Writing Resources | Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author

October 6, 2009July 8, 2019

Alleviating the demands of Social Media Promotion

My friend Rayna Vause and I were recently at the Moonlight & Magnolias conference in Atlanta to give a workshop on publicity and promotion in cyberspace. One of the topics we discussed was Social Media and how to use it to help build your brand online.

One of the major concerns expressed by many was the time demands of being in so many places online. It’s a truly valid concern. With so many authors still holding down jobs and/or the needs of family, spending time on the web and social media sites can be a major time suck, especially when you’re also trying to write a book.

But it is possible to use technology to alleviate some of the demands of Social Media promotion. If you’ve got a blog, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, it’s possible to automate many of these applications so that you’re content will be available on all of them with minimal work. How do you do that?

Feed your blog to your Twitter, Facebook and/or Myspace pages:

Both Twitter and Facebook allow you to feed content automatically from your blog. In Facebook, find your NOTES section and you will see a spot where you can add your blog feed to bring it into your Facebook profile. With Twitter, you can use Twitterfeed to automatically post your blog content as a tweet.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a similar application for Myspace, but it is possible to create a widget for your blog feed that you can embed on your Myspace page or in other applications that accept Widgets. I’ve used Spring Widgets and find their RSS feed widget very handy.

Feed your Twitter, Facebook and/or Myspace to each other:

It’s possible to feed your various tweets, status changes, etc. from one Social Media site to another.

To feed your Facebook status to Twitter and vice versa, you can use this Twitter application on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=twitter&init=quick#/apps/application.php?id=2231777543&ref=search&sid=1130005412.376077238..1

To feed your Tweets to Myspace, you can try out this application:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=463617608

Keeping track of your Social Media Sites:

There are a number of applications that will allow you to view and take action on your various sites at once. Two of the more popular and useful applications are TWEETDECK and HOOTSUITE.

Tweetdeck is a desktop application that will allow you to see tweets, respond, retweet as well as view your Facebook and Myspace content. Hootsuite is a web-based application that also does much of the same, but also allows you to schedule tweets. A great ability to have if you must get information out but know in advance that you will not have access to the web.

I hope you found today’s Tuesday Tip helpful and that it will help you avoid the possible time suck of Social Media. If you have any good applications that you can recommend, please let us know by posting them to the comments section.

September 29, 2009February 17, 2021

Improving Visibility on the Internet

Penny Sansevieri, the CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., tweeted the other day about how Starbucks had taught her something about Search Engine Marketing. For the full text of the article, you can click here on this link:
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/what-starbucks-taught-me-about-search-engine-marketing-260912.html

The article contains some useful examples for you on how to increase your visibility on the Internet and improve search engine rankings.

We’ve discussed some of them before, like leaving comments on blogs (and finding those blogs by using news alerts). Sending out books for review and having those reviews posted online is another great way to get your name noticed.

Likewise, we’ve talked about doing article submissions to create buzz and drive traffic to your site.

What else can you do?

Having links from key sites back to yours is another way to improve visibility. How do you do this? If you’re book has something that would be of interest to a particular industry (i.e., knitting, crafts, civil war), find sites for that industry and see if you can’t be listed there. Make connections to stores, vendors and magazines in that industry.

An excellent example of using this kind of marketing is Debbie Macomber’s connections from her books to the knitting industry. Macomber even has her knitting related products with her name available at HSN!

If you’re book is in a particular genre, like vampires, search out sites for that genre and ask to be placed on their list of links. Oftentimes sites may require that you link back to them which seems like a fair exchange.

Search engines will see those incoming links and if the site on which your listed is a high ranking site, that will improve your page ranking.

Finally, don’t forget press releases, especially close to the date of your novel’s launch. Reach out to local papers and use those free press release sites to get the word out!

Hope today’s Tuesday Tip was of help!

September 17, 2009May 9, 2017

What to do in-between books?

This Thoughtful Thursday is about a question I am frequently asked? What do you in-between books? The answer is that you hope you’ve got something else contracted!

But seriously, what I do is start research on the next book and work on other proposals to be sent out by my agent. I’m always working on a new idea because for every book I am lucky enough to sell, there are at least one or two that end up gathering dust at my desk. Sometimes even though I think it’s a rocking book (like UNDEAD UPRISING!).

So the first answer to the question is: Always be preparing another project for consideration. Even if you’re in the middle of working on books that are contracted, keep your creative mind going, even if it’s to just to jot down some story ideas that you can flesh out later.

The second answer is: Get to work on the next book you need to write.

