Websites & Social Media Archives ⋆ L.J. Diva

A Brand New Year, A Brand New Site, and What I Did Over The Holidays!

01/02/2019 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Business & Legalities, Websites & Social Media Leave a Comment

Yes, here I am!

Here at L.J. Diva, the official website.

For those who don’t know, I had my dear old Blogger blog migrated on Jan 21st, 2019. It’s the start of a new era for me. Ten years I was at blogger, ten years I had that blog, but, 2019 is my year to cut and cull.

Again!

Every year I cull some social media, some emails, some web pages. This year I will be culling massive amounts of email adds. I have emails for all of my websites and multiple adds for multiple reasons. Outlook, live, hotmail, gmail, ymail, they just have to go.

Over the next month I will be slowly culling all of my excess baggage, along with my weight, yep, on another diet, and hopefully, it will refine and define my online business so it is easier to deal with.

As for all of the blog posts here at L.J. Diva…

Well, they came over from Blogger. I will be updating or deleting some I no longer think are worthy of being here. Or, are just embarrassing and hideous and I no longer want around. 10 years worth aren’t really worth it in the grand scheme of things. And it’s a new start here on the new site for 2019.

For those who are new, when I started my blog it was called Bitchfest! I then changed it to A Bitchfest! Lovefest!, it was then Lady Jewels Diva, and in it’s final incarnation, it was L.J. Diva. When I started, I swore, so if you don’t like swearing, don’t go back. For those who don’t care, feel free. I blogged about a lot of things, some, received massive attention and scored many comments, but over the last five or so years, I’ve toned down and written more about publishing, writing, books and movies I’ve read. I don’t feel the need to comment on everything in the world anymore, only when I feel like it.

And, since migrating comes with issues, I only went through the last year’s worth of posts and fixed issues, any from 2017 and beyond, I’m not going to worry about, so ignore the horrible issues that came with migrating.

As with every year, I’m sticking around and here’s what I got up to over the holidays.

December 1 – started low calorie diet, also started wardrobe overhaul

December 2 – as above

December 3 – as above

December 4 – skin cancer clinic, had mole cut off right inner knee, continued wardrobe overhaul

December 5 – two doctor’s appointments, some shopping

December 6 – shopping, library, usual

December 7 – washing, housework

December 8 – chiro visit in the morning, started jewellery overhauls

December 9, 10, 11, 12 – continued jewellery overhaul, cleaning, repairs, reorganising

December 13 – shopping, library

December 14 – washing, housework

December 15 – got stuff done

December 16 – xmas shopping, library

December 17 – continued stuff

December 18 – cancer clinic for stitches out. Borderline melanoma

December 19 – continued stuff

December 20 – shopping, chiro, library

December 21 – washing, housework, weighed self, lost 1 stone/6.5 kilos/14 pounds

December 22 – continued stuff

December 23 – as above

December 24 – ran out to get lunch and dessert, watched carols on tv and had munchies

December 25 – home, some work, sister came round

December 26 – some more work

December 27 – shopping, freakin’ hot

December 28 – washing, finished off all of the above

December 29 – as above

December 30 – as above

December 31 – watched New Year’s celebrations and had munchies

January 1 – started new publishing list for this year, weighed self, gained 3 kilos/7 pounds, back to diet

January 2 – sorted out diaries and finished off others

January 3 – shopping, freakin’ hot

January 4 – washing, stuff

January 5 – edited next novel, DeLuca

January 6 – as above

January 7 – as above

January 8 – shopped online

January 9 – edited DeLuca

January 10 – shopping, library

January 11 – washing, finished off stuff, got some blog posts scheduled and planned ahead

January 12 – edited DeLuca

January 13 – as above

January 14 – did back matter updating

January 15 – started Stefan pb edit, 300 pages

January 16 – continued Stefan edit

January 17 – shopping early as it was hot, library, more Stefan edit

January 18 – started scheduling blog posts

January 19 – went back to hand writing and wrote more of DeLuca

January 20 – as above

January 21 – had L.J. Diva blog migrated, dealt with some business

January 22 – finished editing the paperback proof of Stefan

January 23 – tried to get shit done online, holy hell it’s hot here. Tidied up last year’s blog posts.

January 24 – shopping, library, chemist, burgers for lunch

January 25 – washing, caught up on excess stuff and leftovers and dealt with website stuff

January 26 – back to handwriting more Deluca, finished off other things

January 27 – sister came over, some reading

January 28 – editing

January 29 – edited books and dealt with website stuff

January 30 – typed up rest of DeLuca

January 31 – shopping, library

So, what did you guys get up to over the holidays?

