Guest Post: On Author Websites by Hailey Stratton

These days, it’s hard to get by without a good website. Like it or not, a website can often be a first glimpse into your life that potential publishers might see, so you want to make sure it represents you accurately. At minimum, your website should be a place where it’s easy to find out more about you, what inspires your work, and how to get in touch. However, there’s so much more you can do to make your website one of your most important and useful assets.

Build your website

Here are a few basic guidelines for creating an attractive website which will help you accurately display your passion, creativity and skill while also helping you land more work or sell more books.

Elegant Design:

This is quite possibly the most important aspect of creating a website. You want a website that’s attractive and will give your visitors a glimpse into who you are as a person. You want something attractive and easy to use. And perhaps most importantly, you’re going to want to pick a design that lends itself to the topics you write about. For example, if you write about romance, you might consider picking a theme that makes use of colors generally associated with love, like pink, whereas if you’re a horror writer you’ll probably want to go with something darker.

Contact Form:

Having an easily accessible contact form on your website goes a long way to helping people get in touch with you. Often times, I see authors with websites that only list an email address as a way to get in touch. While this will definitely be some of your visitors’ preferred way to reach out to you, having a page with a contact form where people can quickly and easily send you a message will streamline the process and quite possibly increase the amount of feedback you get.

Easy Navigation:

If it’s hard to get around your website, your visitors are probably going to leave, so make sure there are clear paths to everything a visitor might want to see. At minimum you should have prominent links to an About page, a contact form, and your social media profiles as well as any products you’re selling.

Mobile Responsiveness:

One of the reasons that having a website is important is because more and more people are spending great portions of their time online. Most of which is done by mobile devices. If your website is hard to navigate from a phone or an iPad, you’re probably going to frustrate your visitors.


Once you’re ready to begin building your site, or maybe you’ve just realized you’re in desperate need of a redesign, here are some resources to help you along the way:

SiteBeginner.com — a great guide to help you create a Wordpress site from the ground up for under $5 per month.

MakeAWebsiteHub.com — if you’re not totally convinced on Wordpress (which is my recommendation), here’s a great guide to help you choose a blogging platform.

Canva.com — chances are you need a little help in the graphic design department. Canva can help you make great looking logos and more.

Get creative

Once you have your website created, you don’t want to let it go stale by just sitting there waiting for visitors to hit your contact form.

World Building:

In addition to being a helpful marketing tool or central hub, a good website might also serve as a creative outlet and might even be a direct extension of your printed works. For example, you can use your website to continue building the world where your books take place by publishing additional short companion stories. Maybe you had an idea that you liked but didn’t make it into the final draft of your book. Or let’s say there was something you wanted to explore but it didn’t make sense to include in your book, for one reason or another. You might be easily able to reformat those plots into easily digestible bites to publish on your website.

Maybe I’m dreaming a little bit (and it is something I wish was reality), but I like to imagine that if J.R.R. Tolkien were alive at a time when he could have been publishing on the internet that he’d have had his own website or blog where he explored nearly endless side stories of various characters, vast elaborations of his worlds, maybe it would have even allowed him to create full excerpts of the fictional writings within his stories.

I’m sure you could come up with a ton of ways to incorporate blogging into your books. There’s a marketing benefit of this as well at it would generate interest from people stumbling upon your short stories on your blog and possibly make them interested in purchasing your books to read more.

Writing Prompts:

If using your blog for world building doesn’t seem like it would fit in with your work or it just doesn’t interest you, using your blog to help you generate new ideas or get yourself out of a writers’ block would serve as a great tool.

One way you could do this is by using writing prompts. There’s a good chance you already do this to some degree but there’s added value to publishing them on your blog as well. This would allow you to create an easily accessible hub full of your own ideas to revisit and build off of.

You could even use writing prompts for marketing! A simple way would be to participate in Reddit’s Writing Prompts. There you can choose to write about a topic that interests you, write it up in a comment and also publish a longer version on your blog with a link to your website where anyone who’s interested can read more and potentially discover your other work.

You’re all set!

Now that you’ve got your website created and a blogging strategy lined out, it’s time to start using it to its fullest potential. Most importantly, remember to have fun. A website or blog can be an incredible way to get your creative juices flowing without being tied down to any restrictions.

