Day 39: Creating Bible images for social media
I spent some time this morning thinking about marketing and social media. I’m not entirely sure that social media actually helps people find out about my books, but I know my readers are on social media because they’ve reached out to me with Facebook comments and Twitter replies.
I absolutely don’t want to be an author who only tweets “Buy my book!” but I also don’t want to be an author who posts random things about their day. I don’t have time to do that anyway—I spend long hours writing, which is incredibly BORING and unTwitter-worthy, and I (usually) don’t stop to post or interact on Facebook and Twitter because that messes up my writing focus.
But in the past few months, I’ve been enjoying the devotional app YouVersion Bible app by Life.Church, which has thousands of quick daily devotional plans and Bible versions to read. You can also create Bible images of verses using their backgrounds or your own photos, and I started using the photos of my Dad’s hibiscus flowers. I would share them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I even started making a duplicate Bible image with the same verse in Japanese.
I really enjoyed doing this because it was nice to use the hibiscus photos my dad sent to me (he’s justifiably proud of his hibiscus flowers, they’re so varied and some are very rare). And rather than posting a photo of what I’m eating for lunch, I’d rather post a pretty Bible verse. I’ve been trying to read Bible verses throughout the day because it helps to keep me grounded.
I started making even nicer Bible images using Bible Lens (made by YouVersion) but they’re going to stop development on it, so I searched for an alternative. Finding an alternative app was really a lot harder than I thought it would be!
I finally discovered Canva and Pickmonkey can do the same things. I had played around with Canva and with PicMonkey when making covers for my short stories, but hadn’t thought about using them for social media memes like my Bible images.
Canva is SUPER simple which is great for someone like me who doesn’t care that much about customizing every little piece of it. I just want a pretty template where I can throw in my hibiscus photo, copy and paste the Bible verse, and I’m ready to go. The free version of Canva seemed to do a good job. I posted a Bible image today, in English and Japanese.
So while I’m still not going to post often during the day on Facebook and Twitter, I think I’ll try to post Bible images more often now that I can do it with Canva. I think this is a kind of social media that I can do which isn’t stressful, and which I think my readers might even want to see. Two days ago, MaryLu Tyndall reminded me that marketing is in God’s hands and God’s control, and I don’t have to do everything I’m “supposed” to be doing if it’s only going to stress me out. So … Bible images it is!
Today I’m continuing the characterization for my serial novel, which is going to be posted on my blog as marketing for my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series. I think I only have two major characters to finish, and then a bunch of minor characters.
***
I finished the characterization for one major character, who also appears in the main series, and I had to revise his spiritual conflict a bit because when I wrote it before, I was too vague. I remembered to pray a bit more this time, and I changed it to what I feel God wants me to write for his spiritual arc.
I only have one more major character to do. The rest are all minor characters.
It’s already 6 pm and I haven’t got as many hours writing as I wanted. I took too long a lunch with my husband, and I had some home chores that had to be done today. It’s also been really hot today and I’m getting a bit of a headache from the heat, which has made it difficult to concentrate for the past hour. Since I’m getting less and less done, I think I’ll stop here today.
Time spent writing: 3 hours, 40 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 58 minutes (this includes an hour of reading marketing books and also some time playing around with Canva for my social media posting.)
My takeaway for today: I think I’ll try to post Bible images more often now that I can do it with Canva. I think this is a kind of social media that I can do which isn’t stressful, and which I think my readers might even want to see.
I absolutely don’t want to be an author who only tweets “Buy my book!” but I also don’t want to be an author who posts random things about their day. I don’t have time to do that anyway—I spend long hours writing, which is incredibly BORING and unTwitter-worthy, and I (usually) don’t stop to post or interact on Facebook and Twitter because that messes up my writing focus.
But in the past few months, I’ve been enjoying the devotional app YouVersion Bible app by Life.Church, which has thousands of quick daily devotional plans and Bible versions to read. You can also create Bible images of verses using their backgrounds or your own photos, and I started using the photos of my Dad’s hibiscus flowers. I would share them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I even started making a duplicate Bible image with the same verse in Japanese.
I really enjoyed doing this because it was nice to use the hibiscus photos my dad sent to me (he’s justifiably proud of his hibiscus flowers, they’re so varied and some are very rare). And rather than posting a photo of what I’m eating for lunch, I’d rather post a pretty Bible verse. I’ve been trying to read Bible verses throughout the day because it helps to keep me grounded.
I started making even nicer Bible images using Bible Lens (made by YouVersion) but they’re going to stop development on it, so I searched for an alternative. Finding an alternative app was really a lot harder than I thought it would be!
I finally discovered Canva and Pickmonkey can do the same things. I had played around with Canva and with PicMonkey when making covers for my short stories, but hadn’t thought about using them for social media memes like my Bible images.
Canva is SUPER simple which is great for someone like me who doesn’t care that much about customizing every little piece of it. I just want a pretty template where I can throw in my hibiscus photo, copy and paste the Bible verse, and I’m ready to go. The free version of Canva seemed to do a good job. I posted a Bible image today, in English and Japanese.
So while I’m still not going to post often during the day on Facebook and Twitter, I think I’ll try to post Bible images more often now that I can do it with Canva. I think this is a kind of social media that I can do which isn’t stressful, and which I think my readers might even want to see. Two days ago, MaryLu Tyndall reminded me that marketing is in God’s hands and God’s control, and I don’t have to do everything I’m “supposed” to be doing if it’s only going to stress me out. So … Bible images it is!
Today I’m continuing the characterization for my serial novel, which is going to be posted on my blog as marketing for my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series. I think I only have two major characters to finish, and then a bunch of minor characters.
***
I finished the characterization for one major character, who also appears in the main series, and I had to revise his spiritual conflict a bit because when I wrote it before, I was too vague. I remembered to pray a bit more this time, and I changed it to what I feel God wants me to write for his spiritual arc.
I only have one more major character to do. The rest are all minor characters.
It’s already 6 pm and I haven’t got as many hours writing as I wanted. I took too long a lunch with my husband, and I had some home chores that had to be done today. It’s also been really hot today and I’m getting a bit of a headache from the heat, which has made it difficult to concentrate for the past hour. Since I’m getting less and less done, I think I’ll stop here today.
Time spent writing: 3 hours, 40 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 58 minutes (this includes an hour of reading marketing books and also some time playing around with Canva for my social media posting.)
My takeaway for today: I think I’ll try to post Bible images more often now that I can do it with Canva. I think this is a kind of social media that I can do which isn’t stressful, and which I think my readers might even want to see.
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