31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 1: Cross-Platform Assessment

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

Let’s assess!

Thanks for joining me on the 31 Day Author Platform Challenge. Have you read yesterday’s “31 Day Author Platform Challenge Prep Day” yet? If not, it’s on this page–hit this repost. The rest of us will wait. We need to be sure you’re set up and ready.

Is your notebook or online list handy? (The one we talked about in the link above?)

As we kick off our author platform growth, we have a choice: breadth or depth. We can go all in on a few, or do your best across many. All have pluses and minuses. For this challenge, we are going for DEPTH. We want to spend as time as we can handle on a few chosen platforms, in order to master what best suits our audience. At the end of the month, we’ll have better data to see if we’re reaching the right audience in the right places.

For Day One, as excited as I am to kick things off and start “doing,” our first task needs to be looking at the big picture. That means we’re not mass-posting yet.

We are going to start by taking an overall assessment of our platform, because, to paraphrase a scene in Alice in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?”

Grab that notebook or open your To Do list app. Time to take some notes.

Part 1: Where do you stand today?

Write down every social media platform you have an account for. Create a new page for each, writing the name at the top of the page. Let each one have its own front and back page to itself. Include (if you have them) newsletter, website, blog, FB, Insta, Twitter, YouTube, Mastadon, LinkedIn, True, Post…whatever you have. My LinkedIn account is often ignored and I wonder if I still need it. But I’m including it the list since my name (and brand) is still on it.
- As an aside, I should point out I use the term “platform” several ways and it might be confusing at first. I talk about our “author platform”–meaning how we are viewed online, and I talk about “social media platforms”–meaning the specific app used, such as FB or Twitter. Sometimes I refer to the latter as social media account, or social media outlet, app, site, etc. I assume you’ll be able to follow along.
Add to the list any account or platform you’ve been thinking about adding. For me, I want to start a newsletter. I also want to work on a YouTube channel waay in the future.
Now go to each of your current accounts. On your newly-written-page-for-each (see #1) write down:
- a. the number of followers you have for each
- b. the number of people you follow right now
- c. the audience you currently talk to and/or the purpose the account serves (you may not have thought of it. OK to write ‘don’t know’)

This is your starting point.

Part 2: Where do you want to go?

You should have one overarching goal for the 31 days (like consistency in brand or more frequent posts). My goal for your (and my) brand is consistency. Not perfection. Not even X#s of new followers, because unless you buy followers, it’s sorta out of your control. You can do everything right but you can’t make someone hit “like” or “follow.”

In your spiral or virtual notebook, write down one goal for each social media platform for these 31 days. You might have a different goal for each. Maybe it’s up FB followers by 30%, increase Twitter by 20%, etc. For me, I want to interact authentically on FB more. For Insta, I want to spend less time scrolling and more time interacting with the right audience. For Twitter, I want to EVENTUALLY grow to 10K followers, but I’ll settle for growing from almost 3K to 5K for now (which I know will take probably 2+ months if I’m aggressive). For LinkedIn, I want to figure out how to best utilize it. I want to start a newsletter and figure out YouTube.
- If you want to work towards a certain number of new followers, that’s great! But come up with a goal that’s SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time) or it won’t happen. I mean, wanting to grow from the 300 followers you’ve had for 8 years to a total of 10,000 in a month is unrealistic. But 30% increase? Sure—if you work for it. A study by the Dominican University of CA showed 42% of people that wrote down their goals were more likely to achieve them. Telling people about the goals increases the likelihood even more, as it makes you feel more accountable. But I want you to write them down simply so you know where you’re going. Place it on your vision board, if you have one. Refer back to it often.

Part 3: Pick your top three favorite or most used platforms and look at some of your most recent posts.

What do you see? Use that newly-created standalone notebook page to write down observations. Ask yourself questions like:

When people visit my profile page(s), or see my posts, can they instantly tell it’s “sooo me”?
When they read my posts, regardless of the topic, do they hear or see a consistent “voice”?
Am I welcoming and engaging?
Do I come across as consistent, or haphazard?
Is the voice, font, colors, content all in line with my brand?

