Angela Booth's Writing Blog

B2B Content: 2 Tips To Make It Interesting, Useful, And Reader-Worthy

No matter what the topic, someone needs that content. As content creators, it’s up to us to make it interesting, initially, for ourselves.

If the content bores us, we can fix it.

Here’s how. To make content interesting, become interested in the topic.

Try putting yourself into the readers’ situation. If you wanted to know more about X, what would you want to know? Why would you want the information?

That said, there’s a BIG challenge. If we don’t understand an industry, we need to realize it will take more work to get an initial grounding in it. Factor this research phase into your quote for the client. Sometimes, it’s just too much effort; offer advice to the client to help him to find someone who knows the industry.

OK, with that out of the way, let’s look at B2B content.

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Book Marketing On Pinterest: 4 Tips To Sell Your Books

One author was adamant: social media, she said, is a waste of time if you want to sell books. “You need to advertise,” she said. “Big authors and publishers spend thousands every month.”

However, the authors who’d used social media for a while, said that they did sell more books when they used social media.

I liked this author’s comment: “Nothing works all the time. I’ve wasted a lot of money on advertising and I’m sure I’ve wasted a lot of time on social media too.”

She’s right. Nothing works all the time. Nor does it work equally well for everyone.

As a marketer, I know that marketing is all about the touchpoints. (Touchpoints are contacts or interactions.) The more often a reader sees your name, or the title of your book, the more likely it is that he’ll look further… In this case, familiarity breeds interest.

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Bored? 2 Quick Writing Tips You Can Use Today

“I’m bored with content marketing,” the self-publishing author confessed. “I need some better ideas.”

Everyone gets bored, me included, but if you’re running a small business, you need to market. In a sense, marketing is easier for writers and authors; writing and developing ideas is what we do.

In another sense, I completely understand this author. After a few hours of writing, the last thing you want to do is write more.

So how do you get a fresh burst of excitement and energy?

Content marketing: get fresh ideas

A fresh idea inspires you, and inspiration delivers energy, even when you’re bored.

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Blog Content: 4 Simple Ways To Find Blogging Ideas

Curiosity will motivate you: follow your interests

What are you curious about? Curiosity is a powerful motivator. Get curious. Explore—offline, as well as online.

Be aware however that while it’s great to be curious, set limits. And of course, don’t forget what you’re supposed to be doing, which is finding blog post ideas.

4. Advertising: who’s selling what in your industry?

Who’s advertising what in your industry? Why? Check the advertisers’ sites for their press releases to find new stories you can cover on your blog.

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Social Media Marketing Services

No excuses. You must market on social media

Yes, I know… It’s HARD, because it takes time. And energy.

For me, too.

An example. I established my Twitter profile, @angee, in the internet dark ages… Well, in April 2007. That’s a LONG time ago in internet years. My primary Pinterest profile is a little younger, but it has 7K followers… Big yawn, right, who cares?

Well, I don’t care either.

Despite the fact that I spend time on social media. Time I often consider an indulgence, frankly. Because I want results, just as you do.

Here’s the thing.

It’s all about the touch points. (A “touch point” is simply anytime someone sees your name and makes a connection of some kind, before, after, or during a sale. )

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Mind Mapping For Writers And Authors: Apps To Inspire You

Of course I’m all for app developers making an income from their hard work. However the pendulum seems to have swung from “hey, try this it’s FREE”, to “pay a monthly subscription, or go away…”

(BTW, if you’re not using mind maps, they’re excellent tools for writers.)

Intuitive mind maps: get inspired with visual tools

Not sure how to use mind mapping? In How To Outline Your Writing: 3 Easy Tricks You Need Today, I discussed intuitive mind maps:

… kick your rational mind out of the way when you’re creating an intuitive mind map. Write your topic in the center of a sheet of paper, then cluster words or phrases around that central topic… without thinking about it.

Intuitive maps help you to create “mud”: the raw materials of your writing.

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Your Short Fiction Formula: The Easiest-Ever Writing Process (Workshop)

Self-publishing sales: are yours dwindling?

Are you happy with your self-publishing sales? Many authors struggle. The cost of advertising is high: they lose money.

The answer? Savvy authors use short fiction (short stories and novellas) to generate sales and income quickly.

A short story of 5,000 words can make more money than a 60,000 word novel.

In addition to sales, a short story or novella provides an excellent introduction to your books—and to you as an author. The more short stories you write, the more readers you gain.

Are you a new author, who’s wondering if self-publishing is worth it?

In a word, yes. It is.

There’s a learning curve, naturally, especially if you’re attempting fiction.

You can shorten the learning process considerably if you start by writing and publishing short stories, rather than publishing a novel. The skills and confidence you develop will make writing your first novel a pleasure, instead of torture.

An aside: try writing fiction, even if you’re a new author. Here’s why: fiction outsells nonfiction on the Kindle Store by a factor of 6 to 1.

via www.angelaswritingclasses.com

New Author: Have You Written A “Good” Short Story? (Or Novel?)

Writing fiction is both an art and a craft. As with all art, it arouses emotions. Some readers may not like the emotions you made them feel. That’s OK. Be content that you made them feel at all — it’s a wonderful achievement.

