Best Black Book Tweets (Week ending January 30, 2011)

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BOOK RELEASES/REVIEW

BLACK LIT 365: Day 28 || Behind Those Books Movie: A Documentary coming April 2011 by Kaven Brown & Mills Miller... http://fb.me/BaowJqZK by @rawsistaz

BLACK LIT 365: Day 27 || Did you read Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez? It's now out in paperback. http://fb.me/zPXDRAab by @rawsistaz

Marked as to-read: Oil on Water by Helon Habila http://bit.ly/gbfdGI by @tayari

8 Rituals to Get You Focused*

“My only ritual is to just sit down and write, write every day.”

—Augusten Burroughs

I chose eight, ’cause I like eight. Eight is the number of new beginnings. Retaining focus on a project, task, or goal for me requires that I regularly reinvent a new way to see my actions toward or completing any of the things I am responsible for. I stay focused when I am able to see into the various angles and rhythms of what is set before me to accomplish. That keeps it fresh and regenerative for me, so that I don’t lose interest and wander from it completely. I do believe that if you have carefully considered how something plays into your life plan and purpose and you set out to begin it, you should finish it. It sets you up to trust yourself. Another thing that Americans regularly avoid that directly affects focus and concentration is good sleep. Don’t neglect the basics and think you will have peak performance. When you are rested, you are better able to handle temptations and stressors that take you off task and out of your game.

Simple Social Media Plan for the Author Who Has No Idea Where to Start

This is extremely simplified, but who doesn’t like simple, right? If you are completely new to social media, the suggestions below will probably not seem simple to you at all. I suggest that you reference the following links to get familiar with social media terms and how writers can engage Twitter, Facebook, and blogging initially:

Writer’s Guide to Twitter by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Three posts from Writers Digest’s Robert Lee Brewer’s blog:

“SEO Tips for Writers (How to Optimize Your Site/Blog Without Getting Technical)”

“Facebook Tips for Writers”

“Platform Building 101 for Writers: Planning”

I am not a marketing or public relations specialist hence the simplicity of my plan, but this will generate some movement and get you thinking in the right direction. It is not so much about you selling yourself as it is about you finding the best ways to engage your readers. I mean, you wouldn’t be publishing your stuff if you didn’t care about readers, right?

So get some paper and pen or copy and paste the bullets below. This is going to one list-making, researching, time-consuming frenzy, but it is so worth it! Just remember: on the road to doing what you love, you’ve got to do some things you hate.

Are you with me? Let’s go!

·        Twitter/Facebook campaign

• Make key connections by following and tweeting other like-minded leaders, experts, and consumers in your field.
• Prepare sample e-chapters for download (easily break up a PDF of the book—CutePDF Writer is a free add-on for Word and is super easy to use)
• Offer free giveaways to tweeps who retweet your post (include links to your website) and follow you. The giveaway can also include those who comment on your blog, or answer correctly to special trivia you post via Twitter
• Tweet relevant information with key words that relate to your area of expertise. Use hastags (e.g. #weightloss, #selfhelp, #focus, #leadership, #motivation) to make your tweets searchable.
• Develop a consistent schedule for hosting chats on Twitter (first gather raving fans to attend and RT its presence—people you may have mentored is a great place to start.) Register chat schedule with @chatschedule. Even consider partnering with other organizations who have a built-in audience who need to hear from experts like you. Also consider offering yourself to Twitter book chats as a featured guest.
• Reward landmark followers with free product (e.g. “Free [[NAME OF BOOK]] gift pack to my 1000^th follower.”)
• Blog/website
• Posting YouTube videos or photos of yourself at events (book signings, speaking engagements, on the street meeting people and handing out free books), giving specific advice, or sharing an accomplishment/testimonial of how your book impacted one person or a group of people.
• Host a Q&A to answer on-the-spot questions from your readers.
• Bring in guest bloggers who offer complementary goods or services to your specialty.
• Guest blog on other sites.
• Send copies of your book to online book reviewers
• You can search them out and follow them on Twitter, become a follower on their blogs, and get to know how they engage readers and how they receive requests to review books.
• Offer yourself to be a featured guest expert for articles on your specialty’s leading websites.
• Another option: “Like” that company or service provider on Facebook and comment on their Facebook status updates when they ask questions or make relevant comments or observations. Be discrete with your efforts to promote yourself here. This is about their goods and services but if you can contribute effectively to what they are discussing you can seem helpful and interested rather than pushy.

Side note for indie authors who one day want to publish traditionally
As an editor, I do look for this kind of activity when I am researching an author for possible acquisition. When you are excited enough about your message or story that you invest time and creativity into getting it into people's hands, it makes me think that you will be a good publishing partner. When I go to an author's Facebook page or blog and see nothing about their book, I think that they do not know what part they need to play in publishing and perhaps would not be ready to work with a publisher. Publishing (yes, traditional publishing) is a partnership where both parties pool together their resources to build the largest, most supportive and impacted group of readers possible for that one author. Just something to think about.

What other tips can be added to this list?

