Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 Today’s post is by Ginger Simpson. Ginger writes award-winning historical and contemporary fiction. Her western, Sparta Rose, was named the Best Historical Read for 2009 by Love Romance Cafe.
Shortcomings, a YA Romance, is available at Muse It Up Publishing, and includes a free Teacher’s Guide.
 People, at least those who see me most often, don’t realize how much goes into being a e-published author. My family thinks the time I sit in front of the computer is spent playing games and chatting, but little do they know I’m really trying to further my career and keep my name in the limelight.
I’ve compiled some of the ‘promotional and marketing efforts’ essential to doing this, and as you can see, it requires countless group memberships and communication efforts.
Ginger’s Tips
If you want someone to know you have a product to sell, getting your name and work out in public is key to sales. I’ve been published since 2003 and there aren’t too many things I haven’t tried to make or keep myself visible and promote my work in as many ways as possible. Money of course, is a key-factor in doing more, but I continue to look for inexpensive tools and ideas.
I also utilize very opportunity to network with my peers. Sharing information is most helpful in finding new avenues to market oneself. There are a number of ways to do this effectively, and I’m listing those to which I already subscribe and have included my plans to make myself even more visible now that I have new releases. Asterisks indicate the steps I’ve already taken:
* Tweet! Yes, I know many of you don’t see the value, but I recently joined triberr which increases the “reach” because other tribe members retweet posts. My current reach when everyone posts from the “daily stream,” is over 30,000. Probably not everyone will read what I share, but if only a handful are interested, I’ve made progress. You can also check out sites like “Hootsuite” to help manage your tweets.
* Establish and maintain a current website with buy links, excerpts and information about myself. Keep it up to date. Create video trailers and post them. Put them on youtube and other places that allow uploading videos. Don’t know how to make your own…check out places like “Animoto.com” that does all the hard work for you and walks you through the process. Even a caveman can make a trailer there. 🙂
* Establish and maintain a personal blog, offering subscription option to those interested in receiving it daily. This allows you to become real and human rather than just a website and name. Establish an RSS feed for your blog and use it whenever you can.
* Besides maintaining your OWN personal blog, join group blogs to double your promotional efforts. Publisher’s blogs are a must. Sign up for blog tours…get out there and be found on search engines. Below are just a few (and I mean few) places where I’ve blogged:
- MySpace
- WordPress
- Eternal Press
- Novel Sisterhood
- BooksWeLove
- Muse It Up Publishing
- Historical Novel Reviews
- Bragging Rites
- And any on the blog of any friend willing to invite me.
* Maintain memberships and personal pages on promotional sites such as:
- Twitter
- Google (Plus one)
- Author Central o Amazon
- MySpace
- Bebo
- Bookplace
- Facebook
- Good Reads
- Shelfari
- Manic Readers
- The Red Room
- Stumble Upon
- Linked In
* Participate in interviews and guest blogging days. Being a hostess increases your blog traffic by introducing you to friends of friends.
* Network with others authors and readers through group and forum memberships. You can’t believe the ideas I’ve gotten from peers and readers who post their likes and dislikes. Here’s some places I’ve been:
- FAR Chatters
- The Romance Studio
- Romance Junkies Chatters
- ManicReaders
- Novelsisterhood
- Gingersgroup
- Cata Network Readers
- CoffeeTimeRomance
- Night Owl Romance
- Brenda Williamson Romance Party
- Chatting with Joyfully Reviewed
- Love Romance Café
- The Romance Room
- World Romance Readers
- Eternal Press Readers/Authors
- Muse It Up Readers/Authors/Gab
- Creek Authors
- Kindle Forums
Contact local news media with press release information, arrange to participate in local events or arrange local book signings (although information I’m reading now indicates that holding a writing class or workshop is much more effective.)
Basically, I try to participate in any event that will provide a ‘buzz’ about me and my work.
