Crissi Langwell shares her Facebook Expertise

  • Crissi Langwell shares her Facebook Expertise

    A guide for authors just starting out with a Facebook business page.

    Guest blogger Crissi Langwell gives us a crash course on using your Author Facebook Page as effectively as you can, even if you feel awkward in the beginning.

    What Should Authors Post on Their Facebook Page?

    If you’re a newly published author, or striving to be one, congratulations! You’ve done the hard work of writing a book! Now it’s time to get word out about your book, which is where social media comes in.

    But before you start spamming your friends with posts to buy your book, let’s take a step back and make a plan, starting specifically with Facebook.

    If  you don’t have a Facebook business page, it’s easy to create one, this tutorial will help.

    Once you have a FB page, then what?  I’m sure it’s daunting to look at that blank page, the status bar telling you to write something, but you don’t know what. It’s especially hard when you don’t have many fans (except one, hi Mom!) who will even read what you write.

    Note from Marlene:  Having an author Facebook page might be scary, but it can be fun. As Crissi says, “Don’t give in before you’ve even started.”

    Show Them Who You Are

    First things first, make sure you have a profile picture and a cover photo. Your profile can be you, or it can be your book. On my own author Facebook page, I like to use my own photo most of the time. But when I’m getting ready to release a new book, I’ll change it to show my book cover.

    For the cover photo, you can choose scenery, a collage of your books, or anything that gives readers another clue as to who you are. But make sure the cover image is big enough to fit in that space. Nothing looks more unprofessional on a Facebook page than a pixelated image for the cover photo. The exact dimensions are 820 X 312 pixels.

    Hint: Go to Canva.com and create your Facebook cover there. This is a design website that offers easy templates that make all your designs look fun and professional. Here’s an easy tutorial to learn how to use it.

    Personalize Your Page

    Make sure your Facebook page URL is the exact name you want it to be. In your “About” section, go to the “General” area and edit your Username. Otherwise, your URL will add a bunch of numbers to the address, making it look clunky.

    Finally, fill out your “About” section with your bio, your website, and anything else you want readers to know about you. This section is checked more often than you think, and can be readers first impression of you.

    What to Post!

    Posting Rules

    • Be authentic. Be yourself.
    • Don’t spam your readers with “buy my book” posts
    • Refrain from politics or hot button issues (unless your books are about politics or hot button issues)
    • Post at least once a day, if possible
    • But don’t over-post, or you’ll lose readers

    Ten things you can post about on your Facebook page:

    1. A blog post you’ve written
    2. A quote from your book
    3. What you’re reading now (NOT your own book)
    4. Something funny that happened today
    5. Something in current events or pop culture that your readers would be interested in
    6. A quote from another author or influential person. Go to canva.com and create an image.
    7. A top 10 list of books your readers might enjoy knowing about
    8. News of a book event you’ll be attending
    9. News about your book release, or a sale on your book
    10. A photo of you writing, living life, or having fun

    Please note, only two of these ten items are directly about your book. A good rule of thumb is to follow the 80–20 rule: 80% of your posts are NOT about your book, and 20% of your posts are.

    It’s a good idea, before you post anything, to think about what your readers are like. What kind of person would like to read the things you write? What other things would they like besides your books? Keep these things in mind with everything you post, because what you’re really trying to do is build an audience that is interested in YOU, because this will be part of your platform.

    Your page views will be small in the beginning. Don’t stress about that number. Keep posting content that people will want to like, comment on, or share, and that number will go up. You just need to be consistent.

    Crissi Langwell is a romance author in Sonoma County. Her passion is the story of the underdog, and her novels include stories of homeless teens, determined heroines, family issues, free spirits and more.

    Marlene C

  • What do you miss? Prompt #488

    What, or who, do you miss?

    Marlene C

  • Favorite Things. Prompt #487

    Write about your favorite things.

    Whenever I hear the phrase “favorite things,” I think of the song in “Sound of Music,” . . . “My Favorite Things,” sung by Julie Andrews.

    Write about some of your favorite things.

    Marlene C

  • On Top Of Your Game

    My dear friend, Nancy Julien Kopp blogs at Writer Granny’s World by Nancy Julien Kopp.

