Authorpreneur: Motivation for March

This month's reading from great authorpreneur blogs has been filled with motivation and challenges, both for writing and for working your writing business.

Writing Inspiration

January — pitiful!

The 5-minute video How to Write More and Create A Daily Writing Habit, by Joanna Penn, kicked my butt! I was already jotting my word count on a calendar, but life is busy. Besides, I'm grappling with difficult scenes and plot holes, so — why not just write a blog post instead? Right? Most days were blank, and I just couldn't seem to get going.

February — tradupled!

After watching Joanna's video in mid-February, I set a new goal for 300 words a day, Monday through Saturday, to earn a purple checkmark. If I didn't make that word count, the punishment was a black X! That may not sound like many words, but this novel has already been through two NaNoWriMos and word count is not my primary goal. I'm filling in gaping plot holes and smoothing transitions: fixing problems with my draft, but it's still more writing than revising.

Just like earning a "green day" during NaNoWriMo, those purple checks are a huge motivator for me! To earn them, I wrote at bedtime when I was tired, or in the morning when I had no idea where the story was going next. (The dreaded black X's represent one migraine and two overtime, multi-job days.)

Hopefully I'll keep this momentum going through March. Thanks, Joanna!

Online Marketing

Call me crazy, but I signed up for the Great Online Marketing Scavenger Hunt. Danny Iny and his team have put the fun into online marketing with this challenging contest. It started Feb. 22, but you still have four more weeks if you want to give it a try. (If you sign up, please mention my username, Bibliotraveler — I'll get extra points). The challenges vary from simple tweets and comments to tasks that stretch your (new) skills, like creating an introduction video.

If you want to make your blog more user-friendly and professional, Tom Ewer offers insights on improving old content with A Simple Checklist for Editing and Optimizing Old Blog Posts. For example, search traffic brings lots of visitors to my blog for last year's post about men's colonial clothing. I went back and added a link to the post about women's colonial clothing. Now history buffs will have an easier time finding related content.  

For more improvements to your website, visit Lorelle VanFossen's list of Blog Exercises.

CJ Lyons's eye-opening post explains how you're not just an indy author, you run a Global Publishing Empire.

Better grab a cup of tea or coffee and a notepad for Mauro D'Andrea's massive post, 101 Experts Share Their Tips for Online Success.

Here's wishing you a productive and creative March. I'm off to hunt scavengers and write 300 words!