A topic, A topic, my kingdom for a topic!

{ July 8, 2008 @ 7:00 pm } · { 1 }
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Most writers will tell you that some pieces they write just came to them in a dream, a thought, or something, and they were able to just write and write and were done in a matter of minutes (or hours or days depending on the type of work).  But it normally doesn’t happen like that.  Don’t get me wrong– it can happen and sometimes often– but inspiration usually is one of those traits that needs to be nudged out into the light– so to speak.

So how does one nudge their inspiration and come up with the greatest topic to write about since the invention of sliced bread?  Well, there are a few ways to get some inspiration, like reading someone else’s books or blogs, watching the news or reading the paper, looking at your calender, or even your own writing.  Let’s look into each one of these for a bit.

I love to read.  It’s another one of my passions in life.  I like to sink myself into a good book and play the heroine for a bit and I also like to read about someone’s else’s thoughts in a blog.  These blogs or books can give me some ideas for my own writing, be that a review of their work, or just a great topic to explore for myself in a book, poem, or article.

Watching the news is another great way to get ideas for topics. It’s even a great way to re-discover one of the topics you’ve already written about.  Now, exactly what do I mean by this?  Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was watching The Today Show and they were interviewing a couple who wrote a book on intimacy.  Naturally this sparked my interest because I too had written a book on intimacy about a year ago.  It’s called Fibromyalgia and Sex Can Be a Pain In The Neck… and back and shoulders in case you wanted to know.  I started to listen to the couple’s commitment to one another and genuinely liked what they had to say.  Now, I didn’t leave it at that, I chose to write a blog about my thoughts on this couple and I also wrote about my own thoughts too.  This not only gave me a chance to re-visit a topic I had previously written about, but it also gave me a chance to put another plug in for my book– and that can’t hurt can it?

Another great way to come up with a topic is to look at your calendar.  What day, week, or month is it?  Is there an Awareness Day coming up like Breast Cancer Awareness?  A holiday like Christmas or July 4th?  Or maybe you’re fond of a particular season or someone’s birthday?  Each day on a calendar can be a potential topic for you to write about and the topics don’t have to be limited to that particular day, for instance, Memorial Day may be the kick off for the summer season, but it is also the kick off for home improvements.  There’s two topic ideas for one day out of the year and it doesn’t have to stop there because the possibilities are endless.

Lastly, your own writing can be a great way to find a topic.  I like to keep everything I write– I even have things I wrote from 20 years ago.  Why?  Because I’m a firm believer in letting something lie for a bit so you can get a clearer perspective on the subject.  In other words, I will keep an article, poem, whatever, even if I deem it as really bad writing, for future topics.  This has worked for me countless numbers of times when the subject I was writing about was great, but the actual writing wasn’t so good or didn’t make the point I wanted to convey.

These are just a few ways to come up with some topics for your writing.  There are so many more and maybe I’ll go into a few of them in another blog.  Right now, I think I’ll let this topic lie for a bit.  Take care of yourself and happy writing!

Kimberley

More from that dirty nine letter word

{ July 4, 2008 @ 1:05 am } · { 1 }
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I know it has been a while since my last post, but I have found some very interesting ways to market books and authors since my last post and I am going to share them here in this continued post of That dirty nine letter word.

Now that ebooks, POD, and self-publishing have become popular, getting published is very quick and easy, however, marketing and promoting one’s self can be seem time consuming and overwhelming to someone just starting out in the writing world. The great part about promoting yourself is that it really isn’t hard and can even be fun– if you like to socialize that is. Now, what do I mean by socializing? Well, there are a lot of places on the net that will let you do just that while allowing you to promote yourself and your website.

