Branding Step Four

Wow! It's Thursday, good people of the blogosphere, and you made it over Hump Day. Just one more tiny day to go until the weekend will arrive! Can I hear some celebration, please? Continuing with my branding sequence of posts, today we're discussing naming. You're right, this could've been day one, but I wanted you to start thinking about the pictures related to your brand and to get excited about the possibilities before I dove headfirst into names.

IF you're a writer and you're using a pen name, one of the things you have to consider is your genre. It's only a half joke when you do the little test to determine your erotica writer name. Something like Bunnie Whipshard is a pretty telling pen name. Plus, the logo possibilities are out of this world.

Ha ha! Sorry, images of bunnies with fluffy tails and dominatrix masks just passed through my brain. Moving on...

As my example above shows, your name makes a difference. But, when thinking about your mark, you want something that's going to stand out in the crowd. If I'd wanted to take my logo in a fun direction, I probably would've used a cup of steaming coffee (Jo = Cup of Joe = Coffee). See the correlation?  My tag line could even have been something like: Jo Michaels Blog - Your Daily Cup of Joe. But I find coffee cups as logos to be way overdone; besides, I'm not a coffee shop.

When thinking about your naming, consider how it might be possible to move your logo from one thing you do to another. If you're an expert on something, consider using an image related to that expertise. Let's take a look at my friend, Sandi Tuttle, from The Average Woman in a Superwoman World blog. Here's her blog banner:

Her logo is an average female icon, used on many bathroom doors to indicate women, with a superwoman cape draped around her shoulders. It's simple and effective. Her blog is about making average women the best they can be, inside and out. It's fitting, huh?

This is a great example of branding! That logo appears on her blog, radio show site, Facebook, and products. When I got her coffee mug with the "If I have wings... Why can't I fly?" quote on it, her logo graced the other side. No matter what facet she places herself in, she'll always be the average superwoman.

It's this type of branding and naming we should all be embracing. If we use these tools to their full potential, we'll be instantly recognizable no matter where we show up.

Let me give you one more example before I let you go!

If your name is Bunnie Whipshard, and your mark is that bunny with the dominatrix mask, you could brand it like this:

Bunnie Whipshard - Author
Bunnie Whipshard - Photography
Bunnie Whipshard - S&M Techniques
Bunnie Whipshard - S&M Toy Design

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Have you thought about your name and what a mark associated with that name could do for you?

Come on back tomorrow to catch the post on look and feel!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Branding Step Three

Happy hump day, good people of the blogosphere! How lovely is it our week is almost half over? Very! Today, we're talking about what your logo says about you. So, grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Here are a few of the logos I've designed and a few belonging to major corporations. Let's take a look and see what they represent.

Anyone see the surveyor's mark and the fun I had playing with the typography on this one?

This one is pretty obvious, no? DNA design, again, repeated in the typography. Like a computer doctor.

Fictional company. Logo is to represent movement forward in new construction techniques and residential windmills. Go green! The blue is to represent the sky.

This one, I love. Green to represent growth. Roots to represent stability. This community club has been around for six generations that keep branching off. Movement representing the wind on the ridge from left to right.

My own INDIE Books Gone Wild logo. Strong type with the indie and the book embracing one another. Our red color represents wildness yet we bring that stability and guarantee through in the black.





Now go take a look at McDonald's. Those golden arches represent bent french fries. Bethcha never thought of that, huh? Nike? The swoosh is representative of the wings on the god's shoes. Pretty clever!

So, what does your logo say about you? Mine was designed to represent flourish like a quill pen and stability like a solid letterform. See how the M wraps around the J? Blue is my favorite color, and my mark will emboss beautifully on that hardcover book someday.

If you're using an image as your identifier, think ahead to your business cards and printed materials. You can add a mark to an image and later use it as a standalone. Think about color, voice, and what you're saying about yourself with your mark. Come on back tomorrow and join me to discuss naming!

If you don't have a mark, why? Is it because you don't know how to make one or you don't think you need one?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Branding Step Two

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! This week is all about branding yourself with a logo, design, color scheme, name, and look and feel. As promised yesterday, I'm going into color schemes today. Grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going, eh?

You're probably most familiar with RGB (that's Red Green Blue). These colors are created with light. What you're looking at on your monitor is not what you'll see in print when using a CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) printer. Why? Because these colors are created with ink.

It's a long, drawn-out process so I'm not going into all that. What I'm going to do is break it down and explain why you only want two colors plus black in any print job you send to a traditional printer. I'm also going to tell you a little about spot colors (PMS colors).

Now, your printer at home likely uses RGB (unless you're using one with individual cartridges for each color). This means your colors will be close to what you see on your monitor (if it's calibrated).

Big printing houses don't use RGB printers. They do a print run and lay down each color individually with each run. So, if you have a three color print job, that's three runs through the press. It costs you money for each run of your print job through the printer. More colors = more runs = more money out of your pocket.

It may be okay if you're only having fifty business cards printed. But what about when you have two thousand done? What if you want to have fliers or postcards printed? Now you're talking a lot of money.

You see my color scheme in my logo on the top left of my website. It's Brown and blue. Leave off the peach because I can remove that and still be two colors. Notice the peach doesn't appear in my logo/mark.

Most companies have one PMS or spot color in their logo and nothing else but white (or the paper color it's printed on). When you use white, you're opening yourself up to a lot of color issues because paper comes in a lot of colors and white is the absence of ink. A PMS color is often the only way to get that brilliant red, blue, or orange when printing.

Ever design something bright and have it come back from the printer looking dulled out? RGB to CMYK conversion does it every time. If you're designing for print, you should be working in a CMYK color space always.

Home Depot is an orange color. Coca~Cola is a special red (has a copyright, even). UPS-brown. You see where I'm going here, right? One color is sometimes all you need.

But, sticking with my original guidelines, check out these identity packages I've created:

The first uses only one color. Black could be added at a nominal cost. The second is two colors plus black. I know the leaves on the trees look like they're three colors, but they're just tints of the original color (a lighter version). By the way, black is CHEAP! You should see the brand standard book for the second identity package, it's huge.

So, what should you take away from this? That your logo should be harmonious and encompass no more than two colors plus black. Ever. Period.

I hope you got some useful information from this post. Tomorrow, we'll go into design and what it says about you. Many logos and marks have hidden meanings! Yours could, too!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Branding Step One

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! This week I'm gonna talk about branding yourself. No matter what business you're in, it's a good idea to have a brand; something that says, "Hey, look here! It's me and there's no doubt about it!" Today's post is all about having an image. So, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going.

If you've read my book The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book, you'll know branding is the first thing I discuss.

Why is branding so important? Ask McDonald's, Nike, or Coca~Cola. Those golden arches, the swoosh, and that pretty red color are instantly recognizable. No matter where you are, those are branding standards.

