I'm a little bit of a gadget person - just a little bit. Still I never expected I would be so shaken by a change in my cell phone.
Remember how I wanted to wait for Blackberry to get their act together? Well, I couldn't. I couldn't because my battery was expanding and not holding a charge. In short, if I waited until a company decided to release their latest and greatest, I could have had acid burns on my cheek from my phone exploding.
Not ideal.
It helped that my husband's phone was some crazy Chinese knock-off that refused to stand up to his regular abuse (His pants and his phones last half as long as other people's - I swear!). So we both got new phones.
Because I have crazy personal goals that require a revamp of my social media presence, I started downloading apps that I hadn't even dreamed of.
I finally committed to Hootesuite, which has been somewhat of an improvement, though if I had the money to pay for the service, I think it would be better. But beyond the expected, I also downloaded Sparksfly, Konnect Social, and ShoutOMatic.
So far, Sparksfly has upped the ease of engaging with my Tweeps (though not as much with Facebook...). I've done more retweeting in the last few days than I have done in a 48 hour period EVER. I started to fool around with Konnect Social, but I have yet to really dive into the possibilities with this app. The possibilities do appeal, especially because I want to engage more with people who will be interested in my content (duh! Who doesn't?!). ShoutOMatic seems really cool and would help me put up greater variety of content, but again, I have yet to use it. Often times I have a sleeping baby around when I have time (like right now) and trying to fool with extra sounds doesn't seem like a good idea.
This is just the beginning.
I've started taking videos of related things and am looking forward to revisiting my YouTube account and creating a few channels (one per blog?). This is in part because of some super easy video editing apps that I can put on my phone, as well as the GoPro and my husband's amazing tech skills. I'm both anxious and excited about these prospects.
And I wouldn't have ventured down this crazy path without my new phone. While it's not the new hotness, it is enough of a change from my previous phone that the improvement is marked. The possibilities have grown exponentially. Doors have opened.
I'm a kid in a candy shop.
Come stuff your face with me. It's amazing.
What are some social media apps that have changed your online life? What are some tech gadgets that opened doors for you? Leave a comment below!
Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
The 2014 Master Writer Plan Part 1: Process & Publication
By divine intervention I came across an action plan for promoting indie books and developing a platform. It was a hallelujah moment for me. This was the thing I've been looking for! These were the questions I needed to ask myself! Finally! Someone had put together some actionable steps for me to pursue one by one in order to get the word out about my beloved creations!
As you may have guessed, my strong suit is promotion. :-D
So of course I devoured the information and quickly realized it raised more questions than it answered.
Not only did I realize how lacking my knowledge was of social media campaigns, I also realized how incredibly scatter-shot and scatterbrained my attempts had been. I was operating with the whole, "throw everything at it and something will stick" mentality. I've known I needed to change my approach, but I just wasn't sure how to go about doing it.
Well, I started going through the questions this site asked. Then I asked more questions of myself. Then I brainstormed. Then I asked other people these questions. Then I brainstormed some more. Then I prioritized based on expected ease and projected impact of these various actions. Then I made a list.
All along I said I wanted to publish 7 more books this year (and pretty much every year after as long as I am writing) but I wasn't sure how I could do it. While there are specific actionable parts of promotion that need to be thought through, I also needed to get clear about how I could break down my word counts in the time left of this year in order to reach my goal.
As my husband says, each new book promotes every previous book. That's the beauty of having a collection published.
In an effort to ensure my success with my publishing goal (and subsequent promo overhaul) I needed to make sure my word counts were reasonable and that I was giving myself enough time to edit, proof, format, and publish each manuscript.
I needed to not only break down things into daily goals, but also weekly and monthly across the different aspects of publishing (cover design etc).
The result is the following:
These are separate from any promotion work I do - including blog posts, Twitter, Facebook, videos, podcasts, etc. I'm not exactly sure how the promotion goals are going to fit into my days because I'm not exactly sure how much time I want to devote to each thing and what those things will be. I think initially there's going to be a lot of time spent on cleaning things up (which will be a real pain and may take the place of some of the other writing/publishing goals in various months).
I plan to detail my efforts in my publishing goal for 2014 as well as my promotional goals. I hope others will find the process enlightening and helpful, especially for those who were/are as clueless as I have been. That said, I'd better get writing!
As you may have guessed, my strong suit is promotion. :-D
So of course I devoured the information and quickly realized it raised more questions than it answered.
Not only did I realize how lacking my knowledge was of social media campaigns, I also realized how incredibly scatter-shot and scatterbrained my attempts had been. I was operating with the whole, "throw everything at it and something will stick" mentality. I've known I needed to change my approach, but I just wasn't sure how to go about doing it.
