Why Consistency Is So Important to Your Writing (and What Should We Do About it?)

One thing that may have many of us feeling unsure or out of sorts right now is the conflicting information that can come with stories and information about the current pandemic. Some of it is because we live in a 24/7 news cycle, and scientists and doctors are making new discoveries daily. Some of it is rumor and hype. But when I talk to my friends and family, this is one topic that's often brought up: Everything feels so inconsistent. People are asking: Who do I trust?

Think about your best friend or a relative you are close to. You've established trust and a bond, and one of the ways this happened is because the person was consistent. He or she followed through on promises and showed up when s/he said they would. S/he was always there for you with consistent behavior.

So consistency is important to human beings; and as you know, human beings are your readers--at least for now, until we teach other creatures to read or life is found on another planet. (I'm only kidding--sort of.)

When I was thinking about this post, I thought of many, many ways that we have to be consistent when we write or because we are writers. I decided I would turn this topic into a series of blog posts. Today's post gives you an overview of the topic; and then in other posts throughout the end of May and into June, I'll provide some tips in different areas for how to be consistent in your writing and keep your readers happy!

Here are some areas where consistency is important both in your writing and in your career:

• Point of view character
• Worldbuilding
• Characters' descriptions
• Characters' names
• Characters' motivations and feelings
• Spelling (i.e., U.S. vs U.K.)
• Formatting
• Branding
• Correspondence
• Social Media

and more...

This is where you come in. Where do you think it is crucial to be consistent, in both your stories, novels, essays, or whatever you write and in your career and marketing. Is there an area where you excel or one where you struggle? Please let me know in the comments. Plus, if you have any questions in this area, please also leave them in the comments, and I will answer them in following posts.

Here's to being consistent in an area of our lives we can control--our writing! 

Margo L. Dill is a writer, editor, and writing coach and instructor, living in St. Louis, MO, with her nine-year-old daughter and her one-year-old lab mix dog, Sudsi. To take Margo's next novel writing course, go here and sign up before June 5! She will help you be consistent when writing your novel or memoir. 

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3 comments author branding, consistency series, editing, fiction novel, Margo L. Dill, marketing, Memoir writing, novel writing, revising, writing fiction

It Started With a Link

I was writing a piece about an author and looking for information; oddly, I couldn’t find an author website so I was zipping around when I remembered one of my favorite resources. And there it was: the author website! So I clicked on it.

It was not the author. It could have been an author, I suppose. The woman was lovely, what I saw of her, but the suggestion that I might want to contact her for the date of my dreams made me think her profession was something besides writing.

Of course I contacted the admin of the resource website to let him know about the link. We both knew that the author had let her website domain expire and someone had pounced on it, knowing that a popular name would get plenty of clicks. It’s a despicable practice made worse by the fact that this was a children’s author and that the clicks could be from kids.

On the other hand, it would take some serious searching to find this website; it clearly hadn’t been used by the author for some time. And to be fair, the resource could have done a little due diligence, checking links occasionally to make sure that they went to where they purported to go.

So, dear writers, we come to Lesson One: Check Your Links regularly.

And you don’t have to knock me over the head with a semi-nude person to get me over to my own website to check links. (Though technically, it was exactly that link that gave me the necessary push to do something I’d been meaning to do for…oh, about three years.)

Anyway, the point is, I headed over to Cathy C. Hall and before I even checked one link, I had a brilliant idea. Namely, that I really did need to make just one or two small changes that I’d been planning for…oh, about a year and a half. Specifically, I thought I needed to make my branding a bit clearer.

So I thought, fine, I’ll just make a small change to my header. And play around a bit with modifying my landing page. And maybe just rearrange widgets on the sidebar. But then I slept on things and got up the next day and changed it all back.

Except now I had the branding bug and it wouldn’t let go. So I jumped in again and revised the header once more, and the sidebar got a few changes, too, because the widgets had to line up with the theme AND the branding revisions I’d made and whew! I was flat wore out but I felt like it was a job well done until I perused my tabs and thought those pages needed updating, too.

So I virtually dusted off the pages and got to work. And yes, I checked my links and a good thing, too, as one was in Chinese. It was supposed to be Chinese but it was the wrong Chinese link. I think. Bottom line, the pages were done and I’d come to Lesson Two: Once a job is first begun, never quit until it’s done. Be the labor large or small, do it well or not at all. Granted, I didn’t think up that lesson and I’ve had to learn it several times over the years. Including this past thirteen days.

So. I had just sighed with relief when I remembered my email signature.

