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CALLS to ACTION – Part Two of Five Things Every Author’s Web Site Needs
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The Second Post on the Five Pillars of Effective Website Design will Focus on Calls to Action – Driving your web site visitor to take action instead of moving on.

Recap

You already know the obvious elements your website needs, such as your books and where to get them, a page about yourself, a blog (if you keep it up), your contact information, and if appropriate, press page and calendar.

But does your website have these five essential website pillars to be effective for promoting you and your work?
1. Your Branding Message in a Tagline
2. Calls to Action – Driving Your Audience to Action
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
4. Interaction with Your Visitor
5. Usability and Readability
2. Drive Audience to Action

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What is it you want your visitor to do?
- Buy a book directly?
- Go to Amazon?
- Leave a review?
- Attend your workshop?
- Subscribe to your newsletter or blog?
- “Like” you on Facebook or “follow” you on Twitter?
- Contact you directly?
What do you want visitors to your website to do first and foremost? Make that item the easiest to find on the webpage and make it easy for your website visitor to take action. It’s okay to have that action on more than one page.

LINKS Are Your Friends!

Always have easily accessible links that open in a NEW WINDOW. Once someone is visiting your site, you want to make sure that your site remains open in his/her browser. Visitors should never have to leave your site to check out your book’s page on Amazon or sign up for your newsletter.

Links should be easily recognizable as a way to access more information. Try to use highly visible and friendly “buttons” whenever possible.

And always make triple sure that your links work!

How Google Analytics can help you achieve your goals.

Using Google Analytics, you can track how many people are on your site, what time of day, from what part of the world, what device they used, where they clicked from, how much time they spent on each page before leaving, and more.

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Monitor your traffic with Google Analytics

By tracking viewer behavior you can determine where visitors spend the most time, vs. where you would like them to spend the most time.

If visitors are missing the biggest point of your web site, it’s time to look at your layout and site organization, and change it up to drive the traffic where you want it to go.

You can learn more about Google Analytics here: http://www.google.com/analytics/

Google makes it easy to set-up! And, here is an eight-minute YouTube video that will take you step by step through the setting up Google Analytics for your web site.

Our next post will focus on SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

We hope that this article has shed some light on areas where your website can be improved to help you reach your audience. The best part is all of these improvements are free if you know how to do it yourself. If not, Chanticleer Reviews offers website assistance and creation as part of their book marketing services targeted specifically for authors.

Read Part Three Here!

Rochelle Parry, Chanticleer Reviews’ Creative Director You are welcome to email me at: RParry@ChantiReviews.com

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March 2, 2015
RAGGEDY MAN by Clyde Curley, The CLUE Awards Grand Prize Winner

Detective Matt Toussaint is one of Portland, Oregon’s finest. Experienced and dedicated to the job of solving the violent crimes that plague his beloved city, his case clearance rate is one of the best. Because of his success, Toussaint is regularly asked to partner with and train new homicide detectives.

As his latest murder investigation begins, he’s been assigned yet another new partner, Detective Missy Owens. Smart and known to be a rising star in the police department, Missy is nonetheless inexperienced at homicide investigations. Toussaint has his hands full, educating Missy about crime scene protocol while puzzling through the crime scene evidence.

The murder victim, Ben Foeller, presents an intriguing contradiction: he is clean and neatly dressed, though his clothes are old and worn. His backpack contains literary works by some of the world’s famous writers, but Toussaint finds a vial of crack cocaine beneath his body. Is Foeller just a recent addition to Portland’s homeless community? Or was he under the bridge where his body was found for another reason, such as dealing drugs? And given that he’d recently traveled back to Portland from the East Coast, how does that connect with his murder in Toussaint’s fair city?

Though the case appears at first glance to be a fairly typical crime associated with Portland’s homeless community, it quickly becomes apparent that the murder may have been committed for far more complicated reasons. As Toussaint digs ever deeper into the victim’s life, more contradictions arise. The cast of suspects is equally intriguing and includes members of Foeller’s own family, who are wealthy and influential, as well as a mentally disturbed homeless man whom Ben Foeller befriended. While some story elements reveal themselves logically as the police investigation unfolds, other details seem almost serendipitous, illuminating how simple circumstance can affect the outcome of any murder case.