If you have a website already, great! If not, let’s go into a bit of detail about setting one up for yourself. Try starting one up on a free hosting site like Homestead or even your own internet service provider. They will have a few templates for you to start out with if you aren’t very tech savvy. These sites are great practice for you to get your feet wet. You could also pay someone to set up a site for you, but you would be better off knowing a bit of the basics, yourself, so you can update your site often. Most places that charge you fees to set up a website will only update your site a few times a year, if at all, and some will even expect you to maintain it yourself.

Now that you have a site, promote it through social networking. Social networking is just a fancy word for socializing on the net. There are many places to socialize, like groups. Groups are a great way to get to know other writers and readers. There are countless numbers of sites dedicated to writers and a few are AuthorsDen, Writing.com, 8hop, Conscious Artistry, and Poetry Soup to name a few.

There are also specific sites geared towards perfecting your craft in writing like mikeswritingworkshop (found on Yahoo!), Accentuate Writers Forum, and even the groups that I have founded called Writers With Chronic Disease (found on Yahoo!) and Coping With Fibro (found on Lulu).

Another great avenue to look into when socializing is to go where the readers go. Writers are readers, yes, but there is a whole new area to explore when you find sites that are specifically geared to readers. You can find a lot of them on sites like The Library Thing and Nothing Binding.

There are also a few others sites that you can try when promoting yourself in the big internet world and we’ll talk about sites geared toward independents now. If you are a self-publisher, you have probably heard of a few of these sites already, but even if you are not a self-publisher, these sites are definitely worth looking into.  Self Publisher’s Place and indie coffee house are great places to start. They not only provide a place for you to promote yourself, but their sites also have some great info for marketing and some freebies for the writers out there.

The last place I’ll discuss in this blog is another great form of advertising, but it can take a bit of time to research. And that would be other sites that might relate to your particular book(s). A lot of sites love to exchange links because it can help in search rankings, but they also like to link for a more important reason, and that’s to build a site with a great wealth of knowledge. If you wrote a book on a particular syndrome like Fibromyalgia, as I did, you’d want to seek out sites that relate to that topic. Some sites might be informational sites on the particular subject, some might be fellow writers talking about it on a blog, and others might be in the form of a journal. You can advertise by one of two ways, either leave them a comment on their site, or email them and ask if you can add their link to your site. Most people are more willing to help you out if you help them and a nice comment here and there about someone’s else’s ideas or blogs can go a long way. Plus, it just feels good when you do it. I have had a lot of success with added links and advertising this way that not only help me with advertising, but help me to build a beautiful site that has a wealth of information for writers of poetry and self-help, as well as, people who suffer from the debilitating disease known as Fibromyalgia.

Well, these are just a few of the ways that I’ve found that can help with advertising and promoting your book. I’ll be back with more, as well as, some other fun topics for writers. I need to refill my cup, so take care for now and I’ll chat with you all soon!

Kimberley

Kimberleylinstruth-beckom.com

The Dirty Nine Letter Word…Marketing

{ January 14, 2008 @ 11:37 pm } · { 1 }
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Okay, okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh, but it can be a grueling task to take on.  Marketing can be done a few different ways, either you as the author can go out there and make a spectacle of yourself, you can hire someone to make a spectacle of yourself, or you could wait for someone to stumble upon you and your book.

Personally, I don’t want to wait for someone to hunt and find my great book, I stopped playing hide n’ seek a long time ago.  Besides, I’d rather be the one telling them about it in the first place!  It’s a cruel fact, but as a writer, you have to let everyone know about your great book on your own, and you have to do it a lot.  In other words, you will be the one making a spectacle of yourself.  Sure, you can hire that PR guy or gal for a hefty fee– something that might be worth splurging on when you have a bit of money because they can generate quite a buzz for you.  But they can only go as far as your dollar will take them.

