Tuesday Tip | Cathy C. Hall Writes

It’s finally here: Children’s Book Week!

I don’t have a horse in this race, as the expression goes, but I’m still excited to hear about the Children’s Choice Book Awards, 2013. Any minute today, they’ll post those titles, and I’ll take a few minutes to dream about my books and the what ifs that might follow…

Of course, first I have to deal with a little sticky wicket I call “publishing.” So, Tip One:

Book Publishers Accepting Submissions by Location

I can’t say for sure if a regional publisher is an easier sell. But I can say that this list of publishers are accepting submissions (unlike bigger publishers who only accept agented submissions). A local publisher may be a perfect fit for your proposal or manuscript, particularly if your book has a regional bent.

And Tip Two comes from one of my very favorite authors, Margaret Atwood. She shared her Ten Rules of Writing Fiction. Because before I can get my book published, I have to write the best book my brain can bust out. So I particularly liked Rule Ten:

10. Prayer might work. Or reading something else. Or a constant visualisation of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.

So, yeah. We’re back to publishing. And if I’m going to write and pray and visualize, I might as well dream big.

Like the Children’s Choice Book Awards. (You get a trophy, right?)

If Gladys can do it, so can you.

You heard me: dust off your blog! Or your website, if that’s where your writing stuff is laying about.

Here’s the thing. The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to do a little house-cleaning. And by house-cleaning, I mean getting your web presence in order. (I suppose you could actually get your home in order, too, but I’d probably be the last person to give tips on housework.)

The best part is that it doesn’t take a ton of your time. Just check all the links you have listed. Do they take readers to where they’re supposed to go? You’d be surprised at how often website domains change names (or maybe not, if you’ve noticed that I changed my domain name here at the blog). And if you come across an inactive site or blog or link you’ve listed, get rid of it. There’s no point in keeping clutter around.

And then, spruce up things a bit! Have you kept the same old, same old links to your work? A visitor might think you haven’t produced anything since 2007! So add your new stuff, a touch of color here and there, maybe rearrange your favorites, freshen things up.

In a half hour or so, you’ll look around and think, “Wow. It looks completely different up in here.” And besides, you know how much everyone loves a sweet-smelling blog.