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'Juno' Screenwriter Diablo Cody's Advice on Writing, Hollywood & More is Smart & Spot-On

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This article by Rachel Simon originally appeared on Bustle on 7/16/14.

To some people, Diablo Cody disappeared off the face of the earth sometime in 2008, right after she won an Oscar for penning Juno. Sure, they might’ve heard something about a new movie here or there, but when nothing became as big as Juno, they (wrongly) assumed Cody left Hollywood. To those who’ve paid attention, though, it’s clear that the filmmaker has been everywhere these last few years: writing, directing, producing (not to mention giving birth to two kids) and, most recently, sharing her secrets with Glamour’s Cindi Leive about building an “unconventional career path” and what lessons she has for women looking to have their own Juno-like breakthroughs. All ladies, whether filmmakers or not, should take note; these are coming from the woman who’s making a rock star movie with Meryl Streep, after all. Cody’s best pieces of advice:

 

#1. Don’t Pick a Fake Name Until You’re Ready

The woman born as Brook Busey-Maurio changed her name early on in her career, when she was just beginning to blog and wasn’t yet a published author. She chose a “cool and intimidating” pseudonym for the purpose of Internet anonymity, but looking back, making the change so early, before she was established as a writer, “was honestly such a mistake.”

 

#2. If You’re Not Happy With Your Life, Change It

 

Click here to read the full article on Bustle.

 

Censorship War: Website Unmasks Links Google is Blocking From Search Results

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This post originally appeared on RT.com on 7/17/14.

A subversive website has been launched to keep track of news and other webpages Google has “censored” from the search engine’s index, following the European Court of Justice’s controversial Right to be Forgotten ruling.

The tech giant has reportedly been inundated with 70,000 requests to remove sensitive information from its search results in the aftermath of the ECJ’s decision. While this data may be accurate, it is considered “irrelevant” and possibly defamatory under the EU policy shift.

In a mark of protest against online censorship, a new site ‘Hidden From Google’ has begun archiving links censored by search engines intent on complying with ECJ demands. The site was set up by US web developer and transparency advocate, Afaq Tariq.

The New Jersey developer asserts the removal of links from a search engine’s index amounts to censorship. So in an effort to preserve transparency in Europe’s online realm, he invites visitors to log data that has been removed from Google on the site.

“This list is a way of archiving the actions of censorship on the Internet,” Tariq states on the site’s about page. “It is up to the reader to decide whether our liberties are being upheld or violated by the recent rulings by the EU.”

 

Click here to read the full post on RT.com.

 

10 Alternatives to Goodreads

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This post by Lysa Grant originally appeared on Self-Publishing Review on 7/14/14.

This post is an addendum to Author Directory Sites: The Complete List. If you’re just looking for library/catalog sites, here you go. There’s no reason to stop at Goodreads, even if it is the biggest and most used.

Well, let me amend that. There are so many hours in the day, so if you want to concentrate your efforts on a library site, it makes sense to stick with Goodreads. If you’ve got time to spare, putting some time and energy into these sites can only help. And if all you want to do is create a profile and bail, that can’t exactly hurt either.

 

Shelfari

Based in Seattle, Shelfari introduces readers to our global community of book lovers and encourages them to share their literary inclinations and passions with peers, friends, and total strangers (for now). Shelfari is a gathering place for authors, aspiring authors, publishers, and readers, and has many tools and features to help these groups connect with each other in a fun and engaging way. Our mission is to enhance the experience of reading by connecting readers in meaningful conversations about the published word.

Tips for using Shelfari

 

Library Thing

LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth.

A guide to LibraryThing for publishers (from LibraryThing)

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes highlights for 8 additional reader sites, on Self-Publishing Review.

 

12 Tips for Writing Blog Posts That Get Noticed

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This post by Jodie Renner originally appeared on The Kill Zone on 7/14/14.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t possibly get to all the blogs I’d like to in any given day. We’re all busy people, so we want to know within seconds whether a blog post will offer anything of value to our hectic lives. And we might even get annoyed at time-wasters that meander or don’t deliver on their promises.

Blogging is a great way to build a community feeling, connect with readers and writers, and get your books noticed. I’m honored and proud to be a member of this award-winning group blog, The Kill Zone, where my fellow bloggers, all savvy, accomplished writers, offer daily value and entertainment to writers, and our community of eager participants enrich every post with insightful comments.

But if you’re just getting started in the world of blogging and want to build a following, the most important thing to remember is that it’s not about you. It’s all about offering the readers value in an open, accessible style and format. A rambling, unclear, too formal, or overly long blog post can be irritating or boring – a turnoff. And can jeopardize your reputation or blog.

