Unique 4RV Children's Book, SPEARFINGER, Receives Amazon Honor

     Charles Suddeth (@CharlesSuddeth on Twitter), with illustrations by Carrie Salazar, produced one of the first bilingual English - Cherokee children's book we've been able to find: Spearfinger. Charles Suddeth wrote the story based on a Cherokee legend. Tim Nuttle translated the story into Cherokee, which Lawrence Panther edited. Renee' La Viness worked hours to make sure both English and Cherokee worked together and nothing clashed or didn't agree. Carrie Salazar (@swampmonster) made the story live with her marvelous artwork. The unique book interests children and adults.

     Spearfinger, a witch, terrorizes the Cherokees of the Smoky Mountains. No one can stop her. A little boy named Chucha battles her. Can he discover her secrets? Can he put an end to her rampages? The answer is found between the covers of the book, which is available in both hardback and paperback versions.

     Of course, we hope people order copies of the book from the 4RV Bookstore or the 4RV Shop-lets in Oklahoma City/Edmond, but Amazon has given Spearfinger  an honor already:

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#1 New Releasein Children's American Folk Tales & Myths

#1 New Release in Children's American Folk Tales & Myths.

     Congratulations, Chuck, Carrie, Tim, Lawrence, and Renee', for the beautiful final book. 4RV is fortunate to have quality authors, artists/illustrators, and editors.

     Please visit the 4RV website and the 4RV Bookstore.

Vivian Zabel, President of 4RV Publishing

Traditional Publishing House based in Edmond Oklahoma

WEBSITE     BOOKSTORE     TWITTER     FACEBOOK

Keep Your Website Focused

Keep Your Website Focused

By Karen Cioffi

When I first started out in the writing business, my first book was a self-published children’s picture book. And, it was co-authored.

Being a newbie and marketing illiterate, I created a website with both our names in the title . . . and in the URL.

This was my first mistake.

It’s important to create a central website or blog using your own name.

As I mentioned, I created my first site before learning the ropes. Jumping in feet first, without any thought of future endeavors, without focus.

So, you may be asking, what’s the problem with this move?

Well, nothing, if I were absolutely sure that all my future books, articles, and other writing endeavors would include that co-author.

But, as any writer can tell you, this is usually not the case. Co-authoring with a particular author, even if it’s an ongoing thing with books in a certain genre, doesn’t mean everything you write will include that author. So, having your own unique website is a must.

While I could have redirected my first site to another, it’s not the same. You end up possibly confusing readers or new visitors. And, if you don’t redirect to your new site, you’ll dilute your traffic.

The simplest fix to this problem is to avoid it.

The purpose of having your name as the site’s domain name is to create a specific brand/platform that is YOU. And, having your name as the site name will also make it easier for people searching with your name as a keyword to find you.

This is not to say that you can’t have separate sites specifically for each of your books, but it’s important to also have a site with your name as the core or hub to your operations. Remember, you are branding you as an author/writer and your branding efforts must be focused.

My second newbie mistake also had to do with branding.

If you are branding yourself as a children's writer, keep your site specific to writing for children and/or children’s books. This holds true for whatever your platform is – keep it focused.

While I really should have known better, it seems as we get caught up in our writing careers it becomes easy to forget to remain focused. And, it becomes more difficult to keep up with everything.

Remember, it's important to present a focused brand and that is especially true for your website.

So, what exactly was this branding mistake?

A lack of focus.

As I progressed in my writing, I ventured into a number of writing arenas including ghostwriting, freelance writing, and even copywriting. Instead of keeping those areas separate, I brought them into my children's writing site.

The reason this is a mistake is ‘dilution of expertise.’

In the subheading of my children’s writing site, I mentioned ghostwriting and freelance writing. Now, this may not be too far-fetched, because I do ghostwrite children's books, but my freelance business, which includes business and health writing, shouldn't detract from the focus of the children’s writing site. Business and health writing has nothing to do with children’s writing and my children’s books.

If you are branding yourself as a children's writer, the focus of your site should be children's writing and your children’s books, along with possible book marketing strategies. If you promote yourself as doing this, that, and the other thing, you'll become known as a jack of all trades and master of none, thus creating dilution of expertise.

This goes for any specific genre you’re writing in. If you intend to establish yourself as an expert in that field you need to keep your site focused. Establish your brand and promote it.

