Twitter Tips

“Experts” tell us to use Twitter as another selling tool for our books. Except, we aren’t supposed to just promote our books. What? Sounds a little  backward, use it to sell, but don’t sell.

Twitter is like a party where we can network, but really, we are there to socialize. Some people are more social and have 1,000 or more followers, friends, social contacts. Others of us are less outgoing, and have far fewer. When this month started I had 325 after a month of ‘working’ Twitter I’m up to 445, the goal was 500 and, do the math, you’ll see, I’m still 55 people short. However, an increase of 110 people in less than 30 days sounds like success to me, plus I still have three days.

Why did I want more followers if I can’t ‘sell’ my book to them? Because, I can ‘sell’ myself to them, they’ll eventually buy the book because of my tweets, or they’ll tell someone else about my book. Also, more followers mean, more interesting people for me to meet.

I’ve met some quilters who are generous with their tips and talents, often sharing tutorials, many of which I’ve included on my blog. More followers, mean more information for me to use when blogging. The blog, of course, is another way of selling books. There are too many quilters to mention, but recently I learned about I Spy bags from Lorelei.

I’ve met writers who encourage, and entertain me. Writers I’d never meet except online. Writers like Mariam Kobras, German author of THE DISTANT SHORE.  Mariam is  author who wrote her first book while overseeing detention at the local school. Now, how could I NOT like her? I love sharing tweets with her, and she in turns introduces me to some of her friends.

Since my book, DEVOTED TO QUILTING, is essentially a devotional, following fellow christen writers seemed a no-brainer. I’ve met some great uplifting people that way. People like Lyn Smith, a minister, speaker, writer, and just plain fun person. Then there’s LisaJo at  who combines family, ministry, and writing. LisaJo’s Five Minute Friday is not only a good way for me to have a Friday post, but introduces me to some fabulous people each week.

So, how do I find these people? How have I increased my friends at the twitter social? I adopted the following strategy:

1. Reply to other tweets-If someone tweets something you find amusing, helpful, or just fun, comment. When I don’t know something, I tweet a question. Twitters are friendly people, they will usually respond, either as a reply or as a direct message.

2. Retweet other tweets. When someone posts a tweet I agree with, or enjoy I retweet it. It only takes a second, and you never know where it will lead.

A few days ago I retweeted a tweet about the future of obtaining a college degree for Agriculture jobs. I live in a rural area, and all of my children have, college education that led to jobs in agriculture. My husband and his brother both taught agriculture. It was a subject dear to me, so I shared it.

A few days later, that retweet, with my twitter feed was mentioned in the Agriculture Blog Daily. http://paper.li/AR_ranchhand/1327775386 His tweet which mentioned me, went out to 2888 followers. Will all of those 2888 people check out my tweets? No. Will any? Maybe. And it’s likely I’ll get new followers, which will eventually translate into more sales.

I didn’t know my little tweet would be spread so far. I didn’t do it for the exposure; I did it because I believed in the original tweet and wanted to share.

The tweets I retweet don’t always result in such exposure, but that doesn’t matter, that’s not the reason I do it. Sometimes I retweet for friends to help get them more exposure; others do the same for me. We help each other.

4. Post links to other blogs or websites you find interesting. I often have trouble thinking of something to tweet, I don’t want to be advertising my book all the time, and I don’t want to be too personal. That’s when sharing links to other blogs or websites comes in handy. Some of my writer friends aren’t on Twitter, or if they are I haven’t found them.  But I can tweet the link to their blog or website for them. This often gets them new readers and shows other twitter people some of my interests.

5.  Answer if someone replies or retweets you. It’s just polite to thank someone for retweeting one of your tweets. If possible, respond to their replies. It gets the conversation going, which helps them to know you and hopefully will sell more books.

Twitter is just one little road that leads others to you, and your books. Enjoy your twittering.

These are some of my Twitter tips. I’m still learning, I’m sure there will be another Twitter post in the future. Do you have others; is there something you do on Twitter that has helped you?

