Hi everyone!

Still waiting for word on the release date for my new novel.  In the meantime, I've been creating some promotional images.  Here's my latest:​

I created this image on Canva and it was very easy. The window picture was free at the website, and then I just added a few more items. Best of all, the website saves the image for future use or edits. Let me know if you have any suggestions in the comments below. 

I'm also looking for beta readers so I will have reviews for the book release. If you're interested in reading the book before it's released and leaving a review, let me know at sandie@sandiewill.com. I'll be setting up an easy form on my webpage that will provide review questions to make the process simpler. I need lots of reviews, so feel free to pass my email to anyone you think might be interested. More to come!

Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend and thanks for your support!

Sandie

Such an exciting day today! I received notification that my employer made an announcement to all their website followers to see my book trailer. And then, later found out they did a nice post announcing the trailer and blog they wrote on their website. It was nine hours ago, and I've had over 70 views of the book trailer since then. I can't tell you how much it means to have my employer support my new book - The Caging at Deadwater Manor.  What a great way to spread the word!

Learn how one of our staff members has turned her passion for the paranormal into a published novel. Plus, get a sneak peek by watching the trailer. ​

Watch the Video Trailer of an Upcoming Book by a District Staff MemberSouthwest Florida Water Management District sent this bulletin at 08/11/2016 09:24 AM EDT

Learn how one of our staff members has turned her passion for the paranormal into a published novel. Plus, get a sneak peek by watching the trailer.

​This is the link to the wonderful article they wrote about it too! www.watermatters.org/ZCQXc​

Thank you for helping SWFWMD! --Sandie

Hi there - this is the second blog for the "My First Book Cover Reveal" series.  A few days ago, I began this series with some lessons learned during my first cover reveal, and my first cover reveal post. My thought was to share all the posts so that new authors would have an idea of what to use as material during a cover reveal, and for my readers to gain insight on me and my book - THE CAGING AT DEADWATER MANOR.  This would have helped me tremendously, because I had no clue about what to post before starting.  Luckily, the authors before me were experienced and I could get the hang of it before I was up.

Today, I'm posting my second post during the cover reveal.  This post includes the blurb that will be on the back of the book, as well as the question, "What would you do if you were trapped (in a psychiatric hospital)?"  The responses were primarily that most people would stay quiet and out of the way.  

​What would you do?

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POST #2 - COVER REVEAL FOR THE CAGING AT DEADWATER MANOR

THE CAGING AT DEADWATER MANOR is a YA psychological thriller set along the Gulf Coast here in Florida. It’s my debut due to be released in late 2016 from Caliburn Press. I started writing novels about 8 years ago. During the day, I work as a geologist/manager and at nights and on weekends I spend a lot of time writing and doing social media. 

Here’s the book blurb:

On a cold, January evening, fourteen-year-old Jeannie Kynde is told that her beloved mother drowned in the murky waters along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Her distraught father turns on Jeannie, no longer the caring father she once knew. 
Four years later, Jeannie is finally old enough to escape her father’s clutches, but he has different plans. He imprisons her at Deadwater Manor, a psychiatric hospital with an unscrupulous past. Will she be locked away forever?

What would you do if you were trapped?

On that note, hope every has a fantastic weekend!  --Sandie

Yesterday was my book cover reveal for THE CAGING AT DEADWATER MANOR. It was a Facebook event (you can set these up in the "Events" area) and author takeover. This consisted of authors posting links, pictures and videos throughout a predetermined timeslot. You can do a live feed if you wish also.

There were about 10 authors who hosted one-hour slots to promote their books and other work. All authors were invited by me or another author. The authors had fantastic giveaways include free books and gifts. The event started at 10 a.m. and I had the last slot from 8- 9 p.m, for the cover reveal. I also ended up doing a trailer reveal which worked out great.  

Here's the link to the event (you'll need to click on "going" to view all the posts):
https://www.facebook.com/events/1558387821132498

Here are some lessons learned:

• Make sure you set the event as public when the event is set up - otherwise you'll need to open another event which could make you lose potential attendees who already signed up.  
• Tell those you invite that they must hit the "going" button to see the posts. Not sure if they can see them if they respond as "interested."
• Keep posts at least 5 minutes apart (don't post too fast).
• Engage with your audience.  It's hard when you're setting up new posts, so have them prepared to cut and paste into posts beforehand.
• Have a backup plan for any authors who can't attend during their time slot or are late.

