December Calls for Submission: Naughty & Nice
December 1, 2011 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Calls for Submissions, Louisa Bacio
Goal Setting for 2012
November 28, 2011 by A Slice of Orange in category ArchivesThanksgiving is over, and the official holiday shopping season has begun. I was driving in my car just the other day and heard a famous Christmas song that made me pause, where the singer crooned about the year being over, and then he asked. “What have you done?â€
What have I done? The question lingered in my mind. What had I done? Not what I intended, that’s for sure. I had set goals and hadn’t attained some of them.
Hearing author Susan Mallery speak at the recent OCC birthday bash really inspired me. She talked about goals and how she made business decisions based on how well they would help her attain her goals. Her ability to set a goal and stick to it impressed me, as did her willingness to occasionally refuse select prospects because they did not line up with her goals.
Many people get caught up in the moment and are afraid to let an opportunity pass. Sometimes it’s about money, sometimes about getting or staying published, sometimes about building a name or personal validation. Accomplishing goals means sticking to your guns and keeping your eye on the prize. As writers, we tend to get easily distracted, and we often need to work on the discipline needed to set and keep our goals.
Here are two tips for making and keeping goals that hopefully we can all apply to the upcoming year:
1. Make the goal ATTAINABLE. Sometimes we have goals that may set us up for failure because we have no control over them. Keep your goals to things over which you have most of the control. Setting the goal to get an agent by the end of the year might not be considered an attainable goal because you have no way of guaranteeing that an agent will sign you in that time frame. However, an attainable goal might be to query X number of agents in a year. You have total control over that because you are the one sending the queries. And achieving that goal might indeed result in you getting signed by an agent within a year.
2. Have SHORT TERM and LONG TERM goals. Your short term goals can give you that feeling of immediate gratification while you work towards the long term goal. Example of a short term goal: Finish the book by the end of the year. Long term goal: Have written three completed manuscripts in three years.
Here’s hoping we all reach our goals in 2012!
2 0 Read moreBook Covers
November 19, 2011 by Marianne H. Donley in category Archives tagged as Black Opal Books, Mona Karel, Monica StonerBy Member at Large Monica Stoner, w/a Mona Karel
Deep in the recesses of my overstuffed memory is a ditty that supposedly did the rounds at a SciFi Convention. To the tune of “She’ll be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountainâ€
“There’s a dragon on the cover of my book
There’s a dragon on the cover of my book
He is green and he is scale-y but he’s nowhere in my tale-y
There’s a dragon on the cover of my book.â€
In the process of research of this ditty, I came across several other stanzas, including a bimbo on the cover, and a castle on the cover (for a book set in Seattle) and slightly different wording. The ending I remember referred to having a “wrong†cover is still better than finding one’s book in a remainder pile. By the way, if you Google that first line you can have a lot of fun missing out on your NaNo count while doing research.
Mind you this was a long time ago, before even Rocket Books (remember those?) had been created. Authors had no say in their covers, and were occasionally seen to wince when presented with the scantily clad heroine and the buff hero in excruciatingly tight trousers, open shirt, blond hair flying in the wind–never mind that he’s written as a brunette and he’s French. They were told the publisher knew what sold books much better than any writer.
Fast forward to now, and look at the changes in the publishing world. Digital books, print on demand, self publishing, author input on covers. And what do we see on many books? Bare chests, flowing hair, large breasts–and that’s the male. Seems even when the option exists to have input on our covers, authors are opting for the beef cake.
Do these covers really sell more books, even when they’re only displayed on the computer screen because we read electronically? Is there really more market for headless bare chested men with impossibly large breasts and muscles where no one has ever seen muscles?
I realize some books lend themselves to these covers, since they are written more erotically. But not all of them. A friend did a survey for the cover of her second space opera book, showing various covers, and the most popular was the one with a bare chested man, with planets and space ships in the background. So maybe those covers do serve a purpose.
I’m contemplating covers since Black Opal Books has offered to publish my second book. The working title is “Teach Me To Forget,†and it’s about a photographer and a writer. So should I have a well muscled nekkid chested guy on the cover, holding a camera? I feel fortunate with the cover on “My Killer My Love,†since it conveys the mystery man in the woods concept, but I wonder if I should have looked farther for a more revealing photo?
What do you think, as writers and readers? Would you be more likely to pick up a book by an unknown author if the cover could qualify for serious eye candy?
7 0 Read moreMarketing “Quick Response”: QR Codes, The New Sexy…
November 18, 2011 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Jenny Hansen, OCC/RWA, QR Codes, Social Media, Technology Funby Jenny Hansen
Are you capitalizing on the sexy little bit of free Techie gadgetry that’s currently all the rage? I’m talking about QR Codes, those little black squares you’re seeing on your television, in magazines and on the mail coming into your house.
I know, I know…QR just doesn’t sound sexy and, unless you’re more the nerdy type, “code” probably doesn’t either. But QR Codes are getting me hot these days. Seriously.
QR Codes are one of the EASIEST marketing tricks you’re not taking advantage of, especially if you’re a self-published author or a small business person.
Click here for the other 8 no-to-low cost social media tips we talked about last month and sit back to bask in the warmth of a new piece of technology fun that doesn’t cost a thing!
What is a QR Code?
