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Goodread's or Wattpad?

13

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  • Actually my web team came up with all that blurb which is one of the reason that experts suggested noving it to my wordpress blog. It is quite overblown i confess but not of ny doing

    I'll say again that i do welcome the advice given here but it is still my choice to act upon it or not.

    Someone accused me of being politically correct and over sensitive about words. All i can say is lighten up and don't place so much tension and drama on any given word i use. It's just my opinion and you don't have to take it so personally all the time. ' the hounds of love are haunting me.. !'
  • How can you offer services to other people when you haven't even written anything yet yourself, published or not?
  • Not sure what you are referring to here. If it is connected to the text on my website, again that was written by my web team and i did make that point to them. That is another reason jb felt they weren't conveying my needs properly and suggested cancellung them and using my blog for my website..
  • Can i suggest that people trying to accentuate the positive not linger on the negative....
  • Looks like the most positive thing to come out of this is that you will be able to save £65 per month by ditching these internet people, who seem to have ignored your brief and made all sorts of claims on your behalf.

    JB suggesting you cut down to just a Wordpress blog is a good idea. Once you have a book (or books) available to buy a separate website may be a good idea as a "shop window" - but even then I doubt it's essential. You can do a lot with a 'Publications' page on your blog.
  • Spot on with those remarks., there. Yep. Jb is proving most useful and with some of the money saved from my terminated contract, when it happens, i might be able to keep her on as some sort of advisor for my social media outlets... Feeling like being positive...
  • "If it is connected to the text on my website, again that was written by my web team."

    "I write e-books and scripts for national and international clients and readers, no matter where you are. Contact me today for more information."


    Having instructed a web designer I know perfectly well that ANY text put on the site is composed and okayed by the person they are designing for - if they wrote that without your explicit instruction they are guilty of a gross neglect of duty to you, their client.
  • I'm an innocent abroad. I've no idea what images and texts work and how. That's why i've hired jb and she suggested cancelling that contract. So she's got that rright then, by the sounds of things...?
  • LizLiz
    edited August 2016
    Lydia, I have removed this post because I think you need more help than advice. Hope you get your dream in the end.
  • Lydia, that's not the work of a professional website team; the repetitious text would put off more clients than it would draw to you. 'Gritty', 'visceral', 'my script, my scripts, the script' (these last in three consecutive sentences): repetition doesn't increase the value of what you are trying to sell. On the contrary, it sounds like a one-horse race.

    You're not selling romantic pictures - and in spite of what you offer, these are all heterosexual images, so the 'professionals' haven't even got that right; you're selling your skill with words, and on this showing, I wouldn't go anywhere near you. Ditch the supposed experts and write it yourself.
  • I know, i know. I"ve got things terribly wrong all along. Gone about things wrong.

    I am taking on board your advice, really, because as you have pointed out, i have no real knowledge or perspective on this. Just how to write good dramatic tales. I'm aware enough about that. So do please keep offering me these nuggets of wisdom. No matter how harsh. Evetually it gets through.

    I did hire someone from taskrabbit who gave me her number. She's quite prepared to do things cheaply but not quite sure just what she is fully qualified in.

    Would wordpress help or give out advice on how to upload inages? I think that taskrabbit young female coukd do that and on wattpad too. Teach me how to use instagram.

    Would SEO have to be optimised on wordpress blog or does that really go on what words in your post you put out...? All answers really welcome as i really do want to nake a success of all this. I'm just stuck in hospital right now far away from my home..
  • Instagram might not be worth getting involved with at this point - it's a social media platform but it's not really somewhere people would go when they're looking for something to read. For famous authors it's a good way to keep fans engaged by sharing snapshots from book launches and the like, plus pics of what they're having for breakfast, etc! For somebody looking to get established I'd question the value of having an account there. I don't use it so I might be missing out, though. Has anyone here found it useful for driving sales, webtraffic, etc?

    I don't get on that well with Wordpress, but I know lots of people find it very easy to use. I use it for my 'day job' website, and everything I've done on there I found out about via online tutorials. You should be able to get plenty of results by googling "Wordpress tutorial" or "add images to Wordpress site", etc.

    Like any website, search engines will use the words on the blog as well as a number of other factors. I'm no SEO expert but I get the impression the days of just relying on having a bunch of keywords in a website's header to rate highly in Google, etc, are long gone. It's worth having plenty of links external to the site to direct people to it - which is why people promote their blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Search engines monitor traffic and if lots of people are following links to your site they will rate it as more important than a "dormant" site nobody is visiting.

    I've said it before, but having stories published has proved (for me at least) far more effective than anything else I've tried in terms of raising my profile. My blog, Facebook page and Twitter account really only act as a way for people to get in touch. Everything good, every little step forward in my journey to authorhood, has come about because somebody, somewhere has seen and liked something I've written. This is why it's so important to control what's out there, to make sure it's a true representation of the best of your abilities.