If you are involved in different writing arenas, such as business freelance writing and children's writing, create a separate site for promoting yourself as an expert in each of those areas. Each website should be focused, so you become known as a ‘master’ in that genre or field.

~~~~~
Boost your writing and marketing efforts with Karen Cioffi. Visit http://thewritingworld.com and find out why you should sign up for her FREE newsletter, The Writing World.

Book Promotion: Create a Website or Blog

I know I mentioned my article for today would be Book Promotion: Visibility and Platform Basics, but I forgot it's 6 pages long and 2300 words - I'll be turning it into an ebook.  

Instead, I took the first section of that article and tweaked it just a bit for:

Book Promotion: Create a Website or Blog

The first rung on your marketing ladder is to create a quality product, in the case of an author, that would be a book. You need to create an engaging story, be part of a critique group, make sure the manuscript gets edited, and have a knock-out cover.

Creating the book might be considered Research and Development under the Marketing umbrella, and the foundation of a marketing strategy.

The second step or rung on the marketing ladder is the actual book promotion: creating a platform and brand for you and your book. This is accomplished through visibility. A platform is a means to let readers know what your area of expertise is.

You may be shaking your head and thinking you don’t have an area of expertise, well the very first step to establish yourself as an expert is to create a website or blog.

Here are four steps that will help you create an effective website or blog:

1. Your Domain Name

Choose your domain name carefully and think ahead. Marketing experts always advise using ‘your name’ for your domain name. You can always create sites that are specific to each of your books or a particular niche, but your name should be your main or central site.

On the other hand, if you write in a specific genre, you should include that in your domain name. If you’re a children’s writer, maybe: Children’s Books by Your Name, or Picture Books by Your Name. The more specific you make your domain name the more likely those searching for that genre will find you.

Simply put: If you sell shoes and your domain name is John Smith how will those searching for shoes ever find you?

And, be sure to use appropriate keywords in the subtitle of your site.

2. Choose a Website or Blog

There’s no way around this one – you must create a web presence. The first tool in your visibility toolbox is a website, and it should be created before your book is published. You can choose a website or a blog and you can get either type for free from sites such as Wordpress.com or Blogger.com.

If you find the thought of having to create a website daunting, go for Blogger.com; it is very user friendly and good for beginners. And with its updates, it has a number of features much like a website.

One of the drawbacks to Blogger though is you cannot upload ebooks or pdfs to link to in order to offer them for free or sell, so if this is something you’ll be doing, you will have to find a hosting site like WordPress.

3. Simple is a Better Strategy

Marketing expert Mike Volpe of Hubspot.com points out that it’s more important to spend time, and money if necessary, on content rather than a flashy website design; simple works. In fact, simpler usually leads to a higher conversion rate. The conversion rate is the ratio of visitors who buy your book, product, or service.

Volpe also stresses that you should have control over your site. This means you should be able to manage it. You don’t want to run to a web designer for every little change you want to make to your site, or to do something as simple as adding content.

To reinforce this ‘simple is better strategy,’ Google says that milliseconds count in regard to your page load time. If your page is slow to load, you’ll get a poorer score with Google.

Tip: Should you decide you do need help to create a site, don’t hire an expensive web designer. Look for someone who wants to establish themselves as a website creator, or someone who does it in his spare time, you will pay much less. And, try to make arrangements that will include the designer teach you how to manage your own site. This will make updates, changes, and posting much easier, and less expensive.

4. Make Your Site Optimized for the Search Engines

If you choose a WordPress site, go through the dashboard and sections carefully, and fill in how you want your site to work. There are also a number of plugins for WordPress that will help your site get noticed and indexed by the search engines. If you’re not sure how to do this, it would probably be worth the investment to hire someone to do basic search engine optimization (SEO) for your site.

It's not uncommon for writers to need help with websites and SEO, it's impossible to be proficient at everything. Thankfully, there are those who know the ins and outs of optimizing websites, if needed take advantage of them.

~~~~~~~~~~
Karen Cioffi is an author, ghostwriter, and freelance writer. For writing and marketing information visit (http://karencioffi.com) and sign up for her free newsletter, A Writer’s World. You’ll get 2 free e-books on writing and marketing in the process, and two more free e-books just for stopping by.
Check out the Walking Through Walls site:
http://walkingthroughwalls-kcioffi.blogspot.com

DO I REALLY NEED A WEBSITE?

by Ginger Nielson


Do you have an illustration website?  Does it flow easily for the viewer?  Is it a cluttered mess that won't open quickly?  Are you a writer with a website? Is it so overloaded with text that your viewers quickly move on?
Are there so many bells and whistles on the front page that the viewer is forced to tap their fingers waiting for it to open?  .... or worse yet, just leave and go on to another site.

