Still time to vote!

There is still time to vote on Writer's Got Talent first chapter contest on Pinterest! like, share, pin, tweet and like on facebook as well! tell your friends as well to vote for their favorite author! The contest has helped all the authors entered to learn how to better market their book and better utilize resources on the internet to become better indie authors. Bruce Goldwell has really gone out of his way to help other indie authors as well as help them to help themselves. Many authors want to stay around and continue to help out even if they don't continue onto the next phase of the challenge! that is a sure sign of a great contest and an even greater sponsor.
So if you have a few minutes and would like to vote for your favorite author's first chapter challenge on pinterest but are a bit confused on how to vote, see photo above for some helpful hints by none other then Bruce Goldwell himself!Thank you all for your continued support! I couldn't have made it this far without any of you! My humblest thanks for your continued faith in us! follow the link provided to take you to my entry but you can click on Bruce Goldwell while there and go to his board of first chapter authors to see even more authors as well.  http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105265/

Our very first V-Blog!

This is for Writer's Got Talent and you can vote for your favorite first chapter at http://pinterest.com/brucegoldwell/first-chapters-www-writersgottalent-com/
You can also vote for Kai's Journey's first chapter at http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105265/.
You can like, re-pin, tweet, share and let others know about the books as well! Enjoy!

Mother Son Writing Team Hits the Big Time!

Mother Son Writing Team Hits the Big Time!

When Wendy Siefken and her son, Charles first sat down to pen the story of “Kai's Journey” they had no idea it would lead to an opportunity to be entered into the hottest new contest for author's titled "Writer's Got Talent" Sponsored by Bruce Goldwell.

To see more about this contest and if you think you have what it takes to participate in the next season of “Writer’s Got Talent” starting in March please go to this site; http://www.writersgottalent.com.  The contest site will explain how to vote for your favorite author on Pinterest as well.

 

This week there is a special treat for all the readers! The first chapters of the remaining contestant’s books are up for your judgment! Here is the readers chance to judge for yourselves whether or not you would like to read more of the story each contestant has submitted. The remaining authors are listed as follows;

Wendy Siefken   - http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105265/

Aoife Sheridan - http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105551/

Vanessa Castillo Kimball - http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105255/

Shannon L. Dearing - http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105751/

Dawn Gray - http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105219/

Dominique Goodall - http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105197/

Jim Henry - http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259105238/

Clarence Bonner - http://pinterest.com/pin/549439223259109758/

You can check out the first chapter posts on Pinterest at this site where you can like, re-pin, share, tweet and like for Facebook to show your support for the authors!

http://pinterest.com/brucegoldwell/first-chapters-www-writersgottalent-com/

As Bruce Goldwell says, “Vote for your favorite author, watch book trailers and order a good book by an Independent Author!”

How much time is too much time?

I have been working on trying to figure out how much time is too much time on the internet. I know we need to keep our presence out there and keep our name popping up in all the right places. But how much time is too much time? when are we spending so much time on the internet that we are forgetting to live a life as well? I have done the whole from waking moment to bed time working on the internet just to get our name out there. I had a surgery and was off for a while. It was amazing how fast our name dropped from people's memories. We had quite a few who did remember us and missed us. But the vast majority forgot us.

I have had to rebuild that platform and try and get our name back out there. I must admit it hasn't been with the same vigor I did during those first 9 months or so. I have drawn back and tried to spend time with my family and tried to be there more for my friends. I have helped others who have said the same thing. They just got burned out and needed a break. I told a good friend you just need to find a balance. Where you are spending some time on the net but you are also living your life.

I know we need to be all and everywhere to get our name out there but we are one person and only have so much time in a day. Even if we all work together it still isn't enough. Our name stays in the same circles. We might jump from group to group but still we find the same people in those groups. So what is the answer? I just read an article on Siggy Buckley's blog, Writer's Get Together in where Alex Lukeman gave some very sage advice on how much time you should spend on the internet. Finally someone has come up with a livable answer! I have been trying to keep our name out there, edit our book and do things that most say are places we need to keep our name into. As I had stated in the previous post, I am in a contest as well. Learning more information and how to better utilize the internet. Again, I find myself spending more and more time on the internet to try and keep up with all the places and things going on. Once again, I find myself spending from morning until night on the internet and not living my life. Not writing when I should be, not editing when I should be.

I have even drawn up a daily writing schedule, just like a work schedule. You know what? I stick to it about as well as I do the limiting my time on the internet! It just doesn't work so far. I would love to have the fortitude that Cassidy Frazee has and his dedication to writing so much every night. But as of yet, I don't. So are you thinking no one else has these issues? I am living proof, many of us do. I am sure I'm not the only one here who has let life interfere or the internet interfere with the work you know you should be doing. I will be going back to work soon and will really have to budget my time even more. I will be limited on how much time I will have to be on the internet period. When you are a cashier, you don't have access to the net. So to conclude, I dont' have any answers yet on how to better manage my time and myself but I am looking and exploring that very subject. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to leave a comment. What has worked for you in finding your schedule? What in your life works the best at motivating you to do what you need to do?