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes 12 specific tips with details on each, on The Kill Zone.

 

Should You Blog Your Novel?

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This post by Nina Amir originally appeared on How To Blog A Book on 7/1/14.

Many novelists feel intrigued by the idea of blogging a book. If they seek a traditional publishing deal, however, they usually have one major concern: If I blog my novel, will a publisher be interested in the manuscript? In fact, nonfiction writers have the same concern.

No matter what type of book you blog, this is a valid concern. For novelists, it’s a larger issue, though.

 

Previously Published Nonfiction Work and Traditional Publishers

Let me discuss nonfiction first. If you blog the first draft of your nonfiction book and then submit to a traditional publisher, that manuscript will be seen as previously published work. However, you will have 25 or 30 percent new content and an edited version to submit (if you follow the plan I propose here on the blog and in How to Blog a Book), so what you present is not identical to what can be found online. That makes the manuscript enticing to a publisher.

Plus, when you submit your work you offer statistics to prove the blog posts you published successfully test marketed your idea and created a platform for yourself, which means you now have a built-in readership for the book.

For these reasons—additional content, the difference in your manuscript, great stats, platform—the majority of publishers—not all—will not be put off by the fact that your manuscript technically is previously published. If your stats are good, they should be happy to publish your nonfiction book.

 

Click here to read the full post on How To Blog A Book.

 

Four Important Questions About Your Brand

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This post by Joe Wikert originally appeared on his Joe Wikert’s Digital Content Strategies on 5/20/14.

Publishers tend to take their brands for granted, especially when they feel it’s well defined and doesn’t need attention. Since the core meaning of a brand needs to remain consistent it’s hard to argue with leaving things as is.

Nevertheless, there are times when every organization needs to take a step back and make sure their brand conveys the right message. This is particularly important for an industry like publishing, which has experienced several years of disruption.

Here are four questions leaders and brand managers should ask themselves from time to time:

What’s the first thing that enters a consumer’s mind when they see your brand?

This is the most important question of all. Regardless of what you want your brand to convey, consumers have their own interpretation. I’m not a big fan of focus groups since they sometimes lead to “New Coke”, but this is a customer survey that’s worth the time and effort to conduct.

 

Click here to read the full post on Joe Wikert’s Digital Content Strategies.

 

Think Outside the Bookstore

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This post by Heidi M. Thomas originally appeared on The Blood Red Pencil on 6/23/14.

When my first book, Cowgirl Dreams, was published, I was shocked and surprised to learn that you don’t necessarily sell books in bookstores. That just doesn’t seem logical, does it?

Well, it does, if you think about it.  Bookstores shelve thousands of books.  Customers have their favorite well-known authors and usually they go in specifically to purchase that particular author.  Some may browse and run across your book and be intrigued enough to buy it, but unless your name is John Grisham or Danielle Steele or Nora Roberts, don’t count on it.

Even when I put on a reading and PowerPoint presentation one time at a local independent bookstore, I had an audience of about twenty people, but I sold two only books.

Seems daunting, doesn’t it?  Where do you sell books, if not in bookstores?

Since my novels are based on my grandmother who rode bucking stock in rodeos, I look for any store or event where people might be interested in rodeo, horses, ranch life, and cowgirls. My very first signing was at a local Farmers Co-op store, where they sell feed, farm supplies, and some gift items. It was around Christmastime, they featured a “customer appreciation day,” and Santa was there.  I sold about 20 books in three or four hours.

 

Click here to read the full post on The Blood Red Pencil.

 

Promoting Your Young Adult Novel

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This post by Kristi Cook originally appeared on The How To Write Shop on 2/10/12.

Okay, you’ve done it! You’ve written your YA novel, and either sold it to a publisher or decided to self-publish it. Either way, it’s about to “go out into the world”! Congrats!

Now you just want to make sure that readers can actually find your gem out in the crowded marketplace. You must promote! But how? I’m going to tell you what’s worked best for me. Keep in mind that your mileage my vary.

First off, whether your book is available both digitally and in bookstores or just digitally, word-of-mouth is very important to your sales. You need to get people talking about your book–and the best people to get talking are bloggers. If your publisher’s publicity department isn’t getting ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) into their hands, then you should make sure they get copies–either ARCs or electronic galleys, or even finished copies. I’m not saying send out copies to everyone who asks, but you should definitely be out there on social media, building relationships with bloggers/reviewers, and giving some of them the opportunity to review your book without having to purchase a copy. And don’t worry–while I do think that blogger/reviewer love can actually “make” a book (i.e. bring it to the attention of readers who might have missed it, giving it unexpected success), I don’t believe that bad reviews necessarily “kill” a book. But, for better or for worse, you need to get readers talking about your book.

