L-R: Catherine, Celia, Laura, Debbie, Sue, Vanessa, Jan, and Lucie |
My guests today are The Romaniacs, who set up their group blog, Twitter account and Facebook Page in February 2012. They are: Laura James, Jan
Brigden, Sue Fortin, Lucie Wheeler, Vanessa Savage, Catherine Miller, Debbie
Fuller-White and Celia J Anderson.
L-R: Laura, Me, Sue (and Lizzie Lamb) |
The Romaniacs met through Twitter as members of the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme. Laura, Sue and Celia are now published, and Vanessa and
Lucie have literary agents. The Romaniacs' name derives
from a typo on a tweet and they describe themselves as: ‘kindred spirits who
share a passion of writing’. The Romaniac blog is ‘a place where
everyone can chat about romance and writing, air their views and compare notes
about the trials, tribulations and joys of juggling writing and everyday life’.
Find out more about each individual Romaniac here, and get to know the girls in this
‘The Romaniacs The Apprentice’ vlog:
I’ve invited the girls to answer questions on blogging and
using social media as a group. Thanks very much to you all for agreeing to be
guests on my neetsmarketing blog. Here are eight questions for eight Romaniacs,
one for each of you! Some may be easier to answer than others ;-)
Is there
anyone ‘in charge’ of managing the Romaniacs blog, or do you work together? How
do you organise yourselves?
Debbie: Although Sue tends to be our technical
whizz and Laura the powerhouse for ideas, the blog is very much a team effort.
Quite often one of the group comes up with an idea for a feature and we will
bat it around until we have a title and each agree our input and when we’ll
slot it into the schedule. For example, Anita, organising this post is Jan’s
baby, so she gave us the brief and a deadline for when she needed our
contribution, chivvied us along to make sure it was done, and pulled it all
together. It was her suggestion that we each choose a question to answer. Often
when we meet up, we’ll have a session or two of sitting round the table,
brainstorming ideas for new, up and coming blog posts and special features to
keep the blog fresh and current. The beauty of our group is that we know each
other so well; we’re on the same wavelength, etc. We all have different
strengths, we compliment and respect each other so no-one ever puts anyone else
down. In fact, because we’re all motivated and so in tune, we often have to
rein in the ideas as we can get carried away! The other thing to mention about
our blog is, because we’re such good friends, if anyone has a domestic crisis
or is ill, we work together to re-jig the schedule and cover one another. It
works all ways
How often do
you post on the Romaniacs blog, and are guest posts important to you?
Vanessa: Just before Christmas, we had a Romaniac
weekend away at Debbie’s house and one of the things we talked about was the
importance of regular posts – we currently have weekly and monthly series and
in between, we have guest posts and individual posts. So, on average, we post
three times a week. Over the years, we’ve had huge support from fellow writers
and guest posts are very important to us, whether they’re book launch posts,
author interviews or individual blogs. Regular guest posts on a wide variety of
subjects means we really do have something to offer everyone!
Who came up
with the lovely idea for the ‘Life Cycle of a Writer’ series of posts?
Do you find a series of blog posts draws readers back to your blog?
Catherine: This was a great example of how sometimes
being part of a group can take your ideas and make them better. I'd originally
suggested doing more of an aspiring writer type blog, but as that no longer
encompasses all of us, we needed to do something different. We discussed it during
our Romaniac Sparkle weekend away, and decided we wanted to blog about all the
different stages a writer experiences, the highs and the lows. Vanessa came up
with the Life Cycle Of A Writer name on the spot, over breakfast, as we all
flapped our hands about a lot (as The Apprentice style video demonstrates).
There were lots of ideas discussed at that breakfast, many of which are in the
pipeline. It's dangerous when we get together.
Which is your
most popular blog post, and why do you think that is?
Sue: Sometimes it’s the title which draws attention to a post and
sometimes it’s the subject matter. Our most popular blog post, in terms of
hits, has been ‘Writing Like A Butterfly’. This post has always received a lot
of attention, partly because of the topic of writing and partly because of the
word ‘butterfly’ in the title. Other posts have been popular due to their
content. One on swearing in a novel received a lot of responses and another on
writing sex scenes from a male point of view created a lot of interest.
Similarly, when we’ve blogged as a group, where we all contribute to one post,
these are usually more light-hearted and always bring lots of people to the
blog. People often say they enjoy the friendliness and fun of our group blogs –
something which probably comes across naturally as we do have lots of laughs
together, both on and off-line.
How do you
manage a Twitter account and Facebook Page as a group, do you take turns? (How
do you ensure all mentions are replied to etc?) Do you use your individual
Twitter and Facebook accounts to promote the Romaniac blog posts too?
