Two-Question Survey on Self-Publishing by Kitty Bucholtz
March 9, 2015 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz tagged as It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, self-publishingHi friends!
I’ve been learning a lot of new things about growing my reading audience for my fiction, and about improving my online classes on self-publishing and time management for writers. One of those new things is landing pages. Some of you have great web sites where the first page draws you in and gives you a reason to stay. Mine isn’t like that! LOL!
I’m learning how to use LeadPages and the AWeber email system to create pages to give away cool stuff (called a first impression incentive) and get people to sign up for my email list. Here is the link to my first ever landing page on my brand new site, Writer Entrepreneur Guides.
I’ll be using that site to teach my classes instead of using Yahoo Groups. (Can I hear an Amen?!) And I’ll be interviewing all kinds of people in our industry to give information and advice to writers who are thinking about or just beginning to self-publish. I’m really excited about this!
The other new thing I’m learning is how to find out what people really want to know about the subject you’re teaching. One of the best ways is to ask them an open-ended question about it, and then use the second question to see how serious they are about learning more. Apparently, the psychology is that if someone is willing to give you a phone number to contact them to ask more – and we all know how much we don’t want to be called by sales people! – that shows how serious they are, and they might be someone who would want to take your class. (You don’t actually call them; it’s only to find out how serious they are about getting the answer to the first question.)
Pretty neat stuff, huh? I hope some of you find it interesting if I share more of what I learn as I blog here on the 9th of every month. One hand reaching forward, one hand reaching back, right? 🙂
If you are interested in self-publishing or just beginning your journey, will you do me a favor and fill out my survey? (The other cool thing I learned is how to embed it directly into a blog post! If it doesn’t work, you can get to the survey here.) It will help me make my classes better for future students. (I’ll be teaching my self-publishing class again next month!)
And be sure to either click on the Writer Entrepreneur Guides link now or the one you’ll see after you click the Submit button on the survey, to get my free gift, The 10-Step Checklist to Starting Your Self-Publishing Business. I hope you find it helpful.
Thanks again for taking my survey! I’m excited to make my next class the best one yet!
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 and Unexpected Superhero, and the free short story, “Superhero in Disguise,” are now available at most online retail sites.
Upcoming Events
March 6, 2015 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as California Dreamin' Conference, Linda O. Johnston, writing a seriesMarch is a busy month for OCC and its members!
First is our regular upcoming meeting on March 14–which I intend to attend.
And that’ll be followed by the California Dreamin’ Conference from March 27-29. It’s the second California Dreamin’ Conference, and it’s hosted by all four Southern California Romance Writers of America chapters: OCC, Los Angeles Romance Authors, East Valley Authors and San Diego RWA. I’m proud to say that I’m a member of two of them: OCC and LARA. Plus, I spoke not long ago at an EVA meeting. Maybe I’ll get to attend a San Diego chapter meeting too someday.
Meantime, I’ll be on a panel at California Dreamin’: So You Want To Write A Series. My fellow panelists are Judy Duarte and Janet Tronstad. I’ve spoken before about writing series, which is a real passion of mine. I’m currently writing four of them!
I hope to see you at the chapter meeting and/or California Dreamin’. Hope you’ll be at both, too. And if you’re at the conference, be sure to attend my panel!
Linda O Johnston
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO A REWRITE
March 5, 2015 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as Edgy Christian Fiction, stronger writing, Tracy Reed
I recently self-published my first book, GENERATIONAL CURSE. However, it isn’t the first book I wrote. That honor belongs to THE ALEX CHRONICLES:WHAT MY FRIENDS DON’T KNOW. It’s the first book in a series about five best friends. The stories follow the characters as they maneuver and meander their way through a lot of secrets. The tagline asks the simple question: How well do you know your best friends?
I think I was watching Bridget Jones’ Diary or Sex And The City, when I got the idea for the book. I went into this thinking it would be a stand alone and then the characters reminded me I had left a few unanswered questions. I immediately started answering those questions in the second book. However, a new book answered those questions, but it also created a few new ones. On to book three.
Fast forward, a couple of new computers, three crashed hard drives and a healthy relationship with Dropbox and back up drives, I am 30 pages away from completing my first series. NOT.