I’ve done only press releases in a former city because the newspapers around here don’t have the “helpful” attitude I hoped for. I’ve only attended a few book signings and haven’t found it a helpful way to sell my work. Especially with the economy, people are looking for bargains, and trade paperbacks are not the way to go if I want to recoup what I’ve spent per copy.
Several peers have found small-publisher friendly stores in their area, but I haven’t been that fortunate. I did check with my local library, and they are open to hosting me. Of course, I’ve also donated copies of each of my books. If someone reads one, they may be more inclined to look for new releases, or so I’m hoping.
Not all my work is published in print. The good news: since the sales of ereaders soared, so have my download sales. “Soared” for me means I can buy more than a Happy Meal with my royalties. 🙂
My current project is contracting local schools and teen organizations with the study guide from my new YA with hopes of speaking about bullying and how we treat one another. Of course, I’m hoping to get the press involved.
I’ve been very pleased with the following I’ve already garnered through the efforts mentioned above. I think the biggest secret is to be a team player and share promotional opportunities with your peers. What benefits one, usually benefits all. I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to work with publishers who makes their authors a priority. That’s always a good feelings.
This is not a comprehensive list of everything in which I’m involved but it gives you a good feeling of the time I spend working on “me.” Just coming up with interesting ideas for my own blog is wear-and-tear on my old brain. For this reason, you may see my posts shared in more than one place. Hey…brain cells fade everyday and I don’t have that many left. 🙂 If you were one of the three who remember this one from 2008, then hopefully you didn’t notice until I mentioned it. I’ve updated it with new info.
 NOTE: If you don’t think promotions and blog posting help get your name out, you’ll appreciate that when I was looking for this image to portray dying brain cells…I found my own picture and a link to a previous blog. I must say, seeing my face under dying brains cells didn’t do much to pick up my spirits. 🙂
If you’re so inclined, please stop by and visit my blog at mizging.blogspot.com and saunter on over to my newly-designed website at http://www.gingersimpson.com.
Thanks to Kelly for letting me blather on. It’s been fun.
Friday, December 9th, 2011  Today (December 9) in 1884, the US Patent Office issued Levant Richardson a patent for his invention of ball-bearing roller skates. (This made skates much, much faster.)
About a century later, I asked for, and joyfully received, a pair for my 13th birthday.
I don’t know why, but they’ve become the symbol of “home” for me. I moved out of my parent’s house when I went away to college and got my own apartment. Little by little, all that was mine migrated from my parent’s house to my apartment…
…except the skates.
When my parents decided to sell the house I grew up in, they brought me the skates.
And when they moved into their new house, I found a closet there to stash them in.
They moved again, and we repeated the process. When Mom found the skates that time, she threatened to throw them out if I didn’t come get them. I explained to her that as long as they were at her house, that it was as though the house were mine, too. It felt a little more like coming home, than visiting in my parent’s new house when I came to see them.
I’m not sure she gets it.
The fact is: the skates aren’t the issue, it’s what they represent. I could have fixated on anything to be my little slice of home at the new house.
I’ve got a lot of fond memories associated with those skates, including the ones which have nothing to do with skating (that is, the little squabble with my folks over where they should live.)
Do you have any fond skate memories? What about something else that might symbolize home?
Here’s Your Prompt
- Write about skates: roller skates, ice skates, in-line skates. If you have no memories, make something up.
Did you ever wish for skates? Do you have a scene in a book which includes skates? Write that character’s back story related to the skates.
- Write a story about something that symbolizes “home” to you. You could write fact, fiction, memoir, or poetry. Be specific. Include descriptions of how you feel, or what you think, when you encounter these things.
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 Here’s my highly-opinionated view of gift-giving for writers. In case you’re wondering…and even if you’re not.
What Not to Give
Unless your writer friend mentions or asks for any of these things, stay away from:
Think About Giving:
- Books. Really. You can’t give a writer too many books…but not just any books. Buy the latest books available in the genre your writer friend specializes in. Writers need to be widely read in their field in order to keep up with trends. It’s impossible to buy all the books published in a given year in a particular category. You can help.
