Is Social Media Worth The Effort for Authors

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

Social media. Often just the mention of this subject conjures up hours of time. First there’s the time it takes to hang out online, then the time it takes to figure out what to say, who to LIKE and which updates to comment on, share and even retweet.

All for what?

The chance that someone out there in cyberspace might actually—either now or sometime in the future—buy a book.

Or the fact that some editor and/or agent is going to judge the number of friends, followers and likes I have on my social media network.

7 Things Your Target Audience Needs to Hear

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills 
Tweet this: 7 Things Your Target Audience Needs to Hear

Meeting reader needs can be a daunting task, which is one of the reasons why The Author Roadmap is dedicated to helping you be a success with social media while creating writing projects.

The following 7 items will help you reach out to your audience and cultivate valuable relationships. Note every item is what you will do for your audience . . . not the other way around.

1. Dear reader, my goal is to build a friendship with you. I care about you, and I’m constantly working to answer your questions, inform, and entertain you.
2. The passion for my stories comes from a deep desire to provide a great book for you. Your encouragement is why I work hard to develop strong characters and an intricate plot.
3. You can trust me to stand firm on my brand. I’m a writer who is true to my promises. My books, blogs, and social media posts reflect my integrity.
4. You are important to me. My multiple-daily posts are about how I can meet your needs. My promise to keep in touch is reliable. Leave comments, and I will respond.
5. Your input helps me be productive. I’m listening to your suggestions, questions, and advice.
6. We’re a team. No writer is ever alone. We need each other to walk this path called life.
7. What stories have influenced you? How can I best continue to serve you?

Your readers are priceless gems. Nurture and take care of them. Once a writer loses an audience, she may never get them back again. 

Tweet this: 7 Things Your Target Audience Needs to Hear


 
DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of The Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference and The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

Organize Your Social Media with this Step-by-Step Tutorial for Setting Up & Personalizing a Hootsuite Account

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

Many of you know that I spent all of last week directing and teaching at The Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. 

DiAnn Mills and I taught a week-long continuing class—The Author Roadmap. We loved interacting with students and helping them get acquainted with the marketing and branding superhighway. But even though we had an entire week of classes, it wasn't enough time to teach everything we wanted. 

So today, I'm sharing a much-requested screencast that take you through a step-by-step tutorial for setting up and personalizing a Hootsuite account. 

Be sure to leave any questions or comments in the section below. I'm happy to clarify any points that weren't clear—or weren't covered—in the video. 

Thanks & Blessings,
Edie

Click to Tweet: Organize #SocialMedia with this Step-by-Step Tutorial for #Hootsuite - @EdieMelson 

8 Ways to Protect Your Password

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills


Tweet this: 8 Ways to Protect your Password
Cyber crime can attack us when we are vulnerable. The best protection is to take important steps to ensure our passwords are unique and not easily distinguished.

Hackers have one of two goals—steal our money or our identity. We all work too hard to pave the way for a faceless thief to take what is ours.

Here are eight ways you can be way ahead of hackers.

1. Select a different password for every mobile device.
2. Make your password as intricate as possible.
3. Do not use a password that is linked to you: a birthday, anniversary, middle name, maiden name, address, college, city, state, children’s or grandchildren’s names, etc.
4. Don’t be guilty of using one of these horrible, terrible, easily hackable, stupid, and down right dumb passwords: http://bit.ly/1VgwYKZ
5. Be a protector of your passwords by taking a hard look at what you’ve used for the last several years. Updates are smart. Updating too often doesn’t make much sense, especially if you already have a solid password in place.
6. Thinking about additional security protection? Your mother’s maiden name or your city is way too easy for a hacker to figure out. Think of a tough question and a tough response.
7. Consider two-factor authentication. Read more about it here: http://bit.ly/1V6BfzO
8. Use common sense - Why allow a website to remember your password. That only makes it easier for a hacker.

