Tag Archives: Writers Resources

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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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?

Editing your work, Editors for authors, Writing resources

Editors: Do you have one?

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Years before I started writing I knew virtually nothing, if anything, about the craft. Yes I knew how to write but where to go from there? My English when it comes to grammar, run off sentences, prepositions, dangling participles and past tenses might as well be a foreign language to me. If you are like me then a good editor is absolutely needed. But what kind of editor do you need?

Editors ranges from content to copy to line editor. You also have your proof reader, critique partner and beta reader to boot to think about. There is also your developmental part which is what I do.

Who you choose all depends at what stage of your book you are at. Editors can be pricey but after working so hard on your manuscript do you want to leave it to chance you got every single thing right?

I know my line editor is awesome. I have had a few publishers comment on my manuscript noting how professionally it was edited. That is all her and no one but her.

Will you need more than one editor? If you can afford to then do so. You need to get your work in the best possible shape you can get it in before you start submitting for publication. Publishers get thousands and thousands of mail from writers. One good way for them to toss it in the slush pile is for it not being properly edited.

Even if you self publish, all it takes is for a few readers to read your works and rate it low due to the edits. Do enough books like this and readers will notice. You still need a editor regardless how you publish your writings.

Not sure where to start? Ask other writers. If you are part of a writing group ask the members in there. Look online,check out websites that are designed to help you to find an editor of any kind. But take the time to do this. Your work took you a long time to complete, why short change it now that it is ready to shine? This is not an area you short change yourself.