New author? Satisfy yourself

When you’re writing fiction, especially if you’re a new author, satisfy yourself. If the story you get onto the computer screen satisfies you, it will satisfy readers.

Try this. Ask someone who likes the kind of fiction (the genre) in which you’re writing to read your short story.

You aren’t asking for a critique, nor do you want your reader to proofread the story. That is, you don’t want to know that you made a typo, or whatever. All you want to know is whether the story is entertaining. If the reader’s not entertained, can he tell you where in the story he got turned off, so to speak — where did he get bored?

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Plotting Fiction: The Inciting Incident (no turning back)

The inciting incident — there’s no turning back

When you’re writing fiction, the inciting incident sets the stage for the story question. It’s a plot twist: after the twist, there’s no turning back. In a novel, this twist happens after the Setup phase of your novel; around the 25% point.

In Bob’s story, the inciting incident occurs when he takes the money to his wife’s oncologist and pays for his wife’s treatment.

The money’s gone; Bob’s in trouble.

The big difference between a novel and novella: establish the story question early

Let’s say you’re writing a novella of 20,000 words. Would you plan your first plot twist at 5,000 words? (The 25% mark is the end of the Setup phase.)

You could do.

However, I suggest you don’t. The sooner you create the inciting incident and the story question, the better. Reader-curiosity is your biggest weapon: use it.

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Write Short: 4 Tips To Write And Sell Short Stories And Novellas

Want to write short fiction? Short stories and novellas can be great fun to write, as well as profitable.

A word regarding short fiction and copyright. I’ve spoken to several writers who’ve sold short fiction on the freelance marketplaces, then regretted it.

When you sell your stories as to someone who pays for it on one of the marketplaces, you’re selling all the rights.

Important: when you sell “All Rights” in a story, then once the money’s paid, the story is no longer yours, in any way or form. It’s gone. It’s a “work done for hire.” You can’t use any of the characters or situations in any work going forward.

The “rights” factor is the big reason that I’m all for self-publishing your fiction, rather than selling it to websites, magazines, or on one of the marketplaces. You never know when one idea will spark another one… A single character in a 1,000 word short story could become the hero of a major series. (If you retain the rights in your writing.)

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NaNoWriMo: How Important Is Setting In Your Novel?

Readers read for the story, they want to know what happens next

How to avoid writing descriptions of settings that readers skip? Let’s say you’ve recently visited a wonderful location: Hever Castle in Kent, England. Anne Boleyn spent some years of her childhood there. You had a wonderful time, and because you’re writing a mystery novel, you want to include a description of the castle and gardens. You could, of course, but why not consider putting the action front and center, rather than descriptions?

If you were writing a mystery for example, your sleuth could find a corpse, or a clue, in the yew maze at Hever Castle.

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Brainstorming: how I start a project

Questions

As I brainstorm I will absolutely run into questions I can’t answer. These get collected here. If an item in the Barriers or Requirements sections leads to a question, I add it here and create a relationship arrow back to its origin. If a question gets answered in the process of brainstorming, its solution gets added to the original barrier or requirement, either as a child node or as a note on the topic, and the question gets marked as “answered,” usually with a green checkmark icon.

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Write A Series: 3 Fiction Writing Tips To Get Inspired

Write a series: start anywhere you like

If you intend writing a series which follows the exploits of a single character, you don’t need to start at the character’s beginning, so to speak.

If you’re at all like me, you’ll find it a challenge create a series character cold. I’ll do it when I’m ghostwriting, but I prefer to let characters grow organically, from works in progress, or from novels I’ve already published (as C.S. Forester did, see below.) A couple of my series’ characters have developed from short stories.

Let’s look at some tips on how to get inspired to write a series.

1. Write a series: perhaps you’ve already started

You may already have written the first novel (or short story) in your series.

Many bestselling series which are focused on a single character “grow” as the the character grows. However, you don’t need to write chronologically.

For example, bestselling author C.S. Forester published the novel The Happy Return, in which his naval hero Horatio Hornblower is already in command of a ship, in 1937. Forester didn’t publish the start of Hornblower’s naval career until 1950, with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower.

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Get Creative: 4 Habits To Build Your Creative Inspiration

Writers and other creative people need to be creative on demand. From our group’s experiences, it seems as though it’s easy to get out of the habit of creativity.

Here are four habits which may help to build your creativity again.

1. Do something creative every day

Bored with writing? Try something else. Creativity blossoms, because you’re activating the creative part of your brain.

Your creative options are endless:

• Start an art journal;
• Bake a cake;
• Take photos of your kids on your phone…

Anything you do which is creative will help to build your creative inspiration.

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Writer's Block: Fix It

Write an email message to yourself about your writer’s block

Subconsciously, you know what’s causing your block. Write yourself a letter about your writer’s block. You may find that the reason for your block comes out in the letter. Perhaps it’s something trivial: you’re angry because you haven’t been promoted, or someone made you a promise and didn’t keep it.

Anger at someone or something often causes writer’s block. If this is the case, becoming conscious of what’s troubling you is often enough to release the block.

Even if you have no idea why you’re blocked, writing a message will release negativity. You’ll feel lighter—you may even start writing again.

via peneloperedmont.com