As you may remember, I was attending the Indie UnCon in San Francisco last weekend. I had a great time and learned SOOO much. One takeaway was the importance of connecting with readers via: newsletters.
Right now, I try to send out two newsletters a month. One with general updates about what’s happening in my life pertaining to my books. The second is my Read4Less version, which helps readers find books that are free or on sale. Apparently, this isn’t the best approach. You might say, where newsletters are concerned, more is more. 😉
Here’s my new plan: once-a-week newsletters. (This is subject to change, of course, but I’m going to give it a try starting next Thursday.)
Week 1: #NewMonthNews #newslettermakeover
I’m trying to figure out a way to include readers in my creative process as I write and plan the marketing for my new Tule series. Three books in eleven months!
Goals: met? behind schedule? given up?
Challenges: real life stuff (good or bad), writing hurdles (plotting, discovery, gob-smack ah-hah moments), etc.
Week 2: #Lifehacks – I’m thinking this will include a “guest column” from one of my characters, plus anything I’ve learned that makes my life easier or more fun. This might include travel pics, recipes and DYI tips.
I always leave a piece of my heart in San Francisco.
Week 3: #writinghacks #writingwins – this may include epic fails or things that work for one author but don’t work for me. The occasional “ta-dah” moment, like an award I didn’t see coming.
This was a lovely surprise! I’m so excited to find new readers who loved this book!!!
Also tips for living healthy and strong, which makes writing possible. Ex: yoga stretches, Pomodora, Brain.fm…
Week 4: #amreading – A peek into my Kindle and/or #amwatching – we’ve been enjoying some old movie favorites. I will ask readers to share their watchlist/readlist to be signed up for a prize.
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As you can tell this will be a Work-In-Progress. I hope to figure out how to make a decent video at least one week of the month, but I’m not making any promises.
I’m open to suggestions, and I appreciate the kind support you’ve given my blog posts. This will be the last one for…well, until I find out whether my new approach works or not. 😉 I truly do appreciate your friendship and I hope you’ll look for my weekly emails when they start arriving next Thursday.
So many of you wrote me privately and/or commented on my post about helping to move my sister-in-law into an assisted living center. I knew Sharleen was conflicted about the move–not wanting to leave her home of 40+ years, but I was happy to find her engaged with other residents every time I visited–whether whupping unsuspecting victims at Scrabble or amassing hoards of dimes from competitive Bingo and Skip-Bo (whatever that is).
She truly seemed to be doing well…until she wasn’t.
Sharleen passed away peacefully at her daughter’s home on Wednesday morning, surrounded by family. She began having trouble breathing the evening before and went into the ER. The doctors tried a number of things, but nothing seemed to help so they told the family it was time to call in hospice. My sweet niece took her mother home and Sharleen was gone the next morning. At peace. With my brother.
I’m sad, but very glad she didn’t suffer. I’m sad because I’ll miss her presence in my life and because I know her passing signifies the end of Easters-at-the-Ranch.
But I’m happy she’s no longer sad. I’m happy picturing her spirit rejoined with my brother’s. I ran across a couple of great photos I’d like to share with you. They make me smile. I hope they do you, too.
Is that a Shirley Temple smile or what?Bob and Sharleen Robson headed off on their honeymoon. So very much in love.Sharleen always said her forties were her favorite years.
I’m off to learn lots from other Indie authors at SF UnCon.
Holy thunder and lightning, Bookgirls, that was a storm!
My back yard after the last powerful storm passed through.
I usually write my blogs ahead of time, but I just got my WiFi back after two days of no connection. Since I live in the country, I signed up for a satellite service to provide access to the world at large. Well, that’s a slight overstatement since the “service” is so lousy, but regardless of the lack of speed, most days I do have access. But for the past two days, the modem’s power light came on but no one was home, if you know what I mean. The so-called brains of the outfit wouldn’t wake up. And when I tried to go online, I’d get dire warnings about not having a secure server.
I checked my roof to see if the dish was still attached. Yup. Was it still facing in the right direction? I couldn’t say, but since another couple of waves of storms were predicted, I decided to leave the unit unplugged and focus on writing.
And…um…wow. I wrote three complete chapters and I learned a whole bunch of interesting stuff about my characters. I guess what they say about connectivity decreasing productivity is right. (I’m trying to look surprised here, but it’s no shock. I’m as big a sucker for a cute puppy meme as anyone, and heart-tugging videos tug me right down the rabbit hole.)
So, here’s my dilemma: all the lights on my modem are twinkling brightly. Obviously, I’ve decided to start my day online–I’m writing this in WordPress, but what now?
Decisions, decisions.
How do you avoid the temptation of checking email and social media when you have other more important things to do?