If you are starting out, try marketing on your own with blogs, advertising, press releases, email signatures, and mailing lists.  You can get several ideas from some good books out there.  Danny Pointer and Tom and Marilyn Ross have wonderful books on marketing for self-published authors.  Another good one, is a general PR book called, “PR On A Budget” by Leonard Saffir .  They suggest many of the things that I have mentioned and go into further details, details like, how to create a mailing list or press release kit.  I’ll discuss a few of these briefly here:

A blog is a great way to draw attention to yourself and your work.  People are blogging all the time and people are reading all the time.  So a blog is a great way for readers to see your work.  I’d suggest going to a popular site like Facebook or Myspace to get some great exposure.  These sites have a lot of users who are either writers themselves, or they are into reading.  You can get as personal as you’d like on these sites and let everyone know about you the writer.  I tend to get a bit personal, but I use a rule of thumb when it comes to personal topics– it’s a motto my Grandma taught me a long time ago, she said, “Kim, don’t say anything to anyone that you wouldn’t mind hearing repeated.”  It’s a motto I live by even today.

Advertising is another avenue for you to try as a writer.  There are many sites and groups on the internet that are specifically  set up for you to advertise your book.  Some are just for authors and some are general ad sites.  There can be fees attached to some of these sites, but there are many out there that are free to join.  Bookhitch is one of the free sites you can use to advertise your book.  You can also try to list your titles in libraries and even literary magazines.  Literary magazines, like the CT Muse here, sometimes will list local authors for free so it’s worth checking out your hometown or state for that information.  Libraries will also list authors as well.

Press releases are another great way to generate a buzz about you as an author.  They can read as long or as short as you’d like them too, but they should contain at least one quote from you as to why you decided to write that particular book.  Most writers will send releases to their local rags and stop there, but you don’t have to.  There are many sites on the net today that will send your press release all over the world.  Most of the sites are reasonable in price.  One good site costs around forty dollars and will send your release to just about everyone.  As a matter of fact, I saw one place pick up my release from Egypt which is quite a ways away from the USA.  That site is called PRWeb.  There are also a few others that will put out your release for free.  I’ve gotten some decent response from some of these free sites and one to try is SANEPR.

Yet another route that can prove beneficial is your email signature and mailing lists.  An email signature can be put on all of your out going mail and it’s free advertising for you, the author.  Use that signature to advertise your latest book and to lead your readers to either your personal website, or a website that has the ability to sell your books.

Mailing lists are another powerful marketing tool.  You might be saying, yeah Kim, that sounds great, but how do I get a mailing list without paying a hefty price?  Well, you could pay for potential customers, but why do that when you have a local phone book with listings of local bookstores and local libraries right at your fingertips.  You can also create a mailing list from your address book folder in your email account.  It’s a great start for potential customers that you build upon with each person or contact you meet.  Your contact list can also be the start of your fan- base emails.  Friends and family are the best people to practice on because it’s hard for them to say no to an email from you–just don’t tell them I said so.

These are just a few ideas that you can expand on for yourself.  I hope to post a few more along with some other great tips on writing.  My coffee is getting a bit cold, so it’s time for a refill.  Chat with you all again soon!

Kimberley

Why isn’t information for free anymore?

{ March 30, 2007 @ 6:20 pm } · { 1 }
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I’m sure you’ve been faced with the same problem I’ve had and it frustrates me to no end… You need some information on a topic– say writing, and you have no time to go to the library or to the local Borders, so what do you do? You go on the net and start to surf. I go up to the search engine box and type in what I need, like writing fiction, and hit search. And what do I get? A ton of stuff on the subject that I might want to buy. I’m not trying to wine, but what happened to information or advice being free? Did it get lost in the generations changing hands and no one told me about it? And I remember someone saying once that the best advice is free– so what happened to that?

Well, in answer to my frustrations, I have decided to make a blog up solely for free information on writing. I want to give writers a safe haven to come and find a view on writing.  As well as how I write certain genres like poetry (what I’m best known for) or fiction, and also, to discuss other tidbits of information.  Like creating a title for your work, to where to market yourself as a writer on the net.

So sit back, relax with a cup of joe, and let’s chat!