G is for....

GOAL BUILDING:

For those who like being held accountable, building goals on your blog for your followers to keep track of with you is a good way to do that. Tell your followers what you are planning, and you can all try to keep track.

GUEST BLOGGER:

A guest blogger is usually someone in your industry that you invite along to do a post or several on what they do and how they do it. It can also work the other way, for you to do a guest spot on a friend's blog, or another writers blog. Basically it's good advertising for what they and you do.

OK, that's G done, hope your day was awesome, see you around the Web.

TWW

F is for....

FEATURE POSTS:

I've touched on this before, but I can't stress enough, share posts on features such as who your characters are, maybe a feature on your world building, or how about treating them to a deleted scene, or even a short piece not in your novel involving your characters, or a side character.

FIRST DRAFT DISSCUSSION:

Talk about your first draft, you know the vomit one, where you just write to have something on the page. Perfect first drafts are difficult and PERSONALLY I think new readers should know that the first draft is just everything all at once, and that it's meant to be edited. 

FUN:

Ok, if writing and publishing isn't fun for you, look away because I'm about to advocate having fun with setting this all up and updating it. If you can't enjoy it, see if you can hire someone to create and update it for you. 

P.s. 

I'm updating this at the Nenagh Womens Shed, my fave haunt on a Tuesday night.

OK, I hope your A2Z is going great, see ye around the web.

TWW

E is for...

 

Hi there again, welcome to week two; hope you all had a great Easter and didn't get tooo stuffed on eggs, right todays letter is E.

ENGAGEMENT:

This means interacting with your followers and finding other blogs to follow as well. Engaging means liking, sharing and subscribing to their blogs, websites and newsletters. Make sure you like the blogs, newsletters and websites that you follow. Do bear in mind that it does take time to build up a following and to interact with blogs, so make sure here as well that you have the time to do so. 

At the writing of this blog I have 12 followers, according to the wee widget on my page, which makes me very proud. A lot of people have more, a lot less, don't stress, you aren't talking to the void, someone is listening.

Low engagement isn't good; high is good.

EDITING:

Lots of followers and even some writers and authors that you will follow all have an interest in editing; we all have to do it, and it's a pain in the ass job. But 90 per cent of writing is editing, because it goes like this...

First draft

Edit

Second draft

Edit

Beta

Edit

Alpha

Edit

Proofread

Edit 

Now this is just an outline of what writing a novel could be, some say there are five, some say more drafts before a novel is ready to go check out my post about it here The Road to Being a Published Writer: D is for....  (will open in a new window). 

Your followers will enjoy seeing how you do it, some might even have questions for you. Engage with them and build your following.

D is for...

 DESIGN:

As in your blog theme, keep it clean and tidy, not tooo busy. Readers like information on what you are doing, where to get your books and where your next book signing is. Make sure your brand is visible (fonts, colours, and images). 

You can do it yourself with site templates, if tech savvy you could play with code, or if you have spare cash, you could pay a professional to do it for you.

DOMAIN:

most blogs and sites come with the ability to add a domain name, when choosing what that will be choose your author name. I recommend this as its easy to remember and find.

C is for....

CATEGORY:

Something that is very similar to tags, you add these to your articles or posts. Take these for example...,

• Travel - hotel, food, comfort, locations, excursions, hidden gems.
• Food - taste, value, quality, quantity, vegetarian, coliac, heat
• Writing - genre, schedule, character creation, world building, outlines

COMMENTS:

Interactions with your followers, just be aware that some people can be cruel, also there are bots selling stuff, on face b, some agencies true and fake can target comments regarding books with annoying messages about helping you out...converse at your own risk!

Others maybe genuine, encoraging and very worthwhile engaging with. 

CONSISTENCY:

It's important that when creating posts that you are consistent in so much as you post on a fairly regular basis, bi - weekly say, so that your followers know when to expect your next missive, unlike me lol. Just be careful you don't go overboard and burn yourself out. 

Tomorrow is D, how's your A2Z going? See ye around the web.

TWW