Well, of course, it had to be changed, too, so that it would fit in with the new/old theme as well as the new and improved branding. And I probably don’t need to go into all that was involved with that task, but suffice it to say that the dog is not speaking to me.

So I hope we’ve all learned our lessons here; I know I have. Mostly that the next time I get an urge to check a link, I’m closing the laptop and taking a nap.

~Cathy C. Hall

Cathy C. Hall is always fishing for ideas, writing stories to catch readers! She's a children's author, freelance writer, blogger, speaker, and dog wrangler. (At least, that's what she's got slapped up on her website right now. But honestly, we all know she could start messing with things again. Probably tomorrow.)

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9 comments author branding, author website, Cathy C. Hall, email signature, website design

How to NOT Build an Author Brand: Learn From My Mistakes

A little over  a year ago, I wrote a version of this blog post for my writing friend, Shannon Yarbrough's blog, which by the way is a great blog full of writing advice, nutritional advice, funny posts, and more! Check it out here if you never have before. I've updated my post a bit and changed some things, as my opinion changes about this writing biz, but basically here it is: 

One of the biggest pieces of marketing advice out there is build a platform, grow an audience, and write in the same genre. Sure, people with several books, such as picture books or self-help, will decide to write romance and get a pen name. But generally, good, little authors write a young adult fantasy, and then they write a sequel or at least another young adult fantasy. It’s very smart.

But I did not do this.

Hopefully, there’s at least one other author out there besides me who likes to struggle through marketing and building an audience. If you are nodding your head, then please find me on Facebook, and let’s start our own private Facebook group, where we can complain and whine together. We can call our group: "Authors who like to make the hardest business in the world even harder."

Seriously, what happened to me?

Before I had any idea what I was doing and before the explosion of the e-book and self-publishing world, way back in 2000, I took a correspondence course where lessons were actually snail-mailed to me, and I wrote Finding My Place: One Girl’s Strength in Vicksburg. This is the novel I always wanted to write for kids in upper elementary grades to read at school and home. It took three-plus years to write because I taught full time and had no idea what I was doing. Then it took three more years to revise it and figure out what to do with it. That was 2006, still the dark ages considering where self-publishing and e-books are today.

This book was freaking hard to write. Historical fiction is the most difficult thing I’ve ever tackled, and I thought the whole experience might kill me. (Especially when I signed my contract, did my revisions, and then my publishing company almost went out of business. . .) But alas finally, in 2012, I held my book in my little hands and had a party.

But what happened between 2006 and 2012? I wrote other books, of course, but I vowed to never ever write another historical fiction for kids. The whole experience, as I mentioned, almost killed me. So, I wrote a few picture books and a contemporary YA, and I started to pursue publication with a couple of these manuscripts. Lo and behold—I was offered two contracts—one on the contemporary YA and one on a cute, humorous picture book.

Do you see where this is going? I know what you are thinking: Margo, you have no platform or consistency.

I KNOW! But luckily, I have great writing friends who did things correctly, such as my publisher, Robin Tidwell. One day she said, “Just try to look at what all your books have in common. They all have girls as the main character.”

She was really trying to help me! But yes, I went with it. They do all have girls as the main characters, and in each one, the girls are smart and funny, kind and bull-headed. Then, one day, in the comfort of my living room, I came up with this tagline to try and pull all this together:

Be Unique. Be Strong. Be Yourself.

Not only does it encompass my books, but it also says a lot about me and my personality.

The lesson here for me? I have to work with what I have. I’m proud of my books. I love talking to kids and teens, and because I have such a wide range of audiences, I am more versatile when it comes to speaking—there’s probably something I have for any age of kid or grandkid you have. (hint, hint)

Now I have to figure out what to write next since I've been in a slump. I have a middle-grade mystery ready to go and another humorous picture book almost ready. I also want to do a blog where I am writing about life issues, trying to reflect on some things I learned this last year going through a divorce. So, we will see what the future brings.

I would also love to hear about how you created a platform--either the right way or the wrong way!

Check out more about Margo Dill on her website.
Photo of tools by Dylan Foley on Flickr.com.

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10 comments author branding, author platform, children's author, Margo L. Dill

Authorpreneur: How to Build a Business Around Your Book by Nina Amir - Mini Review Tour

& giveaway contest!

Don't give up your day job. At times, it seems like the mantra of writers. Of course we all dream of abandoning the 9 to 5 to immerse ourselves in a world of words. But is it possible? Does that world exist for people other than James Patterson, Sue Grafton and a few elite others?

