Wanna Blab? by Kitty Bucholtz
March 9, 2016 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz tagged as Author Interview, Blab, It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz
Have you heard of Blab? Chances are you haven’t yet. It’s a fairly new social media video platform that is still in beta, but there are thousands of people using it already.
The idea is that you can do a live video chat with up to four people in video boxes (unlike Periscope, which only allows one camera, the one on your phone). It sometimes reminds me of the old TV game show Hollywood Squares. You can allow people to leave the video box and let someone else come in to change up the conversation, or you can “lock the chair” so that only the people you want to be on video are allowed.
You can schedule a blab in advance or you can hop on and start talking. You can even choose to record a blab, but you can’t pre-record it to make it available at a certain time. Like YouTube, anyone in the world can go find your recording (if you recorded it) on the site and watch it at any time, and anyone in the world can watch your live blab.
There’s even a chat box so people watching can contribute to the conversation. Viewers can also click on the hands icon at the bottom of each video square to “give props” to that speaker (like the hearts in Periscope give love). It’s connected to Twitter so you can log in with your Twitter ID, tweet about your blab while you’re doing it, and you can get more followers from inside Blab and send them a message that you’re now live.
The frosting on the cake? It’s easy!
Go to Blab to check it out. You’ll see dozens of people chatting live at any given time. The search bar isn’t the greatest, but you can search for people or recordings, and you can follow people so you’ll be informed when they’re live.
YA author Elena Dillon and I started a new live Blab show last month called Elena and Kitty Blabbing About Books. (Come “follow” us!) We’d been thinking about doing a podcast, but there is a real time commitment to making a good podcast. With Blab, we hit the record button, interview our author guest, hit the stop recording button, and in less than an hour Blab sends us a link to the recording to download to our computer and upload to our blog and/or YouTube channel. We also send the link to the author we interviewed so they can upload it to their sites as well.
We’ve done four episodes already, interviewing Tracy Reed, Alina K. Field, Debbie Decker, and Tracy Lydia Garner. Tonight’s guest is romantic suspense author Beth Yarnell. Click Beth’s name at 7pm Pacific time to watch the show!
Elena and Kitty Blabbing About Books is a weekly show interviewing a new author every Wednesday from 7pm to 8pm Pacific time. If you’re a published author and would like to know more about being interviewed on our show, please email us at blababoutbooks AT gmail DOT com.
And if you read fiction and like to hear authors talk about their books, join us each week! It’s lots of fun and you may find a new author to try.
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, A Very Merry Superhero Wedding, and Unexpected Superhero are currently available on Amazon. The free short story “Superhero in Disguise” and the new short story “Welcome to Loon Lake” are available wherever ebooks are sold. You can find out about her courses on self-publishing, marketing, and time management for writers at her website Writer Entrepreneur Guides.
Who Wants to Be a More Productive Writer?
March 8, 2016 by Marianne H. Donley in category Archives tagged as #amwriting, #writing, #writingtips, MM Pollard, Productive
By MM Pollard, the MM in Workshops with MM,
Certified copy editor,
I think I can safely assume that all writers want to be more productive. If you happen to be one who doesn’t, then feel free to click close now.
Okay, so most of you stayed. How did I know that most of you would stay here? Would you believe I’m clairvoyant? No?
Writers produce writing, coherent words on a screen (paper). If you are happy averaging one hundred words a day, then I suggest you stop reading here. If you want to write more, lots more, then continue, please.
Becoming a more productive writer involves many actions and a few attitudes. Here are a few of both.
Actions:
If you were on a deserted island with only your computer with a fully charged battery, would you write or would you play Solitaire until the battery discharged? (Solitaire players may stop reading and get back to their games. I apologize for the interruption.)
Do those close to you know you write?
Do you write every day?
Do you keep track of your time and words every time your write?
Do you play Solitaire when you are writing blocked, or do you still write something, anything?
Attitudes:
Is writing fun or a chore?
Do you think you deserve to take time out of your day and from your other responsibilities to write?
What’s more important to you? The huge advance you’ll receive with the sale of your book? Finishing that book your family didn’t believe you would ever complete? Releasing your characters from the purgatory of your mind to see the light of a computer screen?
That salve I said I would share with you? This is it – my workshop titled Speed Writing – What Plan Works Best for You? You’ll learn how to form a habit of writing, learn to keep track of your productivity for accountability, learn to deal with issues—those inside you and outside of you. That’s just for starters.
