Ahhh Such A Sweet Post About Me on Someone’s Blog
I often take time out of the monthly schedule to post messages to others about desiring an interview for my Inspirational podcast. We are on number 80 something now. Have committed to three coming out a year. But while returning to a website and an interview from an incredibly interesting man who represents a wonderful lot of talent I found this post on his blog. He states, “I recently did a radio interview with a very interesting lady who is a world class sculptor.” So nice of him to comment. and you can listen to the podcast if you are intersted. Great insight into marketing and bringing God into your business. Thanks for the plug Michael Smith. Ah, maybe some day this man will represent me and all of my creative endeavors! First, I must continue to build my platform and pray.
Show-Don’t Tell
An aspiring writer asked me if I could jot down examples or tell her more about “Show Don’t Tell”
I thought I would put some things here to help her to learn the process. Lord knows I have to practice it quite a bit in my own writing. According to Wikipedia “Show, don’t tell is an admonition to fiction writers to write in a manner that allows the reader to experience the story through a character’s action, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the narrator’s exposition, summarization, and description.”
So don’t just tell me your mother is an invalid and sick in a nursing home, show me. Describe it so it makes the reader “feel.” So, how do you get the reader to feel? I like Tara K Harper’s article on the subject- Show, Don’t Tell, the Story.
In Daily WritingTips Erin gives 4 tips on how to show not tell, including 1. Dialogue, 2. Sensory language 3. Be descriptive 4. Be specific, not vague. Be sure to check out the details in this article.
If you love Grammar Girl, and who does not love Grammar Girl, you can hear Mignon Fogarty talks about Show, Don’t tell. So check out the October 2010 podcast.
Of course “showing” often takes more words, and a lot more time. Frankly I think I have written non-fiction for so long that putting my hands to the typewriter “telling” comes much easier than showing. Which brings up a point. Is Showing only important in Fiction? Many believe a certain amount of showing is good in nonfiction as well. In this article 5 Non-Fiction book Writing Mistakes and Solutions Judy Cullins offers some suggestions for nonfiction writers.
Now on to writing and rewriting to show not tell.
I Need To Look At This More Seriously
I have been floating around the web looking for a shopping cart for another website that I have. Our God’s Word Collectible website is housed at network solutions and I need to get it out of there. So I am thinking of making the site all WordPress. But shopping for a shopping cart is a lot of work. I did find this good article by Dainis called Open Source E-Commerce shoping Carts- Best of. The list also has some paid shopping carts. It does not however list shopperspress which I am looking at as well. Here is the article link should anyone else need to investigate this process.
My Review of ZBrush 4
Recently I wrote a review on Zbrush 4 for Studio Monthly. Do check it out. Thank you to Yiannis Tyropolis and all the rest for their contribution of artwork for the article.
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker. Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com. She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a listing of all podcasts Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
An Exploration Of The Self And Sacred
As part of my graduate studies I would like to present this video. For those of you who are not aware, I am travel to Goddard in Vermont twice a year for graduate school. I have a dual graduate study of writing and sculpting for a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts. (MFAIA) This semester I tried to go “outside of my box” a bit by creating this altar or sorts. Of course this piece of artwork is only a part of this semester.
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker. Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a listing of all podcasts
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
What Is On My Marketing Check List?
Some wonder, “Do you sleep?” What are your marketing endeavors?
I do have a list in my head, but here are some I have going now, as well as some that I have achieved.
√ 1. Contact SCBWI about letter of reference on marketing workshop
√ 2. Post support material for marketing workshop
3. Twitter on posts about the above.
4. Research Christian Agents- Check out the video in the post Great Resources for Writers on Finding an Agent.
5. Must figure out how to redo the God’s Word website, and changing servers. Looking at different shopping cart options. ( HUGE UNDERTAKING. DEADLINE FOR CHANGING THE ENTIRE WEBSITE- END OF YEAR IF NOT SOONER! )
6. Help as many people as I can, because it is a good thing to do.
7. Schedule November Podcasts- all podcasts are marketing in one way or another.
8. Look into the new, wonderful terrific idea I had to support the writing of this present book. ( sorry guys can’t share this yet.)
9. Post on blog
10. Edit and put up podcast that was recorded last month to Budapest
11. Look at taking marketing workshops into online webinars.
12. Ride my daughter, because she is creating new marketing material for my fine art and taking a very, very long time to complete them. But I love her and am busy with other things.
