Rachelle Gardner, a top literary agent (as I’m sure you know) stated on her blog recently, “I almost wanted to announce that I’d no longer accept queries from anyone who doesn’t already have a good solid head start on a platform. (I won’t draw such a clear line in the sand, but consider yourself informed.)”

This quote leads perfectly into the second part of my ‘platform’ series. To expand on a promise from last week, a great way to get exposure is to guest blog on your favorite sites. As I already mentioned, just send your stuff in. Simple enough. Don’t be afraid of rejection. In this business, those (dreaded) things should eventually just roll off our shoulders. Why not practice that move now? Not a big deal; there’s always another avenue, another opportunity.

Here’s one specific opportunity for you—write a blog (or blogs) in your genre or area of expertise, and find a way to slip your name into it. Go even further and put your name in the title and a link to your home page in the article somewhere. Then submit it to Ezine Articles.
Lisa Barone, from last week’s blog, states that Ezine is a “great place to establish authority and build your personal brand, as it’s arguably the most cited article directory on the Web.” There you go!

There are a couple of other things you can do to build your platform, but I’ll leave those for you to discover. I’m going to move on to the next crucial part of all this. Alysson Fergison from DirJournal Marketing Articles helped out here.

So, you have all these sites and networks set up. How do you know that all of the information on them, or information written about them (i.e. you) is correct? You don’t want to do all this work just to have your good name tarnished, right? Well, there’s a way to keep track of it all. Just consider me, Eden Tyler, your solution ‘girl.’ (See how I did that—link and all?! Of course you’ll do a better job. You won’t be quite so conspicuous.)

The first, and easiest, way to track involves Google, not surprisingly. They seem to do it all, don’t they? (Heck, I even use their phone!) Google Alerts take only seconds to set up—I know because I just did it—and it notifies you via email on any topic about which you’d like to monitor. You can control the width and frequency of the search quite easily. I just typed in Eden Tyler (that one was better—plus I got the chance to plug my second blog), and it will search for any updates throughout the day, including any potential negative content.
Yahoo! offers the same service — Yahoo! Alerts. Simple to use and simple to remember.
Here’s one last one I found. If you are a Twitter user, search your name regularly using Twitter Search.
Cake. The only drawback is that none of these systems are very in-depth as to the information they are able to give.

That leads us to another way to monitor your online reputation. RSS feeds. There are many options for this, such as Technorati, Google News, and Yahoo! News. Like Google and Yahoo! Search, these sites allow you to receive feeds about any topic you’d like. The shortcoming here is that you have to log in every day and check the results yourself.

There is a site that is simpler, though. BlogPulse offers something called “Search the Blogosphere,” which allows you to subscribe and receive daily updates via RSS. Much easier. And with all the information I’ve given you, simple seems to be the best choice. At least that’s what I’m choosing. Because, heck, if we spend all our time on our brand/platform, when are we supposed to find time to write? Right?

I hope you found this helpful rather than confusing. I’m a bit loopy from all the information, but the point was for me to be the only one to end up that way. You all should have it a lot easier.

I’m wishing you luck in this and all endeavors! Most likely, I’ll have a new project for you soon…. (Eh.. Let’s hope not—this was work! I’ll try for fun next week.)

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Since winning her first writing competition at a young age, Eden Tyler, has only fallen more in love with the written word. She uses her English, Psychology, and Sociology backgrounds to create depth to her own stories and novels while contributing to and running websites about writing. This is what fulfills her, along with working as Co-Editor for Fuel Your Writing, but she also enjoys the freelance work that puts food on the table (and that ever-essential roof overhead) for her family.

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I’ve been rather concerned about my platform as of late. To be quite honest, I wasn’t aware until a couple weeks ago that I even needed one. I’m thankful I was already well on my way to creating one, though, or else I would have been overwhelmed by the insane amounts of information out there about platforms and brands.

A few days ago, I came across www.dirjournal.com while searching for an image on Google. (I needed a Twitter logo to put on my personal blog to announce I had finally joined.) Well, this site I found is rather interesting and informative — it’s called DirJournal Marketing Articles and is all about “Design Trends, Internet Marketing, SEO, [and] Social Media Marketing.” Thankfully, three authors on the site, including Lisa Barone, were kind enough to break it down in about four articles. In turn, I’m going to attempt to make it simple for you all, as well, so you can go about creating your platform or making it even bigger and better than it already is. Here’s hoping I can make it a little less overwhelming for you. I will start this week with Lisa’s article, and then next week, I’ll delve deeper. Initially, I was going to put all the information into one blog, but as I began writing, I quickly realized that this is a serial article. So stay tuned.

First thing’s first. What is a platform? And why do we, as writers, need a platform, or brand?
Well, put simply, it’s how you are represented on the internet, and you need one so that people know who you are. Most likely, no one is going to read books written by an author who hasn’t made what s/he is all about readily available. You want people to know you and your work. And you want to show yourself in the best light possible. It’s also important that the information you put out there is garnering a lot of attention.