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Hailey Stratton is a freelance writer, graphic designer and aspiring photographer currently in Nashville. When she’s not working on various projects, she enjoys spending time with her cats Larry and Gary (yes, they have rhyming human names. That idea was entirely her fiance’s!) and cuddling up to watch a sad movie with a glass of wine.

Guest Post: On Co-writing

by Jamaila Brinkley and Rebecca Norinne

Writing a book with another author can be a daunting proposition, and there’s a lot of advice out there about it. Everyone has their own journey, and every co-writing scenario is different, but there are a few things that worked really well for us.

Be Friends
I can’t imagine co-writing with an author who I didn’t personally know and support. We’ve been friends a long time, and started our writing careers at the same time even though we wrote in different sub-genres of romance. We’re familiar with each others’ writing, but more importantly we’re familiar with each other. We know what’s going on in each other’s lives, so we’re patient with delays and excited about successes.

Plan — Just a Little
One of us is a "pantser," and the other is a "plotter." But when you’re blending two writing styles, you have to at least have a vague idea of where you’re going, even if it’s just a few chapters ahead plus an idea of what the happy ending looks like! We put together a shared Google document that had a timeline for our book in it, and then cheerfully strayed wildly from our original plan. Our document is full of markup and comments, but it served as a baseline for us, especially when we needed to go back and refresh ourselves to see what was supposed to happen next.

Figure Out Who’s Doing What
There are a lot of ways to co-write. Some people alternate full drafts; some alternate acts or even scenes. There are even epistolary novelists who just exchange letters! What worked for us was to agree to a dual POV story, and alternating POV chapters. Then each of us took one POV, so we wrote alternating chapters and simply passed them back and forth.

Bonus: can you guess which of us wrote which POV in THE VINTNER’S VIXEN??

Agree On a Release Plan
When will your book come out? How much editing will it go through, and where are you getting your cover? All of the same decisions you make when you publish your own work have to be made by committee in co-writing, so you’d better make sure you’re on the same page. No pun intended. Who’s going to be in charge of publishing, if you’re self-pubbing? Whose Draft2Digital account is going to be the one the book is published through (and sales come back to)? What marketing will you do individually or together?

Have a Contract
This is the boring part, but it protects both of you. Have a contract that spells out what happens with money spent, money earned, and rights, particularly if something should happen to one member of the partnership. It doesn’t have to be complex, and it doesn’t even have to be in legalese, but it should be written down somewhere (and, preferably, signed!). Nobody thinks that your co-writer is suddenly going to turn into a villain and abscond with the profits of your book; a contract is in place to remind you both what you agreed on and to make sure that if something happens, or one of you decides not to keep going with the project, that the effort you both put in wasn’t in vain. And your heirs will appreciate the clarity on what happens to the rights to your work! (You have a will, right? That’s another post, but please. Make a will. And add in a clause about your literary rights while you’re doing it.)

Love Your Work
Listen. Co-writing is a big deal. You’re creating something with another person. Both of you are expending tremendous emotional and creative labor for this thing, so please make sure you actually want to be doing it! We LOVE River Hill, the fictional town we created. It’s the perfect combination of all of the shared interests that made us friends in the first place, so we’re excited to keep writing there!


If you’re thinking of co-writing, hopefully these tips have made you a little more ready to take the plunge! It’s been an amazing experience for us, and we’re so excited to keep going. If you’d like to see the fruit of our labor, check out THE VINTNER’S VIXEN! Available at all major retailers on March 14th.

About The Vintner's Vixen:

Welcome to River Hill, where the only thing more intoxicating than the wine is the man who makes it.

With movie roles for "curvy best friend" drying up fast, actress Angelica Travis is happy to be leaving Hollywood behind for a project she's truly passionate about: renovating an historic bed and breakfast in peaceful wine country. She's got plans and power tools ready, but an inconvenient attraction to her obnoxious new neighbor is NOT on the agenda.

Winemaker Noah Bradstone wants nothing more than to cultivate his grapes and win awards for his wine. But when construction on the B&B next door threatens his vines, Noah goes on a rampage—and comes up hard against the sexiest starlet he's ever seen. Exactly the sort of woman he's vowed never to get involved with again.