Since I'm not sure how long the posts will be available, I thought I'd start transferring some of mine to this blog page in case you missed the event.  This way, if you've never done a cover reveal before, you can see some examples to follow. For those readers who are not authors, this will give you more information about me and my writing!

First post of the evening. My thought on this was to do an introduction, thanking everyone from the day and showing my professional pictures, so people know what I look like.  Also, I think professional pictures are important to do for promotions and the back and inside covers, if you can.

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POST #1: COVER REVEAL FOR THE CAGING AT DEADWATER MANOR
​
Hi everybody! Thanks so much for joining in on my one-hour live event for the cover reveal of THE CAGING AT DEADWATER MANOR! I’m so excited to be here and I want to thank all the authors who helped make this day so special by participating in their live events all day too! Stay tuned until the end because I’m going to show my very first book trailer! 

Here are a couple of my author photos taken by Jaimi Weatherspoon with Essential~Special Moments Photography. I just love them and use them in a lot of my social media outlets. I can't say enough about getting professional pictures done! 

How’s everyone doing tonight and where are you from?

I'll be back again with some of my other posts for the cover reveal in future blogs.  In the meantime, good luck with any upcoming book releases to all you authors out there and thank you for stopping by to all of my readers!

​Take care -- Sandie

During the past few weeks, I have been summarizing my methods for increasing my following on Twitter, so I thought it might be helpful to combine the main points from each week into one post.  Here's a succinct list of how I went from 0 to over 1,000 followers on Twitter in just five weeks.

1. Followed over 200 accounts on Twitter the first week and 50 when there seemed to be a lag in followers.
2. Thanked all new followers.
3. Thanked all followers for any retweets, favoriting, or mentioning.
4. Thanked all followers for adding me to any lists.
5. Posted 5-10 times per day.  This included a mix of links to my blog and articles on writing, as well as non-writing related information about me or other topics.
6. Utilized Hootsuite to schedule tweets multiple times a day.
7. Added ‘Tweet Old Post’ plugin to WordPress to retweet my old posts from my science blog (www.rockheadsciences.com) to my Twitter account.
8. Participated in Follow Friday (#FF) to ask my current followers to follow my new followers and other followers that have helped me.
9. Asked questions on Twitter to start conversations.
10. Responded to questions from followers to start conversations.
11. Signed up at www.twittercounter.com to watch my Twitter account growth.
12. Updated my Twitter account details.
13. Set up Google Alerts so I’m emailed once a day on topics of interest that I can add to my Twitter posts.
14. Used Flipboard app to search for additional news stories.
15. Used positive blog comments on Twitter posts.
16. Posted pictures to generate conversation.
17. Participated on a writing process blog tour and posted the link on Twitter. (See http://www.sandiewill.com/blog.html)
18. Learned more information on social medial in general through www.yourbrandingpower.com and by attending classes and webinars, as well as participating in a 21-Day Personal Branding Challenge to improve my social media presence.
19. Wrote several blogs and posted them on Twitter.  My writing blogs were posted twice a day and my science blogs were posted four times a day.
20. Reached out to new tweeters to assist growing their followers.
21. Listened and followed the advice from fellow tweeters on building a presence on Twitter.

I think I’m off to an excellent start, but next, I plan on expanding my efforts to include those followers that will buy my books.  Advice I’ve received from others on Twitter and my social media expert have stressed that it’s not just about the number of followers, it’s also about the quality of the followers.  So, I will be focusing more on my target audience.  Since my novels are young adult and middle grade, I will be following more students and teachers, as well as those that love to read.  I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or recommendations from your own Twitter experience in the comments below. 

Good luck on Twitter!  --Sandie

Well, the Twitter followers are still coming in strong, and I have made some supportive writer contacts.  I'm up to 1,048 followers now (up 188 followers from last week), have been added to 18 writer lists, and several of my posts were retweeted.  Also, one of my blogs landed on someone's paper.li which exposed my article to an even wider audience.

Probably the main event of the week was participating in the writing process blog tour, which I posted on Monday, April 21.  Unfortunately, when I first posted it, I included the wrong link.  Luckily, the Twitter writer that invited me to do the blog (@Stirlingwriter) noticed the problem right away and let me know.  The automated post from Weebly was correct, but when I tried to share it and tag all the other writers involved with the tour, I mistakenly copied the link to the Weebly admin page instead of the actual webpage.  I quickly posted the correction, but a few people had already shared the wrong post. Once I realized I could delete the incorrect post, though, the sharing stopped and the corrected post was retweeted.  

