Archives for December 2012

5 Top New Years Resolutions for Authors

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With 2013 just around the corner, are you thinking of the changes you would like to make in your (writers) live?  What are your goals for 2013, besides writing your next book? Where do you want to be in twelve months?

If one of your goals is to have a platform as a writer and successfully market your book(s) then have a look at my suggestions to built a foundation and boost your and your books success. Don’t work harder next year – work smarter!
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1. Start writing a blog TODAY!
You are a writer and creating a 300 to 500 word blog post once or twice a week should be easy for you. This is a very important step for your author platform whether you have a book yet or not. It is your inventory to feed your social media sites. Start before your book comes out so you have already readers waiting for it. Show off your writing skills and write guest blogs for other successful bloggers to even multiply your visibility by linking back to your book sales page or website. Authors need bloggers almost as much as media to help promote their books. Popular bloggers have direct access to your book’s audience. Use your blog to “feed” you social media posts. Create a file to collect snippets from your blog, short sentences under 140 characters. And just copy and paste e.g. into tweets.

2. Use plug-ins to manage your time
Would you like to have SEVEN times! more people read your blog or visit your website? So, how do you get readers to share your posts or website content online? Make it easy for them to share
what you have written with their social networks, so that others can discover your content – and forward it to their followers and friends, and these also forward it to their friends and followers …. You get the idea! Take advantage of the “Share” function on WordPress to ping your blog to all your Social Media sites at one and install Social Media buttons on your website for your readers to spread the word

Increase your Social Media presence – automatically!
Being on five Social Media sites is the same “work” as being just on one single site! My suggestion is to be on Goodreads, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Facebook (in this order).  Plug-ins and ping buttons are not the only helpers in spreading your content. Almost all Social Media and even forums, such as Goodreads are connect-able.

Your blog post can be automatically transferred to Goodreads. But that’s not all: copy the URL of your blog post and paste into your Facebook page, in your Google+ page and on Chime.in just to name a few. It will be transformed automatically into a mini blog including an image of your blog post and a link. All this saves you time, quality time to interact with your followers and friends on Social Media. Don’t use these sites as sales bill boards – it’s about people!

4. Create a fabulous biography / avatar
Written once, it can be used on your books blurb, your Amazon / Goodreads author pages, on all social Media Sites, for pitches to publishers, on guest blogs …. you name it. Keep it related to you as an author or your books. And get a professional, high quality portrait!  It is a small investment for many uses and for many years to come.

5. Get help from peers
I mean not only your friends, including social media friends or family members to “LIKE”, “FOLLOW” or “FRIEND you and your books, but also professional help. Attend writers conferences, writing workshops and seminars in the coming year. You will learn, meet new friends and get new inspirations. You learn tips and tricks and you will get follow up and maybe friends for life.

Did you realize that these 5 suggestions for New Years resolutions are basics? No matter if you want to go with one of the big publishing houses or self-publish: Start your platform in a professional manner – for maximum success.

Let me know what your goals are for 2013.

And don’t forget there is help … Yes, it is a long and sometimes lonely path for self-publishers, who start with a single book, till becoming a bestseller author.. Get all the support you need and take advantage of our great offer until December 31, even if you landed a publishing deal. Read more http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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FREE e-Book December 27 -29

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Booktrailer - Copy111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer 

Have you ever had an interview for your book or a TV / Radio show? Get a copy of the video tape and submit it to all major video sharing sites. Did you video tape your book signing? Or have you facilitated a Webinar? Make your videos public! Lots of useful links and tips to just do this, can be found in this valuable, yet FREE e-book.

Did you scramble to find free music uploads, free images and graphics or how to use free editing software? Dozens of links to all these free sites and tutorials are included in the book.

Please let all your friends and family know – writers, video makers or business owners:

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111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer
is available for FREE in USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Japan … till Saturday.

Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.fr
Amazon.co.jp

Learn step-by-step how to plan your video / book trailer, where you can download free software, music and images, how to create and most important: market your video – all with the help of this e-book.

You might have seen many movie trailers, but did you know that book trailers have the same success rate and have the potential to go viral? Video content in web pages / Social Media postings or emails increases click-through rates (and subsequently readers and paying customers) by 96%. Book trailers are one of the best ways to introduce your book to millions of readers worldwide.

Book trailers are quickly gaining popularity among publishers and successful authors to help promote books and encourage people to read them. Bestsellers have them – why not you? Introduce your book and get potential readers excited! This e-book is not only helpful when creating a book trailer, but for any promotional or private video.

THANKS for spreading the word about the FREE e-book!

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3 KOSTENLOSE e-Books – bis 29. Dezember


These three Kindle e-books are currently FREE on Amazon, until December 29 (Saturday).