It seems that hundreds of people have written books on increasing speed and word count. I’ll share information from many authors who have increased their word count to several thousand a day or even an hour. I’ll give you another author’s plan to write a novella in twenty-four hours and another author’s plan to write a book in nine days.
The beauty of this workshop is that I have done all the research for you. All you have to do to take the information and see which system works best for you.
I hope you will join me.
MM Pollard
About MM Pollard
As an English teacher for fifteen years and, currently as editor for Black Velvet Seductions and the MM in Workshops with MM, MM Pollard has helped writers correct ungrammatical grammar, misused usage, problematic punctuation, and poor writing. Check out Testimonials on her blog, MM’s Fundamentals of English. While you are there, sign up for her monthly newsletter and even look at previous newsletters.
MM began presenting workshops four years ago and has presented on many sites, including her own. Many RWA chapters, including From the Heart RWA, RWA Online, OCC/RWA, Passionate Ink, Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal RW, Maryland RWA, and Florida RW, have also sponsored her workshops. In February, 2015, she presented at FRW’s Fun in the Sun Conference, and her dream come true!
Through her fun workshops—English class can be fun!—MM is sure she can help you, too, master the fundamentals of English composition.
A Title a Month…Insane or Brilliant and BookBub Summary
March 7, 2016 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as Steamy Christian Fiction, Tracy Reed
I’m doing something that can be considered brilliant or insane. I’m putting a title out a month. When I say it out loud and look at my schedule, my goal sounds like the words of a person who should be locked in a padded room.
Trust me I did think this through, sort of, before I set out to tackle this goal. I’ve heard writers say, they put out 6 titles a year, 12 titles a year 24 titles a year. This intrigued me. It also made me think I wasn’t living up to my writing potential. So I thought, why not give it a try. Let’s be real, it never occurred to me to try 24 titles, for me that really would be insane. A dozen however, seem a doable.
Follow my reasoning. I wanted to beef up my book offerings and push myself. The goal seems a little scary, but if it goes as planned, next year I can cut the goal in half. Or I might want to make this my new normal. Check with me at the end of the and we’ll see.
Like any well thought out plan, there are always a few challenges. But that which doesn’t break me, will only make me stronger and a better writer, I hope. In addition to the writing challenge, I’m experimenting with different forms of marketing. Over the past year, I learned that books are like children, each has it’s own personality and needs to be nurtured differently.
Here goes…
FIRST TITLE: January 2016 Title “WHAT MY FRIENDS DON’T KNOWâ€
Challenge One: I planned my January release two days before my vacation. That was insane. I was trying to pack and prep a book at the same time. I’ll never do that again. However, I got the ebook out on January 19th. To ensure I’d make the January date, I set up a pre-order date. That cause more stress than I imagined. Unfortunately, the print version wasn’t ready and it’s been pushed back to March. But I still made my January Title date.
Marketing Strategy: Blog tour, giveaways with GoodReads, TRS [The Romance Studio], Ads on Booktastik, Love Kissed Books and other blogs and Kitty and Elena’s Blab Podcast
Purchase Outlets: Amazon, iBooks, Draft 2 Digital, Smashwords, Kobo and Createspace, my website and OC Book Fair
Formats: eBook and Print
SECOND TITLE: February 2016 Title “LOVE NOTESâ€
Challenge Two: The challenge with my February release was a matter of setup. I wrote a book of love notes, thus the title, “LOVE NOTES.” So far, these thirty-one notes have been the most difficult thing I’ve written. Who would have thought it’s be that difficult to draft a few words of expression…that’s the sub title. Anyway, I didn’t realize that at some point, I accidentally released the book. I found this out when I went to release it on February 28th. However, it had been pulled because I made some changes to the interior file. So I thought I had made it available for release, when in fact it hadn’t been made “available.” A simple few clicks and it was made available as of February 29th. Weird thing though, it was it was published on January 12th. Go figure. In my mind, it’s birthday is February 29, 2016.
Marketing Strategy: Giveaways with GoodReads, TRS [The Romance Studio]. This one is going to be a real learning experience, because it’s print only. However, I’m going to sell it through my other business.
