More Websites and Links for Book worms, Bloggers and Writers

 

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Soon, on Tuesday 5th of May, there is to be a Writers’ resources evening at Cambridge Writers,  the group that I am a member of, so with this in mind, I thought I would do a little warm up, and type up some helpful website links for Writers, Bloggers and Book Worms.

http://www.cambridgewriters.net/

I have been gathering the details of this list for some time so hope that it will be a useful resource.

So to kick it off my first discovery was Wasafari, who are they you might ask?
“Wasafiri is Britain’s premier magazine for international contemporary writing. Published quarterly, it has established a distinctive reputation for promoting work by new and established voices across the globe.”

 

Book review/Bookish sites:

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Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com/

Bookbridgr http://www.bookbridgr.com/

and Lovereading.co.uk http://www.lovereading.co.uk/

Read books for free: https://storycartel.com/search

 

Author’s resources:

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Tips for authors on how to make book trailers: https://effrosinimoss.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/tips-for-authors-book-trailer-made-easy/

Tips on writing book blurbs, they may be short but it doesn’t mean they’re easy to write!  http://www.terrytyler59.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/book-blurbs-as-hard-as-writing-book.tml

How to protect yourself – editing clauses in publishing contracts. http://accrispin.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/editing-clauses-in-publishing-contracts.html

Features written by or about female writers.https://thewritesofwoman.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/in-the-media-25th-january-1st-february-2015/

Excellent website for all writerly things including author/agent interviews, writing, and self-editing advice: talltalesandshortstories.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/agent-interview-jenny-savill-at-andrew.html

“A new home for your short fiction.” http://inkins.com/

http://irenewaters19.com/2015/03/24/99-word-flash-fiction/

http://alanamunroauthor.com/about  runs support a writer on google.

 

Writers links via no wasted ink. http://nowastedink.com/2015/03/02/no-wasted-ink-writers-links-161/

https://tycobbsteeth.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/book-marketing-tools-1/

“World Literary Cafe is  a multi-faceted community that promotes everyone in the literary realm, from readers to authors, editors, reviewers, and author services.” http://worldliterarycafe.com/content/support-wlc-authors

A book about writing, funding, crowd-sourcing, editing, sales, file conversion, guerrilla marketing, social media, blogging, and reviewers via Jan Moran writes. http://www.janmoranwrites.com/2012/12/30/book-review-ape-by-guy-kawasaki-and-shawn-welch-for-authors-publishers-and-entrepreneurs/

https://awomanswisdom.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/just-finished-writing-your-first-book-dont-publish-it-yet/

 

Copyright infringement

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Copyright infringement. http://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/2015/03/03/congratulations-authors-one-battle-won-against-copyright-infringement-update/

 

Writer’s advisory services

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There are a lot out there but which to recommend? I’ve heard good things about these two:

Hilary Johnson Authors Advisory service  http://www.hilaryjohnson.com/index.html

Cornerstones who have their very own publishing house http://threeharespublishing.com/#latest-work, and have written a self help guide, Write a blockbuster and get it published, authored jointly by Helen Corner and Lee Weatherly, “it offers not simply a guide to writing a novel, but an introduction to writing a plot-based, action-focused blockbuster.” http://cornerstones.co.uk/

 

Poetry Enthusiasts:

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I’ve just recently rediscovered my love of poetry and with this in mind I would highly recommend joining in with Ron’s Weekly Haiku prompt challenge. It’s fun, and gets the old creative juices flowing on a weekly basis and that can only be a good thing! Ron has an excellent blog overflowing with all sorts of interesting articles so he’s certainly one to follow.

Haiku prompt challenge: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/category/haiku-prompt-challenge/

Wikihow to write a Haiku poem. http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Haiku-Poem

What is Haiku, and how to write it. http://toyomasu.com/haiku/

Here’s his helpful link about merging blogs: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/how-merge-blogs/

Artists and Illustrators:

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Chihuly Glass pixabay.com

 

Marketing resources for artists. http://artistmarketingresources.com/about/

Using Corel suite instead of Adobe for illustrators: http://oreosandspiltmilk.com/2015/02/17/food-illustration-ramen/

 

Finding Agents and Publishers

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Switch your torch light on, don your spy costume, now on to the nasty business of finding agents, and publishers. This is when life becomes complicated, the writing is easy in comparison, I know I’m in this process and it seems to be a never ending slog of decisions, (which is utterly painful for someone like me who tends to be indecisive,) waiting, trying again, waiting. So with that in mind here are some resources to help my fellow wannabe authors out there who may be struggling like me to find a publisher or an agent. Never fear, help is at hand. Good luck!

