Category: Guest Posts

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Reclaiming Rejection

Eighteen months ago, I hit the proverbial pavement and began querying any publication that would accept my storytelling, devotional submissions. No one told me with multiple submissions would come multiple rejections. And as the weeks passed, I began sifting through far more rejections than acceptance letters. It felt like I was in junior high again.

After a few days of discouragement, I decided to make a list of all the reasons the editors might not be accepting my writing.  And to my surprise, some of them weren’t about the writing. Rejection’s power over me, convinced me that I was inadequate. However, when I took the time to examine my writing and myself, I realized a I needed to reclaim a few truths about rejection:

1 Rejection isn’t final.

One rejection, especially the first one, can make you feel like you don’t have a place in the world of writing. But when you think of all the inventors and scientists and athletes that have become heroes and legends, their lists of failures surpass their success. But it didn’t stop them. They realized this was just one rejection in a long line of getting it right. Don’t let rejection convince you that you’re finished.

2.   Rejection comes for many reasons.

 As I brainstormed the reasons I was getting rejected, I realized that the rejection sometimes has nothing to do with the writing. Perhaps instead it has to do with:

  • The publication has already covered your topic. This happens most often with seasonal publications. They are full. It has nothing to do with your submission.
  • The writing is excellent but the tone doesn’t match the audience. Clear communication of tone and expression are usually found in the writing guidelines of a particular publication. Be sure to follow those guidelines.
  • Sometimes the topic or scripture or illustration has been overused. Studying the previous issues of the publication will help you know the variety of articles that have been used and also give you clear direction on writing something fresh and new.
  • Sometimes the information I presented in my submission was too focused on one audience. Knowing who I am writing for is key to writing a message that will be accepted. Know your audience.

These tips helped me to evaluate whether it was my writing they were rejecting, or was it something else. Being careful to follow the writer’s guidelines will help you secure a spot in your favorite publication.

3.   Rejection is not personal.

The editor doesn’t know if you have a good personality or not. He doesn’t know if you are practicing what you write about. He doesn’t even know if you had an argument with your spouse before submitting your article on marriage. The rejection is not personal. You are still who you are. Don’t let rejection write the final word.

4.   God didn’t reject you.

Are you writing for a bigger purpose than yourself? If so, then you have probably prayed over your work and attempted your very best for God. That’s worship. That’s not rejection. When we take our words, in all their frailty, and give them to the Lord as an offering, that is 100% an act of worship. He accepts our offering.

5.   Rejection leaves room for the better acceptance.

After rejection, the sweet smell of acceptance is even better. It’s like a shower after the end of a long day working in the yard. Everyday a shower is a good idea, but the cool water on dirty hands and feet feels better than ever when you’ve worked hard. That’s what a letter of acceptance, a published article or a signed contract feels like.

Keep trying! Don’t give up! The world needs writer’s whose message is far reaching, truthful and encouraging. The world needs your voice. Don’t let the rejection of yesterday hinder you from growing your craft, submitting your work and worshiping God with the fruit of your labor.

After years of living in fear and defeat, Gina Stinson is busy reclaiming every day for God’s glory. She is a pastor’s wife of 26 years and homeschool mom of two teenagers. Between family and ministry, she enjoys dabbling in gardening, crocheting and playing music on her second hand, baby grand piano. She writes true stories of God’s reclaiming power and is a storyteller for those who have overcome their circumstances and embraced God’s goodness. Her first collection of storytelling devotions, Reclaimed, The Stories of Rescued Moments and Days, will be released in November, 2020.

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Guest Posts

Publishing Dreams Can Come True

In the early 1920s, a young boy who hadn’t cared much for reading became enthralled with Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. He then read everything he could get his hands on.

He dreamed of writing his own stories. He hadn’t had much formal education, but he knew life with his dogs and home. He didn’t have paper, so he wrote descriptions in the dirt of what he heard in nature.

As a young man, he traveled around the country looking for work and wrote stories in his off time. He cut open brown bags for paper to write on. He couldn’t spell well. He wrote line after line continuously with no paragraphs. His only punctuation was a dash when he came to a pause in a narrative. When he finished, he rolled the paper up, tied it with a string, and put it in his trunk. He was ashamed of his lack of skill, but he kept writing the stories on his heart.

When he met the woman he wanted to marry, he was so ashamed of his writing that he burned all his manuscripts before the wedding. Some months later, he told his wife, Sophie, about the stories he had burned. She encouraged him to write them again.

He wouldn’t let her see the manuscript until he was done. When he finally gave her the manuscript, he left the house because he didn’t want to see her reaction. When he called her, she told him the story was wonderful but needed to be lengthened. What he had was too long for a story and too short for a book.

The man transformed his 30,000 words into 80,000. His wife edited his handwritten manuscript.

The manuscript was accepted for serialization by the Saturday Evening Post and then published as a book by Doubleday. But Doubleday marketed the book to adults, and sales languished. One editor who believed in the story arranged for the author to speak to a group of teachers, who then took the book back to their classrooms. Children loved it. The publisher reclassified the story as a children’s book. The book eventually became a beloved classic: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, based on his boyhood in Oklahoma.

Rawls later spoke all across the country. His most famous speech was titled “Dreams Can Come True” about his own writing journey (his speech can be heard in five parts on YouTube beginning here).

Rawls’ story encourages writers in several ways.

1. If you have a story on your heart, write it. Rawls found ways to write through less than ideal circumstances.

2. If you don’t have the necessary skills, it’s never been easier to acquire them. Numerous books, classes, and conferences are available. Many writers share vital information and advice for free through blogs and podcasts. You probably have friends willing to read your work and give you feedback. You might pray for your own “Sophie,” who would be willing to edit your work.

3. Trust God’s guidance. I don’t know if Rawls was a Christian. But you can’t listen to his story without noting several key factors or people without which his book would not have come to be: Sophie, the Saturday Evening Post editor who wanted to take the book to Doubleday, the Doubleday editor who fought for the story, the speaking engagement to teachers, the switch in marketing from adults to children. Ask God to guide your way, bring across your path the people you need to meet, and incline your thinking and your publisher’s as to the best way to present the book.

With help, hard work, and God’s leading, publishing dreams can come true.

Barbara Harper lives with her husband of 40 years in Knoxville, TN. They raised three sons, one of whom added a lovely daughter-in-law and an adorable grandson to the family. Barbara loves reading, writing, and card-making. She has blogged for almost 14 years at https://barbaraleeharper.com/. She wrote a newsletter for women at her church for 15 years as well as magazine articles, newspaper columns, and guest blog posts. One of her passions is encouraging women to get into the Word of God for themselves. She’s currently working on her first book-length project.

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Four Things Book Marketing Bloggers Aren’t Telling You

On its surface, the internet is a wonderful resource to learn about how to sell your book. With a huge variety of book marketers sharing their tips and winning strategies, alongside a sparkling resume of accomplishments, it can be easy to be sucked into their rhetoric and believe that they have all the keys to book marketing success. The issue is, they don’t. More often than not, knowingly or unknowingly, they are leaving out important realities about book marketing and trying to convince you that, like the Jackson 5, it’s as easy as one two three. Sorry to say, but it’s not, so next time you read a top ten list of tips and strategies, bear in mind these four things they’ll often ignore.

Specificity

The internet is awash with recommendations on book marketing strategy, but how detailed are they? Smartauthorslab.com ran a survey of authors and book marketers and found that the number one frustration behind selling books is not knowing where to focus time, effort and resources. While marketing bloggers are great at suggesting tips and tricks, when it comes down to numbers they’re falling short.

How many social media posts a day? When is the best time to advertise? How much money should I spend on targetted ads? Questions like these are rarely answered in these short form blogs, and it’s because the answers are more complicated than they’d like to let you believe.

What perseverance really means

Read any book marketing blog and they’ll likely mention that marketing a book is all about perseverance. Keep at it, and you’ll get there eventually. While this is certainly true, they rarely talk specifically about what this perseverance means, and how long you may need to keep it up to get your book out there.

Many marketing bloggers will gloss over the sheer amount of time they take to implement their ‘tips’. For example, when a blog tells you to test your market, they rarely mention the authors that take years learning about their audience, testing their ads, and drafting and redrafting book covers before making a sale. Much like requesting reviews: this is something every blogger will recommend, but few will acknowledge that you might have to send your book to hundreds of reviewers before they even read them, let alone give you a collection marketable favourable reviews.

“This is the problem with success stories. So many bloggers focus on the ones who made it, often despite seemingly insurmountable odds. What they seem to overlook is that, for every champion, there are thousands of similar cases that ran out of time, money or patience,” warns Camilla Vitali, a marketer at Big Assignments and UKWritings.

The Luck Factor

Part of the reason so many book marketers don’t succeed is that they were simply unlucky, another part of book marketing most bloggers won’t mention. Now, marketing a book isn’t just about luck. Putting more effort into the marketing process certainly will make it more likely to sell than if you didn’t work at it at all, that’s obvious. But not every great book becomes a classic, or even a bestseller. When it comes down to it, there’s a lot of luck in book marketing.

“There are countless examples from the classics of literature that prove the importance of luck time and again. The Great Gatsby only sold 20,000 copies when it was first released, 50,000 fewer than expected,” says Tom Barry, a business writer at Via Writing and Essay Writing Service.

There is no winning strategy

Probably the biggest lapse in book marketing blogs is that there is no winning strategy to get your book sold. At the end of the day, no matter how respectable and accomplished a marketing writer is, all they can do is suggest strategies that can point you in the right direction.

They can tell you to open up social media accounts, they can implore you to learn about targeted advertising, they can give you reams and reams of lists of book reviewers to approach. But when it comes down to it, none of that will actually sell your book. You will sell your book, in your own particular way.

Beatrice Potter is a professional copywriter at Best Writing Services and Academized review. She specializes in all kinds of topics from marketing to business to social pursuits. She is always open to sharing her personal experience at Boomessays Review and likes to give advice to beginner writers on innovative ways to create content that sells.

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Finding a Deeper Purpose as a Writer

I’m wondering about what motivates people to start writing. After all, it’s not the easiest thing to do, and more often than not, it doesn’t pay all that well. But some people tend to have this innate love for the language that permeates their whole life. 

I’m endlessly fascinated by etymology, word choice, exotic idioms, and how language serves as source code for reality and how we use it to explore our inner and outer worlds. But is there anything besides playing around with linguistic concepts or enjoying a masterfully crafted novel?