Well, I started going through the questions this site asked. Then I asked more questions of myself. Then I brainstormed. Then I asked other people these questions. Then I brainstormed some more. Then I prioritized based on expected ease and projected impact of these various actions. Then I made a list.
All along I said I wanted to publish 7 more books this year (and pretty much every year after as long as I am writing) but I wasn't sure how I could do it. While there are specific actionable parts of promotion that need to be thought through, I also needed to get clear about how I could break down my word counts in the time left of this year in order to reach my goal.
As my husband says, each new book promotes every previous book. That's the beauty of having a collection published.
In an effort to ensure my success with my publishing goal (and subsequent promo overhaul) I needed to make sure my word counts were reasonable and that I was giving myself enough time to edit, proof, format, and publish each manuscript.
I needed to not only break down things into daily goals, but also weekly and monthly across the different aspects of publishing (cover design etc).
The result is the following:
- Monthly word count goal: 31,000 words
- Weekly word count goal: 7350 words
- Daily word count goal: 1050 words
- Monthly editing goal: 1 book
- Monthly publishing goal: 1 book
- Monthly cover goal: 1 cover
These are separate from any promotion work I do - including blog posts, Twitter, Facebook, videos, podcasts, etc. I'm not exactly sure how the promotion goals are going to fit into my days because I'm not exactly sure how much time I want to devote to each thing and what those things will be. I think initially there's going to be a lot of time spent on cleaning things up (which will be a real pain and may take the place of some of the other writing/publishing goals in various months).
I plan to detail my efforts in my publishing goal for 2014 as well as my promotional goals. I hope others will find the process enlightening and helpful, especially for those who were/are as clueless as I have been. That said, I'd better get writing!
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Pre-Holiday Artist/Writer Mania
It's been a busy time what with having a broken power supply for my laptop, making Christmas gifts, reading up on success, and taking care of kiddo. I'm in the middle of a bunch of things that I'm planning on making available to my readers etc:
Oh, and in case I don't get back here in time...for everyone who believes, have a fabulous holiday next week! :-)
- I'm thinking about putting up some videos with pronunciation keys for my books to make it easier to negotiate the crazy Gaelic names (yes? Yay or nay?).
- I'm still working on my short story that I hope will be available by Christmas. Tip for Khloe fans: It will include the exact wording of the Lilith prophecy!
- I'm also writing some songs... in a variety of styles.
- And in case that wasn't enough, there's always Book 4...
- and there's also the other short stories/tidbits I'm going to put into a book for Khloe fans who want all the different side and back stories.
Oh, and in case I don't get back here in time...for everyone who believes, have a fabulous holiday next week! :-)
Monday, December 2, 2013
Videos for Writers
Christian and I did something a little crazy. We bought a video camera. And what do we hope to accomplish with our new HD super ballistic special fantastic camera? Well, record things of course!
Specifically, Christian is planning on doing some motorcycle related recording, but I'm get to do a few things that are very different, and very exciting.
The first thing is I get to record the baby (and will probably put properly edited videos on my Raising an Alien blog). Seeing as I was never recorded as a child, this is a kind of exciting thing to be able to do for my kid.
The second thing is I'll get to record a few trailer type deals for my books. I'm hoping to have interview questions or something for each series/novel etc. The videos may be short segments - like one question per video - or they may end up being longer bits. I'm not sure. It's going to depend on many things, including my make-up stash (I mean, let's be realistic - I'm over 30 and female. I can't go out without putting a little bit of face on!) to be perfectly honest.
Regardless of how the videos turn out or what form they take, I'm excited about this new way for readers to interact with me (even though it may take some time for anything to get posted). Be patient, cross your fingers, and keep your eyes peeled!
If you have suggestions or preferences for the kinds of videos I put up please comment below or mention me on Twitter or comment on my Facebook page. I'd love some outside input!
Specifically, Christian is planning on doing some motorcycle related recording, but I'm get to do a few things that are very different, and very exciting.
The first thing is I get to record the baby (and will probably put properly edited videos on my Raising an Alien blog). Seeing as I was never recorded as a child, this is a kind of exciting thing to be able to do for my kid.
The second thing is I'll get to record a few trailer type deals for my books. I'm hoping to have interview questions or something for each series/novel etc. The videos may be short segments - like one question per video - or they may end up being longer bits. I'm not sure. It's going to depend on many things, including my make-up stash (I mean, let's be realistic - I'm over 30 and female. I can't go out without putting a little bit of face on!) to be perfectly honest.
Regardless of how the videos turn out or what form they take, I'm excited about this new way for readers to interact with me (even though it may take some time for anything to get posted). Be patient, cross your fingers, and keep your eyes peeled!
If you have suggestions or preferences for the kinds of videos I put up please comment below or mention me on Twitter or comment on my Facebook page. I'd love some outside input!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)