In case you're not familiar with blog tours, they include a set of questions for each writer to answer and a mention of three additional writers that will continue the "train."  Finding others to write can be a difficult task, especially for new writers who don't have connections yet.  I ended up calling on six Twitter friends, two of whom agreed right away, three I didn't hear from, and one I waited on for a couple of days who finally let me know she didn't feel this was "her thing."  I graciously thanked her and embarked on the task of finding a replacement, and boy, was that impossible, being it was the day before the blog post was due.  I tried everyone on Twitter and Facebook with no luck.  Good thing my husband is a bit of a writer, because he was able to fill the last spot.  These will post on 4/28/14.  Since that time, however, I heard from another author that was out of town last week, and he wants to participate in the blog tour, so I will be replacing my husband's bio with his bio this weekend, and he will post his blog a week later (5/5/14). 

I completed some additional tasks for the 21-day Personal Branding Challenge through Jill Celeste on Facebook and replied to comments on my blogs.  By posting a new article on my science blog, as well as this one, my traffic has increased on both sites.  Currently, I'm averaging 100 visitors a day on www.sandiewill.com and 10 visitors on www.rockheadsciences.com.  I also learned that I won a "Big Ass Box of Books" from Bradford Literary Agency (www.bradfordlit.com) via Twitter - can't wait to see which books! 

As far as my methods on Twitter this week, they are the same as last time, except I went back to following more writers again. One day, I selected 50 and that seemed to increase the followers even days later.  I don't think I mentioned it, but during my first week on Twitter, I followed at least 200 writer-types and that really started the following for me.  If you are included on any lists, check out the members. They usually have the same interest as you, so it's a great way to start a following that will be meaningful.  I also posted a picture of a homemade key lime pie this week and a picture of kayaking in a spring, but it only generated one comment.

Here's a summary of the tasks I did on Twitter this week:

1. Thanked anyone who retweeted or mentioned my name or blog, included me on a list or recommended to follow me
2. Followed new followers, as well as 50+ writers
3. Replied to any comments on Twitter and blogs
4. Participated in a writing process blog tour: "How Do I Write:  A writing process blog tour" at www.sandiewill.com/blog and set this up to post twice a day on Twitter through Hootsuite
5. Posted a blog titled, "Week 4 on Twitter as @SandieWillWrite" on Twitter twice a day through Hootsuite
6. Posted a blog titled, "So, what's it like to go to geology field camp?" on my science blog at www.rockheadsciences.com and set this up to rotate with all of my other blogs and post on Twitter @SandieWillWrite four times a day via a WordPress plug in
7. Posted pictures and articles related to writing, publishing, geology and other sciences
8. Posted some non-writing related content, but need to do more

In addition, I'm going to post an additional blog tomorrow that will summarize how I reached 1,000 followers on Twitter in five weeks.  

Hope you had a good week and find this blog useful.  Have fun tweeting! 
--Sandie

My growth on Twitter has continued during week 4, and I have used many of the same techniques I mentioned in the last two posts as well as some additional ideas.  Currently, I have 860 followers which means I have gained 200 since last week - this is still incredible to me at such an early stage, and I owe numerous Twitter friends and Jill Celeste (@Jill_Celeste) at Your Branding Power for much of this success!

Since last week went so well, I decided to keep going with many of the same methods I've been using including:

1. Thanking followers and those who retweeted any posts on a daily basis
2. Following back those who follow me with the exception of a few
3. Thanking any followers who added me to their lists
4. Rotating my science blog posts four times a day
5. Posting my last week's blog twice a day
6. Posting interesting news articles on writing or publishing
7. Posting on anything I thought would be interesting outside of the science or writing realm (I posted a few of these but need to focus on doing this more next week)
8. Continuing with the 21-day Personal Branding Challenge by Jill Celeste

The only task I did not perform this week was to seek out new authors or writers - I only followed a couple.  I wanted to see if I was gaining followers without provoking the followers, and it appears this is the case, since my followers grew by almost the same amount as last week.  I've also been keeping an eye on my website hits.  Since I started www.sandiewill.com four weeks ago, I have had 405 new visitors, and during this week, I averaged 52 new visitors a day with the highest amount being 146 following my blog post last week.  In comparison, my www.rockheadsciences.com website has been live since October 2013 and only averages 3 new visitors a day.  Since posting the science blogs under @SandieWillWrite, there has been more interest, but it hasn't been significant.  I'm not sure if this is due to the subject matter and/or my lack of using the same methods for this website as I do for www.sandiewill.com, but it would be interesting to see if using the same techniques on my Twitter account for my science blog (@RockHeadScience) will generate more visitors.  I'm not planning on doing this next week, but maybe in the near future I will as a test.

