What I Learned about "Stepping up to the Stage" from Joan Bowling - Public Speaking Tips for Authors

This week, I attended the James River Writers' Writing Show, "Stepping up to the Stage" with Joan Bowling. She had some great presentation and public speaking tips for authors. Here's what I learned...

1. Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Make sure that you're ready for your event. 
2. Relax! You are more confident when you feel comfortable.
3. Make the butterflies you feel fly in formation. Get control of your nerves.
4. Breathing helps. Calm your thoughts.
5. Nervousness means you care. Use that energy in your presentation.
6. You need to create an impression or mood with what you're going to say.
7. Start off with a question or an "imagine a time when" story. You want to draw your listeners in.
8. Practice your opening. 
9. You want your presentation to be an easy conversation. She said to avoid the "wind up." "Hi. Thank you for having me here. I am so honored to be here..."
10. Know your audience and have questions prepared.
11. Listening is crucial. 
12. Be present.
13. If you're on a stage, do a sound check. Walk around and get to know the environment before the event. 
14. If you've not used to using a microphone, practice at home with a hairbrush.
15. The microphone is an extension of your chin. Hold it below your chin. Your audience needs to see your mouth.
16. When it doubt, use a microphone. It's hard to sustain a voice loud enough for the audience to hear for 45 minutes.
17. Mingle with the audience before an event.
18. When you are on stage, scan the audience. Don't do a windshield wiper thing with your head. Scan in a slow "W" formation, so it looks more natural. 
19. If you're terrified, look at your audience's foreheads. They can't tell that you're not looking directly at them.
20. Be hydrated before you speak. Stay away from dairy. 
21. If you're doing a reading, animate it. Leave them with an emotion. Read a funny, scary, or sad excerpt. 
22. If you're reading, hold the book so they can see it, but don't cover your face. They shouldn't see the top of your head during the entire reading. 
23. Some people print out the excerpt and read from the paper. (Just make sure that you have your book on the lectern or table, so they can see the cover.
24. Know the power of a pause. Pause from time to time to let your audience catch up and to draw them in.
25. Don't do accents in readings.
26. Get comfortable with the sound of your voice. Tape yourself and listen.
27. If you're doing TV, make it a live conversation. 
28. Always have your book with you.
29. When you're doing a presentation, don't end on a question. End where YOU want to leave the audience. Leave them with an impression.

Joan had some wonderful advice. Check out her website and her newsletter. These are all great ideas that writers need in their toolbox when they're doing a reading or a presentation. 

15 Quotes for Writers

I like the motivation hashtags on Twitter. They gave me the idea to pull together some of my favorite quotes for writers (published and pre-published) on books and writing. Writing is hard work, and it is often solitary. Here are #motivations to get or keep you going. I also found some interesting reviews from Rotten Reviews (edited by Bill Henderson). If you are a writer, you're not alone...

Writing

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." —Anaïs Nin

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip." —Elmore Leonard

"The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium." —Norbet

"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. " —James Michener

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." —Anton Chekhov

"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions." —James Michener

"The pen sometimes builds a more enduring monument than can the hammer or chisel." —James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882

Books and Reading

“The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul—BOOKS.” —Emily Dickinson

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” —Nathaniel Hawthorne

“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” —George R. R. Martin

“One sure window into a person’s soul is his reading list.” —Mary B. W. Tabor

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” —Henry David Thoreau

Rotten Reviews

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte: "...wild, confused, disjointed, and improbable...the people who make up the drama, which is tragic enough in its consequences, are savages ruder than those who lived before the days of Homer." (The Examiner)

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carol: "We fancy that any real child might be more puzzled than enchanted by this stiff, overwrought story." (Children's Books)

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald: "A little slack, a little soft, more than a little artificial, The Great Gatsby falls into the class of negligible novels." (The Springfield Republican)

How to Survive Writing/Book Conferences

I love writing and book conferences. These are good ways for authors to network with readers, writers, fans, bloggers, and others in the publishing industry. I learn so much at each one. Here are some hints that I've picked up along the way that can help you navigate events and networking.