Best Black Book Tweets (Week ending January 16, 2011)

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BOOK RELEASES/REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEW: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers gave 3 stars to: What Mama Never Told Me! http://ow.ly/1aTmSA by @rawsistaz

BOOK REVIEW: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers gave 3 stars to: The Punany Experience http://ow.ly/1aTmSE by @rawsistaz

BOOK REVIEW: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers gave 4 stars to: Woman to Woman http://ow.ly/1aTmSC by @rawsistaz

BOOK REVIEW: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers gave 4 stars to: Destined http://ow.ly/1aTmSI by @rawsistaz

BOOK REVIEW: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers gave 4 stars to: Still Guilty (Urban Christian) http://ow.ly/1aTmSG by @rawsistaz

11 Things You Can Do Now to Encourage More Diversity in the Book Market

FOR THE BEGINNER
1. Venture in to any section of the bookstore that shelves books by authors who are not of your ethnic background.

2. Buy a book from that section on something that interests you--fiction or nonfiction.

3. Read the book.

4. Write a brief review of the book and post it on Amazon.com, your blog if you have one, a friend's blog, the author's website, and the like.

5. Recommend the book to your friends who share your same ethnicity.

6. Rinse and repeat.

FOR THE ADVANCED
7. Research and find blogs by people who regularly promote or feature books by people of color. Follow their recommendations on good books--and read them. Many maybe indie or self-published books, but limit discrimination here as well. This is sometimes the best way for a person of color to get their message out.

8. Participate in reader groups or book clubs that discuss books by a diverse collection of authors. There are many online, if you live in a homogenous geographic location.

9. Peruse multicultural or urban bookstores (this can also be done online), buy a book, read it, write a review, and post your review--I think I may have said this already. :) You may be so bold as to send your review directly to the publisher asking for more books like the one you read and liked.

10. Be ready to explore your biases against other ethnicities. Overcome them by allowing childlike wonder to draw you in to reading books by them and about them. Consider the story over the ethnic background of the characters in the book and the artwork on the book cover. You'll be glad you did.

BONUS FOR PARENTS AND CHILD EDUCATORS
11. Buy books for your children/classroom that have stories with diverse characters. Be brave enough to actually talk through the issues presented in the books. ANSWER YOUR CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS about ethnic, social, and cultural issues honestly and with compassion. If you can't, go back to the first two sentences of #10. Also, involve other people who are committed to educating children and adults on diversity issues. Consider that it really does take a village...

These are deliberate actions that will help you step out of your normal reading habits and inclinations. Consider this a challenge for the year. As you become more aware of good books by people of color and find that they are not available in your bookstore, request that the bookstore order more diverse books. Tell your friends to do the same thing. I've done this a few times with hair/beauty supply stores and grocery stores and still find my requested products stocked on their shelves to this day. Stores will stock and promote what sells and it takes a smart and active consumer to help make a difference in what's readily available for purchase.

This is a battle worth fighting with all the bullying and other crimes going on these days. Our active engagement and genuine interest in the lives of people who are different from us helps us to break down the walls that separate us and eliminate the ignorance that makes us fear the unknown.

Will you take the challenge? What other things can you personally do to encourage more diversity in the book market?

Best Black Book Tweets (Week ending January 9, 2011)

Click on the links. Read. Learn. Follow. Support.

BOOK RELEASES/REVIEWS

RT @aminattaforna Delighted with the New York Times' review of The Memory of Love. Tour starts 23rd, http://nyti.ms/dZLxGY #blacklitchat by @deegospel

BOOK REVIEW: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers gave 3 stars to: A Taste Of Passion (Romance Series) http://ow.ly/1aMdyr by @rawsistaz

BOOK REVIEW: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers gave 3 stars to: 5 Rules & 31 Pages to Staying Married Forever http://ow.ly/1aMdyv by @rawsistaz

BOOK REVIEW: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers gave 4 stars to: Because of Love http://ow.ly/1aMdyt by @rawsistaz

On Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and the ‘N’ Word

My response to Publishers Weekly and NPR articles on the new editions of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that remove all racial epithets.

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter.”

—Mark Twain

English class was the one place that we could air all our crazy teenage/twenty-something philosophies about the world, history, language, art, religion, fashion, technology, and so much more. I recall it being the one class I never skipped. We hashed out race and gender issues, theological differences, and ideals verses reality. I feel that removing “offensive” language from literary classics robs students and teachers from being able to have these kinds of meetings in the classroom.

VIDEO: Surviving the Culture Change: a Keynote by Diane Ragsdale

This video is too good and vital to not include on my blog. Being a lover of all art forms this 2010 Arts Alliance Illinois keynote speech by Diane Ragsdale was a crucial video for me to watch. I highly recommend this to all creators so that you will understand how important it is for you to allow your mindmap to be flexible and resilient in these changing times.



Diane Ragsdale on Surviving the Culture Change (Full Remarks) from Arts Alliance Illinois on Vimeo.

Best Black Book Tweets (Week ending January 2, 2011)

Click on the links. Read. Learn. Follow. Support.

BOOK RELEASES/REVIEWS

Black Harvard Doctor Pens Memoir of Jim Crow South http://huff.to/em9i2r (via @Huffingtonpost). #blackbookchats #blacklitchat #memoir by @jevonbolden

I Shall Not Die #book #reviews http://nblo.gs/cncad by @shawneda

Wt do u get when u mix politics n sexy characters? Explosive new family series, Spend My Life With You in stores Jan 24. http://dld.bz/DhSZ by @donnahill