Authorpreneur Forum Newsletter idea

We are not going to do a newsletter, it will be a collaborative blog of authors. If you have any suggestions for the name please let us know.

Clary

Clary asked for my opinion, but I really don't have much to offer. My primary blog activity is on the front of my webpage (www.terryburns.net ) each day during the week, and it is mirrored over at blogspot.com. I'm thinking of dropping that as the blogspot address doesn't seem to draw traffic. I also do a blog over there with occassional postings for Echelon Press. I've done guest blog spots for a half dozen different ones, but have no real feel for what is good or bad about any. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Terry
www.hartlineliterary.com

Okay here's my two-cents worth. I vote for Blogger / Blogspot.

SITE STATISTICS-- can be monitored via an independant (highly recommended)counter. [Blogger's 'site views' function is inaccurate as told to me by a Blogger employee.]

MARKETING-- Personally, traffic stats are less important to me than KNOWING who's visiting your site. To accomplish that, a 'newsletter sign-up' or 'notify-me-with-updates' form can be uploaded into the sidebar. This will serve an added benefit to all participants for marketing directly to those individuals; independant of our combined efforts for this project. We do want to sell something don't we guys? (smile)

MONEY-- It's free.

Well, my thoughts about blogging are the same as my aforementioned thoughts on newsletters. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with...hopefully you can make it work and reach some people. Good luck!

Name Suggestion:

Power of the Pen

We need more suggestions.

Clary

I liked the wikipedia type format, that would be the best one

Okay, well so far it seems that wordpress & blogspot are the two up for choice. I like blogspot the most, mainly b/c it seems very easy to use and easy to access. WordPress has more features, and is fairly easy to use (though decidedly harder than blogspot). I've noticed that WordPress, while home to at least a few author blogs, is mostly personal blogging. And while they state that they have numerous layouts to choose from, I've only seen two used, the plain white background format the one most used. This makes me wonder if that feature is part of their upgrade package. I'll have to look again.

But, like Terry said, it seems that blogspot doesn't draw a lot of traffic unless the blog is already well-known. Possibly the same could apply to WordPress; It might be a matter of just getting the word out there. Personally, it seems to me that WordPress might be the better choice of the two, at least for now. If it doesn't work well, then there shouldn't be a problem of saving all of our info and switching to something better (and hopefully free as well).

So far, we have 7 or 8 people interested in doing this:

WiseSlave (though he hasn't contributed since he threw the idea out there...)

Clary

LadyDJG

Myself

Jamie Beckett

Babbette

Terry (? his post was a bit unclear as to whether or not he's interested... I'm guessing not, but I don't know)

Solemnpen

5 - 10 authors should be good, in my opinion. Too many and it could end up cluttered.

As for more name ideas, well... I liked Pen-Pushers myself. What is going to be the general theme of the blog? Authors collaborating & sharing their experiences for the masses? Professional insight, from several prospectives and career points, on writing, etc.? ?

There is also the option of Myspace and creating a group and newsletter there for those who are interested. Certainly it would enable us to name a group leader and yet still offer everyone a chance to post and participate while still being accessible and marketable to the general "population" on there.
If we are seeking to gain traffic for advertising and events in a wide range of locations that would be my suggestion, as Myspace is also global. It is searchable, marketable, free, and best of all it would also allow some (who don't already use the service) some ability to market on their own personal profiles as well. I know several authors on my own list have had duccess with this forum.
I'm personally not familiar with any of the before mentioned services. This is not to say that I couldn't learn them. I think that the general consensus is to find something that we can all participate in without using someone's paid account for that purpose. I'm in agreement there. Myspace.com and Yahoo Groups are, to my knowledge, two of the easiest and most reliable methods of mass promotion.
~Samantha

Like Nancy said ,we have about 7 or 8 people interested in participating on a collaborative blog. I have another 4 or 5 from another group I moderate as well. I don't think we need to limit this to only 10 authors. I think that if we could get more we won't need to write as much. If you are anything like me I have a few sites, moderate a few forums and belong to a few community sites in order to meet my audience and network with other authors. Having more people will help everyone time wise. They will commit and post a certain amount of times according to amount of members in addition to the additional times they might want to do so to announce presentations, workshops, book signings and new book releases. What do you think?

I was in a transition with my promotional site, Guerrilla Marketers' Cafe and switching from a reader forum to a blog in order to reach readers more effectively. If you like we could use that blog. I set up on WordPress and we can have up to 35 contributors without an additional charge.

I believe the name of the blog should be geared to readers and not to the authors in order to bring them in.