Angelica and Noah might be able to resolve their differences over a glass of some very fine wine, but when her opportunity at breakout stardom comes calling, all bets are off.

Preorder for $2.99:

Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Kobo

Guest Post: The Secret Behind Successful Writing

The exact meaning of secret is itself a secret, lost even to most dictionaries found on the web (which is why you should stick with older, clunkier dictionaries, even if they don’t define words such as “LOL” and “TTYL”).

But I finally managed to find the one I was looking for in the Cambridge online Dictionary:

Secret: noun The ​particular ​knowledge and ​skills ​needed to do something very well. (Source)

Most people don’t think of (or even know) that definition, and they tend to look for the other, more widely accepted definition: A ​piece of ​information that is only ​known by one ​person or a few ​people and should not be told to ​others (same source as above).

Guest Post: 12 Techniques for Emotionally Connecting with Your Readers

A writer must have the ability to connect with readers at an emotional level. This requires a certain level of intuition. Establishing an emotional attachment between readers and characters goes slightly beyond the technical factors inherent to quality writing. You will need to think like your reader, or more importantly, like a human being. You are probably already aware of the necessity for a deep grasp on an innate sense of humanity when writing but you may not be sure how to best achieve this level of comprehension.

Throughout my own writing endeavors I have either learned or discovered twelve tactics to aid in the successful association between fictional emotional iteration and real life emotional experience. That experience being the kind we all share as human beings. In fact, for the duration of this article keep in mind that, with the exception of the occasional psychopath, everybody feels emotions in basically the same way.

1. Setting: 
• Creating an appropriate setting for a scene is a basic requirement for projecting emotional intensity. The reader will be able to relate as he has likely experienced the mood invoking power of a similar setting in life. An extreme example of this would be a haunted house. The point being that through correct use of color, sound and locale; setting becomes a powerful tool for emotionally connecting with the reader.
2. Sense:
• The five senses are our window on the world. Use this fact when you describe how your characters interact with the world you have created for them. How does the wind feel on their face? How does the infant that won't stop crying affect the character? We have all made associations with the world around us based on our senses and most of those associations are universal. Use that fact to relate to your readers.
3. Time:
• Time can be a great way to express an emotional state of being. When we are rushed the mood is tense. You've seen the movies where there is only 30 seconds left to disarm the bomb. Conversely, when we have plenty of time we may feel relaxed or bored.
4. Vocabulary:
• Vocabulary choice can be a clever way to project a feeling upon the reader without them even realizing. Use powerful words such as "triumph" instead of more plain sounding words such as "win." Also try noting the proper places to use soft or hard sounding words like "rub" vs "scrape." If it will not offend your target audience, then toss an occasional swear word into your character's dialogue. Be careful though, just as in real life, a strategic swear word will indicate emphasis but too many will come across as abrasive.
5. Transitions:
• Use scene transition to convey emotions. The safety of an airplane followed by a tense descent and subsequent crash landing. The relief when the reader learns no one was seriously hurt followed by the extreme fear when they realize they crashed on an island full of cannibals. This type of literary roller coaster ride will keep the reader in constant anticipation of the next scene while supplanting their own emotions based on a sequence of events in their own life that may have followed the same pattern.
6. Realism:
• All fantasy needs a basis in reality. For real people to connect with your characters at an emotional level your characters will need real flaws. People that seem perfect in real life are annoying and so too will your perfect characters appear annoying in your story. Analyze the personality traits of your characters closely so you can choose flaws and struggles that correspond to a similar personality type in the real world. The reader will recognize this personality type and make a mental connection to themselves or someone they know.
7. Consequences:
• The obvious advice in regards to consequences would be to make the actual consequences themselves realistic. At a basic level this means the good guys win and the bad guys lose. Even though this is not always the case in life, we as people can see definite patterns such as hard work paying off and thieves suffering karma.
  
