Archive for 2015

Another year is coming to a close and what a year it was! More best sellers, awards, challenge winner certificates.... 2015 was full of awesomeness :)

The most important (work related) thing I learnt in 2015

The most important thing I learnt this year was about my vision for my brand, and where I see myself going in the future. With each year that passes I get a clearer idea of just what I want to be doing, and how I want to do it. This is important for creating a successful career in this field (well, actually in pretty much any field).

As I look back over the past year I can clearly see what has been working for me and, more importantly, what hasn't. I can say "clearly see" because this year I finally got my game together in measuring my results, and checking my analytics. I can't stress how important this has been. Seriously people, start measuring your efforts!

Those of you that are signed up to my monthly newsletter will already know about the research I've been doing into various branding and marketing tactics this year. I plan to continue down this route in 2016, and already have some new ideas to try out. I can't wait to share them with you so, if you're not signed up yet, do it now!

Plans for 2016

2016 is set to be another busy year. I have several non fiction books, and children's picture books scheduled for release, as well as some collaborations. I can't wait!

I'm also hoping to finally finish working on my novels Twice, Vengeance, and Family Secrets.

I'll be taking part in some more challenges too. I just LOVE a good challenge ;)

I'll also be finally launching my ecourses. I'm so excited about this! I've been working on putting these courses together for a while now and can't wait to share them with you all.

Right now, I'm enjoying some time off with my family though. It's important to have some down time once in a while too (even for a workaholic like me ;)).

I hope you're all enjoying the holidays, and wish you all the best for 2016. Thank you for your continued support. I really appreciate every comment, share, review, and purchase. You guys rock!

November Challenges: The End #NaNoWriMo #WNFIN #PiBoIdMo

WOW! What a month!

This November I decided to take part in not one, but three, writing challenges (crazy I know!).

- NaNoWriMo AKA National Novel Writing Month, goal to write a 50K novel in 30 days.

- WNFIN AKA Write Non Fiction in November, goal to write a non fiction book in 30 days.

- PiBoIdMo AKA Picture Book Idea Month, goal to come up with 30 ideas for children's picture books in 30 days.

We've finally come to the end of this roller-coaster month of highs and lows. It's been 30 days of writing frenzy, but I've had a blast along the way.

Here's a quick look at how things went:

NaNoWriMo

This was hard this year. In fact, I didn't win. Both kids got ill, I got ill, life happened and well, my novel stopped happening. I'm still pleased though as I'm 30K into a novel that was just a blank page at the the start of the month. That's still pretty good going.

I love the characters I came up with, and the story, and will be working on finishing this first draft of Family Secrets over December and January.

WNFIN

Ta da! My winners badge! :)

I successfully managed to finish the first draft of my non fiction book From Idea to Published. Loving how it turned out, and can't wait to jump into editing it this month (more about that soon).

PiBoIdMo

And another winners badge! :)

Not all the ideas on this years list were amazing but there were a few diamonds in the rough that I'll be turning into books in 2016. One thing that did surprise me was the number of non fiction picture book ideas I listed as in past years I'd always listed mainly fiction ideas. That said, the ideas I'm most excited about are fiction ones.

Want to go further behind the scenes? Watch this video of my day by day diary of the highs and lows of; writing a novel, a non fiction book, and coming up with 30 ideas for children's picture books, all in just one month.

Did you take part in one, or more, of these challenges this year? Did you reach your goal? Share in the comments below.

Special Offer: How to be Twittertastic only $0,99! #Books #Amazon http://amzn.to/1H2dpR6

I've decided to put together a limited time, special offer for you all. Partly because you're all being awesome showing your support this month as I work on my challenges (you guys really do rock!), partly because Christmas is just round the corner (I know, scary huh? So not ready!!!), and partly because the end of year is fast approaching too. This means now is the perfect time to give yourself a last minute boost and/or great ready to start the new year with a bang.

So what's the deal?

I'm discounting How to be Twittertastic down from it's normal price of $2,99 to just $0,99! That's 2 whole dollars off! Pretty cool huh?

The good news doesn't stop there though....

I'm running the discount for a whole 5 days, from 16th - 20th November 2015.

Grab your copy here: http://amzn.to/1MIWH9G

What people are saying about How to be Twittertastic:

"Jo Linsdell's How To Be Twittertastic is awesome for newbies and not so newbies to the twittersphere. She walks you through step by step how to set your twitter profile up and how to get it running off to a great start. Chock full of hints, tips, tricks; this is a must have guide to any author or writer that wants to know how to use twitter to reach out to their fans and engage new readers. This lady knows her stuff guys! I've also had a chance to read her series on Virtual Book Tours... I see a great series in the making!" - Virginia Lori Jennings

"Good ideas about how to market yourself and book on twitter. Did gain some valuable information. Worth my time to read and take notes." - C - Mama Likes To Read Book Blog

And because it's always nice to have a graphic to share to Pinterest....

Take advantage of this special offer now!

Limited time only!

Grab your copy at http://amzn.to/1MIWH9G

Ready to take the Twittertastic challenge?

Now you've got your copy I want to tell you about a special project I want to do. I'm looking for a few people to take part in a challenge. All you need to do is take some screenshots of your Twitter profile showing your number of followers, and make a few notes about the amount of engagement your tweets get.

You then take your copy of How to be Twittertastic and put the tips into practice. As you go through the book I need you to do some more screenshots and make a couple of notes about changes you notice.

The great thing is that anyone can take part. You can even do it if you don't have a Twitter account yet, as the book takes you through how to get started and set up your profile.

If you're interested in taking part in the challenge, please leave a comment below with your Twitter handle, or drop me a tweet at @JoLinsdell.