- A Magazine or Journal Subscription. Ditto above. Get something in the writer’s field. I frankly don’t want a subscription to The New Yorker even though it’s highly respected. Give me Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Analog…
Does your writer friend write poetry or literary fiction? Then a sampling of several different literary magazines might be on target. (It gets expensive ordering copies of litmags just to see if you want to submit.)
Note: If your writer friend is anywhere beyond the beginning stages of writing, stay away from “how to” magazines such as Writer’s Digest, The Writer and Poets & Writers Magazine. (Unless they ask, of course.) Ditto how-to books.
- A gift certificate to a book store.
- An E-reader, like the Kindle, the Kindle Fire or Nook. (There are others… and as with all these suggestions, do your research before purchasing!)
- A portable hard drive to back up all their manuscripts.
- A small digital recorder he or she can carry to record story ideas and thoughts.
- The new Asus Transformer Prime (quad core) tablet with keyboard accessory, available December 19. (To be sure, a gift to be given by a really close friend or perhaps a Husband of Awesome™.)
Gifts that “Go Away”
I’m a big fan of gifts that get consumed (so the house remains uncluttered):
- Good coffee. (And don’t just go to Starbucks, not everyone — ahem — enjoys their over-roasted, burned up beans.)
- A nice bottle of wine or spirits.
- Chocolate. And do make certain it’s fine chocolate. You don’t have to buy a lot when you buy the good stuff: a little goes a long way.
- A gift certificate for a massage (to help relieve that deadline stress and endless hours sitting at a desk) or for a manicure (because typing is hard on the hands).
Inexpensive Gifts, or Gifts from the Self
Every writer I know can use a little more time in their day to get their writing stuff done. Since the time machine hasn’t been invented yet, you really can’t lengthen their day…but you can give gifts that will save your favorite writer some time.
Of everything mentioned on this list, these are my favorites:
- Coupons or gift certificates (that you can easily make yourself) for:
- running to the store to pick up a few things
- baby sitting or child care (especially useful on deadline days)
- researching their next project
- updating their web site (or building a new one)
- taking digital pictures they can use on their blog or Web site, (or)
- taking their portrait (every writer needs a good photo for their Web site and book jackets!)
- Read what they’ve written, and write a thoughtful, honest review at:
- amazon.com
- goodreads
- library thing
- shelfari
- your own blog, or any other review sites you’re familiar with.
- Help with their marketing by:
- “friending” them on Facebook, Google and other similar sites
- following them on Twitter – and re-tweeting their clever and witty tweets
- “liking”, digging, stumbling upon, +1-ing and “whatever else-ing” their blog posts on all the appropriate social media channels (super mondo bonus points if you go through your writer friend’s entire blog and do this for every appropriate post)
- “tagging” all their books at amazon.com
- adding their blog to your ‘blogroll’
- linking to their Web site from your own
Bake a casserole, make a lasagna or some other kind of “toss it in the oven, crockpot or microwave” meal that can be put together in minutes. If you can’t cook, there are lots of ready to serve items in the grocery store!
Better yet: come over and make dinner (and stay. Writers are notorious for spending too much time alone.)
A Final Note
It’s nice that you think of your writer friends, and want to give a gift to highlight that fact, but, writers are people, too. Writing might suck up their entire life, but they’re not all about writing. They have interests outside the written word. (Would you buy your construction-worker friend a new pair of steel-toed boots for Christmas?)
In short: you don’t have to give a writer a gift related to writing.
And if you have no clue: ask! If you’re close enough to give a gift to someone, they’ll appreciate that you want to give them something they’ll like.
Which also means: if you don’t know them well enough to ask, maybe you shouldn’t be buying a gift. That would be like stalking. Ick.
Friday, December 2nd, 2011  December is “National Write to a Friend Month,” so I thought I’d do a prompt on writing letters.
