Merging and Evolving

Change, being one of the few absolute constants in my life, always seems to jump out and grab me when I least expect it. So, I was only a little surprised that as I sat back to take a deep breath and rejoice momentarily in my handiwork (I have a new website), I discovered that I now need to shift my blog from here to there: Point A to Point B. From Blogspot to colleensayre.com.

For those of you who read my blog or know me personally, you know that I'm just a little directionally challenged. And if there's code involved, it is more likely than not that I will have to put down my pen and take up whip and chair to complete the move successfully. Over the past couple of weeks, I've learned a thing or two about the bear that is HTML (I still don't know what the letters stand for. I just call it HaTeMaiL) but I'm assured that this little shift will be easy. 

As of tomorrow, you'll find my blog at my new/old renovated home: colleensayre.com. I considered a new name, new topics, new stuff to blog about but I like the idea of a continuing along in the same comfortable vein. Besides, changing my address is enough of a change for the moment. I am merging and evolving which sometimes requires taking baby steps . . . through a mine field of code.

Be sure to visit me at my new Blog site: colleensayre.com

Evolving from bud to blossom to full flower. Change is good!

Scenes from a Life (and a Book)

At this point in my life as a writer, I find myself in the midst of a major paradigm shift. As a woman who would prefer to simply stay in my cave and write, connecting with readers through social media on the internet is a new and life altering concept. I’ve always known that there is a need to reach out, to build “a presence” out there, but until recently, I haven’t really understood the value of the internet or what it really means to connect with it. Where do I begin?

At the suggestion of my marketing mentor, I’ve begun sharing photographs and posters that are representative of emotional scenes from my books. I‘m beginning with A Solitary Life which lends itself to a wide spectrum of feelings as it moves through the life and childhood memories of my heroine, Mary Margaret. I’m hoping that the snapshots will resonate with readers and begin to make the connection I long for. And I do mean long for. I didn’t realize until I began posting the photos how important it has become to me to share Mary Margaret’s story. And I had no idea how readily people would respond to the photographs. My post views on Facebook went from a high of 53 to 25,480 from one day to the next. I have to admit, I was surprised--and happy.

Inside all of us is a child who needs a hug and an encouraging word.
Today I wish you hugs, love, and happiness.

Tapping into the emotional side of my work has opened up a new way for me to look at marketing as well as the internet. I’ve been thinking along very hard and clinical lines, looking for ways for readers to see my books rather than feel them. I’ve come to realize that my thoughts have been old-school when it comes to the internet, too. I’ve been thinking about it and using it as an information-gathering tool, as a place to find recipes, movie times, and directions rather than as a place where people gather to share ideas and feelings. The information highway of the past has become a stopping point, a place of rest and friendly faces, a place to discover scenes from a life and the stories they tell. So, I’m redesigning my website with an eye toward connection rather than information and putting more feeling into my posts.

Today I wish for you (and me) a new vision and a renewed sense of connection to the world be it real, fantasy or virtual. (And happy writing!)

A License to Market

My sixteen year old granddaughter got her driver’s license last week. Her mother, my daughter, is finding out the hard way that having a license and being prepared to drive are two distinctly different things.

My granddaughter is a very smart girl. We were all convinced that she would be a good and safe driver, her only faults being her tremulous fear of pulling out into oncoming traffic (at a safe distance rather than waiting until there’s not a car in sight) and erring on the side of caution at crosswalks (as in realizing that she doesn’t have to wait until the person walks safely all the way into the mall before pulling ahead). What my daughter was not prepared for was her daughter’s absolute lack of a sense of direction as well as her inability to find her way to such seemingly simple places as say, SCHOOL! Consequently, my daughter has spent this past week tied to her cell phone as she waits for her daughter to call to say that she is, once again, lost.

When my daughter called me to share her frustration and ask for advice, I admit that I laughed. But I also suggested a quick lesson in map reading as well as a proviso that my granddaughter’s cell phone be banned in the car at all times, including while riding as a passenger. It is my firm belief that a huge contributing factor in her inability to find her way around her own home town is that my granddaughter has had her nose buried in her cell phone for the past five years. She, like every other person her age—all new or soon-to-be drivers--is so consumed with texting and tweeting and updating her status that she pays no attention at all to her surroundings. And paying attention to your surroundings is one way to stay safe while also being able to find your car in a crowded parking lot.

I can imagine that at this point you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about my granddaughter’s driving travails, wondering if I, too, have lost my way. Well, it occurred to me this morning as I sat at my desk pondering my next marketing plan that my granddaughter and I have a lot in common. We are both newly minted drivers with no sense of direction.

While it’s true that I have no difficulty driving from my house to the grocery store, I am a published author with a book to market and I have absolutely no idea how to drive it from point A (Amazon.com) to point B (my target audience). Just as my granddaughter has been driven to school day after day for nearly a decade, trusting that the driver knew the way, I’ve been buying from Amazon.com with no thought for how to market using the same site, trusting that I would figure it out easily when the time came for me to drive. But it’s not that easy. Just because I know how to use the site to buy doesn’t mean I know how to use it to sell. The roads look different from this side. They lead to unfamiliar territories of marketing and I find myself driving in circles looking for an interesting place to park; or driving up and down the interstate looking for road signs with a big flashing arrow pointing to Success.

For the past fourteen months, I’ve had my own nose buried in book after book, my own or someone else’s, and while I’ve been reading and contemplating literary success, the scenery right outside my window has been shifting and changing and speeding by. For instance, I received scores of emails and invitations from Pinterest, all the while reading funny or clever posts, pictures, and posters from friends and wondering where they’d found them. So I finally checked it out and created a few boards of my own. Now I find that what seemed like an innocuous shiny new internet toy is actually a powerful marketing tool. Who knew? (Savvy marketers, that’s who!)

So, like my granddaughter who has a new car and photo ID, I have all the right tools to market at my fingertips and the publishing license to drive my own sales. But having that license doesn’t give me direction or navigational skills or prepare me for the lines of traffic that clog the highways and byways on the road to success. I’ve taken a few wrong turns and ended up on a lonely deserted website with nary a reader in sight. I’ve lost my way a time or two and wondered if it might be easier to just hire a chauffeur or ask someone else to do the hard work. Instead, I’m taking my own advice. I’ve bought a map and I’m learning to read it correctly this time--with a little help from an expert. I’m adjusting my focus while driving and watching out for changes in directional flow. And I’m making a pact with my granddaughter that if she keeps her nose out of her cell phone while driving, I’ll keep my nose out of my next book--at least until we figure out a route that will bring us safely home.