And, since I now have to claim this blog on Bloglovin’, here is the link – Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Happy 10th Blog Blogaversary Birthday to Me….. I’m Moving!!!!

31/12/2018 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Holidays & Festivities, Websites & Social Media Leave a Comment

That’s right, this little old blog turned 10 today.

On January 1st, 2009, it started as Bitchfest! under the domain of jewelsdiva.com.au. Over the years, it has grown by name, A Bitchfest! Lovefest! to Lady Jewels Diva, to the same domain just last year of ladyjewelsdiva.com.

But now, with the brand spankin’ new author site LJDiva.com being released late 2017, I have decided to cut and cull my social media just that little bit more, and have tidied up all of the labels here to be cleaner and leaner.

This blog is moving to my author website on WordPress sometime this month.

After ten years, lots of love, and definitely LOTS of colour, we will be setting up our new home over at L.J. Diva.

It’s nothing new for authors to link up or migrate old Blogger blogs to their new WordPress websites. WordPress has it all over Blogger/Blogspot/Google who have not given bloggers the opportunity to be too much in control.

On WordPress, you are in control of your website and how it looks, with millions of themes available to use, whereas Blogger doesn’t give you much. Although I will miss my kiss background, my huge header space, my side bar (although you do get one on WordPress) and all the wonderfully colourful stuff I’ve done with it, it’s time to adultify myself and move my blog to my adult author website.

Blogger does, however, give you Blogroll, so I will be keeping this profile for now as this blog will be here for the next few months, giving an updated post so people know where I’ve gone. Hopefully you’ll follow me over at my website and continue to post, or even on Tumblr where I send this blog to, same as Google+. If I remember, you can follow WordPress blogs in Blogroll, so I won’t be too hard to find. And I find it better to use than Bloglovin, although my blog is there as well for those on it.

However, when it comes to comments, I may not be providing many on yours. My apologies in advance, but with everything going on in my life (especially the last three years), with the way times have changed, the age I’ve gotten to, all of the books I need to write and have written, and having been doing this for ten years, I’m buggered. Literally! And I need to cut and cull as much as possible and that means no longer following blogs and commenting.

It’s nice taking December and January off without worrying about posting or leaving comments. Instagram and Facebook is where I find all of my info these days and see what’s going on in the world, or there’s Twitter and Pinterest. Feel free to follow me there instead if you don’t want to follow a blog anymore, and I’ll follow you back so we can keep commenting. But I’ve grown tired and worn out and I’ll be 45 in May, so the time has come to slowly grind to a halt.

I’ll see you on the website in February.

Cheers to ten years!

Royal Star Publishing

15/11/2018 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, Business & Legalities, Publishing, Websites & Social Media Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago I teased about my publishing house, and now, here she is.

About two years ago, I toiled with the idea of setting up my own publishing house.

It was 2016, I was writing under three names, about to release a plethora of books, and thought about a name to publish them all under.

So, in 2017, I bought a business name, set up a website, and then decided to change the name and the website. Check it out here.

I went from Royal Crown Press to Royal Star Publishing. You can see the website here.

It’s a basic website with a header, front page, and some social media apps. It has pages for series, kids, adult and non fiction.

It is updated every six months with the release of a new book, and generally sits there and is for show.

Now, every time I publish a book, I can use the name on the sales site so it looks more professional. Because that’s the whole point as an independent author/publisher. Having something that looks professional on your sale page and not the names Amazon or CreateSpace.

So Royal Star Publishing was born, and is growing.

I’ve surpassed 50 stories, non fiction, novellas and novels and there’s more to come. So, why not have my own publishing house? We currently have five in house imprints.

Chances is the fiction imprint for sexy and adult novels for women. Covering romance, it’s for more in depth genres, such as drama and lgbt, and features more sex, and mature adult themes.

Chances was named in honour of Jackie Collins’ book Chances. It suits this imprint perfectly as it’s about women and men taking chances on life and love.

Love Beats is the fiction imprint for light and lovely romance novels. Whether they be sweet, comedic, fun or lightweight, these romances will make you laugh before they make you cry. With more love than sex, these will get you through a wintry day in front of the fire, or a lazy day on the beach. (Will be for light romances)

Skull & Bone is the fiction imprint for children, tweens & young adults. Covering horror, paranormal, occult, fantasy, myths, folklore and all other genres with a slightly twisted edge. (All of the T.K. Wrathbone stuff so far)

Dream Star is the fiction imprint for children, tweens & young adults. Covering light and bright themes across all genres, it brings a little fun into their lives. (#teenblogger)

Notes on Life is our imprint that covers poetry and song lyrics. (Poems Of A Musical Flavour)

So, that’s Royal Star Publishing. We are not open for submissions, purely a name only business for myself at this stage. But who knows, maybe when I’m rich and famous and can afford to turn it into a company and publish other people…it might happen.