    Last year, Nancy posted:

    In mid-November, I posted a review of The Write Spot: Possibilities.  The anthology consists of stories, essays, and poems by several writers. At the end of each offering is a prompt that might have inspired what they wrote and also a paragraph or two of advice for writers.

    Ahhh, advice. It can be given, but is it always accepted? Not by a longshot. Sometimes, we read the advice of other writers with a shield in front of us. The attitude can be Go ahead, teach me something I don’t already know. At other times, we’re wide open to any advice given. We want to soak it up like water in a sponge. 

    I’ve been skimming through the book again looking at the advice the writers offered. I consider it a gift to us, the writer-readers. I’m not going to quote from the book but have chosen bits and pieces of the advice that was given to share with you. Many of the writers repeated similar advice. I find that, when multiple people advise the same thing, I’d better pay attention.

    Advice from other writers:

    Don’t be afraid to share your work

    Join a writing group

    Write!

    Try different mediums of writing

    Never stop growing as a writer

    Find a special place to write that is your own

    Learn from your failures

    Nearly every one of those pieces of advice has appeared on my blog at some time, and often more than once. The suggestions for writers to heed is important enough to bear repetition. 

    One of the reasons I especially liked this anthology for writer-readers is that it offers more than the stories, poems, and essays. The prompts are excellent help for writing exercises, and the advice is worth a great deal. These writers put in a nutshell what some need an entire book to explain. An additional plus is the short bio of each writer. 

    The pieces of advice in The Write Spot: Possibilities and on my blog are simple things. Nothing so technical or intricate that others scratch their heads when they read them. Do all those little things, and you’ll be on top of your game. 

    Marlene C

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  • Want vs Need . . . Prompt #486

    Write about wants versus needs.

    Have you discovered something you thought you needed, but found out it was really a “want?”

    Are there things you now know you can do without?

    Write about how your “wants” change in different circumstances.

    Marlene C

  • Gratitude . . . Prompt #485

    What are you grateful for?

    Marlene C

  • Lara Zielin: The World Needs Your Stories

    Today’s Guest Post spotlight shines on Lara Zielin. When I first read her post (below), my hand went to my chest. I recognized those feelings. I felt those feelings.

    Last summer I experienced a similar situation that Lara describes. The difference though, is that while giving my presentation, I knew I was “off” and I couldn’t get back “on.” I felt like a runaway train took off with me barely hanging onto the caboose. I so wanted to do a great job. Someone recommended me to this group as a presenter. I wanted to make her proud. At the end, I was afraid I embarrassed her and I certainly embarrassed myself.

    And when I read what happened to Lara, I took a deep breath.

    Lara wrote:

    Several years ago, a colleague and I gave a presentation to the board of a national museum.

    In the moment, the presentation felt amazing. I had practiced, done truckloads of research, and I felt like I was on my game.

    But late that night in my hotel room, I sat up in bed from a dead sleep, feeling like I couldn’t breathe. My brain was re-playing the meeting in slow-motion, highlighting all the things that had gone wrong, all the ways I’d been rejected, all the mistakes I’d made. 

    I began crying, recoiling from this terrible movie in my head. I was hardly able to endure the shame. 

    I remember thinking, “What do I DO? How do I handle this?”

    Today, if I could go back in time, I’d have an answer for Lara. I’d be able to help her. 

    I’d remind her this was just an old story rearing its ugly head. This old story was pissed off and scared, because Lara had just done a big, brave presentation, and that didn’t fit with ideas of who this old story thought Lara was. 

    I’d counsel Lara to write her way into a better place. I’d help Lara generate warm, positive feelings for herself based on what she wrote. I’d give her the gift of getting through this awful place in an hour, instead of it taking a year. 

    Today, what gets me out of bed in the morning is the realization that there are people out there doing bold and brave things, whose old stories are rearing up trying to stop them in their tracks. 

    Specifically, I see people trying to finish writing projects and getting stopped again and again, whether it’s finishing a book, or starting a writing business, or launching a blog. 

    My dear authors, if we don’t do battle with our old stories, they win. And we can’t have that. Because the world needs to read what you have to write.

    ~ Sent as an Author Your Life email from Lara on December 10, 2019.

