Writers in the Storm

Laura Kaye

I’m always happy to have a chance to stop by Writers in the Storm, so I want to thank Orly Konig Lopez for the invitation to drop by! Today, I’m talking about some important but quick and easy things you can do to make it easier for readers, bloggers, and other authors to find, promote, and share you and your work. You never want to make people hunt around for links to share, or where to buy your books, or where to find more information about you or a release. And you’d be surprised how hard it is to find links, covers, and other information about their recent releases on many authors’ pages. So here are some things you can do to make yourself more promote-able:

Facebook. This is a platform with a lot of readers, and where more and more bloggers are hosting and promoting book tour posts. Most authors have pages or writer-oriented profiles, too. And the commonality among them is that all of these groups enjoy sharing other writers’ work. So make it easy for them:

1) Update your cover image with your latest book(s). And, even more importantly, list all your buy links in the description of your cover image. That’s an easy-to-share item right at the top of your page, and the convenience of it will encourage shares or allow others to easily grab those links. Need a good graphic design program? Try the free canva.com site. It’s fantastic and easy to use.

2) Pin important posts. If you have an important post you are especially interested in having others know about or share, pin it to the top of your Facebook wall so that it’s the first thing visitors see when they come to your page. To pin, click the small arrow in the top right-hand corner of your post and then click “Pin to Top” in the drop-down box that pops up. If it’s a book cover or graphic about a new release or a sale, include the buy links! Yes, your book might be available on Amazon, but expecting that readers will take the extra steps to leave Facebook, visit a retailer, and search for your book could possibly cost sales and readers. Why take the chance? Check out Lauren Blakely’s Facebook page for an especially good example of points 1 and 2!

3) If you have a Facebook page (and you should!), fill out the “About” section with your newsletter subscription URL (as part of your short bio) and your website, and those will appear on the wall of your Facebook page, making it easy for people to find and follow you.

Twitter. Hopefully, you have a presence on both Twitter and Facebook, because they do not have exact overlap in users. Generally, more readers tend to be on/most use Facebook, while more “influencers” tend to be on/most use Twitter. Influencers are bloggers, industry people, librarians, booksellers, and others who are active in sharing and talking up books. Despite that difference, my advice for Twitter is similar to my advice for Facebook:

1) Update your cover image. Make it visually easy for users to identify your newest books by keeping your cover image up to date. Canva is nice because it has graphic templates pre-sized for all the different social media sites, so making cover images is EASY!

2) Pin important posts. You can’t associate links with your cover image, but you can pin a Tweet you want others to see and share right at the top of your Twitter profile. Click the three gray buttons at the bottom of your Tweet and then click “Pin to your profile page” at the bottom. Users who check you out will then be able to find the content you’d most like them to see and share, which is especially easy given how the fast-moving Tweet stream so quickly pushes your posts down in others’ newsfeeds. And remember that Tweets with images stand out even more!

3) Edit your profile to include your website and bio, and use your bio to mention upcoming releases or your newsletter subscription URL.

Website. Your website is your virtual home on the internet, and it should be clear and easy to navigate. Here are some tips for making it easy and effective for shares and promotions:

1) Include social share buttons on every page and blog post. Those are the little social media icons that allow users to automatically share your post, book page, events page, etc., on any social media site. Of course, visitors can copy and paste the URL, leave your website to copy it into a social media site, and share from there, but you don’t really want to encouraging them to leave your website! Most website platforms can easily accommodate social sharing now, so have your website person help you update if you don’t already have this. Another tip for keeping visitors on your website: set all links to open in a new page, which means your website remains open in their browser despite clicking on your links to retailers, etc.

2) Include an image on every post or page of your website. This is especially useful for Facebook, where URLs with an associated or featured image will populate the image into the Facebook post, making it more noticeable and interesting than URL posts without images that just post a few lines of text.

3) Include some way of making it clear on your HOME PAGE which book is your current or upcoming release. That might be a Recent Releases slider or blog posts that feed onto your home page and announce what’s new and upcoming, similar to my home page, or slider images with dates and series reading order, or listings on the home page itself, or a sidebar. There are many right ways to do this, just make sure you don’t make visitors hunt for that information.

Of course, we all strive for a balance between promotion and genuine interaction and engagement. But people follow us and our pages because they want to know about our books. So while you don’t want to only be saying, Buy my book! Buy my book!, you do want people to know how and where to find you and your books without having to do all the legwork themselves. And you want people to be able to share your content easily and conveniently. I know if I have to hunt things down, I tend to get distracted or run out of the time I’d set aside for social media. Readers, bloggers, and authors want to promote you – so help us do it!

What tips can you add to my list above? I'd love to hear what others have found that works for them. And if you have any questions, please ask. 

