A Year in Review

 

Hi all.

I wanted to thank everyone who’s followed my blog. My friend, Cara, told me I was overly ambitious to take on a weekly apps blog. And she might’ve been right. Posts went up most weeks, and we reviewed so many programs.

Next year, I plan to continue the same format—three posts for most items. The first tells what the app is, the second how to use it, and the third has some ideas for authors. I’m also hoping to do some Mac-only programs next year, either with guest bloggers or maybe, just maybe, my own i-device. Fingers crossed.

But let’s review this year’s apps. I wanted to find software that helps in many writing areas: Productivity, Organization, Marketing, and Self Care.

Productivity:

• Scrivener—a fantastic app for drafting, editing, and publishing novels. There’s a learning curve, but the support is excellent.
• Scapple—a brainstorming app by the same company as Scrivener. Wonderful for charting, mapping, etc.
• Aeon Timeline—time-lining software that allows tons of detail. Authors can easily create a story bible.
• Blogger—an app to create and publish a blog. (Not as much productivity as marketing, BUT it is writing!)
• NaNoWriMo—a yearly contest but with goals, word counts, and community.
• Grammar Apps—Grammarly, Hemingway, and ProWritingAid (Using all three really helps.)

Organization:

• Keep—a post-it note app that is cloud-based. (I love this app.)
• Trello—a project manager to organize your entire life and then some
• Focus To-Do—a Pomodoro timer with spaces for all your projects

Marketing:

• Canva—a graphic design app with tons of social media templates. It’s the most useful app on the list, next to Keep.
• WordPress—a website builder. Excellent for creating your brand in a few easy steps.
• Digital Picture sites—add images to your ads, social media, or book covers.
• DIY book covers—create fabulous mockups of your cover.

Self-Care:

• Daybook—a journal for writing anything
• Online Meeting apps—ways to stay connected with other humans

Books!

• Online book sources—ways to access digital books
• Literature Map—Find a similar author.
• Series Guides—Find the next book in the series.
• The Fussy Librarian—free books
• Book + Main—book promo
• Goodreads—essential for any author
• BookBub—great marketing and book finding

I hope to have new and wonderful apps again for you next year. So far on the list, I have Vellum, Forest, Plottr, and Airtable. Let me know what else you’d like to see.

Thank you! Love, Ginny

 

 

Ideas for Authors: Blogger

 

My first big idea for Blogger is to create your own blog. (LOL. Please don’t smack me.) Blogs can be an awesome way to reach fans, connect with other authors, and eventually sell those books.

Here are some suggestions for your personal blog:

• Write your story, make it autobiographical with tons of pictures about your life and writing. Fans love this.
• Write about your other passions. Love photography, embroidery, motorcycle treks? Blog that journey. Fans love this.
• Focus on your books. Have a series or a common setting? Make the blog something like “My Fictional Town Chronicles,” and write bits about the town, characters, etc. Add as much detail as you want—extra short stories, character interviews, town maps. Fans love this too.
• Review other books. I do a reading challenge every year. I’ve been blogging my choices for two years now. It’s a fun way to connect with others. This year I’m doing the PopSugar Challenge again, but I plan to focus on romance books. Readers seem to like them the best. A note on this one: Take care of others as you write your post, and only tag authors who give you permission to do so. A bad review with the author’s name can be hurtful. If I have a book I really dislike, I don’t blog it.

• Highlight your other skills. You’re a writer, and you’re fab at that. What else are you good at? Cooking, computers, sewing, gardening, machine maintenance? Create a blog to spotlight your skill and teach others a thing or two. A recipe exchange is always popular. I have a blog about computer apps. (Oh, wait. You know that if you’re reading this.) In my earlier incarnation, I was a computer teacher for an elementary school. I taught teachers and kids how to use technology and the internet. That skill is now this blog. It makes me feel like I’m helping others and might get me a speaking gig someday. Show off what you know. Sing your praises on a blog.

My second idea for blogging is to create a group blog. (Shocking, right? LOL) Team up with other authors and take turns blogging about your books, a theme, or whatever. Then it’s not such a burden to blog all the time. (I go twice a week. It’s worked during Covid, but who knows what 2021 will be like.) There are writers that use their Facebook group page with a blog. The admins take turns writing and posting on both the blog and on Facebook.

You could team up with writers from the same press, from your writing group, or from a group that writes similar types of stories—an MC blog, or an Inspirational one. And by teaming up, your fans and their fans all see the posts. Which could end up with some sales.

