Planning For The New Year

I am doing well this year - I remembered that Ineeded a new planner for 2016, and Amazon got it to me in time! Last year I basically "settled" for what was available in the store - this year I ordered ahead of time, and am very pleased that it is already here! What initially attraced me to it was the bright red color - what a great way to send energy into my day! My day planner is always on my desk, so I can note appointments, deadlines, etc. as I move through my day, so having a nice size, and a great color, are real bonuses!

My 2016 planner is 8 1/2" by 11", featuring a full two page calendar for each month, with verticle, appointment-style planning pages, I love the tabs that give easy access to each month - the first and third quarter tabs are in black, the second and fourth quarter tabs are in red. In the front of the planner are reference calendars for 2015, 2016, and 2017, with a full page to list goals for the coming year.

At the back of the planner is a full page for notes, and a full page entitled "Future Planning" that lists the next twelve months, with a column for the date, and space for notes. Definitely a onus when juggling multile projects, or noting dates for seminars etc. for the coming year.There is a full page for listing birthdays and anniversaries (a good way to keep on top of both personal and professional dates of note), a reference age listing both metric and U.S. measurements, a page for listing websites, blank pages for notes, pages for listing addresses and phone numbers, and maps listing time zones (U.S. and global).

I feel confident that everything that I need is contained within this planner. It will help me to focus my vision for the coming year, as well as setting the ground work for 2017. Many of us are involved in multiple professional areas - I am a writer, I am a reviewer, I blog, I act as a PR contact for a wonderful - and very busy! - music journalist, and am on the editorial staff of an up and coming quarterly cartomancy magazine.

Each of you will have your own projects to keep track of. Life can be exciting when we take a small moment to keep it on track - and that is what these planners do!

Here is the link to the planner that I am working with: daily planner.

Wishing you all a highly productive 2016!

(c) December 2015 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.

Promoting Books On Twitter

I have to admit that I used to put much more effort to working with Twitter than I do now. I know that it has more to offer than I am making use of, which is why I was attracted to an article that I saw on promoting books on Twitter. (Here is the link, so you can red it in its entirety - How To Promote Books On Twitter.) 

Spoiler alert - the article starts at day one - how to sign up for Twitter!  Then it moves on to the basics of creating a profile, how to Tweet, how to follow people, and how to get them to follow you. Personally, I wish that this had been presented as a separate article. If you are already on Twitter, I woud just move right down to the meat of this article, which is selling books with Twitter!

The first thing addressed here is hashtags, which I almost never use, although I know full well that I should! This is how we attract followers - by letting them know what we are talking about! There is a list of specific hashtags for authors, which is a goldmine! There is a listing of hashtags by genre, and for getting idustry information, creative writing help, and connecting with readers.

Of course, you also have to Tweet about your book! I am going to make best use of this section to get my books out there for the holidays. Whether we self-publish, or publish through a brick and mortar, as authors we need to do the heavy work of promoting our books ourselves. There is no magic wand! The greatest tools that we may have at hand are the social media - Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and Google +, to name a few.

We also have to think about the very basics - Twitter is a 140 character base. If we choose to use links (and we shoud!), then using a shrtened link is a huge help. This article presents a link shortener that I have never heard of (I am of the Tiny Url generation!), but that I will be trying out.  One of the main reasons that I will be trying out this tool is that it focuses on where the individual clicking on a link is from, and takes them to the relevent link (think Amazon and all of its incarnations in various countries).

Competitions and give aways are also discussed. This has never been a tool that worked wll for me, but I know others that it has worked very well for. Certainly something to consider.

Twitter apps and tools are something that is beyond where I am right now, but certainly something that should be considered. I know that I need to up my tech savvy. and this doesn't lok that hard.

There is a great deal of information here - take away what works for you, leave the rest behind!

(c) December 2015 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without the written consent of the author.