These companies have entire books on how their logo can be displayed, used, and colorized. If you take a peek inside the book, you'll see the requirements of size, space around the logo, and color options. Here are a couple you should look at: UPS, McDonald's, Twitter, and Facebook. You can look up any brand you may be curious about by typing the company name and the words brand standards into a Google search box.

You should also have a brand standard. Your logo or headshot, used as an identifier, should have some sort of requirement when shown to the world by others or yourself. It's helpful to have a standard when asking a designer to build something for you.

If you don't have a logo or something akin, you may want to contact a designer or photographer and see what can be done about it. A good designer won't just shove a logo at you. They'll give you an identity. Once you have one, use it everywhere.

Tomorrow, I'm going into color schemes and why companies try to keep it simple (and why you should, too!).

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Social Networking Schedule - Day Fifteen WABC

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today is the last day of the Winter Author Blog Challenge. I bet you've noticed the influx of discussion on social networking sites, eh? Over the last fourteen days, we've discussed Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+, Quora, FourSquare, GoodReads, Squidoo, StumbleUpon (amongst other social bookmarking websites), and Ning. It's been one hell of a couple of weeks! In the last few days, I saw people becoming overwhelmed by all the websites concerning social media. There were a couple I hadn't heard of, but I had a profile on most of them because I know social media works. Our prompt for today is:

What was your biggest takeaway from participating in the Winter Author Blog Challenge? What is your plan/strategy for integrating your social media platforms? What would you recommend to a new author who’s just getting started on social media?

First, I'll answer the questions. Then, I'm going to break down all this social media talk and give you some tools to help you manage your time when dealing with them so you don't have all the hours in your day sucked out by trying to be everywhere at once. Sound good? Okay, let's get going!

My biggest takeaway, as always with a blog challenge, is meeting new people and interacting on other blogs. It forces me to get out there and read and comment other blogger's posts.

I already had a social media strategy when I began, but I realized I'm not using it to its full advantage. From now on, I'll be following a much stricter schedule. One I'm going to share with you in a moment. If you're new to social media, I have one tip for you: Brand yourself across all your platforms. Whether with a logo, your face, or a cute picture of a bug, you need to have consistency. People who happen upon something belonging to you should know right away it's yours. A color scheme is a must, as is a consistent name. If you don't have an identity package, call a graphic artist today and get one. You won't regret it.

You should have a folder containing: Logo, icon, or headshot, preferred background design, html color scheme codes, and a bio. Label it Branding and never ever delete it.

If you don't have naming consistency across all your platforms, change them. This is KEY.

Now, on to the tools! We all know I love free. So everything I give you will have a free option. A couple of them allow you to pay if you want more functionality but it's not necessary.

First and foremost: Buffer and Hootsuite
I'm a huge fan of Buffer. I can go to a site, hit the buffer icon in Firefox, and schedule it to Tweet, post to Facebook, and pop a message on my LinkedIn wall with one click. It's awesome. Since I'm a free user, I get up to ten buffered posts. Best of all, I can control when they're posted. I can manage all three of those social networks for two to three days at a time by scheduling my posts to span.
Hootsuite is a little different an incorporates up to five social networks. I'm not sure if they have a Firefox plugin like Buffer, but here's a list of stuff they can help you manage:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• FourSquare
• WordPress
• MySpace
• mixi

Now, you can also incorporate free apps into your Hootsuite. Just remember, you get up to five with the free plan, more will cost you money. Here's a list of their free apps:

• Tumblr
• Instagram
• Flickr
• Trendspottr
• Evernote
• MailChimp
• Constant Contact
• SocialBro
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit
• Storify
• Vimeo
• Scoop.it
• SlideShare
• Blogger

On a hunch, I did a search through the app store. Guess what? There's an app for that, too! Both Buffer and Hootsuite have an app you can download. If you haven't signed up with one of these management tools, please do so right now. It will help more than I can put into words.

Why is this important? Because it lets you manage all your social networking from one application. Imagine spending just one hour a day managing everything! Of course, visiting the app isn't really all you have to do. But it'll still only take an hour a day. Without further ado, here's a handy dandy schedule. If you follow it, you'll be on your way to social media ownership very soon!

Monday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. You should have something integrated so your posts are automatically sent to your social networks when you click publish. I have the buffer button and all I have to do is click it after I post. 20 minutes to schedule posts across all media for the next two days. 10 minutes browsing Twitter and re-tweeting things you find interesting.

Tuesday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. 10 minutes to answer a single question over on Quora. 10 minutes to share interesting things others post on Facebook. 10 minutes to visit and update your GoodReads page. Make sure you're clicking like on any reviews you've gotten.

Wednesday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. 20 minutes to schedule posts across all media for the next two days and make sure it's all running smoothly. 10 minutes to record a video you'll use later.

Thursday - 10 minutes to upload video to YouTube. 20-30 minutes for a blog post incorporating said video. 15 minutes to create a Squidoo lens (can be about and incorporate your video as well!). 5 minutes to pin a couple of things over on Pinterest.

Friday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. 30 minutes scheduling everything to update until Monday and coming up with blog post ideas for the next week and make sure everything is running smoothly.

Saturday - 20 minutes sharing on Facebook. 20 minutes re-tweeting on Twitter. 20 minutes to visit other blogs and pop in a comment or two.

Sunday - 30 minutes sharing on Facebook, 30 minutes re-tweeting on Twitter.

Now, lather, rinse, repeat. I added Saturday and Sunday because most people don't work on the weekends, but are on Facebook and Twitter just hanging out. Why not share a couple of things while you're at it? After all, social media is about being social, right? So many people shied away from FourSquare and Ning, I didn't include them.

Granted, it's going to take you an hour or so to get one of the above apps working in the first place. Once you do, you'll wonder how you ever got on without it. They're time savers! Use them! They're FREE!

Does this help you break it down? Does it all seem more manageable and do-able now?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

My Social Network - Days Thirteen and Fourteen WABC

I've decided to compile today, good people of the blogosphere! There were two prompts from the Winter Author Blog Challenge that are quite close in nature, so I'm gonna discuss them both in one post. By the way, happy Thursday! Here they are:

What if you could create your very own Facebook? A social networking site that you run, based on your interests and whose members must abide by your vision, goals, and rules? Guess what, WABCers – you can do just that through Ning.com! I know – it’s crazy. Here we’ve spent the last 12 days talking about other social media platforms, and now your kooky leader is bringing up the idea of hosting your own network. There are drawbacks to be sure. T-I-M-E being chief among them. But if you have a special interest and haven’t found the perfect social site yet, Ning offers you the mechanism by which to create your very own social network. Ning has other benefits, though – chief among them being numerous sites on all sorts of topics that may attract your target readers. Are there any circumstances under which you could see yourself creating your own social network? Take a spin around the Ning Directory just to see what else is out there. Much like blogs, you’ll find half-abandoned Ning sites (ahem … I have one of those) and thriving sites. Are you inspired? Could you find time to visit one or two in your genre just to see if hanging out might be worthwhile? And by all means, if you already have a Ning site, share the link with us!

