Saturday, June 25, 2011

Making the Rounds

I have to give a speech next month about online marketing and this week I find myself working on just that. Nothing like hands-on preparation.

There are several places I lurk around online. Other than this blog, I've got a website for my novel, Finding Angel, which will be getting updated eventually. And I'm a Featured Author on New Authors' Fellowship. Those are the main stops for me online, as well as Facebook. These are pretty easy to keep up with. Planning blog posts is part of my normal schedule. I check in on FB daily.

But there are other places I need to visit and post stuff now and then, and they tend to get hit all at once when I--finally--remember them.

This week the Kindle version of There Was a Crooked House, which contains my short horror story "Cat Call," has released. That has to go on my Amazon page and then on Goodreads . As does Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just for Preteens, which has my story "Armored and Dangerous"--this one is available for pre-order right now. (BTW--if you're local and want to purchase the Chicken Soup book directly from me I'm finding out about ordering them.) This isn't too big of a deal--as my stories are released I post about them and add them to my pages, and then I update my brag books.

Yes, I print out the stories I have published online and of course keep copies of the print zines I'm featured in. At present, I've had to split my stuff into two separate binders--one for non-fiction and interviews, and one for fiction and artwork. Feels pretty good :).

It doesn't stop there, though.

I've noticed lately that everybody and their brother seem to be creating and joining social network sites. There are far too many to keep track of! I've got my blogs, my site, and memberships on Facebook and Goodreads. I joined Linkedin and find that a complete waste--I'm never over there. Ever. I'm also technically a member of a couple of other networks, like Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers, but they are sorely neglected by me. So, I'm stopping here for now. Until someone comes up with a way for me to update all those places at once--as well as my author pages and such--I simply can't add anymore.

And of course there are forums all over that I've joined and pretty much never visit. Making online connections is important, but it is time-consuming!

My other big project has been spiffing up the website for one of my local writers groups,Brandon Christian Writers. Until this weekend it was just a blog page, but I've now added other pages with info about our meetings and members. And since I'm a member, info about me has to go on there :). This also happens to be the group I'll be speaking to about online marketing--which is right back where I started this blog post. No wonder I feel like I'm running in circles!



2 comments:

Robynn Tolbert said...

I joined LinkedIn because a colleague invited me. I have no idea what I'm doing over there, somehow I've created two accounts and I can't access one of them. So people keep inviting me and I keep "ignoring" them because I can't get the stupid program to send me a new password. The lesson? Don't join a program without a mentor.

Kat Heckenbach said...

Sigh....I just keep accepting invitations but I never visit Linkedin. I don't know what there IS to "do" there. Seems like all the action is on FB anyway, and it's all the same people for me...