 

Click here to read the full post on The How To Write Shop.

 

Do You Make These Online Marketing Mistakes?

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This post by Jason Kong originally appeared as a guest post on The Book Designer on 6/4/14.

Imagine you’re making an appearance at a bookstore to promote your latest novel.

Someone approaches you to chat. This person gushes that she’s read all your books and is excited to read the latest one. She holds the newly purchased book in her hands, hoping that you’ll sign it.

Immediately you launch into an elevator pitch, explaining the genre you write in and a quick summary of your storytelling style. You conclude with the various places your books can be purchased, and that you hope she’ll give your books a try.

Clearly, a longtime fan doesn’t need an introduction to how you write and the stories you’ve written. Having the right person pay attention does little good if the wrong message is shared.

Maybe you don’t make this kind of mistake when you’re face-to-face. Can you say that’s also true when you communicate over the internet?

 

The downside of using online media

We all know about the promise.

A platform in cyberspace meant you had a stage to project your voice. Your digital words could travel far and wide, attracting and corralling those who care about what you do. With one click, you could reach just about everyone.

 

Click here to read the full post on The Book Designer.

 

3 Strategies For Repurposing Content

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This post by Alyssa Kritsch originally appeared on the Hootsuite blog.

One of the biggest challenges for marketers today is how to create great content. Quality content is not only an effective tool to acquire new customers, but increase brand awareness and position your organization as a thought leader in your industry.

To develop valuable content means having a content strategy that leverages your brand’s core ideas and the ability to repurpose content allows marketers to produce more collateral with less research.

Here are a few quick strategies to think about when repurposing content:

 

Create Longevity

The goal of evergreen content is to create something thats lifetime extends beyond the time taken to write it. This means, the time you spend writing will be made up in months of content value.

 

Start With an Idea

Start with a core idea, usually as a solution to either a common customer question or a vertical target audience. As an example, let’s say the core idea is data and metrics analysis.

Visualize a mind map of all the possible mediums and audiences the idea could be written for. When you create content with the specific purpose of repurposing it, you allow yourself to effortlessly add value each time you re-work the piece.

 

Leave Room to Build

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes more on the Create Longevity bullet point as well as two additional content repurposing strategies, on the Hootsuite blog.

 

12 Most Fierce Ways to Protect Your Blogging Time

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This post by Linda Dessau originally appeared on 12Most on 5/20/14.

Blogging can easily fall off your to-do list when you’re faced with other pressing tasks in your business and life. Yet blogging only works if you do it consistently and you do it well.

Since achieving both those things requires time you don’t think you have, here are 12 ways to set and protect that time.

 

1. Put it first
While it seems counterintuitive, try working on your blogging tasks before client tasks or business development. This may be the only way to keep blogging from getting pushed behind your other priorities. Then, let the accomplishment of making progress on your blog fuel your confidence (and grow your business!) all day long.

 

2. Schedule it as an appointment
Simply setting the intention to blog will not make it happen. You need to clarify when you will blog, and get it onto your calendar. Treat this the same as you would any other important commitment.

 

3. Say no to yourself
If you feel so overloaded with tasks that you can’t imagine taking even 20 minutes at the start of each work day, there is too much on your plate and something has to give. This is a life issue, not a blogging issue, and the rest of your life will be ever so grateful to your blog if [you] stop taking on too much — and start delegating some of what’s already there.

 

Click here to read the full post on 12Most.

 

Authors — Using Business Cards to Build Sales

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This post by Robert Bidinotto originally appeared on his blog on 5/24/14.

A common lament of authors is: How do I promote my books? I’ve tried to present a host of time-tested ideas in this blog.

Author business cards constitute one of the cheapest, easiest methods to build a readership and increase sales. I know that I’ve sold hundreds of books through the use of my HUNTER business card.

Before I begin, let me first give a tip of the hat to Robin Sullivan — wife and business partner of bestselling fantasy author Michael J. Sullivan — for providing 90% of the ideas and information in this post.

Robin used to maintain an invaluable website/blog, “Write To Publish,” which, sadly, has been defunct for some years. One of her most useful posts for me was “Author’s Business Cards…Get Them…Use Them.” Precisely because her information is so valuable, it deserves a new lease on life. So here I am, snitching it shamelessly yet publicly, giving full credit to Robin. If you read her article, then you won’t have to read this one.

Here, though, I want to indicate how I’ve adapted her methods for my own use.