OK, some might compare today’s prompt to yesterday’s – but they are different. This one is a little more creative than necessarily practical. Your answer doesn’t even have to be physically plausible – the goal is just to have a little fun, now that you’ve worked so hard for nearly 2 straight weeks! Here’s the question: If you could create a social media platform that doesn’t exist yet, what would it look like? What would it do? How would you use it to promote your books as well as those of other authors you know/like?

First off, let me say I won't be joining Ning unless I can round up a ton of people to help split the cost. Plans starting at $25 generally turn into much more when you add bells and whistles. But I took a cruise around the site, and those with the cash flow have done some awesome things. So, let's jump onto the real question in both the prompts above: What would your social media platform do?

My rules would be simple:

• No spamming
• Keep it nice or get the hell out
• Love thy neighbor
• No reviews allowed
• Have a lot of fun

Functionality would include:

• A place to do a giveaway of your books - must be free and not require purchases
• Ease of upload for book covers and a place for a link
• Book lists
• A wall like Facebook's where things are streamed as they happen
• Easy to find author lists
• Easy to find reviewer lists and their genres
• One-click sharing across all social media
• One-click linkup of all social media accounts

Basically, like GoodReads and Facebook combined but only one 'group' allowed. It would be a place where authors could go and add themselves and readers could go to find great books without all the mumbo-jumbo of other sites. If you see something you like, share it. If you don't, leave it and move on to the next thing. Like a bookstore online where the authors are present and giving stuff away. How awesome would that be?

It's not a realistic site, but it sure would be fun.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be presenting a list. Call it a schedule, if you will. So everyone can use every social media platform we've discussed this week and it only take up an hour a day (this includes your blog!).

Let me tell you, I've used an hour a day for over a year. In January of 2012, if you plugged my name, Jo Michaels, into Google, I didn't show up anywhere. Now, just over a year later, because of that hour a day, I'm every search result on the first page but one. Remember that video I uploaded last week? It's there already.

Check it out: Jo Michaels Google Search Results

And tell me I'm crazy. How would you like for that to be you? It's possible. Don't get overwhelmed by all this stuff. It's easy to manage when you take small bites and spread the butter thin.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

To Stumble is not to Fall - Day Twelve WABC

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today's prompt is all about social bookmarking sites. Mine of choice: Stumbleupon! Here's the prompt:

A social bookmarking site is a “centralized online service” that gives its users the ability to add, annotate, edit, and share links to web documents. Bookmarking, also known as “tagging” is a significant feature of social bookmarking systems, enabling users to organize their bookmarks in flexible ways and develop shared vocabularies known as folksonomies. Popular social bookmarking sites include Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Digg. Do you regularly use any social bookmarking sites? Why do you use the ones you use? What are the benefits of social bookmarking? What are the specific benefits of social bookmarking to authors? If you’re not using a social bookmarking site, you’re missing out on a key aspect of social media: referrals by the users. Is social bookmarking something you should consider incorporating into your online book marketing strategy? Give us links to your profiles, if you have them.

You followers of my blog already know my age, so I'm not really dating myself when I tell you I was around when Stumbleupon was the big thing. Not only that, I was around when it was the only thing. There was no Reddit, Digg, or Delicious back then. By the time those hit the market, stumbling was a thing phasing out.

I remember getting lost for hours stumbling around the web when I would come across a site like: Perpetual Bubble Wrap or Jackson Pollock Painter. Turn up your volume before clicking the first link. If you click the second, move your mouse then click the left button, then repeat, and again, and again! It was a time suck, for sure. Greater than Facebook could ever be. Seem hard to believe? Go sign up for an account on SU and click the stumble button. You'll be hooked like a fish after a juicy worm.

I created this today on the JP website above:

How cool is that?

How does this help you as an author? Well, get out there to one of the sites, make a profile, tell the darned thing what you like, and see what happens when you click the button to take you to the next relevant site. If you go stumble your own pages, the social bookmark will be filed and others can happen upon your content without you ever doing a thing but filling out a form and putting it out there for the world to stumble upon.

Here's what a profile looks like: Jo Michaels on StumbleUpon.

I'm sure there's an app for that, I just haven't taken the time to go find it. But I do have some statistics for you! I had this image on a popular photography website:

It got stumbled. Within the time span of three days, it got 25k views. That's a significant number and one that shouldn't be ignored. It's 25k potential new customers/readers/clients.

So, if you're out to waste time or looking to join the fray of internet marketing, you want to be on one (or all) of those social bookmarking sites. It take minutes to tag a page but it could be the difference in being seen and being passed by.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Squids! Ewwww - Day Eleven WABC

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, we discuss Squidoo. A site a know a little about, but haven't really poked around until today. Still rolling with the Winter Author Blog Challenge (four days left), here's the prompt:

Do you have a Squidoo lens? Founded by Seth Godin, Squidoo is a popular free site that enables users to create single webpages (known as lenses) about their interests and recommendations. Users can even earn money for charity or themselves. The credibility-building potential rivals Quora, but unlike question-answering sites, Squidoo users are free to create content of their choosing. The SEO rankings are quite high – but it remains incumbent upon the site’s users to double-check the veracity of information provided. Challenge questions: What are the benefits to using sites like Quora and Squidoo for building credibility? What can they offer that your website or blog doesn’t already do? How could this help you sell more books? If you are on Squidoo, remember share the link to your favorite lens.

I now have a profile there. I created a lens there this morning. You can find it here: Formatting Your Book for Print.

Okay, how did I just use Squidoo? I created a lens with an excerpt from my book on self-publishing. This gives folks a look inside, some information, and a buy link. I also included URLs from my two sites: Jo Michaels ~ Author Blog and Indie Books Gone Wild.

By creating that lens, I gave folks a peek into what my book can do for them. If I wanted to create a lens to drive people to buy Yassa, my book on Genghis Khan's coming-of-age, I would talk about the man himself and what kind of things he went through to get to where he was when he died.

I can see the usefulness of Squidoo and I've been meaning to do what I did this morning for a while. Thank you, Laura, for pushing me to get it done. I think, unlike Quora, Squidoo can be a bigger help because you don't have to start with a question from someone else to get the ball rolling. You can answer a question you know lingers in the world wide web with your expertise and go from there. No prompting needed beyond your own drive.

I have a ton of work calling my name today. I hope you all enjoy the lens and take your own steps to creating one today! I look forward to seeing what others can do with Squidoo.

That's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Good to Go on GoodReads - Day Ten WABC

Wow. Happy next post, everyone! This time, the post is about one of my favorite reader websites: GoodReads! I use it for a lot of things that I've been prompted to discuss. So, without further ado, the prompt for day TEN:

Are you on GoodReads? It seems a pretty obvious place for authors to hang out, yet I’m not sure authors are using it to quite the maximal benefit. If you are on GoodReads, how often do you visit/use the site? How often do you update your reading list? What other kinds of things do you post? Are you finding yourself using it the way social media was intended: to create a community? If you are NOT on GoodReads, have you made a deliberate choice to skip it? What other mechanisms do you utilize for meeting other readers/writers/authors? How else could you begin to create your very own community? If you are on Goodreads, remember to give us your profile link.

