Quotes to En-Courage: You Have Your Own Dignity

"All that a person has is his or her own story: Who they are, what they've gone through, what their families have gone through. This is their story, and when you're trying to deny them their story, you're taking away their power. ... You don't have to cower to power. You have your own dignity." 

Dolores Huerta, in the documentary, Dolores

Credit: Gage Skidmore

The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.

On Writing: Tips for Author Blogs

Thanks to Women Writers for retweeting a nutrient-rich 2016 article by Katie Rose Guest Pryal: Tips for Author Blogs.

Ms. Pryal's introduction to her tips:

Here they are, in order of importance: (1) create relationships, (2) entertain your readers, and (3) sell books.

The first rule is, by far, the most important. (Most of) Your blog posts must have as their main goal to create relationships with your blog readers.

Whether you are writing blog posts on your own blog, writing guest posts on someone else’s blog, or “microblogging” on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, your primary goal had better be to create relationships with other people.

If you are simply spamming people to “buy my book,” then you are driving readers away from you. You are failing at social media, and worse, you are being annoying.

Repeat this to yourself every time you sit down to write a blog post: “My job is to create relationships with my readers.”

As an introspective sort, I both welcome Ms. Pryal's tips and feel trepidation about them.

But I'm committed to sharing my book with as many readers as possible.

Consequently, I must show the same courage in reaching out to people as Caroline, Lydia, and Anna do in The Camel and the Scorpion.




Image credit: “Girl in the Dunes” by Jozef Israels (Dutch, 1824–1911) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0