In terms of bang-for-the-buck, I can’t think of many methods of advertising your books that generate a better return than business cards. For about an hour of time, plus the price of a restaurant meal, you can produce an advertising product that can generate thousands of dollars in sales and a host of fans.

First, like Robin, let me recommend as a source for inexpensive business cards GotPrint.com. Just today I designed and ordered 1,000 new cards for the forthcoming release of BAD DEEDS. These one thousand cards — two-sided, full-color, UV coated, on thick glossy stock — cost only $19.00. You read that correctly. I splurged for “rush” production, and spent $26.35. You have a variety of shipping options. Mine cost me an additional $14.63.  Grand total: $40.98. And the quality is fabulous.

 

Click here to read the full post on Robert Bidinotto’s blog.

 

Using SlideShare For Marketing Fiction And Non-Fiction Books

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This post by Joanna Penn originally appeared on her The Creative Penn blog on 5/16/14.

I know you don’t want to think about any other sites for marketing!

But in this post, I outline why I think you should consider Slideshare and how I’m using it for both my brands, J.F.Penn thriller author, and Joanna Penn, professional speaker and non-fiction author.

 

Why care about Slideshare?

Slideshare is basically a presentation sharing network.

It’s a form of content marketing, but more visual, and if done well, it can be much more effective than writing a blog post on a topic, especially if you are unknown and your site has no ranking. Visual marketing is very much the big thing now. In an age of text overload, people are clicking more on visual content – whether that’s Instagram, pics on Twitter or Facebook, infographics or SlideShares.

It’s easily shareable and viewable on any social platform as well as on mobile devices. On the right, you can see a tweet that actually embeds the whole SlideShare so it can be read within Twitter. Awesome for twitterholics like me!

Slideshare is one of 120 most visited websites in the world, with 60 million monthly visitors. It ranks highly in Google for keywords, and you can use embedded hyperlinks to direct traffic to your site.

 

Click here to read the full post on The Creative Penn.

 

You’re Not Gonna Spend a Lot Marketing This Book

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This post by Saundra Mitchell originally appeared on her Making Stuff Up For A Living blog on 1/13/14.

So, I’m reading this absurd article on all the things you need to spend money on to market your own book. Oh noz, you have to pay a zillion dollars for a website, for a mailing list, for copy and editing for your website, wtf? I’m not even going to link to article because, seriously, WTF?

Here’s the deal. If you’re willing to put the time in yourself, you can do almost all of your book marketing for free. It may be worth it to you to pay for someone else to do everything- and if you’re in a position to do that, awesome! Go for it! But if you’re not, or if you’d prefer to have strict control over everything, here’s a brief guide to doing it yourself.

 

Blog/Website: More and more people are using Blog software to host their entire websites. WordPress is fantastically flexible, free and your URL can be an easily memorable yourname.wordpress.com. WordPress has about a zillion free themes so you can customize like whoa, and because it’s an integrated service, it shares your links on other blogs like yours to drive traffic. FOR FREE.

Blogger is another free host and software package that’s easy to use and customize for your needs. And you know what drives even more traffic to websites? Twitter. ALSO FREE.

 

Graphics: Graphics for your website, your bookmarks, your postcards whatnot- you can create them yourself for free, from the bottom up. Download a copy of GIMP image manipulation software, and play with it.

 

Click here to read the full article on Making Stuff Up For A Living.

 

The Art and Business of Reader Engagement and Author Platform

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This post by Jane Friedman originally appeared on her site on 12/13/13.

In the nonprofit world, you’ll frequently hear about “audience development,” which concerns itself with outreach to people interested in what you do, and customizing that outreach based on a person’s level of interest.

Audience development is difficult to strictly define because it involves not just pure marketing, but one-on-one relationships. It’s not about selling (although the result is often sales); it’s about creating an experience or community that engages with you over the long term. And that requires that you communicate with your readers meaningfully and consistently.

One of the best summaries of audience development I’ve read is from Shoshana Fanizza, who has spent more than a decade in arts development:

Audience Development, in a nutshell, is all about relationship building to achieve the “power of people” to support your art form. Consider it as building positive energy, people energy, to attract more support for you. Audience development does take time to see results. It is a building process. … You want to get to know your audience and connect with them. If they feel connected and cared for, they will want to become more involved. It will take effort and persistence, but you will see the relationships you build start to form a positive community around your art. This community is the key to succeeding!

So, audience development is a fancy business word for directly communicating with your readership, and engaging with them in a way that’s mutually beneficial and respectful. What follows is a starting framework and strategy for doing just that, and much of it overlaps with developing your platform. (If you don’t know what platform is, read my definition here.)

 

Why is this important?

 

Click here to read the full article on Jane Friedman’s site.