kimisgold / meaganspooner-transition Goto Github PK

I love that the Write Space layout is different and cool, and very much its own feature--but one of the reasons I'm doing it is to help bring traffic to my site, and I worry that it's harder for people to naturally click through to my site from this page. Obviously if they're really hunting for it, they'll find it, but I want it to be very obvious all the time so people can click without actively wanting to find it.

My thought was some kind of hovering thing up in the corner that stays there as you scroll? Like a "Back to MeaganSpooner.com..." kind of link? But obviously, if you have a better idea, go for it!

I'd love to have a banner for the post, as well as an square icon/button. I'm not sure if I'm going to have this button in the sidebar, or perhaps even somewhere on the main page (depends on whether the series is a success or what). Originally I was thinking of some sort of retro photo of a writer in her garret or some such, but I'm not sure that goes with the new purple layout as opposed to the old browns and steampunky layout. So really, free reign here. I'd love it to be distinctive, but at the same time I know there's only so much you can do with an image. This isn't something you'd need to spend inordinate amounts of time on, obviously!

The full title of the feature is "In Search of the Write Space"

This is partly a question, I suppose. But mostly I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about the formatting of the post itself.

I'm expecting people to provide multiple pictures, maybe around 5 or 6, and each with a couple of sentences explaining the picture. I'm wondering if there's some interesting/engaging way to display these other than just inserting them into a blog post. I'd like everything to look very put together and professional, because once I have a few authors who I'm friends with participating, I'd like to have the potential to work up to some of the bigger fish.

I don't know if a slideshow would make sense, or if there's just some template for sharing pictures that would be more... professional-looking, I guess?

One thing I want to be able to do is share the images in Pinterest, though, in an attempt to force myself to use Pinterest more and learn how to use it to promote my blog. So whatever format these posts take would need to be one where I can still pin images.

Not every Write Space post will have a giveaway, so the Rafflecopter field on the template should not be required. I'm HOPING to always have a giveaway, but the option needs to be there in case I don't!

I'd love to have a list of links to every TSW post that populates automatically--I think maybe through use of tags or categories? (???) The post would have to show up on the main blog, so it couldn't work exactly like the news thing (where it only shows up on the news page, not on the blog), but something like that. No descriptions necessary, just a list of the post titles, so it'd look maybe something like this:

9/24/2012 -- In Search of the Write Space: Kat Zhang
9/17/2012 -- In Search of the Write Space: Sarah J. Maas

Ideally I'd like the most recent posts to show up firsts. The dates are not necessary if it's going to take more than half a second to do--they won't be part of the post title. The post title will be "In Search of the Write Space: [Author Name]"

Okay, so I need a form to have for people to request to participate in Write Space. I don't expect there will be tons of requests immediately, but I want to have it in place from the beginning. Here is what I'm thinking. If possible, the email that I get would have a subject line something like: "Write Space Request: <applicant's name>"

Name: ________________ (required)
Email: _________________ (required)
Website: _________________ (required)

I am a(n): (required)
[ ] author
[ ] literary agent Agency: _____________
[ ] editor Publishing House: ______________
[ ] publicist On behalf of: ____________
[ ] other Please specify: _____________

If applicable:
Book Title: ____________
Publisher: ____________
Release Date: _________
Genre: _______________

Ideally, when would you prefer to have the "Write Space" feature appear? ____________________ (required)

I can provide a giveaway: yes / no (required, either/or buttons rather than check boxes)

Message: (big box for them to write their email)

I'd love to have small, unobtrusive, but thematically matching buttons for the various social media things I/my books are on. It'd be nice to have them be part of all the pages, like part of the frame (?) or general theme, but if that's too complicated or it won't really fit anywhere, they can just go somewhere on my contact page.

I also would like to be able to use them within the little frames or widgets or whatever they are, for my Write Space feature.

Here's a good example of what I'm thinking: http://www.xpressoreads.com/2012/08/review-giveaway-skylark.html

Buttons I can think of right now:

Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter
Pinterest
RSS (Maybe? I don't know how this works--can the RSS subscribe button only be on the page with the blog? Does that only work if the homepage is the blog?)
Email

As we discussed in our google chat, I'm starting a new feature called "In Search of the Write Space" and I want to make sure that it's going to look professional and together and attractive/easy to read. SO, one of the things I would really like, is to have little boxes (for lack of actually knowing what to call them) for the book and for the author being featured.

Here are some examples:

http://www.xpressoreads.com/2012/08/review-giveaway-skylark.html
http://stepintofiction.blogspot.com/2012/07/skylark-by-meagan-spooner-blog-tour.html
http://sashandem.com/2012/07/author-interview-giveaway-meagan-spooner.html

I like the look of the top one best, with how self-contained it is, and how it stands out from the background. While obviously I don't want to copy Giselle, I think purple could actually work on meaganspooner.com because the text is purple? But you'll know better than me what'll look good.

My thought for the format of the post will be to start out with a brief "Today I have ______ on the feature!" intro and then have the author box. Possibly vice versa. Then will come the meat of the post, and then the book box, and then the rafflecopter form. So the author box and book box DO need to be separate, so I can have the meat of the post in between.

The text at the bottom describing the series, the one you made standard--"meaganspooner.com" should be a link to my site. I know this is super simple, but I don't know how to change the template (which is probably for the best, all things considered).