Favorite Quotes and Phrases Gathered by Diana L. Flegal

I thought I would share a few favorite lines I've recently read, heard online or someone repeated.

The picture to the left? My favorite new addiction. :-)

Heard on twitter this week:  Wendy J Smith @LuvMyboxerEllie You can tell a lot about a woman’s mood just by her hands, for example: if she is holding a gun she’s probably angry.

Quitting is not an option. We are created to be goal oriented.  Joyce Meyer

Sarcasm @WorIdComedy Sometimes I feel useless but then I remember I breathe out carbon dioxide for plants.

There are no bad emotions. My feelings express what's going on inside right now. —Cecil Murphey

God's a meddler. He meddles in your life and your neighbors and others He wants to bring close. C.S. Heinz in Made to Pray

"It's impossible to throw cold water on a dream birthed in the fire of God's Revelation." ~ Matthew Barnett.

I'm a realist and I KNOW there is some writer out there who has broken every rule there is. But, bringing up every last exception is a confusing way to teach and a fabulous way to make your heads explode. Kristen Lamb on her blog on the whys and why-nots of writing flashbacks

Wouldn't you like to be known as a dealer of Hope? I would.  note from blog post of Dr. Ryan Fraser

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' Jeremiah 33:3

So many factors must come into play to allow your work the opportunity to move forward: Passed Over by Linda S. Glaz

Don't waste this perfect storm in your life. It would be a tragedy if you came out of it only half broken. Pastor Nick Honerkamp

I stopped to smell the flowers once. It was awful! #GrumpyCat @RealGrumpyCat

Caleb Johnson, Asheville native, is one of the final three in American Idol!



Some of these made me chuckle- others provoked thought and encouraged me. Feel free to share your one liners with us. And happy Over the Hump day!

How to Use Hashtags to Sell Books by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

#hashtags #socialmedia 

If you are in the business of trying to sell or promote books, you need to be using hashtags with every promotional tweet and post on FB, G+, Pinterest and blog. 

What is a Hashtag?

Even if you are not on Twitter, you may have seen the little hashtag symbol with the pound sign (#) in front of a word or a combination of letters and numbers such as #ff, #news, #jobs, #icarly, #glee, etc. These hashtags are used to identify and keep up with conversations and news about specific topics. Think of hashtags in the same ways as you use tags to identify articles, blog posts and Amazon products for topics or items in a search. Also, be aware that Twitter is not the only place where hashtags are being used. They are essential to most other social media sites as well. 

It is hard enough build a platform and be heard among all the noise out there on social media sites and be recognized over competition. These days it seems as if there are more authors than there are readers. Lets face it, readers only have so much time to read between working, raising a family, and living. I don't know a reader who has time to read all the books he/she would like to read. These readers have to pick and choose due to finances and time. That means some books and authors won't be read as often as others. You can increase your chances of appealing to readers searching for books like the ones you write by using hashtags and beat out some of your competition who may not be using hashtags. 

How to Use Hashtags

1) Whenever posting a blog, put the hashtags above the first line of text or somewhere in the first sentence. You should do this because whenever that blog post is shared on a social media site, it pulls the title of the blog post and the first line of text. Notice how I have done this with #hashtags and #socialmedia at the beginning of this blog post. It may look weird at first, but it works. 

2) Be sure to register your personal hashtags. While you cannot buy or own a hashtag like you can a domain name, you can register it with Twubs.com or Hashtag.org so you have better control and management of your personal hashtag related to your books or you. Personally, I prefer Twubs since it is free and easy to use. You can register a hashtag to represent your author name and/or each individual book you write or even a series. This will help you keep up with the flow of responses and discussions around your books during new book launches. Here is an example of a hashtag I created for my #HighlandSanctuary book launch. 

3) Be aware of common author related hashtags and use them. While it is a great idea to create and register your own hashtags, be aware of some common hashtags that will bring readers to your blogs and social media sites. For instance, each time I post about a book on the CFBA Blog Tour, I include the hashtags #christianfiction and #christianromance. Here are a few examples. This way I am able to promote other authors' books, but at the same time, they may come to my website and discover my books as well. For a list of hashtags related to authors, writing and books, click here. 