  The less obvious piece of advice related to consequences would be a recommendation for the use of expressive language to make your reader feel the consequential emotions that affect your character as a result of some action or event in the story. For example, instead of writing: ìCarrie is excitedî, write: ìCarrieís heart began to beat intensely as the adrenaline surge through her body reached her brain when she read that last lotto number aloud. Just reading that example sentence got me thrilled as to what would happen if I won the lottery. Artfully describing a familiar emotional consequence will force your readers to reflect on similar feelings they may have had with an experience of their own.
8. Milestones: 
• When you write the interactions amongst your protagonist and the supporting characters, make sure these correlations lay out emotional bonds whether these bonds be good or bad. You want your reader to recognize these bonds from their own life when they are reading about the history of a milestone for a particular character. Those bonds will play an important role in allowing the reader to understand why that milestone is so emotionally impactful on your character.
9. Allusion:
• Place little clues throughout the book that give some indication as to what the reader can expect. This will keep them holding on for the next chapter. Occasionally shock the reader with something unexpected.
10. Choices:
• We can all relate to an indecisive struggle with choices we've had in our own lives. Give your character a couple of those. Another powerful concept involves forcing the character to choose between bad or worse. Does he or she rob a bank or let a loved one die.
11. Conflict:
• Keep conflict constant. Even if it's between and character and himself. Utilize conflict heavily throughout your story. This does not have to be conflict between two characters. It can mean a struggle the character is having in his or her mind.
12. Familiarity:
• This tip could also be referred to as history and is really the basis for this entire article. A familiarity between reader and character at multiple facets of being is a definite prerequisite for making emotional connections. The reader must be made aware of a character's history before he or she can truly feel empathy for a character's struggle.

There are many factors that go into writing a great story but perhaps none more important than the ability to emotionally connect with the reader. By incorporating these techniques you will be laying a foundation for building a complex emotional structure for your characters. And remember that establishing real world familiarity for this structure is the most vital element necessary for leaving a lasting impression on readers.

James A. Rose is a writer for InstantPublisher.com, a full service self-publishing company that specializes in transforming author dreams into reality. We have been providing exceptional and affordable service to writers for the past 15 years. No matter what type of book you want to create, Instant Publisher will be with you every step of the way to ensure the process is efficient and painless. We're not happy until you're happy.

Facebook.com/InstantPublisher / Twitter.com/instntpublisher

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Friendly reminder: everything expressed in the post above is a reflection of the opinions of the author, James A. Rose, not necessarily those of Aria Glazki.

Are you interested in guest posting on this site? I'm always happy to feature great content! Check out the guidelines here then contact me.

Vibrizzio Blog Tour with Guest Nicki Elson

It's my pleasure to introduce you to author Nicki Elson, who's stopping by to promote her latest release, Vibrizzio! Her guest post today is part of her blog tour, hosted by Xpresso Book Tours. Don't forget to check out the giveaway below! And now, without further ado:

5 Real Things in VIBRIZZIO 

& 5 Things I WISH Were Real

Thank you, Aria, for having me over during the tour. And double thanks for giving me free rein on choosing a topic! Bits and pieces of writers’ real lives often find their way into their stories, so I thought it would be fun to let you in on 5 real life things in VIBRIZZIO plus 5 things I wish were real.

Tax Tips for Writers

It's the start of a new year, and whether we like it or not, that means tax season is nearly upon us. Daunting as that may sound, for many of us taxes are actually fairly straightforward. Understanding the basics can take the edge off, letting us focus our stress on more exciting things — like querying and pitching.

Luckily, today we have a guest to help us out! Laura Gibble is a tax attorney who has graciously offered up some tips for those of us earning income with our writing. She will also be around to answer any questions in the comments — thanks, Laura! And without further ado:


Death and taxes. Two guarantees in life. For some individuals, these are two of the most frightening realities to face. As a tax attorney, I hope I may alleviate some fear for the tax bits.

Every person has a different situation. There are some things, however, that will help the majority of people during tax time if good habits are practiced during the tax year. These little habits and tidbits are primarily focused on Independent Contractors (ICs). [Aria: When it comes to fiction writing, that's most of us!]

An Independent Contractor (IC) is an individual who receives income outside of wages and income tax documents outside of a W2 for the tax year. This means that no taxes are withheld from the money the IC receives in exchange for services or goods. In such cases, ICs may deduct certain expenses associated with earning money. These deductions reduce taxable income as they allow for only the profits to be taxable versus including the money that has already been put back into the business. Once the money goes back into the business, it becomes an investment towards producing more taxable funds in future years. (If there are any questions regarding the reasons for this, feel free to ask for a better understanding of deductible items.) An independent contractor files a Schedule C with the Federal Form 1040. Each state has their own tax forms.

