You can have results or excuses – not both!
THE. LAST. POST. Day 35 of the 5-Week Author Blog Challenge asks what I will do to keep up the momentum the Challenge has helped me create. All 35 posts for this Challenge were focused on writing, publishing, and book marketing. I hope you’ll go back and read some of the other 34 posts if you’re just happening on this one by happy accident.
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Day 35 writing prompt:
What are you going to do to keep the blogging momentum going? What plans do you have to continue your connection with other Author Blog Challenge participants and the new readers you’ve generated for your blog?
So, I’ll admit there are good things and bad things about a Challenge the forces you to write every day, like:
- You’re writing every day.
- Your writing improves when you write every day.
- When you have prompts, it’s easier to write every day.
There are also frustrating things about a Challenge that forces you to write every day, like:
- You have no excuse not to write, even if you don’t feel like it.
- It takes a lot of time, if you’re going to write thoughtful posts that other people will actually enjoy reading. They don’t have to be long, but they do have to be good. I’ve read some of the posts from my fellow Author Blog Challenge participants. As might be expected, they vary from outstanding to just-get-it-done in quality. But the good ones aren’t necessarily the longest ones.
- In taking time to write thoughtful posts, I’m not spending as much time on my novel, which I am committed to finishing by the day before Thanksgiving. As the host, of course, my time commitment is greater than those who are simply participating.
But I liked being productive. I liked seeing my readership go up and getting feedback from readers. My blog’s not really about my novel, though, so I think it’s time to turn back to my primary focus: book marketing for self-publishing authors. I certainly tried to make most of my Blog Challenge posts about my own experience useful to the readers … but sometimes you have to read all the way to the end to get to the “useful part.”
To that end, I will issue myself a new personal challenge: To write 3 content posts per week, along with my regular Sunday Inspirations. And to finish my novel by November 25th. I will also post every blog post on the ABC Facebook page – and encourage all the other participants to do the same!
What are YOUR publishing goals? What are you doing to get them done? A friend of mine started a FB group 
where a group of motivated people are getting together to cheer each other on for the last 100 days of the year. We’re posting our business goals, personal goals, and the steps we’re taking to get there. Today it’s 76 days until the end of the year. Are you speeding or coasting to the finish line?
So there it is: 35 days of blog posts in a row – with a few bonuses thrown in. Thank you for reading, whether you’re just reading this post or have been with me all the way through! Whatever else you do, keep writing!
We’ll do another Challenge, maybe six months or a year from now. Stick around. Details will arrive in your inbox if you’re a subscriber. Maybe next time you’ll join as a participant!
And for the record, I’d love your feedback on my Author Blog Challenge posts! And, of course, would really love to have you support all of the bloggers in the Challenge. Find their links here.
To a YOUR writing and publishing success!
Laura
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We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.
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If you’re new to social media, my book Social Media for Authors goes into much greater detail about when, how, and where to post for the greatest chances at succeeding with your specific goals. Get your copy today! It’s never too early to begin planning!
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– and the ability to make the publication of my novel more real to me. Thank you, Ray Bradbury! That’s such important advice that every writer would do well to try to follow.
Yep – it’s intimidating to walk into a bookstore and see all the bright, shiny competing titles. It’s intimidating to be in the company of such great authors as the other participants in this Challenge and the members of the 
I’ve written before about the success of Robert Scanlan, author of Tigers Under My Bed: Life Lessons Tamed During Three Organ Transplants. Initially quite skeptical about the value of social media, Robert did his research and rightly determined that LinkedIn was the best platform for him. Through his LinkedIn connections, he was able to get his book in front of several renowned transplant surgeons shortly after its release in May 2014. Now, it is being used as an ancillary textbook in both the USC and UCLA medical schools. Sure, his sales have increased. But more importantly, this positions Robert as an expert on his subject matter, which will lead to more exposure and paid speaking gigs. These sure offer a better payday than selling a single book to one new follower on Twitter.
transplantation, but I do manage to touch on some important issues along the way. For example, the story ends just after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Atlantic Coast in the fall of 2012. Social issues are always relevant and good conversation starters for social media.
to support me as a novelist.
Side of the World is part travelogue, part social commentary, and part fiction, it likely has a home in travel and book club Meetups; with organizations that help the homeless, promote artistic ventures, and have any interest at all in dogs; and in airport, train and bus station gift shops.
The nonprofits will take some research to determine whom to approach and how to pitch them. The great news is that these kinds of organizations usually have their own social media presence, existing mailing lists, and a publicity mechanism in place. The key is to find the sweet spot of an offer that benefits both the organization and the promotion of 
earning Kickstarter campaign to date. So much so that she gave a 
from Stan’s journal), but after listening to Amanda Palmer’s book, I’m rethinking some of those. Make that, thinking BIGGER about some of those. For example, for the grand thank-you, I’d now like to do writer’s workshop and a signing event on an Alaskan cruise!
something charming about his stuck-in-his-ways way. He’d be kind and smart and a good conversationalist. He’d be a gentleman and inquire about me and my interests. He’d enjoy organic beer if we were meeting someplace like Scottsdale. But my preference would be an actual Irish pub near Blarney Castle where I’d force myself to choke down a Guinness with my fish and chips. He’d eat Irish stew and pass on the bread. We’d sit outside on a balmy summer evening because this is my fantasy, and it would not be raining. Not all that farfetched in my book, as the only time I was in Ireland, I had five days of perfect weather without a single raindrop in sight.
Tonnelle Avenue in Jersey City. I was brand new to the city and had no idea it was one of the seediest streets in the area. My boyfriend was in town for one night and we wanted to stay in a motel instead of at my sister’s apartment. When he went to check in, the clerk’s response was, “You want to stay the WHOLE night?” Years later, I wound up living two blocks east of that exact area of Tonnelle Avenue in a quaint neighborhood filled with four-family walk-ups.
Marcie Brock, Book Marketing Maven 