I prepared an article which is going to promote the blog going out next week, so if we could get some entries before the 21st that would be great. I will post the same article in a high traffic article site as soon as we get a decent amount of entries.

Clary Lopez

Once everyone's weighed in, and it's all settled, I'll write a press release about the group to distribute as well. It would probably be a good idea for each author involved to write their own articles and/or personal press releases about the project as well and distribute them through as many channels as they can.

Since the WordPress account has been set up, I think it would be good to use that instead of the Guerrilla Marketers' blog, and I like Samantha's idea of the Myspace group page too. We can each have our own myspace pages linked up to the group one as well. Someone that has extensive experience in myspace page design should probably set up the group page if we're going to do that. We can use the WordPress & the Myspace page as group promotion, each with links to our own separate projects, web pages, blogs, companies, etc.

As far as the # of authors, I've already voiced my opinion on why I feel the # should be limited, at least at some point, but if a few other authors are interested too and can contribute, why not?

Well, that was quite a bit to read through, certainly there has been a lot of thought given to the idea. I guess what I am confused about is... what exactly is the content of this newsletter, and who is the audience we are targeting? I think these are the keys to figuring out everything.

Has anyone heard of (and I am sure you probably all have) and Is this the kind of newsletter/blog we are speaking of?

Quote:


I haven't hear of those blogs before, but they seem to be good; also, and are good blogs to look at, though we should have our own theme/platform. Have any ideas on what the blog should be about in general? I've made some suggestion, but if I come up w/ any more I'll post them.

Clary, on the # of writers, while a few more might help, if you have 4, 5 or more authors interested, you might consider setting up your own separate authors collaborative as well as being a part of this one. I don't know how the others feel about it, but in my opinion, a large # of authors might not allow for equal promotion. Some might get buried in the throng.

Also, when can everyone get in their info (bios, etc.) so that it can be included? For me personally, the 21st is a little soon, since it's so close to the holidays and I have a # of things to get taken care of in the next few weeks.

Lastly, what's the info for the WordPress blog so we can all start to get situated and decide on the look, and if it's already designed, decide whether we like it or want a different layout? So we're clear, is this WordPress account separte from the Guerrilla Marketers' blog you recently set up? If not, I can go ahead and start a "blank slate" WordPress blog to be set up for when we're all ready to pick a layout, add our bios, and add blog entries, *EDIT* as long as we're all agreed that WordPress is the main blog site, instead of Blogspot.

Here is a list of the authors involved so far and a short summary of what they do (taken from writerscafe.org bios)

WiseSlave: Spoken word artist and writer

Clary: Inspirational non-fiction writer

LadyDJG: Inspirational writer, UPI guest columnist, and peacekeeper.

Myself : Writer of various formats. Recently published a collection of short stories.

Jamie Beckett: Former musician and pilot. Recently published first novel: Burritos and Gasoline

Babbette: Writer preparing to become a novelist.

Terry : Author and literary agent. 22 books in print.

Solemnpen: Solemnpen is no longer a member of Writerscafe.org and according to the message has quit writing.

Samantha: First time novelist of The Tempest's Child.

Made in DNA: An expat American fiction/comic writer living and working in Japan.

Blog Choice:
1 vote for Blogspot
2 votes for WordPress
1 vote for Myspace
1 vote for WordPress/Myspace combo
The rest undecided

Considering the backgrounds of the group so far, I for one would be fascinated to read about the personal and professional experiences of each writer as well as takes on the industry in general. The blog theme could be fairly loose, allowing each author the ability to blog about whatever they choose, as long as it has some relevance to readers. We could have a guideline for when each author should contribute something, or each day/week devoted to opinion pieces on a particular topic. Of course, promotion of our various events and books should be included in the blog also.

Here is the blog I set up

Book's Den

In the About page I described the blog and on the Register page the different groups where the authors come from. Take a look at the categories I included (I'm not sure if you can see it if you are not registered) since that is what is going to keep the blog organized for the readers so that nobody gets buried in the blog like you mentioned.

If you would like to participate get your wordpress account and let me know, I will add your names as contributors to the blog. All I will need is your e-mail address.

Clary

Hello everyone,

Here are the categories I added to the blog, we can add or delete some of them as we see fit. Note that I also have some Spanish categories since there are hispanics writers on the group.

# Anuncios de Prensa
# Articles
# Articulos
# Author's Bio
# Autores
# Blogroll
# Book Signings
# Concursos y Presentaciones
# Contests
# Ficcion
# Fiction
# Historias y Cuentos
# New Book Release
# No Ficcion
# Nonficition
# Nuevos Libros
# Poemas
# Poesia
# Poetry
# Press Releases
# Publishing
# Stories
# The Writing Life
# Vida del Escritor

The article will be out next Thursday 21 on my BookPromo eZine which has 138 subscribers and I'll wait until the first of the year to submit the article to various sites to promote the blog, that should give us enough time to get some entries on the blog.

