Newsletters and Networking - by Tracy Krauss

Newsletters and Networking. These are two very practical aspects of the writing life. Upfront, I’m going to be linking to further reading on these topics since I can’t possibly cover everything here, so take some time to do some digging if you’re at all interested. 

If you are a published author – or plan to become one – a newsletter is an essential tool. It’s “Marketing 101”. Even in these days of social media hypertension, an email newsletter is considered by marketing experts as the single most important piece of an author’s platform. It allows you to speak directly to your audience without the hindrance of censorship, algorithms, or any number of other roadblocks that can occur on social media. I won’t go into all the details here since I’ve written some posts on the professional blog on the topic. (Links at the bottom.) These expound on the importance of an email newsletter and also provide tips on starting and maintaining one. 

I recently wrote a post on my personal blog called "Anatomy of a Newsletter" about my own newsletter journey. I started mine in 2013 and I’m still going strong more than ten years later. 

Networking is another essential aspect of the writing life, but unlike a newsletter, networking with other authors is something we should all be doing, whether we hope to be published or whether we simply write for purely personal reasons. Everyone needs encouragement; a group of individuals that “gets” our need to scribble words.  Finding like-minded individuals—one’s tribe—opens doors of friendship and support, but can also be an entry into further education and skill building. Being part of a writing community, whether it be large or small, is important for our health as writers. No one is an island. Although writing is a solitary activity, it should not be isolating. 

Organizations like InScribe, The Word Guild, ACFW etc. are an essential part of the mix. (I belong to all three of those mentioned as well as the Playwright’s Guild of Canada.) However, sometimes we need a smaller, more intimate group—a place where we can feel safe and heard. This is where community writing groups come in. (InScribe partners with many writing groups across the country. Contact Sharon Hamilton for details.) Your group might be less organized, or you might be part of a small virtual group online. 

Whichever way you do it, find people you trust and engage with them! 

Below are a couple of articles from the Professional blog on the topic, as well as the newsletter articles mentioned above. I encourage you to do some further reading. 

Building Your Writing Community

Developing Team Support

Email Newsletters 1

Email Newsletters 2

Tracy Krauss writes from her home in northern BC. She is currently serving as InScribe's Regional Rep for BC/North and Acquisitions Editor for FellowScript magazine Visit her website for more: tracykrauss.com  fiction on the edge without crossing the line. 

Get the Inscribe App!

InScribe has a new way to connect and keep up to date on all of our events and activities! We have our own "InScribe App"!

If you haven't uploaded the App on your phone yet, here is the link:

 https://shelby.ministryone.com/landing/N3ke

We rolled out the app at our Fall Conference in October but there will be lots more communication coming about how to use it, its advantages, and more! Watch this VERY HELPFUL (and short!) video to get you started. 

5 Reasons to Attend a Writers' Conference

Although I wasn't able to make it to the InScribe conference, I regularly attend Write Canada. Here are five reasons I keep going back:

LEARN NEW SKILLS

Because I'm eclectically interested, I take a variety of classes. What about you? Are you interested in writing fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, books or blog posts? Whatever you write, you can acquire new skills by attending a conference. Even though I was only able to attend the Write Canada on Saturday this year, I still learned much from authors like Davis Bunn and Marcy Kennedy.

MEET INDUSTRY PROS

Not only have I met a number of authors over the years, including Janette Oke and Ted Dekker, I've met editors, agents, and publishers. A writers' conference provides a slightly more relaxed setting in which to approach these individuals, though you always want to remember that they are professionals and should be treated as such. Just a word to the wise ... being an extrovert, I haven't always remembered that last part.

CONNECT WITH OTHER WRITERS

I've found over the years that writers are typically a generous bunch. Although those who write in our genre or area of interest are technically our competition, more experienced writers seem only too happy to share the knowledge and skills they've acquired over the years. We extroverts drink in the opportunity to spend time with other writers. For the introvert, those who seem to be in the majority at a writers' conference, it is a safe place to spend time with others who understand the challenges and joys of putting words on paper (or the computer screen) and sharing them with readers.