There were also a couple of additions this week as follows:

1. I set up Google Alerts.  So, now an email is sent by Google once a day to let me know of any new science, geology, writing or publishing articles that have been released.  This saves me hours of searching online for articles to add to Twitter.  Another good source for articles is Flipboard which I have also been using for several weeks.
2. I posted a picture of my desk on Twitter and asked for pictures of other writer's desks; however, this did not generate any interest.
3. I received comments on last week's blog on my website and replied.
4. I was asked to participate in a blog tour on my writing process by a fellow author on Twitter named Rachel Stirling (@StirlingWriter).  I am very excited about this opportunity to say the least!  The idea is to write a blog and refer three additional writers for the next week to keep the blogs going.  Rachel is a talented writer and her blog post can be found at http://stirlingwriter.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/how-do-i-write-a-writing-process-blog-tour/. Mine will be posted on 4/21/14, so I'll let you know how it goes next week.
   
5. As I mentioned last week, I was referred to Einstein in a Box (@EinsteinInABox1) to possibly assist with a geology box to be send to children whose parents subscribe.  Last night, I had a conference call with the founders, Elaine Hansen and Monica Canavan - two talented business women with science and education backgrounds.  As it turns out, I'll be assisting them with a science experiment boxes on hydrogeology and solar energy, and I'm very excited about this opportunity as well!  They'll be sending me a few of their boxes, so I can see the concept and will follow up in a couple of weeks.  Again, having a social media expert like Jill Celeste has opened new doors for me!

Once again, I'm having a successful week, not just with Twitter but with other avenues that are opening up. The one downside I'm seeing is the amount of time it takes to keep up with Twitter.  I spend at least 2 hours a night during the week and several hours on the weekends keeping up with it.  I can't imagine how much time it will be to add other social media platforms.  Next week, I'd like to figure out ways to streamline my process plus continue sending out queries for my novels - I can't forget about them!  I'm sure as I become more proficient in social media, my time spent will be less, and I'll be able to juggle the needs of both better. In the meantime, hope you've had a successful week too and stay tuned for my update next weekend.  I can't wait to share the progress!  Feel free to share your successes or lessons learned in the comment box below.
--Sandie

So, I'm on my second week as @SandieWillWrites on Twitter, and I already have 410 followers! Sounds crazy, I know, but having a social media expert in the family has helped tremendously, and I though I'd share what I have learned from her, as well as on my own. First off, I picked a Twitter name that included my name as well as what I do, and I made sure to write an informative narrative about me. Second, I searched about 100 writers and literary agents the first week and followed them, and I made sure to thank all of my new followers on a nightly basis. Writers like this, because it brings them exposure, since they are trying to sell their books. In addition, I posted informative writing-related articles and posts from my science blog to try to keep the interest and several were retweeted. I also made sure to write back to any authors who asked me questions or started conversation.

After the first week, I was up to about 220 followers and added onto a writer's "list." These lists are a valuable source of information, as everyone on the list is a writer or likes following writers.  So, I proceeded to follow around 200 writers on this list. And BOOM! The flood gates opened up, and I'm getting about 50 followers a day now. I will continue this technique to add to my followers and soon should have over 1,000. This is peanuts though compared to the writers I've seen with 10s, even 100s, of thousands of followers. Even better, these power tweeters love to share your information to all their followers, creating even more followers for you!

What I have experienced so far on Twitter is a warm and inviting "village" of writers.  They don't mind us newbies, and in fact encourage others to follow.  It's like having an army of mentors at your fingertips! In addition, publishing companies, social media experts, publicists and all varieties of bookworms provide information on new books, screenplays, and giveaways.  This has truly been more successful than I ever imagined, and I'm well on my way to gaining many follows before my book comes out, something that is important whether I use an agent or self-publish.  This, on top of the following of this webpage and a new Facebook account, should hopefully give me a good-sized audience.  Until then, I'll keep on tweeting and bring you back the tips I learn, so you can be an expert tweeter too! Good luck and have fun!  --Sandie

If you're already an expert tweeter, feel free to share your tips in the comment box!