Updates—Keep, Instagram, Verve

 

Technology is always moving forward. This blog is only two years old, and I have updates on apps I featured earlier. Here’s a small rundown of the great new features.

Google Keep

Honestly, I don’t know if this is new, but I just discovered it. You can switch accounts within the Keep app on mobile. I have a Ginny Google account and one under my real name. I keep all my hashtags and author links under Ginny’s Keep. But, sometimes, when I’m out and about, I need to tweet. Keep allows me to switch Google accounts and can get at Ginny’s lists on my phone!

Also, another feature that seems new is the shopping list. If you use checkboxes to your list, Keep will suggest grocery items to add with a little shopping cart next to the item. This can make adding food and household items super-fast. If you use Keep frequently for groceries, your lists can stay on Keep or be archived to be used again and again.

Instagram

A huge update has happened for Instagram for desktop. There are new buttons! No longer will you need to use the weird go-around I mentioned to post on the site. Now Instagram has the full button menu at the top of the screen, including Add a Post. You can drop in pics from your folders and post in a snap. Phew. No more toggling advanced buttons or having weird code on the screen. We still can’t add posts to stories yet, but the desktop looks more like the mobile. You still may need to refresh the page to get new content. In a pinch, you can still use my old method when Insta claims it can’t post your pic.

Verve Romance

Book+Main has changed its name to Verve. It’s still dedicated to romance novels and book promotion, but with a whole new look. They are still using their “bite” system to promote books. They now also have products for sale, including box sets of books and reader products to enjoy those books (candles, tea, etc.). You can sign up to be a VIP and receive information about deals on products sooner. The site still has “bits” of romance novels to entice you to read. And as an author, you can still add your bites by contacting their contributor email under the Contact Us link.

I’m sure this won’t be my last “Update” post as we move forward. Feel free to contact me at ginnyfrost@ginnyfrost.com to let me know of any updates you’ve discovered. I’ll share them on the blog.

Thanks for reading!

 For more from Ginny, click here!

 

 

 

 

Link Apps, Pt 3

 

Bitly is an app that helps with those long, cumbersome URLs from blogs and booksellers. Use of the site is free with signup, but your bells and whistles are limited. The Basic plan is $29 a month for custom links, some email support, bulk shortening on links, and redirecting a current link. For that cost, you get 1500 links monthly. Premium is $199 per month with 3000 links per month. You get additional analytics, campaigns, and more high-end items. You can also go custom at the Enterprise level. Call to find out what they can do for your business for 10k links a month. I use the free plan for 1000 links a month with a customizable “back half” of the link. It works for my books.

Once you get your account set up with the level needed, shortening links is super easy. First, copy the long URL from the original site—your blog, your website, a bookseller, etc. Go back to Bitly. On their main dashboard screen, click the orange Create button. Then paste your long URL and click the Create button on the bottom of the screen. After a moment, the new URL will be listed at the top of the pop-out menu.

With a free plan, all shortened links will have bit.ly at the start of it. You can edit the link to make it more usable for your customers. For example, if you are selling books from your website, you can use the bit.ly at the start of the URL and your book name at the end, e.g. bit.ly/StrandedGF. That one’s not real, but here’s one I made for last week’s blog https://bit.ly/ulinks2. Bitly will check to ensure the customized link is available. Click Save.

On the same pop-out menu, you can also copy and share the link. It’s nice not to have to highlight and copy. Just click the button. If you are on a paid plan, you can make a QR code. These links might be worth looking into if your books are digital and you attend conferences or book shows. Handing out a card with a QR code with a direct link to your book makes it easy for the readers. (Or it could link to your Linktree to sell multiple books!)

When you finished editing your link, save it. Close the pop-out with the X. Now your dashboard will display the new link with a few stats, including the number of clicks and location of clicks. All links will be displayed on the lower left. As you add to your shortened URL list, the side panel will grow.

I use these on my website to see the number of clicks and where people are clicking. (Hmmm, I have a few from Germany. Maybe I need to look into foreign rights.)

As writers, we are encouraged to use multiple social media sites, write blogs, and diversify who we publish with. Bitly can assist you in consolidating all your data into short usable links.

 

 

Universal Links, Part 2

Books2Read

This universal link generator will create one link for your book to bring readers to many booksellers. These links reduce the clutter on your social media and websites.

First, sign up for a free account. Just a couple of steps, and boom, you’re in.