What is the deeper purpose that motivates you to do what you do? If you feel there is none, it’s high time to start looking for it. 

It’s not only about projects and deadlines (and money)

It’s easy to get lured into the chamber of words with its promise of independence, remote work, and completing exciting projects. However, once you start writing, you realize that even though you enjoy what you do, there are a lot of tasks you do purely for the monetary gain.

Then there are nagging deadlines that push you to get your work done in a timely fashion. I’m not against paying your bills or submitting work on time, but I think it’s much better to treat writing not as a job, but rather as a calling that you’re passionate about because it can change people’s lives.

What was the last thing you’ve read that completely shifted your mindset and pulled you in a different direction? Are you a source of this kind of prose for your readers? 

The impact you make doesn’t even have to be so momentous. Maybe you specialize in providing useful information on a specific topic, or your aim is to put a smile on someone’s face when they need it the most. Whatever it is, keep this guiding principle in mind when you sit down to write another page.

Why did you decide to become a writer in the first place?

It’s crucial to have a reason behind your writing efforts. As Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” This is absolutely true when applied to the writing life.

Why do you want to write? Does it serve as a means for accomplishing one of your major goals? Do you want to steer the political conversation in a different direction? Is there a cause that more people should know about? 

By tying the craft of writing to a deeper mission, you elevate yourself to a higher realm of meaning. Now it’s not only about smashing your quota, boosting traffic on your blog, or finding ways to increase your income. It’s about how you show up in the world and what kind of impact you want to make. 

This turns you into a much more powerful individual and lets you enjoy the process of writing so much more. Remember that it’s not about the destination or some kind of an accolade that you’re after. It’s about serving your readers and enjoying every step of the way. 

Look deep inside to add spice to your writing life

There are hidden depths to you that you rarely acknowledge or pay attention to. These hidden motivations nudge you in the right direction, but you choose to ignore them because that’s more comfortable. 

To get a better understanding of what you’re after, decide to sit down with a piece of paper and muse on things that give your life meaning. It might be something completely unrelated to your current writing projects, like chamber music, the medieval culture of Japan, or saving the oceans. These eclectic sources of inspiration give uniqueness to your writing style.  

Instead of trying to suppress them, it’s time to give voice to them. It’s time to live your life in a more conscious, passionate way and be grateful for every day you have. If you can make this shift in your mindset, your whole writing life will become more enjoyable. 

So take out your journal and think about ideas discussed in this post. They will help you find a deeper purpose as a writer.

Rafal Reyzer is a full-time blogger, freelance writer, and web content editor. He started RafalReyzer.com to provide readers with great tools and strategies they can use to achieve freedom from 9-5 through online creativity. His site is a useful source of knowledge for bloggers, publishers, content enthusiasts, and freelancers who want to start their own sites, become independent, earn more money, and create beautiful things.

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The Comparison Trap: Eight Ways to Avoid It

Sometimes I look at the work of other authors and feel my abilities fall short. It doesn’t matter that God’s call is unmistakable, it’s still too easy to wonder if he can really use what I do. But it doesn’t matter if I am not as talented, or intelligent, or educated as other writers. God wants me to use what he’s given me for his purposes and the blessing of others.

Since you might struggle like I do, I’d like to share some steps you can take to avoid becoming ensnared by the dreaded comparison trap. 

Just Show Up: You win half the battle when you just sit yourself down before your computer or pad and pencil. “Lord, help me here. I feel dry and dull and I don’t know how to do this.” Then just dive in and start writing, no matter how terrible your efforts seem. The enemy of your soul likes nothing better than to discourage you and “just showing up” is an act of spiritual warfare.

Practice gratitude: The Lord is good and gives so many good things. Gratitude shifts your focus from the gift to the giver and opens your heart to receive more from him. Thank him for the gift he’s given you, for what he helps you to write, and the results that come from it. Gratitude is an act of worship. And just as importantly, thank the Lord for those other authors and what he’s given them.

Adjust your focus: It’s not about you. Keep your eyes on the Lord. If you worry about what you can produce, if you can impress, if people will like you or read what you’ve written, you’ve fallen into the pride trap. With a humble heart, offer up your gift and efforts to God, eager to see what he will do with them. 

Examine Your Priorities: What’s important to you will drive your life and your writing and decide their final outcomes. Success as a Christians writer depends on your greatest priority: intimate relationship and fellowship with your heavenly Father. That’s when the rivers of living water that Jesus promised can flow out of you through your writing to the spiritually thirsty. 

Look at the heart: As human beings, we are drawn to the outward appearance. It’s not about if you write as well as the next person but if your heart is lined up with God and his purposes. It’s when you are worried about producing or performing, trying to measure up, or “meet your quota” that writer’s block attacks.

Relinquish control and trust God: Your talents were never yours to begin with, so turn over the controls. God wants to use you and your writing to expand his kingdom. Ask him who your target audience should be and what and how he wants you to write to them. As you write with his help, ask the Holy Spirit to minister to the hearts of your readers. He can take just a few sentences from your article or a paragraph from your book and use it to change a life that will then touch others and echo through eternity.

Refine and grow your skills: Although it’s not about how talented or smart you are, working towards improving your skills is a necessity. Studies show it takes at least 10,000 hours of doing something to master it. Read books on writing, attend seminars and conferences, complete writing exercises designed to develop your proficiency. Network with and learn from other writers with more experience. Study the classics and see how those authors did it. 

Never give up: Someone once said that the one way to ensure something never happens is to give up. You are employing your talents for the Lord and for his kingdom, and he calls you to faithfulness. He never gives up on you so don’t you quit either. 

This is not about competition, about seeing who can be the most successful or productive. That’s the world’s mindset. It’s about joyfully working together to bring God glory. Falling prey to the comparison trap hinders your own creativity. But remembering it’s all about God and the needs of others will free you to be all he meant you to be as an individual and as an artist.

Cheryl Weber is located in beautiful Lancaster County PA and enjoys writing fiction, devotionals, and the occasional humor piece. She has ministered in a dozen different nations in missions and as staff of the School of Writing with Youth With a Mission. In the fall of 2017, she served as a journalist for a medical team working with YWAM Ship’s ministry in Papua New Guinea. Just a few of her stories from that trip can be found on her website at:  https://cheryllynneweber.com/cheryls-recent-adventures/

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Successful Self-Publishing: Guide to Selling Your EBook

When we analyze eBook self-publishing, we’ll realize that it has several advantages over traditional publishing. You’ll write the book and you’ll edit it. Those stages remain the same. However, you’ll skip two stressful stages: searching for a publisher and waiting for their answer and suggestions.

Of course; going down the traditional road to publication has its advantages. It’s a secure way of getting the book promoted. Plus, if you’re partnering with a successful publisher, you can be sure that the piece is perfect before it reaches the audience. When you’re alone, you don’t have such a level of support. But for many new authors, self-publishing is the only acceptable way to get their work out there. 

If you plan to publish eBook, you’ll face a simpler process: you won’t have to print it and distribute it. It’s still a tough road, but you can do this!

Guide to Successful eBook Self-Publishing

  1. First and Foremost: Make the eBook Great!

The concept of eBook publishing is available to everyone. However, getting your work out there doesn’t mean it will sell well. That’s why you have to read some high-quality literature first. Note down what inspires you to read different eBooks and get inspired by them. What style is easier to read and comprehend?

You won’t copy other authors, but you can get inspired by the qualities of a successful eBook.

When you write your own content, edit it to perfection. Editing is one of those things that you can’t do by yourself. You can click to read about a way to hire an editing service, which targets students. The editors are still very professional. But they have students as their target audience, which means that their prices are more affordable.

  • Create a Beautiful Cover

When you go through the offer on Amazon, the cover is what gets your attention. You want the headline to be readable in a small format, and you want an illustration that captures the point of your book.

If you’re not that great in graphic design, it’s best to collaborate with a pro. You can hire a freelance graphic designer for a low price.

  • Set a Reasonable Price

No; this doesn’t mean that you should set an extremely cheap price. $2 for a cookbook with 200 pages of recipes and illustrations is ridiculous. You’ll set a price that conveys your efforts and the quality of your work. However, you might want to make it slightly cheaper when compared to books launched by successful publishers.

Special discounts can be part of your promotional offers. You will announce the launch date, and you’ll sell the book for a much lower price on that day. This offer will inspire many people to buy it ASAP. When they give you positive reviews, others will be willing to buy it by its regular price.

  • Promote!

You should raise awareness for your eBook before it hits the market. You can engage in effective self-promotion through your blog and social media profiles. The point is to become an influencer with many followers. If people like following your pages, they will be interested to get your eBook for deeper insights.

The promotion should start at least a month before the book becomes available for purchase. Explain what it will be about, give hits from the working process, and team up with bloggers who will interview you about it.

Stay Connected

Self-publishing is not easy. You don’t have a huge marketing team behind you. However, you can fill in that gap through your consistent presence on social media platforms. Connect with your followers, promote the eBook, and answer their questions. Throw giveaways, ask for their opinions, and trigger discussions.

You’re left to do the biggest part of the work. But self-publishing isn’t necessarily a one-man deal. It just means that you’re not collaborating with a publisher. If you need any help during the process, you can hire an editor, graphic designer, and marketing expert.

Good luck!

Sandra Larson published her first eBook three years ago. Since then, she decided to turn writing into her main job. She has never looked back.                                                           

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Overcome This Temptation if You Want to Finish Your Book

When you first start working on a new book, everything feels great. But then somewhere along the way, something changes. You begin to struggle. You’re not sure what the next scene should be. Characters start acting in ways you didn’t expect, or maybe the pacing slows down. 

What do you do then?

If you’re like the majority of writers, you start to doubt yourself. You wonder if this story is any good. You may begin to think it’s no longer worth the effort. 

Then out of the blue, you get another idea. A much better idea. You think perhaps you should abandon the story you’ve been working on and try the new idea instead. Just the thought of doing that makes you feel better. 

Watch out! This type of thinking is dangerous and could have long-lasting negative effects on your career.

Writers Watch Out for the Shiny Object Syndrome

Writers are creative people. We love thinking about new ideas. 

Unfortunately, there’s a dark side to this part of our personalities. We can fall victim to a condition called the shiny object syndrome. This is the tendency for a writer to chase after a new idea rather than stay focused on what she’s already working on.

Picture a child playing with bubbles. He will run after one shiny bubble until it pops, and then another and another, constantly changing his focus and direction. It’s fun, but it doesn’t accomplish much.

