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OCCRWA’s April Class: Social Media for the Confused and Terrified, with Elena Dillon

April 1, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as

On April 14th we’ll kick off an online class taught by our own Elena, Dillon, and she’s with us here today to talk about the class. Take it away, Elena:

So, I’m a little bit of an information junkie. I love technology. I love gadgets and I love learning new things. When Social Media came about I knew I’d found a new love–all the stuff I’m enamored with in one place.
When a new Social Media platform launches I want to check it out. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. My kids are horrified. “Mom, that’s not for you. That’s for young people.” Hmmm. Not so much. Really the only new one I haven’t started using is SnapChat. I value my sleep and I know my children will be sending me SnapChats all night if I get an account there. 
Besides I really don’t have time for any more, I have books to write!
This April I’ll be teaching a class for Orange County RWA called “Social Media for the Confused and Terrified”.  If you couldn’t tell by the title it’s for anyone who is a beginner at Social Media, anyone who has been putting it off because they don’t want to go to the trouble of figuring it out, and anyone who isn’t tech savvy.
The class is geared for Romance Writers but anyone can use it. I have tons of resources, videos and podcasts to learn from step by step. I will be teaching as much as I can about as many platforms as I can fit in.  The class is going to be more of a workshop format. None of this “sit back and just absorb the information”! We’re going to be doing. We’re going to be helping each other and building our audience.
Don’t be overwhelmed. Don’t be scared. If you need to learn how to manage your Social Media marketing and platforms, this is the class for you.
We will be using each platform but we’ll be doing it together. So sign up. No excuses. I’m going to make it easy. And we’re going to have fun doing it.
Thanks, Elena. Sign up, everyone! No excuses, it’s easy, just go here.
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Why I buy Organic milk

March 24, 2014 by in category Archives

I buy organic milk.  There.  I’ve said it.  And it’s true.

But I do not buy organic milk because it’s organic.

I do not buy organic milk because of its lack of pesticides.

Nor do I buy it because it’s fashionable and others will admire me for my thoughtful and responsible choices.

In addition, I do not purchase it because I know that my milk choice will, in some small way, Save The World.

In fact, let me say this right up front: there is only one thing I really am interested in with anything ingestible: Does it taste good? Well, actually, the question really is ‘do I like it,’ because “goodness” is clearly self-defined.

And in terms of self-definition, I have little taste memory, so my assessments use the scientific A/B method on everything—that is I taste things back-to-back to try to determine which I like better, or indeed, if I can tell any difference at all.

I also need to confess that I am a tea drinker and have both milk and sugar in my tea.

Thus I must have milk available every day, and it has to last.  It is inexpressibly sad to see a kelp bed of white curdled milk streamers appear at the top of your mug as you milk-up first thing.

And I like fat milk, a creamy taste.  I call it Boy Milk, i.e. whole milk, Vs Girl Milk, which is skim (as I child I thought was called ‘skinned milk.’ Really not too far off).

I was initially intrigued by organic milk by the remarkable sell-by date—often a month away.  Given the issues around the allowed sell-by date (in New York City, the allowed date migrated to 5 days later, so milk that used to last for a week past the sell by date expired in two days, totally messing up my arithmetic) this swath of time was seductive.  I was seduced.

Then an odd thing happened.  I found the organic milk not only lasted longer, but tasted better, sweeter, creamier, I could have 2% and it tasted as good to me as regular whole milk (yes, I verified this in an A/B taste test).

There’s a fair bit of information out there as to the whys and wherefores, but the most compelling explanation for me was in Scientific American.  The article’s focus is on the long shelf life of organic milk.  It notes that organic milk processing is different from regular milk, as it is heated to a higher temperature (UHT), which kills more bacteria and enables it to last longer and hence travel further.  There are fewer organic farms and the product ships longer distances.  The high temperatures slightly caramelize the trace sugar in the milk, giving it a sweeter taste.  Yum.

I have not found non-organic UHT milk, and do not care for the taste of Parmalat, so I’m just paying the price.

And happy to.

Do you have things you do or buy for all the “wrong” reasons?

Isabel Swift

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emaginings: To Blog or Not To Blog? @LyndiLamont

March 16, 2014 by in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as , , , , , , , ,

To Blog or Not To Blog? That is one question every writer must ponder.