Mr. Curley has written an engrossing debut novel that immerses the reader in the lives of the characters and the city they inhabit. His story world is one that you don’t want to leave behind. His characters are fully-realized, living and breathing human beings struggling to make their way through days complicated by the best and worst of the human condition, and his writing is exquisite in its detail. I was disappointed when the book ended, and I am happy to know that Mr. Curley has written a second novel in the Detective Toussaint series titled A Cup of Hemlock. [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Read Chanticleer’s review]

Raggedy Man by Clyde Curley was awarded the CLUE Awards Grand Prize for Best Suspense/Thriller/Mystery Novel. The CLUE Awards is a division of the Chanticleer Reviews International Novel Writing Competitions.

[Editor’s Note: Clyde Curley’s novels are prodigious—yes they come in at more than 500 pages, but you will be wishing it were longer—and are page turners that tackle and explore the big ethical and societal issues of today. Curley’s deft use of murder mysteries to microscopically explore society’s ethical issues is nothing short of brilliant. Highly recommended.]

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March 2, 2015
New YA RACE WITH DANGER from Award Winning Pamela Beason

Introducing an excellent new Young Adult Trilogy – Run for Your Life by Pamela Beason, a Chanticleer Grand Prize Winner. “Tanzania Grey is running for her life and never have the stakes been higher. Readers’ hearts will be racing as the story twists and turns and the suspense rapidly intensifies in Race with Danger.” Download it now at the introductory special of $2.99 at Amazon and at Barnes & Noble Nook Store for $2.99.

March 2, 2015
Five Things Every Author’s Web Site Needs, Part 1 of 5
You already know the obvious elements your website needs, such as your booksand where to get them, a page about yourself, a blog (if you keep it up), your contact information, and if appropriate, press page and calendar.

But does your website have these five essential website pillars to be effective for promoting you and your work?
1. Your Branding Message in a Tagline
2. Calls to Action – Driving Your Audience to Action
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
4. Interaction with Your Visitor
5. Usability and Readability
The First Post on the Five Pillars of Effective Website Design will focus on your branding message because this will make your website’s information and marketing message more effective.

1. Your Branding Message

A tagline should conceptualize your branding message. Websites need to be clear and concise, and only include up front what can be easily digested within seconds. Your first impression needs to be like an ‘elevator pitch’. Your tagline, short and sweet, will appear on every page, in the header.

Branded as Romance Author

For instance, author Laura Navarre’s tagline is Desire has never been so dangerous. From this short phrase you can gather that she writes romance novels with intrigue and risk.

Branded as political romance

Laura also writes under another alias, Nikki Navarre. Although it’s part of the same website, she brands her alter-ego very differently: State secrets have never been this sexy. From this, we know we are going to read politically charged romances, and from the graphics, that they involve the Soviet Union.

Branded as a Cozy Mystery

Author Wendy Delaney uses Cozies with a Kick, implying fun mysteries with a tad of spiciness– that these are not grandma’s cozies. You could not confuse these two authors. They are both women, they both write mysteries, but you know they are reaching different audiences.

Notice how every aspect of their websites focuses and reinforces their specific branding in their web sites visitors’ mind-space.

See how your website compares with this handy branding checklist for your author web site’s homepage:
- Header – Strong Visual Image that Reinforces the Tagline
- Menu Bar – Easy to Navigate
- Homepage – says it all: Author, Tagline, Genre, Where to Purchase, How to Contact, Testimonials, and Visitor Engagement
- Handy Links with Calls to Action
- A personal note from the author at the bottom of the page to call again (visit again).
Our next post will focus on Calls to Action.

We hope that this article has shed some light on areas where your website can be improved to help you reach your audience. The best part is all of these improvements are free if you know how to do it yourself. If not, Chanticleer Reviews offers website assistance and creation as part of their book marketing services targeted specifically for authors.

See the next article here!

Rochelle Parry, Chanticleer Reviews’ Creative Director
February 28, 2015
WHERE THE HELL WERE YOUR PARENTS? by Nathan Weathington

The folks in Bremen, Georgia will never forget 1979, the year the Weathington Boys came to town. The twin, sweet-looking seven-year-olds Nathan and Brian, take up residence with their parents in the Southern hamlet. Their father was the local high school’s football coach (in the South, practicality a priestly position) and their mother believed, apparently, that her boys could do no wrong.

