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Feb. Online Class: Visual Content Marketing for the Confused and Terrified Writer

January 16, 2017 by in category Writing Classes

It has been my privilege and pleasure to find and schedule online classes for OCCRWA, and next month’s class on Visual Content Marketing, taught by our own Elena Dillon, sounds fabulous! Here’s the scoop from Elena:

Visual Content Marketing
for the Confused and Terrified Writer

Instructor: Elena Dillon 


 February 13 – March 10

What is visual content and why do you need it for your marketing strategy? And how does this apply to your author business? The answer is fairly simple.

Visual content is anything that uses pictures, graphics, video, etc. When you see a GIF of cats falling off tables? That’s visual content. A pretty graphic with a quote from a book? Visual Content. Those fabulous cooking videos where they make a cinnamon roll apple pie in twenty seconds? Visual content.

It’s what will get your content seen. As a matter of fact, statistically your readers are 44% more likely to engage with visual content. Hmmm. 44%? Hard to ignore. We all want to work smarter not harder, right? In this class, you will learn:

  • How to decide what kind of visuals will work for you and your business 
  • How to create all kinds of visuals
  • How to make one piece of content work in many different ways 
  • Drive traffic where you want it to go (your website, lead page, Amazon or other retailer page) 
  • Save time and effort in your marketing efforts 

This class for you if you’ve never created any kind of graphics on your own. It’s for authors who need to learn how to create visual content for their author business and are unsure about using new technology. We will go over:

  • Strategies for smarter marketing 
  • Tools that make visual content easier to create and more manageable 
  • How to plan out your content and marketing so it takes up less precious writing time. 

And believe it or not? I’ll make it fun. I’ll teach you how to create a graphic while you’re standing in line for coffee. =)

Join me for the fun in the February 2017 OCCRWA Visual Content Marketing for the Confused and Terrified Writer class!   

About the instructor:

Who Am I?

I’m Elena Dillon, an author of the award winning Young Adult “Breathe” series. When I’m not writing, I love to help my author friends with technology and social media. I’ve taught Social Media for the Confused and Terrified, Pinterest for the Confused and Terrified, Visual Content for Authors and spoken at numerous conferences, chapters and groups about social media and indie publishing.

Most of the time, I’m a wife to my husband of twenty-six years, mom to my two grown kids and servant to my high-maintenance English bulldog, Brutus, while I wait, not so patiently, for grandbabies.

Enrollment Information

This is a 4-week online course that uses email and Yahoo Groups. If you do not have a Yahoo ID you will be prompted to create one when you join the class, but the process is not difficult. The class is open to anyone wishing to participate. 
The cost : $30.00 per person or, if you are a member of OCCRWA, $20.00 per person.
Class dates: February 13 – March 10

Schedule of Classes for 2017


We’ve had to cancel the January class Overcoming Perfectionism and Procrastination with MM Pollard, but I’m hoping to reschedule it for later this year or 2018. MM is a fabulous teacher.

Here’s the rest of the 2017 schedule of classes:

April 10 – May 5: The Feminine Journey with Mary O’Gara

May 15 – 26: Self-Editing (two week class)  with Linda Carroll-Bradd

June 12 – July 7: Horse Sense with Shannon Donnelley

August 14 – Sept. 8:  Monster Revisions with Suzanne Johnson

Oct. 16 – Nov. 10: Time Management Secrets for Authors with Stacy Juba

Linda McLaughlin

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Indie Doesn’t Mean Independent

January 15, 2017 by in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster, Writing: It's a Business tagged as ,
Just before Christmas, a new author asked me how she might get more exposure. I’m sure she was waiting for some social media insights or advertising suggestions. Instead, I introduced her to Marianne Donley, one of my first writing friends.
Thirty-two years ago I published my first novel with Harlequin and joined RWA. The women I met there saw me through three genre changes, five publishers, four agents and the final leap into indie publishing. In those early days I learned that being part of a creative community was not simply important, it was essential to the health of my creative career.
With do-it-yourself publishing all authors –  newbies or seasoned writers – are often overwhelmed. We juggle writing, design, formatting and marketing, but if human interaction isn’t a part of the equation our hard work will lack inspiration, depth and heart. In an age where we boast of the number of followers we should be counting our friends.
When I ushered in the 2017, I took a time out. I looked backward and forward and was amazed to find out how truly un-indie I am.  Old RWA friends like Marianne, Sandra Paul, Mindy Neff, Angie Ray, Barbara Benedict are still my best writing buddies. No less important are those in my new virtual community – authors like Rick Bard, Brian Drake, Sheldon Siegel, Christine Whitmarsh, Chris Taylor, and Jennifer Chase. I have a superb team that inspires me and helps me create my books: cover designer, Hadleigh O. Charles, marketing expert, Robin Blakely of Creative Center of America, editor, Jenny Jensen of E-Bookeditor.com and formatter Stef McCaid. There are readers and pen pals, Tweeples and Facebook friends, family and neighbors who join in the mix. I am so grateful for them all.
As your year unfolds, remember this: being a successful indie author means being a successful human being. In the coming days reach out, give back, pay attention, get to know the people behind the avatars and the books. Your work will be better for it and so will your heart.
May 2017 be filled with fabulous friends and colleagues, good acquaintances, and admiring readers.
Happy New Year!

