Jax's Artistic Journey...

Promotion is a big part of an author's life. How will anyone know your name or your work when they've never heard of you?

Face time at book signings is a great way to connect with readers but that's just a small portion of marketing and promotions for an author. Live events are all about forging friendships and building relationships, often it's a way to help readers put a face to a name...and it's a way to meet others in the publishing industry.

I'm lucky I got involved with the World Wide Web right at the beginning of the online boom. Those days, I had assumed we'd have hover crafts in the year 2010...funny huh? Of course, I'm still learning and always trying to find new ways to network. Even when you've published, there's only a small percentage of promotions your publisher will do and the rest is all up to YOU. It's dizzying to see all the many promotional opportunities available to us these days. I remember when MySpace was the 'it' thing to register for. Now it's Facebook and Twitter. All these accounts require a lot of time and patience, even then, it is always a work in progress.

Recently I became more aware of GoodReads and as a very OCD type personality, I hate not figuring out things. I'm pretty tech savvy but as much as I like them...I'm finding out it's not as user friendly as it should be for authors. It's not only frustrating to spend hours making everything perfect, but also tiresome. I finally decided to step away for a breather. For one, when you register there's no option to choose the type of account you want: reader or author. Then, there's the problem of having multiple pseudonyms...you're not given an option to add in those books to your list. Couldn't they make an easy bridge to link your names and details? Maybe I'm just not getting it. LOL

Trust me, I'm grateful for all those intelligent and dedicated developers for creating all these social networks. It's given us a way to communicate and socialize with those from all walks of life. But with all that's available...what are your views on these options?

Seriously, do you read blogs? How do you know which ones to come back to? Or are you a skimmer like I am sometimes. Between writing, freelance work, and life...I find it difficult to read my friend's blogs every day. I kind of feel guilty about it but I do make an effort when I can, even if I don't always comment. That leads me to wonder what would help me acquire more followers? Is it the draw of a contest? Is it excerpts, guest bloggers, or just the fact that the person is entertaining? I want to know because I want to reach out to the masses. Especially when I'm writing different genres and hoping to gather different readerships that may like one type of genre over the other. Sure, I write erotic contemporaries right now...but I have paranormal, young adult, and women's fiction projects in the works. Do readers find it difficult to read a multi-genre author? What about the various social networks...for instance, which do you like and what seems to work for you? What other ways do you promote? What are your pet peeves? And what do you, as readers, like to see from authors?

Gosh, I'm inquisitive today...but in this day and age of technology, I think it's important to hear what others have to say. It's all a continual learning process and I'm eager to be accessible to my readers because, without them, there would not be a me for others to discover.

Well, speaking of networking. My friend Marcia Colette is guest blogging at Hooked On Romance and she's talking about her latest paranormal release: STRIPPED. And if you pop by, you'll get a chance to win her ebook.

Well, I'm getting back to writing...otherwise there won't be any future releases for my readers to put on their list!