Out and About Online

Last week I blogged about how wonderful it was to be distracted from my work--by family.  And most especially by my baby grandson.

Right now, I’ve got more time to dig in and work on the books I’m writing.  But that’s not all.  I have two--that’s right, two!--new books being published in February.  That’s only about two months away now, and I want to do everything I can to get the word out so people will know about them.  Which books?  My next Alpha Force Harlequin Nocturne UNDERCOVER WOLF, and my next Pet Rescue Mystery OODLES OF POODLES for Berkley Prime Crime.

Since there’s a little bit of time till then, I want to plan on letting people know about both books as much as possible using social media.  I’ve been invited to participate in some online blogs and magazines, and will be delighted to do that.

I’ll also be working on a blog tour.  I’m on Facebook, but have been avoiding Twitter since I’m already too distracted by the things I actually do online. 

I’m additionally looking for ideas.  So--what can you suggest?  Are there any blogs besides Killer Hobbies that you read and think I should try to guest on?  Any groups or magazines or anything else you can suggest that I do?

And, okay, hit me with it.  Do you think I should join Twitter?

Whether you’re a reader, writer or both, what are your favorite online methods for authors to let readers know about new releases?

The Fate of Blogging

Last Sunday, I participated on a panel for the Women's National Book Association National Reading Group Month Celebration at The Last Book Store in downtown LA. That’s a new store, by the way, large and full of mostly used books that are hard to resist, even though fiction isn’t the focus.

There were five authors on the panel, plus a moderator. I really enjoyed the whole experience including hearing everyone else’s story of how they began writing and got published. The audience was enthusiastic, too, and asked a lot of great questions.

One thing that was discussed was blogging--whether the panelists blogged, how often, and what we thought of blogging.

I’ve been here on Killer Hobbies for years and really enjoy it. I’ve been guest blogging on other sites now more than ever, and also enjoy that.

But some of the people there--audience members and panelists--appear to believe that, with other social networking options like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and more, blogging is disappearing. They believe it’s not as helpful or relevant as the other choices.

Well, heck. I hate to think that could be true. And I’m not giving up my blogging, at least not yet.

Yes, writing a blog post is more time consuming than describing on Twitter, or even on Facebook, what someone had for dinner. Well, for me, I’m more likely to be describing on Facebook what my dogs, or my books, are doing.

But it’s also still enjoyable to me to come up with a relevant topic and expound on it for a few paragraphs--a subject as important as whether blogging still works, and whether it has a future.

What do you think?

Social Networking

I’ve written about networking here before. My most recent discussion was about networking in person. Now, I want to mention social networking once more.

I joined Facebook a few months ago because I heard great things about it, and it sounded like a good way to let people know about some of my upcoming books--primarily my new Pet Rescue Mystery series and my Harlequin Nocturne Alpha Force miniseries.

I started a friend page, and I keep adding friends... and others add me. I’ve found I really enjoy it. I can even keep track of what some of my relatives are doing, when they post what they’re up to on FB.

I’ve found it interesting to see what kinds of posts I get the most responses to. Putting up new book covers gets a lot of attention. So do discussions of what my dogs are doing to give me orders. When I post a link to my Killer Hobbies posts, I also get responses on Facebook, even though the people who like or comment on those references don’t always post comments here.

So, yes, I admit it. I’m glad I joined Facebook and enjoy both posting and reading it.

And, no, I don’t tweet yet. I’m still intimidated by Twitter, and I have heard mixed things about how effective it is for letting people know about an author’s work.

So what do you think? What kind of Facebook posts are you most likely to respond to? Are you on both Facebook and Twitter? Which do you prefer?

BTW, I’ll be networking in person on Wednesday when this is posted and will probably not have Internet access. No, I haven’t gotten a smartphone yet. I may not respond to your posts till my return from the Romance Writers of America conference, but I’ll definitely read them then. Meantime, maybe my dogs will give my husband orders to check out any comments to this post!

Holidays and Social Networking

I’m first to admit that I’m not a tech-type person. On the other hand, I love my computer. I just don’t understand all its abilities--only the ones I need to learn for my writing and otherwise.

Same thing about the Internet. Little by little, I’m learning aspects that make sense for me. E-mail--oh, yes. A long time ago. Blogging--a couple of years ago. Other social networking? I’m working into it gradually. I only joined Facebook a few weeks ago, and I haven’t attempted Twitter yet.