With the advent of email, it seems that the “art” of letter writing has gone by the wayside, but it doesn’t have to. I like receiving personalized letters via snail mail (so I make sure to write some, so that people write me back).
Writing to a friend differs from writing to a business, but both include a salutation, a body, a closing and a signature. A friendly letter doesn’t need to have a date on it, but I’m partial to that method.
The facts:
- Salutation – The opening of the letter, for example, “Dear Mom”
- Body – The text of the letter. The body contains everything you say up to the closing.
- Closing – How you “sign off” from the body. It brings closure to what’s been said, and alerts the reader that the letter is ending. An example: Until next time…
- Signature – Your name (so that the recipient knows who the letter is from).
- Date – The date can go at the top of the page or the bottom. Your choice.
Letter writing is useful, even if you never mail it out. They can be cathartic — allowing you to get all your feelings down on paper. You can say all those things you want to say to someone, and then burn it up before anyone reads it.
You can write a letter to your children and tuck it away for them to find after you pass on.
You can write letters instead of diary entries.
Letters make a great memoir in place of a narrative.
Letters can be used in novels and stories to move the plot along. (Also very useful for figuring out what your characters want. If you don’t know where the story is going, have your main characters write letters to each other. Don’t censor your writing: just see what comes out of your brain as you’re writing.)
Here’s Your Prompt:
Write a letter!
Friday, November 25th, 2011 This idea will work if you’re blocked, or if you want to write, but don’t have any idea what you want to say.
It can work with a short story, a novel or a poem; anything, in fact.
I believe I first heard this method from author Bruce Holland Rogers, though I can’t be 100% certain. (Bruce, if you’re listening, please set me straight.)
What to do:
Take a book off your shelf and crack it open to the first page, or the first page of a chapter, or a poem at random.
Read the sentence, then write one very similar to it, changing the nouns and verbs and setting, etc. Then move on to the second and third, or as many will help you as a jumping off point. Then, continue on your own.
So, for example, from Chapter 2 of Anne Ursu’s book, Shadow Thieves, the second chapter begins:
Charlotte was one month into the school year at Hartnett Prepatory School, and thus far the year had proved to be just like all other years, except more so.
I might write something like this:
Mark had been in the sanitarium for eight weeks now. And it wasn’t quite living up to the standard of nuthouses he’d formed in his mind. It was worse.
We could go on…
Anne’s opening paragraph (in C2) continues:
Eight of the other girls in her class, whose names all begin with A, had left for the summer as brunettes and had come back as blonds.
So I write:
Three of the others in his “we see dead people” ward, had been treated to brain stimulation therapy that left them near comatose, until their bodies seemed to heal the damage. (And then, they didn’t see their dead relatives anymore.)
Mark sighed, glad he’d seen the first two come back looking like zombies after their treatment. He never would have known how to act otherwise. The treatment left him giddy, feeling free, and his Uncle Bob sounded even more clear than before. And if he wasn’t mistaken, his dead sister, Melissa, had something really important to tell to him.
He simply had to act like the others, so the docs wouldn’t catch on. Soon, he’d be out of here, too.
Didn’t take me long to go off on a tangent, eh? And I took an interesting YA sentence, and waltzed off into something supernatural. It doesn’t matter what you start with, your brain will engage with what you want to write.
Here’s Your Prompt:
Take a book off the shelf and open it to the beginning, the beginning of a random chapter, or anywhere, if it’s a poetry book.
Read the first few lines to see if the content is interesting to you. (If not, choose another spot.)
Write the first line exactly as written, skip a few lines on your page, and then start your own writing.
See where it leads you!
Sunday, November 20th, 2011  I’m thinking about buying this ‘Expedit’ bookcase from Ikea.
(Since I had to take everything out of my office and do it over, I thought I’d treat myself to some new bookshelves.)
It won’t quite fit in my space, so I’ll probably wind up buying three of the single stacks which are five cubes high, and create a 3 x 5 cubed shelf by smooshing them together.
