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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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10 Things NEVER TO DO When Writing

September 15, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as ,
WHEN YOU’RE WRITING NEVER:
10. Stop Reading:  After a long day of reading your own work it the last thing you want to do is pick up someone else’s but do it! You will stay motivated. I learn something new with each book I read.
9. Rely on Inspiration: Don’t waste a day waiting for inspiration. Sit down, get to work, and inspiration will come calling.
8. Neglect Genre: It’s tempting to want to walk in between genres. What would be better than a science fiction, erotic, mystery right? But remember, if you want to find passionate and engaged readers, you have to find the genre that you most want to write and stick with it.
7. Get Bored: If you’re bored, chances are your readers will be to.  If you find yourself becoming bored, or your main character is skating through the plot with ease, throw some roadblocks in the way. Conflict moves stories.
6. Rely on Pretty People: Men don’t always have to be fearless and women don’t always have to be sexy. Your readers will spend a lot of time with your characters so make sure there is something going on in their heads and their hearts. Readers love characters for their imperfections and shortcomings just as much as their looks.
5. Lose the Through Line:Remember who’s story you’re writing and what the point is.  Veer off the path and you lose your readers.
4. Be Afraid to Cut, Cut, Cut: Cut close to the bone. Make the tough choices and take out the things you really love. They may be great but only if they move the story forward.
3. Throw in the Towel: Too many people have half finished books, or books without an ending floating around on their hard drives. The easiest thing in the world is starting a book. The hardest thing is finishing one.
2. Let your Characters Off Easy: Just because you love your characters doesn’t mean you have to go easy on them. Let them struggle and sometimes fail. Anything that you put in your characters’ gives the readers greater insight into their lives. Give them a goal to work towards, make it hard to get and you can’t go wrong.
1. Beat Yourself Up: The book isn’t shaping up the way you want it to? Someone read a chapter and didn’t care for it? Feel like jumping off a cliff? No worries. Those days happen, but remember that every day that you’re thinking, “woe is me,” is another day that you could be finishing a chapter or polishing a plot point. You can spend your time beating yourself up or beating your characters up. I do a lot of the former but am trying to stop.

Happy writing.
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