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Blog Tours: Great for Authors AND Readers by Meagan Davenport

April 29, 2019 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

Do you ever wish you could get paid to read? Growing up, that was my dream job. Come to think of it, it still is! Over the last couple of years, I’ve found a way to do just that – in book currency. I work with several publicity groups, publishers, and authors who share ARC (advance review copy) books at no charge in return for a review. These options are excellent for authors and readers alike!

So how does one get started reviewing books (or finding readers)? The most important item is to get social. Authors: websites make great ways for prospective readers to learn more about you and your books. And don’t forget social media! Pick a couple platforms and utilize them well. Facebook is an excellent resource with a plethora of groups.

Readers: Goodreads and retail sites provide a solid basis to begin reviewing books. Copy/paste your review to each platform – no need to reinvent the wheel! If you start a blog, start small and free with WordPress or Blogger and leverage social media to promote your reviews! (Also, be sure to note if you received a free copy of a book.)

Three of my favorite resources for book publicity and review opportunities:

  • JustRead Publicity Tours focuses on Christian fiction and non-fiction. Services offered include conventional, bookstagram (original Instagram pictures), and takeover tours. This versatility allows authors to publicize their books in a variety of ways; similarly, hosts (readers/reviewers) can play to their own strengths. Readers who enjoy graphic design may prefer a bookstagram tour, while others may choose to interview the author on their blog. While websites are not required for reviewers, that may impact what you sign up for.
  • Read with Audra is part of Audra Jennings PR and geared toward readers. Sign up for Christian-fiction, non-fiction, and children’s-title mailing lists to be alerted of upcoming tours. Jennings works closely with New Growth Press and features many books from that publisher on her blog. Tours through Read with Audra operate much like JustRead’s program, and often make use of Netgalley (another awesome spot to procure or promote ARCs).
  • Finally, Anna LeBaron works with both authors and readers to leverage social media and make new books successful. She is a pro at both “official” (pre-planned) and “rogue” (“Let’s see what happens!”) book launches and has written a very successful book herself. Most book-launch team activity with LeBaron occurs on Facebook.

Has this whetted your appetite to move forward? Whether you join one or all three of these groups in your journey (or something else altogether!) – I’d love to hear it! What worked (or didn’t) for you?

No matter what, be persistent in the process. It takes time for both readers and authors to build up a repertoire. There is no magic number of reviews that will indicate a reader has “made it” as a book reviewer (or that an author has either!). Once you review your first book, you’ve already “made it”. You are a book reviewer. Even if an author hasn’t published anything, as long as you’re writing, you are a writer.

You also just never know which book will be the “magic” one that connects you with an author, publisher, or reviewer – so keep reaching out. Leverage your opinions. And above all, enjoy the process!


Meagan Davenport is a freelance editor and proofreader who averages 100+ books read every year. She is passionate about global missions, Lord of the Rings, and the finer points of Indian food and Washington apples (though not together). You can find her online at MeaganDavenport.com or on social media @readswheregoes and @readswhereshegoes.

Filed Under: blogging, guest blogger, publishing Tagged With: authors, blog tours, book promotion, Meagan Davenport, reading

Coping with Deadlines by Annette Irby

March 18, 2019 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

I’m on a few deadlines. In addition to editing work, the first book in my series will release this September 1st, and the second book is due this summer as well. I’ve had to prioritize and strictly enforce my schedule lately and I’ve spent hours and hours at my computer, writing and rewriting for my summer deadline. I have other projects in the works, so the sooner I hand this project off, the sooner I can work on the others that have been on the back burner.

Prioritizing

So, how do I decide what to set aside during crunch seasons? How do you decide? For me, I set aside social media, even marketing, until I can focus on it. I ask myself: what’s due soonest? Timing helps me in many ways—it both motivates and dictates my schedule. I set aside reflexively checking my e-mail, and I close all unnecessary tabs and apps/programs on my computer in order to stay focused on the necessary ones. My family needs my attention, so they are a priority. Sometimes you have to say no to extra tasks. That’s a hard one for some of us. I sometimes struggle with that. Even when I say no, I sometimes feel guilty later, which doesn’t help me focus on work. But our jobs as writers is important. If we honor our writing time, others will begin to respect it too.