Clary Lopez
My Official Site
Free Book Promotion

That's a good start, Clary. However, you list what the group "does not promote."
**EDIT** (from thebooksden)
We do not promote:
pornography
abuse
violence
alternative lifestyles
disrespect for life
disrespect to authority, government or religion

That limits this group's ability to post blogs on their own opinions as well as talk about issues that may be related to their books.

It does not seem right to discriminate on some of those categories, especially since the subject matter of a number of the writers involved so far may fall into at least a few of those. This is not something that has been discussed in this group so far.

You might want to ask for some input from the other members as well. Also, while the name you came up with is good, a name has not been settled on by the group. As for you pushing ahead with the 21st, I think it would be a good idea to wait until you know for sure what people want included about them in the article. I realize you want to take this to the next level, but you should be considerate of others' input as well, this is a group thing.

I have set up an alternate WordPress blog. You can all take a look here:



The name, formatting, etc., is just until it's agreed upon. We can always go with Clary's blog as well, this is just an alternate.

Also, it says on the register page that you must join Guerilla Marketer's, and a few other sites (sans WritersCafe.org in general, aside from your group here) in order to participate. How will those that don't wish to join those groups participate in the blog? The register in general is a good idea, though.

Having taken a look at both Nancy and Clary's blog setups, I think the members of this group can count ourselves lucky to have such talented, driven women at the helm. Which ever blog format we choose, we're likely to have a winner on our hands. They're both exceptional.

Having said that, my personal preference leans toward Nancy's template. The egotist in me appreciates the "Meet the Writers" tab. Given the idea that we're attempting to attract readers who might be looking for insight into us (writers) so they might find a reason to purchase our work - this heading and layout strikes me as being highly user friendly. That's a plus in my book.

I'm also on board with the idea of limiting the number of writers included, not so much because I want to (after all, I might become one of the unlucky few standing on the dock watching the ship sail into the sunset) but because I agree that too much content will be overwhelming to readers. Ironically, there seems to be a limit to how much content readers can stand. At some point the diversity and convenience is lost. Once we lose the reader, we've lost them. The quality of what we've offered at that point is moot.

Aside from those couple points, I think this ideas is an exceptional one and the fact that we've got this much participation here at Writer's Cafe, and the wealth of ideas those participants have put forth can only be mutually beneficial in the long run.

I can only say thank you for taking my input seriously and allowing me to benefit from the give and take here on this tremendous thread.

Well, and having something similar with a focused Author Co-op, you do have to limit membership after awhile before it becomes unwieldy. One approach might be to catagorize authors in a meet the writers section: Inspirational, Non-fiction, YA etc.

The other thing may be a multi author Yahoo or Google group with a newsletter only formatt. It keeps people from drowning in chatter (and there are enough groups out there who do that), while insureing that one author doesn't have to figure what to fill up a monthly letter with.

Those are two things I've done before.

Wow......I step away from the site for a couple weeks and boom everything is on fire! I like that. Ok, here's my thoughts and thanks for everyone whose emailed me about this idea! First of all it seems like what's happening is that everyone has latched onto the blog idea without really thinking about anything other then blogging! That's all cool and all, but blogs for some reason to me just seem like extended rants about well half the time nothing! That's counter productive especially for a group of non-famous writers! What I proposed was a massive e-newletter that we can send out twice a month or however often we like that would include INTERVIEWS (we can interview ourselves and other up and coming writers with PRODUCT ONLY), FACT SHEETS, APPEARANCES,etc...and if anyone has any personal blogs we can highlight links to their personal blogs and websites! Now don't think I have something against blogs I have a personal one over on my myspace page www.myspace.com/wiseslave but like so many others it's just me bitching and ranting about the empty void! I'm on some beatnik mentality s**t this morning so forgive me in advance! The whole idea is to get our names and our books out there within the hands of as many people as possible, and I think by creating a newletter and mailing list which people can subscribe to then we have a shot! Plus, we can add announcements of projects and stuff..let's create something that these other writer websites lack...which is a READERSHIP! Way too many writer sites this one included is made up of 90% WRITERS and not enough readers let's stop targeting other writers and target the READERS! And, give them updated stories and interviews! Oh, and there's got to be a name.......how about READERS WANTED!


Arthur Bellfield, author of Ghetto to Coffee Shop