It’s Our Birthday!

🎉HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!!!🎉Pandamonium Publishing House 50% off all of our courses one day only (October 1st) to celebrate our 6 years in business! Email 🖤🐼pandapublishing8@gmail.com for your 50% off coupon code! Can be used anytime and makes a great gift!

Check out our courses here: http://www.pandamoniumpublishing.com/shop

Blog Life

September 28, 2021– In a couple of days, we’ll wrap up our theme for this month, continuing education for authors. Today we’re going to chat about why every author should have a blog and some key tips to educate you on the importance of blogging for authors.

Businesses use blogs as marketing tools to share tips, industry news, updates on products, how to use the products, etc. They have become an excellent place for offering readers multi-media experiences through audio/visual options. People love reading blogs because of the conversational tone and the engagement with the author.

Here are 5 reasons why you should have a blog:

• Search Engines: Interesting content and consistency are the two key ingredients search engines use to find you and your business. Having a blog with the correct keywords, content, and frequency can put you on the first page of Google and other search engines, making it easy for your audience to find your books.
• Shareable: When folks find things they like online, they tend to share them via social networks or email. Your website should have social sharing buttons so that readers can share things from your blog posts that they find interesting. Perhaps you wrote about, e.g., anxiety in children and 3 easy exercises you can do anywhere, parents will want to share valuable information like this. Make it easy for them!
• Expertise: You’re seen as an expert in your field when you regularly share relevant, valuable information. People buy from companies and businesses that show they are experts in their industry. You’ve got a great opportunity here with blog posts showing your expertise in whatever area you choose relevant to your skills.
• Cross-Promote: Blogs are great networking tools. You can widen your net by inviting experts to guest post on your blog/podcast and talk about things that your readers care about. This is the ultimate in adding value. Plus, when you invite experts into your space as a guest, chances are, they will invite you to post on their blog and chat about your book series in reciprocity. This is a great way to reach a larger/untapped audience that otherwise you may not have been able to reach on your own.

So, as you can see, if you’re an author who is blogless, you’re missing out! Another key bonus to blogging is that it will force you to write and keep your skills sharp. What are you waiting for? Get started today!

Invest in Yourself

September 27, 2021– Continuing education for authors is essential to stay on the cutting edge of industry news, trends, topics, and writing/composition. Continuing ed is especially important if you’re thinking of writing a novel and today, that’s what we’re going to focus on! We offer our Novel Writing Course here: https://pandamoniumpublishing.wordpress.com/product/novel-writing-course/

In this course, you’ll learn what it takes to write a great fiction novel that will keep your readers on the edge of their seats. We’ll personalize this plan to your specific genre and help you every step of the way, from outlining to wrapping everything up with a bow and everything in between. This intensive, interactive course will teach you everything you need to know about writing a novel that people want to read.

This course includes:

• Outlining methods (four different types)
• Character development and the most important thing you can do for your readers when developing characters
• Plot structures and formulas (genre-specific)
• Good beginnings
• Bad beginnings
• Climax, rising, and falling action
• Tying up loose ends

Plus, you’ll have exclusive access to Lacey as a mentor; she’ll offer constructive feedback and helpful guidance every step of the way. This is a virtual course that includes 5 modules, downloadable worksheets, writing exercises, and videos. Work at a pace that is suitable to your schedule and availability.

Here is a testimonial from one of our students who took the course a few weeks ago:

I just finished taking the one on one Novel Writing Course. Having that one-on-one time with Lacey and a course that is custom tailored to my specific needs was fantastic. Everything we discussed pertaining to my current writing situation. Being able to pick Lacey’s brain and get good and honest feedback was awesome. New ideas would constantly emerge as we progressed in the course, and I found it a real muse for my writing. As a first-time writer I didn’t know where to begin or who to turn to. Thankfully, my friend directed me to Lacey! She has been so kind and helpful every step of the way. Her purpose to help writers really shows and really encouraged me to continue in my writing (which I love). That love could have died if I didn’t have someone like Lacey to guide me through these “waters”. I would strongly recommend this course. Especially if you are a first-time writer and trying to wade through the waters of authorship. Writer’s block….there is no such thing! 😉 -Miona Joseph

You’re worth the investment in your writing and in your future! Check out all of our courses here: http://www.pandamoniumpublishing.com/shop

LinkedIn Best Practices for Authors

September 24, 2021– I hope that you’ve been enjoying our theme this month, continuing education for authors! Today we’re talking about best practices for LinkedIn, let’s dig in.

LinkedIn helps people establish themselves as an expert in their field. They can interact with their community on branded pages and groups and can connect via LinkedIn messaging.

