally know the person. My advice is to wait until you are in a discussion and post a link to a particular article or video that actually pertains to the discussion. Avoid posting blatant, generic links that only pertain to your website/blog and that only promote YOU or your books. Give them something that is of use to them.

5) Do not tag people in photos and or discussions that have nothing to do with them unless you personally know them and KNOW they will be interested in the discussion. Whatever you tag them in will automatically post on their page as well, and they will be exposed to people you have connected and accepted as friends, but who they have not. This is that "friends of friends" feature that Facebook warns us about in our privacy settings that so many people still don't understand.

This is not an exhausted list, but a good beginning. My goal is to address the issues that I see most often. If you simply remember that your personal pages are meant for YOUR promotion, and other people's pages are theirs for THEIR promotion, you should not have any problems.

What about you? What are some of your spam pet-peeves?

Too Many Rules Can Hurt Your Online Community by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Last week I joined an online community group and on the same day deleted my membership in the community. It wasn't because the community group lacked information, interaction, had spammers, people with rude behaviors, or any of the reasons we would typically assume. It was for one reason only--too many rules.

I thought to myself, there is no way I'm going to remember all these rules and I will end up forgetting and violating one of them by accident.

My next thought was, I don't have time for this. I need to make my life simple.

My final thought was, what does this online group have that none of the others have? Nothing! 

Delete.


Don't get me wrong, I believe in rules. Setting up sensible rules are necessary to prevent few people from spamming, posting bad links, verbally abusing and hurting others, or posting offensive things. However, there is a balance. Keep in mind that for every bad individual, there are many more who are reasonable, sensible, professional adults who don't need to be treated like children. Keep your rules sensible and balanced for the majority who are not trouble makers.

I have joined a number of online email lists, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, and now Google+ Community groups. Some post simple rules that are only a few paragraphs, while others have several pages of specific, mind-boggling, over-bearing rules that no one will be able to remember.

A month ago, I joined a LinkedIn group that I thought would be interesting and helpful. I received a standard welcome email from the moderator with a long list of rules and by the time I got to the third page of rules, I stopped reading. I haven't posted or participated in this group, because to be honest, I'm really not sure what is allowed and what isn't. I will probably leave the group soon. There isn't any point in being a member of something I'm hesitant to participate in.

If you are thinking about creating a community group and the purpose is to build a large network of people that will ultimately increase your platform, my advice would be to try and keep things as simple as possible. Do you really want to waste a lot of time hand-holding, coddling, and reprimanding individuals for the slightest of offenses when you have a lot other productive things to do?

Remember, setting too many unnecessary rules will discourage good people from joining your community, and indirectly slow the growth of your online community.

What are your thoughts? Have you had your hand smacked for posting something to an email loop or an online group forum that you thought would be perfectly acceptable? Have you dropped out or been tempted to drop out of any online communities for something similar? Or have you had to deal with the opposite issue of too much self-promotion and rude comments that went unmoderated?

All About U = Unfollow by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Social Media is a wonderful marketing tool, but it is useless when used ineffectively. Marketers must remember that Social Media is more about networking than advertising, discussions than blasting, asking than demanding, and personality than traditional business. The moment your Social Media becomes all about you or your business, is the moment you've lost the upswing direction toward your goals and you will start spinning around in Social Media circles worse than a bottle cap that will eventually come to a grinding halt.

You need to give people a reason to follow and many more reasons to keep following.

Here are a few tips when trying to decide what to post and retweet.

If it is something that will be educational, informative, humorous, fun, appreciated, motivational, and inspiring--share it.

Educate and Inform
When possible, post original content from you and/or your organization. I suggest at least 2 original posts each week, but keep in mind that it doesn't always have to be original content from you. If you see an informative post that a competitor, friend, or client posted, hit the "share" button or "retweet" it.

You might be wondering, from a competitor? Really? The answer is, a resounding yes. Not only will it still be appreciated, but they might later return the favor. Your followers or customers will feel like they can trust you even more, because they will know that you will not withhold good information from them--even if it comes from a competitor. You need to establish this trust. It is a MUST in any relationship. While you need to have a couple of original posts each week, remember that even if some of the info isn't your original content, people will remember that they still got it from you. This will prompt them to follow, since you are being informative.