List of agents and editors.

https://loutreleaven.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/uk-literary-agents-for-childrens-books/

https://loutreleaven.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/childrens-publishers-accepting-unsolicited-manuscripts/

https://mswlparagraph.wordpress.com/agents-editors/

The Writer’s and Artists’s Yearbook is a must have ISBN 9781408192450. They have an excellent site: https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/ 

Another way to approach agents is to meet them in person. There are many events which are organised with this in mind, conferences, workshops and talks are all good opportunities to meet agents and tell them about your story, so have a look for those – locally in the UK there is the Norwich Writers Centre http://www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk/ and plenty will come up from a google search on the internet.

SCBWI do some, too.  Who are SCBWI?  They are The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators: https://www.scbwi.org/ The Writers and Artists also hold events: https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/events, the next hook an agent event is in London, in June: https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/events/how-to-hook-an-agent-children-s-fiction

http://www.sharonbayliss.com/2012/04/list-of-publishers-seeking-submissions.html

How to pitch to publishers: http://www.karentyrrell.com/pitch-publishers/

http://www.davidficklingbooks.com/Submissions.php – David Fickling Books are opening up submissions in a competition type style event from May 5th to May 19th.

 

Self Publishing:

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Guide to self publishing and promoting, click on the tab on the top left section of author E. Rawls blog, there are all sorts of writing tips too as well as haikus, book reviews, blog hops, author interviews. https://rawlse.wordpress.com/

 

Marketing:

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http://www.derekhaines.ch/justpublishing/does-twitter-sell-ebooks/

Increase your blog traffic: http://www.molly-greene.com/increase-blog-traffic-subscribers-8-tips/ 

 

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How to gain Twitter followers by the thousands

A reblog must: Wonderful twitter tips and advice from Effrosyni Moschoudi.

Effrosyni's blog

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In the beginning of September I reached the eagerly awaited number of 10,000 Twitter followers. This important milestone was something I’d been expecting for months, since I’d been gaining new followers at a standard pace. Except for a short-lived dip in my performance that I mention at the very end of this post, I’d been gaining anywhere between 1,000-1,200 new followers per month.

Now, when it comes to Twitter, not everyone has the same strategy. Some people, including authors like me, prefer to use this social media platform to build a quiet, familiar community where every single contact is carefully chosen. I surely appreciate the benefits of such an approach, since it’s guaranteed a timeline where it’s easy to find things of interest, and you feel as least estranged as possible towards the stuff you read.

For me, the benefits of such a strategy end there. Actually, to me personally…

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Writing, Promoting and Publishing: Things I have Learnt

Reblog of Writing-Promoting and Publishing from Nicholas C. Rossis.

Nicholas C. Rossis

From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksThis post was inspired by the Writers’ Digest blog column 7 things I’ve learnt so far and written as a guest post for Fabulosity Reads. The column features various authors, who list 7 things they have learnt so far, regarding writing, editing, inspiration, promotion and marketing. Here are some of my favorite ones, along with my notes!

read out your dialogue

Dialogue can be such a challenge. Do it realistically, and everyone will be bored to tears:

“- Hi!

– Hey!

-‘What are you doing?

– Erm, nothing much… Just… Give me a moment to finish up what I was typing… Yes, that’s it. Sorry, you were saying?”

When I started writing, my dialogues just didn’t sound … human. They seemed out of place, vague and monotonous; every person sharing the same voice. Browne & King’s Self-editing for Fiction Writing gave me a handy tip: read out loud your dialogues and see how…

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Useful Marketing links for Authors, Bloggers, and Book Reviewers

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Some useful marketing sites which I thought I’d share with you.