    From what you've written here, it sounds like you're a bit out of your depth with all this promotional stuff and the people you've hired to help haven't really understood what you're trying to achieve. My advice would be to cut back as much as possible - don't try to treat your writing as a business yet, just work on one project at a time and send them off to professionals in the writing industry, people who can give you objective feedback and who won't string you along with the aim of getting as much money out of you as possible.

    But more important than any of that, Lydia - I hope you have a swift recovery and get out of hospital and home again soon.
  • There is always such good advice on this forum from writers with lots of experience who have built, and are building their way up. Small, sure steps are the way to go. I think that most here would agree that it's a slow and meticulous process.

    Yes, get well soon, Lydia.
  • Well, I have a book out there, and TBH I would definitely question the need for a website for driving sales. Book sales happen in book shops and at events. If someone knows you they might Google you to see what you are all about, but coming across a random site and buying a book from it? I think that happens a lot less than you would think. In fact to test this I have had an Amazon account which counts the number of book bought FROM my site link - 4 to date.

    And yet the book has virtually sold out - due to other means, NONE of them web-based.

    It's amazing how few everyday people actually visit websites, it tends to be other website owners/users etc. Most of my traffic comes from Wordpress sending out my site to its members, in the year. To buy books, they go to Amazon.

    I get loads of traffic in April when I do a blog challenge, but like I say that is other blog owners who will come to read my interesting content, but very few will buy anything as they are all selling themselves.

    I get people who I've interested and engaged with in real life or through doing events (online and in real life) who visit the site to see what I'm about and some of them go and buy the book.

    I get schools and event organisers who go to my site and see what I'm like before employing me. THAT is the reason to have a website, as far as I am concerned - at a real-life event you will sell many more books than you will from a website. At least, I do.

    And you can make a website in a wink, but you need something interesting, REAL content not fluff and empty promises, to put on it. If that's all it is, no-one will ever come back to it, no matter how high up in the ratings it is. That won't happen until you have your book. Even then, it takes a long time to build up people coming to your site, it does not happen overnight.

  • Danfango. Was thinking of using instagram with images to illustrate my ebook tales. No? Which social media should i concentrate on? And i'll check out those wordpress tutorials, but technical stuff leaves me frustrated for hours.. Should i write some very short stories related to my ebooks for my social media, Wattpad? You have to read all sorts of stuff on there to get it to work for you...
  • Thanks for the sound advice Tiny Nell. And for wishing me to get well and out of hospital. Thanks to all who have offered me that wish. Counting the days to when i can get out...
  • edited August 2016
    Duplicated it.
  • Yes, get well very soon, Lydia
  • Personally, i'd put unrelated stories you have written on your site, same theme, but good writing to show what you can do and interest someone in other things you can do.
  • Thanks, snailmale. The hospital staff here are horrendous. They treat the patients like cattle being herded up for slaughter. So insensitive and arrogant. That's the trouble with the NHS. if you want quality you have to go ptivate. One of the burning reasons that propels me on to try and suceeed with my writing. The food is disgusting too.. Don't know how long i'm here for but am bored to tears with the daily drudgery of it all.. Thank God for Talkback and twitter etc.
  • edited August 2016
    That seems sensible, Liz. I'll make a note of that. They'll have to wait till i get out of here as the noise and nonsense here is disturbing me all the time. I try to have periods of sleep during the day time so i can spend some hours in the early dawn in some relative peace.. Making me feel all despair and stress.. Thanks for your encouragement. It is keeping me sane.
  • By the way, does anyone know how to speed up the posting part? Seems to take an age..

  • It's always slow on Sunday, Lydia
  • Great ideas, Liz. So wordpress blog and links to it is the way to go? How do you transform browsers into followers. Is a subscriber's list essential
  • The fiverr expert is now saying that, since she has saved me some money by cancelling my monthly contract with my web company i can hire her to turn my wordpress blog into my mainstream website to make it look profesional. Wise do you think? And also do i change my wordpress domain name to my new pen name's one, or if allowed to, keep my former website's one withyell or, as she suggests go for one with Go Daddy? Any advice on any of this?
  • edited August 2016
    All the time you are paying people or web domains you are sending money out the door when, at the moment, you don't have anything for people to buy.
    My advice would be finish one of your books/scripts whatever and when it is close to being published look at this again.
    It reminds me of an advert I saw on TV for a new product - don't remember what now - that I liked the look of, so I looked for it online and it wasn't launched yet. I forgot all about it after that and never went back to look. If the advert had been after the launch they would have had a sale.
    You can still have an online presence with your blog or on Twitter or Facebook which is a good start and will cost you nothing.
  • Not wise at all, sending more money after bad.

    You need to finish your book. When you have a product, that is when you need a website.

    As Mrs B suggests, people look at websites all the time, many a day - you just don't remember them all. You need to catch their interest with something and sell it THEN.

    Followers do not follow unless you have new content up every day. Your website is completely static. You do not have TIME at the minute to write blog posts every day. Or even every week.

