Is NO Not Clear Enough For You?

Is NO Not Clear Enough For You?

by Angelia Vernon Menchan
(Jacksonville, Florida)

Is NO Not Clear Enough For You?

I actually started writing after my youngest son started college. I was as green as the rain forest, but determined. I work as a budget analyst, but always had a heart for creative writing. In 2006 I vanity-published my first book and thought I was on my way. While that was not a bad experience, the book was too costly, limiting my support. As a result I learned through friends and online groups, how to truly self publish, by incorporating my company, MAMM Productions, allowing my husband to design my book covers and purchasing my own ISBN numbers and graphic design programs. Once, that was done, I simply had to write. What has worked for me more than anything is getting out in my community and marketing my work. I talk to schools, churches, libraries and I will sign a book anywhere, I have been featured at many online book clubs, have been interviewed online and off, in fact this weekend I have radio interview promoting Is NO Not Clear Enough For You?

I am a true believer in utilizing local public events, I have sold books at book fairs, such as Zora Neale Hurston Festival, but also more non traditional venues including art and fashion shows. Whatever it takes to promote my books is what I will do.

What has helped more than anything is believing in my message, promoting what I do vigorously and having people who believe in and support what I do. Is NO has been a fantastic journey because it has allowed me to mentor by writing. If I had not published my own work, I would probably have not gotten the opportunity to meet so many amazing people at the grassroots level and would not be mentoring some of the young people I currently am working with.

Angelia Vernon Menchan

Visit Angelia's site.

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Is NO Not Clear Enough For You?

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Aug 26, 2008
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Thanks!
by: Moz�t

Your post was very inspiring. I feel truly encouraged by your story of hard work and determination. I am currently finishing up my novel today. I have been looking for literary agents all week, but a part of me is dying to self publish my book. I just want to know how it feels to be in complete control of my own project, and then eventually open up my own publishing company one day. The down side to that is money. If I self publish I may not make as much right?? What are your thoughts on that? Should I try to get published, and then if all else fails self publish as a last resort?

I included web sight is below. Thanks again!

www.lovemozet.com

Aug 21, 2008
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Booked Blog
by: Anonymous

I am actually working on it and I am going to keep in mind your suggestions, considering I have a new book coming out December 1, and I plan to share this site with all the readers I know...

angelia

Aug 20, 2008
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Blog gets more traffic than site
by: Steve B. (webmaster)

Angelia, thanks for writing back.

The reason I expected that about the blog (and I'm saying this as much for other authors who read this as for you!) is because it has so much more text!

The simple relationship so few authors seem to grasp is

more content (text) ---> more traffic

It's pretty simple: the search engines hunt down text in their efforts to find the best "answer" to a query. The more text you have, the more queries you're going to be the best answer for.

(And folks wonder why their 5 page site doesn't get traffic!)

That said, blogs tend not to get found by the engines as much as a traditional website with the same amount of content. This is for a few reasons:

1) Blogs aren't as easily "spidered" (the engines have more trouble finding all the pages)

2) A blog that isn't continually posted to starts to "smell." In other words, the point to blogging is assumed to be timeliness, hence a stagnant blog is assumed to be old news. (As are, to a large extent, your old posts!)

3) A page on a traditional site tends to be more "keyword focused." Take your June 25th post on the BET Awards...

If this post were on a traditional site, rather than a blog, it's url might be BETawards.html instead of the date of your post (which says, "Stale!). The Page Title might have been BET 2008 rather than Angelia's...Ramblings. You would have written a "meta" description and keyword list that spoke to the page's contents. And all this would have gone a long way toward telling the engines, "This page is about the 2008 BET Awards. Please rate it ahead of other pages!"

Your blog is terrific, but these are the reasons I always advise authors with the willingness to post that much writing to the 'net that they'll get more bang for their buck with a site than a blog.

(Here's someone else saying it better than I am.)

That said, it looks like you're having a lot of fun doing what you're doing, and sometimes that's a lot more important than traffic. Keep up the good work!

(P.S. Do you give serious thought to publishing the blog in book form?)