Thanks for reading!
Laura

About Laura Kaye:

Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty-five books in contemporary and paranormal romance and romantic suspense, including the Hard Ink and Raven Riders series. Growing up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day. Laura’s next release is Bound to Submit, the first book in her new Blasphemy series, coming October 11, 2016.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Newsletter SignUp

 

by Kathryn Craft

Turning Whine Into Gold

When writers seeking publication believe we are all in search of the same magic juju—you know, the one that has “New York Times bestseller” on the label—we create a culture of desperation like that of brides grappling at a wedding gown sale. My last post, “What Do You Bring to Your Support Team,” suggests that we instead think about what we can contribute to our important publishing relationships, whether with family members, agents and editors, or designers and publicists. This follow-up, with thanks to commenter Tom Pope who suggested it, will explore how we can learn to best contribute. Since this is a huge topic, it will be my focus over the next several months of my Turning Whine Into Gold posts. Each subtopic deserves our consideration if we care to be a valued member of the publication team.

The control dramas we explored last month, which we defer to when we feel the need to syphon precious energy from one of our support partners, suggests that our most important team contribution is an ideal state of elevated energy. Here are seven ways to maintain that.

1. Embrace the science. You’ve heard it a million times and will hear it again from this holder of a BS in biology and an MA in health education: eat healthy, stay hydrated, sleep well, exercise more. We writers love our coffee and wine memes but a keen creative mind cannot live on stimulants and depressants alone. We need nutrients flowing through our brains because our thoughts, quite literally, need a breath of fresh air. And those endorphins that provide a sense of wellbeing aren’t too shabby, either. Being hung over may add to your tragic persona on social media, but behind closed doors, it will not make you a reliable and valued team member. Strive for maximal health for a longer, better career.

2. Shore up your faith. Knowing who you are and what you believe bestows a quiet confidence that infuses your everyday interactions. I’ve quoted my prolific author friend Katherine Ramsland here before and I’ll do it again today: “It doesn’t matter what you believe, it matters that you believe.” Even if you do not believe in a higher power, you must have faith in your team’s combined talents if you hope to empower them to succeed. After all, “We can do this!” is more powerful than shaming someone with the many ways they’ve fallen short. The publishing industry is stormy on a good day, and the more deeply rooted your faith is, the more turmoil you can handle—and faith can turn turmoil into strength, wisdom, and growth. Faith is contagious. Your team will benefit from it.

3. Make peace with your choices. You will do your team no good if you can’t get beyond what’s already in your rear view. Let go of what those other agents and editors said, and the opinions of those one-star reviewers, because continuing to vilify them will only drain you. Lessons learned can fuel future course correction, but give this team your very best in this moment. Embrace these slogans: “All is subjective” and “Ever forward.”

4. Don’t forget to live life. Writing is a lone endeavor. But if the extent to which we seek seclusion endangers our most supportive relationships, doubt and its accompanying anxiety will trigger your control drama, making you a taker, not a giver. Career growth requires risk, so practice it by leaving your comfort zone on a regular basis. Out among others in the real world, your problems might not seem as all-consuming as you thought. Bring this refreshed attitude to your team and benefit from the energy that doing so creates.

5. Allow emotional reaction to pass before placing that call. The critical and competitive nature of this field takes its toll, to be sure. I need not enumerate the ways. We can protect our team from the rise and fall of our inner turmoil by striving for a more sensitive awareness of when we are starting to feel low. By identifying our control drama, we can note more quickly when it kicks in, and take immediate measures to bolster our energy. Then, when you meet with the members of your team, you’ll be brainstorming solutions instead of expecting them to salve your wounds.

6. Give back. There have been times when my confidence was so rattled that I felt I had no clue what I was doing. Sound familiar? That’s what happens when you reach outside your comfort zone. At such times, I can remind myself how far I’ve come by reaching out to help writers climbing the ladder behind me. And we can carry the resulting sense of good will right back to our team.

7. Remember you are in it for love. Fact: publishing does not guarantee a living wage for hours invested. Neither is getting published a right—it is, and always has been, a privilege. Somehow, once we get published, we forget this, and the complaining begins. No one is putting a gun to our heads here. If you can no longer access your love of what you do, your energy level will drain away and you’ll have nothing to offer your team. Take a workshop, phone a friend, drum up a bigger support crew—do whatever it takes to reconnect to the love that brought you to this place. Because there is one thing I know for sure: the members of your support team are human, and humans always respond to love.

Striving to maintain a high level of energy is key to motivating your team. When you bring your best, others tend to respond in kind. Maybe the magic juju isn’t something we find and grapple for after all, but something we can find and enhance within us. Rather than a culture of desperation, this will allow a culture of abundance with room for us all.