    All the time you spend on the website should be going into your book.

    Write the book.
  • Wot Liz says
  • Followers will not all be readers of your site. Readers of your site will not all buy your product. Do not rely on that source alone.
  • Blimey what a read. Define feminism, please.
  • So wordpress blog and links to it is the way to go? How do you transform browsers into followers. Is a subscriber's list essential via sample stories...? I can't do live events.

    My hands are completely tied right now as i have no idea when i can leabe hospital and there is no internet provision here so it is costing me a small fortune that i don't have to pay for this intetaction. So i cannot do any writing just yet. So frustrating..
  • Love to give you an entertaining drama of feminisn in action. Just nothibg doing right now. The staff ate horrible and obnoxious really pressing my buttons. Not my type of characters at all.. Completely nasty and happily going out of their way to do so..
  • You turn browsers into followers by having interesting, ever changing posts on your site. Which you have to research and write.

    Nobody tunes into a website to look at a book for sale.

    And, as Baggy says, followers hardly ever buy your book - they read blogs for their entertainment, often. Which are free.

    I have well over 1,000 followers. Maybe twenty have the book and only about 10 others follow every single post.

    Followers are not what you need. You need to have an interesting site and a good product. So anyone finding the site and wanting that product might be tempted to buy it.

    The chances of getting rich by selling your book, even when you have it, on your website, are vanishingly small, practically zero.

  • I've discovered a new lesbian and gay publisher in America. By Dawn Carter a writer herself. Have sent off an email to her site. She seems more serious about pubkishing and quality than the other one i was checking out which someone said was a scam. This company writes about books and everything connected to them and the writers much more serious. I guess everythibg will be an experiment to begin with. To see just what works and what doesn't. Name of the game, of course...
  • Just don't hand over any money! Publishers shouldn't ask for it.
  • Is there a website where i can checj out if it is legit? It's a new company that's in America wicked publishing by Dawn Carter, a writer.

    Will still send out emails to tradional agents but as has been pointed out that route is rather out of bounds.
  • http://pred-ed.com

    Try that one, or just Google the name to see what others have said.
  • I know there are legitimate sites where can check the validity of these pyblishing houses. Just wondering whether i should make some enqueries with traditional agents first in case a mainstream publishing might show some interest, in which case which would be better, the one specifically for the queer market or one with the potential to crossoverl to mainstream readerships?
  • Thinking about how to judge which writers' social media to follow. Do you think i'd need that fiverr seller for that. To seek out which are likely to be my type of followers...? Cut down on wastage of time...?
  • No. Write the book. When you have use Twitter and Facebook like every other author.
  • Follow writers you're interested in. Enjoy the exchange.
  • Been using some tweets as that fiverr expert recommened. She said always put '#' before your comments. Is that is all that is needed or do you have to specify #twitter accounts and if so, which?

    Went on Wattpad today and am reading through one of tgeir books. It's format is quite similar to my film scripts which is why i believe if i add some more character insight, it might go down well. That's what they say. Read and comment on there to get yourself known and accepted as an authority on these things to win the approval of followers...
  • It would help to read the 'help' pages on twitter to work out how to use # etc - a bit long to explain here, but briefly picking a 'subject' and using an existing hashtag will mean anyone who reads the tweets on that subject will also see yours (e.g some writers put #amwriting at the end of their tweets if they are about what they are currently writing.) There is no point just putting a # at the beginning of your overall tweet.
    You can't 'send' tweets to specific user accounts - the user decides which tweets they want to see not the other way round. They will see your tweets either because they are looking at a particular hashtag (as above) and see one of yout tweets that they find interesting or because they are following you. The best thing to do is to find some people who you would like to follow, follow them and then they may follow you back and build it up like that.
    And tweet things that might interest other people of course!
  • edited August 2016
    So if i put #wattpadromance etc that would be permissible? And any interested parties could check me out on there? Good promotion perhaps for story ideas etc? And other links to my social media??
  • Keeps duplicating this...
  • Anything is permissible, it's whether things are useful or not that is more difficult. If that hashtag is widely used then people who search for it would see your tweets too, so if that is the audience you want to attract then it would be a good thing to use.
  • If you have writing on Wattpad and you want your Twitter followers to read it, you'll need to leave a link to your work. Links take up a lot of characters and Twitter limits you to only 140 so you have to be clever in putting your point across with as few words as possible. You will also have to shorten any links. You can use tinyurl.com (one of several) which will take it down to 26 characters. Long hash tags also take up part of the tweet.

    First of all, you need followers so start following others and interact with them. Most will follow back.
  • About tinyurl.com. it suggests you need javascript which i have been told i don't have on my ipad. If it were to be uploaded onto my notebook PC could this be used via my ipad too, once installed? I tend to use that mostly as it gives me more flexibility for me....
  • No idea about technical stuff!
  • Self evident by now, surely...?
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