4) Use the #SampleSunday or #TeaserTuseday hashtags to post short excerpts to introduce your work to new readers. The Sample Sunday idea originally came from David Wisehart, but it has taken off with other authors and since then Sharon Rose created a Sample Sunday Facebook page. You can read more about the idea here. Some authors post first chapters to promote their books. Why not take it a step further and post sentences or paragraphs each Sunday or Tuesday, leading up to and through a book launch for the first chapter? 

Are you using hashtags? Have you ever registered a hashtag? What are your thoughts about these ideas?

Twitter Has More Value Than U Realize! by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

I would guess that 80-90% of my Facebook friends, including real life face-to-face friends, believe that Facebook is more valuable than Twitter--especially to their business and book sales. 

I used to be one of them. 

Until I took a year and truly immersed myself into Twitter. And honestly--it took a year to REALLY understand it. People use Twitter differently and for various reasons and so you will get millions of opinions on the same topic when you start searching for info. There are many Twitter apps. Some are great, others ok, and some not worth the time. It took an entire year to try them out for myself, see what worked for me, and how it could benefit my work, and how best to implement it. 

For any author who is developing an author platform, Twitter is indispensable, as long as you understand it and use it in a beneficial way. 

For instance, at the time of this writing, out of the 3,502 people following my Facebook author page, only 1,158 are Facebook friends. The other 2,344 are mostly from Twitter at roughly 67%. I would have never had any access or connection to these valuable people, without Twitter. In fact, Twitter was also the channel for pushing the last 20-30 blog followers to my personal blog. I'm not sharing these numbers to boast about my efforts since there are many others who have much higher rankings and followers, but to show you the value of Twitter in case you are not utilizing it to its full potential. 

The Don'ts of Using Twitter

Newbies like to use Twitter like a megaphone, spamming links to their books, website, blog posts, and sales on Amazon. In fact, I wrote a blog post awhile back on A Lesson On Spamming. Like Facebook, Twitter is a social platform, and while it is different from Facebook, it must be treated as a social platform. It will cause you to lose followers, get blocked (and you won't know it), and lose credibility among those who continue to follow you--they've just gotten really good at ignoring you, are doing the same thing, and therefore, neither of you are hearing each other, or they are no longer active. Other newbies don’t know what to do or give up altogether. 

Twitter has evolved over the years and has become a valuable breaking news source and evens the playing field giving us commoners access to big name stars and athletes. For businesses and others, it eliminates the middleman or the gatekeepers. Authors can have REAL conversations with readers without having to spend thousands to travel to a local book signing, it gives people a chance to express opinions on products, services, or actions of others. It allows people to spread info about things that are important to them and make things go viral without spending millions in marketing efforts. While some of this also happens on Facebook, it seems to spread faster through the Twitter sphere. 

Want to Better Understand Twitter?

Take the time to read through their HELP section. It’s full of helpful tips, rules, explanations  and how-to’s. Ask people for their opinions, offer your blog to other authors, run Twitter contests for readers. Facebook is NOT the only place for contests. Learn by watching others, pay attention, read and educate yourself, and then do it. The best way to learn is by doing it. 

Google websites by your friends and people you admire, appreciate, or trust in their knowledge. On their website, click their Twitter buttons and follow them. You will learn best through friends, competitors and READERS. You have readers and potential readers on Twitter. Don't ignore them. Several of my Twitter followers have TOLD me that they don't even have a Facebook account. Therefore, Twitter is the only place I CAN connect with them--unless we connect elsewhere. These readers are already talking about their favorite books by retweeting their favorite authors, posting campaign hashtags, and posting links to their reviews, but you cannot be included if you don't have a Twitter presence--or at least an active Twitter presence.  

Don't overlook the value of Twitter, by spending all your social media time on Facebook!

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.