Things to keep in mind and habits to pick up:

• Pay estimates to both federal and state. (Go to the IRS or state taxing agency websites to figure out payments based on your projected income.)
• The Government is supposed to run as a business, with bills and such, so quarterly payments go towards yearly expenses.
• If quarterly payments are not made when the income suggests they should be, there will be interest and penalties applied to what should have been paid.
• Keep your receipts! This includes proof of payment for utilities if you have an office in your home and large ticket items.
• Large ticket items include computers, printers, etc. utilized in whole or part for business purposes throughout the year.
• Trips for business purposes may be deductible in whole or part. Maintain receipts and itineraries.
• It is easiest to maintain a spread sheet if possible of amounts, payee, purpose, method of payment and date.
• [Aria: For us writers, this can include convention costs, courses we take, books on writing craft, and more!]
• Maintain separate accounts for your business and personal expenses.
• Keep record of any money transfers, particularly the purpose and dates.
• Keep a separate workspace for paid work versus personal work.
• Keep proof of medical expenses and insurance premiums paid.
• Though most medical deductions go on Schedule A, and most medical expenses are not enough to be deductible, the insurance and certain medical expenses are deductible for self-employed individuals.
• Keep record of ALL money paid to you, the source and the reason for receipt of the funds.
• Technically, all money brought in must be reported. There are different locations on a return to record money from different sources.
• Self-Employment tax is not additional tax above and beyond what W2 employees pay. In fact, SE tax is Social Security and Medicare which is withheld from W2 employee paychecks.

Hopefully these general bullet points are helpful. As always, ask a professional directly for specific questions regarding your personal circumstances.

Disclaimer: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, if any advice concerning one or more U.S. Federal tax issues is contained in this written document (including any attachments), such advice is not intended or written to be used (and cannot be used), for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein without additional review. The information and recommendations listed above are general taxation concepts and are not specifically tailored to any particular individual and are not legal advice.

On Finding the Right Agent

By Jennie Davenport

As a debut author and, once upon a time, a querying writer, I can tell you that knowing whether or not a certain agent is the right fit is…difficult. Oftentimes, our judgment can be a bit muddled because we are so desperate to find one—any one, really—that will give our stories a chance. So in our search, we come across an agent who represents our genre, and we immediately think, “Oooo! Maybe he/she is the one!”

I thought that so many times it would be impossible to count. So, if you’ve felt that heart-wrenching pain from your ONE rejecting you—and even your fifteenth ONE in a row—YOU’RE NOT ALONE!

Querying is difficult and trying. It takes patience and the ability to learn and grow. And timing is everything. But don’t let that repetitive rejection dim your passion! Learn from it, grow from it. Never stop tweaking your query. Never stop looking for an agent. Never stop trying to be better.

Guest Post: Karen Lopp

The two questions I have been asked the most since becoming a published author have been about why I chose to write what I write about, and how I edit my books. I was drawn to write Historical Western Romance by a number of factors. I could identify with the spirit of the Old West since I grew up on a farm. While we had a lot more conveniences than people did in the 1800’s, some things never change. The livestock must be fed and watered every day, no matter what the weather or what you had planned. For example, my sister-­in-­law grew up in North Dakota on a dairy farm. When there was a wedding they partied hard, until it was time to go milk the cows; then everyone would go home, change into their work clothes, milk the cows, then change back into their tuxes and go back to partying! It was just something you did, without complaint, without being asked, and not expecting anyone else to come over and help. That type of rugged individualism was epitomized with the pioneers, ranchers, and business owners of the Old West. I applaud the courage and strength it took to make a life in the untamed wilderness.

Reading is also a huge part of why I write and why I write Westerns. I have read every single one of Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour’s books – multiple times! Their descriptions were so accurate that when I took my first trip to New Mexico, it felt like going home, the scenery and sights were so familiar to me. I also found fascinating tidbits of information from researching my family tree, I discovered most of my ancestors migrated West. My roots are out here, so it was a natural choice to write about the West.