Provide Humor and Fun 
People appreciate a little good humor throughout their day. They need to laugh and smile. This develops fellowship, another MUST in any relationship. Humorous posts, videos and photos are often retweeted and shared more than any other type of content. It develops insight into your personality and the culture of your business. It may have something to do with your business and/or product or it may have nothing to do with it at all. It's okay. Keep in mind that there is "good" humor and there is "bad" humor. Before sharing, always take a moment to consider if it is something that could be taken the wrong way, hurt someone's feelings, or show negativity. If so, don't share it.

Share Good Causes and Promote Goodwill
Others will appreciate your business if you are willing to share and retweet posts that promote nonprofit causes, community services, new product campaigns, freebies and contests, and anything that will promote goodwill toward others. When national disasters strike or tragedy happens in your industry or local area, extend sympathy. This can be done without taking sides, or getting into politics or religion. Be human, and if you are representing a business, make sure your customers know that your business cares about people. It will help remind them that there are people behind the scenes of your business who have emotions and feelings. This part of your personality builds appreciation in others.

Be Motivational and Inspiring
Sharing inspirational quotes can do great wonders to remind people to not give up, to take that extra step, to be different, daring and bold. Be positive and promote ideas that will motivate others. Don't forget that images and videos can be just as inspiring.

If you remember to sprinkle in your announcements, events, discounts, sales, and promotions among other posts that are not all about you and your business, people will follow you. And because you give them personal value in sharing what is helpful and important to them, they will continue to follow, and thereby, see the other things you REALLY want them to see.

New Features on Google+ by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

If you aren't on Google+ that often, you might be interested in a few new features they have recently added. These features will be beneficial in building your online platform and awareness in your area of expertise.

Google+ Communities
You can either join a community that has already been created on a topic of interest or you could start a new community around a topic that lacks a community or to maintain control around discussions to stay focused. It's similar to the concept of Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, but with more added benefits for networking and connections through other Google services. Obviously, since the concept allows you to network with others around topics you're passionate about, it's a great way for people to network, establish oneself as an expert in a particular field, and to build platforms for businesses and individuals.

These communities may be public or private, depending on what your group's needs are and how you want to organize it. To get an idea on how Google+ Communities work, do a search for a few topics of interest, see what is already available, and join them to get an idea of how they work. As you network and learn from discussions, you may gain ideas and insights for building your own community and what you could offer that might be a different twist on a similar topic or something totally unique. You will need to engage by commenting and answering questions.

As you listen in on discussions, think about ideas for blogging topics. What are people talking about? What piques their interest? How can you help with relevant content, advice, or insight?

The larger the community, the more updates you are likely to receive. to keep from having your inbox overwhelmed, you can toggle the notifications on or off by clicking on the bell. For instance, I've joined The Writers Community, I've provided an image on where you can find the bell on a Community Page.


Google+ Events
If you aren't using the Events feature on Google+, you could be missing out on a great opportunity to promote your blog tours, book signings, book releases, contests and other great events to your circle of followers, as well as the public. Unlike FB, you can invite friends in your circles, followers who may not be in your circles, and people who are not even on Google+ if you have their email address. They will be sent a link to your page and can view the details. Also, you will be able to see who has viewed your Event by clicking on Actions/Manage Guest List. Only YOU will be able to see who has opened your invitation. You will be given the ability to upload a unique header specifically for your event. You can enable or disable comments, allow others to share your event with their friends and followers, and duplicate an event if you have a club with standard meetings each month.

Have you tried any of these Google+ features? What are your thoughts?

Link Google+ Profile with Blogger Account

This is more than just using the same email login and posting a link on your blog so people can find you on Google+. It includes the option of linking your Google+ profile on Blogger. When people go to your blog and click on the link for more info about you, they will be taken to your Google+ profile. Also, when you set up each blog post, it will now provide the option to auto post your blogs to Google+ without you having to manually copy the link and go to your Google+ account and past the link. By your personal image for your blogger Profile, it will not have a red box with a G+ on it. This is how you can tell which bloggers have integrated their blog to their Google+ profile.

