Hi Karen,

 

Thank you for the great information.  I never heard of Savvy Authors until now, but will look it up later.  My book is completed and I'm in the marketing stage while seeking an agent or publisher, while debating, "should self-publish" since I'll more than likely be doing all the marketing.  Time will tell.  Now I must get back to work on my blog for this week . . . 

 

Keep on writing  :-)

 

Nancy @ http://blogofavetswife.blogspot.com/

Hi Lisa,

 

Thank you for your detailed information . . . it's extremely helpful and new . . . for me!  I will definitely keep it in mind with this weeks blog, which I should be working on right now, but I had to thank you for your time and effort!!

 

Now my reply is late and I'm soooo sorry.  Honestly, forgot about this site.  I joined three or four sites initially, when I signed up with SheWrites a few months ago.  Shortly thereafter, I went to New Zealand for 2 weeks and "unsubscribed" SheWrites, so my computer wouldn't crash from all the emails.  I get lots!  I think your email was missed during this transition.

 

I checked out your website.  It's excellent and I look forward to reading more soon.  I still have a lot to learn as I continue my own "Uncharted Journey into Publishing My First Book."  There's so little time and so much to do.

 

SheWrites has been an amazing!  Their support and encouragement are far beyond my expectations.

 

Thank you again for your help!  Hope your laptop is better.

 

Nancy @http://blogofavetswife.blogspot.com/ 

I'm at the very early stages (nowhere near the marketing stage) but I recently joined Savvy Authors (initially to take one of their workshops that will help me get the novel further along!). I noticed they have a program for organizing your own 'virtual book tour'. As I understand it bloggers who blog about books or writing list their blogs and when your book comes out you can contact them and they will host an interview/guest post with you on their blog. I think it said you can do it with up to 10 blogs. Didn't look into it that much as it's not relevant to me yet, but thought I'd mention it - others might find it a useful marketing strategy.

I looooooove this idea! I just looked at your blog and it looks like such a fun process for everyone involved. Thanks for sharing it!

Hi Laila,

Sorry for the delayed response. My book is not in print yet, and the radio interview was with a local North Carolina radio station that's a public radio station. I'm not sure their policies about getting an interview with an incomplete book, but they interviewed me based on the expertise I'd built up by running my website and offering recovery resources to other group survivors. I guess they felt that a website was as much an expertise as a book.

 

As for books on marketing and blogging, there are hundreds and they're all pretty good. I'd sit down in a book store and visit their computer section and look for titles on Blogging, SEO, and Social Media. Make sure to get a book that's on your level. Many of these books go into great detail about the beginning stages of all of those things and then you can get more experienced books as you work your way up. Focus some time everyday to market your book online. If you don't have time to do it, pay someone to do it. You can find a freelancer or a college student to do some of the work and they'll probably know a lot about it, too.

 

Good luck!

Lisa

www.lisakerr.net

Nancy,

SORRY my reply is so late! I'm new to SheWrites and didn't find this until now.

 

Don't worry on becoming a public speaker just yet. :) You may or may not need that skill immediately and there are always tricks you can learn when the time comes. My radio interview was so exciting, but then I realized I had no clue how to be interviewed. It takes skill! I spoke with my friend who's a journalist and she gave me so many great pointers. She said to write down exactly what I wanted to cover and promote and try to stick to that, and work my answers around those points. With that advice and some homework, I had success in my interview!

 

SEO stands for "search engine optimization" and it can be extremely intimidating initially. As a blogger, you just need to work on a few things, master them and then move forward. Those things are:

• Kewords: Keywords are simply the words you want people to find you under if they're searching for a topic or an answer on Google (bing, yahoo, etc.). Your individual blog posts should have those keywords sprinkled throughout naturally, not forced into the content. It does no good to just stick a bunch of words throughout the post or at the bottom. If you're writing about cults, like I was, I always made sure to put in a sentence or two about whatever I wanted to come up in Google. Sometimes it was "spiritual abuse" other times it was "recovery." Sometimes it was the organizations name so that people would be informed of the abuse that went on there. Google catches onto organic keywords and if they're done right, you should succeed at getting a higher ranking on each post.

 

• Tags: Wordpress and other blogging tools allow you to use tags, which basically shows Google Bots how you want to file each post. Think of it this way: You're organizing your office and you're going to have a file drawer for Bills (so this is a tag), and then a sub-file for Water Bills & Car Payment (more tags). Google searches those broad file drawer terms like Bills and then finds specific articles for stuff like Water Bills & Car Payment. For me, I am blogging about my life in a cult, so my tags were stuff like: life in a cult, christian fundamentalism, christianity, atheism. These are general tags (they can be phrases and they can also be similar to your keywords, or the same). If I'm blogging about leaving a cult, I'm going to use blog post specific keywords/tags like: leaving a cult, how to leave a cult, what's wrong with living in a cult, etc. These are sort of your best guess at what people are going to google to find your post. With time (and learning how to use Google analytic tools), you'll get more skilled at guessing what to use. Mostly you just want to be specific and use words and phrases that are IN your actual post.
• Title Composition: Your title should contain some keywords and tags, when appropriate. If you want someone to really find  your article, you need all three components and your title is just as important as any of the others. Your title should be something that people might search for, but it should also be complete. It needs to support your article/post and the keywords/theme that are in your post.

 

I hope that helps! My laptop is giving me trouble or else I'd write more.
Lisa 

www.lisakerr.net

Hi Lisa

I like your post and wold like to know how to get high on google ranks.  I know that NPR would not interview you unless your book is inprint.  I just finished my first book.  it is a memoir.  I am not savy about blogging or marketing.  Is there a book to help me?  I would really appreciate a reply. I have a website outofalexandria.com

it is also the name of my book.

 

Laila

Great ideas, Jessie.  I too am wading through a great book, Publicize Your Book by Jacqueline Deval.  Has anyone dealt with a free lance Publicist?

Hi everyone! I just wanted to circle back about some of these thoughts I've had about a writers' blog/website -- especially for those of us just starting out.

 

I wanted to do something that would gain interest and excitement in my brand and showcase my writing. On the other hand, I'm trying to wrap up my first novel and really don't want blogging and short story writing projects to impede progress there. I wanted something special. Something a little different. I checked out some other aspiring writers' sites, and then also went around to established authors' sites for ideas. Nothing there really grabbed me, but I came up with an idea that suited my personality and genre. So here's what I did:

 

This past weekend I launched my professional website, JenKirchner.com. I decided I would go with a weekly series -- a riff on the old Choose Your Own Adventure books I loved as a girl. (Remember those? SQUEE!) Anyway, the shorts I post are around 500 words each and, at the end, there are some choices. The readers vote in the comments or on Twitter, and the following Friday I post the next step in the story. It's a little different approach and it's only been up since Friday, but I'm getting incredibly positive responses. Has anyone else been thinking about creative blogging to grab potential readers' interest?

 

Jen Kirchner

Excellent information, Lisa.  Thank you.  Finished writing 1st book.  Blog went live 4/9, first step in marketing.  Response has been outstanding.  Researching more ideas, however, I'm not a public speaker . . . think I need to attend Toast Masters.  It's on my to-do-list.  You mentioned you "work a little bit on SEO."  What is SEO?