GET INSPIRED

Writing is a very solitary endeavour. Although we may attend workshops, belong to a writers' group, and take courses, the process of writing is between us and our writing tool of choice. One of the advantages of attending a conference is soaking in the inspiration from the plenary sessions, the classes we attend, and the individuals we rub shoulders with. I go home from a conference fired up, ready to devote more time to writing. For those of us who can't do so full-time, we need a shot in the arm to include writing in our schedule.

SEEK NEW OPPORTUNITIES

And whether you're seeking them or not, new opportunities may come your way because you attend a writers' conference. I first met Ron Hughes at a Write Canada conference. Years later, he asked if I knew of anyone who might like to contribute to HopeStreamRadio (HSR). Podcasting is something I hadn't given much thought to, but now I upload devotionals to HSR regularly. This is only one opportunity that came my way. You just never know what can happen.

What other reasons would you include on this list?

Collaboration as Writers - Ruth L. Snyder

I recently had the opportunity to participate in the 5th Annual Book Marketing Conference, an online program put together by D'vorah Lansky, author of Book Marketing Made Easy. The theme of this year's conference was eBook Publishing Boot Camp. The sessions included in the program were:

• Four ways to write your non-fiction book or eBook to publish and sell on Amazon Kindle in 7 days or less, presented by Jim Edwards
• eBook editing for maximum profits, presented by David Perdew
• How to prepare and publish your books for Amazon's Kindle, present by Val Waldeck
• Successful eBook publishing using Barnes and Noble, Kobo, & Smashwords (for Apple), presented by David Wogahn
• The print-on-demand revolution, presented by John S. Rhodes
• Turn your eBook into a print book, presented by Kristen Eckstein
• Build buzz for your eBook, presented by Sandra Beckwith
• Leveraging influencers, presented by Susan Baroncini-Moe
• Google hangouts for authors, presented by Jason Matthews
• Create a course with Udemy & earn, presented by Alex Mozes
• Magnify your message with powerpoint, presented by Dr. Jeanette Cates
• Grow your business with teleseminars, presented by Bob Jenkins
• Become a Kindle bestseller, presented by Connie Ragen Green
• Successful book launch strategies, presented by Shelley Hitz and Heather Hart

As you can see, I received a lot of useful information. However, as I reviewed the online learning opportunity, I thought about how collaboration with other writers is both necessary and helpful. Why?

1. Our time is limited - We all have responsibilities other than writing. Quality writing takes time. Once the writing is done, we have editing, publishing, and marketing to think about. Then there's blog posts, creating and updating your website, and interacting with people on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In. Whew!
2. We can't be experts at everything - God has given each one of us different skills or gifts (see I Corinthians 12). Each of us has a unique part to play in the body of Christ. Not everyone can write non-fiction books in an orderly, clear manner. Neither can everyone write fiction that grips the reader from the first page to the last and encourages personal growth in the process. Some people are good at selling. Other people are more skilled at speaking. Some do well on social media. Others do better face to face. We all need to figure out what we are good at and what "energizes" us. Then, we need to surround ourselves with people who are good at doing the tasks that we are not so good at.
3. Working with other people gives us exposure to a broader range of people. Networking is a word we hear often these days. Working together enables us to broaden our network by getting to know people that our friends know. For example, if five people each have 100 unique contacts, by working together, they have increased their contacts to 500. 

This brings me to InScribe Christian Writers' Fellowship. There are many things we are doing well:

-FellowScript provides information and helps writers develop skills

-Satellite InSpiration groups enable writers to learn and grow together

-Members only contests provide opportunities to get feedback on writing

-InScribe Writers Online (this blog) gives members the opportunity to showcase their writing

-The InScribe website provides a venue to share information

-The InScribe professional blog is another opportunity for members to share their writing expertise and to attract new members to InScribe.

There are many other things we could be doing. However, for this to work, we need more volunteers who are willing to share their gifts. Do you have some time you could donate? What other directions do you think InScribe should pursue? 

www.trusteesnyder.blogspot.com
(Education information)
www.ruthlsnyder.com
(Ruth's writing and family life) 
www.earlyyearssuccess.com
(Information for caregivers of children ages 0-5)
Follow Ruth on Twitter:www.twitter.com/@wwjdr

Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours! - Lynn Dove

Do you know the old adage, "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours"?

Book marketing is all about helping one another. Interesting that Jesus was all about that concept too. (John 15:12) If you've ever tried to create a "buzz" about your books, you will know that this is so true. You can't do it alone!