I think every author worth their salt is on GoodReads. Every reader is, too! You can find my profile here: Jo Michaels.

As far as visits to GoodReads goes, I pop over every day to say hello and check up on things. I'm a member of a number of groups there and visit them pretty often to poke around and see what's new. I do giveaways on GoodReads every time I release a new book (about once every other month). My blog auto-posts over there from here and I get a couple of reads on it every day. I post every review I write there, too.

When I did my 12 Days of Christmas Party, I utilized GoodReads to host my event and invite people to join me. I had an amazing response and around thirty indie authors pitched their books to me before the end of my challenge. There's no way I could've reached that number without the help of GoodReads and their event application.

I've met a number of cool indie authors via GoodReads and am the moderator of my own group there with a handful of members. We aren't too active though. It's a small group and I like it that way.

As far as my reading list goes, I don't update it very often. But, when I do, oh man! I slash and burn that list. If I'm not gonna read something, I don't like it hanging out in my proverbial coffee shop window.

I like the way the site links up with my Facebook and how easy it is to add friends to my list. Navigation could be improved and I think they need larger servers to accommodate the huge number of people on the site; but, other than that, I love it.

If you're a reader or a writer, you'd do well to join up over on GoodReads and poke around to see what they have. Your eyes will pop wide open. Enter to win a book or two (or three) in the giveaways. The more reviews you write there, the more likely you are to win! It actually says that in their terms.

I'm looking forward to connecting with the other folks in this challenge over there!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

FourSquare - Day Nine WABC

Happy Sunday, good people of the blogosphere! I'm playing a bit of catchup for the blog challenge today so you're gonna get two posts from me. The first is about FourSquare. An app I've never used but I've been poking around in for the last few minutes. First, here's the prompt for this post:

What are your thoughts about FourSquare? For those unaware, FourSquare is a location tracking platform. Its users “check in” at various locations with a mobile device and are able to find out (track?) where their friends are. Location is based on GPS hardware in the mobile device or a network location provided by the app itself. Many members use foursquare and its competitors for the discounts. Or perhaps you want people to know which bookstore you’re in for your signing or event. Are you using FourSquare? Is there a way to use it to encourage better attendance at your signings and events? What are the pluses and drawbacks? Be sure to give us the link to your profile!

I find FourSquare to look a lot like my Google maps app. While I can see the usefulness of it if appearing in public, I'm a bit of a private person. I'm not really keen on everyone being able to find me anywhere I'm hanging out. Same reason I use a pen name. Not awesome to have folks you don't know loitering on your lawn or sending you angry letters because you had the audacity to write something they didn't agree with.

Now, if I wanted to know where to find something and didn't have a different maps app on my device, I'd consider using FourSquare for that function. But to have a whole plethora of people knowing where I am at any given moment of the day? No, thank you. I'll pass.

If you're a big-time author and are making an appearance or love to have fans all over you all the time, I say, go for it! If you're a small name author who's trying to make a name for yourself and want fans all over you all the time, I'd say keep writing great books with zero controversial content, become a big name author, and then go for it! Ha!

I know this post was short, but que sera sera.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Quora is Questioned - Day Eight WABC

Happy FRIDAY, good people of the blogosphere! Sorry I was late with yesterday's post. My daughter has been very ill this week and yesterday we ended up in the ER - twice. But she's all good now and bouncing around like a regular seven-year-old ought to be. With the weekend starting today, I'm glad to see her on the mend. Today, I'll be discussing something I'm not familiar with (but intend to be here shortly) called Quora. Here's the prompt from the challenge:

Are you using Quora? If you aren’t familiar with it, Quora enables users to ask questions and receive answers from those who allegedly know something about the topic. This is a phenomenal way to demonstrate your expertise – and even if you’re a novelist, you have an area of expertise – perhaps it’s simply “publishing your novel.” Unfortunately, it seems you’re required to have an account before you can dig around – UNLESS you know a person’s profile link. Here are two you can check out:

http://www.quora.com/Seth-Godin

http://www.quora.com/Laura-Orsini

Yes – I just put myself on par with Seth Godin! Here’s your challenge: What’s the one question you would like to find an expert to answer? And conversely, what’s the one question you would feel most comfortable/confident answering? If you’re on Quora, please be sure to give us your link!

I looked around, created an account, and invited a couple of people over to join me. My profile is here: http://www.quora.com/Jo-Michaels

At first glance, it seems you can become an authority in your field on Quora rather quickly by answering questions others post. I'll need some more time to explore it, but I can see the potential of being involved in such a website. Both professionally and business-wise, it seems like a good investment of time to pop over and answer a question once or twice a week.

As a bonus, it let me link all my social networks right up with the click of a button. Perhaps I'll gain new followers and new readers that way. What an awesome tool!

Just in case you missed yesterday's post (that I wrote this morning), I'm giving you all the video once again. Enjoy! I better see your toes tapping!



Whatcha think?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

GooglePlus is Purdy! - Day Seven WABC

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Today's post is all about Google+. Without further ado, the prompt for today:

Have you jumped into Google+ yet? If you are a regular user, you are still considered an early adopter, and that’s a great place to be in order to make a name for yourself – especially if men are among your target market, as most users right now are male. As marketing pro Linda Sherman puts it, “GooglePlus can give you access to influencers (i.e., other early adopters) who might not notice you elsewhere.” This is a CHALLENGE, so here’s my challenge with this prompt: If you’re USING Google+, tell us about your experience. If you’re NOT using Google+, don’t just write, “Blah, blah, blah I’m not using it …” and call it a post. Do a little research. Learn one thing about Google+ that you find interesting, that might make it worth your time and effort to explore. No – I’m not suggesting you be on every social media platform, but the goal of this Challenge is to explore the various social networks, so let’s do that! And if you are on Google+, be sure to give us your link.

Using blogger (a Google based blogging service) I get some really cool features with Google+. When I'm typing up my blog, if I want to mention someone in my circles, I just type + along with their name and poof they show up and are tagged on my blog. How frikkin' cool is that?

+Jo Michaels

Now, if you click on my name above, you'll be taken to my Google+ page.

My experience has been excellent! I'm a member of a couple of groups over there with oodles of bookish folk in them. I haven't tried hangouts yet, but I intend to for Indie Books Gone Wild. We already have a freakishly awesome calendar to help us stay organized via Google+. Check it out. The link is on the top left-hand side of the IBGW page. Best of all, it was totally free.