Book Covers. Useful information about book covers. http://mmjayewrites.com/2014/11/21/time-saving-tips-for-using-stockphoto-sites-plus-casting-for-fate-accompli/

Authorama. Public domain free books: http://authorama.com/

Delicious is a free and easy tool to save, organize,
and discover interesting links on the web: https://delicious.com

Popular topic ideas for e-books:

Wordtracker. Reveal high performing keywords: http://www.wordtracker.com/

Google keywords toolbox: http://www.googlekeywordtool.com/

Click bank Performance marketing suite: http://www.clickbank.com/

Affiliate programs:

Useful for book reviewers who wish to participate in an affiliate program.

Amazon affiliate program: https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/

Apple affiliate program: https://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/

Barnes and Noble affiliate program: http://affiliates.barnesandnoble.com/

The site wizard. How to make money from your website: http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/makemoney.shtml

Google adsense: http://www.google.com/adsense/start/

Links to writing for Readers Digest, newspapers etc: https://esthernewtonblog.wordpress.com/markets-for-freelancers/

Good design tips for blogs: http://digitalhegemon.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/good-design/

How to build a media kit for authors: http://www.molly-greene.com/how-to-build-a-media-kit/

Spangaloo specialize in free and low cost publications for our distribution. Available in many formats like EPUB MOBI PDF as well as paper back editions.http://spangaloo.com/

Puzzleflip Twitter help. all your twitter info in the one place : http://puzzleflip.com/

Scrazzle Micro blogging at a new level 300 characters instead of 140 on Twitter: http://scrazzle.com/

Found the following link today via @TuiSnider on twitter.

Create your online newspaper in minutes. Authomatically find, publish & promote articles, photos and videos from across the web. http://paper.li/

Self publishing on paper. li: http://paper.li/TuiSnider/1389223255#!tag-selfpublishing

The Psychology of Colours in Marketing

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Today, I’ve decided to change the colour scheme on my blog a bit. I hope you like it, with that in mind here’s a share from the Fiverr blog, The Psychology of Colours in Marketing which I originally found on http://mmjayewrites.com/

Here’s the link: http://blog.fiverr.com/psychology-colors-marketing/?utm_source=nt_ct&utm_term=n516

Colour can have such a profound impact on us. So I hope you like my new colour theme? I’ve abandoned the Pink Dogwood, and, the possibility of the Forget-Me-Not blue, in favour of the exotic Tiger Lily.

 

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Pink Dogwood
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Forget-Me-Not

 

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Tiger Lily

A lily for your thoughts?

 

Digital Marketing The Possibilities Are Endless

 

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Recently I joined in the Futurelearn Digital Marketing Course. Why you might ask? Well, I figure that any help that I can get to help me get my book published has to be worth investigating. And,  I’m a bit of a perpetual student, I love learning!   I’m no expert, in fact I’m a bit of a novice, but here are some suggested links from the course and a few more that I found myself that I think may be of interest:

Free digital media guides to  create, manage, deliver and use digital media. http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guides

Temporary text hosting:

http://pastie.org/

http://notehub.org/

Learn how to be an authorpreneur! http://thefutureofink.com/authorpreneur/

‘Padlet Walls’  places to share media like images or text with other learners. http://padlet.com/

‘Welcome to the easiest way to create and collaborate in the world.’ Padlet is free to use, does not require you  create an account, and works on most devices including desktop, mobile and tablet.

Photos

 

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Learn about using photos on google plus. http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/photos/

‘Capture and Share the World’s Moments’:  http://instagram.com/#

‘Inspiring photography. Share and connect with the Flickr Community.Stunning photos made easy. All your pictures in one place.’: https://www.flickr.com/

https://www.dropbox.com/

“Easily share photos and videos right from the Dropbox website. Share a link to a single photo or an entire album you’ve created, such as for a special event. Anyone who receives the link can take a look, even if they don’t have a Dropbox account. “https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/498

‘Join Pinterest to find (and save) all of the things that inspire you.’ https://www.pinterest.com/

Pin interest basics: https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/add-edit-or-delete-pin#how’P

‘Your images have never looked better. Unlimited uploads. Unlimited space. Safeguard your high-res photos in the cloud.’  http://imageshack.us/

