WordPress

What a pleasure to have the authors’ social media and WordPress “guru”, Barb Drozdowich, pop in to chat with us here today.

I have to confess to being a tad … okay, VERY … intimidated by all the technology at our disposal now, even though I use it every day, all day. Between writing novels, newsletters, magazine articles and blog posts and working on the obligatory social media, there’s no avoiding it.

I’ve known Barb since I first published The Bridge Club and, as well as enjoying her friendship, she has been a constant source of support and assistance. She explains everything clearly and her YouTube site has some of the most helpful videos I’ve ever seen.

Whatever assistance you might require, I have no doubt Barb can provide it. I can’t begin to imagine the number of emails I have sent her with “HELP, PLEASE!” as the subject!

Here’s a quick look into her busy life and an introduction to some of the helpful author support books she has produced. Contact links are at the end of the post.

P.S. ~ The tag line on your website is “Helping one author at a time” and the support you offer the writing community is enormous. How did you first decide to get involved in this area of writing?

B.D. ~ Good question! I think that it kind of found me 🙂 Before giving birth to my daughter I ran the technical training department at a bank. Explaining technical subjects is something that I’m good at. When I saw authors repeatedly having trouble in their interactions with book bloggers – and in fact a survey of over 200 book bloggers bore that opinion out – I decided to start writing. My first book explained how authors could work effectively with book bloggers to get their books promoted. From there I attacked various technical tasks that authors have to learn to promote their books. I did my best to break down the subjects using non-technical language. I now have 6 books published and several more are in the works!

P.S. ~ Your latest book “The Book Blogger Platform” is chock full of excellent information for bloggers. It’s also a very helpful resource for authors because it helps us understand what book bloggers do and how we can effectively work together.

B.D. ~ Very true – one of the ideas that came out of the survey of book bloggers is the idea that a primer is needed. A book that describes not only the technical side to blogging but also the non-technical – the networking/social aspect. This book has been so well received I’m writing a similar one for authors. It should be available in a couple of months. I think that it’s really important that book bloggers learn from authors and vice versa. We both benefit – authors have an audience and book bloggers have books to read!

P.S. ~  One aspect of all your books that truly appeals to me is that they are so easy to understand. How do you do this?

B.D. ~ I’m not sure how I do this to be honest. I just naturally take technical subjects and break them down using common language. I can remember explaining the workings of a cell to a 1st year college class by comparing it to a factory. Amazing how many people quickly grasped the workings of a cell when I used that analogy. After years of doing this at the college level, I used the same technique when doing technical training in the corporate environment. I typically use words like “thingy” and other non-threatening language. I find that if I remove the barrier of the strange terms, people will realize that many things aren’t really that difficult!

P.S. ~ You have also established a much needed website for Canadian authors who self-publish. Can you tell us more about that?