13. Write a letter to the kids at Culture Shapers, this is more need to inspire than to market.
14. Research websites that can find and monitor tweets per subject.
Great Resources For Writers on Finding an Agent
The CBI Clubhouse, Home for Children’s Book Insider Readers posted some good marketing video on their website. Excellent resource. I’m pleased they has done it because I woke up this morning and decided to do the exact same thing and now I don’t have to. Do look at their page. A wealth of information.
Also ,here is a great article, which seems to be updated regularly that includes a list of Agents that represent Christian authors.
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker. Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a listing of all podcasts
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Did You Attend The Workshop? What Did You Think?
If you attended one of the two workshops at the Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators-Houston meeting, please send me your comments. I’d like to know what you thought and I can then post them here. Please include your name and description. You can send a small picture of yourself or one of your books, if published, but it is not necessary. But, if you have a website please include your URL so that I can post that link on this blog. We did not get to cover a lot of the Search Engine Optimization techniques, one is to having links to your website on other people’s blogs. I’d love to hear from you and help out with that.
Great presentation last night bridgette.
Bruce Foster
Obviously, there is a lot more you have to share and I for one, am all ears!
Paper artist
Thanks Bruce, I am always so impressed with the quality of illustrators, and writers we have coming to our SCBWI- Houston meeting. I came home and told my husband about your incredible pop up books. Congratulations on the Harry Potter Pop Up Book Releasing November 16th. I went to your website and was also pleased to see you were using video to help market your books. We didn’t get to talk about that subject yet. GREAT MARKETING TOOL! I never heard the title “Paper Engineer,” but I have great respect for one. I am an adult fan of pop up books. It might be because I love anything miniature, and loved paper dolls. Keep up the good work and we definitely have to explore more of the marketing tools for writers.
Bridgette mongeon is a successful artist and promoter, and is determined to help others achieve the same success. Her upbeat workshop, guided assignments, and generous follow up information went far towards making us feel we can follow in her footsteps. Best of all, for us who are-less tech-savvy was her constant reassurances that she was on call if we needed more help.
Pat Miller, LMS
www.patmillerbooks.com
Thank you Pat. I appreciate your enthusiasm. Just went to your website and checked out your great children’s books.
______________________________________________________________________________
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker. Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a listing of all podcasts
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Programming Co-Chair, SCBWI-Houston
Notes From The Marketing In The Arts Workshop Last Night
We covered a lot in the workshop on arts and marketing last night at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and illustrators- Houston. Here is a list of some of my suggestions and links that others may be interested in. This was on the handout and may not make sense to everyone, especially those who missed the event. I’m excluding the items we did not have time to cover.
Accountability If you want to make a change in your marketing efforts than accountability is the key. Find an accountability partner or come by the forum and sign up and post your progress and questions. The forum is an informative place that I will be checking in. ( In 2020 the forum is replaced with a private facebook group for all of those who have taken the online marketing workshop webinars. ) It is like asking me questions and getting one on one help but instead with a community to help you as well. (In 2020 Bridgette replaced the forum with a private facebook group for all who have taken her webinars or workshops.)
Plan for Your Pony- Homework
List five people you admire who are doing what you want to be doing. Contact them and ask them how they got started and if they have any suggestions.
Find as many organizations that work with people who do what you want. Get their information and if possible join their organizations.
Search periodicals that are about what you want to do. Are there any clubs, computer forums? Subscribe to them.
Do you have a list of competitors? What are they doing?
What tools do you need? What are their cost, where do you get them?
your website and for
free submission you
must check out
Selfpromotion.com
Where can you gain more knowledge about the mechanics of what you want to do?
100 Ideas
I am committing to____hours of marketing___ days a week from now until_______.
We spoke about creating blogs and websites and about secure servers for selling items.
Here is you check list
- Obtain a domain name
- Create a site map
- Write your content
- Pick hosting company
- Create you website- I highly suggest using a word press Website. It is easy to maintain.
- Create meta data ( we did not get to cover this)
- Promote (we did not get to cover this) Though I did tell everyone to go to this incredible website called Selfpromotion.com You will know you are at the right spot if you see tooter! This little guy .
Some thoughts on blogs and websites
- It is better to have one under your own domain name. but having something is better than having nothing at all.
- To find a domain name go to Network Solutions and check it out.
- Cost of a domain name registration $15.00, but some hosting companies will give you that for signing up.
- Cost of webs hosting $4.95-8.95 and up. ( Little cost, price depends on hosting companies) I use hostgator.
