#AuthorTip - Planning a Website?

One of the first things authors are asked is

Do you have a website?



Some have authors use wordpress or blogger to host their site while other seek other hosting sites.

As a former programmer, I wanted a site that I could have on a separate site, but as you can see by looking at the top of my blog. I still use blogger to gain access to my home site.

When planning a website, an author needs to decide on a number of things.

Branding- what do you want to show on your site?

Number of pages?

What type of pages?

Here are some example of the different type of pages one can have.
 

1.  Home Page / Welcome page  – is like the entryway to your house.  It is an introduction to you. It should include things like author’s picture, available books, a welcome note, brief biography and links to all the other pages on the site.

2.  Books Page – as an author you want people to find your books. This page should contain all the books you’ve written with either blurbs, excerpts or reviews. Or links to this information.

3.  Bio Page – a page to tell people about yourself. Who you are, what you write, more about your personal interests and other information you want to share.

4.  Links Page – this page gives visitors to your site links to other places on the Internet where they can find you. Also, it can include links to your friends and publisher. This is important because links to other sites that link back to you increases your rating on the Internet. (This also increase your SEO rating—see definition below.)

5.  Other Pages – the possibility for other pages are endless. Here is where you make your site your own.

6.  Picture page - share pictures.

7.  Contact page – where you give fans your email address.

8.  Excerpt pages – giving excerpts of your books or the ability to read the first chapter.

9.  Video Page – to display video you’ve made. (A great way to connect with readers.)

10.  Some sites also have chat areas.

Each author has to decide what they want and why?

Feel free to hop around mine  and see what you like and don't like. Viewing other sites can help you decide what you want on yours.

Once these things are decided then comes the creative part of the process - colors, pictures, type print, headers, footers, etc.

This is not a one day project. Take some time and thing about what is best for your site.



Best of luck,

Tina

 

 

#MFRW Camp - Cut the Crap

Hi everyone,

I hope you are planning to attend MFRW summer camp. It is a great opportunity to learn all sorts of things.

I'm giving a class on rewriting which is called "Cut the Crap."

If you are like me you spend almost as much time rewriting your book as you do writing your book.

Here is an outline of what I talk about in my class.

1. Fear of Revising-

•             Losing your voice
•             In love with your first draft
•             Under deadline

2. Self-Editing – has two parts 

            Inside the Story - Plot, story, characters 

            Outside the story - basic grammar, word choices - using stronger verbs.

             The story -    

·         Have you written enough?

·         Is there emotion on every page?

·         Are the Five Senses felt on each page?

 

·         Plot line –

·         Character Development

·         Backstory

·         Pacing

 

Enter the editing mode 

·         Analyze and measure

·         Clean up passive writing

·         Grammar checks      

·         Final read for flow and to pull it all together. 

·         Formatting your manuscript for a particular publisher.

 

 

 

You'll find the schedule for all the classes here: http://marketingforromancewriters.org/media/schedule.pdf

It is also available on the MFRW website, on our Summer Camp page, here: http://marketingforromancewriters.org/camp.htm

In addition, it will be posted with updates on our Facebook group, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/

Classes start today at noon. All times are Eastern.

 

Hope you plan on joining in on the fun.

 

Tina

Writing Tip - Wordy Phrases

It is so easy to ramble on and on about things. Here's a few tips to cut your word count.

A large number of - Try many or the exact number

Here's some other examples.

on the order of magnitude of---about
in the nature of---like
in view of the fact that---since
give encouragement to---encourage
make an adjustment in---adjust
is equipped with---has
avail yourself---use
a majority of---most
take into consideration---consider

Found this list at http://www.fpd.finop.umn.edu/groups/ppd/documents/information/Writing_Tips.cfm

Check it out for other tips.

Tina