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My New Newsletter for Writers – Social Media Itis

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in News, social media, Tips on writing. 3 Comments

Hi

It’s been such a long time since I wrote a post and for that I apologise. I seem to have succumbed to social media-itis. This is a technical term for having too many social media sites to update regularly. Oh and I did recently sign a 4 book contract with Boldwood Books, which is hugely exciting and hard work and is keeping me busy!

While I’m not saying I will never blog on here again, if you are still interested in any of the following:

  • Tips for Writers.
  • Writing Courses.
  • News about what I’m getting up to!
  • Then pleases subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. A subscribe box should come up on this  website when you visit. If it doesn’t then please email me.

Alternatively, or as well as! Please follow me on Twitter. @DellaGalton

Or check out my NEW You Tube channel for my 60 second videos on writing. Search Della Galton.

And my next writing courses in case you are interested are:

Write Your Novel Today – Three Part Workshop
Sat 8th March 2020
Gillingham, Dorset
10.00am – 4.00pm

So you want to write a novel but it’s difficult to get uninterrupted time away from family or commitments… Why not treat yourself to this three-part guided workshop with local author and experienced tutor, Della Galton?

Course Content

Workshop One – Write your first page.

Very often starting is the hardest part so in this workshop we will focus on writing your first page – 30 minutes writing followed by feedback from Della and the group.

Workshop Two – Write that tricky scene.

Do you have a tricky scene you’ve been putting off writing? Dive into the middle and start writing. 30 minutes writing followed by feedback from Della and the group.

Workshop Three – write your last page.  You may not be a plotter – you may not know how you are going to get there but if your last page is written, you will know where you’re heading. 30 minutes writing followed by feedback from Della and the group.

Cost: £35.00

Venue: Conversion Studio, Woolfields Farm, Milton on Stour, Gillingham, North Dorset.

To book please email Della via this website.

Thank you so much for your support.

All best wishes

Della x

Selling Your Book – Five things you should do on Twitter – and Five things you definitely shouldn’t!

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in selling your book, social media. 3 Comments

Yesterday I had a lovely day teaching How to Sell Your Book with several ladies from around the countryside. Thank you, ladies, you know who you are. Here’s what we talked about as regards Twitter.

Twitter is deceptively simple to use.  It can be excellent fun and is a brilliant tool for selling your book because it has immense reach.  And very little commitment is necessary. I love twitter.

All you need to do to get started is to sign up for a free account. You will need to upload a photograph and a brief profile. Make your profile as witty and interesting as you can. Be sure to use your writing name so that you can be found. Mention your book. You might want to have more than one twitter account, i.e. one for you and one for each of your books. But bear in mind this is more work – and probably not necessary.

Five things you should do on Twitter

  1. Keep your tweets short and snappy so that others can retweet them if they wish to.
  2. Always Include links to your books when you are promoting your book. Preferably Bitly links (see Bitly.com) as these can be tracked by you for statistical information so you can gauge their effectiveness.
  3. Acknowledge fellow tweeters if they engage with you and reciprocate if someone retweets for you.
  4. Use pictures –they are very popular on Twitter. You can use images of your book or find images in the public domain that are relevant.
  5. Tweet regularly – at least five tweets a day. Of these five, only one of them should be a direct selling tweet, i.e. a reference to your book. The others should be about something else, for example:
  • A tweet that is funny – maybe a funny quote about writing – or your book’s subject if it is non fiction.
  • A tweet that is inspirational. See above. Or perhaps an interesting fact.
  • A tweet that is a retweet for someone else. (twitter is very reciprocal) or just chat.
  • A tweet that is linked to your blog – having a blog goes hand in hand with twitter.
  • A sales tweet – make sure it’s a good one and has links to Amazon or wherever you sell your book.

Five things you should NEVER do on Twitter

  1. Continuously tweet Buy My Book. You can of course ask people to buy your book, but you will need to be a bit more creative about it.
  2. Send new followers automated direct messages asking them to buy your book.
  3. Tweet details of your book at specific people – especially those you don’t know – asking them to buy your book, retweet you etc. (this is rather bad manners)
  4. Be offensive.
  5. Be unprofessional.

Happy Tweeting and please do follow me at DellaGalton.com

 

 

5 Things a Writer Should Never Say on Social Media and 5 Things That They Should :)

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in social media, Writing. 19 Comments

If you use sites like Facebook and Twitter as promotional tools, as I do myself, there are certain things you should and shouldn’t say in public.  This is my rather tongue in cheek list of Dos and Don’ts.