A writer is afflicted with shiny object syndrome if she abandons a project into which she’s invested considerable time to chase after another idea she thinks is better.

This syndrome is extremely dangerous to a writer’s career. I know from personal experience.

How Shiny Object Syndrome Hurts a Writer’s Career

I spent many years writing novel-length manuscripts before I finally got one published. During that time, I abandoned many manuscripts because I fell victim to shiny object syndrome.

I would get about halfway through the book and start to struggle. I know now it’s perfectly normal to have difficulties in the middle of a book, but I didn’t know that then. I assumed if I was having trouble, something was wrong with the story idea.

Right when my struggle was greatest, shiny object syndrome would appear. I would start to think of other ideas I could pursue, and those other ideas would sound better than the one I was working on. Soon I would succumb to the syndrome, abandon the story I was working on, and start over with a new one.

What this process got me was a lot of years of writing manuscripts I never finished. Finally, it became clear what was going on. My story ideas weren’t bad at all. I just didn’t have the skills I needed to complete them.

7 Ways to Defeat Shiny Object Syndrome and Finish Your Book

How can you tell if you’ve fallen victim to shiny object syndrome? Ask yourself if any of these sound familiar to you:
· You have a long list of story ideas but none of those stories have been completed. 
· You constantly start new stories but don’t finish them.
· Your computer or desk is full of unfinished manuscripts. 
· You like to start new stories, but you rarely have a plan for how you’re going to finish them.
· You’ve been working on one story for years, but can’t seem to finish it.

If any of these statements seem to apply to you, try the following tips. 

1. Write it down: When a new idea occurs to you, write it down and store it in an idea box or on a file on your computer or cell phone. Don’t jump ship to pursue it until the project you’re working on is completed.

2. Understand that “new” isn’t “better”: Understand that any idea you have for a book is just an idea. What matters is your ability to execute that idea in a novel-length manuscript. That’s where the real challenge is. 

3. Commit to your story: Any book or even a short story takes a significant investment of your time and energy. Make sure you’re in love with the idea and you have a powerful motivation to write it before you begin, then commit to finishing it.

4. Keep quiet: Talking with other writers can be fun, but if you leak your story idea before you finish the book, watch out! Other writers will chime in. “You could set the story in this location!” they might say, or, “How about so-and-so for an antagonist?” These new ideas may seem better to you, throwing you off course. 

5. Realize that getting stuck is normal: Most writers experience a struggle in the middle of a story. It’s normal. So when you reach that point, don’t despair. Get help if you need to, and keep writing.

6. Keep going: Writers must keep going no matter how tough the story gets. Take stock of what you’ve done so far. Create an outline of the chapters you’ve completed. Brainstorm solutions to whatever problems you’re facing. Turn to craft books and mentors when needed. Keep trying while learning to live with the discomfort. Eventually, you will find a way through! 

7. Understand the value of having completed projects:Remember that success as a writer is based entirely on those projects you complete and publish. We can often fool ourselves into thinking that the ideas in our heads are completed ideas, but you can’t build a career on your thoughts. Completed stories are what matters. Focus on finishing no matter what. 

Note: For more guidance on how to finish the creative projects you start—including the 5 things you must have to complete your book—get Colleen’s FREE mini-course here !

Colleen M. Story inspires writers to overcome modern-day challenges and find creative fulfillment in their work. Her latest release, Writer Get Noticed!, was the gold-medal winner in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards (Writing/Publishing 2019). Overwhelmed Writer Rescue was named Book by Book Publicity’s Best Writing/Publishing Book in 2018, and her novel, Loreena’s Gift, was a Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner, among others. Find more at these sites:

www.colleenmstory.com
www.writingandwellness.com
www.writerceo.com
Twitter: @colleen_m_story

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WordPress Performance Tips for the Everyday User

No matter what you do for a living, there is a big chance that you are running a website dedicated to your business. After all, the number of websites keeps growing steadily as there are now more than 1.7 billion sites on the Internet.

Now, every website runs on a content management system (CMS) and WordPress is by far the most popular choice among webmasters of all levels of knowledge and skills. A report reveals that WordPress powers 34% of all websites on the Internet, but the platform’s market share goes as high as 60%.

Users love WordPress because it’s simple and easy to figure out, but they still need to know a few basics in order to keep their sites running smoothly and efficiently. In this post, we will show you nine WordPress performance tips that are suitable for everyday users. Let’s take a look!

Find a Reliable Hosting Provider

Many webmasters make a simple mistake of choosing cheap but unreliable hosting providers. A typical user does it because he/she is not expecting a huge amount of traffic and therefore is not willing to invest in WordPress hosting.

Jake Gardner, an essay writer in charge of IT topics, claims this is a big mistake: “As soon as you create an army of loyal fans, you will notice that your site is slowing down. This is why I recommend you to pick a well-known provider such as Page.ly, WP Engine, or Bluehost.”

Pick a Good Theme

A theme is a collection of templates and style sheets used to define the appearance and display of a WordPress powered website. As such, it has an overwhelming impact on website performance because people love to see a beautiful online presentation.

Now, you can find a lot of WordPress themes with “one size fits all” solutions. While it may seem tempting, we encourage you to opt for a specific niche-focused theme. How come? Generic themes are covering all sorts of features – even the ones you don’t really need.

For this reason, you should pick a narrow theme that suits your business needs. If you visit a website such as Best Essays,  EssayTyper.com or EssayEdge, you will realize they use the same sort of theme because it gives them only those features academic writing agencies might need.

Choose the Right Plugins

WordPress themes determine the appearance of your site, while plugins help you to make the website better and more efficient. Just like a theme, you should also be smart enough to choose the right tools for your business demands. Generally speaking, almost every website needs plugins to enable search engine optimization, online security, contact forms, email marketing, content creation, and similar.

Remove the Plugins You Don’t Need Anymore

Everyday WordPress users are known for their “set it and forget it” philosophy. This often turns out to be a disastrous habit because hackers take advantage of outdated plugins to attack WordPress websites. If you know that over 50% of WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins, then you understand how important it is to uninstall the tools you’re not using anymore.

Take Advantage of Excerpts on Homepage and Archives

Another thing you can do to make the website more functional is to take advantage of excerpts on the homepage and archives. Namely, WordPress will automatically load and display the entire content on a given page, which is a surefire way to degrade website performance.

If you really think that visitors should read the whole thing, then you can leave the function as is. But if you think excerpts are enough, then follow this pattern:

  • Settings → Reading → For each article in a feed, show Summary

Minimize the Size of Images

Visual content is always burdening WordPress websites, so you should consider minimizing the size of your images. Photos that are too big will make the site slower, which is a big deal in the world where almost 60% of visitors leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

The easiest solution is to use lighter images and avoid gigantic files. Another option is to install a plugin such as Smush Image Compression and Optimization to make visual content go easy on your site.

Split Comments into Pages

When your website becomes very popular, you can expect people to start writing lots of comments all over the place. While this is a sign of professional success, it can also jeopardize performance because comment loading increases the overall speed of your website. If you want to prevent this problem, go to Settings once again:

  • Settings → Discussion → Break comments into pages

Optimize a WordPress Database

As you keep creating new posts and adding fresh content to the website, you can expect WordPress to get slower gradually. In such circumstances, you should not hesitate to optimize a WordPress database because that’s where all the information is stored.

You can do it manually through settings, but a much simpler solution is to install a WP Sweep plugin. This tool will help you to get rid of many redundant features in these (and many other) segments of the site:

  • Auto drafts
  • Deleted comments
  • Revisions
  • Orphaned user meta
  • Transient options
  • Unapproved comments
  • Unused terms

Keep Your System Up To Date

Do you know that almost 40% of hacked WordPress websites were using an outdated version of the platform? This means that webmasters who neglect updates are likely to suffer from malicious attacks.

The only logical response to the threat is to keep your WordPress system up to date. Every time you see there’s a new version available, take your time to upgrade and solidify both the performance and security of your website.

Conclusion

WordPress is responsible for the functioning of more than a third of all websites currently available online. Users appreciate the platform because it’s super-easy to figure out, but some of them are still not able to identify the most important functions of the CMS.

In this article, we analyzed nine WordPress performance tips suitable for everyday users. Remember our tips and make sure to leave a comment if you need additional explanations – we would be glad to help you out!

Justin Osborne is a writer at dissertation help and research paper writing service, he loves to share his thoughts and opinions about education, writing and blogging with other people on different blogs and forums. Currently, he is working as a content marketer at online assignment help and Edubirdie reviews.

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Courting the Muse Guest Posts

How Reading Poetry Collections Can Help You Plot Your Novel

Whether your novel closes on a cyclone-worthy twist, or a conclusion as warm and satisfying as homemade pie, you’ll need a solid plot to guide you as you write your way to that ending. Of course, coming up with one is easier said than done. 

You might have your major plot points all lined up, but maneuvering your cast from one scene to the next doesn’t always mean smooth sailing. You need the plot to advance, but there’s so much more to think about. Is your protagonist’s growth coming through? Are your themes subtle and multilayered, or just clear as mud? 

When you’re stuck on questions like these, it’s helpful to step beyond the world of your own manuscript and do a little outside reading for inspiration. Of course, you can look at how the greats in your genre have plotted their masterworks. But there’s another kind of book that just might give you the Eureka moment you’re seeking: poetry collections.

Poetry collections are plotless. But they’re also highly curated and intentionally ordered, without a verse out of place. Taking inspiration from their structure can help you plot a story that satisfies. Here are three crucial lessons to take away from them.

1. Think about the reader’s experience.

Poetry collections are often organized with the reader’s experience in mind, attending to their emotional and intellectual needs. That could entail interspersing two devastating pieces on grief with something more hopeful in tone. Or it might mean mixing in some lighter works with dense, allusive poems that require substantial thought to appreciate.

Let this reader-focused approach guide you as you assemble your chain of events. If you’ve placed a lot of tearjerker scenes early on, for instance, you’ll risk having your audience all cried out before the climax. Alternatively, you might be subjecting them to information overload —  forcing them to juggle too many names and too much backstory before the action kicks off. 

2. You might have to cut beautifully written scenes.

What makes a poetry collection difference from a bunch of poems bound together? Cohesion. A seasoned poet is wise enough to leave out any piece that doesn’t fit with the rest — even if it won them their latest Pushcart.

