Writer's corner: The Balancing Act of Integrated Marketing

We've had strep at our house and so I found myself at home for 48 hours. What?!?! So much work to get done! I have really been struggling with balancing social media, blogging, writing, editing, audiobook production, and planning marketing lately. You can guess what has been getting the short straw.... Yup, marketing.

A part of me felt less guilty about this because I was running my adwords campaign and checking on it every couple of weeks. The campaign looked like it was doing well, as I have a .75% CTR on one campaign and a .36% CTR on the other... and yet, I wasn't able to see what it was doing for me. I saw a minor increase in sales, but nowhere near enough to pay for the click throughs.  My bounce rate is bad (98%) and I hate google analytics. It is a bunch of useless stats that are harder to comprehend than trying to read Chinese. (At least for me.)

So I spent those two days reading, reviewing, planning and plotting on how to work my marketing campaign and guess what I've got?

Well, I know that no single source of marketing is the magic bullet. I know that the key is to come up with a magical blending of social media, content marketing, email, and offline.  About six months ago I started paying for a subscription for Hootesuite and have been using that to manage my social media, but I recently found out that it has not been working. Here I thought I was sharing my posts across multiple platforms, when in reality half my posts were not getting shared anywhere other than twitter.... failing on the content sharing across social media. That explains why I haven't been seeing the stats growing.

I should be using my adwords to at least develo an email list, but I still haven't figured out how to do that. I have a Wix site and although there are some aspects that are very convenient about Wix, figuring out how to develop a landing page to offer a free sample of my book for an email address has not been easy.... that or I am entering febrile delerium...

And I don't know what to do with the email once I get it. The only "email list" I have are my blog readers, but I don't even have that. It is through blogger. They have my email list.  I have gotten a few email addresses from some of the blog hops I have done, but I don't use them. I should, but I don't.  I signed up for a free trial of hubspot before realizing that probably won't work for me (Beyond the fact that I can't spare $200 a month on Basic software.)

So I continue to muddle through,

What are your favorite marketing tactics authors have used? Share in the comments below.

Poetry Corner: I Love You

I am the dream that comes from dreams.

Living on the shores
Old-sung heroes often come
Veering from the Lores
Even fortunes cannot drive them from their path so true

Young and innocent
Old and wise
Unite with this reprise

Painting by Loo1Cool  from Deviantart

There is nothing more to be said. Sometimes I amaze myself.

The Maze Runner Final Pre-book Review

Well, it is finally picking up! Of course, it is almost over.... what a teaser to force us to read the next book! My kids are hooked, though, so I guess it worked.

The girl has finally woken up, and "Things are changing" My boys bug me every night to keep reading, so it should be done and reviewed pretty soon.

Just a minor note. It is a shame that it took so long to get going. I mean, I get that there was a lot of world building that needed to be done, and I cannot say that I can think of a better way that he could have done it, except to have just done it faster or smoother. In fairness, it did steadily build in intensity and complexity. It hooked my boys. I really hope the next books will be smoother, now that the world building is done.  My boys are eager and we have three and 1/4 books to go.

Writer Musings: What is a Strong Female Character

One theme I have noticed in the reviews I have received is that I write "strong female characters". The first time I read that I was a little surprised. I had some strong female characters, and some sort of pitiful female characters.  

 In The Hunters, for instance, Fury is definitely a "strong female character" but then Havoc is a strong male character. They are professional vampire hunters, so they wouldn't last long if they weren't strong no matter what their gender.

Several of the other females in the book were at least trying to be strong, but again they were defending their town against vampires. They would at least have to think of themselves as strong, right? Even the female I considered weakest had her strengths. That led me to wonder, what would a weak female character look like?

I mean, presumably she would be the opposite of a "strong female character", but no one considers themselves weak in real life, do they? For example, I have a female friend who is 5 feet, barely 100 lbs, and struggles to open a jar. But she is witty, sharp, clever and has a very dominant personality. Is she weak, just because she doesn't have physical power?

I have a sibling who "throws her weight around" so to speak, is very verbally and physically aggressive, and extremely competitive yet lacks the social grace to recognize when to back off or how to care for people's emotions. She considers herself very strong because she doesn't let anyone walk all over her.

I cannot fathom how one could write weak characters that are main characters, and have them be successful. How would a weak person triumph? If there is no triumph, how can we cheer for them? In my experience the only time the main character is weak is usually in cautionary tales. Bet even those characters don't see themselves as weak until it is too late.

I try to write characters that are realistic and believable (most of the time) and to me, no one thinks that they are weak. They tend to focus on their strengths. Even those of us (I will admit, I know I have weaknesses.) who acknowledge our weaknesses do not consider ourselves weak, right?

What do you think makes a "strong female character?"  Do you consider yourself weak? Do you know others who consider themselves weak? Do I just have a warped sense of reality... Ok, we all know I have a warped sense of reality, I write fiction! But am I perceiving the world the way I want in believing that people do not consider themselves weak in general?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Until next time,

Keep Reading!

Poetry Corner: Midnight

Many innocent children
In the middle of the night
Don't see life the same
No, not the same at all.
In the sunlight
Garish truth is right
Here at midnight
Truth becomes deranged

From http://pixgood.com/dark-scary-night.html

I got on an acrostic kick for awhile. I enjoy acrostic poetry so much that I actually had a section of it in my activity book Creative Exercises to Inspire, which was based on a summer program I did with kids in our neighborhood to keep them off the streets. I have to say, it was probably one of the favorite parts for the kids. They got to keep a creativity book and that was the most common poetry I found when they got to do free writing.

You'll be seeing a lot more of these as I continue sharing!

Writer Ramblings: The Simple Joys

I am excited about a few things this week.

1. I am almost finished with the rough draft for Hell School: Fresh Meat.
2. I am about to start editing my friend Lynette White's second book in the Destiny Series.
3. I have begun creating the audio book for The Hunters.


The rough draft has been long coming. I meant to be done last summer and have it published in November, but life happens. I am pleased to finally be in the home stretch. Editing Lynette's book will be a nice break and get me back into editor's mode so I can polish up Hell School after.

As for the audio book, I am a little nervous. I have gone round and round trying to decide what to do with the audio book versions of my books. I wanted to do ensemble casts, but that never ended up playing out. I wanted to hire someone to do them, but I totally get now why audio books are so expensive sometimes. Some of the rates I was quoted were more than I make an hour at my day job!

I've done a lot of research and decided to do the audio book myself with sound effects.  I am debating whether to release it in segments, or as one whole piece. I already have four hours recorded, and am not even halfway through the book. Plus I have editing and the sound effects to add in. It is a lot of work, but I think it will be well worth it.

Are any of you readers fans of audio books? What do you think about sound effects added in? Would you rather pay $1 for each hourly segment, or an upfront $15. for the whole book? I am guessing on price at this point, but I think it will be around 10-15 hours total.

Let me know your thoughts on audio books in the comments below.

Until next time,

Keep reading!

Poetry Corner: Exams

Those wretched, awful, horrible things
with razor-sharp teeth and ink-black wings.

The time is oh so nigh
so listen to my warning cry.
Exams, exams, they're on the way.
They'll ruin more than just one day.

Quick, get the books.
No second looks.
Lock yourself up tight
and study until late in the night.
The day has come,
the time is now
I must pass these things without have a cow.
I must. But how?

You awful, wretched, evil things
As I numbly stare at you on my desk
I expect you to magically sprout wings,
and fly away you little pesk.


This poem still makes me laugh. I have always hated testing. Recently I had to take a continuing education course and an exam after, and I still hate the stupid things!