Bring Your Knowledge to the Classroom Virtually with Nepris

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today, I'm talking about a way you can interact with students via a platform that lets you do it all from the comfort of your office. That's right, you can go to classrooms virtually and share all the amazing knowledge you have stuffed in your head. I'm gonna start off by talking about my experience, why I think Nepris is so awesome, and how it works before we jump into links. Ready? Get those clicking fingers ready and let's get going!

***DISCLAIMER: No, I don't make money for referring you, that isn't how my blog works. I recommend things based on my own experience and appreciation. I only talk about things I've tried, good or bad.***

My first experience with Nepris was last school year (November, 2014), and I spoke to a classroom full of third and fourth grade readers. Our objective was to get the children excited about their upcoming project: creating a book of their very own!

I was nervous, of course, but the kids were so enthusiastic and wonderful. They weren't afraid to ask questions or jump in and talk about books and writing. It was something I'll never forget, and I sent them each a copy of book one of The Abigale Chronicles (my middle grade series). Not being a huge class, it wasn't a stretch to send them a keepsake to remember the session. It only took about an hour from beginning to end, and I felt like they learned a lot about the publishing and creation process.

It's awesome because these kids get to meet real-world people who are in the industry they're interested in. They find out, first hand, how things work and learn stuff they couldn't otherwise. Plus, they get to say they met someone in the industry and know that's the avenue of study they want to pursue. Pretty cool, huh?

No, you don't get paid for your appearance/talk, but you're doing something that's bigger than that. These kids are the next generation of adults, and this is just one more way you can pay it forward. Your compensation? Knowing you made a difference and helped educate the youth of today, to make more knowledgeable adults tomorrow.

It's not just for authors! It's for anyone with knowledge of a topic.

How it works:
You use your computer's built-in camera and mic, and you sit down and talk. If you've ever had a Skype session with anyone, you'll understand the process. Log in to Nepris on the day of your session and get to talking. The teacher who sets up the meeting will have the ability to communicate with you on the Nepris platform prior, so he or she can ask any questions and help you prepare. Easy peasy!

What you can do to get involved:
Go to the Nepris homepage here and sign up (it's FREE).
Create a profile, add your expertise, and search for a requested session (there are a TON).
Like the Nepris Facebook page here.
Follow Nepris on Twitter here.

I do hope you'll all take part in this amazing venture.

Did you know about this website? Did you join?

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

Jo

Q&A With Listeners of A Daily Cup of Jo

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm going to be asking you all some questions I'd love to have a few answers to. These will all pertain to my podcast, so if you haven't listened, I'll be linking you up to a couple of short productions and a couple of long ones. Ready? Get your typing fingers and your ears ready and let's get going!

Here are the links:
Introduction to the podcast (10 min) Hosted by Jo Michaels
Utopia Veteran Interview (45 min) Hosted by Jo Michaels (and Ren Reidy when possible)
Utopia Resolutions (30 min) Hosted by Ashley Bodette and Maria Pease
Utopia Revolutions (30 min) Hosted by Christina Marie
Utopia Revelations (30 min) Hosted by Jo Michaels
Interview with The Indie Pub Podcast - SM Boyce and JN Chaney (45 min) Hosted by Jo Michaels
Roanoke Author Invasion - Liz C. Long (45 min) Hosted by Jo Michaels

I'm going to start with a list of specific questions, then move on to general ones.



Thank you so much for your time!

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

Jo

Creating Your Own Blog Tour - Step Five - Facebook Party

Happy Tuesday! Yeah, okay, yesterday was Monday, and there are still three days left in the week, but this is the last post in my series, so that's a great reason to smile! Today, I'm going over how to throw a Facebook party that rocks, why you should do one, and how to set one up. Ready? Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

In this series:
How to Sign up Bloggers
Creating Promotional Materials and HTML
Finding Reviewers
Creating a Thunderclap Campaign
Throwing a Facebook Launch Party

Why should you throw a Facebook Launch party along with your blog tour?

• It gets people engaged with your content (in this case, your book).
• You can help drive traffic to the blogs that hosted you (what's in it for them).
• Interaction with fans and potential fans.
• Getting other authors involved and expanding your circle.
• Creating a ripple effect across Facebook so more people see your stuff.

