C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

09/14/2010 • 10:01 AM 0

Problogger: The Key to Starting Your Author Platform

Cover of "ProBlogger: Secrets for Bloggin...

Cover via Amazon

Yesterday I told you that, as a writer who hopes to be an author, you need to start a blog now.

Here’s a tool to get you started: Problogger.net and Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett’s excellent book Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.

Rowse is a smart fellow from Australia who teaches people how to start up blogs, optimize them and eventually make money from them. I’m not an affiliate or anything. I just think that this is a very useful book for you to read because he discusses in detail how to make smart choices about developing your web presence. For instance, should you host it yourself? What are the pros and cons of paying someone else to host your blog? Then he guides you step by step on how to actually make it happen. He talks about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), content, and every other detail you’ll need to achieve lift off.

I’m listening to the audiobook now and I’m enjoying it very much. However, I don’t recommend that you buy the audiobook. There is excellent information available here, but you need to buy the paperback from Amazon because you’ll get lost in the technical aspects of his instruction. Listening to the reader slog through saying, “http://etc.,…“ is just too much to absorb. It’s not that the book isn’t interesting and engaging. It’s just that the nitty-gritty of the helpful bits is too nitty-gritty if you just listen to it.

As soon as I’m finished listening to the book, I’m going to buy the hard copy so I can better put his advice into action.

Problogger Says We Need a Blog “Voice” (liberalsmash.blogspot.com)
3 Elements to Write Like a Pro-blogger (socialmediatoday.com)
Working as a Problogger (xfep.com)
Pros of Being a Problogger (xfep.com)

Filed under: blogs & blogging, book reviews, Books, Writers, Blog, problogger.net, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

09/13/2010 • 10:32 PM 0

Book Blogger Appreciation Week Nomination (via View From the Publishing Trenches)

Everyone who promotes books, loves books and buys books (and possibly even read books) should be appreciated. There’s a hard working author behind every book who is grateful when word of mouth brings their baby into the light. Excelsior!

I don't know who to thank, so here's a blanket thank-you to whomever nominated this blog of scribblings, random thoughts, and gripes for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Award in the Best Publishing Industry Blog category. If you want to cast your vote, you can just click here: Looking at the timeline on the BBAW website, voting will be open September 7-12. (Don't worry, I'll remind you!) Thanks again to whomever nominated me! … Read More

via View From the Publishing Trenches

Filed under: Uncategorized

09/13/2010 • 10:01 AM 1

Author Platforms: “Resistance is Futile!”

Cover of "Get Known Before The Book Deal:...

Cover via Amazon

It used to be that writers didn’t have to have a platform. Now they do. Resist at your peril because (cue weird Borg voice):

“Resistance is Futile!”

There are too many ways our attention is fractured. You must appear in more than one medium to gain attention for your main medium, your book.

What is a Writer’s Platform?

There are many routes to take, but the anchor of your media empire should be your blog. From your blog, all the other branches of your interests expand. If you don’t have a blog, people won’t find you.

Why is a platform so useful?

I once ran into a fellow who was trying to sell me something. I asked for his website address. He looked at me with resentment and said he wasn’t convinced a website was necessary. All his competitors had websites so I could compare my buying options at my leisure. This poor guy thought he could make a living off impulse buys. People don’t buy most items on impulse anymore. With a search engine it is very easy to research your purchases and buy when you feel you are ready. More and more, people are buying online. In an age of Ferraris, this guy was still in the buggy whip business.

But what about platforms for authors specifically?

If you aren’t published yet, your agent or publisher will want you to have a blog, preferably one that’s already established. Even better, a popular blog with a lot of subscribers anxious to buy your book. Your publisher will have a publicist. In my experience, you’re crazy to depend on the publisher’s publicist to do that much for you. Even publishers have recognized this and are putting more and more of the promotion and publicity duties upon authors. Increasingly, publishers are about their distribution network and less and less about everything else.

What are my platform options?

Podcasting, vlogging, Twitter, teaching, guest blogging, public speaking, teaching, subscriber newsletters, Facebook, Linked In, Four Square, media appearances, magazine articles, and radio interviews.

All of the above starts with blogging.

Book Recommendation: Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz

Like It or Not, Twitter Has Become a News Platform [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)
DIY MFA: Be Your Own Publicist (Part Ten) (stirrup-queens.com)
Nina Lassam: Award-Winning Author Robert Hilles on How to Create and Measure Value With Online Marketing (huffingtonpost.com)
Five Best Blogging Platforms [Hive Five] (lifehacker.com)
Portable audiences of advocacy (dpwilliams.com)
DIY MFA: Are You Ready to be an Author? (Part Two) (stirrup-queens.com)

Filed under: blogs & blogging, Publicity & Promotion, Social Media, author platform, Get KNown Before the Book Deal, promotion, publicity, publishing

09/10/2010 • 11:36 PM 0

Friday Reward: Giant Bubbles

Filed under: Uncategorized, web reviews, giant bubbles

09/10/2010 • 7:14 PM 0

Friday Bonus: What Really Motivates Us

Releasing Expectation (lifescript.com)

Filed under: getting it done, Writers, Motivation

09/10/2010 • 10:00 AM 0

The Editing Lesson

Image via Wikipedia

Elimintae extraaneous verbiage.