I have a love/hate relationship with blogging. It’s not that I mind doing it, but I resent the time involved that takes me away from writing, and I’m not sure blogging has been worth my while. What I am sure is that I haven’t gone about it in a very systematic or effective way, though I try.

My big project for this year is to launch a new website and blog combining both of my writing names into one site, for easier maintenance. In the meantime, I’m still learning as much as I can about author branding, platforms and the use of blogs.

In January, I read Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World by Kristen Lamb, the well-known blogger and social media maven. The first chapter, The Changing Paradigm, was fascinating. She talks a lot about technological change in general, often quoting from Neil Postman, author of several books, including Technopoly. His contention was that technological change isn’t “addictive or subtractive but ecological”. Advances in technology change everything, including the way humans think, certainly changes the way we talk and write. Hashtags, emoticons, text speak… You all know what I’m talking about, like the changes or not.

Lamb is a big proponent of blogging, and while I value her advice, I’m not sure I can manage to do everything she recommends. But after reading her book, I think I have a better notion of what to do and, perhaps more importantly, what not to do. Some of her advice includes:

Be present on social media, at least some of the time; don’t automate everything.

Your name is your brand; use it in some version. Don’t tweet with a silly handle that no one will recognize.

Be careful what you share, esp. where politics and religion are concerned.

I wish her book had been available eight years ago when I started blogging, but as Kitty Bucholtz said in her time management class, it’s never too late to hit the Restart button. I’m hoping to do better when I get the new, better blog later this year, and I’d love to take a branding class from her some day.

In the meantime I have finally joined Triberr, the “Home of Influencers.” If you’re not familiar with Triberr, it’s a blog amplifier. Bloggers ban together in tribes and tweet each other’s blog posts, giving everyone an enhanced range. Since I joined, my blogs are getting tweeted more often, my page stats have shot up, and I’ve picked up new followers at Twitter. I’m still not getting a lot of comments, but I think that’s somewhat normal. Unless there’s a giveaway or a controversy, people are not inclined to comment a lot, esp. where the dreaded Capcha is involved. Personally, I hate those things. So does Kristen Lamb.

For more information on Triberr and how it interacts with Twitter, check out this post by Kayelle Allen, founder of Marketing For Romance Writers and another Social Media maven:

Blog Titles Matter in Triberr: Tips for Authors by Kayelle Allen #RLFblog #author

So to blog or not to blog? What is your answer. Leave a comment if you can get past the Capcha!

And if social media generally has you befuddled, OCC’s own Elena Dillon will be teaching an online class on Social Media for the Confused and Terrified from April 14 – May 11, 2014. I’m not terrified, but I often find myself confused, so I’ll be taking the class.

Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont

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The Princess and the Magic Shamrock by Jina Bacarr

March 11, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner…

So how could I not put up a Princess video with a magic shamrock theme?

Here is the latest in my “Princess Chronicles” — video romance poems about being a princess. My princesses know a tiara doesn’t a princess make…and in this story, we meet a princess who’s not looking for a prince but a job!!


The Princess and the Magic Shamrock from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.

In case you’ve missed my other Princess videos, check them out at:
https://vimeo.com/user216350

Best,
Jina

Photos: Dreamstime.com Music: Skye Cuillin Kevin MacLeod (www.incompetech.com)

jinabacarr.com
jinabacarr.wordpress.com

twitter.com/jinabacarr
facebook.com/JinaBacarr.author
pinterest.com.jbacarr
 

 
 

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Assembling a Self-Published Book by Kitty Bucholtz

March 9, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , ,

Over the next two months, I’ll be assembling my newest book, Superhero in the Making, book two in the Adventures of Lewis and Clarke series. (“Superhero Books for Her!”) This will be the fourth time I’ve put a book together to self-publish, so I’m finding patterns and creating checklists.

whyWhere Will You Distribute?

