365 Days of Writing, Marketing & E-Publishing

Monday, September 22, 2014

Day 57...Could I Really Do This?

Welcome to Day 57...

It's Monday, Mission Day...time to set out some goals for the week. I've got mine planned out. I'll be focusing on editing my chalkboard of notes in the early part of the week. I'm close to finishing off 3 scenes I've been working on and once I do, I'll be able to transfer them to my final draft. That's progress. Slow and steady progress.

Why not take some time right now to set out your own to do's? This time next week you'll be that much closer to moving your own writing and marketing goals forward.

So...I started off the day with a Wonder Woman Pose and not only was I walking taller today...I also began thinking about doing a writing challenge for the month of October...a challenge to finish writing my book by Oct 31.

Now that would be All In...

Anyway I'm close to half way done with my novel so it's possible but it's also a big idea...a real big idea and I'm not entirely sure about it yet.

I'll keep you posted.

	Wk of
	9/22/2014
	Writing	Status	Marketing	Status	365 Days Post

Mon	Edit Chalkboard 1.5 hrs	Done	Mon - Inspirational FB post	Done	Post Weekly To Dos	Done

Tues	Edit Chalkboard 1.5 hrs		Draft new Synchronicity Post		Keeping Score-

Wed	Edit Chalkboard 1.5 hrs		Edit new Synchronicity Post		TBD

Thurs	Edit Chalkboard 1.5 hrs		Update Blog Review status file		TBD

Fri	Write 400-500 words		Update Blog Review status file		TBD

Sat	Write 400-500 words		Draft Round 2 Blog Email		TBD

Sun	Write 400-500 words				TBD

For now, here's Today's Takeaway Lesson...

"If It Doesn't Challenge Your, It Doesn't Change You...'"

Here's to Being All In,

Maggie

Follow me on Twitter @AuthorMaggie #busywriterslife

Visit my website @ www.maggiecollins.net

Like me on Facebook Maggie Collins

365 Days & Counting...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ~~10 11~~ 12 13 14 15 ~~16 17 18~~ 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 ~~42 43~~ 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 100 101 102 102 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Day 56...Something Out of the Ordinary That Could Dramatically Alter Your Road to Success...

Welcome to Day 56...

Got a little writing done, but was still in family wedding mode most of the day. That said, I wanted to share something a bit different with you today.

Something a bit out of the ordinary, that according to one expert, could dramatically alter your road to success.

It's all about body language...holding your head up high, squaring your shoulders and standing strong in a confident pose with your hands on your hips...even when you don't feel remotely confident at all.....

It's what Ann Cuddy, a Harvard Business School professor calls, "Power Poses".

Cuddy's research shows that standing a certain way actually changes your body chemistry - lowering your cortisol levels and increasing your testosterone levels in the brain - making your feel stronger more self-assured. Traits that could dramatically impact how you respond to circumstances and to people around your as well as how others in turn perceive you.

Here's how Katy Waldman in her article That Time I Tried To Be Wonder Woman (Slate.com) explains it...

"More testosterone means, roughly, more confidence. More cortisol translates into higher stress. Cuddy found that “high power poses” increase testosterone and inhibit cortisol, while “low power poses” do the opposite. She describes the high power poses as positions that open up the torso. Think a cobra rearing and spreading its hood to the sun, or Wonder Woman with her legs apart and her hands on her hips. The wimpy poses force the body in on itself—the arms across the chest, the shoulders forward, the head and chin down—and convey submission. In a series of 2012 experiments, Cuddy discovered that people who assumed high-power poses for a few minutes before a fake job interview were more likely to win over judges watching a videotape of the encounter. Regardless of what they actually said, these candidates radiated presence and personality—and that got them fake hired, whereas people who adopted neutral or low power poses before the interview earned only middling scores from the judges."

Here's a look at Cuddy's Power Poses...

And Amy Cuddy's presentation...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc

Until tomorrow, here's Today's Takeaway Lesson...

"Stand Tall, Reach High, & Dream Big...'"

Here's to Being All In,

Maggie

Follow me on Twitter @AuthorMaggie #busywriterslife

Visit my website @ www.maggiecollins.net

Like me on Facebook Maggie Collins

365 Days & Counting...

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Day 55...Forget What the Critics Say...Strive On...

Welcome to Day 55...

And a little inspiration....

Along with Today's Takeaway Lesson...

"Forget What the Critics Say...Strive On...'"

Here's to Being All In,

Maggie

Follow me on Twitter @AuthorMaggie #busywriterslife

Visit my website @ www.maggiecollins.net

Like me on Facebook Maggie Collins

365 Days & Counting...

Friday, September 19, 2014

Day 54...Short & Sweet...

Welcome to Day 54...

Today is short & sweet...a quick check in on how our weeks are going.