Quick tip: LinkedIn has a right way and a wrong way to use it. It’s not Facebook, yet most people treat it the same which has undesirable consequences such as loss of connections, ignoring messages because the person is seen as unprofessional, and unable to connect to their target audience.

Why you need to be on LinkedIn as an Author

Endorsements and Testimonials: Your peers can endorse your skills and write recommendations, and this goes a long way with people who are looking for an expert in the field that you’re in. If you can get a professional to endorse your series, you’ll have a ton of potential business based on just their recommendation.

Connections: You never know who will accept your invitation to connect so dream big. Get noticed by other authors, publishers, distributors, and professionals who can open new doors for you and your books.

Groups: There are thousands of online groups that you can connect with that are within your niche of writing. Join the ones that are right for you!

News:  Your LinkedIn connections post news, tips, and updates and you can link your book to trends in the industry. E.g., Skyrocketing mental health concerns for students heading back to class after COVID.

Research: This is excellent for finding out who you can cross-promote with. Do your research on which people and businesses you’d like to partner with and connect with them.

Introductions: Your profile has spots for books, academic papers, links to your blog, website, and online content. This drives traffic and sales to your books!

Top Tip: Focus on your first-degree connections and building a strong relationship with them. They are the ones who are most likely do business with you and recommend/endorse your skills and products.

Remember to treat LinkedIn as the professional site that it is. Update your followers regularly and link your book to things happening in the industry.  Here is my LinkedIn page if you want to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lacey-l-bakker-743599120/

5 Free Ways to Continue Your Author Education

September 23, 2021– We’re almost done with our theme this month: continuing education for authors! We’ve covered topics such as how to launch your book, travel writing sub-genres, how to stand out from the crowd, and everything in between. Be sure to subscribe to our blog (on the right-hand side of your screen) so that you never miss a post!

Today we’re talking about 5 free things you can do to continue your education as an author:

1. Read books. There are so many books out there on a number of topics! You can find subjects on marketing, social media, how to write for your specific genre, and more. There is an endless array of things that you can study to improve your craft and your business acumen. By using your public library or participating in a book swap/little free library, you can get loads of fabulously free information.
2. Library classes. The library is another great resource for classes, workshops, and free seminars! I’ve done free talks on self-publishing, traditional publishing, and marketing for authors over the years and have also attended some classes at the library as a student. Check your local listings to see what’s up and coming, and most libraries offer a course catalogue online. Use the resources available to you and take classes in what you’re interested in!
3. Free online seminars. I can’t even begin to tell you how many free online seminars I’ve taken over the years, and some of them have been absolutely vital to my growth as a publisher. Use Google to search free seminars for whatever topic you want to learn about. You’ll be surprised at what you find. Keep in mind that free online seminars are usually tidbits of info presented so that you’ll enroll in their course, but some of that free info is invaluable!
4. Blogs.  As you know, this blog is free! There are many great blogs that are also free of charge and contain tons of valuable information, tips, tricks, best practices, and insight. Blogs are great because usually they’re written in a conversational, easy-to-understand tone for even the most difficult fields of study.
5. Podcasts. Podcasts offer a well of free information that is uniquely portable. You can learn about pretty much anything you want from a podcast, and I especially love them because I pop in my Airpods and go about my day. You can listen to podcasts on the road, while cleaning, while working out, and past episodes are easy to access if you can’t write something down that you want to remember later. Our podcast is available here, and we constantly give away free, valuable information for authors: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-hfi92-10dfda6

Lack of funds is a weak excuse for not continuing your education; there are free resources available to you; you just have to find them and, most importantly, put them into practice! Happy Learning!

Travel Sub-Genres

September 22, 2021– I’m writing you from the good ole US of A! We’re road tripping across the country and are having a blast while getting a lot of things accomplished in the book business. Today, as we continue our theme of continuing education for authors, we’re going to talk about Travel writing which I think is a nice edition and on point with what we’re doing now!

When most people think of ‘travel literature,’ they think of a guidebook or map of places to stay and things to see in whatever place they’re going to.  But travel literature is so much more; many authors love writing about their personal experiences abroad, and the details of tiny corner cafes, national museums, parks, and monuments make it into their writing. What drives my desire to travel is a sense of adventure, wanderlust, and freedom. I want to live a life of ‘I can’t believe I did that’ rather than ‘what if’. Movement, for me, is necessary, it’s like breathing, and I can’t imagine the dullness of living my life in one place; that’s my personal opinion. Travelling transforms me, it inspires me, and I love meeting new people and having new experiences.

Let’s talk about three sug-genres of travel writing that aren’t obvious such as writing about a journey or quest where the character has travelled abroad.

1) Echotourism- Your main character follows in the footsteps of another traveller and visits the places an earlier traveller visited in this subgenre; they echo their journey and try to recreate the path their ancestors/friend/ family member took with a unique experience through their eyes.

