My first podcast interview is live

 Last week I did my first podcast interview all about my writing and autism with Juanita Woodson, founder of Author's Impact Hub. Yesterday it went live on YouTube and all the other media channels. If you would like to find out more about my writing, how and what I write and what I want readers and their families to get from my work, then have a listen. Please share your thoughts on the channel as Juanita asks. 

Here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkfew0TDAzA

Happy listening.

How to grow a brand

While I am waiting for my designer to do the cover and interior for my latest children's autism book, I have been busy growing my autism brand in other ways. I have made a video what I am doing but here is what I am doing and have done so far.

I have had articles published in autism magazines. They are Exceptional Needs Today and Uncovered. I will be having another out in SEN magazine next month. You can read my article in Exceptional Needs Today here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19k9V3sul-KcgHHGXrMMmtKIt60i4agyK/view

I have done more videos about autism for my YouTube channel. I have decided to be an exhibitor at a neurodiversity conference in April and will be selling my books there (I hope). I am going to be super busy in March and April because I have been booked to do talks and workshops to SEN groups at a SEN school and libraries. I have also become part of an adult autistic focus group. For the first time I have something booked each week during March and April, and I'm nervous and excited. This is all new for me. Part of my autism brand.

If I get time I will post about my next book, which I plan to publish in March. So until the next letter, check out the article above to learn about me and my Asperger's, and let me know what you think.

Happy reading.

Autistic masking at home

 I have been recording videos about autistic masking and what it is and how we mask. If you haven't listened to them yet, please do. They are on myYouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@julieday9517

As I am tired today, I thought I would continue with the series but with this blog. I am going to talk about autistic masking at home. Here are my thoughts.

Do I, or have I masked, at home? When I thought about this for the blog, I felt that my answer was, no, not when I was with my family indoors. When someone visited or we visited them, that was a different matter. Looking back over the years, I don't recall having to mask when I was at home with my family. If someone came to see us or stay with us, usually relatives, I think I did mask. Having to say hello, be cheerful to them. Or if we went and visited them, which I am thinking of years ago as a child when we visited an aunt and uncle on my dad's side, I definitely did mask. I remember I would play with my cousins for a while, then after enough time I would find my mum and be with her. Either sitting down in the lounge area or in the kitchen where she was helping my aunt. It was always when we went out anywhere that I masked. To the shops, to relatives, to hospitals. Any where with other people. Not when I was indoors with my own family. I feel that it was as an adult, especially after I was diagnosed with Asperger's, that the mask slipped and I would sometimes reveal my autism self. It would be when we had visitors and the noise of the chatting got too much for my brain and I sensed it becoming an overload so would go to another room to keep calm and quiet.

So, as an autistic, do you mask at home?

Sensory issues with clothes

I have recently made a video of me talking about sensory issues I have with clothes. There is one other sensory issue I have but it isn't to do with having Asperger's. It is to do with the scar I have from my heart surgery. Most of my clothes have pictures printed on them and not sewn so they don't have any backing. I do have a couple of nighties though that do. When I wore them last year during the hot weather, the backing on them did rub against my scar and make it itch. I had never had this problem before but now I do. I think I will be giving those nighties to a charity shop now that I can't wear them any longer.

To find out about my other sensory issues, check out my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvh3FOnxCAiITh1cosZM_Lg

To find out more about me growing up with Asperger's, why not check out the Autism Parenting Magazine. I have had articles in it this year; January and this month. You can find the magazine here https://members.autismparentingmagazine.com/dap/a/?a=55311&p=AutismParentingMagazine.com/how_to_purchase

Want to find out what Asperger's means to me?

 Would you like to know of another way you can find out about me and Asperger's/autism? As well as my website and my children's autism books, there is my YouTube channel. I started it ten years ago, talking about how I found out and was diagnosed with Asperger's, then I got back into writing again and never returned to it. Until this last week. I am creating more short videos of me talking about having Asperger's and what it does and doesn't mean for me. If you would like to learn more about autism and me, then why not pop over there. My latest talk is found here 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TfzTcTWTo4&t=5s

Please let me know somehow if you like it or not. I plan to do more about what it is and isn't for me, especially now I know how to record and upload it to the channel. 