Download yours and tell all your friends, you might also know German speaking folks, who will like to read in their language (we will translate these popular books into English soon).

Just send your friends a direct link to the Amazon page:

“111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer” http://amzn.to/W0ar1c
“Wo bleibt denn der Pilot?” http://amzn.to/UZUf0T
“Schattenfrau” http://amzn.to/UqNXKu

Enjoy reading!   Viel Spass beim Lesen!

MERRY CHRISTMAS – One More Gift

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Santa seems to be relaxing after his busy job… 

And I hope you can relax too and enjoy the Christmas Holidays.

Here is another little Christmas gift for you:  A FREE e-book on Amazon:

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer

Amazon.com/dp/B008Y15YYO

Are you an author who had video-taped interviews, or has already a book trailer? Business owners and professionals who include videos in marketing campaigns: Get this FREE e-book to have an abundance of links to video sharing sites, helping you to get your message out. Videos, aka “book trailers” are one of the best ways to introduce your book to millions of readers worldwide.

Using this valuable guide book, you

  • learn how to plan, create and most important:
  • market your video, step for step explained in this new e-book.
  • Over 100 useful links help readers to find free photographs and graphics,
  • free music and top websites where you can upload your video and let it go viral.

You might have seen many movie trailers, but did you know that book trailers have the same success rate and that they have the potential to go viral? Video content in web pages / emails almost doubles visitor rates!!! You don’t need a Kindle to read “111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer”, just download the free Kindle app for your computer/laptop or your phone!
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Booktrailer

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111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer  is FREE from December 25 – 29

Tell all your friends, and use the tiny SHARE but below to tweet it or send to Pinterest, Google+,

Facebook, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – what ever social media you are on  T H A N K S

Maybe you even write a REVIEW ?  Who knows…

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Ein Weihnachtsgeschenk fuer Sie!

Unser Weihnachtsgeschenk an Sie

Perfect Gift for Young Adults: “And By The Way”

bottomright-6422_aa300_sh20_ou01_1Alex is caught between honoring her mother’s memory and needing desperately to move on. She’s so afraid to move forward. If she let’s herself be happy, she’s afraid the world will rip that happiness away from her again.

Six months ago, I lost my mum to cancer and my dad, ‘The Rockstar’, to work.  Now, I don’t do close. That way I won’t get hurt.  My friend Rachel won’t let give up on me. And that’s a problem. So is David McFadden, a guy in my class who says he wants to help. Six months ago, he could have, but didn’t.  Now, it’s too late. The last person I’m going to listen to is David McFadden.  When he calls me Ice Queen, I’ll show him just how right he is.”

The PERFECT Christmas gift for teens: “And By The Way” – in America only 99 cents till Christmas

amazon.com/dp/B009SMWI6K

Special ends December 25
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‘Deegan nails Alex’s caustic teen voice, and leaves the reader rooting for her heroine throughout…’ Irish Independent.
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More from reviews:
‘This is a gem of a book; intriguing, deep and thoughtful. Alex is a feisty heroine, and her voice rings strong and true. It’s fun entering the world of the privileged teen, with their credit cards, fake tans and less-affluent friends. Teenagers – and adults – will adore this book. It kept me up half the night.’ Irish Examiner.
‘An engaging and emotional read that leaves you wanting more – bring on the second installment.’ RTE Guide.
‘It was such a powerful, emotional, beautiful book, one I loved to pieces and gobbled up as fast as I possibly could.  I just can’t wait to read more by Deegan – it was just so freaking amazing!’ The Book Addicted Girl, blog.
‘We can’t explain our fascination with the spawn of the rich and famous but it won’t go away. AND BY THE WAY… is our latest addiction and it’s the first title in the new BUTTERFLY NOVELS series….super compelling.’
Kiss Magazine.
‘AND BY THE WAY… is a journey through grief, love and self-discovery. It’ll break your heart and make you laugh – both at the same time. And by the way…you’re going to love it.’ Dubray Books, Staff Recommended Reads.
‘I absolutely loved it. I was so engrossed in it that my family started pulling it out of my hands.’ Author Keris Stainton.
‘This is an absolute gem of a series.’

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Denise Deegan
 is the bestselling author of seven contemporary novels, four for adults and three for young adults.  Her first butterfly novel, And By The Way, was published as an e-book in the USA just a couple of weeks ago.

She began her writing career with a book of non-fiction. Her books have been published in Ireland, the UK and Commonwealth, Germany, Holland and Korea. She has been a nurse, a china restorer, a pharmaceutical sales rep, a public relations consultant, an entrepreneur and a college lecturer. Her short story, Checkout Girl, was inspired by her days carrying out the toughest of all these positions. Denise lives in Dublin with her husband, two teenage kids and their dog, Homer.

www.denisedeegan.com

www.butterflynovels.com

twitter: @denisedeegan

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Have Your Chocolate – And Loose Weight Too

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Recently I read this sentence somewhere on Twitter:

“I’m a positive writer and when that doesn’t work, I eat chocolate.”