This spring and summer was blessedly busy for me. I had to finish two more book in THE CALLING vampire novels – ARDOR CALLS and VENGEANCE CALLS. Also had to do copy edits and galley proofs for SINS OF THE FLESH. And in the midst of all that, I was busy writing the next book in the SINS series – STRONGER THAN SIN – as well as researching that book.

Third answer: Spend some time researching your next novel.

For me, researching STRONGER THAN SIN meant long walks through some of the shore towns where I planned to set the novel. Snapping photos of places where I might be putting the hero and heroine so that I could get a real feel for the places. I’ve always thought that it’s important to really let you get a sense of the place and am always delighted to hear from someone who visits one of those towns that they felt like they knew it because of something I put in a novel.

So far in STRONGER THAN SIN, my ability to move them around has been limited, but I’m working up to allowing more and more scenes where the hero and heroine will be walking along the same streets that I visited and sharing their views of some of New Jersey’s delightful shore towns.

In STRONGER THAN SIN, most of the action will be taking place in Bradley Beach, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove and Spring Lake. For today, I’m sharing with you some pictures of Ocean Grove and Asbury Park. I’ve got to head down the shore again this weekend and work on adding some shots of Spring Lake and also, the wonderful tent city area close to the Ocean Grove auditorium.

Hope you enjoy the photos and if you can’t see the slide show, you can follow this link to the photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034521&id=1130005412&l=1c0a076248

August 18, 2009October 30, 2018

Website Design KISS

As you can see, we’ve got a whole new look to the site and a big thanks to the designer – MJ from Sizzle Designs. I absolutely love what she’s done and I hope you do as well. It’s clean, but its mood definitely reflects my romantic suspense and paranormals.

So there are a few little tweaks on things I didn’t think about immediately (sorry MJ!) and then there’s the reconstruction of the pages from the old website.

Why reconstruction? Well, I’ve learned a few things and also didn’t realize just how long it had been since I updated some of the pages. So little by little, I’ll be working on those, especially since I’ve got the second SINS book – STRONGER THAN SIN – due to be delivered later in the year.

Here’s what I’ve learned and will share with you in the hopes it will help you with your own website design.

Keep It Simple Stupid: Yep, I let my natural desire to bling just put way too much stuff on certain parts of the site. So to keep it looking clean and professional, I’m trying to unclutter.
Let the program do it for you: There’s a number of places where it would be way easier just to let programming bring in content. For example, on my Cook’s Treat page I’ve figured out how to feed in all the blog posts that had recipes. Much better than my remembering to code and add those blog posts every time. Now I’ve got to work on putting them in alphabetical order, but at least there’s no more recoding to do!
Forget about links to third party news articles: I’ve discovered that online newspapers, etc. don’t keep their articles up for long periods of time and the URLs no longer work. So, rather than having a lot of dead links (as I had on my Press Page), I’m going to just stick to mentioning the articles without a link. But if anyone knows of a good link checker, it would be greatly appreciated.
Don’t mention dates without a year!: I didn’t realize how many times I said, “this October” or similar and forgot to go back and update it later. So “this October” was actually like three Octobers ago! Be specific with dates or maybe better yet – if the date isn’t important, leave it out.
Using Categories Correctly: Remember that comment about letting the program do it. Well to do that you have to be consistent. WordPress and many other programs let you create “categories” for your links and blog posts. Be consistent when you use those so that you can pull up just the content you want rather than a mish-mosh of unrelated posts. Also, create categories that will actually assist you in gathering data for your website visitors.

Thanks for dropping by! I hope this Tuesday Tip was helpful!

Also, please be sure to drop by tomorrow to share some time with a wonderful friend and fellow author – Amanda McIntyre. Amanda will be sharing some of her recent exploits with us and anyone who leaves a comment on tomorrow’s blog by midnight EST will be eligible to win a SINS OF THE FLESH t-shirt!

August 11, 2009August 18, 2009

Promo in the Trenches

We’ve talked before about what authors should think about doing to promote their books. In case you missed those blogs, here are some links to the prior discussions:

Marketing for Writers

Guest Blogging

Right now, with the release of SINS OF THE FLESH just over two months away, I’m in the trenches promo-wise, gearing up for that last big push to get the word out about the book. By now, I’ve coordinated with the publisher the things that both of us will be doing so as to not duplicate efforts. I’ve already reached out to people about doing guest blogs and am finalizing dates for some of the visits as well as arranging some key booksignings. I’ve also planned to attend conferences close to the release date, like DragonCon and Moonlight & Magnolias.

Both of these conferences happen to be in Atlanta, but target different audiences. DragonCon is totally for the paranormal crowd while Moonlight & Magnolias is more for romance writers and readers.