The Weathington mini-scofflaws and their pals quickly learned how to put the freedom of a long, hot summer to good use. And so begins, “Where the Hell Were Your Parents?” by Nathan Weathington

Together, the Weathington Boys, tested the local limits of propriety and patience. The stories of their practical jokes are still repeated almost thirty years later in the author’s hometown as gospel truth. Plastic snakes and firecrackers quickly gave way to more outlandish and daring means of raining chaos with their ‘high stakes’ practical jokes. What would begin as a practical joke would have to be upgraded to the next level, as each new prank bore the responsibility of out-demolishing the previous one. Ah, this is definitely good ol’ boy humor. Indeed, the reader will only need to flip to page 58 to find a recipe for making a serviceable grenade from shotgun shells. And, fast-forward if you dare, to page 141 for directions into concocting the ultimate “sh*t bomb,” complete with authoritative help on selecting the proper level of viscosity for maximum effect. Mayhem and madness of epic proportions would ensue whenever Nathan and Brian, along with their partner-in-crime, Ray “Corndog” Womack, the kid who would drive the getaway car, would decide that things in the small town needed stirring up. If a TV show were to be made about these clever and delinquent boys, it would be a mash-up of “The Red Green Show,” “Mythbusters,” and “Dukes of Hazzard.”

These outlandish hijinks are told by the author with stand-up candor, great witty humor and at least a tongue-in-cheek sense of self-deprecation. The scenes in which he, his brother Brian, and Corndog played out their ‘feral’ youth pranks have a palpable, you-are-there believability that will have you guffawing as you shake your head and wonder.

And, yes, the author, Nathan Weathington swears the stories are the genuine original truth. You just can’t make some of this stuff up. When he would tell his wife about one of the infamous pranks, she would consistently ask him (and I quote the author), “Where the hell were your parents?” It is a question that he gets asked repeatedly by more folks than just his wife, hence the title of this hilarious work (as long as you weren’t on the receiving end of the pranks).

Somehow, the boys did not end up in the county jail. Nathan graduated from Auburn with a Civil Engineering degree and a M.B.A. from Victoria University, B.C. Now the father of two young boys, Nathan also addresses another subject that he now takes as seriously as the pranks he used to pull back in the day: parenting. Embracing the nature versus nurture debate, he favors the former, as its laid-back parenting style being more in harmony with his “let ’em go out, get some cuts and bruises and learn about life” upbringing. As such, he is openly contemptuous of the current trend toward ‘helicopter parents’ who smother their offspring.

In this book, his first, Nathan Weathington makes a good case for himself as a published writer and exceptional humorist, and I find most of his outspoken observations to be both substantive and relevant to the times. I’ll thank him now for some of the most gut-wrenchingly painful laughs I’ve ever had.

February 27, 2015
CAPE HORN: ONE MAN’S DREAM, ONE WOMAN’S NIGHTMARE by Réanne Hemingway-Douglass

In Cape Horn: One Man’s Dream, One Woman’s Nightmare, Réanne Hemingway-Douglass vividly recreates a sailing voyage in which she and her husband Don set out to round Cape Horn. As the reader discovers, they never quite got there. Meanwhile, Hemingway-Douglass shares the heady magic of starlit nights and breathtaking dawns, grueling and toilsome days, emotions ranging from joy to absolute terror, and a determination not to give up hope when all seems lost.

Situated on the southernmost tip of South America, Cape Horn is surrounded by some of the most treacherous waters on the planet due to its gigantic waves, lurking icebergs, strong currents, and high winds. The Panama Canal was built at huge expense as a way to avoid Cape Horn. To this day, the Horn is a dangerous challenge for even the most experienced yachtsmen. The author’s husband, Don, had dreamed all his life of rounding the Horn. Réanne Hemingway-Douglass knew this when she married him, and dutifully agreed to accompany him as crew.

Five hundred miles northwest of Cape Horn, the Douglass’s 42 foot sailboat, Le Dauphin Amical, was pitchpoled by a monster rogue wave (more than 80 to 100 feet high) in a Force 11 storm. Hemingway-Douglass and her husband spent the next 42 days struggling to reach safety aboard their crippled vessel. Surviving each day was a miracle, a true adventure in living.

In recounting their story, the author broaches the love-hate relationship of a ship’s captain and its crew. Captains are solitary humans driven by their own goals, agendas, and methods. The captain is the one who must make the hard decisions—no matter how difficult, dangerous, or demanding they are for the crew.

Don Douglass, captain of the Le Dauphin, was no exception. Fortunately, he was also highly competent, extremely driven, and unrelenting—all characteristics required for survival in dangerous situations.

