blogging

Member of the Month: Audrey Atkins

The past couple of months have been quite exciting for Audrey Atkins of the popular blog Folkways Nowadays. Not only did she publish her debut essay collection They Call Me Orange Juice with Archway Publishing, but she also attended BookExpo 2018 at the Javits Center in New York where her new book was on display at Archway Publishing’s booth!

Audrey is the See Jane Write Member of the Month for June 2018 for these reasons and so many more.

If you’re in the Birmingham area you can buy a copy of They Call Me Orange Juice at Audrey’s book launch party 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, June 15 at Rojo, 2921 Highland Avenue. There will be light hors-d’oeuvres provided, books will be sold and signed, and Audrey will do a short reading.

In the meantime, read on to learn more about Audrey’s book and her blog and why she loves being a part of See Jane Write.

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Is your blog GDPR ready?

A few weeks ago I set aside a couple hours to work on getting the See Jane Write website ready for the General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR) set to go into effect May 25. I figured it would take me about an hour to read up on GDPR and figure out exactly what it is and another hour to make whatever changes were necessary.

Three hours later I found myself in tears, drowning in legal information I didn’t understand and declaring that I was going to shut down See Jane Write LLC so I wouldn’t have to deal with this mess!

So if you’ve been wondering exactly what GDPR is and how it affects you I’m going to try to explain but first a quick disclaimer: I AM NOT A LAWYER and this is not legal advice. I’m just going to share some of what I’ve learned and point you toward some resources that might help you.

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Content Creation Tips I Learned from the GlamTwinz at the 2018 Natural Hair & Health Expo

Saturday I attended the 7th annual Visions Natural Hair and Health Expo in Birmingham where natural hair and beauty vloggers The GlamTwinz were special guests.

I attend the expo regularly as it always proves to be a great time and an opportunity to try out new hair care products and learn new hair care tips. But because the event draws influencers like The GlamTwinz I also often learn how to be a better content creator, too.

Here are three tips I picked up from the talk that GlamTwinz Kendra and Kelsey Murrell gave during the expo.

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Why You Should Attend Black Writers Weekend 2018

Tamika Newhouse

When Tamika Newhouse started the African Americans on the Move Book Club (AAMBC) in 2008 she had no idea it would eventually lead to her hosting Black Writers Weekend, an annual event that is not to be missed by African American writers and bloggers.

“I stumbled into creating the online community,” Newhouse says. “I wanted to be part of a book club but I was in a new city, I didn’t have any friends, and I thought it would be pretty weird for a grown woman to walk up to other grown women and say ‘Hey, I like to read books. Do you like to read books? Let’s read books together.’”

So she started a MySpace page and created an online book club of her own, one that focused on reading and discussing the work of African American authors. She quickly realized that there were many black writers out there not getting the attention they deserved. So, in 2009 Newhouse launched the AAMBC Literary Awards in San Antonio, Texas to recognize and honor black writers. In the years following awards ceremonies were also held in Chicago and Baltimore. In 2015 the event grew to include a red carpet ceremony and was held in Atlanta. This marked the beginning of Black Writers Weekend.

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How to Start a Blog

I love blogging and blogging has loved me back. I’ve been offered paid freelance writing gigs and paid speaking engagements because of my blogs and I’ve used the See Jane Write blog to grow a small women’s writing group into an award-winning business. A blog can also be a great way to build an audience for the book you want to write.

Make 2018 the year you finally launch (or relaunch) your website and blog. Here’s a guide to get you started.

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