 

Delight in the Light

It’s Friday once again, that means hooking up with LisaJo and others at The Gypsy Mama for Five Minute Friday.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

Delight in the Light

My cousin used to refer to me as “light dependent.” She says it with a smile, because she in NOT light dependent. While I enjoyed sitting in her dark living room visiting with her, if I needed to get us anything, I had to turn the light on. She, on the other hand, had no need for the light. She simply went about her routine in the dark. Because she was/is totally blind.  Today we live miles apart and seldom get together to visit. Her words seemed  today, because I delight in the light, in the ability to see.

When I first moved to this house, after my husband’s death, our area had a storm that took out the electricity for many homes for hours. Not my house though, my house remained lit. I like to think it’s because God was taking care of me. My life was already in an emotional darkness, I didn’t need to be in the dark physically also.

This morning, as I was thinking about this post the sun was trying to shine, but the clouds were blocking most of the light. Most, not all. I drank my tea and watched as the darkness of the night receded and the light of the day began to take over. The sun still isn’t shining brightly, but it’s light has brightened the day.

Yes, being light dependent, I delight in the light. The electricity that lights my home after the darkness of night invades, the light the sun offers to send the night scurrying, and the light the Lord offers to brighten our lives, and chase the darkness away.

Your Turn. Here’s the particulars:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

2. Link back to The Gypsy Mama so others can read your post.

 

3. Invite others to join in. If you play, please come back here and leave a link, would love to read your five minute take on Delight.

 

 

A Lesson in Trust

Yes, it’s Saturday, but I’m still posting for Five Minute Friday. I was working on the post in my head when I received a phone call. The call, led to a lesson from God. Enjoy.

Yesterday I helped a friend move. A strange set of circumstances forced them into the change in living space with only a week to pack up everything they owned and take it to the new house. They can take their time unpacking.

I offered early in the process to come help them. I have a lot of practice with packing and moving. My childhood had been spent moving from one location to another. The early years of my marriage were similar, and my most recent move was a mere 5 1/2 years ago. I’m still unpacking and finding a home for things.

The response I got was, “No thanks, we can handle it.”

Ok, I didn’t want to force myself on them, and didn’t want to be in their way. After all they may have had a system.

Until yesterday morning. My friend called, “Can you come help us finish packing up?”

“Sure, do you need my pickup?”

“No. Wait, maybe you’d better bring it. Just in case.”

Oh yeah, they needed the pickup, and the extra hands. When I arrived, a couple of other people had joined in the helping.

It wasn’t until this morning that I realized the lesson God was teaching. He is ALWAYS available to help us, we need to trust in that, in HIM. But, He won’t force Himself on us, we need to ask. The answer is always “yes, I’ll help you.” We need to trust him.

Stop.

You can play along too. All the information is on LisaJo’s blog, The Gypsy Mama.

On Fridays we just write without worrying if it’s just right or not. Won’t you join us? (<—Tweet this!)

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

 

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

 

3. Please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them.

 

 

Easy Quilted Project How-tos

It’s tutorial Thursday, and since I still haven’t put together my own tutorial for you, here are some links for tutorials that I found helpful, and a couple of links to free patterns. Enjoy.

I love scrap quilts, they are my favorite, and free patterns that use scraps, well that’s just about perfect. From Daily Craft comes this pattern, from Quilter’s Newsletter.perfect for using scraps:

Isn’t it pretty? It was inspired by Cinco de Mayo (the popular Mexican celebration that takes place on the 5th of May). Although, for non scrap collectors, it would be nice in a planned color palette, imagine it with one color. I may have to try this one when I get some of these already-started projects out-of-the-way. If you make it, share with us, with a link.

Once you have a quilt made, you may want to hang it. Jacquie at  Tall Grass Prairie Studio has an easy-to-follow hanging sleeve tutorial.

Bonnie Browning of AQS (American Quilt Society) made a hanging sleeve tutorial video, here.

