Mary Manners: Stay True to Your Writing Path

Many authors struggle with the fact that marketing tends to devour writing time. Deadlines loom, but at the same time there are books that require promotion. Often the worlds of Facebook and Twitter closely resemble black holes that suck writers in and refuse to release them. The question soon arises: How does one maintain a fine balance between marketing and writing? Here are a few easy solutions that I have found to be highly effective:

Rock Around the Block:

Schedule daily ‘clean-up’ marketing in short blocks of time. By clean-up marketing, I refer to staying connected with readers who have commented on posts, sent messages, etc. These require a fairly quick response and should not be neglected. An example of blocking technique might be to use three 15 minute session: one first thing in the morning, one mid-day, and a third in the evening, when the day’s writing is complete. Set a timer and limit yourself to fifteen minutes per block. Whatever is not completed during that time should be put off until the next block.

Goal for it:

When the black holes beckon, setting a writing goal and sticking to it works well. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. My goal is usually five for five: I must write 500 words before I break for a five-minute trek through the virtual world to see what’s going on. I set a timer and strictly limit myself to five minutes. This technique works very well to help me tackle and tie up my writing projects as deadlines loom; the promise of a trek through a black hole motivates me to get those words down on paper.

Chunk it Out:

When dealing with the bulk of marketing, consider chunking the work into a half-day once a month to schedule tweets and posts. I use Hootesuite to work this in. Hootsuite is a free service and allows Twitter and Facebook scheduling several months in advance. I have found that a half-day provides plenty of time to plan and schedule a month’s worth of information for both of these venues. Additional blocking times throughout the course of a month may be used to work in last-minute posts as well as to retweet and/or respond to the posts of others. As an aside, it is quite beneficial to have all tweets/posts saved in a document with links already shrunk, which allows for quick cutting and pasting.

Take a Deep Breath and WRITE:

The next time the virtual world threatens to snatch away writing time, step back, take a deep breath, and then dive back in to WRITE. Remember these simple tips to help stay focused and enjoy the journey. Happy Writing!

About Mary:

Mary Manners is an award-winning romance writer who lives in the beautiful foothills of East Tennessee with her husband Tim and the cherished cats they've rescued from local animal shelters...Lucky and Gus.

Mary’s debut novel, Mended Heart, was nominated Best Inspirational Romance 2010, and was finalist for the Bookseller’s Best Award and her follow-up, Tender Mercies, was awarded an outstanding 4 ½ star rating from The Romantic Times Book Reviews and was also a finalist for the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Buried Treasures, her third novel, was named Book of the Year by The Wordsmith Journal. Light the Fire, her fourth novel, took top honors for the 2012 Inspirational Readers Choice Award while her fifth, Wisdom Tree, continues to garner top ratings. Mary was named Author of the Year by Book and Trailer Showcase. She writes romances of all lengths, from short stories to novels—something for everyone.

Learn more about Mary Manners at her website: www.MaryMannersRomance.com and at her author pages at www.PelicanBookGroup.com and www.Amazon.com.

Mary Manners: Showcase Your Hero

Mary Manners

You’ve written a great story and fallen in love with your hero. Now you want everyone else to fall in love with him, as well. The big question is…how do you make that happen?

Any writer worth her salt knows the perfect hero can make or break any romance. Whether strong and athletic or analytical and creative—or any combination thereof—the success of your book sales, in part, depends on the manner

in which your readers connect with your hero. So, from a marketing aspect, what are some of the many ways to make your hero shine?

Begin by scheduling a blog tour. I don’t mean your typical tour in which you as the author or the book itself are the main focus. I’m talking about a character tour in which your hero—your special guy—is the center of attention. Think of each blog visit as a different talk show from various channels. Serious or quirky and full of humor, give your hero a grand entrance and seat him beneath bright stage lights and in front of an adoring crowd. Imagine fans have waited for weeks to meet him, their anticipation flourishing with each breath. The crowd is excited and restless. What would they most like to know?

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Focus on your hero’s deepest, darkest secrets, his quirks and everything that makes him come to life on the page. Sample questions are usually provided by the blog host or hostess, but adding a few of your own, tailor-made to showcase your hero’s special features and aspects of his motivation, fears, and longings throughout the story should also be included. Six to ten appearances over a two to four week period surrounding your hero’s debut into the marketplace are a good number to aim for. Mix up the interview questions and reveal a fresh tidbit of information with each interview to keep the material vibrant and readers intrigued and coming back for more. Most importantly, be sure to banter during the interviews, just as your character would in real life. Think conversation…and fun.

Between blog visits and throughout the character tour, spice things up with a sprinkle of book quotes from the story. Book quotes are a quick, simple, and effective means of breathing life into your hero and sharing him with others. When selecting quotes, consider the lines your hero uses that grab a reader’s attention and make her senses tingle. Here’s an example:

Also consider which lines provide a greater insight into what makes your hero tick:

Post your quotes to social networks such as Facebook and Pinterest, as well as your website, across the book’s launch period. Be sure to include a buy link wherever possible that takes readers straight to the purchase site. Also, book quotes make great Facebook banners. Create several and rotate them every day or so to pique interest.

