My 2017 Social Media Resolutions (that you can adopt too)

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My 2017 Social Media Resolutions (that you can adopt too)

While we can’t do anything about some of the people we may lose, or the natural or even man-made disasters that may befall us in 2017. We CAN work TOGETHER to make social media and the internet better for us. We can reclaim the equalizing communication tool that it could be from the people who would use it to manipulate and misdirect us.

So, I would like to introduce some new year’s resolutions that I will be enacting or continuing. And invite you to try some of these too. They’re simple behaviors that we can all do to change the tone and quality of the flood of information we take in every day. If we can all agree to these, we can make social media a better place all around.

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New Cover!

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Original cover

Original cover

In the midst of all the upcoming Book 2 madness, I have a bit of news about Book 1.  Most book series have similar covers or a similar look to the covers across the series. When I started thinking about what I wanted for the Cauldron cover, I took a long look at the cover for The River Maiden. And I decided that I wanted to take the look of the series in a different direction.

Let me be clear, I do like the original cover for The River Maiden. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on it. However, there are just two things I would change.

1) It's not great in black and white or thumbnail size. And in the age of ebooks and e-ink. Black and white and/or thumbnail size, is how a lot of people first see it. I thought I needed a cover that is eye-catching in both. 

2) It wasn't my original vision. It is what told the graphic designer, who was very accommodating and great to work with, I wanted. The photo of the jars and jugs evokes the rustic Appalachian life that Sarah grew up with. But I'm just not sure it's evocative of the main theme of the story. 

Even before I decided to publish the book myself, I had a vague idea of what I wanted, and it centered around the crown of flowers that Sarah makes for her mother on that fateful morning in 1976. In fact three years ago at the James River Writer's Conference while listening to the king of cover designers, Chip Kidd, talk about some of his greatest hits, I sketched out a quick design. It was the crown floating with a few blooms floating away from it. 

But in the course of editing and formatting, and paying for one designer to botch and refuse to fix a design, and having to search for another, I eventually chose expediency and went with a photo that I had taken of jars stored on an old worn table in the back of my own Granny's carriage house (No, my Granny is not a moonshiner. She just likes old jars.) 

 

It has served me well, but I'm very excited to have the new cover. This one is far more similar to the cover I originally envisioned. It has the flowered crown with a few blooms falling away. They're floating on a blue background calling on the image of water, and of course the UNC setting for the book.

It also helped me establish the look that I want to have for the rest of the series. You might also notice that the short stories Unfit and Buddy also have new covers the same style. Hopefully in the next week or so, I can show the cover of Cauldron. 

The Voyager Scene that I Can’t Wait For

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The Voyager Scene that I Can’t Wait For

Filming for season three of Outlander is underway and everyone is speculating on how the Outlander team will handle their favorite scenes. I know everyone is crazy excited for the print shop scene, Claire and Jamie’s first night together, Fergus and Marsaili’s wedding. I’m sure more than a few of you are looking forward to “turtle soup”. Those scenes are all fantastic. But the one downright salivating to see is one that some readers might even be dreading.

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Tweeting Success: Life of the Party

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Tweeting Success: Life of the Party

Let's return to our virtual cocktail party that is Twitter in which you are looking to connect with readers. Now we've already talked about branching out and finding readers rather than just hanging with other writers. We've also spent a post identifying potential party fouls. So, this time I'd like to talk about how to engage effectively with readers on Twitter.

As I've mentioned before, you want to treat Twitter like a cocktail party. So, only talking about yourself all the time, is not a great way to build relationships. And make no mistake, relationships are what you want. Sure you can tweet out a link to your book, and you might even get someone to click on it. But you'll get far more traction by forming a relationship with a reader who will buy your next book when it comes out and recommend you to other readers. Relationships make FANS and fans act as street teams to spread the word when you release a new book, or have an event.

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The Impostors

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The Impostors

I know I'm frequently talking about Twitter, but this time, I wanted to give everyone a little PSA about Facebook. Odds are if you've been on Facebook for more than a month or so you've had this happen to you.

You get a friend request from someone that you could just swear you're already friends with. On the surface this account looks like your friend's. It's got his/her picture, and name, and might even have already roped in some mutual friends. Maybe even a couple of extra snapshots. But that's where the similarities end.

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