Speaking of calendars and Google+, if you have a calendar on there, folks can invite you to events (or you can invite others) and it shows up automatically when you accept. Best of all, the event is added to your agenda and syncs beautifully with your wireless devices if you have a gmail account. I also get a daily e-mail with my agenda on it; so I can see my day at a glance.

With all the wonderful tools gmail and Google+ have to offer, if you're not on there, you're missing out on a lot.

Because of a prompt earlier in the week about YouTube, I made a short video. Check it out and tell me what you think!



It's only about 61 seconds, but it packs a fun punch!

Have you begun to use any of the tools mentioned in the challenge?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Tube Tops - Day Six WABC

Oh my goodness! It's Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! That means just two more days until the weekend arrives! Get through today and you're golden. Still rolling along with the Winter Author Blog Challenge, and today's prompt is all about YouTube. That golden beacon in the sky, calling our names like a siren. It draws us in and holds us fast for hours. Without further ado, the prompt for today:

With more than 800 million unique visitors a month, YouTube is one of the most popular search engines. Do you have a YouTube channel? Have you made a book trailer for your book? If not, what kind of book trailer would you like to make for your book? Do you have a video camera? If you do and you’re not posting short videos, you’re missing out on a huge marketing opportunity. It’s especially useful if you’re trying to reach a global audience, as 70 percent of YouTube viewers are in countries other than the U.S. If regular video posts are still on your To-Do list, what are some of the most clever video posts you’ve seen, and how might you do something similar to promote your books or yourself as an author? Be sure to give us the link to your YouTube channel.

I've done one video on YouTube and made it private. You can only get to it by clicking on the link: http://youtu.be/ydqAJmVNa5Q I'd just woken up and look a bit like crap, but it was fun and a good learning experience. My idea was to figure out just how to do something like that from my iPad, and it went off without a hitch. YAY!

I attended a webinar last week called Book Marketing is Bull$h*t. At the start of the session, the host asked us to answer a poll. His question was: What avenues are helping you in your sales? Guess what the only option was that didn't get any votes. That's right, book trailers.

Like Pinterest, I think perhaps we're using them the wrong way. Instead of a trailer for a book, perhaps we should be exploring other options. YouTube is video, man! It has a billion (with a B) possibilities. As authors, we just need to figure out a way to tap into it and use it at its highest potential. I don't go to YouTube to find new books to read.

Ah! There's the million dollar question, huh? Where do readers go to find new books to add to their list?

I use:

• Recommendations from peers (Facebook and Twitter).
• Browsing the bookstore (I love a book sale!).
• Reading reviews on Goodreads (I read the ONE and TWO star reviews. If they're complaining about how the book made them feel, in a bad way, I usually enjoy the hell out of it. If it's talking about the bad writing, I know to avoid it).
• Keeping up with my favorite authors and jumping on it when they release a new book.
• Blogs that write reviews (I recently picked up Splintered by AG Howard this way).
• Winning giveaways (Jamie McGuire became a favorite of mine this way).

And, I ended up being a fan of a couple of authors from the last Author Blog Challenge. Tia Silverthorne Bach, Crystal Lee, Heather Topham Wood, and Ms. Sandi Tuttle (she's working on her book, but I love her blog!).

So, utilizing YouTube may be more about reading your book to your audience while they enjoy looking at the cover (please, for the love of Pete, comb your hair - unlike me - if you're going to use your face). I'm planning to work something up so I don't have to be on-camera but can still hook readers with an interesting story. I'm a photographer, too, so maybe imagery is the way to go. Something that compliments the story being told.

Being a graphic designer who's in LOVE with Typography, here are two of my favorite YouTube videos:
Font Conference
Font Fight
Confession: I watched them again after I linked them. Hehe

What have your YouTube experiences been like?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Ouch! Your Pin Stuck Me! - Day Five WABC

Happy Tuesday! My good people, today's topic is Pinterest. Another prompt from the Winter Author Blog Challenge brings up a number of questions I'm glad to answer. Hey, we're all learning here, right? So sit back, relax, and drink your coffee as you read; beginning with today's prompt:

One of the newest and fastest growing social media platforms is Pinterest. Have you jumped on board? What kinds of images do (or could) you post that are related to your book or the topic of your book? What other kinds of images do you post? Are you linking each post back to your blog, website, or Amazon page? IF YOU’RE NOT USING Pinterest, what’s holding you back? Take a look at book marketer extraordinaire John Kremer’s Pinterest Boards. After perusing them, how MIGHT you use Pinterest to brand yourself and your book? Is it something you’re considering? Be sure to give us your Pinterest link.

I'm a member of Pinterest. You can find my boards here: WriteJoMichaels  I post a lot of my book covers and blog posts there, as well as images from blogs I love to visit. Like I do on my blog, I try to provide useful content beyond shoving my books in your face and screaming, "Buy my book!" While I'd love it if folks ran out and bought my books, I try not to shove it down their throats so much.

I have boards for useful things I find, quotes I love, and one that's just for The Best Boyfriend in the World. Things I want to share with him and loving sentiments get plastered all over that one. I just can't help myself!

I don't link everything back to my own blog or Amazon page because not everything I post there has to do with my stuff.

After looking through John Kremer's boards, I see he does the same but has a lot more boards than I do. I tend to run lean on Pinterest because it's a time suck if I allow it to be. I much prefer Facebook and Twitter.

I have an announcement to make! Thanks to a heads up by the lovely +Jo Harrison, I've enrolled in Smashwords' Read an EBook Week. From midnight tonight PST, my ebooks on Smashwords will all be on sale. The Abigale Chronicles will be $0.99 each (books 1 & 2), Yassa will be just $2.25, and The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book will be FREE. This promotion will run until 11:59pm on March 9th. Here's the link to my profile: Jo Michaels. I hope you all go peruse the selection catalog when it goes live tonight at midnight.


What have you found daunting about Pinterest?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

LinkedOut - Day Four WABC

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Oooooh, I heard that groan! I know, another work week just began and you all want to go back to bed. Well, you can do that after you read this post! Ha! My topic for today is LinkedIn. I call it LinkedOut because I'm out of the loop on most of its glorious possibilities. But more on that after the prompt for today:

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Launched in May 2003, it has undergone many metamorphoses – the most recent of which involved retiring two of its most popular features, LinkedIn Events and LinkedIn Answers. Are you using LinkedIn to promote yourself as an author? Does your professional profile include or feature your writing? What is the best connection you’ve made through your involvement on LinkedIn? With whom would you still like to connect? Might LinkedIn be a good vehicle for making such a connection? What is your biggest question, frustration, or suggestion regarding LinkedIn? IF YOU’RE NOT USING LinkedIn, why not? Here’s a good overview of LinkedIn’s features. After perusing it, how MIGHT you use LinkedIn to help build your author profile? Is it something you’re considering? Be sure to give us the link to your LinkedIn profile.

I'm on LinkedIn, I just don't use it to its full potential. My profile has a lot of stuff on it, again, branded as my other sites are, but it hasn't been nearly as helpful as Facebook or Twitter for my promotional network.