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My blue parasol, old hoop skirt and Civil War letters by Jina Bacarr

January 11, 2017 by in category Reading, Writing tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

 

I have to ask a favor this month . . .

This is going to be a short post. If any of you heard my Christmas promotion video with Joan Reeves (who is the most organized promoter, a fabulous author, and nicest lady), you’ll remember I had a bad cold.

And it put me behind with my writing.

So . . . as I insanely go down the rabbit hole this month to finish my Kindle Worlds novella, Royal Kiss, I’m going to post just a picture from my reading of LOVE ME FOREVER at Lady Jane’s OC Salon at the Ripped Bodice Bookstore last Sunday.

Then as soon as possible, I’ll come back to this post and give you the full scoop on my reading!

Thank you, and yes, my cold is better.

Hugs,
Jina

www.jinabacarr.wordpress.com

www.facebook.com/JinaBacarr.author

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The 2017 Book Buyers Best Contest for Published Authors

January 8, 2017 by in category Contests, Writing Contest tagged as , ,

The Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America is proud to announce that the Book Buyer’s Best Contest for 2017 is now open.

We are looking for entrants as well as preliminary round judges. If you wish to judge please contact the contest coordinators at: bbbcontest@occrwa.org.

This award will showcase the shining excellence of published authors in novella and novel length romance fiction and mainstream fiction with a central romance. The entry deadline is April 15, 2017.

The categories are:

  • Contemporary Series Romance
  • Contemporary Single Title Romance (Over 70,000 Words)
  • Mainstream Fiction with a Central Romance
  • Historical & Regency (Both Series and Single Title)
  • Romantic Suspense & Mystery with romantic elements (Over 70,000 Words)
  • Paranormal/Time Travel/Fantasy/Futuristic Romance (Both Series and Single Title)
  • Young Adult
  • Inspirational
  • Erotic Romance
  • Novella (Specify Category) (Over 15,000 to 40,000)

GLBT entries: Authors are to place their entries in the appropriate category

Judging

The preliminary round will be judged by booksellers, librarians and romance readers. First, second and third place will be awarded in each category. Highest score in each category will advance to the final round to be judged by the Top Pick Judge (TBA).

For a complete list of the rules and the official entry form, please visit: http://occrwa.org/contests/book-buyers-best/

If you need to contact the contest coordinators, Nikki Prince and/or Sabrina Sol please email: bbbcontest@occrwa.org

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This New Year

January 6, 2017 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston, Writing tagged as , ,

by Linda O. Johnston

Happy New Year everyone! 
 
This new year is going awfully fast already. I looked at my calendar and realized it was almost the 6th of the month–my day to post here at A Slice of Orange. Where did the first days of this year go?
This year has started out fairly busy. For one thing, I won’t be able to attend the first and second OCC meetings of 2017, even though I’d love to. But the reasons are good ones: I’m going to be attending the Santa Clarita Library’s Celebration of Authors on January 14, and I’ll be attending a relative’s wedding on February 11.
As I said, good reasons–but I’ll miss OCC and its wonderful members!
This year promises to be a busy one for me. As always, I’m working on books under deadline. Just sent off one manuscript for a Harlequin Romantic Suspense, and starting my fourth mystery in my Barkery & Biscuits Mysteries. My next published novel will be the third Barkery book, Bad to the Bone, which will be a May release, and in June my next Harlequin Nocturne in my Alpha Force series, about a covert military unit of shapeshifters, will come out: Protector Wolf.

I hope you all have a wonderful year filled with everything you want. And I hope to see you in March!

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