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Hi, readers! Today we have Robert Fanshaw with us and he is going to give us his reflections on his recently published romantic suspense book, Shameless Ambition.  

           Marie's post (May 3rd) - the relationship between reality and writing - made some new connections for me. I believe good writing has an underlying, but sometimes hidden, connection with reality, whatever the story or subject.

My work as a barrister means that I am dealing day to day with clumsy attempts to pin down reality. If something gets as far as going to court, the eventual outcome, the decision of the judge, becomes ‘the truth’. But anyone who has spent a lot of time in court will tell you that the outcome depends more on the balance of forces than the holy grail of what really happened. The little guy or gal doesn’t often win. If they do, it’s because their representatives have woven a convincing story. This is why I find there’s a synergy between my job in the legal system and my work as a writer.

            Like most writers, I do it for love. Psychologists would probably say that Shameless Ambition is a transparent attempt to get more of my wife Caroline’s attention. The legal work funds my real passion, and I am as grateful for that as any humble artist who relies on a sponsor to keep food on the table and a roof over their head. I love all kinds of writing. I’m not a poet, but I get great satisfaction when a poem materialises from somewhere.

            I love the freedom of the blog: no deadline but your own; no rules but your own; no financial transaction involved; not necessarily even any readers. But it is so wonderful when someone is intrigued by the story and asks a question like ‘Is your wife really called Caroline?’ Readers know that events are reordered or condensed, names are changed, and imagination fills in the gaps, but they are also looking for underlying truth in anything they read.

            By the way, the answer is ‘Yes’ because I cannot think of her by any other name, except Bluebell, the name she adopts when her exhibitionist tendencies come to the fore. We went for a walk in the woods near our home in Surrey the other day. There was more than a hint of blue under the greening trees, the bluebells having decided the freeze has passed and it is now safe to reach for the sky.

            A simple walk, but it encapsulated the pleasure and pain of our relationship because, although not a word was spoken about Erik, we both knew that her ‘stage name’ came from an affair she re-kindled not long before we were married. She met an old flame and they made love amongst the bluebells. I found out. She said it didn’t mean anything but I was jealous just the same and the mere mention of Erik’s name is enough to put me in a bad mood. Unfortunately he won a prestigious prize with a series of paintings based on the photo sketches he made of Caroline.

            But the tone of Shameless Ambition is not, I hope, jealous. Caroline and I have a modern marriage and work on our boundaries all the time. I try to put that across in the book. Things might hurt, we might be embarrassed by our own behaviour, but you have to learn and move on. There’s no point in throwing the Botticelli Venus out with the gilded frame. Yes, Caroline really does have long red hair like on the cover of the book.           

And without giving too much away, I do have my moments of triumph in the book. Caroline’s involvement with a plot to influence a key committee in the European Central Bank required some investigative work on my part. I was able to put my legal training to good use.

            Returning to the issue of underlying truth, it has been said to me that some of the events described in the book are far-fetched. I think those people cannot have been reading the newspapers because the reported behaviour of some bankers, politicians, and business leaders over the years leading up to the current economic turmoil in Europe makes one shake one’s head in disbelief. My account is moderate in comparison.

            Marie describes in her post (May 3^rd) the joy of writing. I recognise that joy, and for me, it’s also therapeutic. Is it an escape from reality or an escape into reality? No reason why it can’t be both, simultaneously. There are times waiting in airports or sleepless at night when it’s great to escape into another reality. My goal as a writer is to make that journey into another reality as easy as possible for the reader. I don’t want anything to jar. I want things to happen at the right speed. I try to give the minimum amount of descriptive detail consistent with teleporting the reader to another place. I want the characters to surprise, engage, and entertain the reader as much as they do me. But keep your hands off Caroline, please.

Robert is also treating us to a blurb and an extract from Shameless Ambition.

Blurb

High-flying executive Caroline and barrister Robert have been married for three years, and the demands of work have left little time for their relationship. Caroline is angling for a promotion, which will mean spending more time away in Germany. On a management development course in Spain, Caroline is tempted into indiscretions with some of her colleagues, a fact that is noticed by course leader and former chief executive Melody Bigger.

Melody sees in Caroline aspects of her younger self and a barely suppressed exhibitionism. She draws Caroline into a plot to put pressure on Von Wolfswinkle, the German delegate to the European Central Bank. His opposition to Eurobonds is causing hardship across southern Europe, and Caroline is inveigled into a peculiar relationship with Von Wolfswinkle based on his voyeurism and her exhibitionism. Melody wants Caroline to influence the banker’s recommendations to the forthcoming European economic summit.

As Caroline is drawn into a seedy world of private parties for bankers and politicians, she soon realises she has damaged her reputation and her marriage. How will she ever be able to face her colleagues and her husband again?

 

Extract

Caroline and work colleague Clive have been partnered in an orienteering exercise designed to develop leadership skills. Unfortunately, they get lost by a mountain stream…

 

Clive inspected his bleeding hand. “You may as well take them off. A few minutes on one of these rocks and they’ll be dry again. And in any case, if it’s not impolite of me to notice, the water has made them transparent.”

“I’m glad to see you’re living up to your reputation, Clive.” Nonetheless, she wriggled out of the wet underwear, and he did the same with his shorts.

“Well it’s not as if I haven’t had the pleasure of observing your features before.”

“What features?”

“Last night, in the pool. I sent you a message complimenting you on the performance. Don’t you check your emails?”

Caroline shut her eyes in the hope of shutting out this new piece of information. She decided denial was the best policy.

“Clive, you are an utter pervert. What have you been imagining?”

“I will show you exactly what I have been imagining.” He delved into the rucksack for his notepad and whizzed his fingers across the screen a few times. He passed her the pad and she was mortified to see a crystal clear video clip of a naked woman pointing her ring finger at the camera and then using the finger to good effect.