I went to a conference and an agent requested it, didn’t like it. Another agent liked it and signed me. [I shared this story in an previous post]. While my oldest child was out making the rounds, I gave birth to a surprise baby, GENERATIONAL CURSE. In writing that book, I saw my oldest baby with fresh eyes. While working on GENERATIONAL CURSE, I read a lot [I also judged the BBB which exposed me to some different genres]. The advice that in order to learn how to write, you have to read, is so true. I liked how GENERATIONAL CURSE developed. It has just the right amount of heat and edge to keep the reader engaged. THE ALEX CHRONICLES was missing that.
I got a stack of post-its, a notebook and a few red pens and started performing surgery. When I was done, I liked the characters even better. They were mature with great personalities and better story lines.
Here’s the funny part. I had a cover based on the old manuscript. No matter how much I wanted it to work, it just didn’t now. And because I knew I had the other books complete, except for those last 30+ pages for book three, I bought the covers for them as well. Now none of them fit. Back to the beginning.
I ordered a proof with the manuscript changes, but every time I looked at that cover, it just reiterated I had to make a change. After reading the proof, something else kept gnawing at me…the first seven chapters. I had been fighting with myself about those pages longer than the cover issue. No matter how much I liked the content, I felt it didn’t really tell the story. This was a major realization for me. So, last week, I highlighted the pages and hit delete. It felt like someone had chopped off one of my arms. I stepped back, looked at the book with a revised chapter eight as my new chapter one, did a little tweaking and I like it. It immediately grabs you.
What about the first seven pages? My plan is to add a few thousand words and make a novella. So now my little three book series, will become a four book series. As for the new cover, it has a much more sophisticated feel. I’m saving the Cover Reveal for later.
I’m hoping to release this book by the end of Spring.
Tracy Reed
readtracyreed@me.com
www.readtracyreed.com
Fiction for Women Who Love God, Couture and Cute Guys
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Rhetorical Devices Are a Writer’s Friends
February 26, 2015 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as OCCRWA Online Class, Writing Fiction with ImpactGuest-blogging today is MM Pollard of Workshops with MM, an editor with Black Velvet Seductions. MM will be teaching OCCRWA’s March Online Class, “Writing Fiction with Impact”
When you hear the phrase “rhetorical devices,†do you break out in a rash? Do you think they are only for lawyers and other people who argue for a living? Do you think including them in your fiction will make your writing sound artificial and too scholarly for your readers?
Bully Pulpit
February 24, 2015 by A Slice of Orange in category ArchivesDid you know that Emerson’s saying is “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” not, as I had heard for many years (and found very confusing), ‘Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.’
I understand that rigid adherence to consistency can be problematic—following the letter Vs the spirit of a law or requirement can be absurd.
But in general some level of consistency seems like a good thing. Inconsistency can be unfair. It’s untrustworthy, can be arbitrary and impossible to work with or depend on.
So when someone is strongly endorsing some belief and presenting the profound rightness of their opinion and the unbelievable wrongness of alternative positions—when they demand that others change their minds and believe whatever the speaker believes, it begs the question whether that declared “truth” is adhered to consistently across the board by its passionate advocate.
That only seems fair, right?
Some people are convinced that their belief trumps all others. And that everyone that believes differently is wrong, bad, indeed evil. They believe that any action to convert or convince others of the error of their ways is justified, and if unconvinced, exterminating the unbelievers is a justifiable solution (figuratively or literally).
Unfortunately, that applies to many early versions of present religions—I’m thinking the Crusades and the Inquisition, for example—and for some, this attitude remains true to this day.
Bullies and bullying are not just in playgrounds or schools, they are all around us. And like those bullied children, we rarely have the courage to stand up to them or call them out. In fact, we can be complicit. For even as we cheer at watching a triumph-of-the-underdog story, we delightedly click on some over-the-top hate-filled rant, or pillory someone for a politically incorrect faux pas.
Indeed bullies seeking the public eye often gravitate towards a position that is on the moral high ground, so they are given a pass on their bullying behavior. They are “saving” some unarguably sympathetic element that cannot speak for itself—and thus cannot reject its self-appointed “savior” as a self-serving, manipulative bully (e.g. animals, children, environment, etc.). Their statements of caring are specious and inconsistent—they talk and talk, but do not walk the walk.
If they truly cared about what they so passionately claim, what other behaviors might we reasonably expect them to exhibit? What are they actually doing to meaningfully help those they are the alleged advocates and supporters of?
For the most part they just like to dictate to others how to live their lives. But no matter how many flags they wrap themselves in, or selfie halos they snap on, they are bullies, and there is no practice to their preaching.
Just how consistent are they? Really, that’s not a foolish question.
