31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 10: Pop-ups

Posted in 31 day author platform challenge, Writer's Platform, Writing Children's Books by bitsykemper

[Before we start, have you followed 10 new people yet?]

How to add a pop-up to capture email addys for your newsletter

Now that we’ve (almost?) figured out what our next several newsletters are going to be, we need to find a way to build our email list. Creating the actual sign-up form isn’t a piece of cake, if we’re being honest. Not impossible, but it’s potentially tedious.

Today we create a form on your website that will automatically capture emails for you, for your future newsletter.

Creating a signup form on your website

You need to choose a service that will create a pop-up form for you to add to your website (I’m assuming you won’t create the code yourself). Check with your website host to see if they have one already built in; what a godsend if so! Otherwise check out the many available (always try free first!) services like Mailchimp, HubSpot, ConvertKit, AWeber, GetResponse, ConstantContact. They’ll have pop-up templates you can customize to match your brand.

Anyone who signs up via the pop-up will be set aside and placed in an email list for you. Many services also offer newsletter templates you can create and send directly from their site, without having to download and transfer the list, so look for that.

I’m all about as few steps as possible. But I’m also about as cheap as possible, if I’m being honest. So do your homework. Right now I’m using a relatively seamless plugin, but TBH it took two days of research to figure out, and another to implement. I first went with Mailchimp but then added MailPoet plugin meaning ultimately upgrading ONCE AGAIN to do it all from WordPress. I guess simpler does have a cost that is worth it. At any rate, it’s done. If you are at any page of my website, it should pop-up in five seconds.

Starting steps:

Find out things like where do the emails go, if you are notified when people sign up, how many free addresses allowed, etc. (With free the MailPoet I now use I get the first 1,000 addys for free—but as mentioned I had to upgrade a few levels of WordPress to be able to add the free plug in…is anything worth it ever easy?)
Pick and personalize the look of the pop-up form from a template they provide. Adjust colors and fonts to match your brand.
Determine when and where your pop-up form will show up. You should be able to decide if it appears on every page of your site, if it fades in or sparkles, how long it stays up, does it appear when people arrive at your site or when they leave, etc.
Use a strong or fun call to action. Tell people WHY they should sign up for your newsletter, what to expect, and what they’ll get in return. “Sign up for my monthly newsletter chock full of industry insights and news, and get a free xxx. Offer ends Dec 31st so sign up soon!” (In that example, starting Jan 1st you can reword the offer and have it expire a few months later.)
Add it your website asap. No excuses for waiting. If it’s not perfect, fix it later. JUST GET IT UP! Done is better than perfect! Most form builders will provide the code needed to add to your website so you just copy and paste. Some offer simpler drag-and-drop option. (My upgraded plug was a download so I didn’t have to open a new account.)
Now go to the program where you created the form, and figure out a sequence of events that happens once people sign up. Do you want a confirmation or Thank You email to be automatically sent once they hit ENTER? Create it now. They’ll walk you through it.

Does this make sense? Take your time.

Do your best to make it happen today. Create the form. See it through, even if it’s a PITA (pain in the ***). You don’t have to go live today, just have ALL the groundwork done today.

Recap: create a pop-up sign-up form for your soon-to-be launched newsletter.

Tomorrow we start working on your “lead magnet” — the incentive to get people to use that sign up form.

17Mar2016

Author Platform: Maximizing Social Media

Posted in Writer's Platform, Writing Children's Books by bitsykemper

slick image from jsums.edu

Last post we defined Author Platforms. So tell me, what is an Author Platform, do you remember? It’s how you show your unique qualities that “brand” you as a writer or artist…with the ultimate goal of leading to book sales. It’s a long term goal, not a RIGHT NOW CLICK HERE goal. No one likes the CLICK HERE RIGHT NOW guy, amiright?

Social media is one of the main ways you create your brand. Since most of your readers will never meet you in person, it’s how most of your readers get to know you. This post is gonna look at ways to maximize social media so you can give yourself the best platform. We’ll talk through some real examples, screenshotted below.

If you need to take a step back and get a basic primer on Twitter, check out https://bitsykemper.com/2014/07/15/twitter-101-the-basics-for-writers/

General social media tips to support your Author Platform:

