time management – Publetariat

Scheduling and Time Management by Alyson McLayne

February 15, 2018 by Publetariat

Who doesn’t need help managing their time. Anyone who can live and thrive while wrangling five year-old twin boys deserves a medal, never mind a listen too. So with that I invite you to read this time management post by Alyson McLayne.

Scheduling and Time Management by Alyson McLayne

Ever wonder how you’re going to get everything done? Let Alyson McLayne show you how she seizes the day!

With January just ended, I realize I haven’t set any goals for the year. And truthfully, as busy as I am, I can’t help but wonder What’s the point? I already have goals for this year in the form of deadlines: 3 books to complete, 12 newsletters to craft, 25+ blogs to write, and the world to wow on social media—not to mention conferences to attend and edits coming out of my ears.

Maybe, like me, you’ve reached the point where you no longer sit down and write a list of New Year’s Resolutions—only to fail come December 31^st. Instead, perhaps you choose an inspiring word that becomes your mantra, or theme, for the year. One year I chose the word “success”, and last year a friend of mine chose the word “courage”. This year she has a catchphrase: “Seize the moment”.

These are all good ideas. I can only imagine that if we courageously seized the moment whenever we could during 2018 it would lead to great success!

But I feel like those kinds of words and the sentiment behind them are too ephemeral for me this year. I need something with more grit, more heft, to get me through the challenges I face. Like many of you, in addition to writing, I’m also busy on the home front—I have twin five-year-olds, a puppy, aging and sick parents, and a husband who works long hours.

Read the full post at Romance University!

Quick Link: Busy Authors Should Simplify Social Media Efforts

March 24, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Over at Romance University, new blogger Cecelia Mecca shares her tips on how to simply your social media to do list.

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Busy Authors Should Simplify Social Media Efforts by Cecelia Mecca

Welcome first time poster Cecelia Mecca with her time saving ideas for any of us who might be busy. =) Like all of us!! Read on…

Busy Authors Should Simplify Social Media Efforts by Analyzing What Works and Focusing on the Intersection Between High Reach and Engagement

As marketing efforts for authors and other industry professional begin to look beyond reach to engagement, a shift in thinking about the purpose and management of social support for our content and campaigns is needed. Whether you’re launching a new book or building and sustaining interest in your own platform, engagement is key. It’s not enough any longer to set up a hashtag, analyze reach or impressions and consider a campaign successful. In addition, with content more prolific than ever, finding ways to cut through the noise is essential.

On the other hand, if you are not reaching your target audience, it is impossible to engage with them. Both are necessary metrics to consider. For example, your Facebook insights include both reach and engagement for a reason. Of course, you must regularly consider your insights in order to glean information from them.

If your reach is down on a given week, start by replicating your most popular posts. What trends do you see? What media type is doing well? What do posts which reached the audience have in common? Then shift to look at your engagement on those posts. Which had both high reach and engagement? Which posts did your audience engage with most? By looking at each metric together and individually, you can begin to replicate patterns since there really is only one golden rule when using social media to amplify your content. Find out what works and do more of it.

Read the full post on Romance University

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Author Tools – Adopting the Micromovements Strategy to Build Your Author Brand

September 28, 2016 by Publetariat

Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

Today’s post from Live Write Thrive reminds me of the old question “How do you eat an elephant?” The is answer is, of course, one bite at a time. C. S. Lakin explains on how to use this strategy to move forward on your writing career one word at a time.

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Adopting the Micromovements Strategy to Build Your Author Brand

June 24, 2016

Today’s guest post is by Kait Fowlie:

Personal brand-building activities usually take the backseat for writers who work full-time jobs or want to spend as much time as possible actually writing. Many of the writers I know “should” themselves into being active on social media, writing blog posts, and the like, and this makes the job an energy sucker.

One solution I’ve found helpful here is the micromovements strategy, a tiny-step by tiny-step approach that’s helped me create momentum (and stave off overwhelm) in my own efforts, while also making sure I’m spending the majority of my time and focus on writing.

What Micromovements Are

The concept was introduced by SARK in her book Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories, and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It. According to the author, micromovements are small actions that take as little as five seconds or up to five minutes that accomplish part of a big project.

For tracking movements, the author recommends creating a “micromovements wheel” that shows the ultimate goal in the middle, and surrounding it, the small, simple micromovements that (ideally) require daily action over time to “amount to” the goal.