Permission to Take a Break

Summertime is an especially challenging time to have to work 8-12 hours a day, so I do take breaks, which are so necessary. I recommend finding a peaceful setting to decompress. When the sun moves around the house to my flower garden, I love to go out and tend my plants. (Here’s a photo from one of my hanging baskets on a rainy day last spring.) The warm sun, so different from my cool home office in the basement corner, feels good. And tending my flowers makes me happy. I catch myself walking around, smiling from the joy of a simple hobby. Breaks are also helpful for working out plot points and overcoming writer’s block. And they’re probably good for our health. We must take care of ourselves, even on deadline.

Back to Work

The thing about breaks is, you have to set a time limit and discipline yourself to get back to work. Your book won’t write itself. So, I’ll take time away for family get-togethers, and meals, and even a trip to the pool so my youngest gets a chance to swim, but then it’s back to work. 

Best Advice for Deadline Crunch Time

My writing sessions involve a lot of prayer. Prayers for grace, help, words, wisdom, insights, for the story to come together, for my readers, and for God’s glory and message to come through. He honors our prayers as we write for Him. Sometimes when I know I only have, say, a half hour left before I’ll be away from my computer for a while, panic will set in, thinking about all I have to do. Then I ask the Lord to help, and He does. Pretty soon, my fingers are flying over the keyboard and enjoying the thrill of a scene coming together in a profound way with word counts piling up.

How about you? What are your tricks for meeting deadlines and surviving the deadline crunch? I’d love to hear.

Write on, friends!

(Original post found on Seriously Write)

Annette M. Irby has been writing since her teen years. She has several books and short stories published. She has served as an acquisitions editor, and she currently works as a freelance editor. In her off hours, she enjoys gardening, photography, and music. Her family lives in the Pacific Northwest. Learn more at www.AnnetteIrby.com

Links:

Website: www.AnnetteIrby.com
Facebook reader friend group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/252272708574760/
Twitter: @AnnetteMIrby
Amazon author page: www.amazon.com/author/annette_m_irby.com
Writing blog: www.seriouslywrite.blogspot.com

Filed Under: best practices, entrepreneur, freelance, guest blogger Tagged With: Annette Irby, book publishing, deadlines, freelance, freelance work, productivitiy, publishing, schedules

What to Focus on When Designing Your Visual Brand by Sierra Kellermeyer

August 20, 2018 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

Your business is new, or you know you need to update your visual brand, but based on your budget, you know you’re going to have to design it yourself.

That can be an intimidating prospect, but before you start creating something just based on what looks good to you, I have a few tips for what you should be focusing on when designing your visual brand.

Communication

What do you want your visual brand to tell your potential clients about your business?

Your visual brand is, in its most basic form, communication. Instead of communicating in words, you’re communicating through color and imagery. Those words and imagery have implied meanings based on culture and psychology. You want to utilize those implied meanings to tell your potential clients about your business.

For example, if you run a yoga studio, you probably want to focus on cool colors, because they make people feel calm and relaxed. But if you run an arcade, bright, vibrant colors that feel energetic are going to be a better choice.

As you’re making decisions for your visual brand, ask yourself, “What will this make my potential clients assume about my business?”

Professionalism

Designing your visual brand yourself to save money is great when you’re starting out or you have a tight budget, but that doesn’t mean you should accept unprofessional-looking designs.

Buying cheap templates from websites such as CreativeMarket.com is a great, budget-friendly way to ensure your visual brand looks professional.

A polished, but slightly cliche or unoriginal, visual brand will make a better impression on your potential clients than an original but sloppy one.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to have an original AND highly professional visual brand, but templates are great until you can afford to hire a designer.

Unity

As your visual brand comes together, keep looking at all of your graphics together. Do they look like they’re all related? Does your logo have nothing in common with your web banners? Do you leave out your core brand color on your business cards?

One of the jobs of your visual brand is to connect positive experiences with your business together.

For example, if you meet someone, and they seem interested in your services, and you hand them a business card, they should be able to remember that experience when they see your post on social media.

By tieing those two experiences together, with a business card and social media post that look connected,  you’re making it easier for people to remember your business. Instead of relying on one impression to convince your potential clients to work with you, you’re building a sequence of good impressions on your audience that are easily remembered because of your unified visual brand.

I hope you found these tips helpful, and you’re able to think bigger than just trying to make a visual brand that looks good, and make one that’s communicative, professional, and unified.

—

Sierra Kellermeyer who helps business owners who are tired of their marketing efforts pulling “okay” results. She helps them stand out online by designing a noteworthy visual brand that attracts their ideal clients effortlessly. She says, “My favorite part of brand design is the marriage of creativity and strategy. I’m not simply creating something beautiful, I’m creating something beautiful that works and has a purpose.”