I’m finding that Facebook can be fun! I didn’t think I’d enjoy it, but seeing what other people post intrigues me. And now that the holidays are around us, I’m interested in what others post about how they handle it.

Shopping’s big. Cooking and baking, too. And all of it circles around family. That’s what really counts.

I friend and like a lot of Facebook pages relating to pets and animal rescues, and I’m pleased now to see how they’re related to the holidays, too--caring organizations that can fill people’s dreams with new pets who badly need homes. As long as it’s not all holiday emotionalism, of course. No surprises or impulsiveness that could result in the pet’s being brought back when the holidays are over--a really sad situation.

Some people seem more stressed over the holidays than usual, and that’s what they post about. Maybe talking about it to lots of friends helps.

I’m always interested to read other people’s writing-related posts, too. The holidays can detract from writing time and concentration, so those posts often also relate to this time of year.

How about you? Have you posted something on Facebook or Twitter about something holiday related? What parts of social networking seem to work best for you around the holidays?

Options in Social Networking

Okay, here it is. I have a website and I blog and I do lots of research on the Internet for my writing. Plus, I have several e-mail addresses for different purposes.

Last weekend, I spoke at a writers’ organization where at least one person strongly suggested that I tweet on Twitter, and maybe put my face onto Facebook. I’ve been resisting both, since I already spend an inordinate amount of time on the Internet--time when I could be writing or plotting. Or even doing something else productive, like letting my Cavalier King Charles Spaniels Lexie and Mystie take me for a walk.

I suspect that Kendra Ballantyne, the protagonist of my Pet-Sitter Mystery series, does them both, for her pet-sitting company and even for her lawyering. She hasn’t admitted it to me. But, then, she’s much more efficient in her use of time than I am these days.

So... I decided to ask for opinions about Facebook and Twitter, both from readers and from other writers. What do you think? Is it helpful for an author to have a presence on either or both? What are the advantages? The disadvantages besides the additional time it takes to keep them up?


--Linda

News and Appearances

News from Monday’s author, Joanna Campbell Slan: Joanna will be appearing on Saturday, April 18, 10-11:30 a.m. as part of their Mystery Go Round breakfast at the Buder Library on 4401 Hampton, in St. Louis. To attend, you must make a reservation. Please call Jim Moses at 314-352-2900.

Tuesday’s author, Camille Minichino (Margaret Grace), On April 2, Camille was keynote speaker for a fundraiser for the new Castro Valley, CA, library. She reports: it was fun to spend the evening asking the VIPs to support a great cause! A mini scene with the Castro Valley newspaper was featured and raffled off also. In anticipation of National Library Week (April 12-18), Camille will be featured at a book fair at the technical library of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on April 8. A full schedule of classes and events for Camille is at http://www.minichino.com/

Friday’s author, Terri Thayer, will be speaking at the Milipitas Alliance for the Arts Literary Luncheon on March 28th. Tickets available. Call Larry Voellger at 408-942-6960 or http://www.milpitasarts.com/.

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet--You Could Win a Box of Books!

Argh. Every day I open my email and think: I don’t have time for all this. I especially don’t have time to update my website, to check all the posts on all the list-serves I belong to, visit every online community I need to, and comment on everyone’s blog as I should.

But I do have time to Twitter. Apparently, the rest of the world agrees. The site has reported an eight-fold rise in visitors since 2007, and in December reported 2.7 million people stopped by. At this rate, it is poised to overtake Facebook. It’s especially popular among the young and restless. One in five people between the ages of 18 and 35 with Internet access have “tweeted” or posted short messages of 140 characters on Twitter at least once.

Why do we twitter? Because we can. Because I can dash off a 140-character (that’s letters and symbols, not characters as in people who populate books!) post to update people on the release date of Cut, Crop & Die, the second book in the Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery Series. (That’s June 1, so mark your calendars or go to Amazon.com and place your order.)

Because I can post regular journaling prompts to remind scrapbookers the world over to write about their own lives. (Check it out at twitter.com/joannaslan. If you are an author, the journaling prompts are great tools for overcoming writer’s block. Try them and you’ll see!)

Because I can follow my favorite authors, geeks, and newsmakers by hitting the FOLLOW button.

