Category: blog

Oct 30

The Treasure of My Heart


The Treasure of My Heart
by Linda Lindor
website:http://treasureofmyheart.lynnlangtry.com
The land was Costa Rica; a place of memories…

The deep green silhouette of two giant mountains lay against the peaceful sky of late afternoon. The sunken valley cradles tales of many adventures and memories. The place is encamped by a range of mountains that lead to the pacific, but to follow her trail the traveler is indeed challenged by her never ending peaks.

Not far to the east, there is a volcano. Some say that they have seen both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans from her heights; a sight to behold only on a bright, cloudless day. This giant forms a picturesque backdrop for the great valley.

Into the hills, one is drawn by the melody of a cascade whose song is thunderous in rainy winter months, and yet gentle and soothing in the dry summer heat. Then, the once lush green carpet turns to gold.

Along the stream runs a path that leads from a small bathing pool created by a dam of logs, to a rough cabin hidden in the woods. The sounds of children daily harmonize with the river’s tune especially in the heart of the summer vacations.

The sounds were of joy, a happy song. They were the voices and laughter of three delightful youths…

This story contains a secret code. Can you find it? You will need to look for clues as you read along…think about the coin…

This is such a delightful story encompassing 16 century Spain and modern Costa Rica. I got completely caught up in Annabella’s life …her fear of the unknown New World.Costa Rica and then her love for Anthony. And then being transformed back to the present by the young children finding  Annabella’s diary and trying to solve the secret code.

All the images in this book where hand painted by Linda and they add a beautiful,sensual dimension to the story.

Linda Lindor (aka Lynn Langtry)

Author Bio

Linda Lindor  is a writer, adventurer, Opera Singer, artist, photographer, swimmer, and cat lover. She used to be a  School Music Teacher, and created a music CD featuring her band playing her original Tone Music.Treasure of My Heart is Lynn’s first book. Lynn lives in Surrey British Columbia.
Follow her on Twitter: @lybertypearl

Treasure of My Heart is now published in softcover and digital with Amazon and Xlibris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep 04

Online Marketing Tools for Authors

 One of the first goals of an author is to develop their author platform as a way of growing their audience and generating more sales for their books. The good news is that there are now many digital publishing tools for authors, that can aid in book promotion, as well as book sales.

Your Author Blog or Book Blog is the hub of your online world. It is where you share your message, list book signings and conferences that you will be attending, and much more! You can also create written or multimedia blog posts and post links as to where people can order your books. It is easier today, than ever, to set up a WordPress blog yourself, or I can help you to set this up. . Your blog can be your official online hub or headquarters.

In addition to traditional, mainstream social media sites, there are social media sites that showcase authors, as well as their books. Sites such as Goodreads, Shelfari and Library Thing are just a few examples. These sites also provide authors access to potential book buyers.There are many digital publishing tools that you can use to promote your book. The ones listed above will provide you with a foundation and allow you to gain exposure as you share your book and your message with the world!

If you need help or support creating your author blog you can contact me.

 

Aug 30

How To Attract Search Engines and Readers

Book authors

You  may be relieved when your books are published. But the next stage  – marketing the book – awaits you.

And by now many authors realize that, for purposes of connecting with prospective readers, they need to be active on social media sites and have their own “home base” book author website.

here is an important piece of information about YOUR book author website:

While your book may be finished, your website should never be “finished.”

Why?    2 Reasons

1. SEO – Search Engine Optimization

You want your website to attract the search engines so that your site has a good possibility of coming up in people’s search results.

Search engines are picky – . they search for fresh content

For example, if your site is three years old and there have been no blog posts, new pages added, or new content, the search engines probably believe that your site is not an active one. And search results do NOT like to include inactive sites.

How do you tell the search engines that your site is indeed alive? You add fresh content as often as possible to demonstrate that all is well.

2.  Attracting readers – those people who appreciate what you write.

Fresh content appeals to the search engines and also appeals to your prospective readers. Particularly as you are a writer (you did write a book, right?), having a blog on your website offers the opportunity to showcase your writing and continually add fresh content.

What you blog about should preferably be somehow connected to your book(s).( In my free report  I share blog ideas) The consistency of your blog post topics is important for readers who have expectations as well as search engines, which also have expectations.

Search engines strive to return the most accurate results when a person searches on a word or expression. When you write your blog posts, share interesting information with your readers while staying on the “spine” of what you write about. It is a good idea to remember that the on-the-spine content you continually provide your prospective readers will also please the search engines.