Since I love mug rugs, and Valentine’s day is coming up, this themed mug rug is a great use of  scraps. I found it on Whip it Up Today  it was a guest post by Judy from Pleasant Home? I’ll try to get my mug rug and hug tutorial up next week.

Finally, over at Mauby’s is a square table topper. Angie from  Stitching by Starlight made a cute square table topper tutorial because her table is square and most table toppers or runners are rectangle. Angie used Soul Blossoms fabrics for the center of the topper with Kona white for the background. However, it would be cute with scraps you have on hand, and just think how cute it would be as a set of place-mats. I love place-mats! They wouldn’t even have to match each other, as long as they have some of the same fabrics, and use the same background fabric.

I hope you enjoy cruising around and checking out these tutorials. If you’d like to see a tutorial on a specific item, let me know and I’ll try to find one or ten, or will make my own. What do you think of these? Have you made any of them?

 

Blogging for Success

Monday Marketing: Blogging for Success

Blogs. Everyone seems to have one. Most authors for sure do, their editors, friends, even family insist we need a blog to help sell our books. We agree, we can see the benefits of having a blog, but then we flounder. What do we post? When do we post? How do we get readers?

I have no idea, I’m stumbling along just like everyone else. To find the answers, or some of them, I read (don’t all writers read?), I read blogs, books, magazines, hoping for some kernel that will if not propel me to the top, will at least make the climb a little easier.

I’d planned to list several blogs here I’d found that might be helpful. However, I once again found Kristin Nador’s blog, Kristin Nador Writes Anywhere, I really need to pay more attention to the blogs I’ve bookmarked.:-)

Last month Kristin ran a series of post aimed directly at helping us make better use of our blogs. So, here are all (I think) of her “blog improvement” posts.

Here are links to her posts:

Part 1 – Sharpen Your Blogging Habits: 4 Ways To Define Your Audience .

Part 2 – Sharpen Your Blogging Habits: 7 Keys to Blogging on a Consistent Basis

Part 3 – Sharpen Your Blogging Habits: 14 Actions to Take to Amplify Your Blog’s Voice.

Part 4 – Sharpen Your Blogging Habits: The Golden Rule For Bloggers

Part 5 – Sharpen Your Blogging habits: Get Serious by Relaxing.

I  hope you enjoy Kristin’s posts and they give you some new ideas to try or at least consider. Sorry for my recent Marketing absence, was busy working on entries for the OWFI contest. Deadline has passed, hopefully I won’t become obsessed with another project, but there’s no guarantees , and will be here regularly on Mondays with my little take on marketing our books.

How have you used your blog to increase your book’s audience? What other methods have you used to sell your product, whether it’s a book, a quilt, or other item? Feel free to share your ideas with us.

Next Monday will be about Twitter since I’m focusing on improving my Twitter usage this month.

 

 

Quick Projects for fun and Gifts

It’s Thursday Tutorial here at Patchwork Lives. The blog may look a little different this month, in addition to actually posting on a regular basis, (we can always hope) most of the posts will be about quilts or quilting.

To begin the month I have three tutorials that other quilters have so generously shared. First up is The Moda Bakeshop with a tutorial for wash cloths that would make a great housewarming, or baby shower gift. My two cents? If you’re making them as a baby gift use flannel on one side, make it even softer.  I wonder how these would work with minke fabric? I’ll have to see if I have any and give it a try. This cute, easy to follow tutorial is from AnneMarie Chany of Gen X Quilters.

Next, just in time for Valentine’s Day is this cute needle case from Marsha at On the Go Quilting. If you give Valentine gifts at your quilt guild, or have a guild door prize it would be a nice gift to give. Of course you don’t have to use valentine themed fabric, you could use any fabrics and change-up the applique once you’ve learned the method. I’m not a big fan of hearts, so I think I’ll put a butterfly on mine.

Finally, have you seen those commercials on television about giving the spare toilet roll dignity and a cover? Of course it’s for a particular brand of toilet paper and they offer a free cover. Except, it’s ugly. Ok, ugly might be too strong of a word, but I don’t like it. While I’m not a matchy – matchy kind of person, that particular cover clashes with my whole house.