You will discover that the number one thing a new writer/author needs to do right away is connect with other writers and authors who share your common passion for the written word (and if you're a Christian author it's important to connect with other Christian writers who also share your passion for God.) There are numerous great groups to network with: John 3:16 Marketing Network, The Book Club Network, Edgy Christian Fiction, Crossreads and of course here in Canada The Word Guild and Inscribe!  There are numerous groups and websites like Goodreads, Shelfari, Twitter and Pinterest as well as a host of other Christian Author Facebook groups and pages, where you can join and connect with other writers.

Anyone who is a Christ-follower knows that "community" is essential for encouragement and support. We share our joys and we share our burdens. We're a tight-knit family and it is so wonderful to know that we're not alone on this journey but we have each other to help along the way. Unfortunately, I have also noticed that in every family (and in this case I'm going to talk exclusively to the writing community) there are those that seem to have no trouble accepting help from others to promote and market their books, but are not as willing to reciprocate when asked. Some even get downright rude and offensive about it.

Here are my thoughts on the matter.

1. If you are a writer/author and you want others to blog, tweet or promote your books on Twitter (or anywhere else), you should be willing to do the same for someone else.

2. If you want lots of followers on Twitter, follow lots of people on Twitter. My rule of thumb is I won't follow someone on Twitter even if they have 100,000,000 followers or more if they don't follow back. (Sorry @justinbieber) Sure there are those that are just spammy advertisers (be cautious about that), but if you want followers to "retweet" about your book promotion someday, it's not asking a lot to follow them back in return. Let me give a wonderful example here: Tricia Goyer! Tricia, Christian author of 30 books, award winning writer and prominent speaker, has 55,500 + followers on Twitter. She follows well over 56,000 people back. She takes time to connect with her followers too; she thanks followers who follow her back and she actually reads the tweets people send to her! If you want a great example of a "tweeter" follow Tricia! @triciagoyer

3. If you expect people to "like" your postings, pages etc. on Facebook, return the "likes" right back! Make an author's day and go on Amazon and see their book listing-"like" their book as well as their Amazon author page :)

4. If you expect people to read and review your books, read and review their books. Take it one step further: if you want authors to buy and/or read your books...BUY and/or read their books! I know it gets pricey to buy print books all the time but you could do a book exchange for instance, send a PDF of your manuscript to them and they do the same for you. I love doing author interviews on Word Salt. Most of the authors I've interviewed on my blog have reciprocated and hosted me on their blogs. We've done book exchanges and/or we've purchased one another's books. You can come up with unique (and inexpensive) ways to help with their promotional marketing efforts and they'll be happy to return the favour.

5. Taking it yet another step further - when you do a review of a book, a little "honey" goes a long, long way. There's a right way and a wrong way to review a book. Honesty is one thing, cutting a manuscript to pieces with your critical review on Goodreads or Amazon will just break an author's spirit. (Proverbs 15:1 "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.") Give an honest review but ensure that you have listed more positives than negatives if possible. If that's not possible, perhaps the best thing to do is this: "If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all."

6. Last thing..."Don't get too big for your britches!" So you've published a bunch of books (all best sellers)...wonderful! Just remember that you were a "newbie" once. You didn't have a clue what you were doing when you started out in the business and you made lots of mistakes before you published your first book (traditionally or otherwise). Take time to share your expertise, as well as your failures with new writers who need encouragement. I wouldn't have published a word without the mentoring of a couple of friends and authors, Connie Cavanaugh and Kathy Howard. Both of them, prominent speakers and writers in their own right, when I ask them to help promote my books (even though I know they are extremely busy ladies with book and speaking tours themselves) they do not hesitate to say, "Count me in!" If you are an author and writer, determine to be the kind of friend you would want to have in this business. You'll be glad you did.


Lynn Dove calls herself a Christ-follower, a wife, a mom, a grandmother, a teacher and a writer (in that order). She is the author of award winning books: The Wounded Trilogy. Her blog, Journey Thoughts won a Canadian Christian Writing Award - 2011. She has also had essays published in "Mother of Pearl: Luminous Lessons and Iridescent Faith" and "Chicken Soup for the Soul - Parenthood" (March 2013). Readers may connect with Lynn on Facebook, Twitter and on her blog: Journey Thoughts