If you know of anyone or organisation who might be interested about these, please let them know as I am working on workshops to help SEND children and their families using story ideas from my books.

Social Media Part 2

Here is Part 2 of what Talli Roland told the RNA London chapter about social media.

Amazon - Complete your Author Central page, everywhere. Even the foreign ones, which you can do in English. You can stream videos through the page, and link your blog etc to it. It is good for readership.
Bookbub can be expensive, esp if you write women's fiction. So choose another genre.

Have a newsletter. You can put the link to it in your next book.

Goodreads - Be v careful as an author, esp with reviews. Talli mentioned there had been a well-known chick-lit author who had put a scathing review of another chick-lit author. Not good. Someone said, it might have been Eve Farr, if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything.

There are other sites you can use; Google+, Instagram (just photos and for a younger demo), Tumblr (microblog, quotes and photos), PInterest (70% women), Klout, which you can put on your followers, what topics you write about and find out what influence you get.

Website. Talli uses Networked blogs.
Youtube - can record book excerpts and blurbs. Stream the video via your Author Central page.

You get out of it what you put in. Awareness = sales. Think global. Be genuine. Have fun.

Don't put all your (marketing) eggs in one basket

I recently put this post on my marketing blog (http://elitemarketingpro.net/julieaday) to warn others in marketing what is happening on YouTube. But because I know that some authors also use YouTube to promote their books with videos, I thought I'd post it here, too. So here it is.

After all that's been happening the last few weeks on YouTube #youtubefail I want to now say, don't put all your marketing eggs in one basket eg Google. What has been happening is that some saddo has found a loophole in YouTube's policy on flagging videos and been abusing it, resulting in lots of videos done by entrepreneurs (inc me) being flagged for some reason or even closed down. Poor Ray Higdon had his channel suspended with millions of viewers and hundreds of marketing down the drain. Because they didn't try to do anything to help, he decided to leave them. This is why Rebecca Woodhead wrote her column for What's Working Now called 'Why Google hates us'. You can read the first instalment here http://julieaday.getwwn.com/try. So, if one channel goes up the creek for you, ie YouTube, you should have a plan b or an alternative route to put your marketing material. I am in the process of uploading my videos to LinkedIn, so you can see them there as well.
Facebook is currently up and running well, so you can upload videos there for the short term, but you have to embed them, and I don't know how to do that. Or like me you can put them all on LinkedIn, which is a business network. Ideal for marketing materials. There are other video channels you can use such as Vimeo.

Meantime, I am going to concentrate on building my email lists and my marketing blog, as they are the two things I know I am good at and can do. And they aren't part of Google.

PS. If you want to get tips on how to write magazine fillers and get paid for them, I will be putting the ebook up on my marketing blog by next week. Why not become one of my leads to get access to more marketing ideas, by emailing me at awlist3493948@aweber.com or looking at http://julieaday.elitemarketingpro.com/letter-new.php

A new video for my Aspiepreneur series

Some of you on here that read this blog might not know but I have recently put up a new video on YouTube. It is in my Aspiepreneur series. I thought I would go back to the start of my journey and tell how I found out I have Asperger's Syndrome, so that is what the video is about.

If you are interested, please go and have a look at this link

http://youtu.be/tgI_bgyiEAk

If you like it enough, feel free to comment on it. I've already connected with someone else who has Asperger's.

Cross promotion - An Aspergirl being an Aspiepreneur and making videos

Today I am going to start cross promoting with my other blog, which is about affiliate marketing and how it can help people with Asperger's Syndrome, like me. I became an affiliate marketer in May when I joined Elite Marketing Pro. It wasn't until August, when they fully launched, that I made my first video. It is all abut how EMP has helped my communication skills. To watch it, you can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YigW5HRClQk

It took a few attempts to get it right and on YouTube. I tried doing it on the software on my laptop, but it was useless. It kept breaking up so people couldn't understand what I was saying. I ended up doing it on my digital camera, which is how I am now doing all my videos.

Let me know what you think.