I have a short bookcase on another wall that I might replace with a taller bookcase from Ikea in the same line.
I like the cubes because I can use some of the space for things other than books, like photos or art.
On the box-opening front, I’ve opened about 20 boxes and put the items back in the closets they came out of. I’ve weeded out nearly four boxes of items to get rid of. (That’s 20% of my junk, for you statistics-minded people.)
I’m happy with 20% at this stage of the game. I knew it would be difficult to toss out a lot of the items in the closet because the bookcase in there contains mostly genealogical materials: binders full of census data, photos, city directories, cemetery and military information. There’s not much “junk” that could have been tossed.
Unfortunately, a few of the boxes for the closet area were my own…full of old family photos and letters which haven’t gotten into binders. I’m putting going through those boxes on my “to do” list for next year.
(Next year’s to-do list is starting to look REALLY ambitious.)
The big disappointment today is that when I was filing some of those boxed papers back into the file cabinet, I realized that the movers dented up my file cabinet. It’s really bad, too. I can’t open the third drawer…. I hope they’ll replace it.
So…what do you think of the shelves? Yea or nay?
Friday, November 18th, 2011  As part of the entire roof debacle, I had all the carpet replaced in the upstairs of the house. In order to carpet the closets, everything had to come up off the floor in each one.
Inside my closet, I found this brown, paper grocery bag.
I’ve no idea what’s inside it. The top’s turned down, and stapled, and I haven’t opened it. I’m having too much fun trying to decide what’s inside to peek right now.
(Incidentally, it’s not my style to store something like this. It sounds like a certain parent I know… On the other hand, I may have learned it from her. But, still, I’m usually good at labeling. I can’t believe I’m at fault.)
Here’s Your Prompt:
Tell me what’s in the bag.
Where did it come from? Who was it given to? What happens if the wrong person looks inside?
Is it a gift? A memory stored away out of sight? An embarrassing impulse buy?
Don’t just make a guess….write the background, then the story.
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 The Fire and Flood Company brought my furniture back today!
I’ve found the boxes with the laptop docking station, keyboard and large-screen monitor, as well as a few other desk items: speakers, telephone, electric pencil sharpener.
::: EXCITED!! :::
I can’t wait to get back to working in my space. Working at the kitchen table since September has been a real bummer. Distracting, too. I’m hoping that getting back to my own space will be freeing, creatively.
This is what the front half of my office looks like right now:
The thing I’m amazed at: the last box I looked at was numbered “70.”
Really?
And I packed 12 additional boxes from my doll cabinet. (I wouldn’t let them take those away for fear of something getting damaged or lost.)
So that means I’ve got at least 82 boxes of junk in just two rooms of my house.
I’m hoping that a great many of these boxes are books…because if they’re not, I’ve got a ton of stuff that has no place being here.
I’ve already told the Husband of Awesome™ that I anticipate that at least a third (I hope more) of what’s in these boxes is not going back on the shelves.
I believe this means parting with a great many books, and possibly some (published) manuscripts that have been lying around. I’ve been advised to scan them and toss the originals.
 Here’s a picture of my double closets. Note the filing cabinet in one. I have a bookshelf in the other closet. I love the option of putting furniture in closets. It makes the space so much more useable.
Notice the non-brown boxes, devoid of pink labels? Those are my own. They’re numbered, too, but not in any scheme I can figure out. And, now that I’m looking, they don’t appear to be counted in the 70 (82).
Now, there’s a mystery I’m going to have to solve. The Secret Math Junkie™ inside of me is starting to wonder: How many total boxes? How many brown ones? How many are the 3 cubic feet version? How many are the smaller? How many contain books? How many contain paper? Etc.
It might take me a few weeks to get through it all, but in the end, you’ll have your report. 🙂
In the meantime, I find myself already with a plethora of packing supplies on hand. Anyone need any bubble wrap?
