The Secrets of Influencers

Great Interview on Newbie Writers Podcast with Vanesa Bogehold of Tap Influence

Here is what the  TapInfluence website says:

TapInfluence enables influencers across different social platforms to earn revenue by connecting them with top brands. The TapInfluence marketplace makes it easy for influencers to showcase their content and find compensated opportunities with brands.

So we asked Vanessa, what is an Influencer?

• An influencer is defined as those  people who create or share valuable content with the niche audiences who follow them.
• Influencers work and influence across platforms.
• Specifically, if you have an engaged audience of 1,000/visits/month your blog can be considered influential.
• Influencers are popular with companies or brands for one reason – Trust
• Influencers have the trust that a brand doesn’t

I know, the next question is what does the relationship between a brand and an influencer look like?

First of all the brand very much wants the influencer to focus on the story, personal experience and individuality.

Often the Brand gives a writing prompt or subject for the influencer to write about.

Tap Influence  offers an easy data base for Brands to track, contact influencers and their blogs with the knowledge that those blogs have already been vetted.

Influencers in turn can refuse to work with the brand

BUT

Influencers are compensated for their work on behalf of the brand.

That said, Tapinfluence does require  influencers to apply to be part of the data base.

Want to Be an Influencer When You Grow Up?

Vanessa gave us these tips:

Do select your medium of interest: Pintreset podcast etc.

Influence  across multiple platforms (but just the ones you like)

Go where your fans and readers are.  Pintrest is a good example of that

What are you passionate about?  Pick one to four topics that you cover consistently.

Produce content on a regular basis, three times a week.

How to Create That Short Bio

We all know to create a short elevator speech right?  It’s also called the 30 second speech.  When someone asks you what you do – you respond with a practiced, brilliant, witty, concise biography that includes the big picture of what you do, something about what you love or your passion, and a call to action close.

And if that wasn’t enough pressure, we also should have a similar one for our quick bios at the end of our blog posts, linked in, tags to speeches and advice and of course, on our web sites.

If you have it down, all the brilliant and sparkly stuff that makes for a compelling introduction – good for you!  Send it to me as a stellar example and I’ll read it out on the podcast.

But maybe you do not have one of these handy autobiographies  at the ready.  If not, my friend Beth Barany created a nice outline for how to create a short bio.

Check it out!

Jump from a Plane, Speak at Day of the Book

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

Jeane Slone has jumped from airplanes, flown upside down and bravely appeared on Newbie Writers Podcast. There is very little she won’t do in the service of her books!

Women in the Air – Jeane Slone

Did you know women flew as spies and bomber pilots in WWII?  Jeane will present the Women Airforce Service Pilots. She will discuss: training, qualifications, how they tried to receive military benefits, 38 WASPs died and never went into combat, the Soviet Night Witches, why black women pilots were not accepted in the program, the WASPs received the gold medal 60 years later.

Jeane Slone is the past Vice President and present board member of the California Redwood Writer’s Club, a member of the Healdsburg Literary Guild, Military Writer’s Society of America, and the Pacific Coast Air Museum. She is a tutor for the Library Literary Program.

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Word Press Advice

Newbie Writers Podcast guest Brett Bumeter is a WordPress expert, he gave us some good tips listed here –  for the whole interview, listen on Newbie Writers.com

The Best Blog tool right now is WordPress,  18% of the world is using WordPress so that helps your Google ranking.

Free, you can start small.  Can move up to something larger if you want.

A good blog provides entertainment or information.

Themes

The look of your blog is obviously important.  Should you pay for themes?  Not necessarily, free themes are fine to use, but do check their age.  A good theme should stil be supported,  was the theme made in the last 3 to 6 months? Read the reviews, are they positive or negative, that matters for the health of your blog.

Do the theme developers respond to questions?  In English?

It the theme intuitive?

Should you change your theme often to keep it interesting?  Not necessarily but fans will want and expect you to improve and gain sophistication, so improving is great, change for just change may not be as necessary.

The easiest color scheme for text is black wording on white background

And remember, 40% of visitors on your site use mobile devices.

For more tips visit Brett’s blog   

Talk to an Agent or Publisher

If you have a finished book one of the most helpful things you can do is talk to an expert.  That conversation can help you get good leads, good ideas and contacts!

To that end, check out Pitch-O-Rama this April 13th in San Francisco

10th Annual Pitch-O-Rama: Meet the Agents, Editors, and Publishers, Saturday, April 13, 2013, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm Swiss Louis Restaurant, Pier 39, San FranciscoA tradition in San Francisco since 1936, with a panoramic view of the Bay. Cost: $60 members, $70 non-members, Continental Breakfast Included.Free Pre-Pitch Session 8:00- 9:00 am.  PLUS  Small Press Publishers Panel & Luncheon $35, 12:00 – 1:30 pm Brooke Warner of She Writes Press and Brenda Knight of Cleis Press & Viva Editions with two featured authors.  Must be registered to attend luncheon.

via Women’s National Book Association.

