I have a fairly big, somewhat important announcement.
According to my agent, I need a marketing platform to make me and my book(s) that much more appealing to publishers. For that reason, I am working on creating a website for myself.
I’ve also been shamelessly trying to get followers on this blog from my Facebook friends. I could get more people’s attention if I talked about really popular, topical things, but I’m not so good at that. The posts I wrote about 50 Shades of Grey got quite a few hits for obvious reasons, but I don’t like the idea of writing about Justin Bieber’s latest growth spurt or Disney’s latest racism just to try and attract people to my site. So I probably won’t do that.
On the list of things I’m planning on doing is creating a Facebook page for myself or my books. Maybe I’ll get that up and running if I actually get published.
One thing that I absolutely want to do is offer some special deal or giveaway or something for my blog readers. A lot of you have been with me from the very beginning, so I’d like to offer you my thanks in the form of a signed book or something. The problem is I don’t know what will actually be possible once the book gets published. But I promise to try my best to get something going for my blog readers. That’s the best I can offer right now.
Anyway, that’s it. I’ll let you know when the website goes live! Have a hastily drawn comic.
Word of the Day: Incentive (n) – something that incites or tends to incite to action or greater effort, as a reward offered for increased productivity.
Potato Lady Blogs 
Platforms can be a necessary evil. I agree with you on not writing about what’s popular – be true to yourself and the people who will be your biggest fans will come.
Well put! Thanks for the words of encouragement.
Good luck – I’m working on a more professional site as well. So far, I hate it. Maybe some animated GIFs would help or maybe my computer will just commit suicide in protest.
I wish I could offer some sage advice, but I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing with this thing. It was just like…my agent said, “You should have a website” and my response was, “Why? I mean…sure, of course I’ll do that thing.”
Good luck!
The free fan pages on FB are worth what you pay for them. The posts appear in the feeds of a very small percentage of your followers unless you cough up cash.
I’m the editor at Split Lip and also a writer. That means two platforms for me! Yay. There’s a book called “Create Your Writer Platform.” It aims at nonfiction writers, but there’s still some helpful advice I’ve taken advantage of. It’s here on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Create-Your-Writer-Platform-Building/dp/1599635755/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359068666&sr=8-1&keywords=writers+platform