Dont’s

  1. Don’t ever say Buy My Book – yes I know I do this, but it’s boring and annoying and I am trying to give it up. Or at least be slightly more subtle.
  2. Don’t put up posts stating what a terribly hard and underpaid job writing is – no one wants to know that. As far as they’re concerned you are living the dream. At least have the grace to pretend you are!
  3. Don’t write posts confessing you’re just about to go into rehab or are being treated for depression – unless you’re writing the kind of book that is being inspiring about such things and offering solutions/cures. In which case, fill your boots.
  4. Don’t put up photographs of your aunt/uncle/second cousin’s funeral flowers. This may be OK if you use social media just for friends, but it’s not terribly professional if your posts are public. Or at least I don’t think it is. I have enough heartbreak of my own without anyone else’s. Is that harsh?
  5. Don’t put up shocking photos of battered animals or cruelly treated livestock with petitions attached. Please. For same reasons as number 4.

Dos

  1. Do talk about things other than writing. Pets, family, cakes, the weird man you saw on the way to the shop – all make excellent subject matter.
  2. Do take the mickey out of yourself as much as you like. This is always fun and quite entertaining. And fun is what most people expect from social media.
  3. Do put up entertaining/helpful quotes from other writers – or make some up yourself. Be upbeat and amusing.
  4. Do freely share writing help/advice you have come across or learned yourself from your writing experience.
  5. Do share any pictures/jokes/promos from other friends if you think they’re of interest to your followers..

The most helpful advice I ever received about writing was from a very experienced Mills & Boon author.  “Never forget,” she said with a gracious smile, “that we are in the entertainment business.”

I think her advice was very pertinent for social media too.

Media Tart

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in selling your book, social media. 2 Comments

Writers just write books, don’t they? Nope – not these days. Writing them is just the beginning. Then we have to blog, facebook, tweet, go on the radio, get interviewed by journalists and write features about them too. And if you have more than one book out at a time you have to do all this ten times more. So much for being a shy and retiring writer. You need at least a dozen other faces too. The week before last I was interviewed by Hot Radio about How to Eat Loads and Stay Slim. The interview is now on our page. I only just had the chance to listen to it. I was quite impressed. I am renowned for making a mess of radio interviews, especially live ones. On one memorable occasion when being interviewed about my How to Write and Sell Short Stories, I told the interviewer that it was selling much better than my novels and when she asked why, I replied – wait for it – perhaps my novels were rubbish. Not a good move 🙁  How to Write and Sell Short Stories is No 1 in one of its categories, I just noticed. Hey, maybe I’m getting better at publicity!

Another time on live radio I got so carried away talking about writing that I entirely forgot to mention the name of the book I was promoting – Short Story to Novel – How to Move On.

Hmmm, isn’t the rule of being interviewed that you slip in the title as often as you possibly can. Not leave it out altogether!

However, I must be getting better. The interview on Hot Radio is good. I sound like I know what I’m doing. Maybe it’s true that practice makes perfect! I actually sound quite entertaining 🙂 If you’d like to listen to it please click here.

Last week, I was also interviewed by the Daily Echo about Ice and a Slice and how I started writing – their photographer is coming on Monday to take pictures. Deciding what to wear is going to take up quite a bit of my weekend 🙂 I’ll post a link when that one is out.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a feature for 4Dorset about How to Eat Loads and Stay Slim, which includes a recipe for summer desserts.  The link to that one is here.

Mind you, it’s a lot easier to get it right when you actually have time to sit and write the darn thing and you’re not just having questions fired at you, live on radio!

Anyway, the point of all this rambling was to mention the fact that you don’t just need to be a writer these days. You need to be a radio star, blogger, facebooker, tweeter, and be up for having your photo taking on  a Monday Morning.  Hmm – not quite what I signed up for!

Social Media to promote your books – does it work?

Written by Della Galton on . Posted in Ice and a Slice, selling your book, social media. 8 Comments

Write a blog, set up a Facebook page, get a website, Join Twitter, Join Linked-In, and all the other social media sites out there.  Get a public profile. Get a platform. This is what we are told we must do if we want to sell books.

Does it work? If we manage to fit all this in (whilst also writing the books in the first place) will we have lots of sales?

And more to the point what does doing all this stuff actually mean? Do we go on Facebook and Twitter and endlessly mention our books? (yawn!) What do you do when you see yet another new book on your Facebook timeline or your Twitter feed? Do you  instantly download it? Maybe if it’s free and looks good, you do. Or do you just move on to something more interesting?

My latest novel, Ice and a Slice (what do you think of the cover by the way?) is about to come out. Initially it will be released as an ebook in a week or so. I may tell you this again!

However, I am experimenting with different approaches to marketing. For instance, SJ, my main character, has her own Twitter account. Mornings or afternoons are best to talk to her as she’ll be sober then. But evenings might be quite good fun if you don’t want a serious conversation!

You’ll find her on Twitter as Sarah Jane in denial @SarahJaneCrosse

Please do go along and say hello.

SJ also has her own Facebook page at Ice and a Slice

I would love to know your thoughts on using social media creatively 🙂

 

Tell your friends!

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