There’s a lot of misconception about visual branding, with people thinking it’s just about looking good, but it’s more than that. “Your visual brand is a communication tool, and if you’re only trying to make something that looks nice, rather than telling your audience about your business, you’re missing out.”

Sierra will be sharing her visual branding tips in February, May, August, and November. In the meantime, you can find her online at:

https://www.skellermeyerdesigns.com/
https://www.facebook.com/skellermeyerdesigns2014/

Filed Under: best practices, graphic design, guest blogger, visual branding Tagged With: branding, Sierra Kellermeyer, visual branding

Making The Most Of Your Instagram Account by Leslie Krukowski

June 18, 2018 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

It’s time to get noticed and gain followers on one of the fastest growing social media platforms!

If you have a highly visual communication style, Instagram is the social media platform for you.  Anyone with an affinity for their camera can gain a great following –travel, style, and food bloggers, as well as artists, have really taken advantage of the amazing visual capabilities of this platform. Plus, it has seen exponential growth over the last few years. If you are ready to start utilizing Instagram for yourself, here are some important tips!

Take a good photo.

Make sure you photograph has good composition and good lighting.  If the photo isn’t good enough, keep taking pictures until you get one that is. I cannot stress that enough.

Once you have your picture, what filter are you going to use (if any)?

Instagram allows you to choose between several filters within the app itself. The filter that has garnered the most Instagram “likes” is Clarendon, second is Gingham, and third is tied between Juno and Lark. Take your time and choose the filter that honestly makes your photo look better (or more dramatic or softer or whatever feeling you’re going for!)

Proper Use of Hashtags

Using hashtags in your Instagram posts is extremely important to gain attention! It’s a little different than using hashtags on Twitter, which describe the topic of conversation. On Instagram, hashtags should describe your content or your photo.

Hashtags, when used properly, will help gain followers because people on Instagram are looking for photos and videos based on hashtags. For example, #glutenfree, #puremichigan, #beach, #cat, and #dog are some very popular!  If you are unsure of what hashtag to use, do a little research and find similar photos to see what other people are using.

Getting the Right People to Follow You

After you have your page started and you’ve posted your first pictures with the right hashtags, it’s time to find followers. The first thing you want to do is follow all the people that you feel are relevant to you or your brand/business. Once you follow some of those businesses, then you can go into those business pages and can see who follows them. Take initiative and follow all those people too. It will seem like you are following a lot of people with very few following back at first, but that won’t last long.

Now, the hard work begins. You need to engage with the people you are following.  Like their photos and comment when appropriate. When other people see that you are engaging, then you will become more attractive for them to “like” as well. You will attract friends of the people you are engaging with, which should be people you want to attract towards your business as well!

As a social media manager, I love Instagram. I feel that it’s a great way to reach out for very little cost (Facebook has become difficult to navigate for businesses, not to mention expensive!). Instagram is a great alternative for many businesses or professional individuals. Don’t be afraid to explore the options out there. Facebook isn’t the only game in town!


Leslie Krukowski is the principal, CEO, and main consultant of Black Dog Business Group. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English and sub-concentrations in both marketing and business management. After spending several years in management, marketing, and social media marketing positions, she received a Master’s Degree in Administration. She has proven success in managing large groups of people and loves leadership development. Leslie has two black dogs at home, Bertuzzi and Scout. Feel free to reach out to her at leslie@blackdogbusinessgroup.com for a free initial consultation.

Filed Under: best practices, guest blogger, social media Tagged With: Black Dog Business Group, hashtags, Instagram, Leslie Krukowski, social media, social media marketing

Making Your Blog Post Beautiful by Sierra Kellermeyer

July 17, 2017 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

Have you ever found a blog post on Pinterest that really excited you?

For me, it’s usually a recipe with a mouthwatering photo of something I want to get in my belly IMMEDIATELY. However, if I click the link and find myself on a cluttered, unappealing blog post, my excitement immediately plummets. It’s even worse if the writer has made it hard to find the information I want.

Now instead of fantasizing about my dinner, my mental energy is being used to sort through large chunks of text and oversized images. Sigh. I’m not even hungry anymore. I’m certainly not going to go look for more posts on this blog.

What should this experience look like? Let’s start from the same place:

I see an appealing post on Pinterest, and I click through. This time, I find myself on a clean, well-designed website.

I’m greeted by a simple but beautiful image introducing the blog post and confirming I’m in the right place. I scroll quickly down the post, scanning the headers, happy to see the post covers several points I’m interested in, and all of the images included are relevant but not overpowering. Excited by the appearance of a thorough and professional article, I begin to read, and the airy layout helps me read quickly without losing my place or tiring my eyes.