The last word is to blog often, be consistent..

Share your thoughts on SEO…..

 

Aug 14

What Type of Audience Reads Your Books?

Do Readers Of Different Genres Have Specific Craft Preferences?

Writing with the eventual reader in mind may give better results.

those who write in specific genres or combo genres (e.g., supernatural romance, supernatural thriller), and for whom maximizing sales is a priority, maybe give a thought to the most likely type of person to seek out your books in the first place, and what that person’s preferences might be. I’m not trying to suggest you totally engineer your prose to match some kind of external template, just that appealing to a commercial audience is always a balancing act between pleasing the audience and pleasing yourself.

I thought i would share with you this blog post from Indie Author. .April  is making some good points  on making sure you know who your target market is and maybe give a thought to the most likely type of person who seeks out your books in the first place, and what that person’s reading style might be.

Her blog is Indie Author  Check it out and leave a comment letting me know what you think
To your success

susanne

Aug 12

What are categories

Here is a  really simple idea about Blogging
that will help to increase the search ranking of your blog…and it
takes only a few minutes to do.

Here it is:

One of the fundamental building blocks of the WordPress blog
structure is the category. A category is like a folder on your PC.  In the WordPress nomenclature, both categories and tags are known as taxonomies. Their sole purpose is to sort your content to improve the usability of your site. Meaning when a user comes to your site, they can easily browse through your content by topic rather than browsing chronologically which is how blogs were initially setup.
When you write your blog posts you assign them to a category. Categories are meant for broad grouping of your posts. Think of these as general topics or the table of contents for your site. Categories are there to help identify what your blog is really about. It is to assist readers finding the right type of content on your site. Categories are hierarchical, so you can sub-categories.

What’s the best way to set-up categories?

Use the keyword phrases you are targeting.

The keyword phrases you have chosen should be used for the names of
your categories.

Now when you add your blog posts, you can add each blog post to one
category. This helps to increase the ranking of your blog.

It’s that simple.

Try it. It does make a difference.

Aug 01

author help-wordpress to the rescue

Maybe you’ve often wished there was a video vault which contains all the tutorial videos for the most common topics of WordPress…

If that’s what you’ve been looking for, the “WordPress Mastery Videos” package is exactly what you need!

With “WordPress Mastery Videos”, you’ll receive instant access to a comprehensive set of THIRTY tutorial videos which walk you through all the important aspects of WordPress.

You can easily refer to this set of videos whenever you face a problem of not knowing how to do something…

Video 1: How to Create Sub domains and Add-on Domains in cPanel

Video 2: How to Install WordPress Automatically Using cPanel

Video 3: How to Install WordPress Manually Via FTP

Video 4: How to Change Your Permalinks Structure

Video 5: How to Create New Blog Posts

Video 6: How to Create New Pages

Video 7: How to Insert Images

Video 8: How To Install Plugins Automatically

Video 9: How to Upgrade / Delete Plugins Automatically

Video 10: How to Upload & Install Plugins Manually

Video 11: How to Install Themes Automatically

Video 12: How to Customize Your Theme Menu

Video 13: How to Upload and Install Themes Manually

Video 14: How to Use Widgets in The Sidebar

Video 15: How to Add and Manage Users

Video 16: How to Upgrade WordPress Version Automatically Via The Dashboard

Video 17: How to Inserting Audio or MP3 Files

Video 18: How to Use Gravatars for Your Blog

Video 19: How to Edit WordPress Theme CSS Styles

Video 20: How to Add YouTube Videos to WordPress Automatically

Video 21: How to Create Backups for Your WordPress Blog

Video 22: How to Import Content from Blogger to WordPress

IVideo 23: How to Add Google Analytics to WordPress

Video 24: How to Place a Banner In the Sidebar

Video 25: How to Place an Adsense Ad In Your Blog Post

Video 26: How to Add Feedburner to Your WordPress Blog

Video 27: How to Install and Use the All-In-One SEO Plugin

Video 28: How to Install and Use A Contact Form Plugin

Video 29: How to Insert an AWeber Form In The Sidebar

Video 30: How to Use The Akismet Spam Plugin

To your success

susanne

Jul 18

Market Your Book: Use Teleseminars

Free Conference Calling Teleseminars Provide Authors a Virtual Way to Connect With Your Audience

Teleseminars provide you with a platform to easily reach and connect with your audience. To increase sales of your book connecting with your audience is essential. You want your audience to hear the message  of your book and Teleseminars are an easy and effective way to communicate this.