2) Expat- Don’t confuse books about passing through a temporary location; this genre is all about the protagonist moving to a different place from their home country. They reveal what it’s like to move/live there and the struggles, triumphs, and even chaos they face. It’s a great idea to blend humour in this genre. Whatever can go wrong should, as long as it’s believable.

3) Mode-In this subgenre, the focus is on the mode of transport such as by foot, boat, kayak, bike, motorcycle, train, plane, etc. Maybe your main character is travelling cross-country as a stowaway on a train or kayaking to a camping site near the foot of a mountain; whatever you choose for them, do your research into the modes of transportation and the physical/emotional toll that each would take on the character, e.g., motorcycle in the rain etc. Think of Daniel Radcliffe’s character in the movie Jungle or Rambo, among hundreds of others.

I hope you learned something new today and that you’ve been enjoying the content and education thus far. Be sure to check out our classes and products here: http://www.pandamoniumpublishing.com/shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stand Out

September 21, 2021-We’re about a week away from wrapping up our theme this month which is continuing education for authors! Let’s dig into today’s topic with how to make your book stand out from the crowd.

Did you know that more than 250,000 new books are published each year? EACH YEAR! That’s an insane amount to think about. But what if you didn’t have to think about that and just focused on perfecting your book? Here are three ways that you can make your book stand out from the sea of endless titles.

1. Cover art. This is what draws readers to your book from across the bookstore. They see it on the shelf, and they are immediately inspired to walk over to get a closer look (if you’ve done it right!) and pick it up. Cover art should be interesting, unique, and relevant to what is inside the book in terms of the story.
2. Font. Changing up the font of your book can do wonders for making it one of a kind! I’ve seen authors create their own font, and the results were breathtaking. We’re not only talking about an epic font on the inside but also for the title of your book. Only one thing to remember-it MUST be legible or the message will be lost.
3. Formatting. There are so many beautiful poetry books out there that are more than just words on a page. The arrangement in some of them is what gets me every time; poetry formatted to look like the shape of a flower in a vase or a sonnet made to look like a balcony are just a few things that I’ve seen over the years that have intrigued me so much! Take a risk on the formatting of your book (the layout of the words on the page) and see how it changes things up for your readers and piques their interest.

To see how you can make your book stand out from the crowd, check out one of our courses that helps you do just that! Course: Get Your Book Noticed and Increase Your Sales – Pandamonium Publishing House

5 Easy Steps Social Media Best Practices

September 20, 2021– We’re talking about continuing education for authors, and I can’t believe that we’re almost done with our theme for this month! Where is time going? It’s flying by, that’s for sure.

To keep in line with our theme, today, we’ll focus on optimizing your social media in five easy steps. We won’t focus on each one individually, but we will do more of a general overview.

1. Links to events. If you’re having a book launch, signing, new release, virtual or in-person event, your social media should contain links to where people can find you and your products! Perhaps you’re doing a Barnes and Noble tour or a Facebook Live party; whatever you’re doing, put up the pertinent details for your followers to see, such as time, place, capacity, and what you’ll be offering.
2. Update photos and videos regularly. This allows your followers to get a good idea of who you are and what you do, plus it’s fun to share photos and videos about your book-writing adventures. Maybe a family pet inspired your work; share a photo of them! Perhaps you want to share a glimpse of your new book cover mock-up or a video of you reading an excerpt from a novel you’re working on. There are tons of ideas to share to keep your readers/followers/friends in the loop.
3. Links to your site. If you have a blog or online store, be sure to link your social media to it. This is where your audience can read more about you and what you’re working on, plus they’ll know where to purchase your products and how to attend your next event!
4. How to/behind the scenes. Maybe you’ve got some great tips on how to outline a novel quickly that you want to share with your audience, or perhaps you’ve got some great behind the scenes stuff that you want to let your readers in on, like that time you visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a painting inspired your book. Whatever it is, people love to find out what goes on behind the scenes!
5. Relevant hashtags. I know we said we wouldn’t get overly specific, but this one pertains directly to Instagram for the most part. Relevant hashtags (words that align with your book or what you’re doing) give you more exposure to your audience when they search for specific terms and lets them find you!

We’re adding new classes all the time! Check out some of the courses we have available by visiting: http://www.pandamoniumpublishing.com/shop

 

Video-How to Outline Your Novel in Under a Minute

September 16, 2021– As we focus on continuing education for authors this month, I want to show you  How to outline your novel in under a minute – YouTube

Be sure to hit the subscribe button on our channel and listen to our podcast on Podbean by searching Pandamonium Publishing House.

 

Book Launch Quick Tips

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hfi92-10dfda6
Continuing Ed for authors and what you need to know about launching your book!