Writing Resources | Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author

December 30, 2008August 21, 2009

Building an Effective Web Presence Part 1

One thing that I’m often asked is how I decided to build my website and what tips I can offer to someone who has to either create a new site or update one. So today’s Tuesday Tip is Part 1 of a series of articles on how to build an effective website! I hope you find it helpful.

Part 1: Deciding on the look and feel of the site

Before you even go with a programmer or other web professional, the first thing to do is to consider how you want your site to look. A site should reflect what you do as a writer (or what you plan to do in the near future). If youâ€™re writing paranormals, your readers and other industry professionals may expect a look thatâ€™s quite different from what they expect to see at a site for someone who writes romantic comedy.

So, visit sites for writers in your genre and see what they are doing in terms of color, graphics, etc. Make a list of your favorite sites to send to whoever is programming your site so they can have a reference point for where to begin. If there are certain images that you like, save the links to where they are on the web or visit one of the stock photo places to find images of interest (istockphoto.com and fotolia.com are two good ones).

Decide whether you want any animated features on the site, like those flash intros which are the opening pages or the headers at sites (you can check www.caridad.com or www.thecallingvampirenovels.com to see what I mean by a flash header).

Also make a note of the names of the designers on the sites you like the most. You may wish to approach them to design your site. Prices may vary from a low of $150 or so to tens-of-thousands of dollars. That range will depend on whether the programmer is creating animated intros for you or whether they are creating custom fonts and graphics.

Finally, what kinds of pages should you have on your site? A nice opening page where you tell people a little bit about yourself and whatâ€™s happening with you. A bio page for sure. Contact page where you have the information on how people can reach you. A list of either your published books or projects you have in the works. Those are pretty much the basics, but think for the future so that however the site is designed, it will be possible for someone to easily expand it.

Will you be blogging in the future? Have a Myspace or Facebook page? Add an Amazon store or calendar? Make sure to let the programmer know that you have these ideas in mind for the future and it will help them decide how to code the website.

One thing to know is that having all this information on hand is one way to keep down website programming costs and get a site up and running in a reasonable amount of time.

Also â€“ you may wish to have your designer do a banner or button that you can upload to other sites and use for web advertising. This is generally easy to do and shouldnâ€™t cost much more. In addition, if youâ€™re going to do a Myspace page, try to use the same design if possible. Youâ€™re building your brand with this website and itâ€™s good to reinforce that brand at every web presence you have if itâ€™s possible.

Stay tuned for next Tuesday’s Tip – Types of sites and how to get them up and running!

December 16, 2008August 18, 2009

Writing Goals

Pecking Away Old School That big sigh of relief you heard this morning — that was me! I finished the manuscript for my November 2009 release, SINS OF THE FLESH, and sent it to my editor at Grand Central Publishing. A big woo hoo since the novel had gotten moved up in the production schedule which meant I had to finish it way earlier than expected.

Which leads to this Tuesday’s Tips about writing goals, namely, how to set them and how to keep to them.

When I first got the call about the available slot in November 2009, I thought WOO HOO which was followed by OH MY. Could I finish a book in that time frame? I asked myself which quickly led to a plan — X number of pages a week would lead me to a finished book by X date. That was the plan.

Why haven’t I given you any numbers there, like 60 pages a week? For starters, and as I tell every writer who asks me, there is only one right way to write a book — sit down and write. Whether you write one page a day or five, it’s only wrong if you’ve made a plan for yourself and don’t keep to it.

Why didn’t you keep to it? Too busy? Not in a creative mood? Unrealistic expectations? A combo of all of the above.

While I am now a firm believer that if you fail to plan you plan to fail, the most important thing to keep in mind when setting a writing goal is that your plan be reasonable. Don’t say you are going to write 5 pages a day when you know that in a typical day you only have half-an-hour to write. Unless of course you are going to find more time in that day.

How many pages should you strive to do in a day? Again, there’s no right or wrong. I generally write anywhere from 4 to 10 pages a day during my weekday commutes to my job. More on the weekends when I can get a few more hours of writing done. The key to your success is finding what you can do each week and that’s the key — committing to a reasonable weekly goal.