Friday, November 11th, 2011  In honor of our country’s Veterans, I’m hosting a Veteran’s Day Writing Prompt today.
Many thanks to all the men and women who’ve served in the US Armed Forces. I’m grateful that our country has a strong military, for both the freedoms it’s continued to safeguard and how safe I feel knowing it’s there to protect us.
Thank you to the men and women who continue to serve.
A quick digression:
I wrote a little about my family’s strong military background and some info about Veteran’s Day in my post last year, if you’re interested.
Last year’s post has a pic of my great-Uncle Walter. That’s him in the background of the picture to the right. He and my great-Uncle Frank are pictured in a downtown Baltimore bar, having a drink before they both return to duty after the Christmas holiday.
(Wasn’t Frank a handsome fellow? He looks like an old-time movie star to me. I’m sure the ladies swooned when they saw him coming.)
Now, on to the prompt…
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write a diary entry for a single day in the timeline of any “great war.” Include specific details, as well as personal reactions.
- Write a thank you note to a veteran (or current member) of the armed forces.
- Take a few moments and brainstorm some words that come to you when you think about the military. Write a poem using one or more of the thoughts that occurred to you.
- Make a list of words that define “the perfect soldier.” Create a character sketch of this hero.
- Based on the prompt above, choose the one trait you think every soldier should have. Now, create a character sketch of a soldier who doesn’t have that trait, or blatantly disregards it. (Does that make him an unfit soldier? An anti-hero? A villain?)
- Imagine the military of the future. What gadgets do they have? What skills do they need?
- Write a story about U.S. Military Occupation on the moon. Why are we there? What’s happened? What would happen if weren’t there?
- What if there were no militias the world over? Would the world be a better place, or worse?
Thursday, November 10th, 2011  Remember this, way back in the beginning of September?
My office (and the rest of the damaged house) is starting to look liveable again.
Fresh paint has been applied, and (even though insurance didn’t cover it*) we opted to put in new carpet. I am just too paranoid about mold.
The carpet folks laid most of the carpet yesterday–a charcoal grey, smooth piled loveliness–and will be back this morning to finish up. I can’t wait!
But our furniture and things — which were boxed up and taken away by the Fire and Flood Company, won’t be back until early next week. That’s when the fun begins:
I’m on a mission to “edit out” a third to a half of the items that were in my office originally. It’s true that the company carefully wrapped and boxed my stuff, making it appear more bulky. But the sheer number of boxes they removed from my office astounded me.
And while many of them came from the double closets (yeah, that’s one thing I really like about my office space) and didn’t clutter up the room, even with the doors closed behind me as I wrote, I often felt the stuff “mentally” clutter my mind.
It’s hard to write in that environment!
Things I need to clear out:
- some abandoned crafty items I’ll probably never get back to
- tear sheets (and in some instances) entire copies of newspapers with my stories printed in them
- empty binders I’ve been hoarding to put all my genealogy paperwork in
- boxes of photos from high school, containing pics of (some) people whose names I can’t remember
- probably some other stuff I’ll be surprised to find when I open up the boxes!
The big issue for me, since I’m:
- a writer
- a genealogy buff, and,
- a former journalist with hundreds (a thousand or more?) clips
… I’ve got a terrible paper problem, especially since I so often want to keep things for “posterity.”
But the paper is starting to weigh me down.
At a minimum, I’m toying with scanning all the old manuscripts and tossing the paper. Ditto on the newspaper clips.
But what I really need is a paper-flow system to get things under control. Most days, I’ve got more paper funneling in than out, and it’s taking a toll: hence the three boxes of collected papers I need to weed through before I even get to the closet items.
How do you handle the influx of paper? What do you do with critiqued papers and clips and tear sheets that may or may not be looked at again? Where do you draw the line on what to keep?
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* The insurance company was AWESOME, but they didn’t pay for new carpet. Understandable, really, since it was able to be dried. But they’ve done more for us regarding everything else. I have no complaints, and have actually been impressed with their service.
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