Made me laugh, as it fit’s perfectly to me, even I am not a writer per se, more a blogger and compiler of non-fiction guide books.  E-book formatting companies often dread non-fiction as they are the hardest to convert into an appealing layout and they sometimes charge more for this kind of e-books. Well, it is more work for sure than to convert a novel due to many small chapters, all with their own headline and lots of lists, often numerous images…

Short after I read this “chocolate” sentence, I discovered a non-fiction e-book on Amazon which touted the benefits of chocolate:  How to Have Your Chocolate and Lose Weight Too!  Written by Michelle Van Otten.  Well, I was hooked and after discovering the 5-star reviews, I ordered it. 

Eat Your Chocolate...

Eat Your Chocolate…

I was up for a nice surprise.  Not only by its content, which I just scanned, as I had no time yet to read it yet, but more by the great formatting job of this e-book. One of the very few books which has a really beautiful, clean layout. Easy to read and very appealing to the eye. An amazing e-book design job!

See for yourself on Amazon:  Click on the books cover and you can “Look Inside”.  Prime Members: borrow for free from their Kindle. And if you need an affirmation for your chocolate cravings:  It is only $2.99 for Kindle.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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How to Become an Aureate Web Content Writer

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Web Content Writing

Content marketing is not a fashionable word – it is the most important element of successful online marketing. It is NOT selling, rather informing, entertaining, educating and communicating – and requires internet writing professionals. This is very good news for writers who know how to write for the Internet.  Are you ready? Writing is writing, no matter if a book or Internet content you say? Well, not at all! Writing for the web is a totally different approach!  No matter if you write a guest blog or if you write for a corporation’s website.

How to Write Internet Content
Eye-tracking studies have shown that readers SCAN text (in an F-shaped pattern), rather than READ it. And: website visitors read more slowly on the screen than in print.
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So, how to you use this knowledge for your writing?

  • use bullet lists, such as this one
  • Create lots of short paragraphs, and give them all a headline
  • Keep sentences short, they should never be longer than one line
  • Use spell check and a beta reader / software
  • Readers like to interact on the Web, so give them lots of links
  • Illustrate your text, use lots of  images
  • Don’t let your readers scroll on the screen, keep it to one page
  • Except prepositions and the words “and” and “the”, all major words in a headline should be capitalized

Online content is not just about words. When you write for the Internet, think “presentation”. Print content is formally written and a passively read. Online content is informally written, interactive and dynamic ..
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Google Authorship for SEO
Google made talented writers even more important with it’s latest SEO updates. Instead of weak content and “unnatural” link building, now sites need strong content that attracts links organically. The times of content farms are over!
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But that’s not all:  Now WHO creates the content matters – which is why Google wants to know who you are via your Google+ authorship profile. The days of lame anonymous content are over. Celebrity writers with demonstrated success and strong social followings will command the highest compensation.  One more reason to be on Google+ !

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Online Content Marketing

From the goal of building a direct relationship with prospective customers and clients, to social media sharing, to Search Engine Optimization – content is what works. This boom in online content marketing will require many more in-house staff and freelancers. The increased demand for talented content creators means compensation and respect for the writer will rise … as long as you understand and assert your own value in the marketplace.
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Soon the business world will realize just how much great writers are worth. Good for Internet-savvy content writers!

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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Christmas Gift for You and Your Family

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It is a long way from being unknown to bestselling author. Sometimes writers think that readers will appear out of the blue, buying their book on mass, seconds after it is published. Others see marketing as an afterthought, as some sort of an unnecessary burden. You got a glimpse already here on this blog how many marketing possibilities are out there to pick from. Book Marketing and interacting with your readers can be a lot of fun. You just need to know how!
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You might have read already about the sensational low price of $59 for our 3-month Book Marketing package, we offer to those who are signing up in December – our Christmas Gift for you, the reader of this blog and book author.

Taking advantage of this great offer is beneficial for you in three ways, even if you landed a publishing deal:

  • You learn a lot about book marketing using free tools, you get links and hands-on-tips and even a copy of our upcoming title: Book Marketing on a Shoestring
  • We help you to take out the stress of your publicizing efforts, and support you in every aspect of marketing with advice and practical tasks, such as writing promotional articles and social media marketing – which saves you a LOT of time! Time to write your next manuscript or leisure time.
  • And your family? Well, they will appreciate that you have more time and you are more relaxed – a gift for them too. Maybe they were trying to get a Christmas present for you, but did not know what to choose. Let them know about this great one for their favored author. If they sign up at www.111Publishing.com/seminar they will be re-directed to an email link where they can mention it’s a gift and we will email them a gift voucher back.