This sort of strictness will serve you well too. As writers, we’re often told to kill our darlings, setting sentiment aside and subjecting the lines we’re proudest of to revision’s red pen. That generally means excising an elegant but distracting metaphor. But it can also apply to entire scenes.

A scene might be gorgeously written, showcasing the most stylish prose in your entire book. But what if it feels out of place, or doesn’t serve a purpose beyond mere beauty? File it away and save it for a companion short story (or perhaps a sequel).

3. Give each chapter a shadow title.

Speaking of every section serving a purpose, here’s a poetry-inspired trick to make sure each chapter you write pulls its narrative weight. Each poem within a collection tends to have a title. That’s generally not the case for novel chapters (unless you’re writing for a middle-grade audience). But try to give each of your chapters a title anyway — for your eyes only.

Formulating these “shadow titles” help you distill each chapter down to its essentials: its key takeaway, its place in the overall structure of the book. It can also help you spot any outliers that should perhaps be reworked — or even removed. Say, for instance, you’ve come up with Friends-style titles for most of your chapters — “The One Where Iris Finds the Amulet”, “The One Where Jeff Dies”— but you have one that you can only call “The Sunset”. That might be a sign that it’s out of sync with the rest of the book.

By examining how every chapter works within the structure of your book, you’ll be able to deliver a satisfying story — and keep your readers hanging onto your every word. After all the work you’ve put into shaping your plot, that’s exactly what you deserve. 

Lucia Tang is a writer for Reedsy, a marketplace that connects self-publishing authors with the book industry’s best editors, designers, and marketers. To work on the site’s free historical character name generators, she draws on her knowledge of Chinese, Latin, and Old Irish —  learned as a PhD candidate in history at UC Berkeley. You can read more of her work on the Reedsy Discovery blog, or follow her on Twitter at @lqtang.

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Guest Posts

Suggestions for Choosing the Perfect Cover for Your Book

You spent a lot of time and work writing your book, but now comes the hard part. Picking a cover. People often do judge books by their covers, unfortunately, so you want to make sure you have the right one – a face, an object, a landscape, a representation of your work, the right font, and more. There’s so much to think about, so to help you out, here are some great suggestions.

1. Brainstorm ideas

Every major project needs to start with a brainstorm. Think about the first impression you want your book to make. It’s hard to sum up the concept of your book in just one page, but this is where you think about whether you want words only, images, headshots, or more. According to Nancy McKenney, a book blogger at Assignment Service and Ox Essays, “your choices are mostly between gripping – something visually interesting that will grab people – or explanatory, which will tell people what the book is about. If you can combine both, that’s perfect.”

2. The details

At this point, you need to think about the steps that will make it look like a book. What shape, size and font will you use? Where will the title, subtitle, and author’s name be on the cover? This is also the step where you think about the colors you want. This will involve a lot of back and forth with editors and publishers.

3. Refine the draft

If you’re doing a headshot, you’ll need a photographer and set up the look. You might end up going back on the details like colors if you see that the image or face you chose doesn’t work as well with the initial colors as you thought it would. If you’re taking a self-portrait for the cover of the book, think about the clothes you’re wearing because the best option is a solid, dark color. It makes it a lot easier to place the author’s name in legible color.

4. Social proof helps

Once you’ve come up with the mock-up, you want to get external feedback from people who haven’t been staring at the same cover for a while. Send it to some trusted people, friends and colleagues, and ask for honest, frank opinions. Ask if it’s a book they’d pick out, or if the content makes sense, and strange things you might not have though of.

5. Don’t be afraid to change it

Don’t be afraid to change the image based on the feedback you get. That’s the whole point of getting feedback. It’s also normal that people within the team will disagree and have their own favorites. At this point, you can do a data check and survey different options (it helps if the publisher is willing to back this option).

Janet Frasier, a writer at Academized and Boomessays, suggests that you “ask readers what kind of books they’re into and what kind of covers speak to them more, their demographics, and more. The results you get might surprise you, but they’ll definitely be very helpful, and a cover that looks great may not be the most appealing.”

6. Go with your gut

You also want to follow your instincts if you feel like something is wrong with the current cover or you’re not convinced with the most popular option. That’s why if it doesn’t resonate with you, you shouldn’t go with it. It’s important that the cover is important to you as well, even if your brain is telling you to go with it.

By following these tips, it should make it a bit easier for you to choose the perfect cover for your book.


Aimee Laurence, a tutor with UK Writing Services and StateOfWriting, gives advice to her readers about different writing, editing, and publishing tips. She is passionate about helping people self-publish their works. She also works as a freelance editor for the company NSW Writing Services.

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Guest Posts

8 Ways to Market Your Book and Get Reviews

Book reviews are critical as a social buy-in for your book and to market your book through higher placement online, for getting ad copy quotes, and for boosting your author brand. It can be daunting starting out as an author and trying to get reviews. These are 8 different ways to market your book and get good reviews.

1. Use a Call to Action (CTA) in your book.

This is a simple, easy, and effective way to get some reviews because you just need to include it once and then move on. On the last page of your book once published, include a short CTA requesting that if they liked the book, readers leave an honest review on their favourite online reading site or store.

2. Have a free ebook online.

The best way to get a lot of reviews is obviously to have more people read it. If you have a free copy of the ebook online, you’re more likely to get downloads and therefore reviews. If you publish it with certain companies, you can make ebooks free for only certain days of the month as a promotion. You can also make it permanently free on Kobo or iBook sites and Amazon will eventually price match it.

3. Email your mailing list.

You should have a mailing list with all of your readers’ email addresses. As Penelope Ludlum, a marketer at Writinity and Last Minute Writingexplains, “once you have it set up, you can email them and ask for honest reviews of your book. You can set this up so they go out automatically, even when a new person joins your mailing list.”

4. Have a street team read in advance.

Once you have a big enough group of readers and followers, you can ask your readers if any want to be a part of your advance reader team. These people would receive the book early, read it, then review once published. For this option, you have to be clear that you want their own opinion without anything offered in exchange or you’ll be violating some online platforms’ terms of service.

To set this up, send out regular emails asking for volunteers, perhaps as one of your automated messages. You can name the team with a special name to create a sense of camaraderie and community. This team is also great at doing a final review of the book for anything that the editors may have missed.

5. Reach out to book bloggers in your genre.

This strategy is free to follow but it can be time consuming. Many book blogs have reviews of books in a specific genre, so you can research to find the right bloggers for your genre and who accept books for review. Once accepted, book bloggers will review your book on their own platform in addition to Goodreads and Amazon. Be sure to review the site’s submission requirements so you’re not wasting your time submitting somewhere that won’t accept your novel.

6. Research Amazon reviewers.

Similar to the previous point, you can research book reviewers on Amazon and reach out to them and ask them to review your book. To do this, find books that are similar to yours and then read through the review section and each reviewer’s profile to see if they’ve provided their contact info or website. Then, send a polite and personalized email asking if they would be interested in reviewing your book and explain how you found out about them.

7. Use social media.

Pick a couple of social media platforms and become familiar with them, without trying to use them all. Then, Robert Woods, a blogger at Draft Beyond and Research Papers UK, says to “engage in conversations with followers, asking them what they’re up to, or asking their opinion on something unrelated. As part of these posts, you can ask for reviews with a link to your book’s page, but you certainly don’t want to be only posting about that.”

8. Join a Goodreads group.

Some Goodreads groups allow for contributions from authors whereas others are for readers only. Look for one that meets your criteria and your genre, and get used to the culture before diving in and asking for reviews.


Ashley Halsey, a professional writer at Lucky Assignments  and Gumessays.com, is involved in many marketing and professional projects. She enjoys helping entrepreneurs and small businesses develop their customer base and increase customer loyalty. She attends business training classes and travels in her spare time. 

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Guest Posts

He said, She said

Have you ever felt stuck using the same dialogue tags? It can creep in when we get comfortable with our writing. It’s the easy way to move on to the next character’s line of dialogue. But dialogue tags are a useful tool for writers to add imagery to their words. 

Take a simple group of sentences like these for example:

“Run,” she said.

“Where should I run?” he asked.

“To get help!” she exclaimed. 

Look familiar? We sometimes find this style of writing in young children’s books. As the writing level moves up, it’s appropriate to add more than simple tags to dialogue. It’s natural to get caught up in the action and forget to add the little flourishes our dialogue so greatly needs to enhance the scene. It’s effortless to hurry through dialogue with a simple “he said, she said.” But this is a missed opportunity to show more about your characters. 

For instance: “I’m alone and afraid,” she said, shivering.

What does that look like to the reader? How does the reader envision that sentence? We read what she says, but how does that look?

Let’s try that again.

“I’m alone and afraid.” Abigail rubbed the goosebumps on her arms. Her scalp prickled as she sat huddled in her bedroom closet with her cell phone to her ear.

This is a better visual of what Abigail is doing. We show the reader rather than tell them how she feels. It takes a bit more thought, but worth it to throw the reader right into that closet with Abigail.

Dialogue tags are a wonderful opportunity to show the reader what your character is doing rather than telling them. It’s also a great way to showcase your writing savvy.

 Readers often skip over dialogue tags like ‘said’, so they aren’t always necessary. If the dialogue is well written, readers will recognize the voice of their beloved characters before they read the dialogue tag. They aren’t needed for every sentence, so mix it up. Don’t slow down the reader’s pace with a needless ‘said’ or ‘asked’. 

How about the use of ‘exclaimed’? Let’s see how that looks:

“You’re stepping on my foot!” Jenny exclaimed.

This tells us the person is not happy having their foot stepped on. But what else is going on here? What if the author wrote it like this:

“You’re stepping on my foot.” Jenny’s face contorted as she tugged her shoe from under the elephant’s foot.”

Okay, an elephant is a bit extreme, but you get the idea. We can see how Jenny is upset without using a telling dialogue tag. 

Take advantage of dialogue tags as a chance to showcase a bit of your characters’ mannerisms. How about showing their physical attributes? Let’s take an example like this one:

“I don’t want to go to the doctor,” Jenny said.

Or could we toss in some description and say it this way:

“I don’t want to go to the doctor.” Jenny’s long, brown hair blew out the open window of the car as she clenched her teeth.

  These are alternative ways to show your readers rather than tell with creative dialogue tags. Have fun and spice up your writing with some action, description, and emotion.

Leann Austin has written over a hundred newspaper articles published in The Post-Journal and The Villager – Lakeside Edition. She’s also authored 16 stories for Primary Treasure magazine. She was the recipient of an honorable mention in Writer’s Digest 75th Annual Writing Competition. 

