Cheryl Cowtan on Writing

Yes, I'm still on this image promotion gig. And why? Because I see authors using all forms of graphics to promote their books: postcards (for travel themed books) excerpts partnered with a relevant image quotes from the book partnered with a symbol/image book cover side-by-side with author photo The ideas are blossoming as technology allows us to share and view images easily. I will eventually create each of the above to show you examples, but for now, here's the BookBit. The BookBit The BookBit shares a "bit" of your novel with a relevant image. How do you make one? First, select a riveting, action-packed, emotional or otherwise compelling 100-200 words of your novel, and then find a image to increase the impact you hope to have on your reader. Finding images to match your excerpt can be difficult, especially if you cannot create your own and don't know anyone who can create one for you. However, if you search on creativecommons.org you can find ...

I've been watching YouTube videos of authors, and I have to say, some videos made me feel closer to the author, some impressed me, and some made me wish I had never watched it. Presenting yourself in video can be a great way to connect to an audience. The question is, "who" do you present? Do you show them your funky, home personality, or dress up and be professional, or get quirky and align yourself with your genre? I think these questions have to be answered by the person filming themselves. Usually, I go for professional, but today I killed two hours (and cracked myself up) creating an instructional film called Don't be a You-Boob on YouTube   I believe this film might be the beginning of my author-platform evolution from words to video. Watch the film to learn and laugh about the many things (namely 10 ... or 11) that you can do to improve your YouTube production.

Figment is a personal space that allows you to promote and showcase your writing, in groups, on the site and on your blog. The layout is very user friendly and easy to understand. I signed up yesterday.  I create a profile, joined some groups containing potential readers of my favourite genre for writing and then I posted a flash fiction. For you writers out there who are dying to get some feedback on your writing, there are a few things you can do. Have a friend read it. Or, post a synopsis on your Web site and hopefully receive some responses to your upcoming work. I did that at my Web site and I did receive some nice feedback. See how it looks using WIX gallery.  Another way, is to create some writing that showcases your style and talent and post it on Figment.  The Figment writing tool allows you to create a cover, choose limited styles of text and layout and then make it available to the many readers on the site. See my example below. Notice how many respo...

Make Book Trailers with Smilebox Authors started using book trailers to persuade viewers to purchase their novels in 2003. Though there are many programs you can use to create your own book trailer, each one requires different levels of expertise. For example: using MovieMaker or another film editing program would require more skill in film editing, and access to copyright free images and music. However, the benefits of using film editing software is the flexibility you have as a designer. If you don't have a lot of film editing skill, Smilebox offers a number of template designs that you can manipulate into a trailer. They also have two to three music choices and a fairly good music library to choose from for each template. The many choices of templates allow you to set your mood in the trailer using imagery, animation, colour and symbols. You can also add your own images. I made this book trailer for my novel "The Precious Quest" in about 2 hours. The novel is a d...

Every author, every potential author, every wannabe author needs to have an internet presence that is appropriate and encouraging to publishers and agents. Blogging is good, but it isn't the end-all-be-all of your internet marketing. A blog is regularly updated, a Web site is static. The purpose of a blog is to share your writing, the purpose of your Web site is to share about yourself and your writing. You need a Web site: I know this because: agents will search your name before they consider taking you on as a client (read this article on agent feedback  The Write Life ) publishers want to know that you can implement and roll-out a marketing plan (which usually includes a web site, twitter, facebook, goodreads etc) ( Every Writer's Resource ) readers want to read more about you once they have read your work Other reasons? To market yourself To showcase writing that is not getting picked up by publishers To whet the public's appetite for your style ( exampl...

Present yourself to your readers online by creating a multitude of professional profiles. Remember that whenever a reader hears of your book, reads a review on your book, or reads your book, he/she will probably search you online. Set up your profiles on the following: facebook which will give you a personalized URL  http://www.facebook.com/cheryl.cowtan LinkIn which provides a more structured, but more detailed space for your qualifications Google+ offers another place to have an online presence https://plus.google.com  Twitter  https://twitter.com/ All of the above will allow you to interlink between the profiles, which will attract search engine attention. Plus, you now have access to all of the potential readers and supportive writing colleagues, publishing houses and book reviewers.  facebook - over 900 million people twitter - 140 million active users Set up your profiles with pictures you want your readers to see. Make sure there are n...