I’ve found that one of the important things you need to know before you begin is which distributors you will use. For instance, while Scrivener (where I write my books) has the capability to create an EPUB file, Smashwords still required a Word document the last time I uploaded a book there in May 2013. Since I want my ebooks to be absolutely identical on any device, and because as of May 2013 all the distributors I used accepted Word files, I found it was easier to create just one file and then make the necessary changes on the copyright page. (As opposed to having a Scrivener EPUB file, a Word file, and an InDesign file and having to remember to make any little edits to all three files, at least this way I only had to remember to make the same edits in two files. We’ll see if I do it differently this time to take advantage of Scrivener creating the EPUB and mobi – for Kindle – files for me. When I created my ebook-only short story, “Superhero in Disguise,” Scrivener helped me format the files fast.)
One thing to love about the free Smashwords Style Guide is that if you are meticulous in following the instructions there, your completed Word file will upload to any of the other distributors as well on the first try. (As of May 2013, I uploaded to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance eBooks, and Smashwords – who distributed to “everyone else.” I had no problems with B&N’s original “PubIt!” program, but its new NOOK Press messes up my books now, every time. So I now let Smashwords distribute there for me. That will change when I decide to spend the money hiring out my formatting or figure out my NOOK Press problem.)

Incompatible Upgrades

Another thing to consider is whether one of the programs you use has been very recently upgraded and other programs will not work well with it until they upgrade as well. This happened to me in May 2013 with Unexpected Superhero. Between Scrivener, NOOK Press, and an EPUB validator I was using, the Scrivener EPUB file had errors I couldn’t fix when I tried to upload it to NOOK Press. It was frustrating and time-consuming tracking down the problem, trying potential solutions, and eventually having to abandon my upload and have Smashwords distribute it. But these things happen and you need to go with the flow. (Again, unless you hire a professional formatter.)
Since my husband used to be a graphic designer and owns several professional programs, and I’ve done some newsletters using Quark Xpress, I decided to go that route for my print books. My husband and I created a template in Quark for my first book, Little Miss Lovesick, and I uploaded the final file as a PDF to CreateSpace. Again, plan for the unexpected. I couldn’t get Quark to create the PDF even though it was an option for the software. Turns out a lot of people were having the same problem. I finally had to send the file out to have it converted. Of course, then I had a PDF that I couldn’t change. Why was that a problem if my book was already printed?

A Professional Print Version

Yup, found a few typos. When I created the ebook files, I corrected any little things I saw as they came up – without thinking about it. Meaning, I didn’t make identical changes to the Quark file, which is why I mentioned above, be aware of how many separate files you have to change if you find a typo. And now, because I couldn’t get Quark to create a PDF for me, I could make my edits but would have to send the file out to be converted to PDF every time, forever. My husband and I started talking about upgrades and – voila! I got an email from Adobe about their Creative Cloud suite. Instead of purchasing the software and upgrading every year or two, you could pay a monthly subscription fee and always have access to the latest version. Not only that, you have access to every piece of Adobe software (that I’m aware of). Because my husband and I both use more than one piece of Adobe software, the monthly Creative Cloud membership seemed perfect for us.
So for my second book, I used Adobe InDesign. LOVE. IT. I sent out my Little Miss Lovesick Quark file to Nick Davies at Tinstar Design and he quickly converted it to InDesign for me for a very reasonable price. I made my minor edits in the new file and it was ready to re-upload. I also took that Lovesick file and created a master template for my future books, which I then used for Unexpected Superhero. Now my print books all have the same look every time. Definitely the professional way to go.

Writing SmileyChecklists Save Time

During the last 2 1/2 years, I’ve continued to make notes about what I do, how I do it, and what order to do it. For instance, in your print version, if you add the header in the master section so that it appears on every page, then manually delete the header from the first pages of chapters, then go through every line of the book taking out words that are split/hyphenated to the next line, it will change the way the text flows and…wait for it…your manually deleted headers will sometimes be on the wrong page. Sigh. Then you have to re-do the header.
Yes, I learned that by doing it. 😉
So now with Superhero in the Making, I’ll take my newest checklist and begin working down it in order. Any time I find something not working right, I’ll make a note of how to fix it and, if necessary, change the order of steps in my checklist. Until I decide to send out my book files to a professional formatter, this is an effective way to get my books printed so that they look absolutely professional, and I’m not re-inventing the process every time. I haven’t looked into the prices of professional formatters or know who’s the best at a reasonable price because I genuinely enjoy the book-building process. But someday I may have to let go of this part in order to get more writing done and more books out.
I hope this has been helpful to you. If so, let me know and I’ll try to post more on this topic in the future. I’ll be teaching a self-publishing how-to class online in September that you may find useful as well. I’ll let you know the details soon. Happy Self-Publishing!
Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her novels, Little Miss Lovesick and Unexpected Superhero, and the free short story “Superhero in Disguise,” are now available at most online retail sites. Superhero in the Making will be released at WonderCon in April. 
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