Can’t believe that it is February already. How’d that happen?
If your goal for 2017 was to finish that book, publish your book, or make this year your most successful one yet as a self-published author, this week’s articles might just help you stay on target.
Sandra Beckwith on Build Book Buzz
Authors and Facebook Live
“My goal with this article is to help you think about how you might use Facebook Live for book promotion and marketing. This piece of it is just important as the technology. You don’t need to spend any time learning about the app until you better understand what you want to accomplish with this marketing tool — and how you’ll do that.”
Shari Stauch on Where Writers Win
Are You Engaging Your Audience with Epic Social Media Images?
“For authors, most of whom are getting 80% or more of their sales online, we need to pay attention to the quality of our own social media images to better connect with our reading audience. Sure, we may be about the words, but let’s not forget that a picture can be worth a thousand of ’em… or more, if those images are helping readers engage with you!”
Jennifer Brown Banks on How to Blog a Book
How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan for Your Blog
“Today bloggers and authors must use social media to market their posts and books. Social media marketing represents an integral part of attracting readers and selling books.”
Stephanie Chandler on Nonfiction Authors Association
Ways Your Contacts Can Participate in Book Promotion
“When planning your book launch, it’s important to involve your contacts—friends, family, peers, and associates—and have them help you.”
Sabrina Ricci on Digital Pubbling
139 Tools and Resources for Building Your Author Website and/or Blog
“Author websites and blogs are important components to building an author platform. With that in mind, here is a list of resources that can help you set up and optimize your site.”
All the World’s a Book Fair (or Writer’s Conference) Calendar
Free-Write Fling (February 1–28)
The Internet
Cynthia Morris can teach you how to write online for $97. So can a Google search, for free. I don’t know, maybe she’s good. Also, it keeps you from having to leave the house during the month of February. Warning: this course runs 3 to 4 times a year and is listed as lasting 30 days, so once again February cheats you out of a couple days.
Moravian College Writers’ Conference (February 3–4)
Bethlehem, PA
The theme is Writing & Sustainability. What, is writing killing the world too?
Keynote speaker Alison Hawthorne Deming’s book Science and Other Poems won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. Other presenters have science/writing hybrid backgrounds, and people like Kate Brandes and Benjamin Cohen know the science of sustainability, in addition to the art of writing a good sentence.
22nd Annual South Coast Writers Conference (February 17–18)
Gold Beach, OR
This conference always exploits Presidents’ Day (which my more devoted fans know to be my favorite holiday) for its three-day weekend. Go to a fish fry and a writers’ conference. Enjoy the Golden Beach of the Rogue River. Sounds like a story already!
San Francisco Writers Conference (February 16–19)
San Francisco, CA
Presiding over this one will be keynote speakers Heather Graham (her books have their own signature cover style—that’s when you’ve made it), William Bernhardt (founder of the Red Sneaker Writing Center), and John Perkins (self-confessed economic hit man).
The Asheville Christian Writers Conference Writers Boot Camp (February 17–19)
Asheville, NC
There’s a large targeted market of Christian readers, hungry for insight, as the authors of The Purpose Driven Life, The Shack, and The Secret can attest. But how to write that book that shares your vision with the world? Maybe the answer is in Asheville, but you’re going to have to PM the host to get on the waiting list, because the conference is SOLD OUT.
Southern California Writers’ Conference (February 17–20)
San Diego, CA
This conference claims to have gotten first-time writers $4 million in book and screen deals. It’s critique driven, with a special unit on developing your novel, from formulating your initial concept and figuring out what genre it is to developing your acts and character arcs. There are many other workshops to hone your writing tools.
SleuthFest (February 23–26)
Boca Raton, FL
What other writers’ conference has a “Forensic Guest of Honor”? Yes, there are pitch sessions. Yes, there are writing craft sessions and critiques. YES, there is bestselling author David Baldacci, but go to learn current forensic techniques, with hands-on workshops.
Writer’s Winter Escape Cruise 2017 (February 26–March 3)
Cozumel, Mexico
Five days on a boat ought to focus your muse. The cruise leaves Miami for Nassau, Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico. There are publishing representatives aboard, and you might all get trapped on a desert island together, or at the mai tai bar. Make your pitch!
Photo: pexels.com
