I missed thursday and here it is, Friday?
My Thursday Thirteen author files died with the reformatting. The gap between how organized I thought I was and the actual truth is deep, wide and scary.
I knew I'd have to reformat the damned new computer. I thought I'd gotten everything off. I'm down a couple of synopses and a lot of emails and I suspect the latest draft of at least two books. Not really that bad because nothing is close to finished at the moment.
So authors! Kathy Love and a few more of you out there. Write to me. And other authors, you, too.
Why do you want us to write? asks Selah.
Oh. Right.
I like featuring authors every Thursday. I've had
Leigh Wyndfield
Shirley Jump
Charlene Teglia
Bonnie Dee
Jackie Kessler
Flo Fitzpatrick
Julie Cohen
Rob Preece
Sandy Blair
not in that order (and maybe more)
Here's what I want: Writers who have more than one or two books out there. I like having a mix of print and ebook authors, well known and Relatively Fresh New Voices.
Why do I want authors with more than one or two books out there? Because. For those first couple of books it's new and interesting being an Author. After that, you might burn out on pimping yourself unless:
1. you've got professionals helping you or
2. you're really good, like Bianca D'Arc or Alison Kent, or Beth Williamson or Mandy and Michelle all of whom, I swear, are not only good at promoting their books but seem to enjoy the process--which is part of being good at it, I suppose. They're professionals. Hey, if one of them wanted to be a Thursday Thirteen writer, I'd be glad to have them just to see if some of that mojo rubbed off.
The mojo hasn't stuck yet, but at least I don't wake up on promo mornings feeling slightly nauseated.
The one thing I still kind of like, on occasion, are the chats. They can be the business, especially when they're not mine. Lots of fun to go to a chat of a friend, unless she's a popular writer and there's that moderator thing going. Then it's all,
"I'm your number one fan! Thanks for letting me ask a question? who's your favorite hero/writer/color."
"where do you get your ideas"
"Yo! Fishface! What's with that TSTL heroine in that last book?"
"kate_r if you don't stop interrupting you'll be banned from the chat."
Bah.
For some reason, I don't get chat alerts from my friends any more.
RANDOM but REAL CHAT ETIQUETTE ALERT:
A writer should never, ever, never promote another writer who isn't the one featured. Maybe the author of the evening will ask another writer about her book (it's the polite thing). Even then, after you type a couple of lines, you direct the attention back to the author who's waited a couple of months for the damn promo event.
I wandered into a chat where someone said, hey the book you're promoting tonight sounds just like one I wrote. and then WHOOOPS she went off on the book SHE wrote. And on another night someone went off about her favorite writer's work--just happened to also be her crit partner's stuff.
I might be guilty of bad manners at chats but at least I don't do guerrilla marketing on someone else's time. Sheesh.
I knew I'd have to reformat the damned new computer. I thought I'd gotten everything off. I'm down a couple of synopses and a lot of emails and I suspect the latest draft of at least two books. Not really that bad because nothing is close to finished at the moment.
So authors! Kathy Love and a few more of you out there. Write to me. And other authors, you, too.
Why do you want us to write? asks Selah.
Oh. Right.
I like featuring authors every Thursday. I've had
Leigh Wyndfield
Shirley Jump
Charlene Teglia
Bonnie Dee
Jackie Kessler
Flo Fitzpatrick
Julie Cohen
Rob Preece
Sandy Blair
not in that order (and maybe more)
Here's what I want: Writers who have more than one or two books out there. I like having a mix of print and ebook authors, well known and Relatively Fresh New Voices.
Why do I want authors with more than one or two books out there? Because. For those first couple of books it's new and interesting being an Author. After that, you might burn out on pimping yourself unless:
1. you've got professionals helping you or
2. you're really good, like Bianca D'Arc or Alison Kent, or Beth Williamson or Mandy and Michelle all of whom, I swear, are not only good at promoting their books but seem to enjoy the process--which is part of being good at it, I suppose. They're professionals. Hey, if one of them wanted to be a Thursday Thirteen writer, I'd be glad to have them just to see if some of that mojo rubbed off.
The mojo hasn't stuck yet, but at least I don't wake up on promo mornings feeling slightly nauseated.
The one thing I still kind of like, on occasion, are the chats. They can be the business, especially when they're not mine. Lots of fun to go to a chat of a friend, unless she's a popular writer and there's that moderator thing going. Then it's all,
"I'm your number one fan! Thanks for letting me ask a question? who's your favorite hero/writer/color."
"where do you get your ideas"
"Yo! Fishface! What's with that TSTL heroine in that last book?"
"kate_r if you don't stop interrupting you'll be banned from the chat."
Bah.
For some reason, I don't get chat alerts from my friends any more.
RANDOM but REAL CHAT ETIQUETTE ALERT:
A writer should never, ever, never promote another writer who isn't the one featured. Maybe the author of the evening will ask another writer about her book (it's the polite thing). Even then, after you type a couple of lines, you direct the attention back to the author who's waited a couple of months for the damn promo event.
I wandered into a chat where someone said, hey the book you're promoting tonight sounds just like one I wrote. and then WHOOOPS she went off on the book SHE wrote. And on another night someone went off about her favorite writer's work--just happened to also be her crit partner's stuff.
I might be guilty of bad manners at chats but at least I don't do guerrilla marketing on someone else's time. Sheesh.
I bitched last year about an author dropping in on my blog just to hawk her own books (and I was quite vocal about it, just didn't call her by name), and someone sent her the link or she came back and read what I'd written - lol. She dropped me very quickly from her own sidebar on her blog, but...
ReplyDeleteBlog ho-ing is just rude. So is chat ho-ing.
Kate. I've read this post three times and can't figure out WHY you want authors to write to you, other than it has something to do with promo. Which may have nothing to do with the clarity of the post itself, you understand. I'm often not the brightest candle in the kitchen, if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway. I wrote to you.