Bonus: every one of these energy-boosting strategies is good for your writing as well.

Does the problem of low energy resonate with you? What about your writing drains you, and what other ways have you found to shore yourself up?

About Kathryn

Kathryn Craft is the award-winning author of two novels from Sourcebooks: The Art of Falling, and The Far End of Happy. Her chapter “A Drop of Imitation: Learn from the Masters” will appear in the forthcoming guide from Writers Digest Books, Author in Progress, available now for pre-order.

Her work as a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, specializing in storytelling structure and writing craft, follows a nineteen-year career as a dance critic. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, she leads workshops and speaks often about writing.

Twitter: @kcraftwriter
FB: KathrynCraftAuthor

I just taught a class on  Beginning Pages recently, so I’ve been thinking a lot about first lines.

 Stephen King had something to say about the magnitude of a novel’s first line:

“An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story,” he said.

“It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.”

Preach it, Steve.

I’m not saying a killer first line will land you an agent, get your book sold, or make it a NYT bestseller. But it sure won’t hurt your chances. And I’d make a case that a book that achieves all the above, more often than not, has a great first line.

Why is that? A first line is a promise to the reader, telling them what kind of book this is. What your voice is. Maybe who the main character is. A good first line will pull a reader into a story.

But how do you do that? Here are some suggestions of where to start:

• Irony - A contradiction or opposite of some kind, something unexpected.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

You just know from those 23 words, how Jane really feels about this ‘universal truth’. And you could guess how she’ll handle it in the book, right? Jane has just shown you her voice - snark, Victorian style.  BTW, many will argue to the death that this was the best first line ever written. Let’s not go there – we've a lot more to do.

• Catalyst -  The catalyst is what sets your story in motion. A knock at the door, a phone call, please, just don’t start with a dream!

“When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never good news.” Anthony Horowitz, Stormbreaker

“It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.” Paul Auster, City of Glass

• Comparison - A simile or metaphor.

“Unlike the typical bluesy earthy folksy denim-overalls noble-in-the-face-of-cracker-racism aw shucks Pulitzer-Prize-winning protagonist mojo magic black man, I am not the seventh son of the seventh son of the seventh son.” Paul Beatty, The White Boy Shuffle

• Dilemma –

“Once upon a time, in a far-off land, I was kidnapped by a gang of fearless yet terrified young men with so much impossible hope beating inside their bodies it burned their very skin and strengthened their will right through their bones.” Roxane Gay, An Untamed State

“He—for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it—was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters.” Virginia Woolf, Orlando

“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we understood the gravity of our situation.” Donna Tartt, The Secret History

• Question – But be careful using this; it’s been used SO much that has to be fresh and intriguing. NO clichés!

 “What makes Iago evil? some people ask. I never ask.” Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays

• Intriguing Character –

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

• Intriguing Premise – The line itself may not mean much, but after reading it, you HAVE to read on!

“Don’t look for dignity in public bathrooms.”  Vitor LaValle, Big Machine

 “Your father picks you up from prison in a stolen Dodge Neon, with an 8-ball of coke in the glove compartment and a hooker named Mandy in the back seat.” Dennis Lehane, Until Gwen

“They shoot the white girl first.” Toni Morrison, Paradise

 “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Here’s mine, from The Sweet Spot:

The grief counselor told the group to be grateful for what they had left. After lots of considering, Charla Rae decided she was grateful for the bull semen.

I screwed up with that line. I wasn’t going for funny. I didn’t even know it was funny until, when I read it at a writer’s retreat, Tessa Dare snorted wine through her nose. See, bucking bull semen is a legitimate industry – just as racehorse semen is. And Charla Rae owns a ranch where they raise and train bucking bulls. The book is emotional, and deals with grief and forgiveness. So, in this case, the first line breaks its promise to readers (unless they know the bull industry). But you know what? When people meet me, they mention that line. They actually remember it. So I can live with that.

I may not have the perfect first line when I start a book, but if I don’t, it niggles at the back of my mind until I come up with one – even if it’s after I’ve written half the book!

I knew I didn’t have the best first line for my current WIP – it’s a hard-hitting, right to die novel. Here was my first shot at it:

Funny, how knowing the exact time and place of my death makes me exquisitely aware of being alive. 

It’s not bad; it raises a question in the reader’s mind. It’s in the voice of an upper-middle class scientist and professor, which the protagonist is.

But I knew it wasn’t a killer first line. Enter the brilliant Margie Lawson. On a Writer’s Cruise (yes, it was as amazing as that sounds, and they're having another this year! You can check it out here), she worked with me on my first scene. Together, we came up with the first line:

Today, death rides a bicycle. My bicycle.

Oh yeah.

So, do you have a favorite first line for us?

Either one of yours, or a memorable one from another author?