The Writing Groups I’ve Joined in the Last Year

08/11/2018 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, Publishing, Websites & Social Media, Writing Leave a Comment

On the path through any journey, you need to keep educating yourself about your craft, reading, listening, watching, learning from all others that went before and all that have come after you.

It’s a great way to learn of all the new things that are coming our way.

As authors, we need to be across the board and on the ball because the publishing field is changing so much and so fast, that sometimes, we can’t keep up.

But one way of doing so, is to look at all of the writing/publishing groups you come across. Figure out if you can learn from them, if they are supportive of each other and not egotistically narcissistic in dictating how the publishing business is, and how authors should be.

Find a group that loves to learn and help each other out instead of pull each other down. And believe me, there are quite a few of those, apparently.

But the two I belong to, aren’t.

Alliance of Independent Authors I joined last year. Known as Alli, it was started by Orna Ross for authors like herself and grew from that. Alli has partnerships with companies such as Ingram Sparks where we self-publishing authors get a great deal on publishing our books with them.

There are book designers and editors who will do Alli members a deal, and John Doppler wades through all of the information on publishing houses and whether or not you need to beware and stay away.

For an author who’s already published, it’s a yearly cost of $129AUD. Varying levels of membership have varying costs, it all depends on where you are in your writing journey. Also, as a member, you get free books to publishing written by Alli members themselves, and you get to join the Facebook page.

The next group is Self Publishing Formula by Mark Dawson.

A former lawyer and trad pubbed author, when he was dumped by his pub house, as so many authors are, he started self-publishing and slowly built up Self Publishing Formula. You can join the Facebook group, buy the courses, watch or listen to the podcasts, and learn so much it’s ridiculous.

I really wish all of these things had been around 12 years ago when I wrote my first book. Back then, I only had my local writing centre and Romance Authors of Australia. I left both behind years ago.

If you’re a writer or author and are looking for your tribe, these are two groups you need to check out and join.

Social Media, the almighty cull, and changes are afoot!

16/08/2018 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Websites & Social Media Leave a Comment

Every year I do a cull of my social media. I clear out people I don’t follow anymore, blogs that have been left for dead, websites I no longer use.

Over on my style site, I blogged about the places I am now, you can check that out here.

Here at my blog, things might be changing.

I love Blogger, have since I started on it January 1, 2009, but times have changed, all of my original followers have moved on, and many have moved to WordPress.

Last year, I debuted my new author website ljdiva.com, along with my book series website pornstarbrothers.com. There is no point me having a separate blog, even though an author I follow, Joe Konrath had a marvel whip him up a website that connected to his blog seamless while it was still on blogger. But I don’t want to do that.

Even though the blog roll is incredibly useful, and I wish wordpress.org had one, I really cannot keep up with multiple sites, and slowly, everything is being culled and reeled in to a uniform structure.

This year alone Stumbleupon was bought and sold and became something else so that account went, I deleted my Photobucket account, my Skype account, my LinkedIn account, and even my Wattpad account.

But, I also have the Tumblr version of this blog that I set up in 2009/10, I have the YouTube channel I set up for this name, plus G+, which I don’t really use but have been told it’s a useful thing to have. So there are three more accounts that may or may not stay for the future.

I tried to go for the pentagon of social media. A web/blog, Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest under all of my names. That means, eventually moving this blog over to my WordPress website so I’m going to two places instead of three.

That also means, I may or may not get back to your blogs. I also use Bloglovin’, but rarely go there. All of the blogs I follow are on my blog roll and I can’t take that with me. So, regardless of how much I love my blog and the way it’s laid out, and the decorations I’ve done to it, come the end of the year it may stop being used.

I’m hoping that since the website has it’s own url that the blog will be seamlessly transferred over and will be able to also stay here at Blogger, that way, I can do a periodical post to let everyone know I’ve moved on, and still be able to use the blog roll to check up on you guys.

I don’t know. I’m trying to come up with a way of making life easier for myself as there may come a day I no longer blog, and I know people start blogs left right and centre across multiple platforms and then never go back, but I don’t want to just leave it. I want to leave it here so it can redirect people to my website for at least a year.

So, until the end of the year, at least, this blog will stay here. Come January, I’ll decide if I stay or go, because it will be this blog’s 10th birthday and I think that’s an occasion to consider a move.

What have you guys decided about your blogs and websites over the years?

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