I’m so excited to share with you the commercial I’ve created for my Visual Content Marketing class using Animoto! Creating this video using Animoto software was simple and so easy. Not to be braggy here but I was really impressed with how it turned out after just a short time working with it
This whole visual content thing is a continual learning experience. Trying out new tools is one of my favorite parts of teaching visual content and this one is awesome!
I’ll be adding a video to the class all about how I did it. Animoto is my new favorite tool!
In this video I’m giving a quick overview of Canva and how to use it for your author business to create graphics for social media, promotions and advertising.
I know it can be overwhelming to learn new software when you have books to write but marketing has to be done. Faster and with as little pain as possible is what Canva does for you! And almost all of the functions on Canva are free! Can’t get better than that. =)
Another short video but this one is about branding for our author business. My visual content class dives deep into this subject but this should be informative and helpful. Email me at info@elenadillon.com with questions. Enjoy!
So when I decided I wanted to be a published fiction author the one thing I heard over and over again was “You need a blog.” And my first thought after that was always. “Ugh.”
What would I say? How would I build this thing so it looked right? Why would anyone care? All important questions.
If you’re a nonfiction author of course it makes sense to have a place to write all about what you’re writing about. For a fiction author? Hmm. What do you say?
“Here’s my books. Buy them.” Not good. Not what anybody cares about right?
And how many times can you say it before it becomes annoying? About once. Like ever.
But you do need a place to list your books so reader’s can find them and for new releases but blogging? What in the world do you put on there?
Here is a list of things you can put on your blog to keep it interesting, use in your newsletter (yes, you need one) and still make it fun for you.
Excerpts of your stories
Whole short stories to bring reader’s in.
A daily (weekly, monthly, whatever) serial that keeps people coming back
Audio recorded author notes talking about how you came up with your story.
Interviews with your characters (One at at time. Tell them to get in line. Mine all want to be heard at once)
Video yourself in a bookstore, at a book signing, on vacation, on a hike, etc. talking about inspiration or why being an author is amazing or why being there is helping your author life.
Your hobbies, your quirks, What you like and don’t like. (I post about being a nerd, my Pinterest addiction and my tv addictions)
Pets. People love them and their personalities. I post about my English bulldog and people love him. These make great posts on Social Media as well.
So before you even launch or get your blog up spend some time putting together an editorial calendar (just use a regular calendar, digital or paper) and writing some posts so you’re ready to go when you launch.
Think about themes, colors and what your books are about. How they make you feel and what your branding is going to be. What your covers are going to look like. Spend some time checking out Amazon and what the book covers in your category look like.
Go to their author websites and see what looks good. This will help you decide what you want your site to look like. What you want on there and more importantly what you don’t. I launched my site nine months before I published and all I did was blog on there. It worked very well for me. More about this in a later post.
I use design-seeds.com to choose my color palette. I have to be careful or I look up and two hours have gone by before I’ve even decided. It’s so beautiful!
Don’t worry right away about the technical stuff. First decide what you want. What you need and what you don’t. Start small. Don’t get overwhelmed. The only person you’re in the race with is you.
If you’d like to get more tips about blogging, social media and being a healthy, productive author, sign up for my email list to get a monthly newsletter right to your email box!
Let’s just start with the fact that I love apps in general. I love anything that makes my author life faster and easier. Creating graphics, posting on social media, editing photos, cool ways to create short video any of these apps are love, love, love.
WordSwag, in particular, makes it so easy to create graphics in a hurry that it jumped to the top of my list of favorite apps. Sometimes I use it to wish a friend happy birthday on FB but mostly I create fun quotes for my social media when I’m watching TV, standing in line somewhere or waiting for something.
When I first downloaded it, there was no cost except to unlock all the fonts, now there is a fee but it’s minimal. And completely worth it. I’ve gotten more use out of this one app than any other creation tool on my phone.
First reason to love it? It’s connected to Pixabay so there are thousands or royalty-free images to use included! This function alone give it the wow-factor and makes it worth the price of admission.
Second: It’s simple and easy to use. There is a very low learning curve but the images come out looking amazing.
Third: Images download easily to your camera on your phone for easy use with any other app like collage, gif, animation apps. I use it this way all the time. It would be a great addition to WordSwag if they gave the app these functions as well but one app can’t have everything!
Fourth: Plenty of choices of fonts. I have my favorites for sure but there isn’t a shortage here.
Fifth: Has a filtering functionality that works well as well as brightness and blur options that make editing quick and easy. No need to use an editing app unless you need something more fancy.
Sixth: Has quotes built into the app so if you have no idea what you want to post you aren’t stuck looking them up on a web page. It’s all there for you! Huge time saver.
Overall this is a fabulous app that makes it easy for you to create a quick graphic to use for your author business. Haven’t posted anything on Instagram or Facebook for a while? Waiting in line for a coffee? Get to work and promote your author business!
Here is the super cool video from WordSwag giving you a preview of what it can do:
P.S. I will be launching my Visual Content Marketing for Authors class in May and I have a whole video dedicated to WordSwag and how to use it for your author business. Plus a whole lot of other apps and tools. If you’re interested sign up below for my email list and you will be notified as soon as it’s ready to go live!