What will it take to get you to a place where you like the answers to these questions in all these places? Make some observations and come up with some ideas in your notebook. DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING YET. Just make note and write down on each page. (See why I said to give each platform its own two-sided page?)

Can you make these changes and create the perfect author brand in a day? No. But you can work on it from here on. (Am I perfect at this? No, but I’m always “me,” so I know that’s consistent!)

Part 4: Let’s look at time spent, and why.

That app you first went to and looked at in Part 3–why do you spend most of your time there? Who are your followers there now, and is the general potential pool of followers the right audience for you? Think about that for a minute before answering. It’s important.

Interestingly, I realized I spend the most amount of time on Insta, which is probably dumb, because I have the fewest number of followers there . . . so branding aside, that was an instant THINK moment for me: Why am I spending the most amount of time in a place that’s giving me the lowest ROI?

I need to ask: even if I had perfect branding, am I reaching (the right) future customers in this space? Am I there because I am interacting there for fun (which is fine! but make a mental note of it), or am I simply losing precious time scrolling and scrolling? Now that I see I’m there A LOT, if I choose to continue spending time there, I need to ask if it’s someplace worth dedicating more branding time, so that time is better spent. Or, I need to choose another outlet.

I also realized that my LinkedIn profile and followers aren’t honestly the best potential buying audience. BUT I’m not ditching it because it’s a GREAT place for potential work-for-hire. I need to make sure any and all content there is directed at a completely different audience, and modify posts accordingly. TBH I’ve made myself feel a little better about how I’ve been ignoring it, as WFH isn’t a huge priority for me right now. So I realize it needs to take a back seat. I can only do so much!

After reviewing and listing all your platforms…

PICK THREE PLATFORMS TO FOCUS ON THIS MONTH.

**Do not work on all of them, it’s just too much. Trust me.**

When I refer to “across all your platforms” from here on. I am referring to these top three.

We have to decide if a platform where we have low reach is where we want to concentrate our efforts, or if we need ditch and go back to a different one and revive those contacts. Maybe our website is where we have the most solid followers? We need to look into what it will take to reach our preferred audience at whichever social media platform we choose to prioritize. The choice should be based on a combination of what makes us happy and where we’re more likely to find our audience. *scribbles new note in To Do List notebook to do the math for each platform*

[As an aside, you’ll notice I never mention the ol’ TiketyTokety by name. That’s because as big as the chances of going viral there are, IMHO that audience, the demographics, ISN’T a picture-book-buying audience. Teens and 20-somethings and influencer wannabes aren’t shopping for baby books. But the mainly 30-to-60+ year old women on FB are! They are a perfect PB audience. And, they are (or can be?) kind and chatty and people I enjoy talking with. We can discuss this all you like; you may have a very different experience or perspective on apps. But that’s my take on why I won’t be mentioning that clock app over the course of the 31 days. If it’s been proven to work for you, feel free to include it in your plan!]

We want to look at AND clean up our branding across every site/app we have or are thinking about. We should start with the one that has the largest or most engaged audience, and work our way down the list.

Bottom line: as far as author branding, we should ultimately spend the most amount of our time where there is the biggest potential payoff.

And we’d never know where if we didn’t just take that assessment.

Now, since I’m an action girl and this feels like groundwork, if you’re like me you probably don’t feel like this is really “getting started” because you haven’t acted on anything yet.

Be careful what you wish for, lol, because I have an ongoing daily task for you. Pick either the platform you like the most (for me, Twitter) or the one you most want to grow your following (for me, toss up btwn FB and Twitter). Right now, open your fave and follow ten new people. Yep 10. Should be super easy. Don’t angst over it, just follow 10 people that you want to engage with. And do it again every day this month.