Next, begin creating links to your books. Go to a bookseller and copy the link to your book. Then paste the URL into Books2Read and press the Make My Universal Link button. It will take a second if you are wide. They check several places, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Store, Kobo, Google Play, and more.

Don’t see a seller? You can enter it manually on the Add A Store field. Just copy the link from your seller, and the app will add the link.

If the search takes too long, the site will prompt you to enter links manually. If your book is in KU, the exclusivity will cause the site to spin. But you might not keep the book in KU forever, so why not make a free link? You won’t have to change it when you go wide.

You can also add audiobook and print links. Audiobooks include Kobo, Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Overdrive, Hoopla, and more. Print links include Amazon, Barnes and Noble, !ndigo, Booksamillion, and several others.

Now that your links are in, we can make the link our own. On the left side of the screen under the Link Tools menu, choose Customize Link. Type in the desired name after the books2read part of the URL. The app will inform you the name is available.

You can also add Affiliate codes. I’m just going to leave that here for you advanced users.

Let’s check out what we’ve made.

Click on the Link Tools menu at the top-right menu. Choose UBL dashboard. Now the app generates a list of all the books you’ve added to the site. It shows the title, author name, and the universal link (to be copied and pasted to other places). Next are the sellers where the book can be purchased. The last column has the number of clicks on your links (once you’ve shared them everywhere.)

Wait, Ginny, you skipped one!

Yes, I wanted to highlight the Book Tab. This links to a page with the universal link, a copy of your cover, the blurb, and an Also By section. It’s beautiful. Book Tab is a landing page for your universal link. The image on the page is your book with the background a blurred, close-up image of the cover (making it all matchy-matchy). And if you worked with Books2Read through Draft2Digital, you could also have an author bio with links to your social media and, drumroll, a newsletter sign-up button!

You can edit content on the page by pressing the Enter Edit Mode button on the top of the screen or the Edit mode if you are in Reader view. (Readers do not see the buttons on top.) Anything with a green square around it can be edited. You can add a tag with promo information. You can format the description or change it entirely. A red light bulb will appear to let you know to save the changes. It will take you out of edit mode when you hit save.

Now that you’ve created and edited your links, time to use them. Readers will click the link and hit that landing page. The app will display all the places the reader can buy the book. Once they choose a seller, it will prompt them to default to that seller every time. The next time they click a Books2Read link, it will automatically go to that seller.

There’s more on the site and Draft2Digtal additional content, but for now, you’ve got the basics to get your universal links started.

 

 

Link Short Cuts

I have a problem. With my title list growing, I need more space to link them all on social media. When I tried to put them up in all places, things got messy. Giant lists of books on ads were cumbersome, and linking to only one vendor would eliminate potential sales. Then one of my author friends put me in the know of some great shortcut apps.

As an author, updating links to your books, websites, social media, etc., can be so tedious. This week and next, I’ll discuss two sites that let you create universal links to push readers to your sites quickly. (Universal links are static links that can be used everywhere. You can edit them behind the scenes without changing the initial link. You edit it once, and it updates all over.)

Linktree

Linktree is an app to create a universal link. Just one. A powerful entity to all your everything everywhere. (What do you mean, Ginny?) Linktree allows you to create a list of links to anything you want. The list is dynamic. You can add, subtract, and rearrange the content on the list. And the Linktree link remains static! It’s great bang for your buck when you have limited space to add links. I’m looking at you, Twitter and Instagram.

And Linktree is free for a basic user. There is a Pro version for $6 a month. It allows you to collect business contacts through the app and some other pluses.

Using Linktree

Create an account at linktr.ee.

Add your links. Click on the Links menu. Hit the big purple Add Links button. Click the pencil at the end of the title or link and type out a title and the link. The title will be what customers see on your link tree site. Make it engaging! A preview of your list is on the right side.

To check your link, hit the Explore Link button to ensure it works.

Use the toggle buttons to turn links off and on as needed. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when adding and removing links.

Click and drag links to change their position on the list.

To change what you already have listed, click the pencil again. Then update.

You can add thumbnails, schedules, and make links a priority.

After the links are live for a bit, Linktree will give you analytics of the number of views and clicks. Something not getting any clicks? Add a thumbnail or change the title.

Customizing the Look

Click on the Appearance menu on the main page. (You can always click the tree icon on the top left to get back to the main screen.)