QR stands for Quick Response and was created by the automotive industry to help track vehicles during the manufacturing process. How is this sexy, Jenny? you might be thinking…
Well, I’ll tell you. A QR Code is a barcode that stores a web address of your choosing. As an example, if you scan the one above, you’ll go to a cool place on OCC’s website that you might not visit very often. There are free apps available in both the Android and the iPhone that let you scan a QR code to quickly go to a website.
Note: To scan the code, you’ll need an app like QR Scanner [iTunes link] for the iPhone and iPod touch, or ShopSavvy for Android devices.
Uses for QR Codes…just think about this, folks:
- QR Codes are being used at grocery stores to give you recipes and nutritional information for products you’re buying in the store.
- To give you coupons, both in-store and on the internet.
- On business cards, signs and brochures. A simple little barcode allows you to give the info you need to on the card or sign and, with a single click, also help the person to visit the webpage of your choice.
- On clothing labels (Macy’s and other retailers are already using this) to tell you about that item and others you may like in the store.
- On anything with packaging, to push people to a website, Facebook or review page.
Are you juiced up yet? Cause I am.
Can I get a QR Code of my very own?
But of course! There are tons of free spots to generate a QR code. Bit.ly and Social Oomph are the two I use the most often.
To use Bit.ly:
- Visit bit.ly, write or paste in a URL address, click “Shorten,†and add .qr to the end of the generated bit.ly link (like so: http://bit.ly/tm90xj.qr).
- Copy the modified link into a new browser window to view the QR code.
- Once you see the code on your screen, you can print it out, send to your friends via e-mail, post on your blog, etc.
- You need to sign up for a free account, whereas for Bit.ly, you could sign in with Twitter (but it still asks for your email address).
- Once you’re signed in, l00k at the left navigation bar – “Shorten URL” is the fourth choice from the top.
- Click the Shorten URL shortcut and type or paste the address in to the “Long URL” box and click the Shorten button.
- There’s a box that says QR Code – copy the link out of there and follow all the same steps as above in the Bit.ly example.
UPDATE: In the last few weeks since I wrote this post, viruses have targeted QR Codes here and there. That doesn’t mean they aren’t safe but, just like email, watch where you click. More details here on how to avoid viruses.
Does this give you any new marketing ideas for your books, businesses or advertising? Are you already using QR Codes? What has your experience been?
Happy Writing!
Jenny
Jenny Hansen fills her nights with humor: writing memoir, women’s fiction, chick lit, short stories (and chasing after the newly walking Baby Girl). By day, she provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. After 15 years as a stand-up corporate software trainer, she’s digging this “sit down and write” thing.
In addition to being a founding member at Writers In The Storm, Jenny can also be found on Twitter and Facebook or over at her solo blog, More Cowbell.
5 Tips to self-publishing your mother never told you by Jina Bacarr
November 11, 2011 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Amazon, Bob Mayer, Cinderella, Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, Dr. Debra Holland, hunter, J.A. Konrath, Jackie Diamond Hyman, Marie Force, nook, rules, self-publishing, short story, SmashwordsPsst…have you heard? Everybody’s doing it. Self-publishing.
It’s hip, it’s cool…it’s like winning the lottery.
Right?
Hmm…maybe. Maybe not. It’s the wild, wild west out in the land of Amazon, Smashwords and Nook. All you need is a dusty, old manuscript from under your bed, a sexy cover and a few .html codes and you’re dancing with the stars.
Oh, what fools we writers be.
It ain’t that easy.
Here’s the deal: You’ve written a good story and your manuscript is in the best shape possible–critique groups, professional editing, etc. Now what?
No doubt you need a good cover and nearly flawless formatting, but don’t give up if you haven’t gotten it all together. Before you push that old manuscript back under the bed with the dust bunnies, it is possible to hitch your wagon to the self-pubbed stars and join in the land rush…or should I say, digital rush.
I did it. I self-pubbed a holiday novella and a short story. There are many blogs that can help you with various aspects of the biz, from J.A. Konrath to Bob Mayer’s Write It Forward (I highly recommend both!), but here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way.
Jina’s 5 tips to self-publishing:
- I formatted my manuscript myself with help from Marie Force’s blog–I especially found the info about “tabs†and indenting .33 on the first line helpful.
- I bought my cover art from Dreamstime.com They have quality photos and high resolution. You can choose from 12 million photos available on their site.
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Be prepared to spend time learning how to format. It’s a high learning curve, but I’ve found both the Amazon (short video) and Smashwords guides to be helpful if you’re willing to make the effort.
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Be realistic about your goals. No one can predict how a book will do, but reading the Kindle forums and following other authors can give you an idea of how they’re doing. I follow OCC’s Dr. Debra Holland’s blog–she’s been open and forthright about her experience in self-publishing and her sales. Another OCC author, Jacqueline Diamond (author of 90 novels), has recently self-published books from her backlist and knows the value of promoting her books (she made the top 100 in Regency on Amazon).
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Write another book or story right away. Quality and quanity are both important in self-pubbing. You need product to sell. Imagine if a shoe store opened and all they had to sell was one shoe style?
Which reminds me of Cinderella and her glass slipper.
Putting your self-pubbed book out there is like Cinderella going to the ball. She had a team of cute little mice to make her dress (editing, cover and formatting) and a fairy godmother (Amazon, Nook and Smashwords) to make the magic happen.
She also had the moxie to get to the ball. That’s where you come in.
Be like Cinderella. Don’t be late to the self-publishing party.
You’ll never know if the glass slipper fits until you try it.
Best,
Jina
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