Everything is Content by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Authors are finding themselves in competition with so many and mired down with the obligation to not only keep up their social media sites, but to also blog and find original, entertaining, informative and relevant content. Without it, other content steals our readers' attention (these days, we are cultured to have short attention-spans) and our creative flow is being divided between writing great stories and social media content.

Too many of us spend too much time racking our brains for the next piece of content that will resonate with our readers. Granted, we need to stay on topic and within the expectation of the tone or theme of the brand we have set for ourselves, but that doesn't mean we can't expand the horizons of what we do and how we do it.

Your daily experiences, revelations, photo opportunities, and interactions from others are all usable content--an extension of you since these are YOUR experiences. You don't always have to dig deep inside yourself, using your own reservoir of energy to generate original content. Instead, redefine your idea of what content is.

Sometimes a photo can generate more comments and discussions than the most thought provocative quotation, statement or question. This is why Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube have been so successful and made such an impact on our social media culture.

Aaron Dun, VP of Marketing & Strategy for Percussion Software said it best in his guest post The New Marketing Machine on Duct Tape Marketing.

"Everything is Content: Stop looking for discrete pieces of content. Start by reshaping your definition of content and you will begin to see all of the content that is around you today. Customer support calls are content, blog comments are content, photos from an event are content…and on it goes. Once you realize that all of these daily moments are in fact discrete pieces of content, you will never worry about having enough content again."

What are your thoughts? Is your blog zapping your energy and time? 

New Twitter Header by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

If you haven't been on Twitter in the last few days, you may not know about the new header option they've made available. You will need to upload a photo or graphic image with maximum pixels of 1252 x 626 at 5MB. Don't bother putting a lot of text in the middle of your image to promote your next book or yourself. Twitter will automatically place your photo ID in the middle with the info you provided in your bio. You can upload the new header image when you login to Twitter and go to the Edit Profile section.

I think this is a better way to personalize your Twitter page to give it the "look" and "feel" of who you are. In my case, I pulled a similar photo I had used in my FB header and placed my new upcoming book, Path of Freedom on the side. Below is a screen shot of what my new Twitter header looks like on my page--for now.

Great Online Form Creator by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

In the past I have tried various form creators and they were either awkward and complicated, or the owner of the form creator put such restrictions on it that it wasn't worth using unless you spent a fortune. I don't know about you, but I'm not about to spend a fortune.

Now I've discovered a www.emailmeform.com and I've been using it for over a month. The forms are easy to design, allowing you to create the necessary fields you need for customization. Also, this is the first, free form I've found that allows people to upload a photo, video and audio file.

For the free version, you are allowed up to 5 different forms, and you can place this form on any site by embedding the code. For instance, if you own more than one domain, you can embed the code on all your sites. I once used a form service that would only allow the code to be embedded on one domain. It was my domain provider and I had paid for the service and had purchased multiple domains through them. Needless to say, I didn't use this service for long.

For each of the 5 forms, you are allowed up to 50 fields and 200 submissions per month. It also includes an antispam CAPTCHA protection. Most authors don't have enough traffic to warrant paying for a service that provides more than this. However, if you do have tons of traffic, they provide fee-based services to meet your needs.

Here are a few examples of forms I've created using this service:

• Speaker Form Submission
• Contact Form
• Order Form for Jennifer's Books

Are you using a free form creator service that might be better than this? Please share.

Social Media Etiquette During National Disasters by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

In the midst and the aftermath of a storm like Sandy that takes lives and destroys over $50 billion worth of personal and business property, it's hard to focus on business as usual for the rest of us. We may have book launches, contests, and campaigns planned, but it seems awkward (and in some cases, wrong) to promote them as if nothing is happening on the other side of our country--to loved ones, family and friends. Even if we don't personally know anyone in the affected areas, we hurt and ache for them as we imagine what they must be going through and suffering. Millions are still without power and are offline--and grieving.

In times of disaster like this, I believe it is fine to postpone and/or cancel some of the promotional activities you might have planned. Not everything can be postponed or canceled, but if possible it might be appropriate. I saw where one of the online Scavenger Hunts lengthened the deadline for their contest for those in the east who had entered, but were knocked offline. It showed such thoughtfulness of others.

Many posted and tweeted encouraging thoughts and prayers. I'm never more proud of our nation than when we set aside our differences, our personal agendas, and pull together in solidarity to lend support and encouragement to those hurting and devastated by such massive tragedy. Several publishing houses in New York are struggling to reopen and become fully operational in all their facilities.