There are a few things to remember when setting up your Facebook party:

• When asking other authors to join, be sure they write in your genre.
• Book swag is great, books are great, but not everyone wants book swag or books.
• Have a schedule, and be sure and post the link to your party on your blog post for the tour (might even want to send it to the other bloggers).
• Don't just invite anyone and everyone on your friends list. Be specific.
• Be sure and share the event where you shared the ARC invite or where you hang out.

Now that you have a grasp of the rules, let's talk about how to run a Facebook party.

Usually, these things are filled with games like:

• Caption This - You (or one of the authors helping) post a funny picture and ask attendees to give it a caption.
• Scavenger Hunt - Have attendees find information online and post their results.
• Your Facebook Profile Picture to My Book Cover - Everyone who changes their profile picture to your book cover is entered to win something.
• Say Thanks - People go to Facebook pages or blog posts and thank the host for their time or donation.
• Meme Me - Everyone shares their favorite meme.

There are so many possibilities! Have the authors helping you come up with some other ones.

Here's how a Facebook Party usually goes:
Set up an event on Facebook (I'll go into that here in a moment) with a time and date.
Create a graphic (instructions can be found on this post) 851x315 pixels in size for the event image.
Create a list with time slots for authors who may want to help out (don't forget yourself).
Make a poll with the question: Who invited you? And decide on a giveaway (this should be something awesome).
Start your invitations.
Fill your list with authors.
Be sure all runs smoothly day of the event (you really need to be there, keeping an eye on things).
Don't worry, folks understand how it works.

Now, how do you set up an event on Facebook? Let's get into it!

Go to your Facebook home page and click here:

Click Create:

In the dropdown, choose Create Public Event:

Fill out the form and click Create:

You'll have something that looks like this:

Let's upload that header you created! Click here:

Choose Upload Image and get 'er done. You shouldn't be able to drag it at all if you created it at the correct dimensions above, so click Save Changes:

Now, click Ask Question:

Type in your poll question:

Click Add Poll Options:

Be sure "anyone can add options" has a check mark by it:

Add yourself as one of the options:

Click post:

Click on the little arrow on the top right corner:

Select Pin Post:

This will keep the poll question at the top of the event, no matter how many other posts are made. It's labeled Pinned Post:

Remember, if you pin another post, it'll replace the poll! Click on Invite:

Share the event, and then invite your friends!

That's really all there is to it. I hope this series of posts helped you in some way.

Have you ever hosted a Facebook party? What games did you play?

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

Jo

Creating Your Own Blog Tour - Step Four - Thunderclap

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, it's all about Thunderclap campaigns. I know you've all seen them, but do you know what they're for or what they can do for your blog tour? I intend to show you, so grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

In this series:
How to Sign up Bloggers
Creating Promotional Materials and HTML
Finding Reviewers
Creating a Thunderclap Campaign
Throwing a Facebook Launch Party

Thunderclap. What is it?

Well, a Thunderclap campaign is you, asking for people to auto-share your content the day you want it to be blasted to the world. It's usually one or two lines that'll go on people's Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and/or Tumblr blogs. Basically, it's a boom of content on day one of your tour.

You'll want to create this as soon as your bloggers sign up, so you can spend the time getting people to support your campaign. You have a max of 60 days to get your campaign supported and can choose either 100, 250, or 500. This number is important! If you don't meet it, your campaign won't go. But you can exceed whichever number you choose.

It's a great idea to have a master post with all the blog tour stops (and a short line of the content they'll have) listed at the bottom of your own tour post (you did remember that your blog should be counted as one of the many, right?).

That's the link you want to point your Thunderclap campaign to so everyone who makes it to that post can see the others.

But why a Thunderclap campaign?

Because your social media reach grows exponentially. Let's look at some numbers, shall we?
Without Thunderclap:

• 20 bloggers signed up to help with your tour and all of them post on time.
• Each of those bloggers has 250 e-mail followers (5k people).
• 50 of those followers on each blog are the same people (-1k).
• 100 of those followers on each blog don't read the content/posts (-2k).
• Out of the 2k left, we'll say 1k are readers of your genre.
• Those 20 bloggers may post to Facebook and Twitter, and probably have many of the same followers on those platforms, so we'll leave that number off for now to be reserved in our accounting.

Not a bad number, but you can do better.