Don't get me wrong, it's great for business connections! I just tend to focus more on connecting with readers than I do with businesses. Those readers are active on Facebook and Twitter, not LinkedIn. They're not business owners. My target market doesn't 'hang out' on LinkedIn.

My best connection over there is The Greatest Boyfriend in the World. He has one of the top 100 profiles on LinkedIn and sometimes reposts my stuff for me. I do have a complete listing of my books on my profile there and, I'd say the one book I have that would help the folks there is: The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book. Though it needs an update to include a couple of very handy tools I've run across in the last week.

No words of wisdom for others on how to use it, because I'm certainly LinkedOut.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Twit Tweet Twitter Tweeps - Day Three WABC

Happy Sunday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I bring you yet another awesome post from the Winter Author Blog Challenge. If you can't tell by the title of this post, today is all about Twitter! Yay! For all you folks who aren't familiar with the Twitterverse, you need to be. I'll tell you why in a moment! First, here's the prompt for today:

Are you on Twitter? Perhaps more than any of the other social media platforms, Twitter has developed its own language. Tweets. Twitterverse. Rewteet. Are you invested in the lingo? So how do you make a statement in 140 characters? Are you following more people or are more people following you? How do you decide whom to follow? Do you reciprocate and automatically follow back everyone who follows you? What kinds of things do you post? How often do you post? What advice do you have for those who are just getting started? IF YOU’RE NOT USING Twitter, go look at it (twitter.com) and either find your favorite author or put “author” in the search field and look around. What’s your take? Which tweets interest you? What would you post if you did decide to create an account? What’s the likelihood you’ll be following @AuthorBlogChal anytime soon? Be sure to give us the link.

I went on a rant two weeks ago about this very topic. Again, I'll address that in a moment. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Twitter, for me, is a lovely and convenient way of browsing what's going on in the world. Because I don't have to read long, drawn-out posts, I tend to absorb more information much more quickly than if I'm meandering through blogs or Facebook status updates. Of course I'm on Twitter. You can find me here: @WriteJoMichaels. And, like every other page associated with me, it follows my branding. A custom background and my logo instead of my face or books. Again, I wrote a post on this topic in my xXx series. It's called lOOk at YoUr tWitTeR. Go check it out. You won't be sorry.

Learning the language of Twitter wasn't difficult. Probably because, like Facebook, I've been a member with a profile since inception. You have to learn how to textspeak on Twitter because of the brevity. Words like: you, at, because, and, later, and see all become symbols or short snaps of themselves. You have to use: U, @, bcz, l8r, &, C to keep within the required allotment of letters.

Example time!
Normal: I went to see a movie yesterday! Here's a link to the trailer and my review (link here).
Tweet: I went 2 c a movie! Link 2 trailr & review: (link here) #moviereview #newrelease #reviewer

To shorten your link, you can use bit.ly. But somehow, your link needs to be less than ten characters or so. This allows space for what is known in the Twitterverse as hashtags. People searching for your content can go to the search function and type in #author and every tweet with that hashtag is magically displayed for them to peruse. Cool stuff, huh?

I often find new people to follow by searching: #author, #indieauthor, or #writer. I do not automatically follow every account that follows me and I use unfollow helper to see which accounts I followed a long time ago that no longer reciprocate. Trying to keep my margin down of following/follows me isn't easy. People drop off every day. Right now, I'm sitting at 1,221 I'm following and 1,082 following me. I try to keep it in the 200 difference range. Then I don't show up when people use unfollow helper to clean up their account in the huge margin section.

I usually post links to my blog there and have enjoyed being included in many e-zines for this reason. Curators like to pick up hastags like: #writetip or #amwriting for their content. I decide who to follow based on their number of tweets and the content therein. I enjoy reading tweets about writing, books, and life in general.

I use buffer to post to my Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. If you aren't using buffer or don't have the awesome buffer button on your blog, you should. It lets you set parameters for anyone that wants to share your content. Click on mine up at the top right-hand side and you'll see what I mean. It's easy to install to Blogger, too.

Time for directions!
Go to layout.
Click Add a Gadget.
Scroll down until you find HTML.
Go to the buffer button page and set your preferences.
Copy the code.
Paste the code into the box on Blogger.
Click save.

Easy peasy.

Now for my rant!
Please don't make it harder for me to follow you than it needs to be. Services like TrueTwit validation are great and all, but why do you care if I read what you tweet? Even if I'm a robot, it doesn't matter if I read your content! If you're concerned about following me back, stop being a lazy bum and go check out my account before you follow me. If you're concerned about spam, then if/when I send you a spammy message, delete it and unfollow me. When I get a TrueTwit request, I delete it and remove the user. I'm a busy gal.

A word of warning:
DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS SENT TO YOU VIA PM UNLESS YOU KNOW THE PERSON PERSONALLY. Even then, click with caution! Your pal's account may have been hacked. When in doubt, delete without!

That's the best advice I can give someone new to the Twitterverse. If I had to add anything, it would be to be sure and thank the folks who retweet your stuff or give it a favorite. It matters. Respond to welcoming Direct Messages (DMs) with something nice about the person you've followed. Every now and then, I get a lovely thank you for following message with a nice word about my blog or page. I respond to every one. It's relationship building 101. Why else would you have a Twitter account if not to connect with people?

Have you branded your Twitter to match your other platforms? Why/Why not?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Facebook Fanatics for Fun and Fancy - WABC Day Two

Happy Saturday, good people of the blogosphere!! Today's post is all about Facebook. How I use it, how others use it, and how you might want to think about using it! Still rolling with the Winter Author Blog Challenge, here's today's prompt:

Do you have a Facebook fan page for yourself/your book? How long ago did you start it? Did you do it yourself or have someone help you? Are you seeing lots of new people liking it? What kinds of things do you post? What have you found to be the most effective way to get fans/have people interact? IF YOU DON’T HAVE a Facebook fan page, tell us about the fan page for an author you know or like. Why do you like them and why did you “like” their page? What do you think they are doing well that you would like to model with your own page? Do you have a goal date for creating your own fan page? Be sure to give us the link.

I have a Facebook fan page. Sure, who doesn't, right? As everything associated with me, the author, it's writejomichaels. I started it over a year ago and I'm up to 452 'likes' as of today. In keeping with my personal branding, I created a custom cover image I update when I release a new book, and have my logo as my avatar. There's no doubt whose page you're on when you land there. I created it myself but used tips from a participant of last year's Author Blog Challenge, Liberty Montano, to tweak it. I still have to take time to customize my buttons, but I'll get there!

I post things related to my books and my blog on my Jo Michaels Facebook page. I occasionally post a funny photo or saying I come across, but I make sure it's always writerly. I have another page as well, but we'll get to that one in a moment.