First action task:

EVERY DAY, when you wake up, before you even get out of bed, follow 10 new people.

I know you have your phone next to your bed, don’t make excuses already, it’s only Day One lol. You have time to do this. If you get stumped on where to find them, scroll for someone you admire, or an influencer in your genre and age range with a huge following, and see who they follow. See who follows them. Befriend those peeps. You already know they are the people you want to connect with!

Recap: Today you made a huge list of assessments in your notebook with one page for each social media site listing current number of followers and SMART goals, and you chose the top three platforms to focus on this month.

And you will follow 10 new people in one of those platforms–every day this month!

Helpful Day One? Too much to do, or read? Leave a comment and let me know.

3Jun2023

31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 3: Quote it

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?]

We’ve done a ton of thinking and a little bit of grunt work. Let’s take a break and do some fast action. Our Day 3 of the 31 Day Author Platform Challenge is a simple task. Remember those accounts I told you to sign up for and open? Today you’re going to create a gif/png/meme of your favorite writing-related author quote, and post it across all your social media platforms–even the new ones. You can choose a cool quote from a character in your published book if you’d like; the background image could be a page from the book or your book cover (assuming you have rights to do so–check first!). And, you’ll be keeping your author brand in mind as you do so.

Note: a gif is video while a meme (in PDF, JPG, PNG, HTML, XML, etc formats) is a static image. I use the terms interchangeably.

Creating the PNG/PDF

If you don’t have a quote in mind already, do an online search for one. Consider flipping through old conference notes for something a speaker said that resonated with you.
Go to Canva or Book Brush or Imgflip or Insta or whichever you prefer, and check out the (free) quote templates already created. No sense recreating the wheel. They might have actual quotes already waiting for you in the template itself. I got the above wording from Book Brush in the quotes template.
Add the quote to the template as necessary, and who said it. In my example, it’s more a thought so I didn’t worry about an attribution (Book Brush didn’t offer one anyway). From a visual standpoint, I should have moved the quote up over the image of the boy a bit so the PNG isn’t so tall. But I got impatient.
Are those template font and colors “on brand” for you? If not, change them to ones that are. I changed the template’s background color and font.
Add in your website or social media handle, in a subtle 10-point or smaller font, about 50-75% opaque text so it doesn’t jump out, and place it at the very bottom or vertically along the side. In the above example, my URL is too large and too obvious. This way you get credit when it’s copied, RTed, or goes viral. You also get brand recognition. The quote below is more on brand for me, and has softer URL.
Bonus points if in the post caption you add an interaction Q such as “What do you think?” or “What’s your take?”
Post away! Add it to every account you have: FB, Twitter, Insta, etc. If you chose and opened that automation tool like you were supposed yesterday, this will be suuuper easy for you…one and done!
Bonus points if you take the time in each platform to target each different audience with an interactive Q posted in the caption such as “What do you think?” or “What’s your take?” Remember, your FB audience, for example, might need the Q worded differently than your website audience. Yes, it takes more time to do that, but could be worth it.

Note: if adding to your blog or website, and you have the time or desire, add +/- 300 words on why the quote is important and relevant to you. It’s a blog, afterall. But OK if no; it’s fine to simply post the gif/png/pdf.

How long did it take you, start to finish? Leave a note in the comments.

That’s it! Day 3 complete!

10May2023

New! Over 80 Publishers Accepting Children’s Books

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

…No Agent Needed!

Updated as of May 16, 2023

cute girl reading a picture book to her stuffed bunny — Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Finding publishers accepting children’s books is no easy task! I know because I’ve been doing it awhile. I’ve authored 16 books without an agent. I’m now actively pursuing one, given the tighter and more competitive climate, but am still pitching solo. It’s not impossible, and I know many other kidlit authors/illustrators that are staying commando. Wait, I mean rogue. Agentless? You know what I mean.

image of "closed" sign symbolizing publishers closed to picture book submissions

But as I get ready to submit my next round of picture books, I see more and more publishers that USED to be open to submissions are either closed and now agent only, are at capacity and temporarily closed until further notice, or sadly have shuttered down completely. Some have been bought out by larger houses so their policies have changed, some are simply catching up from the constant influx of subs and are temporarily overwhelmed.