With Thunderclap:

• 100 people sign up to tweet.
• Each of those accounts have 2k followers (200k people).
• 50 people sign up to post on Facebook.
• Each of those accounts have 200 friends (10k people).
• 20 people sign up to post to Tumblr.
• Each of those accounts have 200 followers (4k people).
• Out of 214k people, there are probably 10k that are unique and readers of your genre (that's less than 5%, and I'm being generous).

Now, if you look at the number of people you can reach with just a blog tour (1k), and the number of people you can reach with a Thunderclap campaign (10k), it's kind of a no-brainer, right? Yeah, you should probably do it.

But how?

Let's get into that now.

First, go to the Thunderclap website:

Click Login/Register:

Connect one of your accounts and give the proper permissions:

You'll see a screen like this:

Click Start a Thunderclap:

You already have your images, but feel free to look at some of the successful campaigns for ideas. Write up a tweet/post, and click Start:

Fill out the form (remember not to shorten your link), and then click create and continue:

On the last page, you're just looking over everything to be sure it's okay. Click submit, and wait. They usually get back to you with approval or denial within 72 hours.

Have you ever used Thunderclap? What were your results?

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

Jo

Creating Your Own Blog Tour - Step Three - Finding Reviewers

Happy Friday! Eek! How much do you love weekends? Today will be awesome. If you believe it, so shall it be. As you can see by the title of this post, today is step three in my post series about creating your own blog tour. Like yesterday, I'll recap the previous days and go update the links in the other posts so you can find your way around the series easily. Ready? Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

In this series:
How to Sign up Bloggers
Creating Promotional Materials and HTML
Finding Reviewers
Creating a Thunderclap Campaign
Throwing a Facebook Launch Party

As you can see, we're getting into where you can find reviewers for your book! Whether it be for ARCs (Advance Review Copies), or after your book has hit the shelves, you can use these tips to find people to read your stories and write down their thoughts.

First off: Never pay someone for a review. An honest reviewer won't take money anyway (they're in it for the books, baby!), and it comes off as sketchy.

#1: Facebook Groups

There are so many groups of readers on Facebook, it would take you forever to go through them all. So, rather than wade through knee-deep muck, let me show you how to get to your target audience.

• Open Facebook
• Go to the Search Facebook bar on the top of the page
• Type in your genre (the master genre, not a sub) and hit enter (don't choose from the dropdown yet!)
• A page will open that has a list across the top: Top, People, Photos, Pages, Places, More\/
• Click More and choose Groups (here's my search for Fantasy)
• Check out groups with readers of your genre, and join one or two you think are relevant
• Introduce yourself and lead with: I joined this group because I'm looking to give away a book in this genre to (x number) of people who may be willing to write a review.
• Don't spam groups, and don't give up. If you don't get enough requests this round, wait a week or two and try another couple of groups.

#2: Amazon

I know this sounds crazy, but go to your book and check out the also bought scroller. See what people are crossing from your book to another, reading, and writing reviews. Try to stick to books in the same genre. When you contact a reviewer who loved another book from the also bought list, tell them others who read that book they loved are reading yours, and ask them if they'd like a copy for review.

#3: Goodreads

This is what Goodreads was made for! There are so many options to find the right reviewer. You can compare shelves, check out books in similar genres to your own (like on Amazon), and join groups readers have formed that revolve around your genre. There are even groups created specifically for folks who like to review. Score.

#4: Bloggers

Go find blogs that have readers of your genre and that write reviews. Follow them for a while, and get to know what they like and don't like. Once you've found a couple, connect with them via comments or other things before you reach out to ask for a review. Book bloggers will remember you. Trust them to be intelligent, thinking beings who have feelings.

You can also ask friends to share a request for reviewers on their Facebook timeline. I did that, and it worked rather well.

