Publish In Many Different Places

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As an author, I encourage you to write and publish in a variety of places. As your work appears in different places, you reach new audiences with your message. In this article, I want to give you several recent examples where I've been doing this process. As you look at the various articles, I hope it will stir you to take similar action for your own writing. The world contains many opportunties for each of us—but we have to actively get our work into the market on a consistent and regular basis.

 

Notice each of these websites have different audiences yet they are all in the area of writing and publishing. It's because the writing community is the audience for each of these articles. Who is the audience for your writing? Who are some of the leading bloggers and communicators in your area? I'm talking about people you read their material and admire their work. In some ways these people could be considered competitors to your work but can you take a different mindset and change them into someone you can cooperate and help. Do they have books you can read, review and promote to get their attention? Do they allow guest bloggers on their website or blog? Do they have guidelines for guest bloggers (be sure to follow their instructions if they do)?

 

I've received email pitches to be a guest blogger. Many of these pitches don't even have my first name in th email and were probably spammed out to many people at the same time. I don't answer these emails but simply mark them as Spam and they are deleted. What does that tell you about successful pitching? Personalize every pitch to guest blog. Use the person's name in the opening line and say something personal about their blog—a new entry you liked or something that shows you know what they are publishing—then you make your pitch.  Capture their attention so they know you are pitching only to them, then make your pitch.

 

While I hope these questions have stirred some ideas and potential places for you to write, I'm going to show you four different places that my writing has recently appeared. As you read these articles, notice my bio and what I've done in each one to provide links to my books to purchase, free information to resources I'm giving away (if they join my newsletter) and links to my social media. I've also provided images in my bio which tie to my writing. You can follow a similar path as you write other places. You are only limited by your own creativity.

 

The Challenge for Every Book Author. Every author faces an important task: deciding how they will publish their book. This process is what I wrote about in this article.

Writers on the Move: Why You Should NOT Be Making

Publishing Assumptions. With a few keystrokes on Google or reading a few online posts, authors make decisions about publishers without actually exploring the company, speaking with the editor and their authors. It's what I wrote about in this article and caution against making these assumptions. 

 

Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writer's Conference Blog: I'm Tired Of Pitching My Writing. It's a common feeling among writers—whether they verbalize it or not. They are tired of pitching. I tackle this topic head on and explain how pitching is a part of every aspect of publishing. Yes you may be tired of it but if you want to get published, you have to pitch and learn to pitch with excellence. You can read the details in this article.

 

Almost An Author: Thrive In the Quiet Holidays. Every year like clockwork, email and phone calls come to a screeching hault. It's the time of year right before Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. As a writer, do you simply pause during these months? It's not what I recommend in my article. Instead I give some strategies to thrive during this quiet period.

 

From reading these articles, you can see I'm a glass half full type of person. I believe there are many opportunities for each of us to get our writing into print online and in print. The market guides are filled with publications who are actively looking for writers and content.  You simply have to pitch something they want you to write.  

 

Are you strategically trying to get published in different places. Let me know in the comments below.

 

Tweetable:

Every author has the opportunity publish in many different places. This prolific editor and author gives ideas and specific examples from his own writing. Learn more details here. (ClickToTweet)

Are You Missing A Key Element to Publish Your Book? Get the details here

 

How to Show Up in Different Places

As writers, we need to show up in different places. If you are reaching the same people over and over with your message, you will not expand your reach and audience. I believe each of us need to consistently work at reaching new and different audiences with our message. In this article, I want to give several specific ideas about how to reach new areas of the market.

Before I give you the specific ideas, there are some basic steps that every author needs to take first. The first step is to create a giveaway or a lead magnet. It can be a free ebook or audio file but something which has value to your target audience (something they will want). You need to set up this giveaway on a website where you capture their first name and email address (which adds them to your email list).

The next step after setting up this giveaway is to learn how some simple HTML which gives a clickable link when you show up in these places. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then click this link and get a single page about creating clickable HTML that I've written). Otherwise you put the effort into showing up—but don't gain any help for your bigger goal (finding new subscribers to your email list). I'm encouraging you to work smart with this larger goal in focus as you show up in these various places.

Make Relevant Comments on Blogs

Most blogs allow you to make comments. I have the comments turned on to monitor on my own blog because often the comments are simply not related to my post and SPAM. When you comment, add to the article with some additional content. As you write a relevant comment with some additional aspects to the post, you will add value to the blog. In addition to your relevant comment, add the HTML link to your free Ebook or some other valuable tool. Make this link clickable and it will be kept (not marked as SPAM) and you will have created another link on a different location where you can get sign ups for your newsletter list. The key word is “relevant” with your comment. Do not SPAM or that impression will also be made.

Actively Participate in Email Discussions

I'm on some writer email lists where I contribute. If I do, as with commenting on blogs, I do add to the content of the discussion (otherwise you are writing spam). At the end of my post, I make a point to include a link to my website. You can be strategic about where you send people with this single link.

Write an article for a Guest Blog

You can also write an article for another blog. This week I exchanged emails with the editor of a well-known writer blog and in her response, she encouraged me to write another article for them. I seized the opportunity and did it. Other blogs include guidelines in their blog about how to become a guest blogger. Look for those guidelines, follow them and send in your article. In the article include some clickable links to your free giveways and you will add more people to your email list. A related way is to become a regular contributor to a blog or website. For the last several years, I've been writing an article once a month for Writers on the Move and here is the link to one of my recent posts as an example. 

Become a regular contributor to a newsletter

 I have a couple of newsletters where I am a regular contributor. They use my complete articles in their newsletter and are grateful to get the content. I am not paid for this work and I don't write original material for them. Often I will lightly rework an old article from my blog. It could be something I wrote several years ago. I give it a new opening sentence and title, then I skim the article to make sure there is nothing that is dated in it (and if I find something I rewrite it). I have set reminders on my phone to send this material every month to these newsletters. They are not a huge time commitment and I make sure each one includes links to valuable content for that reader (yet clickable links for the reader to get on my newsletter list).  

What are the ways you show up in different places? Are you using clickable links in these places which lead people to your free resources (and signing up on your email list)? Let me know in the comments below.

 Tweetable:


Learn four ways to show up in different places and achieve some of your goals from a prolific author and editor. (ClickToTweet)

Writers On the Move

I have a new article on Writers On the Move. A couple of months ago I learned about this group and got the opportunity to contribute once a month.

My article today about How To Grow A Large Twitter Following is not new information to readers of The Writing Life. Yet I want you to know about it for several reasons:

First, support Writers On the Move by reading their content. Notice in the right-hand column there is a simple place to subscribe to the blog. I encourage you to do this and get their different posts via email (so you will not miss anything). I'm a subscriber and have been learning a great deal from my fellow contributors.

Second, understand the value of guest blogging on other people's site. In my article, I include several links to some of my other online resources. It's what you can also do when you guest blog. From my experience sometimes they restrict the use of these links to your brief bio but even this case is exposure to a new audience of people. It will help you generate traffic and other things to your own content.

In Mastering the New Media Landscape, Barbara Cave Hendricks and Rusty Shelton call this type of content “rented media.” It is not my blog or content yet I get to contribute here once a month. In this particular instance, one of my friends recommended me as a contributor. There are numerous opportunities where you can also ask to become a guest blogger or a regular contributor. I want to encourage you to go after this type of exposure for your own writing life.

As writers, we are surrounded with many opportunities. Will you seize the day and take advantage of this opportunity for your own writing?

Tweetable:

How can you become a "writer on the move?" Get several ideas here. (ClickToTweet)