Guest Post: Creating a Media Sheet

by Donna Huber

I'm often hired by authors to assist in contacting reviewers. If all they've hired me for is blogger outreach, I put together a media sheet for the book I'm pitching. Basically, it's a pared down media kit. For the busy author (and what author isn't busy?), I highly recommend having a media sheet specific to the book you are promoting. It allows for the quick and easy dissemination of information to bloggers. Also, it looks professional and is a great resource to have on hand.

Most bloggers, when accepting your request for a review or to host you, will ask for some basic information. By having this media sheet done, you won't have to worry about finding all the pieces, or leaving anything out by accident. It can also provide information to the blogger about your book without making your pitch long-winded. If you don't already have a media kit, it can also serve as the basis for one.

Guest Post by Emma Calin

This should be a guest post for the Blogger Book Fair to tempt you to read my books. However, since I am on the blog of a lovely poet, I wanted to share some poetry with you from a collection by a good friend, Oscar Sparrow.

I had the honour of writing the foreword for this anthology, so it feels like one of my books in any case!

The collection is called “I threw a stone” and is an eclectic selection of poems about life, love and nature. Some of the poems are serious, some are funny, some are raw and brutal. All exhibit Oscar's unique talent of distilling the essence of a subject into poetic form. The book is unusual in that the digital version includes a link to a FREE audio recording of all the poetry, recorded by Oscar himself with a specially composed musical introduction written by a local young musician. What better than to hear a poem read aloud by the poet?

Guest Post: Tips to Find Inspiration Every Day

By A. J. Hayes

Last year, on my 30th birthday, I took the challenge to write a poem a day for a year and post it on my Tumblr blog. I completed the task earlier this year, and compiled all 365 poems into a collection, 30th Year Poetry. Inspiration for these poems came in many forms. I talk about the specific inspiration for the poems in the book. In order to “get inspired” on a daily basis, I recommend doing the following:

Guest Post Etiquette

This isn't my first post relating to virtual etiquette, and while I certainly do not aim to become the Emily Post of the blogging world, there are nevertheless some dos and don'ts I'd like to share, based on both my experiences and common sense. I hope you will find them useful!

Why Do I Write?

By Katherine Polillo

It’s a simple enough question, so one would think it has a simple enough answer, but it doesn’t. Why do I write? Because I enjoy it, it makes me happy, I crave the creative release… yes, but there is more than that.

Many years ago when I packed my bags and went off to college I envisioned a life and career very different than the one I’m living. I wanted to make a difference, and the naïve 18 year-old I was thought that the best way to do this was through politics. I became a history and political science major and began pursuing internships with Congressional Representatives. After several years and key life experiences I became very disillusioned with the political system, and washed my hands of the entire affair. I transferred colleges and tacked on a key piece to my college major. I decided to enroll in the Secondary Education program. I wanted to make a difference and the way I saw to do that was by teaching.

Update

Between preparing for the Blogger Book Fair and working on my next novel (11,600 words!), I have admittedly been slacking on the "writing interesting blog posts" front. This one won't be an exception, except letting you all know about a guest post that went up today, that ties in to my last post on the reality of rejections: Silent Rejections and the Successful Author.  Check it out on the Girl Who Reads blog!

More interesting posts coming soon, I promise!

Guest Post: To Love A Heroine

By Amber A. Bardan

I have been thinking about what makes a good romance heroine. It was something I previously struggled with, but now have clear opinions about. Not only have I been thinking it but I have been reading about it, hearing about it, even debating it with friends. There seems to be a lot of 'rules' forming about what makes an acceptable heroine; she must be super assertive, in charge of her own life, in control, successful, never needs to be rescued, no virgins, it goes on.

But overall the attitude I am picking up on is that people (particularly in the writing community) want strong heroines. Sure, she can have her weaknesses (she's got to be accessible after all), but she should stand up as a full and capable character without reliance on the hero to give her purpose.

Guest Post: The Myth of the Constant Writer

By Molly D. Campbell

Writers write. At least, that is what I always thought. A writer is born, not made. From the time he or she can just barely form the letters of the alphabet, there are little sentences, tiny stories.

When I was a child, I read about Jo March writing in her chilly garret, crunching on apples and bending over a candlelit trunk. Anne Shirley also wrote stories and poems from the time she was adopted by Matthew and Marilla. These were fictional writers, but I also knew about Emily Dickinson, Beatrix Potter, the Bronte sisters, et. al., who wrote volumes as they grew up.