Earlier in the week Publishers Weekly posted an article detailing the status of publishers who were affected by Sandy, New York Publishing Struggling to Get Back Online Post-Sandy.

The Los Angeles Times posted an article stating that most bookstores survived the storm and will reopen with minimal damage and gave a list of a few that sustained significant damage, such as Powerhouse Arena in DUMBO, Bookstores After Sandy.

The Queens Chronicle opened their doors to two other publishers, including a direct competitor so they could publish their paper - another act banding together. Here is the article on Recovering the Devastation, Together.

While Social Media can be a valuable tool for spreading news in minutes, it can also be a massive web of confusion. A few took advantage of the moment and posted blatant lies and fake photos that others unknowingly shared, causing viral promotion of misinformation. One man even lost his job from posting false reports that were reported by real news organizations as factual news. In a situation like this where the news is being updated in minutes, there is no website where one can go in order to fact check information before sharing it. Man Faces Fallout for Spreading False Sandy Reports on Twitter.

What are your thoughts about Social Media behavior and continued promotion during times like this? Did you cancel or postpone any events? How do you decide what to share and what not to share?

Customized Social Media Icons for Authors by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Are you tired of the same old social media icons that everyone has on their websites and blogs? How about a little variety? Something that goes with your theme or that says you're an author? I thought it would be fun to create a few icon sets that you can use for free and I'm debuting them here on the Hartline Blog. I'll also post them on my company website at www.upontherockpublicist.com. If you want something customized for you specifically, feel free to contact me at jennifer@upontherockpublicist.com.

To view how my coffee cup social media icons look on my page, swing by my personal website/blog at www.jenniferhudsontaylor.com.

Simply right-click on the image and click "Save As" and download it on your computer and use as you choose.


Social Media Book Icons



Social Media E-Book Icons



Social Media Historical Author Icons

Feature Your Book on Doodle.ly by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

You've seen other book promotion campaigns where authors are launching their books utilizing contests and giveaways through Facebook parties, Twitter contests, photos of readers showing book covers, Pinterest story boards depicting what the story is about or the story behind a book's creation. Now there is Doodle.ly,  a social-drawing app or social-sketchpad. It's a free website and Ipad app that you can download.

Doodle.ly is creating quite a stir with the backing of Park Street Ventures, including several sports teams who have agreed to use the app, such as The New Jersey Devils. Fans were given the opportunity to doodle a sketch that would be chosen as a t-shirt design. Fox Home Entertainment is using it to promote the DVD release of the movie Chronicle. The show, Cake Boss, held a contest for four weeks allowing fans to draw their favorite cake design. The selected winner received a grand prize and their design would become a real cake that would be featured in his bakery.

Your creative juices may already be flowing in how you can use this new app for your upcoming book launch. For fiction, readers may draw their favorite characters or settings and win goodies you give away. For nonfiction, readers may draw other themed images associated with your book's content. You can gather support and momentum for Doodle.ly campaigns by announcing it on Twitter and Facebook where you already have a following.

If you're looking for something new and different from the traditional book reviews and interviews where readers merely leave a comment and a random winner is drawn, this is an idea to think about before it too becomes an old idea.

• Social Drawing, an Up and Coming Marketing Tool - The New York Times
• How to Promote Your Book with a Free Doodle App - Media Bistro
• Doodle.ly and Cake Boss to Launch Campaign to Give Fans Honorary Cake Designer Opportunity - iPhone Developer's Journal

Upon the Rock Speaker's Bureau

I have some good news for Hartline clients as well as others who might be hoping to launch their speaking career as the next step in building their platform. Upon the Rock Publicist is launching a Speaker's Bureau. It's brand new so the fields have not been populated yet, and we will no doubt have some kinks to work out, but we are now ready to accept submissions.


While this will be a paid annual service of only $25/year, ALL Hartline Literary clients may submit a listing for free for a limited time (until December 31, 2012), so be sure to get in your submissions.

Below are a few things you will be allowed to include in your listing, some are required, but not all.