- Cost- Learning curve- there will be one.
- WordPress 101 has some great Videos on getting started in WordPress. My friend Shawn just asks for a donation and half of that goes for breast cancer awareness as he supports his sister’s fight with breast cancer. Check out the videos. Shawn also suggested Hundred Buck Website or Page.ly. Though you can just go to hostgator and ask them to sign you up and put up a wordpress blog and then just start creating it. If you have questions Hostgator is pretty helpful but won’t talk to you about the wordpress portion of it after the blog is on and you get your admin panel. Then I would suggest Shawn’s tutorials and if you have questions you can also post them on the forum.
If you have a book published check out Amazon’s author pages. Get one yourself.
We learned about RSS feed- here is a great video that I use to show people about RSS Feed.
I also gave the following links to assist you in your marketing efforts.
To help you to write down your thoughts and gather your information I love clustering. Learn more about clustering from Gabriele Lusser Rico Gabrielerico.com
One to One- This is the best thing for apple users. Need guidance all the way through making your website or blog, creating a podcast or other things. Check this out. Incredible. Check out this video on One to One. Sorry PC people this incredible resource is only available to Mac.
Don’t forget to check out HARO which is great for gathering information for articles and also finding a place to pitch your own work. Here is a video on HARO that I created. This topic was actually in our first workshop.
We did not have time to go over SEO Search Engine Optimization, Marketing with Articles, Twitter, Video, Podcast and others.
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker. Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a listing of all podcasts
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
I Was Glad to Encourage At The Society of Children’s Book Writers And Illlustrators-Houston. Here Is How To Keep That Motivation
Thank you all at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)- Houston for having me out to speak for the second session of Marketing in the Arts. Many have been posting on the SCBWI list serve today with brains overflowing with thoughts about all that we talked about. I am sad to say that time was short and we were only able to get to half of the presentation. Perhaps we will have to continue next year.
I have stated, in the past, that this marketing workshop is intended for longer interactive sessions. Thus the reason why so many had the “Deer in the headlight look about them.” If you missed last night or part one or are unclear about some things, don’t fear. Here are some suggestions. Head over to the Creativesculpture.com/forum and become a member. (NOTE TO SELF: create a short video that walks people through the steps of being a forum member and the importance.) ( In 2020 the forum was replaced by an online private facebook group Marketing in the Arts and Small Business.) There are several reasons for this instruction. First, if you pose a question on the forum you create a thread. A thread basically is a thought or question that others can chime in on. So if Jill is having trouble making her “Jack is a Dunce for falling up a hill” blog then we can all offer our ideas and suggestions. I’ll try to come to the forum on a regular basis and chime in. I’ll also post the notes from the marketing workshop on a thread and in my blog https://creativesculpture.com/blog, as well as other helpful information and links that I find that are inline with this subject.
Remember when you are on a forum, that you should put your website or blog link into your post signature. That way you have a link to your blog on someone else’s website. This helps with traffic to your site and SEO (Search Engine Optimization. ) Another subject that we did not have time to fully talk about last night. Also, ask the members of the forum to come and see your blog or website. We can all chime in. And this can be a great place for accountability. Just like NANOWRIMO National Novel Writing Month it is about having a community or an individual that you can be accountable to. I highly recommend that.
I am more than happy to assist you in navigating this marketing labyrinth , but I have reasons for answering questions through the forum. My biggest reason is that often the same question gets asked over and over again. If I answer it on the forum, then those coming into the forum can read it and learn from our conversation. This saves me a lot of time. Also others can help to answer your question.
I am a sculptor, illustrator, writer, speaker, podcast host, owner of a small business and graduate student. As many say, over and over again, in the last two sessions, “When do you sleep?” It is true, I am very, very busy, therefore I could not conduct personal consultation as it takes away from my own creative time and… I would hate to charge for it. My speaking and conference appearances are what I charge for. (Though, FYI, I am known to chat over a meal, especially breakfast. I love going out to breakfast.) Another suggestion would be to have me come to do some of this workshop at your conference, with break out sessions to meet with individuals. I don’t know who would be in charge of that, but if you are interested be sure to let the “powers that be” know.
I want to encourage you all to proceed with your marketing. I have given you a lot of direction, but the point is to do something toward marketing yourself. If you have trouble figuring out just one thing to start check out the article, “100 things to do to market myself.”
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker. Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a listing of all podcasts
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast