Finding a title for your bok, Naming your manuscript

How do writers find titles for their books?

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yewa

Finding the right title for one’s book is important. Readers will pick up a book for the cover or will be intrigued by a title of the book. I been fortunate that people have named my books for me. I know, not fair. Right? Maybe fortunate is not the right word. Perhaps blessed is the better term.

The reason I am thinking of this topic is the third book in my Jasper series is close to being done. Once that is done I will let my editor work her magic over it before sending it over to my publishers. Only I don’t have a title for it yet. I have not even given it a second thought let alone taking the time to sit back and mull this over. I am not one to have a working title when I start a new piece. Some authors are like that while others know soon what the moniker will be.

So the question I have is to those who have titled their books how do you go about doing this? Are there steps you go through for the process? Is it blind luck? Or do you get help like I do? One would think after all this time I would be able to do this without much headache but I suspect if I am left on my own devices it will be just that, a headache.

Maintaining your brand, Social Platform

Keeping your social platform updated

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2013-02-04 08.49.23

Once you have started working on your platform do you keep it updated? The last few weeks I been going over my platform making sure my links are working, my list of books is updated and so forth to make sure it is as current as possible. Doing this daily for a few weeks has slowed me down but I found out how much I had let things go.

It had been a while since I had done this. What I found was links that were not working and my list of books didn’t showcase all that I had written. Stuff like this can make a viewer go to another page and not return to your business. I am like that also.

It is not fun and takes some time to keep one’s platform current but it is needed. Getting it started is one part of the work. Maintaining it is another. And when you start on your platform off don’t do like me. At first I went to just about every site that was out there determined to make my mark through that social media. What I got instead was frustration, becoming tired and putting up weak material. To keep that all up can drive a person crazy.

Not all platforms will work for you, choose the ones that do. When you do get your brand online started, maintain it. Three or four well done social media sites is way better then 10 poorly ones.

Social Media, Social platform for writers

Do you have a social platform?

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index

Do you consider your writing a business? If so do you have a social platform to go with it? Is it important to you to start one?

I feel it is. Why this topic for the week? I have quite a few writer friends who don’t have one, feel they should but haven’t started or feel it is not needed. For years I would harp to them about social media and why I felt it was important for us as writers. It fell on deaf ears. I even offered to show them for free what I had learned and that also fell on deaf ears.

When I first started my platform I had just finished the first draft of my first book. I had read an article in Writer’s Digest where the author stated the importance of a platform. She left her Twitter handle for us to follow. I did. That was the bread crumb that got me on my way.

Since then I have given a couple of workshops on creating an author’s platform and I am due to give another one in a couple of months. Thanks to my platform I met my two current publishers, editor and graphic artist. Through my platform I have had submission editors helped me with my query letter to submit to publishers. When you have a sea of people in these groups it can be scary to reach out or know where to reach out.

All of these came through due to my platform I started. By the way it was all free. My brand is what I work on and what better way then social media? Use what works for you, there are enough different outlets to choose from just toss what doesn’t.

It took you a long time to write your book, edit and revise it and get it in tip-top shape. Don’t you want to help it move alone or would you rather it just sit on your computer?

The Musings of A New Englander