What that means to me is that aaalll those great lists of picture book publishers I’ve bookmarked and found sooo helpful are now outdated. It’s frustrating to have to re-research every link. You feel my pain, I know you do.

[click READ MORE to read entire post and get to list]

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18Feb2021

Growth Along the Writing Journey

Posted in Writing Children's Books by bitsykemper

As a panelist on the WriteOnCon session “We Were All New Writers Once: Growth on the Journey,” I spent some time reflecting, of course, on my own writing journey.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Here’s the thing: I honestly never thought I’d be a writer.

My daughter disagrees. She says from what I’ve told her, at every turn I was a writer…from the boxes and boxes of saved handwritten letters (each one means I wrote to them first), to papers I claimed to have loved writing in school (including my dissertation), to comedy & theatre sketches, to the way I somehow always ended up writing at work whether it was news releases or ghostwritten technical papers or business plans. She even mentioned the mock Christmas newsletters I used to send out, like when I claimed she toured Europe in sold-out piano concertos (she was 7) and one son had unlocked the secret to the Dead Sea Scrolls (he was 5) and the other had been banned in the Midwest for his expert ninja skills (he was 3). [I guess I was always creative if nothing else.] Yes, I had stints as on-air and newspaper reporters too, but they came as a result of a corporate job where, to make a long story short, I ended up co-writing a syndicated newspaper column on a fluke.

Or was it a fluke?

Did I unknowingly will it to happen? Have I always been a writer?

My daughter’s accusation, if you will, really caught me off guard. But OK. Maybe I really have always been a writer even if I didn’t realize it until this week. Maybe it’s that I never thought I’d be an author. But honestly, aren’t they really the same thing?

I realized I have always been drawn to — what…places? work?… — where writing plays a large role. What a great creative outlet! And you’re in control the whole time. Don’t like what you’ve written? Go back and fix it. Get feedback that what you’ve written isn’t right, or good? Well it’s not like math–right or wrong. It’s subjective. So you don’t have to like what I’ve written. I do! It’s the perfect loophole, lol.

Surely that “you can’t tell me it’s wrong” caveat gets tricky when it comes to being published. The other person HAS to like what you’re writing in order to publish it, unless you are self publishing. Even then, there are grammar rules, punctuation, etc. People have to like your writing in order to buy it. It’s not exactly a free-for-all. But as a writer, I am in control of everything! I write when I want. What I want. I certainly take what others say into consideration. I honor proper English and don’t go rogue on spelling or manuscript formatting or query protocol. I have several critique partners that I couldn’t live without. I definitely do my research, attend conferences, and listen to experts. I learn and adapt. I feel I improve a little every day. I don’t do it for anyone else, any more than someone who practices free shots in their driveway over and over does it for any one other than themselves. (Are they trying to impress the neighbors? Get an NBA contract? No. They just want to get better at free throws. They earn a sense of accomplishment, of work well done.)

My daughter had a point. Maybe my journey started before I even knew I was on board, and all that time I spent writing earlier in life helped land me where I am now.

And my journey isn’t over. Far from it.

Maybe your journey started years ago too. Maybe it’s starting right now. No matter when it began, your writing journey can go wherever you want it to! You are in control, my friend.

Your writing is yours. Only you can write what you write, from your perspective, with your voice, with your knowledge base. And so too is your writing journey. Only you can decide where and how to map it out. Only you decide how often you write, how often you edit, how seriously you take professional feedback and direction. It might be up to another person to say yes or no as far as a contract, but its up to you to get your work to the point where they simply can’t say no! Write once in a while? Great. Just don’t expect grand success if you’re not hammering away regularly. Even the best natural writers won’t succeed unless they–wait for it–SIT DOWN AND WRITE.