• Name or pen name
• Websites and Social Media Site links
• Bio
• Head and shoulder photo
• Speaking video/audio file upload
• Up to 5 speaking topics
• Up to 3 recommendation quotes from others
• Speaking fees
• If you are willing to travel and locations
• Contact info for bookings
• Contact info if you are only accepting bookings through an agency

We will be listing Speakers by both alphabetical order and under specific speaking categories. Once we receive your submission, we will be in touch with you about specific categories you might want to be listed under. We didn't include categories in the form since we expect to add many more.

Also, we will be creating another form for your speaking events that you will be able to list on our calendar. We will post these speaking events on our blog and publicize them through our Social Media connections.

Submit your listing now! Go here.

Promoting Book Launches in Stages by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Not only have e-books brought a whole new dimension to the publishing world, but now books can be released in stages. It used to be that a book was published in print, and that first print run was the first initial launch. You only got one chance to launch your book and that was it. Now things are changing and books are being released in stages, and so our book launches will need to reflect the same timing scale. 

For instance, there are several small publishers who might first release a book as an e-book, and later if the sales do well, they will release it as a print book. My first two books were released as print, then e-books, and most recently as audio books through iTunes. With these changes, we need to begin thinking differently about our promotional strategies.

Those who are clinging to traditional promotional strategies that were strong when print books were King in the market will soon find themselves behind the times and losing ground, if they aren't already experiencing it.  Don't get me wrong, traditional promotion will always be necessary and prominent, but it will come to hold a different place in the scheme of things. 

A perfect example of this is traditional book tours where authors host book signings versus online book tours. More authors are hosting online book tours, Facebook and Twitter parties, blog scavenger hunts, and video conferencing. They are cutting back on the expense of traveling around to physical book stores, readings excerpts, and signing books. Online book stores are easier on both the author and the readers. 

It can be attended right from the comfort of their home, doesn't require expensive lodging, flights or gas mileage. The online attendance is often much better than a physical book store because readers are also in the comfort of their home where their children can continue to play, spouses can take over a other duties for dinner and baby sit while readers take a few moments to participate in the online book launch party. It isn't necessary for them to get the kids dressed, miss a church or school PTA function, and drag themselves across town or to the nearest town with a book store. 

It's perfectly acceptable for the author to plan an e-book launch, then when the book comes out in print, plan  a traditional book launch. If you know the dates ahead of time you can create a book launch campaign that includes these various stages. In my case I had no idea my book was about to come out on iTunes. My publisher sent an email out on the loop. In that case, I couldn't pre-plan so I simply tweeted and posted the news on Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. 

My advice is to begin planning as soon as you can, jot down some ideas, do some research on cost, timing and the logistics on carrying out the plan. Form a realistic budget and stick to it. Be reasonable about the amount of time and energy you will be able to devote to it. If you need to hire a publicist to do a few things that you cannot do yourself or you don't have time to do, create a plan for what you CAN do and a different plan for what you expect your publicist to do. Then research publicists, talk to a few and find someone that you feel comfortable doing business with. 

Remember, think of your book launch campaign as something that will happen in stages. Times have changed.

Authors Marketing Websites and Blogs

Regardless of whether you're published or unpublished, you need to make an impact on the Web. The difference in being published is that you want to make an instant impact to sell your books now.

Why then, are some websites so hard to find? How many times have you seen an advertisement with a URL address and think to yourself that you didn’t even know they had a website? Or how many times have you found something that looks really promising from a search engine description, only to find that there was little to offer when you got there?

The two largest mistakes include: 
1) Designing a really fabulous website and then only performing basic marketing measures to promote it. 

2) Hardly taking the time to build a well-designed website and promoting it like crazy. Neither technique will work. You must develop an online marketing plan and follow through with it. You cannot cut corners and skip chapters. It doesn’t work like that.

Do you even have a marketing plan? If you do, does it include online marketing? How old is your marketing plan? When was the last time you updated it? The answers to these questions could be the solution as to why you might not have the success you want.

Unfortunately, people look at marketing the same way they view fitness. It seems like too much work. Starting out we have great intentions, much like joining a fitness center in January because of a New Year resolution. We go full force with determination until we burn out or life gets in the way. Marketing isn’t something you can do for a while and stop. It isn’t a business fad, and it isn’t a business hobby. It is your business. Think of it as your house or rental payment. As long as you need somewhere to live, you will pay a mortgage or rent payment. Marketing is the same. As long as you are writing books, you will need to market your books to keep selling them.