1. Wear comfortable shoes. My Fitbit always gets a workout.
2. Keep emails about events (with the contact information) that you're scheduled to attend. I always keep a folder with emails and receipts. It makes it easier if you have to remember a name or a time.
3. Plan out your day of panels, workshops, and activities. Know where the rooms are. I went to one conference where the events were in two different hotels.
4. Wear layered clothes. Conference centers are often too hot or too cold.
5. You're going to get a lot of books and swag. Make sure you have room to get it all back home. Many conferences have mailing centers to ship items.
6. Carry bookmarks and business cards with you. You'll network everywhere, and it's a good idea to have items to share.
7. When you do panels, workshops, or signings, bring a copy of your latest book. It creates a visual for the audience. I bought some portable book stands, and they work great to showcase the latest novel.
8. Have your supplies handy (e.g. bookmarks, give-aways, business cards, pens, etc.) I have an emergency box with extra pens, scissors, and tape.
9. Take lots of pictures for social media posts. I learned years ago from a social media guru to post regularly during conferences. Use the event hashtags and tag people that you network with.
10. Bring a notebook or paper. Even if I'm on a panel, someone says something that I want to jot down. These events are a great exchange of ideas.
11. If you're doing an event, make sure you have give-aways. Candy is always good (especially chocolate)! Many conferences have hospitality rooms where authors can leave bookmarks or postcards.

These are photos of my adventures at Malice Domestic 2017.

L-R: Rick Ollerman, Robert Downs, Elena Hartwell, Mary Ellis, and Me

L-R: Barb Goffman, Alan Orloff, Me, Maggie King, and Teresa Inge

Me with Edith Maxwell at the Malice Banquet

Me with the Wonderful Charlaine Harris

What I Learned from Author Jenny Milchman

L-R: Heather Weidner, Rosemary Shomaker, Jenny Milchman, Mary Burton, Kelly Justice

Suspense author, Jenny Milchman, spoke to our Sisters in Crime chapter at Fountain Bookstore in downtown Richmond, Virginia. She talked about her writing journey and what happens after the contract. Here's what I learned.

1. Her path to publication was a thirteen year process. Don't give up!
2. Face-to-face contact is vital in our virtual world. Make sure you attend events and conferences to network with readers. You never know who will be there.
3. Persistance is key for those who want to be published writers.
4. Your first published novel may not be the first one you wrote.
5. There are two kinds of writers: one that thinks everything he/she has written is terrible and the other is the kind that thinks every word he/she has written is golden. Where do you fall?
6. Signing with an agent doesn't mean that the agent will be able to sell your book.
7. There are a lot more choices these days for new authors to publish and build a readership.
8. Don't forget the people who helped you along your publishing journey.
9. Sometimes, it's all about being with the right book at the right time and place.
10. Find a writers' group that is supportive. You're not alone in this.
11. Just becauseyou have a book contract doesn't mean that that publisher will want every book you write.
12. Make sure that your newsletter has good content. Don't always make the focus your book. Include anecdotes, your pets, recipes, etc. You need to connect with people.
13. If you're going to use a publicist, ask around to make sure they are known in the business. Your local booksellers are a good resource for this.
14. Target your book publicity about events to people who live near the event.
15. Social media posts with pictures do better than those without.

67 Accounts You Should Follow on Twitter

Here are 67 accounts (people and organizations) you should check out. I enjoy reading their posts. They're not in any order. I just numbered the list to keep a running total. Happy tweeting!