Something I cannot stress enough: DON'T make a fan page for your books! Unless you have ONE book that sells 50M copies, how the hell are you gonna keep up with all of them when you have twenty (or fifty) books out there? Make an author fan page. One. That way, all your fans are in one place. Think about it. If you have even three pages, with two hundred fans each, that's potentially three hundred you could've had for just one. And fans are busy people. They have a billion posts scrolling over their page to sift through. If you post the same thing more than once, they'll unlike something. I know I do.

My favorite author pages are those that are attractive, well written, and the author is well spoken when they post there. I can't tell you what a turnoff it is when I go to a page and the cover image is grainy, blurry, or badly put together. I click away quickly and vow never to return!

My other page is related to my editing services and site. It's indiebooksgonewild. We're a team of editors on a mission to make indie books what they were meant to be. Click on over to our site and see what people are saying! Our Facebook page is branded the same as our site, to provide continuity and recognition.

My xXx series of posts goes into how to clean up your Facebook page and keep the content relevant to your readers. If you didn't snatch that PDF yet, what are you waiting for? Go get it! It's free to download and keep forever! Feel free to redistribute it.

Getting folks to interact with these pages is pretty easy. I ask questions, do little giveaways, and comment on other peoples' stuff as my page. That's really important to gain a following. If all the interaction is one-sided, people tend to be turned off.

I've found having a Facebook page to be a delightful experience, and I enjoy getting to meet new people via this branch of social media.

What do you think? Are you branded across all your social media?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Blogging for Education - WABC Day One

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today begins my journey through the Winter Author Blog Challenge. For the next fifteen days, we'll be discussing social media. The topic for today is: Your Blog. So sit back, relax, and let me take you on a little journey!

First off, here's the prompt for today:
Tell us about your blog. How long have you been blogging? Do you write on a regular schedule? Do you plan your topics in advance or write as the spirit moves you? What was your favorite post? At which post do you look back and wonder what you were thinking when you wrote it? What has been the best feedback you’ve ever received? Have you ever written anything that was perceived as controversial, though you didn’t intend it that way? What tips would you offer other author bloggers?

I've been blogging here at my Jo Michaels ~ Author blog for a little over a year. Before this one, I had a couple of others. They were much more personal and discussed things like design, collectables, and life. One of them I can't access anymore but you can poke around it here: The Collectible Guru  The others were all removed/shut down by me. So, I've been blogging for a long time but never with any direction or focus.

Now, I blog about writing, editing, and books. I update M-F at around 9a.m. My topics are rarely planned, but I do take requests from readers now and again to fill holes on my convenient link page. How did that come about? Well, I was on another blog, which shall remain anonymous, searching for a post I'd read there before, for another look, and used the search function. I never found the post I was looking for. I starting thinking how great it would be to have a nifty list for my visitors so they can bookmark it and find what they're looking for quickly. I categorized it to make hunting just a little bit simpler.

My favorite post of all time was a series I did on looking at your social media and your marketing materials. I did some funky stuff with the titles of the posts and bound them all into a handy PDF my visitors could download and keep for reference later on. It was called lOOk at YoUr xXx. I enjoyed it because I love helping people discover their brand, using my design know-how to educate, and make marketing run more smoothly. If you're a blogger, and you likely are if you're in the WABC challenge, please take a look at this post: lOOk at YoUr bLog. You won't regret taking the five minutes to read it.

A post I can't believe I wrote, for many reasons I intend to keep to myself, is this one: Loss. It's a good post and an interesting short story, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I read it now.

I got great feedback on my blog back in December when I invited a number of indie authors to pitch their books to me for a review. It was a ton of fun and I may do it again this year.

People probably thought this post was controversial: Fact or Crap I meant it to make people stop and think. To discard what they've been told and open their minds to new possibilities. My books are far more controversial than my blog and are the reason I use a nom de plume.

Tips for other bloggers: Get out there and meet people! Follow their blogs, interact with them, and keep your own blog focused on one thing. Don't talk about how awful your day was or how hard life is. We know; we're alive, too! Everyone struggles sometimes, but not everyone throws it out there for the world to see. If you do, you'll find people don't really care. They're dealing with their own crap. You'll lose your readership if you don't provide some kind of useful content.

I'm happy to be back with some familiar faces, and delighted to have the opportunity to meet new ones! Welcome, all, to the first post of the Winter Author Blog Challenge! If you're an author and haven't signed up with us yet, get to it! Go here: http://authorblogchallenge.wordpress.com/register/ and just fill out the form already!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Whose Who was Wittier than Who's Whom

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! As you've probably guessed from the title of this post, today we'll be talking about the words: Whose, Who, Who's, and Whom. They all have different meanings and you need to know which to use in a sentence and when. Lot's of Ws today! So, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

As always, we'll start with the definition of each:
Whose:  /ho͞oz/ Adjective 1.) Belonging to or associated with which person: "whose round is it?"; "a minivan drove by and Juliet wondered whose it was". 2.) Of whom or which (used to indicate that the following noun belongs to or is associated with the person or thing mentioned in the...: "he's a man whose opinion I respect"

Who:  /ho͞o/ Pronoun 1.) What or which person or people: "who is that woman?". 2.) Used to introduce a clause giving further information about a person or people previously mentioned: "the mouse who married the playboy".

Who's:  /ho͞oz/ Contraction 1.) Who is: "who's that?". 2.) Who has: "who's done the reading?".

Whom:  /ho͞om/ Pronoun 1.) Used instead of “who” as the object of a verb or preposition: "whom did he marry?".


You can see they all have different purposes.

Use the word whose when you aren't asking who is but to who something belongs. Look at it this way, if you're constructing a sentence and you insert who's, see if you can change it to who is and it still make sense. If not, change the word to whose.

Make sure you can't use who's before using whose and you'll never go wrong.

Who is related to the subject and whom is related to the object.

I love whom I love. If you're a fan of The Last Unicorn, you'll get this reference.

Grammar Girl (love that website, by the way) has a great quick and dirty tip: If you can use the word him in place of whom, you have the right word. They both end in M.

I hope this post has been a wee bit helpful in reminding you of something we all too often forget - I know I do!

As of tomorrow, we'll be stepping off the usual path for this blog. I've joined the Winter Author Blog Challenge. It'll run for fifteen days and we'll be discussing Social Media! You don't want to miss that! If you're an author (or want to be) you can join us here: http://authorblogchallenge.wordpress.com/register/



I met some fantastic people through this challenge last year and I'm looking forward to meeting more this year. So, come on down and sign your butt up!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

True Nature

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! February is about to step out and March will be upon us soon! I hope it brings you all peace and good fortune. 2013 is shaping up to be a pretty good year on this side of the country, and my blessing is that you all have the same success. Today we're going to delve into true nature. You know how much I like to go on and on about characters, and today is no different. Writing The Bird taught me a couple of lessons I'd like to share with you today. So, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Humans are such interesting creatures! They play mind games, put themselves on a pedestal, and manipulate others to get what they want. However, they can also be generous, kind, and caring. Whatever they are, it's their true nature. Pretenses can only be held on to for so long before the mask melts away, leaving their soul bared for all to see. This is important to remember when writing.

