These aren't my shoes!

They are the shoes of the fabulous Shelli Johannes-Wells. And she so kindly agreed to an interview on my blog back in October. Shelli writes children's, tween, and young adult, and is represented by Alyssa Eisner Henkin of Trident Media. She is also a marketing consultant for several large, well known businesses in the United States. To learn more about her, please visit her web site or her blog. In my post on Friday, I indicated that I'd be reposting the interview, one question a day, this week. I think you will find her answers enlightening. One thing, I've heard over and over again is that agents really do read potential clients' blogs. If this is the case, shouldn't we be careful about what we post? Well, let's see what Shelli had to say. 1. Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. I think my readers could benefit from your marketing knowledge. But first, everyone would like to know if agents really visit the blogs of potential clients. Based on your numerous interviews with agents and editors, do you think they do? If so, what do they look for? YES they do! First of all, if you go to my blog and read my weekly Monday interviews with agents and editors on marketing, you will see most of them Google writers online and expect writers to have an online presence. I also speak at many SCBWI conferences and end up hanging out with faculty. I can't tell you how many editors and agents goggle writers and scour the Internet looking for information on potential writers. I have at least 5 friends who got "found" on their blog. I think they look for voice, personality, good ideas, and optimism. They want to see if they can connect to this author and work with them. You can tell a lot about someone's personality by reading someone's blog. I think they are turned off by boring material, negativity, and detailed reports of submission rejection. Okay, so there you have it. Even if we don't have a book to sell yet, we need to keep our blogs positive and somewhat professional. You never know who might stop by for a peek. I'll be back tomorrow with question #2.

Oh, but blogging is not a waste of time!

I mean, seriously, you can use as many adverbs and adjectives as you want. Not to mention exclamation points and passive verbs like is, are, was, and were. That alone makes it worth while, right? Even better, though, are the discussions that almost always follow a well-intentioned, but not so carefully worded post. This is exactly what happened here on Wednesday. If you missed it, you can scroll down and read it now. Yes, in that post, I stated that my blog wasn't helping me sell books, and I meant it, just not in the way in which it was taken. To set the record straight, I'm here today to clarify. Is my blog helping me sell books right now? No! Will it in the future? Absolutely. And it's never too late to start branding yourself. I've spent the last week catching up on blog reading, and so many of you are talking about taking a break from blogging because it's such a time suck. The point of my post on Wednesday was to say, "Hey, it's okay. Your writing should always come first." I in no way, shape, or form, meant to imply that social networking is not a valuable marketing tool. It truly is the best PR out there, and we should all use it wisely. By that, I mean, use it to our advantage rather than our detriment. I'll be exploring this topic further next week with a repost of an interview I had with marketing expert, Shelli Johannes over at Market My Words. It was a super long post, and I hate those, so I'll spread the interview out over several days (one question at a time) to allow for continued discussion. Until then, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Time... There's Never Enough of It!

If you read my post on Monday, you know that social networking has been weighing heavy on my mind. One of my goals for 2010 was to expand my activity in this area, and I've regrettably gone backwards. Or have I? I'm not so sure that it's a huge priority right now. Obviously, marketing is important when it comes to selling a book, but what about for those of us who don't have a book to sell yet? How important is social networking? Some of you will remember a series of post I did about a year ago involving using social networking as a marketing tool. I still stand behind every single one of them, but I have some additional thoughts to add. For those of us who are not published yet, building a platform is a daunting task, and reasonably so. I think this is because, in part, we aren't ready for that yet. How do you market something that isn't for sale? Ever since I came back from my five week blogging break, I've noticed an increase in people stepping back from social networking because they are overwhelmed by the time it takes. I'm so glad I'm not the only one feeling the undue pressure. My blog isn't going to help me sell books. I mean, seriously, unless I wrote a book about shoes, how in the heck would this be a good marketing tool? Maybe, if I wrote women's fiction, it might work, but for young adult... I don't think so. My point is this: each and every one of us needs to define what blogging means for us. After we do that, we can decide how much time we should devote to it. If you are an unpublished author like me, the majority of your time should be spent honing your craft, not socializing here. Now, that's not to say that interacting with others who are learning as you are isn't helpful. I'm just saying don't beat yourself up about not blogging regularly. Writing should be your priority. Blogging is an enjoyable pastime that helps me associate with others who are in the same place as me. When I start feeling too much pressure, well then, it's like the bad friend who sucks me dry because she's too needy. When it feels like that, it's time to take a break. If I didn't, my posts would be ridiculously boring, and who wants to read that? I love you all dearly, and the decision to start blogging was one of the best I've ever made. I hope to feel that way in years to come. Thank you all for sticking by me during my inconsistent blogging period. So, you tell me, why do you blog? Are you feeling undue pressure? I hope not. If so, let it go, because there are much more important things to worry about.

Happy Belated 4th!

So, the Fourth of July has come and gone. It marks the mid-point of the year, and I can't believe how fast time goes by. Every year about this time, I start reflecting on what kind of progress I've made. Some of you will remember that back in January, I set a few goals for myself. I've been thinking about those goals today. Some, I've made great strides toward. Others, not so much. My first goal was to finish revisions on my current project and to start on my next one. Well, I'm happy to say that I'm within days of completing revisions, and I've begun mapping out my next project. I can't complain there. My second goal was to expand on my social networking while balancing it with family and writing time. I hate to admit this, but I've actually gone backwards here. I'm not complaining, though. I think this was an unnecessary goal for me at this stage of the game. (Not the balancing part, but the expansion of social networking part.) I'll elaborate on this later this week, but for now, I'd love to know how your 2010 goals are coming along. Are you happy with your progress? Or, are you feeling pressure to increase your efforts? I hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July, and for my Canadian friends, a spectacular Canada Day!

I'm Back!

Well, at least for today. My last post (from five weeks ago) indicated that my blogging would be "random", but I never intended that to mean non-existent. Life got crazy, and I had to make a tough choice between blogging and writing. Obviously writing won out. Despite the fact that I've missed all of you so much, I have to say that it was the right decision. In the last month, I've been able to spend quality time with my family (usually at little league baseball games), and accomplish a great deal of writing. I completed my rewrites, did another whole round of revisions, and am smack dab in the middle of a third round. It's going much faster this time and baseball is winding down, so I hope to be more present around here in the coming weeks. So, how are all of you? What have I missed? Please tell me what I've missed!!!! I'll be around visiting today. I can't wait to catch up on everything.