1. Sisters in Crime - Where I go to  keep up with all that's new in mystery and suspense
2. Annie Acorn - Great writing advice
3. Rachelle Gardner - Enjoy her insights into the world of literary agents
4. Tina Glasneck - Love that she promotes other writers
5. Mollie Cox Bryan -Great daily tweets about her writing journey
6. Book Celebration - Great writer promotions - Stop in to see what's new
7. Ellery Adams - Fun tweets about her writing journey
8. Mary Burton - Love reading about her adventures and her 3 cute doxies
9. James River Writers - Great information about writing
10. Thrill Writing - Good source information for thriller or suspense writers
11. Rachel Thompson - Great source for book marketing and social media tips
12. Hank Phillipi Ryan - Fun tweets about mysteries
13. Halli Ephron - Check out her mysteries
14. Jungle Reds - A sassy blog by 8 mystery writers
15. Mary Feliz - Fun mystery tweets
16. Lelia G - Great tweets about her writing journey and #RVA photos
17. Elaine Viets - Fun tweets about her mystery series
18. Mary Miley - Great blog posts about myths in history
19. G. M. Malliet - Lots of good writing, book, and Great Britain tweets
20. Sparkle Abbey - Love their animal mysteries and dog tweets
21. Jeanne Adams - Love her great, wicked sense of humor and she supports authors
22. Rosemary Stevens - Fun tweets about nostalgia from the 60s and 70s
23. Kristin Kisska - Great fan girl and funny tweets
24. Kait Carson - Lots of tweets about mystery writing
25. Shawna C - Fun tweets and she's a great promoter of writers
26. Kristin Wright -Enjoy her BookBub lists and fun tweets
27. Kat Stiles - Lots of tweets about books and writing and she promotes writers
28. Julie Valerie - Great writing advice. Keep writing!
29. The Bookshelf Café - A neat place to keep up with what's new in books
30. Lyn Brittan - Fun tweets and she's a great supporter of writers
31. Book Swag - Fun book and bookish tweets
32. Suzie81Blog - Love the #SundayBlogShare tweets
33. Promocave - Lots of author and book promotions
34. Dru - Great book blog posts
35. Art Taylor - Fun tweets about his writing journey
36. Nancy Cohen - Light, fun mysteries
37. Jenny Milchman - Great writing and publishing advice
38. Nancy Naigle - Lots of homespun humor and fun tweets
39. Edith Maxwell - Lots of good New England mysteries
40. Rhys Bowen - Enjoy her royal mysteries
41. Cyrus Webb - Lots of great author promotion with his podcasts
42. Kristi Tuck Austin - Great tweets about writing and author promotion
43. Mary Behre - Enjoy her tweets about her writing journey
44. The Wicked Cozy - A interest blog with a New England accent
45. Sherry Harris - Love her yard sale mysteries and her great adventures
46. Krista Davis - Lots of fun mysteries with pets and great social media advice
47. Alan Orloff - Love his great sense of humor
48. BOLO Books - Wonderful book reviews
49. Kris Spisak - Great tweets about writing and books
50. LynDee Walker - Like reading about her adventures and her mysteries set in #RVA
51. Maggie King - Great posts about "where are they now" mystery writers
52. Fiona Quinn - Helping writers get it right
53. Jim Jackson - Good advice about writing, publishing, and editing
54. Leah St. James - Lots of good book promotion and fun tweets about Hampton Roads
55. Ally Shields - Great writing tips
56. Deborah Coonts - Love her funny Las Vegas mysteries
57. Eleanor Cawood Jones - Love her mystery writing posts
58. Stacy Juba - Lots of great tweets about books and writing
59. Barb Goffman - Good writing tweets and fun posts about Jingle dog
60. Larissa Reinhart - Lots of great tweets about mysteries
61. Bill Crider -Love his mysteries and posts about the VBKs (Very Bad Kitties)
62. Vivian Lawry - Lots of fun writing prompts
63. Sacha Black - Great writing and book promotion tweets
64. Terry Tyler - Lots of good tweets about writing
65. Lori Caswell - See what's new in the cozy mystery world
66. Diane Vallere - Fun fashion mysteries
67. And me...I'd love to see what you're tweeting...

Playlist: Songs about Writing

Music is a big part of my writing journey (and life). I always have some sort of music playing while I write, edit, or work. And the organizer in me always wants to make lists, so here's my big playlist of songs about books, writers, and writing.

1. "Dancing in the Dark" Bruce Springsteen
2. "Everyday I Write the Book" Elvis Costello
3. "Eyes Without a Face" Billy Idol
4. "I Am A Rock" Simon and Garfunkel
5. "I Be Bound to Write You" Muddy Waters
6. "I Write the Songs" Barry Manilow
7. "Lady Writer" Dire Straits
8. "Losing It" Rush
9. "Mr. Writer" Stereophonics
10. "Open Book" Cake
11. "Oxford Comma" Vampire Weekend
12. "Paperback Writer" The Beatles
13. "Piano Man" Billy Joel
14. "Rewrite" Paul Simon
15. "The Book I Read" Talking Heads
16. "The Book I'm Not Reading" Patty Larkin
17. "The Book of Love" The Monotones
18. "The Book of My Life" Sting
19. "The Empty Page" Sonic Youth
20. "Unwritten" Natasha Bedingfield
21. "When I Write the Book" Nick Lowe
22. "Write Your Own Songs" Willie Nelson
23. "Writer's Block" Just Jack

Here are some about specific books and authors.