A novice sailor, Hemingway-Douglass discovered that Don’s role of captain superseded his role as her husband and lover—for better or for worse. I know of no other nautical book that accurately and honestly portrays this transformation. It is a forthright perspective about life onboard that all sailors, captains and crews, should acknowledge before setting sail together.

The author passionately captures and vividly describes her months at sea with her husband, her captain, in this page-turner true adventure that tested their endurance and their marriage. Highly recommended.

February 26, 2015
PUGET SOUND WHALES FOR SALE: The FIGHT to END ORCA HUNTING by Sandra Pollard

This is the history of two parallel and competing movements involving the beautiful Puget Sound orcas. One is the orcas-as-commodities commercial movement to capture the killer whales and sell them to marine parks all over the world, where they are kept in small pens and trained to perform for public amusement. The other is the growing appreciation of both scientists and the general public for orcas as intelligent, sensitive, family-oriented wild creatures deserving of protection.

Packed with poignant details, such as a description of captive orcas in Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. talking to each other via a phone call, and reports of newly captured orcas crying so loudly and mournfully that one man said his cat tried to hide under a chair to get away from the heart-rending sound are accounted for in this expose of these cruel practices for the sake of entertainment. The brutality is painful to read about—when the first captures took place, the hunters used harpoons and wire nets to catch the orcas. Later, explosives were thrown into the water to chase the whales into a net. Needless to say, many orcas died during the capture process, and most who survived to be sold into captivity in small pens didn’t live long.

But as the attendance and profitability of marine entertainment parks exploded, so did the protest movement to stop the brutal practice of capturing whales. Government agencies clashed, with the NOAA Office of Protected Resources enacting the Marine Mammal Protection Act and establishing rules to protect the orcas, while the National Marine Fisheries Service granted “economic hardship” exemptions to SeaWorld Inc. to capture even more whales. Scientists and commercial entities argued over the number of killer whales in existence. Soon it evolved into a media blitz and a court battle, with the state of Washington against the Feds from Washington, D.C. and SeaWorld to stop the practice of capturing orcas.

Fortunately, the conservationists prevailed and today the orcas of Puget Sound swim free, their number sadly decimated after a decade of captures and killings, and now their small population threatened by human over-fishing and pollution.

As Pollard points out, killer whales in other locations such as Iceland still face the danger of capture, and orcas are still penned up in amusement parks and forced to perform for entertainment.

When are wild animals a resource to be harvested for profit? And when do they deserve to be protected from harm? When does capture of a species become kidnapping, training become torture, and captivity become imprisonment? When does the death of a wild animal at the hands of a human become murder? Readers will find themselves pondering these questions as they explore the history presented in this meticulously researched book.

February 26, 2015
99 cents SALE on MRS. KAPLAN and the MATZOH BALL of DEATH

MRS. KAPLAN and the MATZOH BALL of DEATH by award-winning author Mark Reutlinger is on sale for 99 cents on Amazon March 27 – April 9th.

A cozy mystery is a rollicking adventure through a mystery at the Home for Jewish Seniors. “Deliciously funny” series published by Random House.

“Mrs. Kaplan and the Matzoh Ball of Death” is a Finalist in the 2014 M&M Awards. Congratulations to Mark Reutlinger!

February 24, 2015
WHERE the BONES are BURIED by Jeanne Matthews

Waiting for the other shoe to drop and looking over her shoulder is what cultural anthropologist Dinah Pelerin feels like she has spent the majority of her adult life doing. With a plum new job at the university in Berlin and Thor Ramberg, the James Bond-like Norwegian cop sleeping next to her, there should be plenty to keep her happy. And she is ready for a new lease on life.

However, Dinah’s new found happiness flies out the door when she literally opens it to Swan Calms, her Seminole Indian mother, who has a tomahawk to grind with her ex-husband’s German business partner. The fact that her ex got an early ticket to the happy hunting ground in the sky or that she has no valid claim to the pile of money the partner has stashed doesn’t deter Swan.

Armed with a gun and a half-baked plan Swan is intent on getting “her share” and she didn’t show up on Dinah’s and Thor’s doorstep alone. She’s managed to drag her former arch enemy and current sidekick, Margaret, along for the ride. Tension between the two older women immediately ratchets-up, leaving Dinah to wonder what planets must have collided to bring Margaret, also an ex-wife of the same drug-dealing man, and Swan together. With a pathological liar for a mother and murder in Margaret’s background, the outlook isn’t looking so good.

