Blogging and making it thru the week

I don't know why I want the weeks to end...the sooner they end, the sooner the next one begins, thereby creating a vicious cycle of fast weeks, faster months, and flying by years. I mean really, May already? It's insane! But boy was this a long week.

However, on a brighter note, with the release of my mainstream (mainstream-ish) Regency release yesterday, I am excited to say that next week will begin a month long blog tour for Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire.

Running from May 14-June 8, I'm at 20 stops with randomly drawn prize winners. What can you win? What else would you win during a post-apocalyptic Regency book tour? A post-apocalyptic survival basket of course! Complete with tea, a shawl for those chilly nights, a bracelet, and other things one might need for the aftermath of a plague-hit society.

Chapter One Excerpt Buy links: All Romance Amazon Barnes and Noble Print

Here's a list of all the stops:

May 14: Christine Young

May 15: Live To Read ~ Krystal

May 16: Books Reviewed by Bunny

May 17: Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer

May 18: Ramblings From This Chick

May 21: Queen of all She Reads

May 22: Immortality and Beyond

May 23: Writers and Authors

May 24: Books Are Magic

May 25: Megan Johns Invites

May 28: Novel Reflections

May 29: Reading Reality

May 30: A Case of Reading Insomnia

May 31: Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews

June 1: The Life (and lies) of an inanimate flying object

June 4: Reader Girls

June 5: Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess

June 6: Oodles of Books

June 7: Dawn's Reading Nook

June 8: Adventure Into Romance

What to talk about

Last week I read a post by Bob Mayer (a man who seems to have his plate overly full but still manages to find time to share with the rest of us). In his article, he offered several tips on writing, reading, and other related things.

If you're interested, his blog is full of great stuff. But one of the things he mentioned was: 99.5% of indie/self-published authors will be gone in two years.  Other will take their place.  And be gone in two years.

Huh. Really? Does this mean I have only one more year before I'm gone? Nope. I'm going to be in that 0.5% that lasts longer and have a plan to do so. To be fair, I never expected to be a bestseller able to retire with my first book. Or first 20 for that matter. Best seller lists don't exactly like what I write and I'm okay with that.

I'll continue to write what I enjoy, making sure each story is well researched, tightly written, and thoroughly edited.

Reading now: We Are Not Alone The Writer's Guide to Social Media eBook

Promotion

Now that my latest Regency Ménage Tale is finished, my attention turns to promotion. I think promoting this book is more time consuming than Wickedly Wanton!

I say that only because as my second full-length, I know of more places to promote it. With Wickedly Wanton, I knew little about review sites, paid advertising such as Facebook, or even blog tours. I was lucky to know of a handful of blogs to follow by authors who wrote similarly to me! Blog tour? I knew nothing.

Now I know all this...that is to say I know more than I did 8 months ago!

I'm also thinking of giving away give-aways, contests, and other fun winning stuff.

Social Networking

Two weeks ago I almost cancelled my facebook account. I never used it, I didn't know anyone on there despite the 'friends' I had. I never talked with anyone or chatted with them, posted on their posts or had anyone comment on mine. What was the use? I was going to cancel and be done with it. I had other things to spend my time on.

I didn't, I waited, and I changed my mind.

It wasn't anyone else's fault by my own. I didn't interact with anyone on facebook, so naturally no one would interact with me. As with most things in life, social networking is a two way street. Hence the terms SOCIAL and NETWORKING.

I have since rectified that and am don gmy best to post regularly and comment on other's posts. It's not always as easy as it sounds, but it's progress. And that seems to be what this week is all about!

Time Travel and Promo

In the last week I've done much research into promotion. I've learned that I A) Need a time machine to keep up with myself and B) a ghost writer to do the many blogs on various topics to grab readers interests.

Since I have nether, I'll have to do it the old fashioned way. I have one thing in my favor, I do have other books coming out this year! So instead of being a one book a year author, I can be a 4 books a year author! So by always having a book out, I can at least keep my name out there on a variety of stories, and not the same one over and over again.

Anyone else? I'm always open to suggestions!

Learning the ropes

Such as it is. I'm slowly learning about promotion and jumping into the fray. It's a little scary out there! Lots I don't know but I didn't know how to write a coherent story once upon a time so I suppose it's all learnable. I've joined 1 Yahoo group (Long and Short Reviews) and tring to remember the other ones a friend told me about. And have now followed 3 blogs. I'm getting there.

Any other suggestions?