Eliminate extraneous words.

Eliminate extra words.

Take out extra words.

Delete extra words.

Edit.

Cut.

Lesson Plan: How to Improve Writing by Learning How to Edit an Essay (brighthub.com)

Filed under: Uncategorized

09/10/2010 • 12:47 AM 0

Writing Contest

Glimmer Train is accepting contest submissions.

It’s September, so it’s Fiction Open over at Glimmer Train. The reading fee is $18 US. First prize is $2,000. They’ll take short stories up to 20,000 words. Submitted for your consideration.

I just submitted a short story. It makes me feel good, the same way buying a lottery ticket gives you a tiny secret potential.

Downtown Books and Coffee (faircarnivals.com)
Young Writers Cup Contest Now Accepting Submissions (prweb.com)
Profile in Courage Essay Contest (freetech4teachers.com)
Getting Paid for Flash Fiction (writinghood.com)

Filed under: writing contests, Contests, fiction, Glimmer Train, short stories, writing contests

09/09/2010 • 8:02 AM 0

Chazz Writes: Q & A

Image via Wikipedia

Do you have a question for me about writing or editing?

(Mr. Director! Cue the happy music!)

Email me at:

chazz@chazzwrites.vpweb.ca

Also, at the bottom right of this screen is an email subscription box. Please take a moment to key in your email address. You’ll get my blog posts by email and never miss another scintillating post. I don’t share email lists with anyone and I won’t sell them to anyone. Thanks!

Now, to clear your palate of my lonely plea for human contact in the outside world, below you’ll find meaty links on the subject of the slush pile.

(Cue the ominous music.)

Pubmission Launches an Online Submission Tool for Writers and Publishers (prweb.com)
The democratization of slush (salon.com)
A Few Thoughts (lilithsaintcrow.com)
The Future of Publishing (advancedfictionwriting.com)
‘Slush Pile’: Where Did The Phrase Come From? (huffingtonpost.com)

Filed under: Editors, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, Writers, writing tips, Business, email subscriptions, Novel, publishing, Slush pile, writing, writing question, writing questions and answers

09/08/2010 • 8:00 AM 0

Lurking in bookstores

I’m on a diet. Yeah, I know I’m supposed to call it a “lifestyle” for long-term success. But no, this is a diet. Short-term and urgent. Grueling even. Low calorie, no processed foods etc.,… The other day I knew that if I stayed in the house, I would eat and I might not stop. I found out that if I leave the house and it’s not to go get some food, my choices as to what to do are narrowed precipitously. Since eating raw and clean, I’ve noticed something about my spending habits. My mind is clearer and I see now that I’ve been a big consumer, figuratively and literally. With so much food off the table, I’m focused on buying knowledge and experience.

Naturally, I sought refuge in a bookstore. Among books I feel calm. There’s so much to browse that the experience is different each time. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s a treasure hunt. I was distracted from my hunger pangs and felt my shoulders loosen as I disappeared among the shelves. I breathed deeper and took my time. I contemplated all the books there are to read and all the books I have to write.

And I was inspired. Despite all the bad news about the publishing industry (often detailed on this very blog by your trusty reporter) there are still so many ideas to explore in fiction and non-fiction. As I perused the how-tos, I thought about what I could write to help people. As I ran my hand along the spines of paperbacks, I thought, “Soon.”

I admit bookstores and libraries make me happy in a way that browsing online does not. Shopping for books is a deeper experience when you hold the weight of it in your hand and flip through at random trying to get a sense if this is the book that will grant you a kind of glorious insomnia. I do hope bookstores will be around for a long time. The independents will have to be very creative and very knowledgeable to stay alive in the ebook environment. I do believe there will always be paper books, but they will be a more expensive specialty item in the future. Some people say that won’t happen. Their (fallacious) argument often seems to be that it won’t happen because it hasn’t happened yet. It’s early days. Ebooks will get the bugs worked out. Then our consumer society’s spending habits will change again. We’ll get even less sunlight than we do now.

Bt for now, I have a safe place to run to as long as I stay away from Starbucks (conveniently located in the bookstore.) Otherwise, I’ll have to run to the gym looking for a place to hide from hunger pangs.

I so love books in all their forms. Also, I could be high on book glue.