Be you, all the time.
Have fun! Every tweet/post doesn’t have to have something to do with writing or illustrating, but each one should still reflect who you are and what you stand for. Remember the part about the real you needing to shine through?
Sorry to say this, but people are people. And by that, I mean selfish. I’m not judging. It’s fact. We are always asking ourselves WIIFM? As in, What’s In It For Me? No one has time, and we make decisions in a snap. You need to do whatever you can to convince me, quickly, that what you have to say will benefit me. And then come through. So don’t just tell me your book trailer is finished and give me a link. Tell me what the trailer is about, what I’ll see, why it’s worth watching. I need to know WIIFM or I’m not going to click. Even if I like you. I just don’t have time.
Other people are selfish–but you need to be giving. Stop talking about how great your product is. Let us figure that out on our own. Your book really should be able to speak for itself…or at least let others do the talking. A tweet like”Another great review, my work is profiled yet again! Click to see the latest url.2937y5/iji…” gives me no incentive to click. It’s blatant bragging. But what about “What an honor to be included in this roundup, check out the other Best 2016 Reads by Buzzfeed at url.8724r34r/…” or “Thanks for the kind review, Donna, it was nice being your guest blogger this month. I bet no one can guess how many puppies were harmed in the making of that video! [link to Donna’s website].” Do you see the difference? One is “Look at me!!” Another–the preferred method–is “There’s something in this for you, have a look.” You want to be of service. Your book or link or review just happens to be one way to help. [See #6, below.] Continue reading →

10Sep2014

A book award makes me livid? Disillusioned? Offended? All three maybe

Posted in Writing Children's Books by bitsykemper

To be recognized for your work feels great, especially when it’s by experts in your field. Right?

Well you’d think it would.

[image from leavinglaw.wordpress.com]

I got a wonderful email from someone representing a (seemingly?) legitimate industry award. They said they found out about me from one of my Twitter posts. When they looked into my books, one stood out among the others, and they felt it was so good it could win one of their awards. They were excited for me to be a part of it all!

Please note they did not actually READ any of my books, just ABOUT them.

The emailer stated:

We provide lifetime marketing assistance and low-cost exhibit opportunities among other things. First and foremost, we recognize excellent & positive products.

[image from gametimect.com]

Of course my *WARNING* *WARNING* BEEP BEEP radar went off because the very first thing they mentioned was their marketing assistance (red flag: they want your money). The second thing they referenced was recognition. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? At a minimum add the part about marketing assistance at the very end of the email, as sort of an aside?

But it gets worse.

I had to pay to be considered for this prestigious award from their panel of judges.

As in, pony up $300 per entry. A THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR entry fee. They were happy to tell me they could offer me a discount if I wanted to enter multiple books. !!! I’d eat up a years worth of profit just to enter (mediocre) books that were written in 2006.

[image from lawnchairnaturalist.wordpres.com]

I was and still am LIVID over this.

Is this common? Is this the going rate? Have I been disillusioned by common/standard business practices? I feel like kid that sees Mickey Mouse without his head on and realizes Mickey is just a kid in a costume, that he’s not real and never has been real. (Uh, sorry if that was a spoiler alert to any of you)

Anyone knee deep in the children’s book industry knows how little we authors (and illustrators) make. In fact, I have been paid less than $300 for an entire book/manuscript contract! (No, I don’t say that proudly) If this is what it takes to get a cool WINNER banner or sticker on the cover of my books, well, looks like I’ll stay award-less. I simply cannot afford to win!

Now I have a business degree. I understand operating expenses and all that. But this is like an Over-the-top Elite Country Club fee–overcharging people just so those people can proudly tell others they are members. It’s self serving and offensive.

Another analogy might be a cheezy self-proclaimed agent that has zero contacts and/or real experience that charges you to read your manuscript. This award doesn’t feel as slimy as those dirtbags, but it still feels wrong.

I am purposely not mentioning the name of the award. My goal isn’t to shame them specifically. I just need to hear from others what their experience has been. If you want to name names, please don’t do that here; email me their names and maybe we can start a secret spy detective club uncovering facade book awards. Or maybe we can help each other cry in our soup.

Until then, please be wary of emails out of the blue. Do your research before sending money anywhere (especially foreign kings that need a short term loan).

[image from wikipedia]

Even if Mickey puts his head back on, I’m still scarred.

8Jul2013

What to expect, and when to expect it (Hint: don’t set your watch)

Posted in Uncategorized by bitsykemper

So far I spent five minutes going live on WordPress and 105 minutes picking out a font. Background color? Agonizing. Theme? Changed it four times. Still not convinced it’s right yet. But alas, there are better things to do… Sometimes “good enough” has to be, well, good enough. So this is it for now.

I’ll be posting here periodically, and my goal is to make sure I don’t use this blog as a distraction away from my “real” writing, the way I use cleaning the kitchen (and honestly, you’d think it’d be spotless by now). Don’t expect cute dancing squirrels or creative icons sprinkled about that match my thinking, cause, really, who has time for that? Not me. I applaud those of you that do, though, and those of you that do it well.

There is *so* *much* great stuff out there it almost seems like a waste of time to try to recreate the wheel. I’ll be re-posting interesting stuff from other (mostly writer’s) blogs as I come across it, and make note of legit writing events and goings on as I hear of them. I’ll also have some posts of my own, like the ones I’m already doing over at The Picture Book Academy.

Now off to revising my next chapter that’s due to my editor in two days. Sorry, kitchen, you’re gonna have to wait.