A powerful way to connect with your audience and build a relationship with them is to provide them with ways to hear your voice, your enthusiasm, and your message. This will give them a sense of who you are and provide a way for them to get to know you. Offering teleseminars is an extremely effective way to accomplish this.

A teleseminar is a seminar conducted over a telephone, set up as a conference call. You can be the sole speaker or you can set up your call to allow one or more guest speakers.

Teleseminars are a fantastic way for you to share your expertise with a large group of people at one time.

Teleseminars can be a one-time event or a series of calls. They can be free or you can charge for them. You can allow free attendance to the live event and charge for the replay.

I use Free Conference Calling which is a free system to use and delivers high quality sound using MP3 from which you can Listen, download and podcast easily.

Consider Teaming Up with a Friend or Colleague

Compose a list of questions that your audience would love to know the answers to. Get on the phone with a friend or colleague and have them ask you each of these questions. Record your session and answer these questions in as much detail as possible. This will provide you with a powerful audio interview which can be repurposed into a wide range of content-rich products.

If you need help just Ask Susanne and I will support you as you create a Teleseminar.

Jul 18

Windows Tip: Add a web address bar to the Windows toolbar

Get quick access to the internet even if you don’t have a browser window open.

Just right-click an empty space on the toolbar (it’s the horizontal bar at the bottom of the Windows desktop that contains the Start menu right click select “Toolbars,” then choose “Address” from the menu.

Once you do, an address bar—just like the one on your favorite browser—will appear in the toolbar.

Type a web address (or “URL”) into the bar, press the “Enter” key, and —your default web browser will spring to life, jumping straight to the website you specified.

Not sure you want an address bar taking up space on the toolbar? Right-click an empty spot on the toolbar again, select “Toolbars,” uncheck “Address,”

I find this very quick and full when working in a doc and need to look up some facts…just drop my mouse down to toolbar and type in address rather than having to find my firefox icon click on it to bring up the address bar and then type in the address. Very efficient.

Jul 10

Book Marketing Ideas for Authors

Jun 01

Authors-Looking for creative ways to reach new audiences and sell more books?



Attend this exciting Digital Publishing Virtual Summit from 12th to 14th June & 19th to 21st June 2012

20 World-Renowned Experts – Several sessions per day!  Each day, there are new presenters with new ideas and fresh ways of approaching the challenges of marketing a book to build your brand in today’s changed publishing environment.

There will be 20, action-packed workshop sessions in four content areas:

1. Promoting Your Message
2. Book Creation Strategies
3. Creating Multimedia Content
4. Making Money with your Message

My friend, and event founder, D’vorah Lansky puts on a fantastic event. You can sign up for free and watch a brief video.

Check out the amazing speaker line-up: 

* Lynnette Phillips: “It’s an Amazing Time to Be an Author”

* Roger C. Parker: “Creating a Map to Your Personal Branding Success”

* Sandra Beckwith: “No Need to Pack for a Virtual Book Tour”

* Marnie Pehrson: “The Anatomy of an Amazon Bestseller Launch for Print and Kindle Books”

* Craig Cannings: “Accomplish More in Less Time by Teaming Up with a Virtual Assistant”

* Jim Edwards: “5 Ways to Have Your eBook Done By Next Friday”

* Joel Friedlander: “3 Keys to Book Design Success”

* Aggie Villanueva: “Why a “Category” Bestseller at Amazon is So Important & How to Get One (or more)”

* Val Waldeck: “Book Creation Strategies: Extending Your Reach”

* Kristen Eckstein: “How to Go from eBook to Printed Book”

* Michelle Schoen: “Easy Digital Publishing with PowerPoint”

* Felicia Slattery: “Produce Talking Head Videos and Drive Traffic Right to Your Book Site”

* Erin Ferree: “How I Went Viral with My eBook And You Can Too!”

* Dr. Jeanette Cates: “Build Your Credibility with An Online Course”

* Jackie Lapin: “Internet Radio—Your Launching Pad for Digital Products”

* David Hancock: “A Blueprint for Success Without Stress, Now and In The Future”

* Ali Luke: “Marketing Your Digital Book or Products with a Powerful Sales Page”

* Ellen Violette: “Kindle vs. Self-Publishing, How Should I Publish My eBook”

* Terry Whalin: “Become a Prolific Writer and Write Less: Repurpose Your Message and Sell More Books”

* Leesa Barnes: “Multiple Streams of Virtual Event Income”

This will be a great event so grab your seat and I’ll see you there!