By the end of the article, I’m so pleased with the content I explore the rest of the website.

As you can see, the design of your blog posts can be a big determining factor in whether a casual reader becomes a fan. But it doesn’t take a design degree to make your blog beautiful – just implement these tips.

Text

The text in your blog is obviously the most important element – it’s what your readers are, well, reading!

Headers

Your blog post should have at least three different text styles: title, header, and body. If it works with your writing style, adding subheaders can dramatically increase your post’s skimmability.

Each text style should be distinct from each other – the most basic way to achieve that is through size.

I recommend starting with your body text and increasing the size of the subsequent styles by 50%. So if your body text was 12pt, your subheadings would be 18pt, headers 24 pt, and title 30pt.

You can also play around with color, capitalization, and weight.

Layout

It’s a common temptation to format blog posts like they’re a high school essay; each paragraph needs at least three sentences, no fragments, etc.

But no one’s grading your blog posts, and your audience cares more about how easy your blog is to read than how well you stuck to MLA or APA format.

Since blog posts are read through screens, consider how tired our eyes get when staring at a screen. To make your post easy on the eyes, break up your paragraphs and leave plenty of white space between paragraphs.

Link

This is a simple, but important tip: make your links a different color from your text.

If you just underline your links, I won’t be sure if you’re emphasizing the words, or if it’s an actual link.

Color also makes it easy to find if your reader is scrolling back through your article looking for a link you mentioned.

Images

Beautiful images can make your blog post more visually engaging, but remember, images are supporting elements, not the main event. (Unless you’re a photographer.)

Title Image

I’m a strong advocate for having a title image for each of your blog posts – but not so that you have an image to pin on Pinterest.

Title images are a great way to bring your branding into your blog post, and it sets the tone for the article.

They also keep your blog from looking plain, or like a wall of text, both of which can turn off readers.

Explanatory Images

If you’re blogging about an event you went to, a food you ate, or giving a tutorial, you should include images of what you’re talking about.

In general, if you can include relevant images, it’s going to make your readers more engaged.

Just be sure to size your images appropriately – they shouldn’t fill the screen.

Hidden Pinterest Image

Now, having beautiful graphics to pin to lead others to your blog post is important, but the tall, vertical images that do best on Pinterest don’t always work within the design of your blog post. But here’s a little trick to embed your image in your blog post so that it can’t be seen on the post, but appears as a pinnable image.

Just plug this code into your blog post, and, ta-da! – a hidden pinnable image:

<div style=display:none;><img src=”(your image url)”></div>

Sidebar

Now, there’s no rule that you have to have a sidebar.

You can choose not to use one and put your information into the footer instead of a sidebar. This is a great option for streamlining your reader’s experience.

K.I.S.S.

If you do choose to include a sidebar in your blog, keep this acronym in mind: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Remember your blog post is the main event and your sidebar is secondary.

Don’t include any flashy images that draw attention away from your post, and don’t overwhelm your readers with too much information.

Highlight Reel

What should be included in your sidebar is your highlight reel: information most relevant to your readers.

I generally suggest a short bio, one paid offer, and 3-5 of your best posts.

Footer

The footer is an often overlooked, but powerful, part of your blog design. No blog should be without a footer.

Next Steps

The most important part of your blog’s footer is what you immediately follow your blog post with. Assuming your reader loved your post (I’m sure they did) they’ll want more from you – and it’s you’re job to tell them how to get more.

Some next step options include:

  • Encouraging them to sign up for your email list
  • Suggesting related posts on your blog
  • Asking them a question for them to answer in the comments
  • Promoting one of your paid offers

Relevant Information

If you chose to forgo the sidebar, your footer is where you should shift your highlight reel.

You don’t want to overshadow the next steps you’re leading your reader to.

Include who you are and what you do as a quick introduction to your reader. If at all possible, include a photo of yourself to make your reader feel like they know you.

—

Sierra Kellermeyer is a brand designer who helps businesses increase their perceived value and professionalism through strategic brand design, allowing them to attract more high-level clients and feel more confident getting visible online.

Website: http://www.skellermeyerdesigns.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skellermeyerdesigns/

Filed Under: best practices, blogging, guest blogger

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Editor. Teacher. Novelist.
A passionate lover of fiction, Karin doesn't just write novels, she helps others write their best stories! A certified substantive editor with the Christian Editor Connection, her goal is to help authors to put her out of business by equipping them with the tools they need to become better writers.

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