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Aug 20, 2008
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Submitted by: Steve B. (webmaster)

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Comment
Angelia, thanks for writing back. The reason I expected that about the blog (and I'm saying this as much for other authors who read this as for you!) is because it has so much more text! The simple relationship so few authors seem to grasp is more content (text) ---> more traffic It's pretty simple: the search engines hunt down text in their efforts to find the best "answer" to a query. The more text you have, the more queries you're going to be the best answer for. (And folks wonder why their 5 page site doesn't get traffic!) That said, blogs tend not to get found by the engines as much as a traditional website with the same amount of content. This is for a few reasons: 1) Blogs aren't as easily "spidered" (the engines have more trouble finding all the pages) 2) A blog that isn't continually posted to starts to "smell." In other words, the point to blogging is assumed to be timeliness, hence a stagnant blog is assumed to be old news. (As are, to a large extent, your old posts!) 3) A page on a traditional site tends to be more "keyword focused." Take your June 25th post on the BET Awards... If this post were on a traditional site, rather than a blog, it's url might be BETawards.html instead of the date of your post (which says, "Stale!). The Page Title might have been BET 2008 rather than Angelia's...Ramblings. You would have written a "meta" description and keyword list that spoke to the page's contents. And all this would have gone a long way toward telling the engines, "This page is about the 2008 BET Awards. Please rate it ahead of other pages!" Your blog is terrific, but these are the reasons I always advise authors with the willingness to post that much writing to the 'net that they'll get more bang for their buck with a site than a blog. (Here's someone else <A HREF="http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com/writingsuccess.html" TARGET="new">saying it better than I am</A>.) That said, it looks like you're having a lot of fun doing what you're doing, and sometimes that's a lot more important than traffic. Keep up the good work! (P.S. Do you give serious thought to publishing the blog in book form?)

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Aug 20, 2008
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Is No response
by: angelia

Thanks Steve,
actually my blog does attract more attention and many times I blog daily, in fact when I am not blogging my readers get antsy, in fact many have asked me to compile my blogs in book form so they can purchase...

angelia

Aug 20, 2008
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Getting your positive message out there
by: Steve B. (webmaster)

Angelia, reading your post, it's clear you're doing a better job marketing your book in the real world than most of us could ever hope to do. It sounds like you don't take NO for an answer.

So let's talk online. Your home page has a title that reads, "Blank"! So that's what it's blue link text in Google says. It's hard to get the click for a page that says, "Blank."

I see also that you're blogging, and that you keep the blog pretty current. I'm guessing that because of all that "content," you get more traffic to your blog than your site. Is that true? (You can always reply by commenting.)

Judging from the blog, and all your book output, it seems you have a lot of writing energy!

Have you ever thought about writing a site on a subject that compels you, say the lives of young African American women? One strategy for attracting traffic on the web is to put forth a lot of information - well organized - on an important subject.

(As opposed to angeliavmenchan.com which really just puts forth information on you and your book.)

The notion is that folks come for free information and that some of them then take the next step - buying one of your books.

According to Google, over 90,000 people per month do a search including the words African American women. Writing a site on some aspect of that subject could mean a lot of traffic!

I created this site because shared-self-publishing.com has a lot more traffic potential than stevebarancik.com. That's because (sadly) there's a lot more interest in self publishing than there is in little old me. Now, if my name were Oprah Winfrey...

Write back if you'd like to discuss more.

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Aug 20, 2008
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Submitted by: Steve B. (webmaster)

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Comment
Angelia, reading your post, it's clear you're doing a better job marketing your book in the real world than most of us could ever hope to do. It sounds like <b>you</b> don't take NO for an answer. So let's talk online. Your home page has a title that reads, "Blank"! So that's what it's blue link text in Google says. It's hard to get the click for a page that says, "Blank." I see also that you're blogging, and that you keep the blog pretty current. I'm guessing that because of all that "content," you get more traffic to your blog than your site. Is that true? (You can always reply by <A HREF="http://www.shared-self-publishing.com/is-no-not-clear-enough-for-you-comment-form.html">commenting</A>.) Judging from the blog, and all your book output, it seems you have a lot of writing energy! Have you ever thought about <A HREF="http://infopublishing.sitesell.com/writingsuccess.html">writing a site</A> on a subject that compels you, say the lives of young African American women? One strategy for attracting traffic on the web is to put forth a lot of information - well organized - on an important subject. (As opposed to angeliavmenchan.com which really just puts forth information on you and your book.) The notion is that folks come for free information and that some of them then take the next step - buying one of your books. According to Google, over 90,000 people per month do a search including the words <b>African American women</b>. Writing a site on some aspect of that subject could mean a lot of traffic! I created this site because shared-self-publishing.com has a lot more traffic potential than stevebarancik.com. That's because (sadly) there's a lot more interest in self publishing than there is in little old me. Now, if my name were Oprah Winfrey... Write back if you'd like to discuss more.

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Is NO Not Clear Enough For You?

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Is NO Not Clear Enough For You?