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End of Year Countdown: 5 Top Fives of 2017

Photo credit: derekskey on Flickr

Somehow, it's time for the last post of 2017! Wow. Strange to think 2018 is basically here—and what a whirlwind of a year it's been.

But of course, last post of 2017 means it's time to continue Writability's annual tradition of sharing my five top fives. So here we go!

Top 5 Most Popular Posts (on Writability) of the Year

Like last year, I used Google Analytics to find the most popular posts of 2017. Interestingly, while some of them overlapped with last year, many of them didn't.

Top 5 Favorite (Writerly) Tumblr Blogs of the Year

Tumblr is awesome and there's lots of great bookish stuff there. Here are many of the writerly/readerly blogs I reblog the most from.

Top 5 Favorite Books of the Year

History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera for the beautifully heartbreaking feels.
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee for the outrageous laughs and warm fuzzies.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for the brilliance that absolutely lives up to the hype.
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon for the really unique and beautifully done far-reaching story.
Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller for an awesome genderfluid assassin fantasy story that works.

Top 5 Favorite Twitter Accounts

@Celeste_pewter for her accurate, patient, and incredibly useful political knowledge and down-to-earth advice.
@Bibliogato for their perfect blend of writerly and political tweets.
@ericsmithrocks for his seriously adorable corgi and baby pictures mixed with hilariously relatable writerly and readerly tweets.
@veschwab for her incredibly open and sobering writerly tweets.
@RileyJayDennis for her consistently great information on trans issues.

Top 5 Favorite Movies of the Year

What? Top five movies? Yes, this is a new category, but I like movies and this year had some truly great ones. So without further ado, make sure you catch these if you haven't already.

Wonder Woman
Thor: Ragnarok
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Logan

So those are my top fives of 2017—do you have any favorites of the year you'd like to share?

Happy New Year, everyone!

Twitter-sized bites:

Writer @Ava_Jae shares their top fives of 2017—what are some of your favorite writing resources of the year? (Click to tweet)

End of Year Countdown: 5 Top Fives of 2016

Photo credit: Vicky Brock on Flickr

It's the last post of 2016! Which is a very strange and surreal thing to write, but also means it's time for Writability's annual tradition. Without further ado, here are my top fives of 2016. :)

Top 5 Most Popular Posts (On Writability)

I actually finally figured out a way to use Google Analytics to show the most popular posts for this year, rather than the most popular posts of all time, which don't change much. Interestingly, none of the most popular posts of this year were written this year either. Also the kissing post got a huge boost this year for reasons unknown. Cool. :)

Top 5 Most Active Commenters

As explained every year, I use Disqus’s very nice widget on my sidebar to keep track of how many comments every lovely commenter makes. The system isn’t perfect and only keeps track of accounts, so if you comment on multiple accounts, it thinks you’re more than one person, but regardless, these five fabulous readers are the most active commenters of the Writability community—thank you!

Note: Those with one asterisk were on the top five list last year, three asterisks have been on the top five list for three years, and those with four asterisks were on the top five list the year before that! Thanks for being part of the Writability community, everyone!

Top 5 Favorite (Writerly) Tumblr Blogs of the Year

I really love tumblr. I've learned so much from so many incredible people over there, and it also remains a great place to just find nice—and nerdy—awesomeness.

These are my top five favorite writerly and bookish tumblr blogs, calculated by tumblr off which blogs I reblog and like the most.

Top 5 Favorite Books of the Year

I've read a lot of really incredible books this year, and these especially stuck with me and earned their place in my favorites list.

Strong Signal by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
Saga Deluxe Edition, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

Top 5 Favorite Twitter Accounts

I spend too much time on Twitter, but there are some pretty amazing people there. This favorite list has taken a political emphasis for obvious reasons—the following accounts are mostly all excellently writerly and political with a great balance between the two, except Judd Legum, who is just a great reporter. In no particular order, you should follow these amazing people:

So those are my top fives of 2016—do you have any favorites of the year you'd like to share?

Happy New Year, everyone!

Twitter-sized bites:

Writer @Ava_Jae shares her top fives of 2016—what are some of your favorite writing resources of 2016? (Click to tweet)

How to Build an Online Platform: tumblr

Photo credit: Scott Beale on Flickr

Continuing with my somewhat sporadic How to Build series, it’s time to talk about one of my favorite social media sites—tumblr!

tumblr is a surprise favorite, because when I first created an account, I had no idea what I was doing. It took me several weeks of seeing what other people were doing and playing around for me to really get it. But I’m glad I stuck with it, because it’s now a pretty fabulous traffic source, and also I find inspirational and/or funny things on there all the time.

tumblr birthday: July 9, 2011 (roughly 3.5 years, as of this writing…at least, that’s when I reblogged my first post)
Followers: 840 (as of this writing)
Time spent weekly: Honestly? No idea. I check it daily and sometimes spend two minutes and sometimes…considerably longer.

Tips:

Follow a bunch of blogs that interest you. This is the quickest (and most enjoyable) way to get the most out of tumblr, while also learning how tumblr interactions work. I follow writing blogs, art blogs, author blogs, and loads of blogs about books. Right now, my most liked and reblogged blogs (according to tumblr) are Beth Revis’s tumblr, YA Highway, Corinne Duyvis’s tumblr, Renée Ahdieh’s tumblr, Nita Tyndall’s tumblr, The Writing Cafe, The Art of Fiction, Disability in Kidlit, and It’s a Writer Thing.

Add tags when you reblog. If you’re familiar with Twitter hashtags, these work fairly similarly. I’ll admit I’ve been a little lazy with this lately, but this actually really helps other people stumble across your posts, even if they don’t follow you.

Create your own posts, when possible. Reblogging is great, and probably will be 80% of your tumblr interactions (which is fine, because a large part of tumblr is about sharing each other’s posts). But I also recommend you try to share your own content whenever possible. I cross-post all of my Writability posts and bookishpixie vlogs on tumblr, and occasionally cross-post Instagram pics or create something just for tumblr. It’s a great way to show your follows a little more about you (not just what you like to reblog) and can be a nice way to inject extra personality.

Add commentary when you reblog. You don’t have to do this every time, of course (I definitely don’t), but when you see something that you can comment on, go for it. The great thing about tumblr is you can see what other people have commented, and sometimes the comments end up being more interesting than the original post (or make the original post more interesting). This is also another great way to inject personality and give the original poster extra feedback.

So those are my tumblr tips! Now I want to hear from you: are you on tumblr? What tips (or questions) do you have?

Twitter-sized bites:

Looking to build a platform on tumblr? @Ava_Jae shares her experience and a few tips. (Click to tweet)

"Follow a bunch of blogs that interest you," and other tumblr platform building tips from @Ava_Jae. (Click to tweet)

Why Tumblr is Useful for Bloggers

Photo credit: Julia Roy on Flickr

Way back, I wrote a post about tumblr for writers, so if you don’t know what a tumblr is or why it maybe useful for writers, that’s where you want to go. This is related, but more blogger-centric.

When I first created a tumblr blog several years ago, I signed up thinking it might be good for inspiration and a little social media fun. I definitely didn’t think it’d one day become the fifth largest traffic source for Writability. But after many years and more than a couple posts becoming way more popular on tumblr than I ever expected, I’ve come to realize tumblr can be a fantastic way for bloggers to share their posts.

As a rule, I generally share every post I publish on blogger in full on tumblr. When I first started experimenting with this, I initially just shared a couple paragraphs then included a “read more” link, but I found that people usually didn’t click to read more and they often didn’t share because the post was incomplete. So I tried sharing the posts in their entirety instead, including a link to the original post on the blogger blog, by sharing it as a link post rather than a text post.

Much to my surprise, that worked about a thousand times better. Sometimes literally.

Because of this happy success, I thought I’d share with you a couple steps to maximizing your tumblr reach:

As mentioned above, share your posts as a LINK post. See the screenie up there? That’s the button you want to press. The reason this works better is it allows you to share the URL of the original post, so if people are interested they can click back to your blog and check it out. As proven by my traffic, people do click.

Make sure you title your link post. I’ve often seen posts shared that were just a URL. Those tend to get less shares, because they look messy and aren’t as clear as those that are titled. Titling your post is easy—just type in whatever the title of your blog post is in the box that says “Title.” Pretty self-explanatory.

Use tags. I read somewhere that tumblr only pays attention to the first five tags that you include, so make sure you choose your tags carefully. These are important, because oftentimes people will search certain keywords for a post they’re looking for, and if you tagged your post with that keyword, they’ll come across your post even if they’re not following you. It’s an easy way to get a little extra exposure.

Follow blogs that are similar to yours. As I run a writing blog, I follow other blogs that often share posts about writing, like The Writers Helpers, It’s a Writer Thing, The Writing Cafe and How to Fight Write, all of which are excellent blogs that you should definitely be following if you’re a writer on tumblr.

The reason this helps you with exposure is because oftentimes, bloggers will notice when a certain follower often shares their posts, which can lead to said bloggers checking out your blog, which can lead to them following your blog, which can lead to them eventually sharing some of your posts. The tumblr community is pretty awesome like that. :)

The great thing about tumblr is your posts have a shelf life of basically forever. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a post suddenly get tons of reblogs (or shares) months after I originally posted. It happens, and it happens pretty frequently.

So if you’re a blogger whose been considering starting a tumblr blog, I definitely recommend it. It’s been a wonderful experience thus far, and one I intend to continue for a long time.

Do you use tumblr? Why or why not?

Twitter-sized bites:

Blogger @Ava_Jae shares how tumblr unexpectedly became her 5th largest traffic source. #bloggingtips (Click to tweet)

Bloggers, do you share your posts on tumblr? Writer @Ava_Jae talks how and why you may want to consider it. (Click to tweet)

Why tumblr is useful for bloggers and how to maximize your shares there. (Click to tweet)

Social Media: Is it Worth the Time?

Photo credit: Tom Raftery on Flickr

When discussing time management and writing, I often joke about the hazards of the time-sucking internet, usually citing Twitter and tumblr as top offenders.

To anyone who has logged on to either of those sites (or onto just about any social media site, for that matter) it’s no secret that a so-called five minute break can quickly become a half hour excursion or even longer if your self-control fails you. If you’re not careful, social media can very easily suck up time that could be spent writing, or working on a plethora of other important things.

That being said, it’s not unreasonable to start to wonder if social media is worth the time. And to that I answer a very assured yes.

You see, while (most) social media is free of charge, it does come at the cost of our time. But the investment you put into your online presence absolutely does reap rewards, and I’ve broken them down into five categories.

Five Rewards from Social Media Investment:

Exposure. Whether you’re a writer or an artist, an editor or a musician, social media allows you to freely distribute your work to the masses. For some, that means blogs, for others it means being ridiculous witty (or kind) on Twitter. Point is that it allows you to get out there and show the world what you have to offer.

Inspiration. This is huge. While inspiration-searching is often what can lead to the time-suck of doom, social media brings inspiration to all types in many different formats—whether it’s links to incredible posts on Twitter, beautiful pictures on tumblr or Pinterest, or touching videos on Youtube, social media is an endless source of inspiration.

Connections. Relationships. People. I’ve written about the heart of social media before, and this right here is it.

Opportunities. You know those pitch contests I’ve been raving about as of late? I never would have heard about them without Twitter. And those Twitter pitch fests that have garnered more than a handful of agent requests for writers? Also would be impossible without social media. Opportunities are everywhere and social media makes them even easier to find.

Growth. A combination of the above four elements leads to one thing: growth. Social media allows us to learn from each other, to learn from sharing our work and making mistakes and seeing how others succeed. It creates experiences we can learn from that we would not have had without it.

What do you think? Is social media worth the time? Why or why not?

Tumblr for Writers

I while back I wrote a post about social media for writers. At the time I was pretty new to the wonders of tumblr, so I gave a brief summary of how it could be useful for writers.

Now that I'm more acquainted with the magic of tumblr, I can tell you that not only is it a fantastic resource for writers, but if you haven't tried it out, you should.

What is tumblr?

Tumblr is a social media site where people can share anything and everything from text, pictures, videos, music files, links... you name it, there's probably a way to share it on tumblr.

Why is tumblr useful for writers?

Besides being another social media time-suck (which, as addicting as it is, doesn't fall under the category of "useful"), tumblr is chock full of inspiration. You can find anything from full-length blog posts, to poems, awe-inspiring pictures, music and links, to great sites all on this one fantastic social media resource.

How does it work?

Once you've made an account (which, like most social media sites, is free), you create a blog. Your blog is basically the page where everything you share will show up, and it'll look a little like this. The style you end up with will depend on what template you choose (there are many different free options), but they all work basically the same way.

If you have a Twitter, I highly recommend linking your Twitter account to your new tumblr. I've had quite a few Twitter followers really enjoy what I tweet out from tumblr, so not only is it a great way to share your finds with your Twitter friends, but I've found I get quite a few retweets of my tumblr goodies. Win-win.

After your blog is set up, it's time for you to start following people. For writers, I recommend Quote Book , Better Book Titles , PrettyBooks , The Final Sentence and Teaching Literacy (you could also follow me , you know, if you want to).

Are you following people? Great—now it's time for you to reblog.

For my Twitter users, reblogging is the tumblr equivalent of retweeting. Once you see something you like, you hit reblog and it'll show up on your blog and allow anyone who follows you (as well as your Twitter followers) to see it.

Tags!

This last point is something I didn't take advantage of right away, because I didn't realize quite how they work. If you're familiar with Twitter hashtags, tags on tumblr work nearly the same way. Anything you post (or reblog) can be tagged with a few words of your choosing. Once you tag them, they will show up in a stream with other posts tagged with the same word. For example, a post tagged with "NaNoWriMo" will show up if someone searches "NaNoWriMo" in the tumblr search bar, just like Twitter.

Tags allow you to give your posts a little extra exposure, so you can share them not only with people that follow you, but others who check out those tag threads--definitely something you should take advantage of.

So that about covers my tumblr summary. Although it's not for everyone (no social media site is), I've really grown to love tumblr as a writer, and I think you could, too.

Have you ever tried tumblr? What are some of your favorite tumblr follows?

Social Media for Writers

Photo credit: the tartanpodcast on Flickr

I have social media on the brain this week.

I’m sure many of you have seen little explanations of what each social media site is useful for, but in much of my searching, I’ve only seen a few directed especially to writers. SO. Figuring this must be amended, I thought I’d make one myself, based on my experience.

I’ll say right from the start I can’t account for all social media sites (there are SO. MANY.) and I think it’d be unfair for me to judge sites I’m not on, so I’m going to limit this to the ones I’m familiar with.

So here we go! In order of usage!

Twitter—I’m sure most of you guessed this would be first on the list. I use Twitter probably more than I should (but I regret nothing). Regardless of my not-addiction, I’ve found Twitter to be an enormously helpful tool for writers. Not only is it chock full of excellent, bookmark-worthy links (my bookmarks bar has exploded since joining Twitter, EXPLODED), but it just so happens there are tons of writers on Twitter (who knew?).

Twitter is a great place to connect with others in your niche, make friends, promote your work (and the work of your new Twitter friends) and find fantastic blogs. If you write and you don’t have a Twitter, go get one. Seriously. Go do it. Right now. I’m waiting.

My Twitter page.

Blogger—I say Blogger because (obviously) I use the Blogger platform, but Word Press is another fantastic option. I suppose I should have titled this one blogging, but I digress.

Blogging is great for writers for many different reasons. First, it gets you writing. I know that seems obvious, but you need to write consistently to maintain a blog, and learning about self-imposed deadlines is essential to anyone’s writing career.

The second reason is slightly less obvious: networking. I wrote an entire post about how it’s not about you, and I’m going to say it again: building your blog isn’t only about building your blog. Go out there and connect with other bloggers. Create a blog roll, promote each other. Making connections with other writers is just as important (if not more) as building your blog.

tumblr—I was really confused when I first started a tumblr account. Who am I supposed to follow? What do I do? WHAT DOES THIS BUTTON DO?

I wouldn’t call myself a tumblr expert, I still stumble around the site and I’m relatively sure I haven’t used it to its maximum potential, however there is a LOT of good stuff on tumblr. From fantastic quotes, to articles, to amazing pictures and works of art, tumblr has a little bit of everything. Great for inspiration (and distraction).

Best part? You can link it to Twitter and whatever you reblog (the equivalent of re-tweeting for my Twitter fiends) will be sent to your Twitter to share with your followers.

See why having a Twitter account is so useful? Hmmm?

My tumblr.

Facebook—You’re probably wondering why this is so low on the list. It’s not that Facebook isn’t useful (it is), it’s just that I haven’t quite maximized the potential of my page yet and I did say I was ordering this list on my usage.

Despite that, Facebook is another great place to connect with other writers and share with each other. The like button has virtually invaded the internet (try to count how many times you see it while surfing the web in one day—it’s a LOT), which makes it another great platform that should definitely be on your list.

My Facebook page.

Goodreads—I’ll be honest, I haven’t utilized my Goodreads page AT ALL. I go there to update what I’m reading and find out more information about books I might be interested in. Occasionally, I’ll browse the forums, vote on various lists and post a book review. That’s about it.

But just because I haven’t used it as much as I could, doesn’t mean it’s not useful. Goodreads is chock full of readers and writers (big surprise, right?) just waiting to be connected with! Plus, it’s a pretty fantastic site for discovering books. And it’s kind of fun to build your online bookshelf.

My Goodreads page.

There are other platforms of course (Google + for example) that I’ve yet to check out, so I can’t really tell you about them. However, the theme with social media is pretty much the same: sharing. Every site does it a little differently, but in the end, the goal (regardless of the site) is to share and make connections.

So go out there and make connections.

What social media sites do you use? Which are your favorite?