Author: RJ Crayton

RJ Crayton is a former journalist turned novelist. By day, she writes thrillers with a touch of romance. By night, she practices the art of ninja mom. To learn more about her or her books, visit her website or her Author Central page.

Authors Can Share Words as Images to Widen Reach

regret_tlt_quoteYou’ve probably seen them. You may even have shared them: an image that contains a really cool quote.

Last month, Jim Devitt told us that images get more interaction than text, so turning text from your novel into an image is a great way to increase reach, while getting out word about your book. Image quotes also allow authors to interact on image-based social media (like Pinterest) with something other than their book covers.

If you think image quotes are something you’d like to try, here is the skinny on what you need to know to make it work. Continue reading “Authors Can Share Words as Images to Widen Reach”

Microcerpt Exploits Power of the Excerpt

Microcerpt_homeA website has emerged with the goal of introducing readers to books through the power of excerpt.

Microcerpt, which is free to authors and readers, allows authors to post short excerpts (Microcerpts) from their books onto the site. Readers can browse the excerpts, and if they’re tantalized by one, buy the book. Continue reading “Microcerpt Exploits Power of the Excerpt”

Fitting a Prequel into Your Series

prequel chicken or the eggGeorge Lucas has done many wonderful things for the world (Star Wars, American Graffiti, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Wars), but one of the most fun is his popularization of the term “prequel.” According to Wikipedia (that hub of fan information that hasn’t necessarily been vetted), the term appeared sometime in 1956, but wasn’t popularized until Lucas announced he was doing a “prequel” to his Star Wars trilogy that would give backstory of Darth Vader.

By definition, a prequel is a sequel. It comes after the original work was written. However, it’s the backstory component that leads up to how the main characters got to be who they were.

While I love George’s popularization of the prequel, I’m not that happy with one other thing he popularized: re-numbering the series to make it seem as if the prequel should be read/watched first. There are many things I loved about Star Wars: Episode I, but I’m not sure I would have sat through that much Jar Jar had I not watched the now renamed Star Wars Episodes IV, V (OMG, Darth Vader is Luke’s father!) and VI. Continue reading “Fitting a Prequel into Your Series”

Plugins Every Author Can Use

toolboxAs authors, it’s important for us to have a website or blog devoted to our work. A common and easy way to do this is to use WordPress or Google (via Blogger or Google Sites). Neither method requires HTML knowledge, so they’re easy to use and manage. While these sites are pretty basic, we authors can use plugins (for WordPress) or widgets (Blogger) to add fancy features that would normally require us to know all sorts of programming languages (XML, HTML, JAVA) if we had to create them on our own.

So, today I’m offering up some cool plugins/widgets all authors should consider for their sites. Continue reading “Plugins Every Author Can Use”