Memoir Expert Speaks at Day of the Book

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

Linda Joy Meyers is one of the premiere experts on memoir, and always delivers great information with heart. I am honored she is speaking for our event.

What’s Your Story? The Heart and Craft of Memoir Writing – Linda Joy Meyers

You have a story you’ve been meaning to tell, and you want to find a way to get started. Where to start is the biggest question memoir writers ask.

Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers, & Co-President of the Women’s National Book Association, SF, is the author of Don’t Call Me Mother—A Daughter’s Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness; The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story, and a new workbook The Journey of Memoir: The Three Stages of Memoir Writing to be released in February, 2013.

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

E-book Sales Soaring for Older Books

Publishers Weekly  just released the ebook numbers for 2012.  By their own admission, instead of requesting e-book sales for books published in 2011-12, they asked for total e-book sales during the year.   The omission was telling.  A number of back listed books showed very well in in ebook sales, in these numbers names like Nora Roberts, John Grisham and Stephen King popped up as well as “James Patterson [with]  29 books on the list, with a total of more than 2.6 million; Janet Evanovich scores close to 1.8 million with 19 books. In almost all instances, unit sales for print books are still ahead of e-book sales, but the gap is starting to narrow.”

Yes, I know, great news if you are James Patterson, or writing for him.  But this is also great news for authors with modest print success and an inventory of back listed titles. As the popularity of ebooks increases so will the opportunities for writers to give their back listed books another chance.  There are emerging companies who will take your out of print book    (think Romance, fantasy, sci fi at this point) and re-issue the book as a 99 cent ebook. This will increase  your readership, put  money directly into your pocket and give  those back listed books another life and another chance.

Ebooks, not just an outlet for new manuscripts.

Wild Sound

In Celebration of Spring, my poem – The Goblin Market is listed on Wild Sound.

The Goblin Market, by Catharine Bramkamp – Read Poems from all over the world..

Happy first day of spring!

Write About the Trivial

Spring in Las Vegas

I am always happy when a Newbie Writers Podcast guest confirms what I tell writers to do all the time: keep a journal.  Not only keep a journal but write in it as well.

Write about all the important stuff.

Write about your goals.

And, little known use: write about all the trivial crap that clutters up your head at any given moment. And get it out of the way.

Writing all the stupid stuff down, will, to a certain extent, prevent you from uttering all that stuff out loud. And that is a good thing.

Have you ever sat with a friend or relative and make the grave mistake of inquiring after their day, and they immediately respond with an avalanche of trivia.  What they ate for breakfast, their opinion about seven grain bread and how it should include another grain, perhaps they think the new seven grain bread should include one more grain.   sun flower seeds,  or maybe flax, they heard that flax is particularly good for you, have you ever tried those flax chips? You can buy them at Costco right now, although  you know with Costco they never stock products consistently, especially if you really like it. . .

That kind of response.

Writing all that down in a journal, first thing in the morning will save you and those you love, from a similar fate.   Eat  your toast, and write down all the thoughts you have about that toast.  Once this kind of musing is written down, it’s finished.  You won’t need to express it out loud to anyone.

This helps in two ways:

Your own thoughts about toast become clear.  You can then summarize your morning musings by saying that you ate toast for breakfast and it was pretty good, have you ever heard of eight grain bread?

And you can concentrate on the other person, because you’ve adequately expressed all your own opinions already.

Of course, out of deceptively simple and trivial musings, come much better material.  Sometimes all that junk is just the throat clearing we need to do before our voice is warmed up and ready to discuss brilliant and difficult topics of the day.

But the best way to do it, is off line, into a journal. As as result, in reall life, you will look smarter.

Projects First, Task Second

We interviewed Mike Vardy author of  The Front Nine on Newbie Writers Podcast and here are a few tips for Newbie Writers, or any one who is wants to be more productive:

Projects First, Task Second.

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Multi tasking is a myth. We cannot do many things well all at once.

Disconnect from the to do list

Connect with what you really want to do

If you are passionate about your goal, about what you want to accomplish, you will automatically start to manage your time better, because you want to.  

Take some time to focus on what you want and really work at it.

Do the thing you want to do first thing in the morning – and it’s not check your email

Be really specific in your blog and show your passion.

What if you’re not interested in anything?  What if you feel stuck?  Journal!  (I really appreciated him saying that)  

Some productivity app suggestions (and I have not checked all these, but will)

UnStuck  (free, I down loaded it)

Idea bucket ($3.99, haven’t down loaded it)

Question up.

Idea management

43folders.com  Blog and podcast

Day One (a Mac app for journaling, I may try this out) 

Evernote smart notebook (I admit, it looked too complicated)

Multi pen (different colors all in one pen – remember those thick orange pens with green, red and blue ink? It’s like that)

A better mess blog    

 Scrivener (I use this for my own work, it’s a great way to keep a book organized)

 And then finally: Mike’s new book, the Front Nine