May 29th
Kenneth Bliss
I have decided to start over with the website. The tools and templates Wix.com utilize are good, but they are a little clunky and there are aspects of website building I don’t know how to do and need help. The online conference I attended in March had a session with Jones House Creative about the business side of writing. Among other services they offered, website creation was part of it. After hemming and hawing about it for well over a month, I decided to talk to them. The short of it is I’ve hired them to recreate my site.
The package I purchased will handle everything I really want to see on a website: multiple pages for the different worlds I will create, a better newsletter system, blog, forums, consistent branding throughout, a logo and a merchandise system. They will handle the technical issues and updates for a while along with expanding the site for some six months after the initial release. I will need to provide content, of course, but they would implement the content. After the initial six months, I’ll have to decide if I can handle updates on my own or pay for them to keep things running smoothly.
In addition to the website, I’ll be expanding my presence on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. The fun part there is learning how to utilize these social media platforms to send people to the website and sign up. If you remember, I’ll need 2000+ subscribers to be credibly considered by agents and/or publishers. All of this is an investment toward that goal. It isn’t cheap, but lately I’ve been reminded by God this is what I need to do. So, I’m investing in this writing career.
I hope you enjoyed this article!
God bless everyone!
Website Update
See above. 😊
The Paladin Awakens Progress Report
I have finished the book with the ACFW Scribes critique group. Yea! The Realm Makers Conference in July offered a paid critique service for a reasonable price, so I’ve elected to send the prologue and part of chapter 1 to be critiqued by an author. I made changes to the prologue to speed up the action/tension but left chapter 1 alone. I’m curious to see what the author has to say before making any other changes.
In the meantime, I’m working on what’s called a lead/reader magnet for the site. Normally, it’s a freebie short story or the first couple chapters of a book to entice people to come to the site. The story I planned on using is quite long for a short story. A short story is 7500 words or less. Mine is currently 20k words, which puts it into the novella category (17.5k-40k words). Jones House suggested I offer the first couple chapters of the novella free and sell the rest on the site. I liked that idea, so when the new site is up and running, everyone will be offered the first two chapters of The Accident.
My Name is Kenneth Bliss.
I am a Mathematics and Computer Science degree holder from the University of Michigan-Flint...which has nothing to do with writing. I am also a retired insurance professional of thirty-three years...which barely has anything to do with writing.
Read more About Kenneth...