Purchase Outlets: Amazon, Createspace and The Pin kDuchess, my website and OC Book Fair
Formats: Print
THIRD TITLE: March 2016 Title “THE GOOD GIRL PART DEUX”
This brings us to Title No. 3, “THE GOOD GIRL PART DEUX”. I wrote this book in about a month. This is the second installment to “THE GOOD GIRL PART ONE”. It’s names Part Deux, because some of the story takes place in Paris. I fondly refer to Part One as my little book that could. This story was part of the “Fling” box set. I’ve talked about this story before. It took me about two weeks to write it. In mind it was going to be a stand alone novella. Instead, the end gave way to a second book. Now I’m wrestling with Part Trois.
Here’s a peak at the cover for THE GOOD GIRL PART DEUX
Marketing Strategy: I don’t know yet.
Purchase Outlets: I’m not sure, because Part One is in KDP Select. I’m not sure if I want to move the series or leave it there. I’ll have a solution by release day.
Formats: eBook and Print
So I invite you to take this journey with me. I’m not foolish enough to ask you to take this challenge with me, because that would be insane.
____________________________________________________________
I mentioned a few months back that I was blessed to receive the holy grail of ads, BOOKBUB.
A little history. My first book GENERATIONAL CURSE was sort of at a stand still in the digital world. Let me rephrase that, because it makes it sound dead. It wasn’t, it just wasn’t getting the attention I wanted. In retrospect, I can understand why that was a good thing.
Let me explain. I only had one book out. If it had hit record breaking numbers, I didn’t have anything else to offer readers. I searched ways to garner some attention. I did a few ads, a blog tour, posted it on various social media outlets, put it on sale for $.99, and saw a slight increase. When I released this book, I put it on Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, All Romance eBooks, and Barnes and Noble. I saw very little love from everyone accept Amazon. Oh yeah and I did a giveaway at GoodReads with good results.
I can’t remember when, but Kathy Rowland approached me about being in the FLING BOX SET. I jumped at the opportunity. It was a chance to be in a box set and it provided me with a challenge…write a novella. I had never written a short book and it was something I wanted to try. My next full-length book wasn’t ready and I needed something new to offer the few readers I had. [Thank God for those early subscribers to my email list.]
So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I wrote THE GOOD GIRL Part One in about two weeks. I was torn about were to place this book. Due to the way FLING was set up, I had no choice, but to place it in KDP Select. I was surprised at how well this book was received. It was also a great attention getter. When people saw THE GOOD GIRL, they also saw GENERATIONAL CURSE. I saw a little movement, but THE GOOD GIRL, was doing much better.
I was talking to Kitty Bucholtz about my plight and she suggested I do something I felt was a little drastic…place it in KDP Select. This scared the crap out of me. I felt I would be losing out on potential sales. Who was I kidding, in the eyes of the other sights, I was dead. So I did it and was shocked it started selling much better. As a new writer, I have to remind myself, large sales take time. I also remind myself, my genre is still new or it hasn’t officially been categorized. So, now I refer to my books as Steamy Christian Fiction or Contemporary Fiction with Faith elements. [Personally, I like Steamy Christian Fiction. Kind of sounds taboo or something your grandmother would cringe if she read. SMILE.]
Now for the meat and potatoes. I wish I could say I discovered some secret formula for getting the ad, but I didn’t. All I did was pray. I don’t mean to come of preachy, but it’s the truth. That’s all I did and filled out the application of course. Like a lot of authors, I’ve been reject a few times from BookBub, so this was a shock and an amazing Christmas gift.
If you’re familiar with KDP Select, you know you have the option of offering you book for free for five days during your 90 days. To be honest, I almost forgot my 90 days were almost up. I quickly set out looking for ads. The other thing is it was around the holidays and let’s be real, no one is really buying books before Christmas. But I had put myself in that situation. I also had wanted to do some kind of giveaway to celebrate the one year anniversary of my first book, GENERATIONAL CURSE.
I booked a GoodReads Giveaway and contacted a couple of sites I had placed ads with and saw good results: Robin Reads and Booktastik. And because the sky is blue, I applied to BookBub.
I immediately heard from Booktastik. [I love working with them. They are very accommodating.] They pretty much asked me what day I wanted and we were set. However, Robin Reads wasn’t able to give me the date I wanted and offered me December 23rd. I felt that wasn’t going to benefit me, so I turned it down.
An advantage to my genre, is I can apply for a few different categories: Contemporary Romance, Women’s Fiction, Inspiration [which would be a stretch for some people] or African American.
I keep trying to figure out what I did and I remember the previous times I applied it was for Contemporary Fiction and at my book’s full price. This time, I bit the bullet and decided to offer it for free. I also changed the description and applied to the African American category. I know some people are probably saying I should have done that in the first place. My reasons for not applying to that category are more complicated than I care to go into.