I've been plugging along with my writing. In fact I'm close to transferring 2 big scenes from my chalkboard into my draft, which is always a good thing.

Though my review request email to bloggers has lagged a bit.

I may or may not get to it this weekend...for me it's all about family and a very special wedding.

Hope you have some special plans coming up too....

	Wk of
	9/15/2014
	Writing	Status	Marketing	Status	365 Days Post

Mon	Edit Chalkboard 1.5 hrs	Done	Mon - Inspirational FB post	Done	Post Weekly To Dos	Done
	Edit H/2 Edit Your Novel	Done
Tues	Write 400-500 words	Done	Update Blog Review status file	In - Progress	Keeping Score- Changed to 33:33 Writing Fix	Done
	Edit H/2 Edit Your Novel
Wed	Edit Chalkboard 1.5 hrs	Done	Organize Marketing Ideas & Post in 365 Days Blog	Done	Marketing Goals	Done
	Complete H/2 Edit Your Novel	Done
Thurs	Write 400-500 words	Done	Update Blog Review status file	In - Progress	H/2 Edit Your Novel	Done

Fri	Write 400-500 words	Done	Draft Round 2 Blog Email	In - Progress	Review of Week	Done
	Edit Chalkboard 1.5 hrs	Done
Sat	Write 400-500 words				Family

Sun	Write 400-500 words				TBD

Finally, just keep going. As Today's Takeaway Lesson says.....

"Never. Give. Up."

Here's to Being All In,

Maggie

FFollow me on Twitter @AuthorMaggie #busywriterslife

Visit my website @ www.maggiecollins.net

Like me on Facebook Maggie Collins

365 Days & Counting...

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Day 53...How To Edit Your Novel...

Welcome Day 53 and the first 365 Days' How To installment!

Okay, I'm excited! Starting today and twice each month, I’m dedicating blog posts to sharing writing and marketing tips...

Tips that are very specific along with links to other helpful sites. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m hoping this will evolve into a collaborative, aggregate spot where we can pay forward great ideas and share feedback to meet the goal of making all the writing and marketing in the #busywriterslife much, much easier.

So let’s get started...

How To...Edit Your Novel...

In a recent post on my Synchronicity blog, I wrote about some negative reviews I had received on my first two books due to poor editing.

The reviews not only stung, I was actually a blindsided by them because I had read and re-read through the drafts countless times and thought I had fixed any mistakes.

So what was the problem?

Well it’s called autocorrect and it speaks to why authors can’t rely solely themselves to do the editing piece.

I had shared the following about autocorrect in my blog Synchronicity…

It has to do with the fact that since we know what we want to say, and if the sentence seems clear enough, we actually can’t pick up the mistakes in the sentence or paragraph.

That’s because the brain skews what we perceive as wrong words inside sentences by doing an auto-correct as we’re reading through the lines.

Simply put, the brain actually makes it hard for us to see the mistake.

Here’s how John McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun explains it…

"...experienced readers, the very people you would imagine to be effective at editing, are not necessarily reliable. Experienced readers recognize patterns. They recognize patterns of letters arranged in words. They recognize syntactical patterns. They recognize stock phrases and standard figures of speech. And so the brain tells them that they see the patterns they expect to find. The brain auto-corrects, not worrying about, for example, transposed letters, because it recognizes the shape of the whole word…

Okay...so if that’s the problem, what’s the solution?

How To...Edit Your Novel...

Break Down Your Editing Approach and Use a System That Works For You

For example, on a first pass, work to revise/edit the book’s overall content - the tempo, the story line, character development etc. On your second pass trying focusing on punctuation including how it relates to dialogue structure and then also replace overused phrases or words. On your third turn, clean up misspelled words, the duplicate word and so on.

Use Spell Check and Grammar Check Option on Your Computer

If you have recurring mistakes, use the Find and Replace command in Microsoft Word to easily clean those up frequent mistakes. Use the shortcut - Ctrl H to get started. When the pop up box appears simply type in the misspelled word or grammar function in the top box and in the bottom box put the correction. Then select all to fix all the changes

Print Out a Hard Copy.

Use a red pen and go to town. Go slowly and be sure to take lots of breaks. Because of that autocorrect mode, the brain will try to read quickly through the paragraphs overlooking those pesky mistakes.

Read Your Draft Out Loud.

We have a tendency to slow down when we read out loud. Hearing how the sentence structure sounds or realizing we read the same word twice will enable you to pick up on and correct your mistakes.

Don’t rely on your own editing to finalize your manuscript.

Find a writing group and ask for critiques. Have friends and family to do a review and ask them to make notes where corrections are needed.

Get a Professional Edit/Copy Review Done

After the problems with my first 2 books, I was determined to fix the editing problem and I quickly realized that I wasn't a good fit for the primary editing role any more. So I found a great (and very reasonably priced) outside editor, Sharon Stogner from Devil in the Details editing services. I was so much happier and relaxed with the release of my other two books after Sharon and her team did the edits. The best part? No harsh reviews on poor editing.