Leann blogs about her son’s journey with type one diabetes at leannaustin.blogspot.com. She also connects with her readers at her author page. Leann is a mother of four fabulous children and in her spare time she crochets newborn caps for the local hospital nursery.

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Guest Posts

How to Use Music as a Writing Inspiration

As a writer, one thing that almost everyone will agree and accept is the fact that without inspiration, it is very difficult to go ahead with your work. You need to have a push and shove, especially when you feel your artistic part of the mind has abandoned you. Many people look for inspiration through different avenues. Some people take time off from writing and engage in other hobbies. Some go for a trip while some simply read other books.

Another potent method many writers engage in to find inspiration in writing is music. Music is the elixir of life for many. It can provide the necessary jog down the memory lane and get you on the right gear soon. If you are stuck in a rut as a writer and are looking at music for help to get out of it, this article might do the job for you.

What can music do for your writing?

There are different types of music which are extremely soothing to the mind. They can light up the creative hemisphere of the brain, which is incidentally also the hemisphere responsible for writing ability. Thus, there is a sort of synergistic connection between both. It also releases the feel-good hormone, serotonin, which can spark your writing skills again.

Music is also associated with certain moments and memories and can act as a recollection aid which will provide you the spark required. Last but not least, there is a certain groove or beat associated with different types of music which is also beneficial for inspiring you to write better. You can also take music lessons from an expert to create your music and make the creative experience more enriching.

Music helps you reach your writing goals

When you are starting or stuck in between, making a plan to move forward and setting writing goals becomes very important. These goals are mainly time-centric, and music can act as a good yardstick to measure time. For example, you can tell yourself that you will finish a certain portion until a playlist finishes, and then go about your writing accordingly.

Strategies for choosing your music

Music that relates to what you are writing

It is always better to choose music which is relatable to your writing for best results. If you are writing about love, grief, any emotion under the sun, corresponding music with the same emotion can do wonders.

Songs you can sing along

Some songs get stuck to your head, and the lyrics come out from your subconscious. These types of music—where you can sing along without much effort—can also be helpful.

Songs that remind you of a special day or someone

If you are looking for inspiration from a day or a person, the best way to remind yourself of them is to play the music that connects and associates with them. It will take you to a trip down memory lane and might be enough to give you the much-needed inspiration.

Music that gives you peace of mind

If your mind is disturbed, it will hamper your writing skills automatically. Therefore, always choose music that can provide you with the necessary peace of mind.

Inspirational tunes

Everyone has certain tunes that inspire them. Look for yours and utilize them to your advantage.

Types of music will help you focus while you write

Soundtrack for your novel

When you are writing a novel, certain soundtracks that go with the writing can help your writing.

Instrumentals like jazz or classical

This is for the people who are a purist in their writing. Their music choice also portrays that, and it is mainly in the form of classical music and jazz.

Electronic music

This is one of the best forms of music to get into the groove as advocated by many writers. It provides the necessary impetus.

Ambient noise

Putting on your noise-cancelling headphones and playing white and gray noise which are ambient can also work wonders as far as writing is concerned.

It must be clear by now that music is useful for getting the required inspiration while writing. Tap into your genre of preference and find the inspiration to start writing again.

Curtis Dean writes on behalf of Sage Music School where they base lessons on the science and research of the psychology of learning. Their effective teaching methods create confident and capable students who enjoy the happiness of making music.

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Guest Posts

Add POW to Your Writing Resume

Is writing a competitive business, or a complimentary one? As hard as it is to admit this, I have to tell you it is inherent in my nature to be jealous. Someone might look like a better writer; another might seem to get more opportunities. How does a writer drop the green eyes of envy and adopt Christ’s attitude, in order to serve other writers? Here are three ways I’ve learned to be proactive in adding POW to my writing. First, let’s define POW.  

POW: Promote Other Writers, as in a lifestyle of service to others. When I highlight another author’s quality, I set them apart. I connect others to their topic, and I celebrate the art they bring to the world.

Three ways to Promote Other Writers:

Book Reviews

Book sales thrive on reviews. Your opinion doesn’t have to be positive or negative, just truthful. Don’t attack a writer’s opinion. Do look for ways the book helped your outlook on the subject. Reviews bump a book higher in ranking on retail sites and provide readers insight before buying books. Reviews bring a written work in front of a new audience, to highlight its value to the marketplace.

As a reviewer, I receive physical copies of books to use as giveaways on my blog, thereby building my own readership while helping other authors build theirs. It’s a win-win situation.

Two examples:

Bookcrash is a review site run by CIPA, Christian Indie Publishing Association.

AList Bloggers is run by Adams PR Group.

Book Launches

When you sign up to participate on a Launch Team, you agree to help launch the author’s work into the book world. The time frame coordinates reviews with publication dates, media interviews and press releases. Watching the process of another’s book launch teaches you how to connect with your own readers with giveaways and conversation starters.

Two examples:

Waterbrook/Multnomah Book Launch Team.

Blog About, run by the Blythe Daniel Agency.

Memes: a photo with a quote becomes an easy way to promote.

Authors have multiple tools at their fingertips to aid in the creation of memes. The saying may come from a pull quote in the book, or the author’s tagline. It may be a theme or a scripture. The author’s link is added for reference. When writers share each other’s memes on social media, we link arms to pass the word around the internet. Social media notices memes more than a quote without a picture, and that visual creates an easy opportunity to create a buzz around a book.

Two tool for making memes:

Pixteller

Canva

Philippians 2:5-8 reminds us of the attitude Jesus adopted in His tenure on the earth. He didn’t flaunt His status, but served God’s purposes. As we humble ourselves in order to promote other writers, we are serving the Lord, too.

Remember that green-eyed monster we talked about at the beginning of this conversation? When you’re busy helping other authors, there’s no time to be jealous of their success. It turns into a chance for a party instead, as you celebrate their work and accomplishments.

Continue the conversation: What can you do today, to Promote Other Writers?

Over 140 of Sally Ferguson’s devotionals have been published in Pathways to God (Warner Press). She’s also written for Light From The Word, Chautauqua Mirror, Just Between Us, Adult Span Curriculum, Thriving Family, Upgrade with Dawn and ezinearticles.com. Prose Contest Winner at 2017 Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference.

Sally loves organizing retreats and seeing relationships blossom in time away from the daily routine. Her ebook, How to Plan a Women’s Retreat is available on Amazon. 

Sally Ferguson lives in the beautiful countryside of Jamestown, NY with her husband and her dad.

Visit Sally’s blog at www.sallyferguson.net

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Guest Posts

5 Reasons Everything That’s Easy To Read Involves Some Hard Writing

The famous saying goes: “Easy reading means hard writing.” But why is that? If you have always wondered that, take a look at some of the things that you have to master before being successful at making your work easy to read:

You have to master the flow

Writing is more than just placing one word after another. Writing is creating music with words. Your story, no matter how long, has to have some flow. Simple, short sentences. Medium sentences that pop off the page and add meaning. And finally, long, detailed sentences—those that require a maximum focus on the reader`s part —that reveal secrets and mysteries.

It’s all about that flow that you can create by varying sentence lengths, emotions and meanings within a text. If you just start writing sentences of the same length one after another, it can be boring and repetitive.  So flow is an important technique to master.

You have to write vividly

Vivid writing doesn’t come easy either. It’s a tricky blend between being clear and imaginative. As a tool, writers use vivid writing to immerse the readers into their work completely. But, no matter how good it may sound, description has many pitfalls. For example, you could make the mistake of over-describing things—like nature, a person or a creature—and end up boring the reader.

The trick here is not to be too in love with your words. Sounds impossible, right?

Well, you can at least try to be sensible enough to know which parts to remove — long-winded, flowery descriptions and anything that doesn’t move the plot forward, reveal a part of the character arc or a piece of mystery. This is a good rule of thumb and it will help you to create more vivid sentences rather than boring ones.

You have to be humble

“So, it took you six months to finish that first draft, then another six to edit, proofread, edit again and revise everything. Then you had to flesh it out some more and so on. This is all amazing but the reader doesn’t have to know that,” says Alison Austin a contributor at Paper Fellows.

Create your best work and offer it humbly to your readers, as a gift. There is nothing worse than a writer trying to tell people how they should perceive something or feel about something, yet you see it so many times in books. It’s your job to tell the story, not to make decisions for your readers.

You have to be clear

Clear writing is also incredibly hard because we are so used to the notion that good writing means metaphors and thesaurus words, jargon words, long, flowy chapters and so on. However, good writing is nothing like that.

You have to be clear and, as mentioned, remove your own vanity from your writing. Be clear about what you have to say – no cliches or metaphors that you are used to seeing so often in books and written pieces. Use simple but strong words in your writing and make sure that your point is clear with each new paragraph.

You have to tell a good story

Good storytelling is never easy. You have to come up with a captivating plot that will make the readers turn the pages in the desire to read and learn more. Use your imagination, develop a somewhat logical sequence of events and use all of the elements previously mentioned to create a tale that will have something meaningful to give to the readers. Don`t forget about your characters either— they need to have a story and a development arc as well. Help them grow and learn together with the readers.

There are many reasons why easy and engaging writing means hard and long writing with many revisions and edits. These are some of them. If you really want your work to be impressive, follow these tips and continue working on making your writing better.

Ellie Coverdale is a creative writer and a blogger. She loves reading, yoga, and sharing her stories at online magazines and blogs.

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Guest Posts

Collaborative marketing—the future for authors

It’s never been easier to get your book published. But easy access to publishing creates challenges of its own.

With millions of titles uploaded to various self-publishing platforms on a regular basis, authors must radically reshape their approach to book marketing in order to see an increase in sales. An innovative approach to increasing exposure is collaborative marketing.

There’s nothing new about the idea of collaboration. It’s been a key element of writing for centuries. But the idea of marketing collaboratively, instead of individually, is a successful business technique that authors need to embrace.

Simply put, collaborative marketing, or co-marketing, is a strategy that involves working with similar companies or individuals to promote a brand while driving down costs.

Evidence for collaboration’s power in the business world is all around us. An appliance manufacturer rents space from a wholesale retailer. A certain brand of sneakers teams up with a sports drink manufacturer to advertise their product more efficiently. When the cost of advertising is shared, the potential profit for both parties increases dramatically.