Marketing plans are designed for a reason. When written effectively, updated appropriately, and followed consistently, they work.

Marketing plans fail because of three things:
1) They aren’t written and designed for you--to meet your writing needs and your schedule. You don't want a boilerplate template of someone else’s marketing plan. You need something that is realistic for you. Your writing pace, publication deadlines, family needs, obligations to other jobs and/or church are different from other writers. Therefore, your marketing plan should be realistic to other needs in your life.

2) Marketing plans are not updated consistently each year or proactive in taking advantage of new developments and technological advancements, as well as changes that take place in your personal life.

3) People don’t follow-through consistently with their marketing plan. Somewhere in the middle they want to make adaptations without proper planning and research, or they give up altogether. 

What about you? Have you fallen prone to one of these 3 situations? What steps have you taken to fix and/or improve things? 

Surviving the Pitch to Editors & Agents by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

With so many writing conferences coming up, and the ACFW National Conference around the corner, I thought it would be worthwhile to repost this from my blog. 

When are you ready?
1. When writing fiction, you don’t want to pitch until you’ve completed at least one book. Nonfiction proposals or articles can be pitched as long as you have a solid concept of your idea.
2. When you know you want to be published.
3. Do your research on the conference and know which editors and agents are going to be there. Visit their websites, try to find out what they like and dislike. What kind of works have they recently purchased? What are they acquiring?
4. You may not want to set up an appointment if there are only two editors and both are acquiring contemporaries and all you’ve written is a historical.

Pitch: Is a one-two sentence description of your story.

A pitch should contain four elements:
1. Two Main Characters
2. Goal
3. Conflict
4. Goal + Conflict = Hook

When meeting with an editor or agent in a one-on-one interview, be prepared to discuss the main plot points in your story, as well as goals and motivations of your characters. After hearing your pitch, they will ask you questions about your story and about your writing.

What to bring
1. Business cards
2. Sell-sheets or One-sheets
3. First five pages of manuscript (do not show unless they request it)

What to Expect
At conferences they schedule editors and agents all day long with back-to-back 10-15 minute appointments. You will want to arrive 5-10 minutes early to get in line. If a prayer room is available, you might want to visit it ahead of time.
1. Dress like you’re going into an interview, but be comfortable.
2. Be professional
3. Introduce yourself and ask them how they are doing. Treat them like an individual.
4. You can take note cards with you, but you shouldn’t read from them. This gives them the impression that you’re not as familiar with your work as you should be.
5. Make eye contact. Talk to them like you’re chatting with them. You don’t want to sound so rehearsed that you remind them of a used car salesman.
6. There will be a monitor who will be keeping time. The monitor will tell everyone in the room that they have 1-2 minutes left. When this happens, wrap up the conversation and move on so you don’t take time away from the next person and put the editor behind schedule.

Possible Scenarios

If you only have one proposal, and they aren’t interested, what should you do?
1. Ask them what other genres they are looking for.
2. If you have time, chat with them and spend a few minutes getting to know them. After a while their eyes begin to glaze over from hearing one rehearsed pitch after another.
3. If an editor gives you ideas on how to improve your plot, please be courteous and listen. Ask if they would be willing to look at a proposal if you make their suggested revisions.

What if you have more than one project and you don’t know which one to pitch in your allotted time?
1. Tell them the categories you’ve written such as (contemporary, a Scottish Medieval, Regency, young adult, children’s book, etc.) Then ask them which one they would prefer to discuss.
2. Or choose the one that you feel is written the best or closer to being finished.
3. The editor or agent will guide you in their interests.

Editors and agents will ask questions. Examples include:
1. Why did you write this story?
2. Do you have any other stories or ideas?
3. Can you expand this into a series?
4. If we publish it, how do you plan to market it?

Remember
1. Leave your business card, even if they do not ask to see your proposal.
2. Make note if they ask for a query letter, proposal, or the complete. Send them exactly what they ask for and nothing more and nothing less.
3. If they refuse your sell-sheets, don’t force it on them.
4. Thank them for their time. Be sure to walk away with a smile.