Nina Amir not only believes that world exists but she wants to give everyone a map to help them find that world. Authorpreneur: How to Build a Business Around Your Book explains how, if you want to earn a living as an author, you have to think beyond the book. Not only that, think like someone who is more than an author. Think like an entrepreneur.

Ebook: 85 pages
Publisher: Pure Spirit Creations (October 22, 2014)
ASIN: B00OT67PPO
Twitter hashtag: #NinaAmir

Authorpreneur: How to Build a Business Around Your Book  is available as an ebook at Amazon and Smashwords.

Book Giveaway Contest:

To win a copy of Authorpreneur, please enter using the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post. The giveaway contest closes this Tuesday, February 10 at 12:00 AM EST. We will announce the winner the same day in the Rafflecopter widget. Good luck!

About the Author:

Nina Amir, author of How to Blog a Book, The Author Training Manual, and 10 Days and 10 Ways to Return to Your Best Self, transforms writers into inspired, successful authors, authorpreneurs and blogpreneurs as an Inspiration to Creation Coach. She moves her clients from ideas to finished books as well as to careers as authors by helping them combine their passion and purpose so they create products that positively and meaningfully impact the world. She writes four blogs, self-published 12 books and founded National Nonfiction Writing Month, aka the Write Nonfiction in November Challenge.

Amir holds a BA in magazine journalism with a concentration in psychology, has edited or written for more than 45 publications producing hundreds of articles and had her work published in five anthologies. She has self-published nine short books, including the popular workbook How to Evaluate Your Book for Success and 10 Days and 10 Ways to Return to Your Best Self. She is the former writing and publishing expert on the popular radio show, Dresser After Dark, hosted by Michael Ray Dresser, which has approximately 80,000 listeners per month. Amir also speaks and writes about self-improvement, human potential, and practical spirituality.

Find out more about the author by visiting her online:

Author website: www.ninaamir.com

Blogs: www.writenonfictionnow.com and www.howtoblogabook.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ninaamir

Facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationToCreation and www.facebook.com/ninaamir

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ninaamir

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ninaamir

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NinaAmir/

BOOK REVIEW: AUTHORPRENEUR

Review by Jodi Webb

I am good with words. I am not good with numbers, money, business plans. I suspect in that way I am similar to many writers. Nina Amir's book Authorpreneur: How to Build a Business Around Your Book addresses that shortcoming in many writers by providing a step by step map to transforming a book into a business that provides an author many opportunities to earn.

When I say "step by step" I am not exaggerating. Amir will provide an idea such as webinar. From there she will provide you with the names of several platforms you can use to set up webinars along with the positives and negatives of each platform. Then she provides both creative and technical directions on how to produce a webinar: how to transform your book/knowledge into a webinar and tips on technical issues such as when to hold a webinar, producing online registration pages, etc. I was amazed by just how much information was in this 85 page ebook! Even if you just adopt one of the ideas Amir provides you will be getting your money's worth. But don't think this book is all about online opportunities. Amir provides the same detailed attention to things just as speaking engagements and creating mini-books.

On the surface, this book lends itself more to nonfiction writing but with some adaption fiction or memoir writers will find information they can use. It will definitely have you evaluating your book in a new way. I recommend that all writers read Authorpreneur: How to Build a Business Around Your Book and see where Amir's ideas will lead them.


----------Reviews and Giveaway of Authorpreneur

Wednesday, February 4 (today!) @ The Muffin
http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/

Thursday, February 12 @ The Lit Ladies
http://www.thelitladies.com

Tuesday, February 17 @ Writer’s Bucket List
http://www.writersbucketlist.com/blog/

Friday, February 20 @ One Writer's Journey
https://suebe.wordpress.com

Tuesday, February 24 @ Writing and Fishing
http://c-c-hall.com/

Wednesday, February 25 @ Lily Iona Mackenzie
http;//lilyionamackenzie.wordpress.com

Friday, February 27 @ Renee’s Pages
http://www.reneespages.blogspot.com/

To view all our touring authors, check out our Events Calendar. Keep up with blog stops and giveaways in real time by following us on Twitter @WOWBlogTour.

Get Involved!
If you have a website or blog and would like to host one of our touring  authors or schedule a tour of your own, please email us at blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com.

*****BOOK GIVEAWAY CONTEST*****

Enter to win a copy of Authorpreneur! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. We will announce the winner in the Rafflecopter widget on Tuesday, February 10.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck!