Choose an image for the link list (headshot, logo, book cover). Add a profile name and an 88-character bio.

Choose a theme for the background. You can change these anytime. Currently, it includes a Halloween-themed page up. Pro offers more choices such as more backgrounds, buttons, and custom fonts.

I can’t stress enough how much a universal link will make life easier. Check out mine here.

https://linktr.ee/GinnyFrost

 

Scrivener Update Part 2

 

Last week, I gave a rundown of some of the updated features on Scrivener 3. FYI, the NaNoWriMo template totally works! I tried it out with a quick sprint this morning. It added to my word count seamlessly. I tried again later. It asked if I wanted to update my count from 450 to 1200. I said yes, and it told me I added 750 words. So cool.

Onward!

Another new feature is the Style menu. You can now add preset styles to text or create your own. Styles include several handy shortcuts.

• Attribution changes the alignment to the right margin, with an extra space after a carriage return (hitting Enter).
• Block Quote adds to the margin on each side of the text with a left alignment and extra space after and after a carriage return.
• Caption centers the text with no indented margin and extra space after a carriage return (but less than that of Block Quote or Attribution).
• Centered Text is the same as hitting the alignment button for centering.
• Code Block changes the entire block to Consolas font, size 11. It looks very old-school.
• Heading 1 is bold, size 18 and uses Sitka font, no indentation, extra space after a carriage return.
• Heading 2 also uses Sitka, bold, but size 13, no indentation, and extra space after a carriage return (less than Heading 1).
• Title creates a bold, size 28 text block, no margins, and extra space after a carriage return.
• Verse formats text like poetry, but mostly it’s centered with slightly more space between lines.

These styles apply to an entire line of text or the entire paragraph. You can highlight one word of the section, hit your new style, and Scrivener applies to the entire paragraph.

And if those aren’t fantastic enough, you can easily remove the styles. Under the Style menu on the top left, click Show Styles Panel. This gives you a floating menu with all the styles on it. Want to change something back, click on the section and click Remove Style from the bottom of the menu. Poof! It’s gone. You don’t even have to highlight!

There are also character styles: Code Span and Emphasis. Code span gives you Consolas font, size 11. Emphasis is basically italics.

Let’s talk about the publishing aspect of Scrivener. I personally don’t use these features. I like to do final drafts in Word. I can format a book in Word if I need to, but I purchased Vellum to handle the heavy load.

Scrivener has always included conversion of their docs to other formats, including those used for e-publishing. The Compile option on the File menu is so enhanced we might need another post!

Now, when you are ready to put the book together to finalize, publish, or send the editor, you can format your book in many ways. The menu is now a huge pop-up with screen previews. Start at the top with Compile For to choose your format: print, Word docx, epub, mobi, fountain, and more.

On the left, choose formats for the doc. These options will change depending on which Compile for the option you choose (print vs epub vs MultiMarkDown). I went with Print and had choices like outline, manuscript, paperback, and script. The last panel on the right has you choose elements for your compile. Under Print and Manuscript (my choices), I can choose what features to use in the doc by checking off sections. I can add front and back matter with ease. These are just the highlights. The Compile section has so much to offer authors to help make that manuscript perfect.

Last, I wanted to mention the new Bookmark feature. Bookmarks are essential links to places and sites in and out of the doc. If you’re using research and need to refer to previous stories, fanfiction, historical anything, you may need to go back to source data while writing. Bookmarks in Scrivener 3 allow you to put these reference links inside your doc for fast access.

The best way to do a bookmark is to first have the material needed for the bookmark. It could be a section of the Scrivener doc, a web link, another doc. Then click the Inspector (blue circle with an I). The pop-up on the right has several options: Notes, Bookmarks, Metadata, Snapshots, and Footnotes and Comments.

Click the Bookmark menu. The little down arrow lets you choose if the bookmarks are for the doc or the entire project. Then click the three dots (on a Mac, it might be a gear) and choose what type of bookmark: Internal, External, or External File. The Internal Bookmark menu will list places in your doc like characters, places, research. Choose your location and you have a bookmark. For External, you need to find the URL and paste it. For External Files, dig through your cloud or hard drive to find it and click. The bookmarks will appear below the title with icons to differentiate them. Click on them to go directly to the information you need.

Phew. Did I mention there’s more? Scrivener is a great program for authors. It doesn’t matter if you are new or a pro. The app can be used by any level writer.

Enjoy!