While many authors may collaborate, in the sense of doing a guest blog or endorsing the book of another author in a similar genre, our vision of collaboration needs to be expanded. Co-marketing must become a major tool in the writer’s toolkit in order to more effectively convince readers to purchase a book.

For authors, collaborative marketing can largely take two forms: working with readers and working with other authors.

Let’s look at working with readers first.

The age of social media has fundamentally revolutionized marketing by putting consumers—or, in our case, readers—in the driver’s seat.  Huffington Post writes, “marketers {think authors} now need to develop deep relationships with their core consumers so they can easily inform an idea with them and motivate people to advocate for their brand.”[1]

We are all aware that readers (consumers) wield immense power that can encourage, or discourage, other readers from making a purchase. But what about engaging readers beyond the book? Getting readers to engage with your characters, or the topics you present, exponentially increases your ability to reach your target audience.

For example, if your book offers strategies for time management, you might consider holding contests in which entrants share how they boost productivity during the holidays. By engaging with readers in a way that directly relates to your book, you create a unique partnership with the consumer that can result in user-generated content, more online chatter about your book, and ultimately, more sales.

User-generated content is a prime example of collaboration with readers. Can you provide opportunities for readers to engage with your characters or post pictures relating to themes from your book on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or their blogs? Even better, encourage them to share content with you so you can repost their content on your social media channels. Be sure to secure their permission.

When your readers are generating content about your book, they’re promoting your brand, leaving you to do what you love best—writing more books!

The alternate form of collaboration is to form partnerships with other authors.

Think, for a minute, about a concert you attended or perhaps a song you listened to recently. Chances are there was more than one musician playing. You could argue that each musician is in competition with the others as they all want to be heard. But, by working together, the musicians create something more solid and mask any imperfections.

The same can be said of collaborative marketing among authors.

This year my company, Logos Publications, launched a revolutionary collaborative marketing strategy called Catch Fire TM. Catch Fire TM is a subscription-based, marketing program that promotes a website on which all author-subscribers can list up to three books.

Catch Fire TM promotes collaborative marketing by sharing adverting costs and by creating a community of authors which can result in stronger products and potential sales. For more information, visit www.logospub.com.

As the efficacy of competitive marketing dwindles, author-entrepreneurs must look to the future. And that future’s name is collaborative marketing.

JP Robinson gained experience in the marketing field doing promotional work for multi-million dollar medical facilities and non-profit groups over the past decade. He is an international speaker, educator, and prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction.

JP also conducts writing seminars in various parts of the country and heads Logos Publications, LLC, an emerging publishing and book marketing team.

When he isn’t writing or teaching, JP loves spending time with his wonderful wife and children.

[1] Klepic, J. (2017). The Age of Collaborative Marketing Has Arrived. [online] www.huffpost.com.  

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Guest Posts

How Do Writers Create Book Launch Content?

Congratulations on having a book to launch! Now to accept the challenge of creating content in today’s world of social media. So what’s next? Need a little help figuring out how to work smart—effectively and efficiently?

If so, the tips below are also exercises for the writer to consider before deciding topics and where to post information, blog or guest blog.

Not every writer creates the same content for social media.

Readers of various fiction genres and types of nonfiction have particular topics of interest and needs that a writer can fill. We writers have unique talents and expertise. Savvy writers discover their audience’s sweet spot.

Jot down the answers to the following:

1. What is my genre?

  • Describe your genre as though it were a character.

2.  What is my brand?

  • How is it different from any other writer brand?
  • How is my brand the same?
  • What social media platforms suit my brand the best?

3.  Who are my readers or target audience?

  •  Be specific
  • Develop a few paragraphs that characterize the reader.

4.  Where do my readers/followers/target audience hang out?

  • Join in the platform conversations and be a part of the group.
  • Make notes of the areas of interest.
  • List how I can address reader needs that apply to my brand?

We are making progress. By understanding who we are, we are better equipped to offer valuable content according to our skills, knowledge, and brand.

Let’s continue listing ways to enhance a book launch through social media.

5. What is the perfect way for others to find out about my book?

  •  We’ve all heard word of mouth is the best technique to learn and hear about a product. How can I make this work for me?
  • Research blog sites that meet the criteria established above. Request to guest blog. Incorporate a book giveaway. Use your social media platforms to drive traffic to the content and giveaway.
  • Provide valuable information for all blogs that meets reader needs.
  • Create social media posts and link all to the book’s website. 

6.  What is something my readers don’t know about my brand, book, or me?

  • Be real and humorous. Make it fun.
  • Did I learn something in the research process?
  • What did I learn about myself in writing the book?

7. What are the topics about my book that I could feature on social media?

  • List more than will ever be needed
  •   Acquire social media skills and learn how to master them.

8.  Develop social media content for my various platforms

  • List social media content for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
  • Use only royalty-free images such as pixabay.com
  •  Consider scheduling tool such as buffer.com or hootsuite.com
  •  Customize memes according to social media platform specifications – adobe spark    

Are you ready to create dynamic content to launch your book in the wonderful world of social media?

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She weaves memorable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels. DiAnn believes every breath of life is someone’s story, so why not capture those moments and create a thrilling adventure?

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She is the director of the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, Mountainside Marketing Retreat, and the Mountainside Novelist Retreat with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on: Facebook, Twitter, or any of the social media platforms listed at diannmills.com

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Guest Posts

A Devotion for Writers: Apprenticeship

“Prepare…put on your armor!”

Jeremiah 46:3-4 (NIV)

Do you remember playing dress-up as a child? Little girls wear grown-up shoes, tripping over their feet. Little boys don vests and hats, imitating the men in their lives. My children loved to play dress-up. Nightgowns became turbans. Umbrellas became shields. Bed sheets served as tents in faraway deserts. The art of play introduced them to the world of the grown-ups they would follow.

As writers, we are not so very old ourselves, are we? Others have gone before us to lead the way. Their works have honed our view of the literary world, and we have become their apprentices. They have taught us to sharpen our spears in order to garner respect in the writing community for the Christian viewpoint. Their example led us to a high standard where we polish our skills and prepare for the work of presenting God’s Word.  

How will you get ready for your battle with words?

Will you read works on the writing craft? Will you attend a writers’ conference? Will you enlist a critique partner?

Whom do you seek to inspire? Is your target audience male or female, child or YA, fiction or non-fiction?

What is your goal? Make it SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Then tackle it with determination and preparation! 

Further investigation into the Jeremiah passage reminds us that it doesn’t matter what size our battle (or topic) is, we are still to prepare.

What do you need to do to prepare?

Do you have enough background information for your story? Is the research complete for your article?

Maybe you’re worried about public response to your stance, or criticism of how you tackle a project? What do you need to do in order to shore up your confidence? More research? More prayer? Assemble a prayer team to help you in the battle.

Jeremiah 46:4 says, “Take your positions with helmets on!” Maybe this is a reminder to guard against being offended by opposing viewpoints. Or, maybe, as in Ephesians 6:17, the helmet of salvation is to give the grounding we need against doubt in what we have the ability to say.

It’s your job as an apprentice to prepare.

Be bold today. Prepare…and be bold!

Exercise: What “master” would you choose to study under as an “apprentice”?

Read the works of an author you respect. What grabs your attention? What do you want to imitate? Why is this author of particular interest to you?

Over 140 of Sally Ferguson’s devotionals have been published in Pathways to God (Warner Press). She’s also written for Light From The Word, Chautauqua Mirror, Just Between Us, Adult Span Curriculum, Thriving Family, Upgrade with Dawn and ezinearticles.com. Prose Contest Winner at 2017 Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference.

Sally loves organizing retreats and seeing relationships blossom in time away from the daily routine. Her ebook, How to Plan a Women’s Retreat is available on Amazon. 

Sally Ferguson lives in the beautiful countryside of Jamestown, NY with her husband and her dad.

Visit Sally’s blog at www.sallyferguson.net

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Guest Posts

5 Ways to Maximize the Audience Engagement

When you’re creating content for a certain audience, you want them to respond to it. And not just respond, but respond positively, showing interest, coming back for more, and becoming your loyal readers. This is the essence of audience engagement.

However, not every writer knows how to push the right buttons and get their audience to become more active, and interested. The truth is, without a strategy or a clearly defined plan, you can’t go very far. To help you gain a better understanding of what your audience wants, and how to use it to increase your audience engagement, we’ve put together this step by step guide.

Take a look at the 5 best ways you can maximize the audience engagement.

1.      Provide Value

Let’s start with the most important aspect of your writing. It’s called value and without it, you’re as good as gone.

So, what is value in terms of writing?

The value of your writing is determined by how informative, useful, trustworthy, and entertaining your content is.

If you want your audience to enjoy reading it and come back for more, you need to provide quality content which will actually make an impact on them. It needs to be:

  • filled with useful information
  • providing a solution to a problem
  • removing a dilemma or solving an issue
  • entertaining

In other words, once your audience finishes reading, they need to feel rewarded, enriched, and well-informed. That will make them return to you, and become more active members of your community.

2.      Inspire Them

You need to understand the basic needs, problems, or crisis your audience might be experiencing. Ask yourself:

  •  Why are they reading this?
  • What are they looking for?

In most cases, the answer is simple: they are looking for a way to make their life better, to find some new ideas, and to expand their knowledge. But, they won’t do it just by reading your content.

They need to act.

You can be the missing piece of the puzzle, who inspires them to actually make a move and become more active. Do this by:

  • writing powerful CTAs (call-to-action)
  • motivating them to take action
  • telling them they can do it
  • being uplifting and encouraging

If you manage to get some of those audience members to actually follow your CTAs and take action, they’re going to love you. Consequentially, it will increase their engagement.

3.      Find Them

Do you know where your target audience spends most of their online time? If you do, you need to ensure your content is present at those platforms, as well.

By doing data research, and examining your audience’s behavior, you’ll be able to determine where are you most likely to catch their attention:

Know where to find them, and provide specific content for their platform of choice. This will definitely get their attention and maximize your engagement.

4.      Be Updated

If you want people to read your content, you need to ensure it’s current, and it covers the topics people are actually interested in.

To achieve this, you have to:

  • constantly learn and read about the happenings in your niche
  • keep a close eye on the competition
  • understand what the burning questions and trending topics are and cover them
  • give insight into your audience’s biggest interests

To ensure your audience will keep engaging with your content, you need to keep it updated and current. This will definitely make them increase their engagement.

5.      Be Consistent

People love creating habits. This is why you need to stay consistent.