My last two cents about blogs: As a writer, you need to develop your brand. Be sure your blog matches your brand. (That’s why I’m changing my book challenge to include more romance.) Be professional, be kind, and be brief. Most readers don’t have time for long posts. I try to keep mine to about 500 words. I’ve had some at 1000, but those are usually how-to or a big rant. Honestly, I grabbed that 500 number from The Cat Who books when the reporter talked about editorial articles were. It works here, too.

The blog is yours to play with. Make it totally you, your books, and your brand. Readers will flock!

 

How to Use Blogger

 

Getting Started

• Create an account. As Blogger is owned by Google, it’s easiest to use your author Gmail account.
• Choose a title for your blog.
• Create the URL for the blog. For both title and URL, be professional if using the blog as an author. Blogger will let you know if your URL is available to use. You might have to be creative.
• Enter your display name. Your author name works best if this is a professional account. You get up to 200 characters.
• Click Done, and that’s it. Blogger will display a courtesy notice about data collection and consent. This is automatically added to the blog, as per GDPR.

Now you have a blog.

Blogger’s Home Screen

On the left is a list of options for your blog. (If you don’t see a menu, click the three lines next to the logo.) The most important is New Post. But under it is a list of menus to choose from: Posts, Stats, Comments, Earnings, Pages, Layout, Theme, Settings, Reading List. For a basic blog, we will concentrate on just Posts, Stats, Comments, Layout, and Theme.

• Posts:  Displays all the posts on the blog, chronologically. Each will display a picture, title, and a few icons. Revert to Draft, Apply Labels, Delete, and View. More on this later!
• Stats: View data about your blog—views, comments, traffic by date and time.
• Comments: View all comments on the blog listed by the post.
• Earnings: Monetize your blog with ads.
• Pages: View entries that are not time and date stamped.
• Layout: Edit how data and pictures are displayed on the blog.
• Theme: Choose a color and template for the blog.
• Settings: Edit passwords, privacy, publishing, etc.
• Reading List: Add blogs you follow to network with other bloggers.

Settings

Scroll through the setting options until you hit the last entry, User Profile. Click on it.

Here you can let viewers see your profile, know your email, change your contact information, and add a profile picture. You can add a ton more personal information, but honestly, we are after that picture. In the middle of the list is an option to upload a profile picture. It’s a must. Add one from your website or your computer, but as an author, put your face on your blog.

Theme

Select Theme from the left menu. These themes are similar to the ones you find on WordPress. Scroll through the dozen choices and pick one that works for your blog. If it’s not quite right, you can customize it after you choose it.

• Customizing: After picking Customize on the left menu, you can change the main picture or remove it. You can also change the main color. (If you change the main picture, it will choose an appropriate color to go with.)
• Advanced Customizing: Change background colors, title font, title color, action color, text font, text color, etc.
• Gadgets: Display information about you to your audience.
• Save your changes: At the BOTTOM of the screen is a small floppy disk save icon. Click that to save all changes.

Then click the arrow at the top left of the Blogger screen to go back to the main page.

Layout

The chosen theme will already have a layout. Customize the layout by rearranging elements on the Layout page. You can add and remove elements such as subscriptions, archives. Not sure what to add and remove? Hit View Blog at the bottom of the left menu and see what it looks like and what needs tweaking. (I left the theme layout as is until I’d played with Blogger for a while.)

Now, your blog has all the elements needed and looks the way you want. Start posting.

Posts

• Click on the New Post button at the top of the left menu. A word processing screen will open.
• Type (or cut and paste) your blog post. Add a title at the top of the screen. The word processing elements are much the same as any other program. If you are super advanced, click on the Pencil icon to the far left to change to HTML.
• Once your blog is entered, with all photos and videos, etc., press the Preview button first before Publish. Blogger will open a new tab with a preview of the post. Go back to the first tab to continue editing. I can’t stress looking at the preview enough. Check to ensure pictures, fonts, colors, et al are perfect before you press publish. Also, before publishing, on the Right menu, you can add labels (a blog for another day), permalinks, location, or set date and time for publication.
• Once it’s perfect, press Publish. On the main page again, you will see your post listed in the center of the screen. Hover your mouse over the right side of the post box. Click the small eye icon to view the post as it is on the web. (Just a double check to ensure it’s what you want.) You can also take the URL for that post to share on other social media.

As you continue to create blog posts, Blogger will stack them by most recent on your blog page.

Stats

Click Stats to view visits to your blog by time and date. You can see overall views and individual post views.

Comments

You can turn on and off comments. You can also manage comments so they don’t automatically post to the blog. On the Comments page, you can see all the entries from other people. You can delete them or mark them as spam as needed.

Blogger has many more options out there, including doing multiple blogs, monetizing your blog, and more. This is a basic intro to the program. Next week we’ll talk about how best to use Blogger as an author.