So, if you don’t already have a blog or a home page, get one. That should be #1 on your list. I have a WordPress blog and I recently purchased the domain name edentylerwriter.com for only $14.97/yr. Rather affordable, I believe. And well worth the money because when others do a Google search for your name, it will be easier for them to find you this way. Be vain. It’s worth it.
Next step is to set up a Google profile. Every time I do a search for “Eden Tyler,” my Google Profile shows up at the bottom of the first page, without fail. On this profile, you are able to tell potential readers anything and everything you’d like them to know about yourself, and you can also set up links to all of the websites you are involved with, or own. Most of us most likely have one of these already, as even this site has a ‘following’ which you can join through the use of your own Google profile.
After you’ve accomplished the two most important things, you now should join as many social networking sites as you can. These include LinkedIn, Naymz, and Facebook, among others. Make sure you seem as professional as possible when using these sites and join up with others in your chosen career path. Network and learn. Of course you can have fun, too. Twitter is a little less formal and doesn’t have to be used just for writing contacts. Nor does Facebook. But sites such as LinkedIn are a lot more professional. In fact, Lisa set aside an entire section of her article just for LinkedIn. She feels it’s that important to have a profile on the site because it ranks rather highly during Google searches. I have not set up a profile on the site yet, but it’s my next order of business. I believe it’s one of the first two or three results that pop up when searching my name. Unfortunately, there is already a semi-famous Eden Tyler (a male, NYC-based director), so his information shows up rather than mine. This needs to be fixed. Pronto!

One last step, which I will explain in further detail next Friday, is to guest blog as often as the opportunity is made available to you. Don’t be afraid to ask site owners if they need any help. Send in examples of your work and see what the responses are. The worst that can happen is people say, “No.” But it could also be a nice and easy way to get your name out there. Acquire some followers. Usually, these aren’t paying gigs, but we’re not quite to that point yet. Baby steps.

Hope this helps you all arrive a little closer to your writing goals. See you next week for another installment.

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Since winning her first writing competition at a young age, Eden Tyler, has only fallen more in love with the written word. She uses her English, Psychology, and Sociology backgrounds to create depth to her own stories and novels while contributing to and running websites about writing. This is what fulfills her, along with working as Co-Editor for Fuel Your Writing, but she also enjoys the freelance work that puts food on the table (and that ever-essential roof overhead) for her family.

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*****

*So, this song gets to me every time I hear it. And I doubt I’m the only one.

I’ll bet others on here have wanted a boyfriend, girlfriend, heck–even a close friend to stay. Just one more day. One more night.
To ‘lie’ a little bit longer.

How would a character of yours react/deal with this situation?
Write a short story depicting his/her pain and progress–or downfall. I’ll post mine in the comments, as well.
Have fun with this!

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Since winning her first writing competition at a young age, Eden Tyler, has only fallen more in love with the written word. She uses her English, Psychology, and Sociology backgrounds to create depth to her own stories and novels while contributing to and running websites about writing. This is what fulfills her, along with working as Co-Editor for Fuel Your Writing, but she also enjoys the freelance work that puts food on the table (and that ever-essential roof overhead) for her family.

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Today, we’d like to Welcome two more Girls With Pens!

Suzanne M. Palmieri

and

Eden Tyler

We are so happy to have them!

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Go with your gut. Always. Never question it.

This is what I’ve learned. A hard lesson that took about a month to make its way through my thick skull.

Being a first time novelist, I believed that everyone had something to teach me. I was willing to take advice from anyone who offered, and run with it.

Run, I did. New York marathon entrants had some tough competition at the time.

Thankfully, this writer became tired. And frustrated. My book was a mere shadow of what it once was. Granted, it needed work in the beginning (and let’s face it, it’s still kind of the beginning-and still needs work). But, I took helpful, friendly advice entirely too far. Advice that didn’t even always make sense to me.

Alexis’ story became a farce of sorts. A movie, even. Someone recommended I approach my novel as such. What?!??!  That was one piece of advice I didn’t take, yet it ended up happening. Everything I loved about Alexis, and my other characters, was trashed simply to make The Abandoned Edge of Avalon more ‘commercial.’ More agent ready. More publishable. Right….

After about ten revisions, my book was practically all action and dialogue-with no depth. Yes, a good hook at the start is obviously important. Questions that force the reader to continue should be presented as soon as possible. The story should start where it starts-not twenty, fifty, nor even five pages in. Well, I took that to an extreme.

A pivotal scene that once occurred a few chapters in, I pushed forward to the third paragraph. Yes, the third paragraph. Where is a reader to go if everything is answered and put on the page right away? To a different book-that’s where. Not a good thing. That scene is now back where it belongs.

I have found that if I don’t believe in my own work, no one is going to.

I read an excerpt from a book recently that helped me ‘snap to.’

Writers write for the readers, correct? We don’t write for the editors, agents, nor the publishers. The readers are the ones who will ultimately buy our books. If a person is not a reader in the first place, don’t force them to be. Write for people who are apt to pick up a book. Do not go for shock factor just to gain readership.

Write for the words, the style, the feel, atmosphere, along with many other reasons. Mostly, write for yourself, and the reader will know your heart and soul.

I admit I sold out for a short while, and I’m rather ashamed. I lost myself by listening too much to others. But, I’m back on track and my book pleases me again. It seems to be pleasing my readers, as well. And that’s what all of this is about.

Please, learn from my mistakes, and set yourself free with your words and ideas!

Eden Tyler

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