For example, if you know you can’t write on Mondays and Wednesdays because of family demands, set aside time on the other days and make it part of your regular schedule just like anything else. Let the family know that on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 am to 10 am, you’re writing. Stick to it. If your family sees how committed you are to your writing, they will support you. If they think you’re not serious about it, it will be difficult to get them to respect your desire to write.

Say to yourself, in those two or three days that I write this week, I want to write X pages. (A reasonable X pages remember). Before you know it, the pages will begin to pile up!

I mentioned finding more time to write. How do you do that? Well, what time do you get up now? 8? How about getting up at 7?

Do you write at night? I don’t normally, but when deadlines demand it, I come home from work and after dinner, write for another hour or so to meet the writing goal I’ve set for myself.

How about weekends? If you sleep in late on Saturday or Sunday, could you pry yourself out of bed a little earlier?

You would be surprised at how much time there is for you to get back if you think about your “lost” time each week.

Finally — find a critique or support group and tell them your goals. Tell them how you are doing on your goals and ask them to help you stick to them. As with anything else, a strong support group will help keep you motivated and moving forward.

I hope today’s Tuesday Tip helped!

December 2, 2008August 18, 2009

Writing Articles to Create Website Traffic

The Thirst for Knowledge My mother instilled in me a thirst for knowledge. I firmly believe that a day in which I do not learn something is a day wasted.

I know I’m not the only person who believes this since the world is full of libraries, schools, universities and of course, information on the Internet.

That thirst presents a wonderful opportunity for writers in many ways, including using that thirst to create website traffic by submitting articles on topics of interests to a number of sites on the Internet.

You’re probably asking yourself about what could I possibly write an article?

If you’re a writer, the most obvious answer is that you share information which you’ve learned about your craft with others. Explain about the basics, such as dialogue; goal, motivation and conflict; how to use a semi-colon (LOL! and I hope I’m doing it right); plots, etc. You get the picture. As with any article writing, try not to make it too dry by not just offering blah facts, but personalize it with your experience and what worked for you. Oftentimes that hands on advice is just what someone needs to get over their own hurdle.

If you’ve got expertise in some field, for example, you’re an ER nurse or an attorney, offer up facts that someone might find useful for a particular activity. As an example, if you know about forensics, write an article on the reality of forensic investigations versus fictional TV forensics so that writers might understand what would be correct in that romantic suspense novel they are writing.

Have you visited somewhere interesting? Take the time to write an article on your experience in that city or country. Provide details of restaurants, events, interesting sites, etc.

Have you recently had a life-altering experience? How did you cope with it and what advice could you offer others that might be of benefit.

These are just a few of the possible ideas you can consider for an article to be submitted to the various Internet sites. Once submitted, the articles will be available for viewing by others and the Internet article sites generally provide a link to your website. Someone who reads an article that they find interesting or useful may then choose to come visit your website, thereby creating traffic to your website.

In addition to the benefit of increased traffic, there’s the benefit in practicing your craft by writing. Practice does make perfect (or at least better!).

One difference with Internet-based articles versus print articles is that you will also be asked to provide keywords for the search engines so that they may categorize your article for the future. Make sure you have identified the key issues in your article and list keywords related to those issues in the appropriate keywords field on the article submission site.

So are you ready? Here are some sites where you can submit your articles:

These are just a few of the dozens of article submission sites available. As with anything else, please make sure you read the fine print and that you remain the owner of the copyright in the article and that there are no hidden fees for submission. Also, some sites require that the article either be original or not be posted to any other sites.

Good luck with your article submissions!

November 4, 2008August 18, 2009

Using Google and Yahoo Alerts

Clip Art Courtesy of Microsoft Office Clip Art When other writers ask me what’s the single most important thing they can do to grow a career, I always say, “Have a web presence.” Dollar for dollar, being on the Internet is one of the most effective forms of advertising that you can do.

You can accomplish that in a number of ways. A website. Blog. Social Networking page. I always tell people to keep those Internet sites as current as you can.

I also tell them to balance the work involved in all of these things with the singlemost important thing — writing a good book.

But once you’re on the web, what can you do that will help grow that web presence. Lots of things that we’ve discussed before and one that we haven’t — using Google and Yahoo alerts.