If you have more tips and ideas on editing, please share them in the comment section below.

And...

For More Information on Autocorrect:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-08-09/news/bal-that-damn-autocorrect-20130809_1_brain-readers-james-thurber

http://blog.42wdpublishing.com/2012/05/when-auto-correct-is-bad.html

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/4150027-are-you-the-victim-of-human-auto-correct

And More Helpful Links on Editing:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kudler/book-editing_b_2990583.html

http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/2013/07/revising-editing-and-polishing-your.html

And a Great and Reasonably Priced Outside Editing Service...

http://devilinthedetailsediting.blogspot.com/

Finally, enjoy Today's Takeaway Lesson.....

"No Regrets...Just Lessons Learned..."

Here's to Being All In,

Maggie

Follow me on Twitter @AuthorMaggie #busywriterslife

Visit my website @ www.maggiecollins.net

Like me on Facebook Maggie Collins

365 Days & Counting...

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Day 52...I Promised You This...

Welcome to Day 52...

In Day 9 I talked about the 3 pillars of my marketing plan...Building the Buzz, Expanding the Reach and Selling More Books.

Let me explain further...

Obviously my ultimate goal is to Sell More Books. As far as big goals, my dream target is 100,000 books per year - it's a big reach but I'm excited about working over the next few years to get there.

To do that, I'm looking for ways and means to Build the Buzz around my titles. That means building excitement through fun and relative venues to generate more interest in the books. Truth be told I'm looking to one day create a seismic event. More on that coming soon.

As far as Expanding the Reach...it's all about ways I can broaden and build my audience. Reaching more readers - more potential customers - in different parts of the country and the world.

To pull it off...I put together what I consider a planning board of ideas. These are the ideas I work off of when putting my weekly goals in place.

Here's my list...I consider it a work in progress as I add more and schedule dates. As for the the ideas I call Guerrilla Marketing? Those are the ones that really take me out of my comfort zone. Look for more on that in the coming weeks....

If you don't have a marketing planning board in place, why not set aside some time to put one together?

	2014-15 Marketing Ideas

	Goal	To Dos	Target Date	Status/Update	Notes
Sell More Books	Set Up Goodreads Giveaway	S/U for Now You See Me	Late Fall 14
	KDP countdown deal	S/U for Now You See Me	Late Fall 14
	Visit Independent Booksellers	Identify Nearby Indies			Guerilla Marketing
		S/U Schedule for Target Visits
	Mail out postcards to Independent Booksellers	Create post cards		Done
		Identify Mailing List

	Goal	To Dos	Target Date	Status/Update	Notes
Build the Buzz	Consistent Blogging - Synchronicity		On-going
	Daily Post on 365 days		On-going
	Consistent FB Posting	Postings Wkly Inspirational Post	On-going
		Sales Post	On-going
		Post Linking to Blog	On-going
	Create a Media Kit	Define Elements
		Create Elements
		Define Targets to Send to
	Cable station advertising	Define Pricing
		Review video options
	Local radio stations - blogs and books	Identify Producers
		Send Media Kit
	Local Newspapers	Contact Editors - story about local author

	Create videos around books	Apple Video
		Investigate Music Options
		Post to You Tube
		Post to Goodreads


	Goal	To Dos	Target Date	Status/Update	Notes
Expand the Reach	Expand Profile on Book Blogs	Create Blogger Target List		On-going
		Draft Review Req Email		Done
		S/U Contact Schedule
	Send Comp Books to HPI (high profile individuals	Script Note	Fall 14	Done
		Build HPI List		On-going	Research Top Radio Shows In Top & Local Markets
					Research Local Market TV & Morning Shows

	Book Posting in National FB Communities	Write request note/email
		Write copy for friends/family to post
		Identify Target Communities			NR, Clarkstown, Warren, Ridgefield, CA, LI, FL

	Create Speaking Profile	Create speech - The Road to Bliss			Guerilla Marketing
		Speak at luncheons/charity events
		Speak at book clubs
		Speak at libraries

Here's Today's Takeaway Lesson.....

"Success Doesn't Just Happen, It's Planned For."

Here's to Being All In,

Maggie

Follow me on Twitter @AuthorMaggie #busywriterslife

Visit my website @ www.maggiecollins.net

Like me on Facebook Maggie Collins

365 Days & Counting...

My Books

Monday, September 22, 2014

Day 57...Could I Really Do This?

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Day 56...Something Out of the Ordinary That Could Dramatically Alter Your Road to Success...

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Day 55...Forget What the Critics Say...Strive On...

Friday, September 19, 2014

Day 54...Short & Sweet...

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Day 53...How To Edit Your Novel...

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Day 52...I Promised You This...