Doing and tracking daily micromovements can help to gradually complete any creative project, but I’ve found this strategy especially ideal for the goal of growing an online presence, which requires a lot of time to be spent on social media and other writers’ blogs, and can be a slippery slope where productivity quickly becomes pure distraction and self-comparison.

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Quick Links: How to Create a Monthly Social Media Calendar

July 6, 2016July 6, 2016 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Social media is key in connecting with readers and helping them to find your book. But each social media outlet you add increases the time needed to manage it, as well as adding one more thing to track. Angelina M. Lopez posts at Writers in the Storm on how to tame the social media beasts with an organized monthly calendar.

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How to Create a Monthly Social Media Calendar

May 25th, 2016

Angelina M. Lopez

You’ve hit that mid-year lull, haven’t you? That time when, instead of creating social media posts with an objective, you’re posting a lot of cat videos. Instead of planning goal-oriented posts that express your personality, appeal to your fans, and move you closer to your business goals, you’re re-sharing the tired memes from your friend’s feed.

It’s all right. The annual social media calendar we created in January can get a little dusty midway through the year. Today, we’ll clean that calendar off and give it new life in your monthly social media calendar. A monthly social media calendar allows you to know what you’re going to post EVERY DAY!! It helps you balance promotional posts with fun and personal ones, it insures you’re talking about themes and topics important to you and your audience, and it focuses you so that your social media posts are moving you toward your goals.

And the time investment for this ease and focus? Only about two hours at the end of each month. Here’s how to build your own monthly social media calendar:

Step 1: Write down your list of topics from your annual social media calendar.

Read the full post on Writers in the Storm

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Opinion: Why Authors Need to Step Away from the Internet

January 3, 2016July 2, 2015 by Publetariat

This post by Debbie Young originally appeared on the ALLi blog on 6/29/15.

Author and ALLi Advice blog editor Debbie Young makes the case for self-published authors to occasionally turn their backs on the ever-hungry beast that is the world wide web.

As indie authors, we sell most of our wares in a marketplace that never sleeps. In theory, at least, we are able to reach new readers 24/7, all around the world, without leaving our homes. But with this privilege comes a never-ending action list of online marketing tasks – and a ton of related stress.

Build a website – blog and guest blog – tweet and retweet – pin and repin – share an update – share a story on Wattpad – like for likes – schedule some posts to reach other parts of the world at their busiest times – schedule some more to get ahead of yourself – check your sales stats – tweak your keywords…

Sound familiar? Yes, we all know we should prioritise. Ring-fence marketing time, limit online hours, protect writing time. But how many of us are that disciplined? Not me, I confess. Even for those with the best time-management skills, the pressure can still build up, because the internet is always there, begging to be fed.

Read the full post on the ALLi blog.

How To Be Prolific: Guidelines For Getting It Done From Joss Whedon

January 3, 2016April 22, 2014 by Publetariat

This article by Ari Karpel originally appeared on FastCo Create in June of 2013.

The writer-producer-director who made Much Ado About Nothing while editing The Avengers, and who’ll return to TV this fall with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., knows a bit about “getting things done.” In fact, he cites David Allen’s book of that title as an important guide–even if he never finished reading it.

Note: This article is also included in our year-end creative wisdom round-up.

Few people get things done in as consistent and impressive a fashion as Joss Whedon. His Avengers was the rare superhero movie to break box office records as it garnered critical acclaim. And while he was editing that Marvel-Disney monster, he secretly shot a version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at his own house with friends from many of his previous movie and TV projects, including Clark Gregg (The Avengers), Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Amy Acker (Dollhouse), Fran Kranz (A Cabin in the Woods), and Alexis Denisof (Buffy). Meanwhile, he’s the man behind the much-anticipated Marvel TV series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., also starring Gregg.

As Much Ado hit theaters and kicked indie-film ass, Whedon sat down with Co.Create to lay out how he manages to juggle so many projects. His secret? Identifying concrete steps, friends, and tough love.

ROCK A LITTLE DAVID ALLEN
In other words, get specific. When I asked Whedon to share some tips for being prolific, he had one question: “So do you want to go macro or micro?” I chose micro. Here’s what he said:

Click here to read the full article on FastCo Create.

Scheduling and Time Management by Alyson McLayne

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When Writers Struggle with Social Media Commitment Issues

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Busy Authors Should Simplify Social Media Efforts by Cecelia Mecca

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Adopting the Micromovements Strategy to Build Your Author Brand

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How to Create a Monthly Social Media Calendar

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