This means that you need to stay loyal to your audience and:

  • publish content on a regular basis
  • nurture your style and voice
  • provide reliable information and don’t let your content deteriorate

This way, you’ll ensure people stay loyal to your and their engagement only increases.

Final Thoughts

To maximize audience engagement, you need to give them something they can love, follow, and stay loyal to. This means you need to provide valuable content, designed especially for them, with the aim of making their lives better.

Follow the advice given above and you’ll see the change in your engagement rate.

Daniela McVicker is a well-known writer, a contributor to TopWritersReview, a blogger and editor at StudyClerk.com. She enjoys reading classic literature and doing research on internet marketing. Her favorite pastimes are to write, listen to jazz tracks and take quiet walks.

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Guest Posts

Using Technology To Boost Creative Ability When Writing

Writers already understand the importance of creativity: after all, writing is an art form, and art forms rely heavily on imagination and the ability to craft something unique.  Technology is sometimes painted as the enemy of creativity, but that is simply not true. From provoking inspiration to facilitating the means of finding it, technology has simply enhanced the ability of writers in their pursuit of creativity, not hindered it. Here is how:

Tuning in to the right distractions

Technology is sometimes cited as the enemy of concentration – mobile phones constantly pinging and entertainment facilities such as TV and video games marking hugely distracting and mind-numbing activities which take away from our more productive activities and thinking time.

However, cannot these advances actually perpetuate imagination and creative thinking? If through video games we are able to enter incredible online worlds, and in movie theatres we are able to step into lives that are far-removed from ours as we could possibly imagine, are we not in fact feeding creative thought? Of course, there is a time and place for such distractions, such as when we have a task at hand that demands our full attention.

Using technology within helpful restrictions

Technology offers unlimited choices. Unfortunately, choices can be counterproductive, as there is also evidence to suggest that the greater number of choices we are faced with, and the greater the number of options we can select from, the more we resort to out tried-and-tested, and thus, less-creative, options. Consider a restaurant where there are 500 choices on the menu. In such a case, are you more likely to choose something new, or become so overwhelmed by the number of possibilities that you order a burger through sheer panic?


Using technology to ask questions

What technology can do, to an incredible extent, is facilitate your ability to ask questions and get answers. “It still amazes me how the internet in particular has facilitated our ability to find about things that we always wanted to know. In fact, some people have almost become dead to the idea of this, but I say use it for absolutely everything it is worth to feed your knowledge and creativity,” says Stanley Strachan, a writing consultant at Australian help and Academized.


Play educational games

Research from Michigan University has pointed to children who play video games actually showing a higher degree of creativity than their peers. Now, this doesn’t mean that writers need to immediately jump into the world of Fortnite, but it can mean that, with the selection of the right sort of game, your creative juices can start pumping. Games which inspire problem-solving capabilities are particularly useful.


Getting creative with help of photographs and videos

Technology has facilitated the ability to record images and videos, and subsequently share them, in a manner that could not possibly have been envisaged a short time ago. Use these images to inspire creative thoughts and to help paint the visuals you need in your mind’s eye to produce the story you want to tell. “As an example, now you can write a novel set in Africa if you have never been there simply because images and videos can facilitate your understanding of that place” says Lucy Hutton, a blogger at State of writing and Big Assignments.


Balance privacy and sharing

One final word of warning here. Creativity can also be greatly bolstered through what is known in the business as ‘incubation’, that is time spent alone with one’s thoughts and ideas in order to foster the greatest possible outcome. This rings as true now as it ever has, so be wary of sharing your ideas to freely before they have solidified in your mind.

I have often been warned against ‘oversharing’, and I think this is pertinent advice. Let the idea come to fruition first, because once you have released it, it is not yours anymore.

Nora Mork is a journalist at UK Writings and Essay Roo. She shares her ideas by speaking at public events, and writing posts for Boom Essays.

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Guest Posts

Research Tips for your Historical Fiction Novel— From a History PhD

You don’t need a PhD in history to write historical fiction. Grad school, after all, trains students to ask and answer historical questions, not to craft airtight plot-lines and breathe life into the dead.

Still, if you’re working on a historical fiction novel, solid research is as indispensable to your craft as a lifelike protagonist and a compelling voice. Without it, all you have is some strangely staid fantasy — albeit with a sepia filter.

To really ensnare your readers and bring your story to life, you have to dig into the details of your setting, rendering it faithfully with not a hair out of place and not a hairstyle out of time. So, where should you go to find out whether your roguish anti-hero wears his sandy curls long, or whether your femme fatale keeps her underarms smooth — to say nothing of the less hairy questions you’ll encounter as you research your novel?

You can start with Wikipedia, do some poking around on Google, and take your library card out for a spin. But if you want to build your story on a solid historical foundation, consider looking beyond all that — at peer-review journal articles.

Written and evaluated by expert researchers, journal articles are more trustworthy than (most) websites. But they’re also shorter and more focused than books — better for addressing the targeted questions you’ll want answered, in the fine-grained detail you’ll need. Think of it this way: if you’re trying to figure out what a medieval abbot might eat for supper or how a Roman house should be laid out, would you rather find out in 300 pages, or 30?

With that in mind, here are some of the best places to find scholarly articles online — giving you access to top-shelf research without having to leave your desk. Over the past few years, these websites have bailed me out of more historical conundrums than I can count. Of course, I wasn’t working on a novel but a dissertation, as a PhD candidate in Chinese history at UC Berkeley. Still, they’ll serve you well as you dig into researching your book — you won’t need a costly subscription or a university affiliation to take advantage of them.

1. JSTOR

Since its launch in the mid-90s, this sprawling database of academic journals has been a lifeline for academic writers at all levels, from tenured professors to freshmen tackling their first college papers. But you might not realize that much of its content is free to use, making it a perfect place to get into the weeds of novel research. You can download plenty of open access articles without even making an account. And if you sign up for a free one, you’ll be able to read six per month from its vault of subscription access content.

2. Academia.edu

Known as a LinkedIn for academics, this social networking site is also a treasure trove of PDFs, all uploaded by scholars who wanted to make their research available for free. To get access, sign up for an account using your Google or Facebook login. From there, you’ll be able to search for keywords related to your novel. When you click through to promising papers, more reading suggestions will appear right in the sidebar.

3. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

This community-curated directory of free-to-read research lets you run targeted searches and browse by subject. With its 13,000-plus journals and more than 4 million articles at your fingertips, you just might stumble on some serendipitous tidbits that will really enrich your story. Just be sure not to get too lost in the research — after all, you have a novel to write!

I hope these sites will help you craft an excellent historical story.

Lucia Tang is a writer for Reedsy, a marketplace that connects self-publishing authors with the book industry’s best editors, designers, and marketers. To work on the site’s free historical character name generators, she draws on her knowledge of Chinese, Latin, and Old Irish —  learned as a PhD candidate in history at UC Berkeley. You can read more of her work on the Reedsy Discovery blog, or follow her on Twitter at @lqtang.

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Guest Posts

The Inspiration Behind the Idea

It can happen in an instant!

That swell of energy that has your brain cells sparking like loose cable wires on an out-of-control train.

Or at least in my head it does.

Though I can hardly say I am, “wired correctly…” Something happened up there. A smack in the head. A fall off the bike. A sports injury. Mother says it’s, “a gift.” But that’s mom’s for yah — always trying to insist that you are one of the special ones.

Truth be told, I have no clue how my brain works. Nor do I understand ideas… So what help can I be? Well, for one thing, I can recall where these ideas originated from.

For instance…

The other day I was sleeping next to my beautiful Guatemalan wife. Born in, you’ve guessed it, America. When suddenly she started sleep talking — but not in English – in Spanish. And like the ignorant fool I am, I understood nothing.

But it sparked an idea, which got the gears turning.

Dreams are a great place to spark ideas.

A fascinating article on dreams states that we dream, on average, forty minutes a night. Just think about how many ideas you can spark from all those dreams! Hardly any… Why? Because the article also states that we forget 95% – 99% of those dreams.    

So why tell you then?

Because there is still that one to five percent.

Now, before you roll your eyes at me, which I know some of you are doing, hear me out on this…

If you keep a small notepad and pen next to your bed (or in my case, my phone with Google Docs quickly accessible) when you have one of these ahah! dreams, you can quickly jot it down before you lose that idea completely.

Something that has happened to me on more than one occasion…

…at one time, a hit song that could’ve made me a Rockstar. 

Now what if you’re not a dreamer or you don’t have a wife who speaks Spanish in her sleep… Then what?

Simple.

Get away from the computer and get your tail outside.

Like you see me doing here 🙂

Nature is powerful — a place of dreams — And, you guessed it, ideas.

In my novel The Iron Alchemist our hero, Boone Rigger, lives in a city called Lone Creek. Surrounded by lush forests, jagged peaks, and… wow! It’s just like the image above. Hmm… You see what I am getting at here? Where I get my inspiration?

If you want to make your settings feel real you must be willing to explore outside your mind — to find places that spark new ideas.

But that’s not enough…

You must also submerse yourself in Culture.

Now I’m not telling you to live with the natives of Guatemala, and connect with their ancestors, in order to write a best-selling novel about Mayans.

Though that would be pretty impressive.

What I am saying is to get out there and try new foods, watch documentaries about different cultures, travel outside your neighborhood; just do something out of your comfort zone.

Luckily for me, I am blessed.

I live in LA and work at a hospital where I get to connect with people every day — from all across the world — born in different times of the 20th and 21st century. All with knowledge, ideas, and stories of their own–

That sparks ideas that inspire me.

People, nature, culture, and conversations are just a few things that will inspire you… But the key is to pay attention. Don’t stay lost in your head. Stop and allow yourself to embrace the world around you.

Now get out there and take action!

And let me know in the comments below what inspires your ideas.

Erich Whiteside is a successful Wattpad Star who is currently part of their Paid Stories Program. He also writes folklore for the video game Rift of Raigard. And is in the process of finishing his novel ‘The Iron Alchemist’  which can be found on Wattpad. He is married to his beautiful wife, and together they spend their time going on adventures and exploring the world.

Find me on Twitter @ErichWhiteside

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Guest Posts

10 Super-Productive Time Management Tips for Authors

As an author or freelance writer, working for yourself means you have so much more freedom than the average worker, but this means you need to be disciplined and controlled with what you do in your life. In order to be a success and make a profit, one of the most important aspects you’ll need to master is time management.

