Today was an admin day. All these little things add up to a mountain so I decided to tackle everything so I could start the week fresh and just write.
Things I did:
Updated my Author Website: This has been long overdue. I changed the theme, customized it, scrubbed the old posts and updated the pages. Still to do is post new content this upcoming week to replace all the posts I purged. I also have to establish a social media calendar to ensure I post content across my blog, twitter account, and instagram. They’re all pretty empty at the moment.
Linked UK & Canada Stores on Amazon Associates OneClick: I’m planning to host weekly posts featuring books and I want to add affiliate links to them. Affiliate links are an easy way to make some extra money. The holidays are coming up and people buy a lot of things on Amazon. I’m hoping to get some of that action.
Signed up for ConvertKit: Started a paid subscription. I got my first batch of subscribers from a list builder I signed up for. (I’ll discuss my list building approach in a separate post.) I created a couple of forms and integrated them into my author website.
Discussed Fonts: I contacted one of my cover designers on the font he has on my covers. It seems like a little thing but it’s time consuming. I really want my branding to be consistent. I have a nice author font across the covers I’ve commissioned from various cover artists but I decided I want this cover designer to have a different font. I want a thicker font that stands out in thumbnail size. I had to hunt for fonts and share them with him so he could test them on the covers he’s designed. I still haven’t found the perfect one. This is a work-in-progress.
Modified an Existing Promotion Website: I have an existing book promotion website that I haven’t touched since early this year. I scrubbed all references to my pen name. Starting Tuesday, I’ll be sending out regular emails to the existing newsletter contacts. I plan to run a book fair in November so I will reach out to the author subscribers next month to set that up.
Created a Google Form for Author Newsletter Swaps and Promotions: I realized I need to take full advantage of seeing a lot of authors at November’s conference. My plan is to have a lot of business cards on hand with a QR code to the google form. Ideally I’d get fantasy authors that want to help promote my book in return for me promoting theirs.
Started Designing the Business Card: This is a work in progress. I need a couple of book covers to be finalized, which means I need to choose a font, and then I can finish the design and order the cards.
Updated my Expenses File: I’ve left some paid invoices in my inbox. Updating my expenses file meant I could finally clean out my inbox by filing them away, and have a better idea of how much I’ve spent so far on everything (the answer: too much).
Now that I have my admin sorted, I can focus on writing for the week.