Or just sign up and give it as a Christmas present to yourself. Let us help you to navigate through the numerous little steps involved in setting up an author brand, establishing your media presence and get the word out for your book.

Enjoy the Holidays and take advantage of this one-time offer!
Merry Christmas

The Birth of a Book

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Life & Times of “The Fix”

Author Keith Nixon describes in this guest blog his experiences in writing, creating and promoting his latest work, but his first self-published book: “The Fix”.
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Keith Nixon "The Fix"

Keith Nixon “The Fix”

Conception & Birth
“I’m pretty comfortable with my writing process, over time and a process of elimination I’ve worked out what suits me. Once I have an initial plot idea and some characters (usually behaviors) the fleshing out tends to be evolutionary. I build the outline of both premise and characters and some activities broken down into chapters in a Word document. I then add to it (usually scribbling ideas as they come to me on a handy bit of paper then adding to the Word document later) and modify over a few days and weeks. I’ve found that if I have a decent structure to hang the story on the writing flows and vice versa.

The other significant activity is that of writing itself. I’d suggest, particularly to new writers, to put something down on paper every day and not to edit as you go. If it’s rubbish, so what? That’s not the point. Good will come out of it – this is the basis for future re-writes (which is what takes up the majority of time when producing a novel). The reason for not editing on the fly is, from personal experience, you can end up polishing the same few words over and over without making any overall progress with the plot itself, i.e. the result is a literary eddy. Lots of activity, very little forward motion.
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Growing & Maturing
Although I’ve written several books The Fix is my first experience of editing and self publishing. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a really good copy editor, I almost didn’t use one but I now know going to print without editing would have been a significant mistake. Although the editing didn’t change anything significant in the structure of the story it helped the flow, dealt with consistency errors and improved the punctuation (I have a tendency to be underweight in commas). I’d suggest editing is one of the most important tasks following the completion of your novel.

Publishing on Amazon I found fairly straightforward, but I spent quite a bit of time formatting the layout as what looked fine in Word did not once transformed onto my Kindle. I managed to iron out the issues but at the expense of time. What I should have done was to use a tool such as Calibre and then uploaded the book as a .mobi file. I’ve since done this myself. Calibre has been great for modifying the file into different formats, for example ePub is preferred by the Goodreads site if publishing an excerpt for others to views.
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With independent publishing instead I have complete control of where and how I sell The Fix, the pricing strategy, everything. It’s daunting, but at the same time empowering.  I went down the independent publishing route after I tried to get interest in an earlier book, a historical fiction story, through the traditional route of agents and publishers. Although I received some warm words of support, none were interested in picking it up. Feedback was very slow and I wasted around a year to get …nowhere. Very disheartening.
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Fleeing The Nest
“The Fix” is only recently launched and although it is selling steadily and the feedback has been very positive, there’s still plenty to do in getting it visible to a wider audience. On the subject of marketing, I made some effort to get my name and that of my book into the public domain before publication. However my activity was limited because I felt I needed something solid to promote first although this flies in the face of advice I have seen elsewhere. I now have Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads accounts to promote The Fix. Although I can’t say this has led to a measurable increase in sales I have built a good network of contacts and learnt plenty from others far more experienced than I.
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For example I’ve picked up guest blogging opportunities such as this. Secondly I have become a reviewer on the site Big Al’s Books & Pals  which focuses purely on indie authors. As a result I get to indulge in my other passion – reading. The downside of social media is it can be obsessive and therefore leaves less time for writing. However overall I’m really pleased to have used social media, there are some great people out there I won’t have otherwise met.”
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The Father Figure
Keith Nixon has been writing since he was a child. In fact some of his friends (& his wife) say he’s never really grown up. Keith is currently gainfully employed in a global sales management role for a UK based high-tech company meaning he regularly gets to use his one skill, talking too much. He also gets to meet lots of interesting people, some of which may be in his books. However Keith spends much of his time by the sea in a small town called Broadstairs, where Charles Dickens briefly lived & also inspired The 39 Steps.
Keith has published a crime / humour novel,”The Fix” (Murder. Theft. Sociopaths. Just another day in banking then…)  and has a historical fiction series on the way soon. He has also written comedy and drama screenplays. His measure of achieving success is when he can ditch his socks, watch and tie forever (still waiting). Oh yes, & he likes to read. A lot. Crime, thrillers, humour, mystery or fantasy – as long as they’re well written of course…
He can be found on Twitter (@knntom) and Goodreads if you would like to contact him.  “The Fix” is on Amazon: Amazon.co.uk/dp/B009ZITONW  or http://amzn.com/B009ZITONW for the USA readers.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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