“Huh?” you may say as you shake your head in wonder.

It’s simple really. Both Google and Yahoo (as well as other search engines) have what are known as “alerts”. Plug in the keywords of interest and ask them to notify you whenever one of those keywords is found by one of the search engine spiders.

I do it at work all the time to keep track of what clients are doing.

Authors can do it to see who is talkingabout/blogging about/reviewing them. More importantly, it’s always good to acknowledge when someone has done so and leave a comment or message for them to say “Thanks!”

Call it Politeness on the Web. Politeness is always a good virtue to foster.

So with that in mind — thank you all for dropping by today and remember — GO VOTE!!

September 30, 2008November 26, 2018

Building an Internet Presence

Unlike the baseball diamond in the midst of the isolated corn field in FIELD OF DREAMS, just building a website doesnâ€™t guarantee that anyone will come visit. In order for people to know that you are out there on the Internet, there are a number of steps you can take to increase awareness of your website and improve how you are listed in search engine results.

The first step you can take actually happens even before you get your website up and running. When you are designing your website, make sure that you include metatags in your siteâ€™s header and web pages.

What is a metatag? A metatag is information inserted in the header (â€œheadâ€) portion of your website. The header portion of your website is not visible to viewers on your site, but is read by search engine spiders as they comb the Internet for information to include in their search engine results. You can place your title, site description, and keyword metatags in your header to improve how a search engine will list your website in the search.

For example, the keywords to include in your header metatags could be as follows: â€œcaridad, piÃ±eiro, romance, author, romance author, blog, free read, silhouette, harlequin, pocket books, vampire, novel, fiction, author, south beach, chicas, the calling, romantic suspense, paranormal.â€

There are no limits to the number of keywords you can place in your metatags, and you should attempt to make a comprehensive list of words that are applicable to the content of your website. The search engine spiders will note these metatags and next time someone searches on one of those keywords, your website should show up if youâ€™ve been spidered.

Also keep in mind that the keywords you use should also be repeated in the content of your web pages. It will improve your relevance in search engine results if your keywords appear often. An excellent article on how to use Metatags can be found at SearchEngineWatch.com (http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2167931).

Once youâ€™ve got your metatags in place, you need to make sure that the search engine spiders visit your site so that you will be included in their search engine results.

How do you get noticed by the search engines? Once your website is up and running, you can take a number of steps to get noticed and listed in search engine results. The first step is to get yourself added on the various search engines. You can do this at the following links:
Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
Yahoo: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
MSN: http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx

You can also use a number of free or paid Search Engine submission programs to make sure the spiders will visit your site. You can do so at the following links:
AddPro: http://www.addpro.com/submit30.htm
SubmitShop:
http://www.submitshop.com/freesubmit/freesubmit.html

You may want to set up a separate email address for search engine submissions, as doing this will generate a number of emails from the various services. There are a number of other free search engine submission sites, but some ask that you place codes on your site in order to use their services. You may also pay for these submissions, but it can get quite costly and using
the manual and free services generally works to get your site submitted.

How often should you submit your website to the search engines? Some people say as often as every month, but too many submissions may get you banned from future submissions. I would recommend that you resubmit your website at least every six months.

Being listed in search engine results will help draw people to your website, but how else can you get people to visit?

The first and easiest way is to get listed on other similar sites. If youâ€™re published, ask your publisher if they have a web page for you at their site and, if so, ask for a link to your personal web page.

Do a search on â€œromance novel links,â€ and you will get a long list of romance novel related sites. Visit the various sites and follow their procedures for getting listed on their links and list them on your links page.

Expand your presence on the Internet via social networking sites such as Myspace. Make sure your Myspace page has a link back to your main web page.

Do you have information to share with others, such as articles on writing? Visit Ezinearticles.com and similar sites to post your articles for others to find.

Finally, keep the content on your site fresh and interesting. Itâ€™s important not only to draw readers to your site the first time, but to develop a pattern of returning visitors. There is nothing worse than visiting a site where the last update is many months old.

Hope these tips gave you some ideas on what to do with your web presence!

September 16, 2008May 9, 2017

Writing Contests

Photo courtesy of Microsoft Word Clip Art Whether your published or pre-published, one of the ways to get the word out about your work is to enter contests.