1. "1984" David Bowie
2. "Feed my Frankenstein" Alice Cooper
3. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" Elton John
4. "Hemingway's Whiskey" Kenny Chesney
5. "Hey, Jack Kerouac" 10,000 Maniacs
6. "Romeo and Juliet" Dire Straits
7. "Sylvia Plath" Ryan Adams
8. "The House on Pooh Corner" Kenny Loggins
9. "Walt Whitman's Niece" Billy Bragg and Wilco
10. "Tom Sawyer" Rush
11. "Virginia Woolf" Indigo Girls
12. "White Rabbit" Jefferson Airplane
13. "Wuthering Heights" Kate Bush

And don't forget about the band, American Authors.

The Best Advice I've Received about Writing

I am so fortunate to be a part of several writing groups, anthologies, and a critique group. The other writers are so supportive and willing to share what does and doesn't work for them. Here are the best pieces of advice that I've received over the years.

1. Keep writing. If you're marketing or querying a book, make sure that you're also working on your next book.

2. Don't give up. You're going to get a lot of feedback and negative comments. Make sure you learn what you can from the feedback. Then keep going. Don't let bad reviews paralyze you.

3. You can't expect to sell one hundred books at every signing. If you get to meet readers, booksellers, and librarians, then it was a good signing. Relationships and contacts are important too.

4. When you do appearances or signings, make sure you're well stocked with pens, bookmarks, giveaways, and candy. Always bring good candy. Chocolate is a hands-down favorite.

5. Know what your budget is for marketing your book and stick to it.

6. Use your new book to create interest in your earlier works.

7. Know what your budget is for conferences, memberships, and writing workshops. Work on your craft, but remember your primary job is to write your next book.

8. Social media and other marketing are key for authors. It's expected these days that the author has a key role in this. Just make sure that you balance this with your writing time.

9. Invest in your headshot/author photo. And make sure to update it as years pass.

10. If you're not able to create and maintain your website, invest in someone who can. You are your brand, and your graphics, website, business card, and marketing materials should look professional and branded.

Social Media Analytics And Why Numbers are Important to Writers

When you reach certain milestones on Facebook fan pages and other sites, you gain access to analytics, insights, and other metrics. Your website should also have this information. Even if you are not a numbers geek, this data is valuable to you. It shows progress and gaps in your marketing efforts.

While you shouldn't fixate on numbers, followers, retweets, and likes, you should use them as a measure of the post you're creating. Writers also need to remember the social part of social media. You need to build relationships and followers by interacting with each other. If you only use these sites to dump announcements about your reviews and sale items, you're not going to be that successful.

Facebook and Twitter offer a lot of good information. You can see things like which day you get the most traffic. Target those days for posting new material. You can also see which posts get shared or commented on the most. This can help you figure out what type of content works for you. Facebook gives you a lot of information, including the age group/ demographics of your audience. Twitter tells you your reach for the week. You can see which tweets get the most action, and how many lead to link clicks. You should use Twitter and other sites to drive traffic to your blog or website.

If you boosted a post or ran an ad campaign, you can see the results. This can help you decide which types of posts to pay for next time.

Your website should also have metrics you can use to track visitor patterns and what types of content are most popular. I use Bitly to shorten my blog URLs for posting on social media. It has an analytics page that lets me know how many people have clicked on that link and on what days. My website visits were up and down until I committed to post a weekly blog and post links to it on Google+ and Twitter. My Google+ numbers aren't as high as my Twitter ones, but they do help me with my placement in Google searches (SEO).

The charts, graphs, and information can be overwhelming. Start with one item like your reach or the key days of the week. If you need help, Facebook and Google have good help files that explain what the numbers and different charts mean.

All of this information should help you decide what's working for you. If you're scheduling tweets, and you're not getting a lot of retweets, replies, or favorites, then you probably need to look at the content, frequency, and timing of what you do. You're doing a lot of work for not much reward. Also know that if others looks at your recent tweets, they can see the action or inaction too. Mix it up and see if your numbers improve. Make sure to add a couple of relevant hashtags to get the attention of interested readers.

Also note that Facebook changes its algorithms frequently, and this affects what your friends and fans see. I wouldn't depend on it as my only marketing method. To date, I haven't paid to boost any posts, but I'm working on a marketing campaign for my first solo mystery for next spring. I'll let you know how that goes.

Finally, there are way too many social media sites to have an active presence on each. Pick what your readers like and focus your time there. Don't let it overwhelm you. Make small changes and see if your numbers improve.

Happy marketing! And let's connect so we can build our reaches and resources. 

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