Now, a few things to remember:

• If you want ten reviews, you need to have at least twelve reviewers. Some people will forget, and some will miss their deadline.
• Don't be a nag.
• Remember to thank each and every person who reviews.
• Offer the reviewer something besides money (like swag they can't get any other way or a signed copy of the book once the review goes live). Everyone asks, "What's in it for me?" Make it worth their while in the little ways and you'll get more return on your requests.
• People like to feel special. Don't mass e-mail your ARCs. Send them one at a time, include a little thank you with the book, and mention something about the reviewer like: I was happy when you responded to my Goodreads request. I know this takes more time, but it's worth it. You're building relationships. After all, this isn't the only book you're ever going to write, right?
• Ask your reviewers a good month before you plan to send the book to them, and give them a solid date when they can expect it. Don't miss this deadline.
• Give reviewers a good two to three weeks to read the book before release day, and ask them to post their reviews one day after the book goes up for sale (this is for ranking purposes).
• If one of the people who read your ARC don't like your book, find out why (it will help you improve), and thank them for their time. They may not like this one, but may love another one you write in the future. Don't burn bridges!
• Go to the blog where your review is and SHARE IT! Promote those who promote you.

I hope this helps. If you can think of any more, feel free to leave suggestions (no hyperlinks, please) in the comments below.

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

Jo

Creating Your Own Blog Tour - Step Two - Creating Promotional Materials and HTML

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Woohoo! Tomorrow is Friday! My excitement cannot be contained. If you were with me on Tuesday, you got the first taste of this little series on blog tours. Today is all about the graphics and the HTML, baby! I'll give you a list of posts with links, and we'll move on to the awesome stuff. Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

In this series:
How to Sign up Bloggers
Creating Promotional Materials and HTML
Finding Reviewers
Creating a Thunderclap Campaign
Throwing a Facebook Launch Party

I'll update the links on all the posts each day so you can find your way around. Time for the gravy!

First of all, if you don't have a way to create teaser images, you'll need to get one. Many, many people just use a book cover, and that's fine and dandy. But, if you want to look a little snazzier, here are a couple of tools you can use:

FREE
Gimp (there's a learning curve. Tutorials can be found here -- I also suggest downloading directly)
PicMonkey (the ever awesome Sarra Cannon has a tutorial on how to use it here)
Tagxedo - Word Cloud Maker
Canva

PAID
Adobe Photoshop (there's a learning curve here, too)

Gimp is close a close sister to Photoshop, so I'll give you a little walkthrough here in a minute. Right now, you need to go grab a photo to use. Please don't use photographs illegally! There are a couple of great sites with FREE public use images, and a couple that aren't too expensive to purchase digital rights to. Please, don't get you or your bloggers sued. Here's a list:

FREE
Free Use Photos on Flickr
Morguefile
Free for Commercial Use

PAID
Dreamstime
123rf
RedBubble
Bigstock
Dollar Photo Club

Remember, when buying or downloading an image for a teaser, you usually want the smaller version so it's not a webspace/loadtime hog.

Now you may want to get a new font that fits the look and feel of your book, yeah? Here are some free font sites (please look at the licensing on EACH font you plan to use):

Dafont
Fontsquirrel (these are 100% free for commercial use)

Of course, free fonts come with their own issues (like not being very clean), but I'm trying to do this on a budget here. If you think you may want to purchase a font, do a search for buy fonts. You'll be overwhelmed quickly.

Now, let's get into creation! I'm gonna use a teaser I already created, but my screen will look a little different because I'm in Photoshop.

Be sure you've installed any fonts you downloaded before you begin, and your images are somewhere you can locate them quickly.

Open Gimp and choose file--open.

Find your image and open it.

Look for a good place to put the text. I darkened the bottom a little with the burn tool.

Select the type tool and choose your font, then set the color.

Click anywhere on the image (you can drag the type once you add it), and type in your text.

Position the text and add some little colored bits to make some of the words stand out (play with it--don't be skeered)!

Add the book title somewhere!

Save that puppy in a folder titled "blogtour_titleofbook_documents" and name it "titleofbook_tourpackage_teaserimage"

You're ready to rock and roll!

Now, some people will want plain text while others want HTML. This is easy to do! Follow these steps:

• Type out your entire text in a new blog post (leave out links for now).
• Hit Ctrl+a, then Ctrl+c.
• Open a notepad or Word document.
• Hit Ctrl+v.
• Type in your links where they go.
• Save the text document in your tour folder as "titleofbook_tourpackage_plaintext" and close it.
• Add your images (book cover and teaser you just created) and your hyperlinks to your blog post.
• If you're using Blogger, click the HTML button on the top, left-hand side.
• Hit Ctrl+a, then Ctrl+c.
• Open a NEW Word or notepad document.
• Hit Ctrl+v.
• Save it in your tour folder as "titleofbook_tourpackage_HTML" and close it.

