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Meeting reminder: Beth Yarnall Demystifies “Authorpreneurs”

November 3, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , ,

9:00-9:50 am:            Doors Open
                                   Ask-an-Author — Jackie Diamond & Pat Wright
                                                Do you have a question that a published author can answer? Then plan to come to the meeting a little bit early. Each month one or two published authors host an informal round table discussion group and you are welcome to sit in.
                                                    
                                                     Critique of the Month — Debra Holland & Laura Drake
                                                Free for OCC Members Attending the Meeting–Monthly Critique Drawings!  Print out your FIRST chapter and bring it to the monthly meeting! Then add your name to the list of critique hopefuls, located at the membership table.
10:00 a.m.                  Meeting begins; Announcements
10:30 a.m.                  Morning Workshop:            P.A.W. Members
·       All Things Publishing (Self and Traditional) – What are the steps? Deciding what to do yourself versus buying out, etc.
·       Getting Started – Ideas, setting up a manuscript, conquering POV, plot points, etc.
·       Mmmm Marketing (including Social Media) – The must haves, nice to haves and leave behinds
·       Becoming a Professional Writer – Overcoming blocks, managing time, managing money, etc. 
Various P.A.W members will be leading discussions and sharing tips and information on the topics listed above. Tables will be marked by topic; just pick one and pull up a chair!
11:30 a.m.                  Lunch Break
                                                                       
To order a delicious box lunch from the Corner Bakery in Brea, Click here.
12:15 p.m.                  Meeting resumes: Chapter Business, etc.
12:45 p.m.                  Afternoon Speaker: Beth Yarnall
        “Authorpreneurs: Using Multiple Publishing Avenues to Build a Career” 


The term Hybrid Author gets thrown around a lot, but what does it mean? Why would an author want to pursue more than one publishing option? What are the benefits and drawbacks? How does pursuing multiple publishing avenues influence author income? In this one-hour workshop we’ll explore the pros and cons of traditional, digital first, and self-publishing and how an author can use two or even all three avenues to build a strong career and broad reader base.

Bio:

Best selling author, Beth Yarnall, writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and the occasional hilarious tweet. A storyteller since her playground days, Beth remembers her friends asking her to make up stories of how the person `died’ in the slumber party game Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, so it’s little wonder she prefers writing stories in which people meet unfortunate ends. In middle school she discovered romance novels, which inspired her to write a spoof of soap operas for the school’s newspaper. She hasn’t stopped writing since.
For a number of years, Beth made her living as a hairstylist and makeup artist and even owned a salon. Somehow hairstylists and salons seem to find their way into her stories. Beth lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons, and their rescue dog where she is hard at work on her next novel. For more information about Beth and her novels please visit her website- www.bethyarnall.com.
2:00 p.m.                    Meeting concludes.
Next month’s meeting will be on Saturday, December 13, 2014
A Day With Lynn Lorenz
Morning:“Front-End Load Your Manuscript”
Afternoon: “Plotting by the Seat of Your Pants”
                             
November Online Class: “
“The Amazon Bookseller’s Toolbox: Everything You Could Possibly Want to Know about Selling Books on Amazon… and Then Some”
with Erica Barton
November 10 – December 7, 2014
For More Information on Upcoming Events, please visit us at http://www.occrwa.org/comingattractions.html

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OCCRWA’s November Online Class: The Amazon Bookseller’s Toolbox, with Erica Barton

October 27, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

OCCRWA’s November Online Class starts November 10th and features full-time writer and blogger, Erica Barton. Here’s Erica on her upcoming class:

Do you have a book on Amazon with sluggish sales? Or is your book about to be published on Amazon and you want to promote it? Are you a traditionally published author wondering what you could do to spike your rankings, or a self-published author who is really hoping to see your book hit one of Amazon’s lists?
Well, guess what! It’s easier than you think. Amazon has created dozens of tools to help any author at any stage of their career promote their books.
In this workshop, you are going to find out:

  • What tools Amazon has to sell books on auto-pilot.
  • How to change your Book Pages on Amazon, even if you aren’t the publisher.
  • How to see who is coming to your Book Page and where they are coming from.
  • What to put IN your book so you can make even more sales.
  • Amazon’s cross-promotional tools.
  • A marketing plan from BEFORE your book is published to long after you’ve forgotten how the story goes.

And much more–here’s one example of additional content:

3 Easy Ways to Deal with Negative Reviews on Amazon

Every author gets them, no matter how good the author is.  For example, “Beautiful Creatures” (a book that was made into a movie) has 90 1-star reviews from the Haters, but that’s only 90 bad reviews out of 3,551 reviews total.  And while it may seem like a negative thing, it can actually be good for two reasons.  