I have joined a contest!

I have joined the first season of "Writer's Got Talent" contest with Bruce Goldwell as the sponsor. His contest is not a popularity contest but one that stretches your limits as an indie author in marketing, promoting and how best to utilize the internet. He has weekly challenges that we are to do and be judged on by readers, fans and viewers alike. We have so far, managed to stay in the contest so far. Each week we have been judged on things such as book cover, book description, and you tube video.
This week, however we have been judged on something very foreign to me called a Press Release. We had to do it on a site called PRLog. its a place where you have to have a domain name, you can't have a freebee email. So, I ventured into the unknown world of Go Daddy.com and signed up for our first domain name. having never done it before, it was a bit nerve wracking! lol Then after getting that all set up, only took an hour, I went to PRLog and signed up there to post a press release announcing about the contest and Kai's Journey in general. It was to be like a news article and not an advertisement or commercial. I have never done one. Ever! After much hair pulling and reading and seeing how others had done theirs, I finally came up with something I felt was passable. On to PRLog to post! It only took another hour to get signed up for the site and get it posted! but as of this writing I have had a total of  199 hits in just over 8 hours. Thats not too shabby for someone who has no idea what she is doing or how to do it! here is where you can see the Press Release, http://www.prlog.org/12064362-writers-got-talent-and-kais-journey-needs-you.html

I have and am learning so much from this contest. Mr. Bruce Goldwell has been teaching the indie authors how to get exposure, how to best utilize services on the internet and how to reach the readers! This contest is like no other I have ever seen, heard of or joined in on. The first contest I did, was basically a popularity contest, this one is a contest to not only promote the author but to let the voters get in on a chance at free books. Its a win win situation all the way around. If you get a chance to join in on the next round of competition please do so. It starts on March 15th and can be found at this site, www.WritersGotTalent.com. He also has a facebook site that you can follow the contest on at http://on.fb.me/WrzYCn. If you would really like to sink your teeth into a contest that helps you learn new skills and new ways to market your book to the best of your ability then please go sign up for the contest Writer's Got Talent. You won't be disappointed. maybe a few hairs shorter then you were at the start, but trust me, its worth your time and frustration to do it! so give it a try and see if you can be the winner of the next contest of Writer's Got Talent, season 2!

Writer’s Got Talent And Kai’s Journey Needs You | PRLog

I finally, finally have it done! so introducing my brand new Press Release! woo hoo! check it out and see what you think! http://www.prlog.org/12064362-writers-got-talent-and-kais-journey-needs-you.htmlWriter’s Got Talent And Kai’s Journey Needs You | PRLog

Thinking outside the box.

When we were kids, we loved to play in a box, that box could be anything from a race car, rocket ship to a submarine. It could take us anywhere and everywhere and be anything we wanted or needed it to be. The possibilities were endless! It was probably sometime in grade school or middle school we started to hear about the phrase, “Think outside the box.” Some people catch on right away as to what that is. Others it takes a bit longer to get it. Me, I am still trying to figure out what that box is exactly.

So today I posted to good ole Facebook the question of what does “thinking outside the box” mean to you? The answers I received were as varied as the people who gave them. For some it’s their comfort zone, others it’s outside the norm, and for others yet its taking what you already know and doing it better.

I like G Mitchell Baker’s answer of:  Ah ... so you are finding some of the things you may put in a box here... in the Group. Now, the trick is to take those things out every once in a while, and use them, improve them, create new versions of them ... Only when you take all the things you tucked away out of the 'box', and, start using and improving on them do you find yourself thinking outside the "box" (one take on it anyway)  

I also liked Alan Tucker’s take on it as well; Generally, I think "the box" stands for convention, or what is ordinarily done. Whatever is standard operating procedure when tackling any sort of problem. Thinking outside those parameters is what creates new solutions for old problems.

There were many others with varied answers. I think on the thinking outside the box it’s as different for each of us the box was when we were little kids playing. Now we just have to find a way to make it work to the best of our own ability, whether it’s drawing every day to improve upon your talent, typing on a story every day and trying to get at least 1,000 words every night. In my case it’s trying to figure out how to do all of the above and still manage to bring in some sort of income. So when I look inside my box I see all these things, some I know what they are, some I am learning what they are and some are still as foreign to me as eating grasshoppers and liking them. (No I will never go there!) It will stay foreign. So while you are trying to figure out what is outside your box, just remember what is in your box and see if you can’t improve upon it or make it better somehow. If you don’t know what something is, ask. Someone will know the answer to it. Like a teacher once told me, “there is no such thing as a stupid question except then one not asked.”  So get out there, go outside your comfort zone, pull things out of your box of knowledge, use what you already know in a different way and ask those questions! Together we can all learn to "Think outside the box!"