Romance Blitz Countdown to Valentine's Day

For the next two weeks, there's a party goin' on!

The event's on Facebook.

Click here for details.

Book Blitz Line-up:
Day 1: A Change of Plans by Author Donna K. Weaver
Day 2: The Heart of the Hunter by Author Natalie-Nicole Bates
Day 3: Moonlight by Author Ann Hunter
Day 4: The Stranger She Married by Author Donna Hatch
Day 5: The End of Feeling by Author Cindy C Bennett
Day 6: Passport To Happiness by Author Debbie White
Day 7: Pierced by Love by Author Laura L. Walker
Day 8: Cross Examination by Author Denise Moncrief
Day 9: Her One and Only by Author Shannon Guymon
Day 10: The Lady and the Minstrel by Author Joyce DiPastena
Day 11: Midnight Runner by Author Marilee Jackson
Day 12: My Sweet Danish Rose by Author Tina Peterson Scott
Day 13: Big in Japan by Author Jennifer Griffith
Day 14: Featuring all the books and the buy links so people can pick them up

A to Z - Networking

Earlier this month author Robison Wells (Variant) wrote a great post about marketing that also touched on networking. He said it was a rant, and it was, but I think it was a good rant. Rob's day job for many years was marketing, and he has a lot of good information in the post, so I highly recommend that you go read the whole thing. But I want to share this from the post:

"So, let’s try to hammer one thing into our heads. If get nothing else from this blog, get this:

When you see the term “social networking”, ignore the word “networking” and focus on the word “social“. Some people act like Facebook and Twitter and blogging are a chore, and if you have that attitude, then you’ll always hate social networking. But I don’t see it that way. I log into Twitter the first thing every morning to see what my FRIENDS are talking about, and so I can join the conversation. And a lot of these friends are people who I’ve never met in real life. Some are fellow authors. Some are readers. Some are just fun people who I’ve met and built a relationship with.

Yes, that took time, and in those early days when I had few Twitter followers, it wasn’t as much fun. But it’s definitely worth the investment. Now, I feel like I always have someone to talk to, or someone to hear a joke from, or someone who has something insightful to share. It’s like hanging out with your friends all the time.

It’s not a friggin’ chore. It’s a delight. It’s SOCIAL.

And if you don’t like Twitter, then blog. Build your SOCIAL network there, and interact with your commenters. Or on Facebook. Or on YouTube, or Google Plus, or Friendster, or whatever-the-heck else. It doesn’t matter which platforms you chose. Just chose something, and have a good time. Be social. Be fun. Be interesting.

You’re a writer, for crying out loud. If you can’t be fun or interesting for ten minutes a day then maybe you’re in the wrong business."

How do you feel about social networking and how it relates to marketing your books? Is it just a huge burden or are you having fun?

Ernestly Seeking . . .

*takes a deep breath*

Okay. I put the last touches on the manuscript. It's time to send in that full.

My goal was to begin querying by February 1st. Looks like I'm a little ahead of schedule. I'm a member of Querytracker, and I've read tons of blog posts with suggestions about querying.

Everyone talks about researching agents to make sure you're aware of their individual submission requirements and getting to know their personalities--if something wonderful happens, you want to know you want work with this person. I've heard rumors of agent stalking on Twitter and Facebook to help glean some of that insight.

What do you look for in an agent?

Or, if you already have your dream agent, what is it about him/her that you think is the most important in your working relationship?

Social Media

Today's post was inspired by a discussion going on in my writing group at Dave Farland's Writing Groups. One of our members, Justin Jeppesen, who is new to the Twitter thing (me, too) asked for some suggestions. I'm going to share Robin Week's response because it's so good:

For Twitter:

• Participate in the hashtag chats, like #yalitchat and #askagent (when you see one going, click on the hastag and it will take you to a screen where you can see what everyone else is tweeting with that hashtag)--everyone there will see your tweets and you'll pick up followers that way.
• Comment on others' posts, start up conversations, etc--don't just tweet about your books: be interesting
• Follow the people you'd like to have follow you--an email is sent to everyone you follow (well, depending on their settings) and a lot of people will auto-follow or will at least check you out for a possible follow if you follow them first
• DON'T connect Twitter to Facebook--it is annoying to those who follow you in both places. Use Twitter for little things and Facebook for larger things and, for huge things, post separately on both.

For the Blog:

• Have a regular schedule of posting, so your followers can anticipate your posts (I've just started posting Tuesday night and Saturday morning--if I can keep it up for a few weeks, I'll post my schedule on my blog), too.
• Interesting titles, to entice followers and others to read your posts
• Participate in blogfests--those are when you register your list your blog on the host's blog with the other participants and then do something specific with your own blog--there's an April A-Z blogfest going on in April, if you're interested: posting every day but Sundays in April--then everyone is encouraged to visit the other blogs in the fest
• Tweet about your new blog entries (this is where your interesting titles come in) with a bit.ly link to the blog post

In General:

• Social media is SOCIAL--you need to get out there, comment on others' blogs, comment on tweets, etc. Elana Johnson (who has almost 2000 blog followers) went through a period where she commented on 50 blogs a day!!
• Don't diss others--everyone can see your tiff and no one thinks you're cool when you're whining

And as Robin also suggests, you can check out Beth Revis' post on this topic here.




How comfortable are you with social media? Do you find it difficult to balance all the other aspects of your life--like writing--with the time it takes to Twitter, Facebook, Blog, etc.? How are you making it work for you?