1)      Haters often raise the ire of the Lovers who will come to your book’s defense for you. And,

2)      They give an honest perspective to the book which lets potential readers know that there are real people reading the book versus an author bribing people to go in and leave good reviews. 

The facts are these.  You will probably get bad reviews when you run a KDP promotion because people who don’t read your genre are going to pick up your book for free.  Not only that, but there are authors without scruples who will go in and try to tank your book sales by leaving a bad review so that authors will go check out their book instead.  Finally, there are the people who will just hate your book no matter what because they just don’t like your voice or your plot, or whatever. 

In regards to those people, I say don’t let them get you down.  Bad press is still press, and every review kicks up that little number of total reviews.  Get enough reviews and those bad ones get washed out by the good ones. 

But, let’s not dwell on bad reviews.  Instead, let’s talk about how to deal with them. 

It’s Alina again. To check out Erica’s class or sign up, visit  http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassNov14.html

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Java ain’t just for waking up your day…by Jina Bacarr

October 11, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,
 
 I have a Gold Starbucks card — you get free refills — but there’s more to life than refills.

Java ain’t just for waking up your day…it can improve your love life! Here’s a short poem I wrote about kickstarting more than your day with a cup of Joe.

…………………………….



Coffee Pillow Talk

 

Java is a girl’s best friend

When you don’t want that special night to end

 
“Stick around for a cup of Joe,” you say

After a night in bed that blew you away

 

Then watch his eyes glow with desire

When you put on the coffee and light his fire

 
Wearing a sexy black teddy, tight and see-through

You ask, “Eggs or cinnamon buns with your brew?”

 
“I’ll have the buns,” he says, eyeing yours with a smile

You shiver with glee. The coffee can wait for awhile

 
It’s back to bed with your man for round two

And to coffee you say, a big “Thank you!”
 
Best,
Jina

www.jinabacarr.com
www.facebook.com/JinaBacarr.author
https://twitter.com/JinaBacarr
http://www.pinterest.com/jbacarr   

  
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OCC Birthday Bash

October 6, 2014 by in category Archives

The next OCC meeting will be the Birthday Bash, on October 18.  I’ll be there.  Will you? 

I believe it’ll be an anniversary of sorts for me.  I’m fairly sure that I joined OCC 20 years ago!  That’s a long time. 

It’s also close to the amount of time I’ve been published in novel-length work.  I had short stories published before that, but my first novel, a time-travel romance called A GLIMPSE OF FOREVER, was published in 1995.   

I’ve always felt that I owe a lot to RWA and OCC for helping me learn what I needed to get, and stay, published.  Consequently, I’m delighted to be able to help celebrate OCC’s birthday. 

I’m sure I’ll have a delightful time.  I’ll even be signing some books there–a few of my most recent releases. 

Hope to see you there! 
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The Wonders of Hair Clips

September 24, 2014 by in category Archives

Well, I can’t offer you 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover or perhaps more appropriately the many (25 or more!) uses for Duct Tape (which, I was amazed to learn, actually started its life being called Duck Tape, as Johnson and Johnson used cotton canvas duck cloth to create it).

But I can share my own enthusiasm for plastic hair clips.  Yep, you heard it right.

Plastic Hair Clips, various sizes
They come in different sizes and shapes, but are available at most drug stores in the “Hair Accessories” section.

First, they do hold hair.  I can vouch for that.  But they hold a lot of other things too, easily, conveniently and fairly cost effectively. 

Like tidying up irritating strands of wires, they open in an instant, can be removed, reused or re-done, unlike a lot of other cord controlling options.

They hold things up, get and keep cords off the floor and out of the way.  They can conveniently grasp things that you might like having handy, like your charger-which-keeps-sliding-off-the-table.  Like holding other hair accessories nearby and accessible:

But one of my favorite uses is to keep my earphones in a tidy and (relatively) untangled ball (one that I can attach to things, perhaps an inside purse zipper pull) if I need those earphones handy.  The other is holding yarn ends and beginnings so they not only don’t unravel as I carry them around or store them, but I can also find the #%@&*! end (or beginning) when I need to.  They also work holding ribbon.

 
Many things have more than one purpose.  Look at an object’s (or a person’s) skill sets and see what other purposes they might fulfill.

You might give your lover another chance–or you might duct tape the door shut!  You have options…

Isabel Swift

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