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4 comments author branding, Authorpreneur, book marketing, business, giveaway, Nina Amir, review, writing advice

Friday Speak Out!: You Oughtta Write a Book! (Part 3 – The Importance of Social Media in Helping Your Book Get “Found”)

by Heather Heyford

Chances are, when you get published the first time, it will be digitally. You’ll want to develop an on-line personality, aka brand, well ahead of time. Check out my website, HeatherHeyford.com facebook page https://www.facebook.com/heatherheyford1 and Pinterest boards http://www.pinterest.com/Romance_Writer/ and you’ll see I that use the same head shot and color of blue across all my platforms. Once you have established your brand, choose two or three platforms—starting with your own website, because this will become your home base for your book sales—and apply it universally.

Regardless of the path to publishing you choose, selecting a few social media platforms to be active on is an integral part of promoting yourself and your books. A sampling of some of the most common platforms as of today are facebook, twitter, Pinterest, goodreads, instagram, and youtube. But keep abreast of trends—new platforms are born all the time.

Develop a set of rules you can live with, such as never posting after drinking, never engaging in mouth battles, and never responding to negative reviews. The key to presenting a good image to the reading public is to be personable, not personal. If engaging in political or controversial subjects, only do it as part of your brand. Speaking for myself, I try to always be upbeat and entertaining in my posts. There’s enough negativity in the world, right? Others try to post helpful hints or pictures of the setting of their writing, eg., Scotland or the wine country.

It’s also important to genuinely interact with others instead of merely posting original comments all the time. Commiserate with others’ troubles and congratulate them on their successes.

A very famous author once said: The difference between being unpublished and published is one second. Like anything else, the more you use social media, the better you get at it. You can never be ready enough for the day your book becomes a reality.

Following is a list of books that helped me tremendously, both before and after I published. Best of luck with your writing career!

Recommended Reading

The craft of writing:

• Writing 21st Century Fiction—High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling by Donald Maass
• Break Into Fiction: 11 Steps to Building a Story that Sells by Mary Buckham and Dianna Love
• Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass
• Hooked by Les Edgerton
• The Making of a Story by Alice LaPlant

Maximizing the use of social media:

• Rise of the Machine by Kristin Lamb

(Note: You can read "You Oughtta Write a Book! Part 1— Discover Your Style of Writing" here and "You Oughtta Write a Book! Part 2- The Digital Revolution  Or, There’s More than One Way to Skin a Cat"here.)

* * *

Heather Heyford is the author of Wine Heiresses Series: A Taste of Chardonnay,  A Taste of Merlot, A Taste of Sauvignon, and A Taste of Sake, from Kensington Publishing. She is represented by The Nancy Yost Literary Agency. Visit her at HeatherHeyford.com, https://www.facebook.com/heatherheyford1 and http://www.pinterest.com/Romance_Writer/.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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1 comment author branding, author platforms, author promotion, Friday Speak Out, Heather Heyford, online personality, social media

4 Smart Things Writers Can Learn from Weird Al Yankovic!

by Jennifer Brown Banks

Since the 1970’s, Weird Al Yankovic has entertained and amused audiences around the world with his over-the top wardrobe, animated gyrations, and widely viewed videos that parodied famous folks in pop culture. (Not to mention his eerie likeness to singer Tiny Tim.)

Some of us dismissed Al as a passing fad, a celebrity wannabe, or someone to be laughed AT instead of laughed with. He was “out of the box” and in our faces.
And well…weird.

Fast forward--it’s thirty years later, and he’s “laughing all the way to the bank,” with a new album and a new generation of followers. And he did it his way; without compromise or apology.

Here’s what his unexpected success and staying power in the entertainment industry can teach us as creative artists.

1. Being different can be bodacious and beneficial!

Far too often, many of us try to emulate the style, approach, or “voice” of popular bloggers and writers hoping to achieve their levels of success and income levels.
Big mistake. What we realize in the process is that the best we can hope for is to be the best of who we are. It’s much easier, has a shorter learning curve, and is more gratifying in the end. As a wise man once said: “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

2. Humor is a commodity.

Whether it’s incorporated in a song, a poem, a blog post, or a personal essay, humor helps people to relate to the oddities of life, and provides comic release from horrific events we are exposed to from the daily news. When applicable apply. Remember to keep it tasteful.

3. Consistency is crucial to branding.

Though Weird Al has worn many hats in his decades of being a performer, (singer, writer, actor, accordion player), he never deviates from his silly interpretations of popular music icons and those we idolize. He found a “gimmick” that worked for him and stayed with it.
Which gives us something to consider. In a sea of many, what makes your writer’s “voice” stand out as unique or worth remembering? How would others describe your “brand?” Are you consistent in your marketing message?