You're all done! Now you can send your package to the bloggers, and they can create magic.

How easy was that?

Don't worry, I know it seems like a lot right now, but soon you'll be an old hand at this. Tomorrow I'll go into how to find reviewers for your book.

Was this helpful? What didn't you already know?

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

Jo

Book Review - Honey Queen

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I bring you another book review. This one wasn't on my TBR for the year, but I won a paperback at Utopia and took it on a trip with me. I devoured it. This title will go into the 2015 Time for Books Review Team pool. As of today, there are 373 book reviews posted there. You must check them out. Amazing authors on that list! Anyway, enough of my gabbing! Here's the book up for review today:

Title: Honey Queen
Author: Christina Mercer
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Mythological Romance
Length (print): 284 pages
Buy Link: Amazon Paperback $11.99

Blurb:
A Regional SCBWI "Best in Show"

Love is honey sweet, but it comes with a fatal sting . . .
Melaina Maris needs wings to fly the gap between loving Sam and her family's ancient curse that forces carnal love and then kills the male lovers. She won't let the same fate that killed her father befall another. She refuses to allow her goddess-created bloodline to continue. But there's no easy way out, specially after the curse turns her into the Honey Queen--savior to honey bees--intensifying her charms.

To help her fulfill the curse's demands in the least harmful way, her grandmother takes her to mate with terminally ill Boyd. But Boyd's gay. And an expert in mythology. Instead of having sex, Melaina learns how she might summon the goddess who created the first ancestor bee-charmer and cursed her bloodline. Melaina's magic--tears to save honey bees from endangerment--could be enough to persuade the goddess to end the curse. But an unexpected discovery soon changes that hope, spinning Melaina into a swarm of love, friendship and death.

***Will not appear in review elsewhere. Let me tell you, the cover and interior of this book blow me away! What a wonderful job by the designer. Love the branding with the bees. So amazing! I'd like to see the author's name a bit more prominently, but that's just a nitpick of mine :)***

Let's get to the review!

I won a copy of this book in a drawing at Utopia, a conference for women writers. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was, because I'd had my eye on this novel for a long time, but hadn't had an opportunity to add it to my TBR. Well, having a paperback turned out to be the thing that got me reading it (on an airplane, no less). I dove in and devoured this book in a little over twenty four hours. Now that you know how I came about a copy, let's get to my thoughts on what's inside.

From a Reader's Perspective:
What an interesting premise for a novel! I have to say, I've never read anything quite like it. Mythology, sure, but honey bees? I fell in love with the main character right away. Watching her struggle through the curse made me smile because she's funny when she's frustrated. Melaina's grandmother was awesome. I adored the interactions with her and the guys chasing her granddaughter. Quite a spry old lady. Tears of the Honey Queen being the savior of the bees was a great twisty idea.

Romance in this novel was a slow burn that had been building over the years. Take two characters that have known one another since childhood (and seem destined by the gods to be together), and you have a recipe for perfection. However, the romance didn't play front and center, even though it was the reason Melaina wanted to be free of the curse. It was beautifully complex.

Another thing I got into was the description of the cars. You can tell the author likes American classic muscle by the way she describes Melaina's vehicle. Roaring, even. I loved it!

Pacing was awesome, and didn't let up on the action from page one. Like I said above, I read all 200+ pages in just over twenty-four hours. There was never a time I felt like things were dragging.

One detail threw me off, and I mention it because it was questioned, clarified, then stated again several times. Melaina talks about how she's the last in the line of descendants from the goddess Aera. But the last daughter has always been the last in line--the only one left--until she procreates. There's one place where the characters mention how Iliana had two daughters, but then it's clarified when we find out one of those daughters died. So there's always been just one. Gran was the last when she was a teen, Melaina's mother, then Melaina. I just didn't quite understand why this girl was the most important "last" one.

From an Editor's Perspective:
Plot, grammar, and punctuation were all on the up and up. Nicely done!

Rating:
1 Star for making me love the main character and her Grandmother
1 Star for the fresh idea
1 Star for pacing and wonderful humor
.5 Star for the slow romance
-.5 Star for the confusion
1 Star for editing
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars! I round up, so this book gets a 5. Recommended for those who like a good dose of gods and goddesses and a fresh story idea.

What do you think? Have you read it? Plan to?

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

Jo