Because I can make a post to Twitter from a Blackberry. (Try doing that with a regular blog post. I mean, if you are young and have well-trained thumbs, you probably can handle this, but I can’t. Yet.)

Because Twitter will automatically take any regular URL and turn it into a tiny URL and post the link for me. Because I can quickly scan the posts and see what interests me. Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit,” so I think he would have LOVED Twitter.

Because Twitter fits. I can squeeze it in.

Want to see how it works? Become one of my followers on Twitter and I’ll enter your name in a contest to win a Box of Books. Yep, I did find time to cull an entire box full of mysteries from my bookshelves. (It's a BIG box.) So, add your name to my followers on Twitter by going to twitter.com/joannaslan, hitting FOLLOW, and then emailing me at savetales@aol.com and telling me you are now following me. Be sure to tell me your “twitter” name so I can see that you did it! (No cheating!) I’ll choose one follower and mail him/her that box of books. (Please include your postal address with your email to me at savetales@aol.com. If you don't include it, and if I can't email you and get it within a day or two, I'll draw another winner.)

Let’s see if this Tweeting works!

PS You can hear a live broadcast of a scrapbook crop at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/circle-of-seven/2009/02/14/readers-entertainment-radio-with-guest-joanna-slan-author-of-paper-scissors-death If you have NO idea what a “crop” is, or why women love them, this will be very, very enlightening!

2008 Was the Year That I...

For years now, I've been using sentence stems to encourage scrapbookers to write--and I call these "journaling prompts." On the face of it, a journaling prompt is a simple idea. It's a sentence intentionally left unfinished so that the reader will "fill in the blank." In interviewing, the prompt would be called an "open ended question."

I'm now posting journaling prompts almost daily on Twitter. Go to www.twitter.com/joannaslan and sign up to "follow me" if you'd like to see the prompts as I create them. My goal is to encourage my "followers" to write more words, more often, on more topics.

If you are a scrapbooker, you can use these prompts to suggest layout ideas and journaling. But you don't have to be a scrapbooker to find value in journaling prompts. If you are an author, you might let the prompts suggest a scene to you. Or you might answer a prompt from the Point of View of different characters in order to know them a little better.

If you are someone who'd like to be more diligent in your personal journaling, a prompt can help you explore new ideas. If you are a teacher, you can use the prompts as classroom assignments to get your students writing.

I suggest you aim for a minimum of at least ten short responses to any given journaling prompt. This will force you to go past the superficial and to tap into new reservoirs of creativity. To get to twenty responses, you'll need to push yourself, but the break-through is worthwhile. It's here that you find answers that both surprise and reveal. Once you've jotted down the answers quickly, pause and reflect. Which answer holds the most interesting potential? Which one was the least expected? Which one makes you uncomfortable? Which one begs an explanation? For a bit more of a challenge, choose one answer and elaborate on it.

Here's an example of a journaling prompt in action: "2008 was the year that I..."

1. Said "goodbye" to my son as he entered college as a freshman.
2. Became a "grand-aunt" when Skyler was born.
3. Underwent major surgery.
4. Learned that anesthesiologists lie to patients about getting sick after surgery.
5. Felt my sisters' love when they flew here to care for me.
6. Fell in love with GPS.
7. Learned to Twitter.
8. Spent hours on Facebook reconnecting with old friends.
9. Joined the ranks of published mystery authors.
10. Got Jeff Deaver's cell phone number.
11. Realized how many "frenemies" I have.
12. Realized how many friends I have who live all over the world.
13. Drove from Eastern Tennessee to the middle of Kansas by myself and wondered if I was nuts.
14. Listened to wolves howling at a santuary.
15. Gained respect for how "in shape" I used to be after I became "out of shape" following surgery.
16. Held my first Virtual Book Signing.
17. Spent weekends in bookstores handselling Paper, Scissors, Death
18. Finished Book #3 in the Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery series.
19. Mastered saying "Scrap-N-Craft" rather than the alternatives.
20. Decided cashmere is absolutely fabulous.
21. Got involved in the political process.
22. Swore off being an officer in any professional group ever again.
23. Thrilled to good reviews (after holding my breath as I read them).
24. Gave my first humorous keynote in years.
25. Fell in love with my husband all over again.

Why not try the prompt yourself and see where it leads you?

Happy New Year!