4. Avoid “word crimes” at all cost.

Al’s new video “Word Crimes” alerts us to some common errors we should all avoid, if we want to avoid being penalized in the “court of public opinion.” Offenses like choosing the wrong homophone, confusing contractions with possessive nouns, and using words all helter-skelter.

Though silly he may be, Weird Al provides some serious lessons on how to be a successful artist and how to keep dancing through career challenges and critics.

Check out “Word Crimes” and take note.



* * *

Jennifer Brown Banks is an award-winning blogger, ghost writer, and relationship columnist. Visit her “Top 25” site for writers at http://Penandprosper.blogspot.com/
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

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8 comments author branding, Friday Speak Out, humor, Jennifer Brown Banks, Weird Al Yankovic, word crimes

Branding YOU!

I suppose if you are planning on writing one thing you should probably stop reading right now. However, if you are planning on writing several books, blog posts, articles, etc…you should carefully plan your branding. If you have a single book and it’s called: Barefoot After Midnight and you don’t plan on writing anything else (including blog posts or informational articles) you would name your website barefootaftermidnight.com; but in reality, most of us write all sorts of things so branding one article, one blog, or one book is short sighted. Readers should be able to google our name and come up with all sorts of ways to get in touch as well as ways to read what we’ve written or purchase our published works.

One of my dear friends, Bette Lee Crosby, has many published works. When you google her name, you’ll find scads of results…of course querying by the name of any one of her books will also yield results, but you don’t need to remember the exact title of her book because you’ll find it just by looking her up by name. Notice that the name of her website is NOT the name of her first book—it is her name. Similarly, you’ll find Bette on Facebook under Author, Bette Lee Crosby and it’s easy enough to find without even typing her last name—just Bette Lee is enough to bring her up using the search bar.

Careful planning goes into branding yourself. You could just toss up a website and start a Facebook page, but there’s a bit more to branding. If you were branding a product or company, you might use a carefully designed logo. In the scenario where you are branding YOU, it is recommended that you use a headshot. When I was branding my business, I met with other business owners and discussed my logo and my headshot. At that time, my photograph was nicely done (yes, professionally) but I was wearing something that said “now here’s a serious business owner who probably enjoys golf” and for those of you who know me, I’m not serious, you’d never assume I owned a business, and mini golf is as close as I like to get to golfing. Make sure everything you are using to market yourself fits in with your brand. The best way to do this is to answer the following questions:

What message am I trying to convey?/How do I want to be perceived? (this is really one in the same because the perception is more important than your actual intention—so be sure to get a second opinion)
• If I want people to know that I’m funny and easy going I might want to wear a funky necklace in my headshot and I would definitely want to be wearing a smile. If I am publishing a series of self-help books I might want to look confident and self-assured yet very professional and a funky necklace would not be a good fit.

Who is my target audience?
• People will say to me “I want to have 1,000 followers on Twitter” and yet they’ve only tweeted a handful of times. Know who your target audience is and get involved with what they are involved in. If you are checking your Facebook page once each week you will never have or engage a large enough audience to make a dent in your target market.

How can I personalize things?
• Maybe it’s a fun picture of you and your family, a funny story included in your biography, and funky looking background on your web page. If you let people know a little about you they’ll be more attracted to you. I’ve read plenty of books that didn’t appeal to my tastes, just because the author was really cool. Turns out I ended up loving the book…so be yourself and have fun. Not everyone is going to love what you have to say but if you can draw most of them in they’ll be more open to your ideas because they’ll like you.

There’s obviously more to marketing and branding than I could fit into this post, but I’m hoping some of these thoughts and ideas will get you thinking. For those of you who already have websites, social media, goodreads pages, etc… what do you feel you did great and wouldn’t change? What do you wish you had done differently? What pearls of wisdom can you pass on to others?

For those of you who have not worked on your marketing or branding yet, what’s the biggest thing stopping you? What would you like to ask someone who has been successful in their branding?

Everyone – please feel free to share your favorite author page, blog, etc… and we can take a look at what’s working and what’s not? (and yes, if you like your own, go ahead and share)

Crystal J. Casavant-Otto is a church musician, business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Reedsville, Wisconsin with her husband, two young children (Carmen 6 and Andre 5), three dogs, two rabbits, four little piggies, and over 200 Holsteins. Crystal and her husband, Mark, are expecting another son at the end of September. You can find Crystal blogging at: http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/

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2 comments author branding, author marketing, author website, book marketing, branding ideas, marketing ideas, marketing ideas for authors