Swan’s plan turns to blackmail, putting everyone’s life the line. Then the plan turns deadly and Swan becomes the focus of a murder investigation. Genetic ties and misplaced loyalties press Dinah to channel her inner warrior to track down the evidence needed to exonerate her mother. But what if the evidence proves her guilt?

Secrets, lies, and betrayal weigh heavily in this fifth installment of the Dinah Pelerin series. And, Dinah knows well that the cruelest lies are those of omission. Like Dinah, each character in this rich, quirky cast has a story to tell but their truths rest dangerously below the surface. Dinah’s hunt for the killer tests her resolve and forces her to question her own truths. By releasing the secrets of her past, Dinah gains a new level of strength and confidence. Her final hurdle is one of trust, and readers will root for her as she grapples with a long-overdue leap of faith.

With a strong sense of setting, author Jeanne Matthews invites the reader to travel vicariously with Dinah while she navigates her way through the sights, sounds and history of Berlin. As Dinah delves deeper into the city, the reader becomes privy to the eccentricities of a European sub-culture in love with the Native American past, and to the darker side of the antiquities trade.

Where the Bones are Buried contains a large cast of characters, some fun and peculiar, some dark and tortured, all of whom have a hidden agenda. While the associated subplots are intricate, “red herring” aficionados will savor the challenge of bringing together the myriad clues of this clever and complex mystery. Matthews has, once again, crafted an entertaining, and, at times, humorous mystery that will have mystery readers enthralled.

February 23, 2015
MUCH ADO ABOUT MINERS by Jacquie Rogers

What happens when a handsome gun-slinging cowboy, tries to stop a bank robbery only to get shot by the one and only Miss Iris Gardner, the farsighted, bespectacled bank teller with a loaded peacemaker, and the president of her local suffragist branch. Kade McKinnon, overhears her name as he fades in and out of consciousness. If memory serves him, it belongs to the most ornery, rambunctious girl to ever cross Kade’s path during his younger days.

But Iris is no longer a young girl; she has developed into a hot blooded, intelligent, and beautiful woman. And unbeknownst to Iris, she has caught the attention of the most well-known gunslinger-for-hire in the West, by trying to blow his head off. It isn’t the first time Iris has shot a man.

Iris is by far the most independent woman you will meet in all the territory. She is a woman with a plan, and there is no man around that can steer her off her path. She believes that there is more for her than “cleaning and breeding.” She, along with several other suffragists in Silver City, Idaho, created a mining investment company that is sure to set them all on the path for financial independence. All seems to be going according to plan until Kade, the older boy she used to have a crush on, rides into town and she shoots him.

Kade is a gunslinger, a “for hire” true rough and tough man of the West. He lives for the adventure and loves life on the trail. He has made it plain that he is not going to get tied down by a wife. He is in town to get the job he was hired to do done, and then it is back on the trail to his next paid adventure. And there’s nothing that will change his mind. As much as he is attracted to Iris, he knows that he is not the settling down type of man. So Kade tries to keep his mind on his work and off from her fine figure and blonde tresses.

Hilarity, adventure, mistaken identities, and romance make Much Ado about Miners by Jacquie Rogers a hit for anyone who has a penchant for classic Westerns and Shakespearean comedies. She lassos the genres together in a most enjoyable way making this tale a true pleasure to read. From saddles sores and thorns from the trail, to finally being able to breathe when the last binding on the corset is released, even the most die hard Western readers will be impressed with Roger’s knowledge and expertise she portrays as she takes you back in time to Silver City.

Rogers’ delightful characters bring their own distinct flavor to Much Ado About Miners: the Shakespeare quoting sidekick, Phineas; a trouble-making scraggly yellow feline named “Duke;” dastardly despicable bad guys; and others. Her scenes had me laughing so hard at times, I was in tears! This entertaining tale will have you rooting for the good guys while hanging on for a wild and fun ride that starts on the first page and doesn’t let up to the very end. And, trust me, you’ll never think about biscuits in the same way again.

I was caught hook, line and sinker in this heartwarming, romantic tale of the old West with its unforgettable characters and delightful surprises. There are three more rollicking adventures in the Hearts of Owyhee series by Jacquie Rogers waiting to be enjoyed. What are you waiting for?

February 20, 2015

Chanticleer Book Reviews