mostly marketing

I have several things on my mind today so bear with me if I meander...since mercury is now out of retrograde I feel an edginess that I need to explore even if I've talked about these subjects in previous blogs...

1. Hashtags on twitter: Just yesterday I realized that I've been posting links to twitter without sending it to the places where my readers might be hanging out...I'm sure most of you know this already but for me it was an epiphany...

2. The goddess principle: This is connected to the hashtags--my book is filled with goddesses and at the risk of sounding weird, a goddess wrote my book using my computer and my fingers to type it out...so how do I employ the goddess (feminine) principle to my marketing plan?
   
3. Twitter: I need to have a theme for each week and places to go--for instance, #mythology or #druid/pagan  etc...tweet once a day on the theme of the week--fifteen minutes max. (good luck)

3. How to organize the social media marketing in general: Advice to myself: get on Facebook and Goodreads at certain times of day--spend a half hour or less at those times--and then, step away! Hard to do since now I'm on 'indie authors', 'fantasy authors', 'bookjunkies', 'authors pitch for readers' and a few others--getting caught up in the threads is not only time-consuming, it takes energy from my writing, draining me before I've begun.

4. Reading blogs: This one is unbelievably time consuming and yet it's vitally important. If I expect others to read mine I have to make the effort...and many bloggers have kindly taken time to read my book and review on their blogs...many thanks to all of them!

5. Writing blogs: I have two blogs on blogspot as well as one on my website...I love the exercise of writing and I love the disparate subjects I'm writing about--so time spent doing this is good.

6. Website: My extremely expensive website is languishing. I don't know how to get people there--I've put links on this blog but have no way of knowing if anyone uses them. Wordpress is unfamiliar to me and more complicated..plus I don't like the black with white type--but it's part of the template and can't be changed.

With my second book about to come out I need to think about a blog tour--contest/giveaways, all things I'm unfamiliar with...luckily all the author pages I'm on will be a tremendous source of information...

Sorry if I've repeated myself here...and thanks for reading! Comments are greatly appreciated.

And last but not least: The Moonstone will be free on Kindle from August 10-12th

http://www.amazon.com/The-Moonstone-ebook/dp/B007DXI9SM

long time...

It has been nearly a month since I've had the time or the wherewith-all to even think about posting a new blog! Despite the unpacked boxes stretching from floor to ceiling in the basement I have decided to go on with my writing life. Whether I can write anything worth reading is another matter altogether!

I am editing my fantasy novel (you remember--goddesses? Finna and Catriona?) once more after getting it back from the editor. It is now divided into three books, a trilogy, to be marketed accordingly. And...since it takes place in the Highlands of Scotland I am pursuing the Scottish agent and publishing market. Don't know if this will get me anywhere--for some reason I feel that people might read a bit more in the U.K., is this true? All I know is that this is an avenue different from the forty submissions I've already sent out. So, I ordered the 2011 yearbook of agents and publishers in Scotland and will be working on this for the next few months...why can't I just go with self-publishing, you ask? especially after all the interviews and success stories I have on my blog. I think because lately I've been hearing horror stories about authors losing their rights and wishing they had not gone with this or that company. It takes a tremendous amount of research, not to mention cash outlay to go this route. But I am definitely not ruling it out. This book WILL NOT languish in a drawer for the rest of its papery life--something about my stubborn capricorn nature I guess. It needs to be sprung in order for me to get on with the other writing projects I have going, like the memoir I've been posting excerpts of on this blog.

So, that's this week's update. When I receive the yearbook I can begin the slog through it--but I've done it before and I actually find this part fun--it's the marketing of myself and my work that sends me careening into the abyss...sending out queries is the easy part.