Jan: We all have access to both Twitter and Facebook Romaniacs accounts,
so can dip in and out to tweet, check something, reply to any comments or
messages, etc. I tend to mainly take charge of monitoring and updating our
Twitter page, once any links/blog posts
have initially automatically published, as I thoroughly enjoy the role. I try
to tweet/share a good balance of conversational, promotional and informative
posts, which I then revise during the day, accordingly, as well as checking for
any replies, mentions, RTs, etc, ensuring that everyone is acknowledged or
thanked. We all also use our individual accounts to help promote our Romaniac
posts, which is great as it guarantees wider exposure and interaction.
How would you
go about promoting a blog post on Twitter and Facebook? For those of you who
have published books, do you promote these books via The Romaniacs?
Lucie: Promotion with The Romaniacs is a team
effort. We all rally together and share, tweet and Facebook all our posts. Our
blog is linked up to Twitter and Facebook so when we post something, it
automatically uploads to these sites. Then we each use our individual profiles
to share and retweet. We don’t have set times to share things, however we are
aware that not everyone is on the same time zone as we are, so we make sure
that things are retweeted and shared to ensure all corners of the world have a
chance to see them. We try to make sure our posts go out first thing, this way,
those who log on before work get a chance to see them and, also, it gives us
the whole day to promote. We treat each post the same – whether it is a post
written by one of us, or a guest post; all posts are shared and promoted in the
same way. We also, sometimes, promote our posts via each others personal blogs.
This is a good way to draw in new readers and subscribers. For those of us who
have published books, it is very much the same. We will always do a piece on
our blog promoting the fact that one of us has a book out/coming out, and then
the normal process of sharing, etc, commences.
Also, if we find a post that we particularly enjoy and we think it would
be of use/interest to our readers, we will share/retweet this, too. Ultimately,
we work the same as everyone else, just with eight pairs of hands promoting as
one.
It looks as
though you had a lot of fun making ‘The Apprentice’ vlog above. Who came up
with the idea for filming vlogs? Are they easy to make, and have you had much
response to them?
Laura: Ah. I believe that was me - the shy,
retiring Romaniac. We’d been discussing the idea for some time, as we feel the
way forward in today’s whirl of social media is to add the personal touch and,
having put a few vlogs out on my own site, I felt confident enough to try a
Romaniac one. Being in front of a camera doesn’t come naturally to everybody,
and I’m really proud of the way the Romaniacs have embraced the film star
lifestyle. We've received a great response so far, which is wonderful, and we'd
like to thank everyone for taking the time to watch and comment. We're still
perfecting and tweaking. Perhaps we could introduce a Vlog Oscar ...
Has being part
of The Romaniacs raised your individual profiles online, and helped your
writing careers?
Celia: Being part of such a warm-hearted,
supportive gang of writers has not only raised my profile as an author, it's
given me the confidence to go out there into places where writers meet (RNA
conference, Festival of Romantic Fiction, etc) and not be afraid to say what I do and what my hopes are
for the future. The other Romaniacs never fail to cheer each other on when the
writing (and the rest of our lives) is going well, or to boo in a really big
way when everything seems to be going pear-shaped. We are friends first and a
writing group second now. I would not be without them.
Thanks again for being my guests today, and I wish you all much success with your writing careers.
Find out more about the Romaniac publications here. The Romaniac anthology, 'Romaniac Shorts: Fashionably Brief' is available from Amazon.
And congratulations to Catherine who has recently been awarded the RNA's Katie Fforde Bursary!
My next guest on the neetsmarketing blog will be 24 April, 'Talli Roland on Facebook'!
Find out more about the Romaniac publications here. The Romaniac anthology, 'Romaniac Shorts: Fashionably Brief' is available from Amazon.
And congratulations to Catherine who has recently been awarded the RNA's Katie Fforde Bursary!
My next guest on the neetsmarketing blog will be 24 April, 'Talli Roland on Facebook'!
Previous neetsmarketing posts:
Is it Worth Paying to Promote a Facebook Page?
My Beginner's Guide to Twitter for Writers
3 Ways to Retweet on Twitter (rewritten 18 March 2016)
Alison Morton on Twitter
Thanks so much for inviting us onto your fab blog, Anita. We really appreciate it :) Xx
ReplyDeleteThanks so much to you all for visiting Jan! It's been a pleasure.x
DeleteYou're so kind to invite us onto your blog and always so supportive! Thank you, Anita. Look forward to seeing you at the next RNA event xx
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome Debbie! Thanks to you all for taking time to answer the questions (and so well). Look forward to seeing you at the Summer Party or Conference :-)x
DeleteThe Romaniacs sounds like a group working together in the optimum way for the benefit of all its members. I enjoyed reading the interview.
DeleteThanks Liz! I agree, The Romaniacs do work very well together and deserve all of their success.
DeleteI'm loving The alternative Apprentice. Much more entertaining. Fab blog, girls! Go The Romaniacs! :) xx
DeleteThanks for visiting Sheryl!
Delete