Never fear, a quilter from Australia, QuiltJane has us covered. She even has a contest going on now, Rules and instructions are here. So, go ahead and make your own cover and join in on the fun.

That’s it for today, three tutorials for you. They’re all small, and fun. Enjoy. If you make any of these projects please share them here.

A final note: I know I’ve been AWOL the last week or so, I was working fast and furious on entries for a writing contest. Made the deadline with 15 minutes to spare, whew! Wrote, and/or polished (a couple of entries were WIPs that needed tweaking) six manuscripts including two book entries. Now that the contest deadline is past, the blog will be receiving more of my attention.

And, it’s one month into the new year. Already? How are your resolutions/goals coming? Mine, not so well. It’s time to step back up to the sewing machine, computer (for blog updates) or out into the sunshine and get busy.

Goal Recap:I did a recap of my January sewing/quilting goals here. Did you do better? You had to do better, share your successes with us.

 

 

Freedom of Speech Threatened?

Romans 8:13-14 – ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

As many of you know I’m working through Romans 8. I had a very different post planned, however, I’ve learned the US Congress is soon voting on a bill that could censor what we view online. The bill may have been drafted with good intentions, websites and blogs can be blocked. Free speech one of the fundamentals of our constitution can be stilled.

At first I agreed with the petitioners just on general principle, I don’t want any more of my rights eroded away. I thought, my little blog is safe, I don’t write on controversial topics. But, who decides what is controversial? I write about Hope, God, Faith, and Jesus. Could that be considered controversial? If someone in power doesn’t want God’s word spread could my little blog be stopped? What about all the other inspirational bloggers? What about the Bible websites? Could they all be blocked?

On a business level, I write about quilts and quilting. However, I don’t necessarily promote new fabrics or companies selling designer fabrics. I like the designers. I like the fabric they create. I don’t usually buy it, doesn’t mean I don’t buy, it’s just not always my first stop. Will the fabric manufactures stop my little blog because I advocate recycling, up-cycling, reusing fabrics? If I do spotlight one designer, will other manufacturers (who don’t carry that line) want to shut me down for promoting something outside their sales line?

Will our fabric designers websites and blogs be closed because someone doesn’t like the fabric they design? Will writers’ blogs be closed because they write about something “unapproved”?

Tomorrow, in response to this bill many blogs and websites will go black, including this one. Please check out the bill here and make your choice, http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

As I said, this started out to be a very different post. However, this is important to me. I hope your freedom to read what you want, where you want (online, in a newspaper, in a book, etc.), when you want is important to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘

 

Changing Directions – The Quilt of Healing

Quilters love giving their quilts away almost as much as they enjoy making the quilts. In part, because if we didn’t give some away we’d soon be smothered by our creations. However, the real reason we give our quilts away is to share the love. We give quilts to loved ones, so they can be wrapped in our love even when we are far away. We give quilts to charities, to wrap those affected in love, warmth and knowledge that there are  people who don’t even know them that care about them.

When Pat, a quilter from Owasso looked for a home for her quilts, she quickly selected a Hospice in Texas that had been there for a family member. She had taken quilts with her on previous visits to family and the Hospice was always glad to receive the quilts. However, on one trip the destination of her quilts changed.

She traveled to Texas shortly after wildfires had swept that portion of the state, leaving people homeless and without anything. One of her family worked with these fire-damaged people helping them get on their feet. He asked if he could give the quilts to those folks this time. She quickly agreed, and her quilts loaded in his car for him to take to the ‘office’.

When he returned that evening he told her about one of the women who received one of her quilts. The woman had gone to work the morning of the fire, returning that evening to find the fire had swept her neighborhood. Her house, and all her belongings was in ashes. The only things she ‘salvaged’ were the clothes she’d worn to work, her purse, and her car. Everything else was gone.

When presented with the quilt and a place to live, she hugged the quilt as though inhaling the love stitched into it. She was happier with the quilt than the fact they’d found lodging for her. The quilt began her healing.

Neither of the quilts pictured were the donation quilt, but wouldn’t someone love to receive either of them? These are from the 2011 Kiamichi Quilt Guild show, “Fall in Love With Quilts.” The one at the top is titled “See ‘n Red” and is the creation of Sharon Savard.

This one (below), is the “Little Camp Quilt” is  by Pat Cotton of McAlester.

 

Marketing Ripples

Throw a rock in a pool of water and watch how far the ripples move out from the center, where the rock landed. Our book promotions are much the same, especially online. We don’t know who will read and react (by making a purchase) to our words, but we keep sending them out there to cyber space.

Online promotional ideas aren’t endless; at least I think there’s a finite number of them. I haven’t found the end yet. Of course, each author has his/her own spin, making the ideas go even further.

So far I blog, you’re reading it, remember? Have a Facebook and Twitter account, and use my email to help grow my readership and establish my platform.

Email sounds a little clunky, slow, and old-fashioned. But, I don’t mean sit and carefully compose individual email after email, although, for some that might not be a bad idea. No, first, add a signature to every email you send that tells a little something about your book.  You can add a sentence or two enticing your correspondent to find and read your book. Of course, finding it won’t be hard for them, you’ll also have a link in your signature that will let people click and buy.

Quilter, Jane Skoch who uses the name Maiden Jane, simply lists her website, her blog, and her Etsy store under her signature:

Jane Skoch
http://www.maidenjane.com

http://www.maidenjane.blogspot.com

http://www.maidenjane.etsy.com

Author Pat Browning lists the name of her book, where to find it, her blog and a quote from Paul Newman, giving credit to where she found it:

Pat Browning
ABSINTHE OF MALICE (Krill Press 2008)
Kindle and Nook E-book $2.99

http://browningpat.wordpress.com/

“Once you’ve seen your face on a bottle of salad dressing, it’s hard to take yourself seriously.”–Paul Newman, quoted by literary agent Michael Larsen in his blog

Linda Formichelli, author, writing coach and teacher simply lists her website below her name:

Linda Formichelli

http://www.therenegadewriter.com

My publisher/editor Dan Case simply lists all the places online he can be found:

Dan Case, editor
Writing for DOLLARS!
http://www.WritingForDollars.com
BLOG
http://PromoteBooks.blogspot.com
AWOC.COM Publishing
http://www.awoc.com
Web site
http://www.DanCase.com

I currently mention I’m available to speak to groups, my blog address, and where to find my book. In the past I’ve also included a short, two or three sentence excerpt from the book to entice readers.

The nice thing about the email signature, it’s fluid, flexible, you can change it on a whim. Have a new book published? Add it to your signature. Find another quote you like better? Add it to your signature.

You’re not through with email yet. Now, you have everyone who receives an email from you learning about your book(s), you can send emails to help grow your readership.

If you have a book signing, give a presentation, or simply have good news to shout to the world (book is in it’s second, third, fourth printing, you made top seller, or your second, third, fourth, etc. book is now available) sending emails will help spread the word. Send an email to every family member, of course. They may already have your book, or not, this might encourage them. A simple reminder from you about your book, will jog their memory that “oh yeah, I have a relative with a book” and they’ll tell their friends. Plus, it’s just nice to share good news with family, same thing with close friends.

You can also send an email to organizations you belong to. They can include the information in their next newsletter or communication with the group. Be very careful sending individual emails to addresses you glean from the membership rolls, you don’t want to spam them.

That’s it for this week. Next week, Blogging for Sales. In the meantime, how do you use email to increase your readership and grow your platform?

 

 

 

 

–

 

 

 

 

 

A Week in Photos

Sunday. It's still winter, so am keeping a few "winter" decorations out

Mon. Max the guard dog on duty.

Tue. 1/10 Sign of the Gerty Store

Another view of the Gerty Store sign. She makes awesome fried pies!

This is what happens when you get in a hurry to finish the blocks. Thur. 1/12

At the OKC Winter Show 1/13

Wall hanging of mine and David's hands. 1/14