    Note from Marlene:  I know what went wrong with my presentation. Or, I should say the many things that didn’t go right. I decided to be grateful and use it as a learning experience.

    The lesson I learned from what I considered my less-than-stellar presentation: Be gentle with yourself. Sometimes you are on top of your game. Othertimes, not so much. But mostly, cut yourself some slack. You did the best you could. The next time things get derailed, pause, take a breath. Look around. Fix or change what you can. Smile and carry on.  

    Like Lara wrote, people are doing bold and brave things. Are you one of those people? I am, even when I’m not sure I’ll conquer the challenge.

    Lara Zielin is a published author, editor, and the founder of Author Your Life. Her debut young-adult novel Donut Days was selected to the Lone Star Reading List, and her romance novel And Then He Kissed Me (written as Kim Amos) was nominated for a Romantic Times Reader’s Choice Award. Her magazine articles have appeared in Writers Digest, Culture, Medicine at Michigan, and more. Her nonfiction book Author Your Life is about using the power of writing to create a better story for yourself. She lives in Michigan with her husband and dog, and her goal is pretty much to eat all the cheese. 

    Marlene C

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  • What makes you . . . Prompt #484

    What makes you lose track of time?

    Marlene C

  • Peace. Prompt #483

    Mother Ganga

    What brings you peace?

    Write about a place, a time, a moment, or a situation where you found peace.

    Marlene C

  • Understanding 4 C’s: Being a Successful Author

    Guest Blogger Joan Gelfand writes:

    I never set out to write a novel. I mean, really? I had cut my literary teeth on Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Kurt Vonnegut, Gunter Grass and Wallace Stegner. I was satisfied being a poet, known to my local community.

    Writing a novel seemed terribly pretentious, a misguided idea. No. I did not start out to write a novel. I started out with a story that, after two years, and much encouragement from my writing instructor, grew into three hundred pages. I had written my first novel without planning to do so.

     It was with that first novel that I began to understand that becoming a successful writer wasn’t just about writing. It was several years after my first attempt to find a publisher for that first novel that I understood the business of writing.

    I learned that the letter I got back from an agent asking me to revise my manuscript was a serious request, not a rejection. And, I learned the hard way that without confidence, without commitment, and community,  I was never going to become a winning writer.

    While the 4 C’s approach encourages you to improve your craft, it also provides suggestions for the design of a productive work practice, recommends ways to cultivate a supportive network and gives clear and practical examples of how to build your confidence. What makes the 4 C’s approach unique is that the key is to develop all four skills at the same time.

    Does it sound like a lot of work? It is.

    Over the years, I’ve coached innumerable writers who start out insisting that they barely have time for the actual writing. Just getting to their desks, crafting a piece of writing, and finishing it is a tremendous challenge. And it is. But just finishing a piece of writing is not enough.

    After just a few sessions of working with me, these same writers find their priorities shifting as they begin to understand the importance of cultivating a network and building community. They realize that sending out their work one or even ten times is not enough. Soon, they find themselves more confident about every aspect of their work.

    The 4 c’s system: Imagine that your writing career is a stove with four burners: Craft. Commitment. Community. Confidence.

    Each burner has a pot on it that needs care and attention. Each pot is cooking up something tasty.

    Craft is bubbling while commitment is on a low simmer; you are out in the community, seen everywhere! That pot is on full boil. While you were out, confidence has scalded; that last manuscript rejection has you wondering if you’ve got what it takes. Who said you could write your way out of a boiling pot?

    As the Head Chef de Cuisine, your job is to fire up the burners, keep the grill hot, and tend to the ovens.

    Juggling is involved. Timing is essential. But this is your piece de resistance! You can do it.

    Joan Gelfand, MFA, Author, Coach is the author of the #1 Amazon Best Seller, You Can Be a Winning Writer (Mango Press).

    Joan’s three volumes of poetry and chapbook of short fiction have garnered over twenty awards and commendations. Joan’s novel, Fear to Shred, set in a Silicon Valley startup, will be published by Mastodon/C&R Press in March, 2020.

    Key publications include Los Angeles Review, PANK!, Rattle, Huffington Post, Poetry Flash, Prairie Schooner, Kalliope, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and over 100 lit mags and journals.

    Marlene C

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