It takes time. Probably more time that you’re gonna want it to take. Other people will succeed before you. But that’s their journey, not yours. Keep at it. You might not have all the time in the world right now. No one does. It might be really hard to see how to get from point A to point B if you can’t even make it through the day. We’ve all been there! If you can only afford a few hours a week for now, that’s okay. Relish those few hours a week! Work smarter so those 20 minute a day can be even more productive than an open day where “let me just finish this last email” leads to three hours of wasted time. It’s your time, respect it. It doesn’t have to be strictly in front of your computer. Block off time on the calendar and temporarily cut off the internet. Eat lunch alone outside under a tree and speak your notes into your phone. Brainstorm while folding laundry. Find a pen-pal to swap ideas and manuscripts with (note: be upfront with what you are looking for: do you want ongoing positive reinforcement or true honest feedback?)(not that they are mutually exclusive!). Try to do one thing every day to move your path forward, even if it’s one tiny step…but don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day. Or three.

Your journey can only move forward if you’re in motion!

Mainly: take yourself seriously. Allow yourself that daily distraction-free time, even if nothing immediately usable comes of it. Nothing creative is wasted anyway. You’ll reuse it in some form, either by learning from it (finding out it’s not a direction you want the story to go, for example, is great progress!) or from the positivity you just allowed yourself to embrace.

Don’t forget the “journey” part of the writing journey means it’s a process, not a one-time event. The journey might be spotty and frustrating at times, but it will also be rewarding and wonderful. Stick with it, even if it’s just for fun. Not everything we write has to have the ultimate goal of being published. Some of our best writings never have to be read by anyone but ourselves. We can be proud of our work no matter where it sits. The important thing is that we’re writing–present tense.

Never thought you’d BE A WRITER?

You already are.

10Mar2016

Creating an Author Platform

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

Quick quiz: You’re told you need to work on your “Author Platform.” You:

A. Smile politely, then go back to searching online for cute cat outfits
B. Nod, smile, then furiously Google “author platform” hoping you’re not the last to know what the heck that is
C. Think “Oh, yeah it really is time I update and interact with my social media” [Facebook, Twitter, Insta, blog and/or website], then dig right in
D. B or C but definitely not A (unless it was a really good sale)

Correct answer: D

What is an Author Platform? And why do you need to care?

Let’s break it down. Author. Platform. It’s like a compound word. (Author Platforms or Writer Platforms, no matter what you call it, are the same thing, don’t get hung up on author vs writer. For the sake of ease, we’ll use the terms synonymously here. I’m also capitalizing the words here for effect, which is unnecessary elsewhere.) What does the phrase mean?

As defined, a writer or an author is someone who has written something. A platform is a raised surface, something you’d stand onfor better visibility. Like a stage. Put the words together and you’ve got an image of a writer standing on a, well, platform, a little taller than everyone around them. They stand out; you can spot them in a crowd.

That’s the writer you want to be.

You want to be the writer/author that people can find easily or can recognize…the one that stands out. And you’ll need a platform on order to do it.

“Author Platform: your visibility as an author, utilizing your personal ability to sell books through who you are, the connections you have, and the media outlets you use.” –Writer’s Digest

Branding

I think of the term as a less-commercial way of saying “author branding.” It means how you present yourself to the public, and how you are seen/viewed by readers, agents, editors, fellow writers/artists and anyone else paying attention. It’s a way of showing your unique qualities that “brand” you as a person, as a writer, or artist…with the ultimate goal of leading to book sales.

Don’t confuse it with image. Image implies something perceived. You’ll be putting the real, flawed you out there, just like you do for your main characters. An Author Platform should be based on truth. You’re not an actor hiring a publicity agent to get media attention. You’re you, showing who you are, with the ultimate goal that the likable you is worthy of following or noting or reading or acknowledging, and it will at some point lead to book sales. Isn’t that why school visits, book signings, special promotions, launch parties and all that exist: to sell books? Well you’re the in-person version of that, the walking billboard, the neon sign, the ever-friendly smile of customer service, open 24/7. Except when you’re asleep. Or driving. Or whatever. You know what I mean.