Good luck. You know what they say…I need a hero…

About Mary:

Mary Manners is an award-winning romance writer who lives in the beautiful foothills of East Tennessee with her husband Tim and the cherished cats they've rescued from local animal shelters...Lucky and Gus.

Mary’s debut novel, Mended Heart, was nominated Best Inspirational Romance 2010, and was finalist for the Bookseller’s Best Award and her follow-up, Tender Mercies, was awarded an outstanding 4 ½ star rating from The Romantic Times Book Reviews and was also a finalist for the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Buried Treasures, her third novel, was named Book of the Year by The Wordsmith Journal. Light the Fire, her fourth novel, took top honors for the 2012 Inspirational Readers Choice Award while her fifth, Wisdom Tree, continues to garner top ratings. Mary was named Author of the Year by Book and Trailer Showcase. She writes romances of all lengths, from short stories to novels—something for everyone.

Learn more about Mary Manners at her website: www.MaryMannersRomance.com and at her author pages at www.PelicanBookGroup.com and www.Amazon.com

Delia Latham: Team Writing - Who’s Pulling the Plow?

In the beginning was me. Just me. Me alone, writing my novels and being…me.

I couldn’t imagine co-writing a book. How is it even possible? Do the authors take turns, chapter by chapter? Do they argue over events in the story? How do they agree on all the little details involved in making a book work?

Then I became a part of Heart’s Haven. Mary Manners, Marianne Evans, Tanya Stowe and I write our own, individual stories in each 4-book collection, but they’re all set at the same time period, in the same location, and often with shared characters. These projects gave me a taste of the coordination necessary between writers to make an entire collection of books flow together, with all the details coinciding smoothly. I liked it. I liked it a lot.

Somehow, from the relationships formed writing those collections, Tanya and I discovered that our strengths and weaknesses played well off each other. During a time when I was physically weak and fast approaching a deadline for four contracted books, I enlisted her invaluable assistance to make it happen. She and I co-wrote two of those crunch-time books—both novellas, and both Christmas stories.

Tanya is a top-notch, wonderfully skilled plotter. I’m a pantster, and my stronger skill is in crafting words—making them pretty, seeing that they flow properly, and adhering to writing rules and mechanics. Does that mean Tanya can’t make words pretty? Absolutely not. Does it mean I’m a failure at coming up with a plot? No. But recognizing our strengths and weaknesses helped us form a great team as co-writers.
 
If you’re interested in giving co-writing a whirl, maybe these tips will get you started on the right foot…er, feet.

• Choose a writing partner you admire, respect, and trust implicitly. Through Heart’s Haven, Tanya and I came to highly respect each other’s individual writing skills. We also learned enough about each other as people—just one woman to another, writing completely aside—to know that we had quite a bit in common. We found that we could count on each other as strong prayer partners. A series of personal events convinced me that I could trust Tanya with private matters. All of these things combined to create a relationship strong enough to handle the pros and cons of co-writing—because, as in most worthwhile undertakings, there are some of each.
  
• Find out if you can accept critiques from your prospective partner.  We critiqued a few things for each other, and found that our critique styles were compatible. That’s incredibly important now, as we write together. A lot of back-and-forth critique-type comments are involved, and if your writing partner’s manner of delivering a criticism offends, hurts, or angers you, it’s never going to work. You both need to be able to point out problem areas without hard feelings or bruised egos.
  
• Know and own your strengths and weaknesses.  Are you strong at characterization, but a little shaky with description? Do you love dialogue, but deep POV ties you in knots? There is no shame in admitting your weak points. And there’s nothing wrong with knowing you’re good at the things you’re good at. You must be able to recognize and own your strengths and weaknesses, so you can properly balance them against someone else’s.
  
• Recognize and embrace your writing partner’s strengths and weaknesses.  Tanya is well-traveled. I am not. She’s a history buff. I have never been, and can’t imagine myself ever becoming one. So her life experiences lend something to our writing that I could never accomplish on my own. I’m character-driven, and do very well at creating strong, likeable, believable characters. Detail-oriented, I easily pick up on spots in a storyline where bits and pieces don’t agree from chapter-to-chapter, or where they just don’t work, based on other parts of the story. Combined, our strengths and weaknesses “play well” together and create a harmonic writing relationship.
  
•  Do a trial run.  If you and a prospective partner think you’re ready to form a team, try writing one book together. Make it a novella—they’re faster and easier for a first effort. Agree ahead of time that you’ll both feel free to cry off if it isn’t working for you, without straining your relationship. Just a simple, “Hey, we gave it our all, but I don’t think this is my cup of tea.” As mature adults, and certainly as Christians, your friendship (or whatever you choose to call your relationship) should be able to survive without a problem. If not…well, thank God you didn’t plow ahead into a bigger project!
  
• Have fun!  If co-writing really does feel like you’re hooked to a plow, and it’s all about hard, grueling work…something’s wrong. A little light-hearted fun and laughter goes a long way toward making the effort work and work well. Turn around and look at the crooked row the two of you just plowed, and make a joke about it. Laugh together. It’ll ease the weight of the halter, and you’ll find yourselves pulling with a little more togetherness on the next row.

Happy co-writing!

Delia Latham (c) January 2014