What does a good website need?
It needs to open quickly on a number of different browsers.
It needs to attract the attention of your target audience.
It needs to keep your visitor actively interested in that important first page.
It needs to have a visible and easy way to navigate from page to page.
It needs to have all it's links updated on a regular basis and checked for orphaned links.
It needs a consistent overall design.

This means as an illustrator you want to show off your artwork in a gallery of your very best, crisp, colorful and easily accessed images.

The quicker the Art Director can get to the meat of your website, the easier it is for him or her to decide if you have what they are looking for.

Bells and whistles are fun, but unless you are actually looking for a job as an animator or website guru, the pages that open with long waits for intricate animations to “LOAD” aren’t going to be the best invitation for those busy professionals. Fancy Flash and animations take time to load.
IF your expertise is animation and that is what you are promoting, at least provide a “skip intro” button that will allow the art editor a quick passage to your artwork.

Things you will pay for:
A Domain Name  -- any number of choices are available for a search on the internet.
A web hosting service -- some are free, some can be had for a monthly or yearly fee.

How do I create my website?
There are a number of free and easy to use web authoring programs on the internet.  However, it could benefit you if you invest in a program that will allow you to create a smooth flowing website that you have control over.  The web programs offered for sale range in price and difficulty.  One of the best is Dreamweaver from Adobe.  This is the one I use for my website and one I am still learning to use effectively.
This program is difficult to learn if you are a first time web creator. There are tutorials, paid and free on the internet. Once you purchase any program from Adobe they do offer support and forums for your benefit.

Here is a link to a comparison page of web creation software  programs that may be helpful.

 But, if you have never created a website before, one of the free and easier to use web programs might be better for you to start with. Apple offers iWeb to all mac users and there are a number of other free programs available.
Microsoft offers WebMatrix for free download and makes it easy for you to get started.

A google search will give you many other listings.
Weebly
Yola
Google
And there are more ... just do a search for FREE WEBSITES.


An alternative to free websites or paid websites is Blogger.  With a blog you can create numerous posts complete with photos, illustrations and videos.  Once you are proficient with something like Blogger or Wordpress you may want to move on to a more sophisticated web authoring program.

Here are some things to remember when you create your website.
If you have music on your website, it is a good idea to have a SOUND/OFF and ON button.
(Some people may open your site while at work, and there is nothing more disturbing than to suddenly have music or sound of some kind blasting into the workplace.)

Are you a writer?  There should be links to your works, your books, and any articles that you want to share with the viewers.

Are you an illustrator? There should be some sort of portfolio to show off your work along with links to any work that is for sale in books, magazines, or free standing artwork.

Even if you cannot create your own illustration portfolio for your website, there are many portfolio hosts on the internet. Some are expensive to belong to, others are totally free.

Here are some of portfolio hosting sites you will pay a fee for:
Children's Illustrators
Hire an Illustrator
Picture Book
The Directory of Illustration
The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators  ( SCBWI)  --This organization is something that
all writers and illustrators of children's books should seriously consider joining.  The fee is reasonable considering the cost of the other paid portfolio sites.  In addition SCBWI offers great contacts, resources, entry to contests that give rewards, a forum of your peers and annual and regional conferences that put you in touch with others in your field and the publishing world at large.

And there are FREE (or next to free) portfolio hosting sites as well:
Coroflot
Carbonmade
deviantART
FigDig
Flickr
Krop
Virb
Take some time to investigate the sites and see if one would work for you.
Remember that there is help all over the internet and a simple search can lead to just the right program for your needs.

Once the visitor has reached the object of your hard work, your portfolio, you can place the necessary links on that page. You may want to have links to other places on the internet where you have work displayed, or where they can find your Resume or Bio pages, or perhaps you have animations, online stories, a blog, or books you have illustrated that you want noticed. All these can be available as links on this page.

When your site is as good as you can make it the next step is to get it listed on as many search engines as possible. Here again, use the free submit sites. In a few weeks, sometimes just a day or two, you’ll be seeing your web pages and links to your site on many search engines.

Some illustrators may choose to have a third party create their website. That’s fine, but keep an eye on your source code and that all important opening page.