VIDEO

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No doubt we all know about youtube: https://www.youtube.com/

But, there is also Vimeo: Watch, upload, and share videos : https://vimeo.com/

Facebook and Google groups:

How to create a FB group: https://www.facebook.com/help/167970719931213/?q=how+to+create+a+page&sid=0OK4UtwGVxhISdfMo

‘You can use Google Groups to share information and interact with people who have your passion for a particular hobby, interest, or organization. And you can also share documents and send calendar invites to a group so you don’t have to list people individually.’ https://support.google.com/groups/answer/2464926?hl=en

‘You can use Google+ communities to find other people who share your passion for a particular hobby, interest or organisation. And if no-one’s started a community for what you care about, you can create your own.’ Creating a google + community: https://support.google.com/plus/answer/2872671?hl=en-GB

Facebook groups recommended by award winning author Dianne Harman http://dianneharman.com/blog/five-facebook-groups-i-recommend/

 

Or you may prefer LinkedIn. I tend to associate this one with business, but I suppose plenty authors, use it too.

https://www.linkedin.com/

Enterprise social network:

‘Yammer is a private social network that helps employees collaborate across departments, locations and business apps.’ : https://www.yammer.com/

 

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On-line conversation:

‘Neat Chat is the easiest and fastest way to have an online conversation with a group of friends or colleagues. No signups or software installs are required. You simply use a web browser to communicate via Neat Chat’. : http://www.neatchat.com/

‘Schedule. Manage. Measure’:

https://hootsuite.com/

Simon Fogg’s links:

Building Your Platform: Michael Hyatt: https://plus.google.com/+SimonFogg/posts/3QyY5HgwmNC

Podcast: “How to Write Web Copy That Sells”, Ray Edwards: https://plus.google.com/+SimonFogg/posts/HFQMigFwUS1

Storytelling Ads: Social Media is Sweet: A Hootsuite Story: https://plus.google.com/+SimonFogg/posts/eVpUcDdRXwF

“The 5 Elements of a Powerful, Personal Brand”, Michael Hyatt: https://plus.google.com/+SimonFogg/posts/NAMEGiFSuvN

 

 A couple of links I discovered via fellow Futurelearners:
 Amusing marketing approach by Ikea, found the link via Louise Hoffmann, fellow futurelearner : ‘Experience the power of a bookbook.’  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOXQo7nURs0

How are You Using LinkedIn as a Writer?

Great advice about using LINKEDIN for Writers. Reblogged from Savvy Book Writers

Savvy Writers & e-Books online

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It took me years until I finally engaged on LinkedIn.  The main reason was, I assumed only business people, job searchers and hiring executives are on this platform.  How wrong I was!  It is a fantastic tool for writers to connect in many groups, posting and participating there, learning from their peers and to publish articles or blog posts.  Only when I learned that almost 95 per cent of all editors and journalists are on LinkedIn, I finally got in full swing.
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Linkedin Infographic
Via: PowerFormula for Linkedin Success

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Wayne Breitbarth, successful author of the LINKEDIN BOOK: POWER FORMULA FOR LINKEDIN SUCCESS managed to get answers from over 900 LinkedIn users in a survey about their habits on this popular Social Media Networking site. The info graphic shown above is about his findings.
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Aimed at the experienced business professional who is either skeptical about LinkedIn or looking for…

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I Just Published my Book. Now What?

Excellent tips and advice from Nicholas C. Rossis about marketing self published books.

Nicholas C. Rossis

From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksFirst of all, congratulations! You’re now a published author – and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Second, you’d be amazed how often I hear that question in LinkedIn’s author groups. With some 3,000 new books published every day, I have serious doubts that you can just sit back and wait for readers to stumble on your book, or for word of mouth to work its magic. The chances of that happening are probably similar to that of winning the lottery, in which case you don’t even need the long hours and hard work that goes hand-in-hand with a career as an author (if you don’t believe me, you may want to check out this post by Pedro Barrento on Indies Unlimited).

So, what are the next steps after publication? Before I can answer that, I need to ask one question of my own first: is this your first book? You see…

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