When I was writing The Bird, I had a loose outline in my head and the first few chapters plotted carefully. After that, I flew by the seat of my pants. I'm glad I did, because if I'd forced my characters into the roles I'd laid out for them, the book would've ended very differently. I love the ending! It was brought about by the true nature of my characters; which wasn't revealed until about halfway through.

This sounds crazy, huh?

But it's not. It's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole when you attempt to force a character to conform. If you let them have their own way, they'll show you things your imagination could never come up with on its own.

But, Jo, it's in my head already, right? Something just happened to make it manifest on the page!

Not necessarily. As with life, it takes time for a character to show you the truth about themselves. They like to hide under masks and play cloak and dagger games with you; just like humans. Discovering what a character may be hiding is like finding a diamond in a lump of coal. But you have to give them time to reveal themselves.

You don't really know someone until you've been around them for a couple of years. In that time, watch how they interact with others, pay attention to the nuances, and listen carefully when they recount events you were present for to bystanders or other friends. It'll tell you a lot about their true nature. Everyone wants to be liked and revered; but that mask only lasts so long. You'll get glimpses if you pay attention.

I was caught completely off guard by my characters. Looking back, I now see the signs indicating exactly who they were on the inside. Their masks had me fooled, and I'm pretty shrewd!

So, take a look at your WIP's characters and look at what they're doing on the page. Really take the time to examine their actions and words. You may find that diamond.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Editing Tips

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today I'm going to be giving you some editing tips and telling you how to catch those niggling little errors that drive readers like me bananas.

If you're a regular visitor to my blog, you'll know I keep a handy link list to relevant content herein. This is for you, not for me. It lets you find what you're looking for at a glance without having to do an irritating search or browse through hundreds of posts to find great information. This post will contain links to a few of those posts for your referencing pleasure. A lot of my visitors take notes while they're here, and you might want to consider doing so as well. So, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

If you're a writer, you should be going through no less than four rounds of edits before sending your content off to your editor. What's that? You don't use an editor? You should. They'll catch things you can't. But, if you insist on doing all your editing yourself, here are the five major edits that need to be done in your work:

1. Storyline - This is the first edit and should consist of you going through the storyline very carefully, line by line, making notes on what your characters are doing at any given point. You don't want an apartment on the first floor in this chapter only to have it on the second floor two chapters later, or your character to be asleep in bed and then having a conversation on the other side of town in the next sentence. Check dates for linear flow. Fact check now as well. Make sure elements and language used match the era and voice of the character. Make all your notes before you change anything. If there's anything to add or any holes to fill, do it now.

2. Cut Out Superfluous Words - Go through your manuscript with a possessed red pen. Kill as many of these words as you can: that, just, for, to, began, thought, as. Reword where necessary. Take out sentences and adjectives you don't need. Remove adverbs. This post will show you why you don't need them: -ly

3. Pronouns - This is a big one. Check each pronoun and the person or thing it references. Make sure you aren't using them incorrectly. Here's a handy guide: Pesky Pronouns

4. Consistency and Punctuation - This is where you check your flow. Make sure commas aren't sprinkled around like fairy dust. Be sure your sentences flow well. Read and re-read to be sure you've been consistent when spelling a word, using language, or using a reference. Check your chapters for tension. For the love of all that's good, use contractions unless writing formal speech. Chase the S! Search the words backward, forward, toward, etc... and check to be sure the s (if you used it) is consistent. Beware the homophone and make sue you're using the right word. Use semicolons now and then. If you aren't sure how to do that, check out this handy guide: Semicolons

5. Proofread - Give it one last once over. Check it all to make sure there aren't any of the issues listed above hanging around and everything is spelled correctly, all quotes are in place and are the right kind (see image below), and all i's are dotted and t's are crossed. This is your last chance to make it beautiful.

I use a literary editor. Every writer should. She goes line by line and checks everything. But every writer should also go through the first four items on this list before sending their manuscript off to be corrected. Your best bet is to let your story chill in a drawer for a couple of weeks after you're done writing it before you start the process above.

I hope this helps in some small way. I know being an indie author isn't easy, but if you want your work to get great reviews that don't bash your writing, put in the time.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Book Review Taken Before her very Eyes by Wade Faubert

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! What a lovely day I have for you today! I'm not only announcing the winners of the rafflecopter drawing, but also bringing you a book review. So, if you won, let me say a big CONGRATULATIONS! I hope you do the happy dance.

Without further ado, here's the widget with the winners:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Congrats to: Angel, Alana, and Jennifer! Angel and Alana have both won digital copies of The Bird and Jennifer has won a printed, signed copy, a bookmark, and a mini-magnet! I'll be in touch to find out how to get you all your prizes sometime today. Thanks for participating!

If you really wanted a copy of this book and didn't win here, there's still time to enter the Goodreads giveaway! Two signed, printed copies are up for grabs over there, as well!

Now for the review! This is for the Indie Fever 2013 reading challenge.

I picked up a sample of Taken - Before her very Eyes because of a Goodreads event announcing the publication hosted by the author, Wade Faubert. After reading it, I found myself wanting more. Over to Amazon I went to purchase the rest. I finally got a chance to delve back in and this is my review.

From a reader's perspective:
I loved the main character, Summer Demure (she was anything but). She seemed real to me and was written in such a way that I felt I knew exactly what she was going through. Pacing in the book was great and I moved through it in just a few days. I got confused at a point in the storyline where the kidnapper tells Summer he was the one that did the horrible things to her that occured in the beginning but she keeps referring to the man in jail as the one she was scared of. That revelation also kinda screwed the ending and left me a tad confused. I would like to have had a more open end with the real bad guy being swallowed up by the water instead of what happened but that didn't take away from my experience at all. World building was good and I felt I had a good sense of the town in Canada where she was.

From an editor's perspective:
Punctuation was all over the place. Pronouns need some major work.
Words were confused on occasion: rogue not rouge. Storyline needed to be kept straight. These things did throw me out of the story now and then but weren't so bad I ever had to stop reading.

Now, my rating:
1 star for a truly believable main character I rooted for.
1 star for a hair-raising story that kept me engaged.
1 star for making me want to read more.
- 1 star for the major oops in the storyline.
- 1 star for the grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
3 out of 5 stars. A very good, quick read that has a ton of potential to be amazing.

Not to appear in my review elsewhere:
I love that cover! It goes so well with the story inside the pages. My one tweak would be to make the author's name bigger. There's plenty of room and it gets a wee bit lost in the thumbnail. Other than that, all I can say is, "WOW! Well done!"

If you think you'd like to read this book, you can pick up a copy over on Amazon for $2.99.
Give his Facebook page a like: Author Wade Faubert
Check out his site: Wade Faubert
Or follow him over on Twitter: @WadeFaubert

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo