Blog Archives

FREE TRAINING!

4/19/2021

This is posted with Brooke's permission.

"I received the BEST news this weekend!
My picture book, This is My Castle, just received the Independent Book Publishers Award as the distinguished favorite for preschoolers.
️
While my books have received awards before, I'm always so humbled every time I see the email come in. It wasn't very long ago that my picture book manuscripts weren't ready to publish.

So how can you go from just okay writing to award-winning? You start by avoiding the 5 misconceptions new writers make about children's books.

I'll teach you what they are tomorrow during a live webinar at 11am CST. Sign-up for the free training here.
During the webinar, we'll talk about:

What ideas qualify as children's books and what ones don't.
The story concepts you must master before you start writing your first draft
How to know when you have a story worth publishing and what your role as the author is.

Plus, you'll receive a free workbook to follow along so you can take action with your own story right away. I'm anticipating a full house so come early.

Save your seat here.

See you then!
XOXO - Brooke

PS - The webinar will be recorded so even if you can't join me live, still be sure to sign-up! It's going to be a game-changer for you as a children's book writer and I expect to see A LOT of lightbulbs click, so don't miss this one."

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The La Viness Short Story Contest

4/13/2021

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I found a new contest that I hope you'll enjoy! It's the annual La Viness Short Story Contest. It works like this. The creator gives you two words to give you an idea for the story. In this case, it's butter and fly. You can combine 'butter' and 'fly' (butterfly) or keep them separate. Let your imagination go wild and think outside of the box. Good luck! Info about the contest follows.

THIRD ANNUAL
La Viness Short Story Writing Contest
2021Hosted by Renee' La Viness.
.
SUBJECT

Butter and Fly do not have to be the focal
point(s) of the story, but they should be
so important that the story would not
make sense without them.
USAGE: As one word (BUTTERFLY) or two separate words (BUTTER and FLY)
Any type of BUTTER is acceptable: milk butter, peanut butter, almond butter, body butter, engine butter, butterfly, etc.. Also, any type of FLY is acceptable: a fly, butterfly, dragonfly, or other item with the word FLY in its name; or the story might require an airplane, helicopter, drone, bird, hot air ballon, sports balls, kites, fairies, ghosts, knives, arrows, or other flying objects.
   1st Place - $100
2nd Place - $75
3rd Place - $50
Up to three Judges' Choice
Up to three Honorable Mention
For more information about awards, click here.
      SUBMISSION DATES
E-mail submissions will be
accepted from July 1, 2021 until
11:59 PM (CDT) on August 31st, 2021.
.ENTRY FEE
$10.00 USD for up to two stories per author.
Multiple entries allowed.
.WINNERS
Winners will be announced and
awards/certificates will be mailed
on or before December 5th, 2021.
First Place will also be listed here.
GUIDELINES
Fiction or Nonfiction
Any subject / Any genre
(No erotica, gore, or poetry.)
2000 word limit, not including title
Must be a complete story. (Beginning, middle, end.)
All entries must be UNPUBLISHED* at time of submission.
.
ANONYMOUS SUBMISSION RULES
No identifying author information
allowed on the story pages.
.
   FORMATTING
Entries should be written in American English.
Font: size 12, easy to read, use curly quotes.
Double-spaced.
One inch margins.
No special "front page only" formatting is required.
Top right of every page: Title / page #
EXAMPLE: The Last Tadpole / 1
   COVER PAGES
Each story should have a separate cover
page with the following information:
Author Name
Mailing Address
City, State Zip Code
Phone
Email Address
Story Title
Fiction / Nonfiction
# of words in story
First full line of story

Polish your story with this check list:
Story Checks
.
Questions about the contest?
Email Renee' at [email protected]
DO NOT mention details about your story or title.
.
* UNPUBLISHED
Not published in a book, ebook, audio, website, mass email, or other format that is publicly shared, including online. (This does not include items shared for critique in private writing groups. In fact, we encourage critique before submission.)
.

AWARDS INFO
RULES/REGULATIONS
PREVIOUS WINNERS
SUBMIT NOW

.

.

JesPiddlin - copyright 2021.

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PROMOTING YOUR WEBSITE

4/5/2021

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Okay, now you’ve built your website. YAY! It was quite a job getting it just the way you want it, getting the right feel in it, along with letting it show the world that you’re a professional. Now what? It’s up, it’s published, but who’s going to see those videos much less read your brilliant words? Just how do you promote your website? I ran into this problem myself and I’ve found a few ways to do this.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Visit Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, YouTube, MeWe, and any other social media site you visit regularly. Create a post saying something like, “Hey, I’ve just built a website. Come check it out and tell me what you think!” Then add your URL or link.

I did this on Facebook. I put it on my wall, my announcement and link traveled down my newsfeed, and went out to all my friends. Who knows where it went from there. I also shared this announcement to any applicable Facebook group I’m in. Make sure the group will accept announcements, announcements for blog posts or articles first.

I also did this on Twitter. I changed my announcement a bit to fit their 200 character limit and added appropriate hashtags. The hashtags I put in my announcement were things like #children’swriting, #debhockenberry, #article, and #links. Don’t forget to include your link too. But remember, your announcement, hashtags, and link have to stay in the 200 character limit.

Pinterest is a great way to do this. You can create boards that link to your website. Each time you add new content, pin it and put it on the appropriate board. It will automatically link back to your website and people will notice.

You can use all of the other social networks in the same fashion.

YOUR EMAIL SIGNATURE
I’m supposing you have your email signature made out. If you don’t, it’s in the settings area of your email program. In your signature you’re allowed several lines to put your information. I’ll use myself as an example here. You can have something like this:

Deb Hockenberry, Children’s Author
Where Can We Have The Party? http://www.amazon.com/dp/1537077120 <- List your book here. If you have more than one you can list them one under the other.
KidzTales: http://kidztales.net <-Here’s your website and it’s link.

Because of your email signature, everyone that you email will know about your books and website including where they’re at. Hey, I’ve had people visit this website from the email link!

YOUR OWN WEBSITE
That’s right. Your own website can help you get the word out that it’s there! You see all those social media icons on the left side of your monitor on KidzTales? Click them and fill in your information for that site. When someone reads or views your content and is impressed, they click these buttons and information goes out. Believe me, this does happen. It’s happened to me more than once!

GUEST BLOGGING
That’s right. Guest blogging. When someone puts out the call for anyone to be a guest blogger on their blog, jump at it!

Ask to have your website link below where the blogger puts “by guest blogger, “Your Name,” ask to have your website link put under your name. When the blog owner’s readers read your informative article, they’ll visit your website to see what other information you have to offer them. And all because you asked the blog owner to include your website link.

COMMENTING ON OTHER’S BLOGS
When commenting after reading another’s blog post, don’t just say things like, “nice post,” or “I can relate to everything you say.” Add something useful to the subject or expand on something the blogger touched on. At the end of your comment, add your link. Others will read your words of wisdom and wonder what else you have to say. They’ll see your link and visit. This does work!

SEARCH ENGINES
There are a few search engines that will let you list your site for free. You will want to have a few good keywords of exactly what you have to offer on your site. People who want to find a (example) children’s writing website will put in the search bar “children’s website.” For your convenience I’ve included a few of the most popular search engines and the pages where you can list you website. We’ll start with the most popular search engine.
Google- http://www.google.com/submityourcontent/website-owner/
Bing- http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster/
Sign in with your Microsoft account. If you don’t have one, it’s free. Just go to http://www.hotmail.com.
Yahoo – That just took me to Bing who, I suppose, has control of Yahoo search.

If you decide to submit your search to other search engines, always read the privacy notices and the terms of services! Sometimes these are just called legal terms.

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