Which I guess leads to another tip – don’t limit your market! There are lots of different spins that you can put on the same novel in order to reach all kinds of readers. Think out-of-box and target several different markets through things like blog tours, conferences, book signings and even advertising.

What else is being put into place in these final months? Videos, podcasts, book signings, e-mails. Getting out there to share the word about your book is key, both in person and on the Internet. Make sure your website is updated about the release as well as any social media sites you may have.

When it comes to the e-mails, podcasts and video trailers – time them to be effective. Release them too soon and they lose their impact. Wait until the book is almost on the shelves for the most effective use of these two promotional tools.

Check out the schedule below for where I’ll be doing some promotions. I love meeting fans face-to-face and also online. I will be updating the calendar with new events regularly so you can check here or also visit the Meet Me section at www.caridad.com for a listing of events.

August 4, 2009August 18, 2009

From Strippers to Suspense

Murano glass ceiling People often ask me what helps me create new stories. Is it an article I see in a newspaper? Sometimes, but more often than not, stories come to me thanks to the things that I am lucky enough to be able to experience.

A few months ago I was blessed to get away for a writers’ weekend with some writing buddies. Our writing destination – Las Vegas.

Las Vegas! You may wonder how conducive that could be to writing, but after a few days I came away with the proposal for a brand new romantic suspense novel that is currently sitting with my editor for consideration.

How did that happen?

Well for starters, my friends and I spent some time talking out plots and helping each other with problems we were having. It’s always good to bounce ideas off people to see if the idea is working. Then we spent time writing every day.

So now you’re thinking – You could have done that anywhere.

Well, you’re right, but the one thing about Las Vegas – or any new location – was going around and exploring since many of those places and activities generated the idea for that new romantic suspense proposal.

Stripper Class For example, we took a class on stripping and lap dancing! Yep, you’re reading it right. Why? Well, as I bumped my knees on the pole, my brain was busy figuring out how the heroine in the book could tempt her hero.

A spa trip yielded yet more insights on temptation while seeing all the construction going on prompted ideas of what would happen if the hero happened to be building a casino in Las Vegas.

Add all those themed casinos, it occurred to me what kind of theme was missing and what kind of casino my hero could be building.

What about the suspense you’re wondering? Research into the problems casino owners face, like prostitution, money laundering, card cheats, etc. got my mind going about what would be the action behind the romance (and no, not spilling the beans just yet on what I chose!)

Last but not least, a hike into the Red Rock Canyon provided the perfect setting for a suspenseful chase scene!

I bet you’re saying to yourself, “But what if I can’t get away to some place new?”

Well, look around at the place where you are. What kinds of things are there that you see every day but someone else might find interesting? Are there any places or events you could use in your novel? For example, an interesting local festival or landmark? Could they be the backdrop for your novel (think Fort Hancock as I did for SINS OF THE FLESH). Being intimately familiar with a locale often adds a level of authenticity that resonates with readers moreso than an exotic locale.

Let your imagination run wild! It’s your greatest gift as a writer. Maybe you’ll find like I did that you can go from a stripper 101 class to a suspense novel just by flexing your imagination.

July 28, 2009August 18, 2009

News Alerts

News I was searching for a friend’s website the other day when I ran across some nice comments about him at a blog site. I sent him the link and suggested that he set up some news alerts so that he would know about such comments.

Whether you’re a pre-pubbed or published author, interested in a particular topic or have a client you wish to follow, news alerts are a great way to stay abreast of what’s happening.

I use both Yahoo alerts and Google alerts to keep me advised about possible reviews of my novels, but it also helps me to judge the efficacy of online press release sites as well as keep an eye out for people who are pirating my books.

I recently had an incident where a Google alert brought my attention to a site offering downloads of the MISSION: IMPASSIONED series in which I participated for Silhouette Romantic Suspense. I immediately sent the link to my publisher’s piracy contact.

I also watch for reviews and make a point to visit any reviewer who has been nice enough to read and comment on the book. Word to the wise, however – Don’t engage if there’s negative comments. It accomplishes nothing and everyone is entitled to their opinion. Just agree to disagree.

How do you set up a news alert? Click on one of these links to some of the news alert services that are available:

Yahoo: http://alerts.yahoo.com/
Google: http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en

You may need to open an account with them and check to make sure the account is free.

You can also sign up for news alerts at your favorite television stations, newspapers and magazines, but these may not include searches for activity on the Internet, such as reviews on blog sites, etc.

Keeping abreast of what’s happening puts you one step ahead and will help you to meet lots of new interesting people! Try it out and see!