I figured if I was going to give by book away, I wanted to spend as little as possible. The African American category was only $65 for a free download, with a reach of 320,000+, with a total average downloads of 3,950.
A few days after the December meeting, I got an email from BookBub. I was prepared for the news either way, but very hopeful, the result was in my favor. I opened the email and immediately started jumping up and down doing a Thank You God happy dance. I got the ad. I didn’t care what day they gave me, it was BookBub. The holy grail of ads. I knew no matter what, I was going to be expose to a lot of people that had probably never heard of me or my books. By the time the ad, hit, I had three titles. A novella, a novelette and my full-length. I had something to offer readers. My book was going to be featured on December 28, 2015. Cool thing about this date, it was my grandfather’s birthday. So if he had been alive we could have had a double celebration.
So how did I do? As far as I’m concerned, I did incredible. I’m only going to share the numbers for GENERATIONAL CURSE. Here we go:
DAY ONE OF FIVE FREE:
BookBub day, December 28, 2015:
Downloads: 4,944
KENP: 119
I found the KENP number interesting, because the book was a free download.
This wear the wings or tails begin
DAY ONE OF FIVE FREE:
December 29, 2015:
Downloads: 1,532
KENP: 619
DAY THREE OF FIVE FREE:
December 30, 2015:
Downloads: 937
KENP: 2,537
DAY FOUR OF FIVE FREE:
December 31, 2015:
Downloads: 629
KENP: 1,082
DAY FIVE OF FIVE FREE:
January 1, 2016:
Downloads: 692
KENP: 3,092
Total Downloads for the five days: 8,734
Total KENP Downloads: 7,449
BookBub suggests that you track your numbers for thirty days to see what the halo affect is. Interesting word, halo. Here it is in a nutshell, I love the halo effect. Not only did the halo sit high, it shined bright.
Halo Period
December 29, 2015 – January 28, 2016
Total KENP Downloads: 41,950
Copies: 6
Keep in mind I’m only talking about GENERATIONAL CURSE. During this time, I had two other books out and one on pre-order. All of which benefited greatly. For some people these are small numbers, but for my first time going out with BookBub, he was a true gentleman. Now I have a gage for the next time I get an ad.
Since the BookBub ad, I’ve seen steady numbers, so far nothing like what I experienced in the halo. Let me rephrase that, I’ve had a few of those four figure KENP days and sales are much better.
Sorry this post was a little long. Check in with me next month as I continue on my quest to do 12 Titles in 12 Months.
Tracy Reed
www.readtracyreed.com
Fiction for Women Who Love God, Couture and Cute Guys
Lion and Lamb
March 6, 2016 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as #amwriting, Linda O. Johnston
by Linda O. Johnston
March’s OCCRWA Online Class is “Speed Writing: Which Plan Works Best for You?”, with MM Pollard
February 26, 2016 by Marianne H. Donley in category Archives tagged as MM Pollard, OCC/RWA Online Class, Speedwriting
About the Class:
It’s easy to find how-to books on writing fast, but which one represents the solution to your plotting problem?
Let MM Pollard, writer, editor, and workshop presenter, help you sort through all of the different advice on this subject in eight lessons. She will focus on increasing daily word count as well as on quicker methods to plan and organize your book, using information from several fiction and nonfiction writers who have done just that. Students will be encouraged to try the techniques presented in each lesson to see if they work for them.
About the Instructor:
As an English teacher for fifteen years and, currently as editor for Black Velvet Seductions and the MM in Workshops with MM, MM Pollard has helped writers correct ungrammatical grammar, misused usage, problematic punctuation, and poor writing. Check out Testimonials on her blog, MM’s Fundamentals of English. While you are there, sign up for her monthly newsletter and even look at previous newsletters.
MM began presenting workshops four years ago and has presented on many sites, including her own. Many RWA chapters, including From the Heart RWA, RWA Online, OCC/RWA, Passionate Ink, Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal RW, Maryland RWA, and Florida RW, have also sponsored her workshops. In February, 2015, she presented at FRW’s Fun in the Sun Conference, and her dream come true!
Through her fun workshops—English class can be fun!—MM is sure she can help you, too, master the fundamentals of English composition.
For more information and to register go to http://occrwa.org/classes/march-online-class/
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Permission to forward
Angela Kyle
OCCRWA Online Class Promos
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