Adventures of a Debut Author - A Tweet Cheat Sheet

I had some fun toying around with Twitter the other day. Check out how easy it is to support a friend in 140 characters or less.

Debut author Carmen Oliver is doing everything right. She recently had a book trailer made by Square Bear Studio and it is adorable. So much so that Carmen and her trailer were featured on Cynsations! Well, I had to jump on the promotional train, too, and tweet about it.

Y'all, Twitter is an absolute blast to use! It's a great feeling to witness the tweeting and retweeting 140 simple characters initiate. Twitter is a community builder, for sure.

I've created a .pdf tracing the steps I used to celebrate Carmen's good news. If you're not tweeting yet, look it over. You'll see just how easy it is to join in the Twitter chatter.

In closing, take a look at that adorable book trailer I mentioned earlier. It's mighty to hard to wait for that March pub date...

Adventures of a Debut Author - Website Stalking

I’ve been gathering website tips and ideas all week long. You see, website stalking is part of my teacher guide crafting business. I pull author and illustrator information from sites for reference in guides on a regular basis. I appreciate it when their information is structured and packaged in a convenient manner.  Oftentimes, I craft discussion topics based on the personal information they’ve offered. I like to quickly access facts I need, snag a picture, and pop them in the guide. Ba-da-bing! Ba-da-boom!

Let’s look at a fellow debut author's site I’ve most recently stalked. Want to?

I just finished working on a guide for my dear friend Carmen Oliver’s charming debut picture book, Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies (Capstone, 2016). Her new site was made by another dear friend, Erik Niells, the mastermind behind Square Bear Studios and it is stunning!

As you can see, Carmen’s site is crisp, clean, and easy to maneuver about. (Erik knows what he’s doing, I tell ya’.)  I was able to find Carmen’s professional scoop p.d.q. by accessing the ABOUT tab. Her interesting personal information is clear, concise, and right there for the sharing.

I do have a question for Erik, though. If you notice, on the ABOUT page, beneath the sub-title LINK, one can access a nicely formatted Press Kit. I wonder how to link a zip file to a web page. Hmmmm. Now there’s an idea to explore.

Thanks, Carmen and Erik, for letting me snoop around the new website. It’s a beauty!

I’m officially inspired to do the work I need to do.