Your turn. Have you taken steps to ensure your password is protected?

Tweet this: 8 Ways to Protect your Password

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

Copyright Myths - Know What You Can & Can't Legally Share Online

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

Lately, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about copyright issues. Specifically, what is legal to use on a blog, social media or in a book. 

First, I want to state right up front that I am NOT a lawyer and none of what I’ve said constitutes any kind of legal advice. All I’m trying to do is share what I've learned about how to be responsible online. 

That said, at the end of this post I’m going to give you some links to the places where I found my information so you can go check out the specifics for yourself.

The Power of Pinterest in Novel Promotion

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

Tweet this: The Power of Pinterest in Novel Promotion

Pinterest claims to have 100 million active monthly users while noting 176 million registered users. Those stats are amazing, especially when writers are geared up to market and promote a new book. 

Using Pinterest for promoting novels allows writers to expand their creativity. An easy way to entice a reader to check out our work involves pulling out special sections of the novel that can be translated into a picture or meme.

Story symbols and products and services have the ability to represent key aspects of the book and urge the reader to investigate further. For example: is your character a Starbucks, Coke, or McDonalds fan? Does the character thrive on baseball or tennis? Does your character take long walks by the ocean to ease her mind? walks by the ocean to ease her mind?
 
Snippets of the setting make the story come alive.

Photos of the writer engaged in the writing process or involved in something fun links the passion of the writer for the story.  

Quotes from the story—those witty comments that can be humorous, insightful, or way deep. (In fact, we writers often wonder where they came from.)

Now that you have an idea what to use for your novel’s Pinterest board, stir up your creative juices and let the writer’s uniqueness shine.

1. Create a new board for your novel. If the book hasn’t been released, make sure this is a “secret” board.
2. Study the psychology of color. Use what attracts readers to your books.
3. Organize what you want to pin on your story’s board.
4. Create memes for setting and symbols. PicMonkey is an easy way to personalize and make your designs powerful. Use free stock photos from such sites as Pixabay, Unsplash, Negative Space, or Stock Snap.
5. Use a plain canvas background or a pic to focus on a quote. Again PicMonkey is an amazing tool.
6. Include your URL on each pic. This brings traffic to your website and invites repins.
7. Use keywords to organize and complete the necessary description for your pins. This ensure your story and brand are easy to find.
8. Add the Pinterest button to your website.
9. Make your board public on the day before your book’s official release date.
10. Share your board and pins via social media with friends and readers. Others are excited to see a new perspective on the story.
11. Follow others on Pinterest and they will follow you.

Tweet this: The Power of Pinterest in Novel Promotion


DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

How to Add Personalized Social Media Buttons to a WordPress Site

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

Today I'm excited to show you how to add personalized social media buttons to a free or paid WordPress site. You may notice this blog is sporting a new set of buttons right below my header. They were surprisingly easy to install and I couldn't wait to share how to do it. 

The screencast below contains step-by-step instructions for adding them to a WordPress site. You can also add them to a Blogger site, but the process is slightly different. I shared how to do that in a SEPARATE screencast this past Monday, on my other site, www.TheWriteConversation.com. So if you have a Blogger site, visit How to Add a Personalized Social Media Buttons to a Blogger Site.

Be sure to leave any questions or comments in the comments section below. 

TWEETABLES
How to Add Personalized #SocialMedia Buttons to a WordPress Site - @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Add personalized #socialmedia buttons to your #blog with step-by-step instructions from @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Edie Melson is the author of numerous books, as well as a freelance writer and editor. Her blog, The Write Conversation, reaches thousands each month. She’s the Director of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference and the Social Media Mentor at My Book Therapy. She’s also the Military Family Blogger at Guideposts. Com, Social Media Director for Southern Writers Magazine and the Senior Editor for NovelRocket.com. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook. Look for her newest book, While My Soldier Serves (Worthy Inspired), available at bookstores and online.