For those who are pre-published, contests offer a number of possible benefits. First, look for contests where you get feedback about your writing. That will help you hone your skills as a writer. Next, try to enter contests where the final round judges are editors or agents. That will get your work before people who can either acquire it or represent you so that others may acquire it. One cautionary note, avoid contests where you will be published in an anthology or other publication being printed by the party who is running the contest. You will be a “winner” and then get asked to pay for a copy of the book in which your work will appear.

You may wonder whether contests for pre-published authors ever really lead to publication. Well, one of my friends, Lois Winston, has amassed an amazing number of contest wins, both before she got published and after. The contests helped her get the word out about her work and yes, one of the contests — the American Title contest run by Romantic Times Magazine — led to her getting a publishing contract.

Now that she is published, Lois enters contests to get the word out about her published books as do many authors. The key is to look for contests where the judges are readers, booksellers or book buyers. Why? They are the ones who can influence whether or not your book makes it into a store. Also, look for contests that have established reputations in your genre or the industry in general.

Do these contests work to spread the word about your book? When I attended a convention recently, a bookseller came up to me and said that she had read one of my books as a judge in a contest. She advised that after reading the book she put me on her “To Buy” list. A very nice comment to receive, but it also shows that entering the right contests can help make a difference in your sales.

Of course, along with success in contests comes the possibility of failure and also, of conflicting opinions on your work.

Another friend and fellow author, Carolyn Martin, has recently made the finals in a couple of contests (Way to go, Carolyn!). Here’s what she had to say (FYI – m/s is shorthand for manuscript):

My dialogue is sparkling and witty.
My dialogue is flat and predictable.

My heroine is well drawn, spunky and intelligent.
My heroine is a stereotype and an “idiot.” (And that’s a direct
quote, thank you very much!)

My hero is a cardboard cutout.
My hero is a fully realized, three-dimensional human being.

My POV is too deep–it bogs down the story.
My POV is deep–it provides excellent insight into the character’s
GMC!

My m/s has simmering sexual tension.
There is no spark between my hero and my heroine.

My m/s is well researched and has great period detail.
My m/s has anachronisms that are “jarring.”

There is no sense of place.
Love the setting! So realistic!

My m/s needs work.
My m/s is ready to be published–today!

LOL, Carolyn! You’ve summed up what could happen in any contest. The important thing to remember is that much like the lottery, you can’t win it if you’re not in it. When it comes to publishing, being in the right contest can make a difference in your career.

September 9, 2008August 18, 2009

Networking – We are Family . . .

“We are family. I got all my sisters with me . . .” Come on, everybody. Sing it! You all know that great Pointer Sisters song!

So how does that become a Tuesday Tip? Well, people often ask me about how to do effective promotion as a writer and there’s lots of ideas to discuss. A website, blog, Myspace and Facebook page. Penny for penny, the Internet is probably one of the most effective ways a writer, or any other artist, can meet people and spread the word about what they are doing.

But like anything else, going it alone on the Internet can be a lonely affair, as it can be going it alone at signings and other events.

But if you’ve got family, especially writing family, the world becomes a much smaller place. For me, I got my first writing family at my local RWA chapter in New Jersey. I recently joined the Orange County chapter in California since I have a number of friends in the chapter and like getting out to California.

One thing I’ve recently done is band together with other writers for some new endeavors. A few years ago I went to a conference down in Miami and got to hang out with some old and dear friends, but also got to know some new and really great women. We banded together to form an e-mail loop to share ideas and thoughts and not be so alone. We actually titled the group and our new website NUNCASOLA which means “Never Alone”.

Another thing I’ll be doing next year as part of a group of friends is hosting a mixer at the 2009 RT Convention in Orlando. We’ll be meeting readers, booksellers and other writers and sharing a good time with them. The STREET PARTY mixer was the brainstorm of my friend Kimberly Terry, but the lesson of the story is that together we can do more than we could alone.

When you’re considering promotion, consider not only the things that promote only you, but see if you can’t find a writing family to help support your efforts to get the word out about your writing.

For your enjoyment, courtesy of The Pointer Sisters and Rhino Entertainment, here’s WE ARE FAMILY!