This can be extremely difficult when you’re stressed out or find yourself reaching deadlines or trying to tackle the million other things on your list, so we’re here to help. Today, we’re going to talk about ten of the best time management tips all freelance writers need to know about.

#1 – Get Up Early

It’s common knowledge that our most productive times of the day, whether we agree with it or not, is the morning. This is because we’re fully refreshed and have more energy here than we do at any other point in the day.

“Get up around 7-8 am and start work not long after. Really knuckle down and try to get as much work completed here as possible and you’ll soon find your workloads a lot less stressful,” shares Tina Page, a freelance writer for WriteMYX and Brit Student.

#2 – Research a System

There are plenty of self-help books and articles out there that can help you create habits and a system in your daily life that can help you manage and optimize the time in your day. However, with so many out there, don’t be afraid to research them and see if there’s any that work for you.

Then, simply implement them into your daily life!

#3 – Schedule Your Emails for Certain Times

As a freelance writer, it’s understandable you want to keep up to date with your emails and keep your clients happy. However, nobody expects instant replies, and nor do you need to reply instantly. In fact, keeping on top of your emails at all hours of the day is very counter-productive to your productivity.

Instead, learn to check your emails once in the morning and once at night during set hours. This way, you can keep on top of everything, and there’s no need to keeping cutting up your focus on certain tasks.

#4 – Optimise Relaxation

Not all forms of relaxing mean you’re actually relaxing. If you’re sat in front of a computer all day, you’re not going to want to watch a film or TV or play computer games to unwind. Sometimes, even reading a book may not be a good idea.

“Find a balance between doing the things you love, working, spending time on your own and seeing friends. Have set relaxation hours with work times to maximize productivity and know when you’re going to have your breaks,” shares Sarah Manby, a writing trainer at Nextcoursework and 1Day2Write.

#5 – Minimise Distractions

No matter what you’re thinking about in your life, make sure you’re minimizing the number of distractions you have. This means turning your phone off and putting it in a drawer or another room. It’s amazing how much time you’ll waste if you chop and change between the things you’re doing. Always work on one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is counter-productive.

#6 – Plan Your Days in Advance

One of the best ways to manage your time is to take the time to plan your days. You can do this either planning for the week ahead or planning your next day the day before. Plan how long you’re going to work on each task and how you ’re going to organize your day.

#7 – Use Set Working Hours

Don’t try and work 24 hours of the day every day. This is counter-productive to how focused you are on each task, how effective you’ll be, and just generally for your health and well-being. Instead, work set hours of the day.

If you say you’re going to work nine hours a day, five days a week like a typical working day, you then have time to solidly grind at work and time to do the things you want to do. Your health and productivity depend on this.

#8 – Set Goals

Another great way to manage your time and to keep you dedicated and on focus is to set yourself goals. You can do this hourly or weekly, depending on the tasks you have, but ideally, you’re going to want to set them daily.

Setting daily goals means you know exactly what you want to accomplish in a day, meaning you won’t overwork yourself and there’s no need to waste time thinking about what you want to do next.

#9 – Do Hard Work First

Hand in hand with the point of working early in the morning, it’s also best to get your hardest tasks out the way. This is because you can get the main bulk of work done in the morning, and then start to relax, unwind and slow down towards the end before then entering your free time.

#10 – Be Discipline

You can follow every single rule or time management tip you want, but if you don’t have the discipline to keep you going, they’re not going to work in the long-term. Stay disciplined and focused, and you’ll soon be able to manage your time like a pro.

Katrina Hatchett is Academic Brits lifestyle blogger and a writer for Origin Writings. She is keenly involved in a variety of business ventures. Her key skills involve problem identification, along with solving these problems, which she achieves through focusing on her goal of improving effectiveness of communication. She also writes for Phd Kingdom blog.

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Guest Posts

How Working at a Marketing Agency Has Helped My Writing

When I tell people that I make my living writing, they don’t typically think of web content for lawyers and landscaping companies as actual writing. I have worked as a freelance writer and internet marketer since 2011, and I recently began working at a marketing agency as a digital content strategist. That means I get to do a lot of writing.

It’s not the same kind of writing I do in my spare time: writing novels, plays, poems, or songs. However, in addition to paying the bills, working as a digital content strategist for a marketing agency has improved my creative writing as well. Here’s how:

1. It’s good to have a day job.

There are the J.K Rowlings and Stephen Kings out there, sure, and there is a whole batch of new independent authors making a great living publishing their books, but many of us authors also have to have a day job. There is something freeing, though, about having a day job that doesn’t depend on your creative writing.

While there are plenty of authors who write novels full time, I am grateful that I don’t have to rely on my novels to make all my income right now. This would create a tremendous amount of pressure on me and my novels, and it could potentially lead to writer’s block.

So I’m happy to have a day job that’s not related to me creating novels, plays, songs, or poems. And yet, I do still get to write and create content in my job, which is great.

2. I am constantly creating content.

I create so much content on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s blog posts, sometimes it’s copy for one of our client’s websites, sometimes it’s a social media post. Sometimes I create graphics and quote pictures to share. Sometimes I comb through stock photos, trying to find the perfect one to attach to a social media update for one of our clients.

Regardless of what kind of content I am creating, I constantly have to stretch my creative muscles. This is helpful when it comes to the novels and plays I work on when I get home.

3. Brand storytelling has helped me with storytelling in general.

One of the latest marketing trends that everyone is talking about is brand storytelling. I constantly have to reframe our clients’ brands as stories. Focusing on brand storytelling has helped me to create more honest, open, and personal stories that connect emotionally with my readers.

When telling the story of your brand, there are a few questions that must be answered. Who are you? What is the narrative of your brand? How did you originate? What obstacles have you overcome? Thinking about these questions before I work on my fiction has helped me. Not only has it made me think about my author brand, but telling any story gives a writer valuable practice for future stories.

4. Creating targeted content has made me consider my audience more.

In any sort of marketing, targeting your content to a particular audience is important. I also think it’s important to keep your target reader in mind as you write fiction. You have to think about reader expectations, especially if you are writing in a genre like romance or mystery. You also want to make sure your story will entertain the reader.

In my job, we regularly create “buyer personas” to target our blog posts or web content towards. A great exercise for a fiction writer is to create a “reader persona” and keep that person in mind as you write.

5. Writing for different clients means learning about new things.

With our various clients, I’m constantly researching information I never would have learned before. Since I’ve been here, I’ve written about everything from bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to metal roofing to personal injury cases.

Working for a marketing agency has forced me to learn new things in areas I would never have explored on my own. I may not write a novel about a metal roofer any time soon, but you never know when I will need to use information I have learned through writing for our clients.

One of the best things about my day job, though, is that I learn something and use my creativity every day. And that’s something I can definitely be grateful for.

Sara Crawford is a digital content strategist for WT Digital Agency and an author from Atlanta, Georgia. She has written novels, produced her own plays, and performed as a singer/songwriter. She is passionate about the act of creation, and she adores the written word.

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Guest Posts

9 Ways to Squeeze More Writing Into Your Day

Writing takes up a lot of time, and time is our most precious commodity. If you’re struggling to fit your creative work into your busy schedule, here are some ways to get more writing time into your day…

Early morning

I was always someone who got up late and stayed up late. But having children put me through a painful sleep training program, and even now that they are getting older I still wake naturally at 5:30 am. So I’ve gotten into the habit of getting up when I wake, and stealing an hour’s writing time or more while the rest of house sleeps. It might sound tough, but it’s surprising how quickly the routine sets in, and I’ve come to love these early-morning times.

In bed
Ideas rarely come punctually, and some of the best ones often come to us at unexpected and inconvenient times — in the shower, in bed, on the bus to work. The trick is to make sure you have some way of capturing these fleeting but often vital thoughts, such as a notebook by the bed. I often record random thoughts in my phone too as I go about my day too. 

On the commute to work
There are lots of ways you can boost your writing on the way to work. Reading is the best way to get better at writing, of course. You could also read books that are an inspiration for your current project, or useful background research. If you’re driving, podcasts and audiobooks about productivity and writing technique can be invaluable too.

In the supermarket queue
Even when you have just a few minutes of dead time, such as waiting in line at a food outlet or sitting in the hairdresser’s, you can be working on your writing career. Check your social feeds and grow your network, add value to social conversations by sharing useful content, and keep up to date on comments on your guest posts. There are lots of apps to help you do this easily on your smartphone.

At work

If you work involves waiting or travelling, there may be opportunities to jot down notes or do some reading. Make good use of your lunch hour too – if it doesn’t feel like enough time to start writing something, you could always review a printout of a recent scene or chapter you’ve written. Also, keep an ear out for things your coworkers say: you may get some good ideas for dialogue or plotting. 

Doing childcare

When you’re looking after children, there are sometimes little pockets of time that you can put to creative use. A friend of mine wrote big chunks of a novel on his phone, while looking after his baby in the middle of the night! With older children, you may have a chance to do a little creative daydreaming while they’re at the playground or in the pool. Think about a tricky plot point you can’t quite work out, or play a scene in your head that you’re planning to write later.

Socializing

Even when you’re out socializing, there are ways you can still be thinking about your writing. Listen out for dialogue and stories that might provide valuable material. Talk to people about experiences and expertise that might come in handy. I once met someone at a party who turned out to be a police officer; I learned all sorts of useful things that I put into a story I was writing at the time…

Evenings

Depending on your schedule and your sleeping pattern, evenings may be the best time for you to get some writing done. Try to do the writing before the TV goes on, while you’re fresher. Set yourself a modest target – say 500 words or one scene per session – and if possible finish in the middle of something; that way it’ll be easier to get started the next night. Little and often is better than burning down the candle — if you stay up really late too frequently, you won’t give yourself a chance to relax and it’ll be harder to keep up the momentum over time.

Weekends

For many aspiring writers, the weekends is the main time to get some work done. But again, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get too much work squeezed in: a schedule that’s too punishing will quickly fall over, and you need time to relax and step away from the writing process too. Momentum matters more than writing binges: better to write 1000 words a weekend for 12 months (48,000 words) and establish a really strong routine in the process, than do two weekends of 5000 words each, after which you give up exhausted!

Dan Brotzel (Twitter handle: @brotzel_fiction) is co-author of a new comic novel, Kitten on a Fatberg (Unbound). As a reader of this blog, you can pre-order Kitten on a Fatberg for a 10% discount – just quote promo code KITTEN10