You are NOT shaking hands and asking people to buy your book all the time, oh no, you’re missing the point if that’s what you just ran off and started doing. No one is going to follow or buy the book from a guy that’s sending pestering Tweets or spamming Facebook posts or always standing up in groups asking people to buy their books after the meeting. Boy is that annoying or what? I hate that guy. What I’m saying is you are your brand. You represent you. So be respectable. Make me like you. Make me WANT to buy your book. If you do it right, you will probably never have to say the words “Buy my book.” I’ll decide I want to on my own.

Note this is a Writer Platform, not a book platform. This is about you, not your book. Why?
Because you’re more than one book. If you brand yourself too closely with one title, on the next book you’ll have to do it all over again. That confuses people. They can handle lots of books, but they only want one you. Brand yourself correctly and all your books will easily fall under that one umbrella…you!

Public Perception

Everything you post online becomes a part of your brand. Your Tweets, your FB posts, your blog updates. Your forwards, your shares, your likes. It all shapes the person people see. Those who have never met you can only form an opinion based on what they see. And that’s based on what you do. How you reply to comments. What you post or repost. It’s not always what you say, but how you say it. The way you talk to your friends. The way they talk to you, even. It all paints a picture.

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10Feb2016

2016 NY Writers Conference: Who’s With Me?

Posted in Writing Children's Books, Writing events by bitsykemper

I’m headed to one of the largest children’s book writing conferences in the world: the SCBWI Winter Conference (why our annual winter conference is in NY [where it’s supposed to be 8° this weekend] and the summer conference is in LA, I’ll never understand, but that’s another topic.) And OVER A THOUSAND fellow writers and illustrators will be there too. The event boasts many top (dare I say famous) editors, agents, art directors, authors & illustrators in the children’s publishing world. It’s going to be a fantastic few days of learning, inspiration, and friend making.

The large mix of attendees is weighted a little heavily towards the beginner, with many in the intermediate and many many in what I’d call the “seasoned professional” category. The NY conference is a little different from other SCBWI conferences in that, given the proximity to so many publishing houses, it practically rains editors and agents. You’ll see them at conference keynotes, intensives, panels, awards ceremonies, heck, even elevators. Some of them just show for the Art Show or Gala Dinner. Many of them are either new or overworked and don’t travel much, so you won’t see them elsewhere.

If you’ve never been, and have wondered if it’s worth it, I have to give it a hearty YES YES, two cramped writing thumbs up. And not just because I love my NY roots and will find any excuse to go back. But because it’s a writing experience like no other. It’s not a pore-over-your-workshop-notes-and-guarantee-yourself-an-aha-moment. It’s a wow-I’m-really-a-writer-surrounded-by-other-writers-and-this-is-where-I-want-to-be-moment. If you don’t have one of those while you’re there, well, you might not be a writer after all. And that’s OK, too. Isn’t that an important learning moment as well? No matter what you walk away with, I promise you won’t regret your decision to attend. There’s a reason a thousand people from around the world will be at this thing.

Now if you happen to be one of these thousands of fellow conference attendees this week or sometime in the future, and are fearing for your life because you’d rather be in your jammies creating in the privacy of your home and not in the middle of a grand ballroom surrounded by all these cat ladies, here are some conference tips to maximize your trip.

Conference tips:

You’re not going to get a contract (seriously, toss that thought right now), but you WILL make contacts. These connections might lead to a contract some day. But don’t pressure yourself, or others. Listen. Learn. Be present. Follow some new people on Twitter and Facebook (follow this blog!). It’s kind of like college-you aren’t really there to memorize the Periodic Table; you’re Continue reading →