“The resolution on these new pads is amazing. And the camera even has a zoom.” He demonstrated the camera’s features with a close-up of Caroline’s face at the moment of abandon.

“You will delete this – this minute – or it’s going in the pool.” He tried to grab it off her but she held the pad out of reach.

“Caroline. What are you suggesting? I would never show this to anyone but you. It’s solely for my own private use.”

“You heard me – in the pool. Tell me how to delete it.”

He showed her how to get the toolbar up and how to send the film to the bin.

“And now tell me how to empty the bin.”

“Oh Caroline, don’t be such a spoilsport. You’re just denying an important, lovely part of yourself.”

“No, I’m not. I’m trying to protect my reputation from two billion creeps like you.”

“Okay, okay, collapse that screen – there’s the bin icon. Press delete again. Gone.”

Clive put the electronic pad back in the rucksack and leaned across Caroline, unnecessarily she thought, to sit the bag upright in the shade of rock. Did he deliberately brush against her breast?

“I really admire you, Caroline. Not just because you’re lying there naked. I love the way you deal with Ivan at the monthly meetings. You’re always so well prepared. He makes the rest of us look stupid but you seem to have anticipated the tricky questions he’s going to ask.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” Caroline smiled. She knew what Clive was like. But it was nice that someone noticed how much attention she paid to the monthly figures.

Clive turned towards her and propped himself up on his elbow. “You know, we would make a really good team. I’ve got this plan. In a couple of years’ time when the market for self-care has developed a bit, I’m going to set up my own company – our company if you like. Medical devices at home, aimed at the mass market of hypochondriacs who think they’re ill or are just about to be. I know I could make it work if I had someone like you to keep the cash flow tight and disciplined.”

Caroline continued to look up at the blue sky, feigning indifference. But she was enjoying the attention. It was so rare for anybody to be nice to her at work; usually it was moan, moan, moan.

Not discouraged, Clive placed a hand on her knee. “Just think about it for me, Caroline. These big companies just chew you up and spit you out. We would be free to do our own thing.” The hand moved up and stroked the inside of her thigh.

“Get off, Clive. I’m not that easy.”

“I know you’re not, Caroline. I’m just trying to give you what you want.”

“What I want? How do you know what I want?”

“Well – sex outdoors. You’re obviously an exhibitionist.”

“No I am not.”

“I bet you were Head Girl at school.”

“Yes, I was actually.”

“And you had the lead part in all the school plays?”

“No, not in every school play, once I was the director.”

  
Guest Blogger Bio 

ROBERT FANSHAW

Robert is a barrister who specialises in commercial law. He began writing articles for law magazines but then discovered more interesting material in the world of business inhabited by his wife, Caroline. What started as a blog when his wife was away on business trips became the ongoing story of the dilemma faced by many working couples today – how to balance the competing demands of work, marriage, and supporting a football team.

Now in his mid-thirties, Robert lives in Surrey, England.

Links:

Website: http://www.mywifecaroline.com/

Blog: http://fanshawrobert.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robert-Fanshaw/221928037948848?ref=hl

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/RobertFanshaw

 

Purchase links for Shameless Ambition

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Shameless-Ambition-ebook/dp/B00CL9G746/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367447106&sr=8-1&keywords=shameless+ambition

Steam eReads

http://steamereads.com.au/

Check out our latest Writing in the Modern Age blog article here.

A  Book Review of The Other Island by Jaime Martínez-Tolentino

Reviewer:  Olga Sonia Dávila

 

Australia’s ASJ Publishing Company has just released Jaime Martínez-Tolentino’s memoir The Other Island (Melbourne: ASJ Publishing, 2013) currently available on Amazon.com.

The memoir is highly informative. The author invites the reader to explore, reflect upon, and ultimately understand the circumstances that arise when one comes from humble beginnings, but possesses the essentials to achieve a better life by struggling and acquiring the wisdom of real-life experiences. What is even more remarkable is that the main protagonist achieves all that while facing a physical handicap and having to cope with a family of limited resources and living in a foreign world.

The author provides a wealth of scientific and historical information in a very palatable form on a disability of which we have limited first-hand information today. Polio, which was once the scourge of infancy, is, thankfully, a thing of the past today. Aside from learning about this terrible illness, Martínez-Tolentino’s book allowed me access to the heart of New York City’s “El Barrio” Puerto Rican community of the 1950’s and the 1960’s. The author very cleverly weaves accessible information on polio with vivid descriptions of life in El Barrio to inform the reader of the obstacles he had to face in his youth. He also portrays the problems he was forced to overcome in order to achieve his dreams.

This memoir is also a provocative tale of the author’s relationships with his family and his friends, as well as an exploration of his circumstances, his strengths and his faults. In that, it is, basically, the story of all young people growing up. However, through his vivid descriptions of growing up in a hostile environment, Martínez-Tolentino presents a coming of age story set in the type of neighborhood with which many readers aren’t familiar. 

Still, the lessons taught through this immersion in a strange world are quite familiar… and uplifting. I know the author personally, and I can vouch for his many accomplishments, but his memoir reveals how those accomplishments were achieved. His efforts, his desire for a better life and his endurance all paid off, in the end, and they constitute a powerful life lesson for all those facing difficult circumstances.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Other Island, and when I finished it, I still wanted to continue with the author on his journey. I look forward to more such literary adventures from this author who has narrated, once again, the hardships and the joys of all those who have come to this country in search of a better life and have achieved their dreams.

About the Reviewer
 
Olga Sonia Dávila is a retired City of Buffalo public school principal.


Author Bio
 

Jaime Martínez Tolentino is a Puerto Rican writer. At the age of four, Martinez Tolentino contracted polio, which left him crippled. In 1951, he and his family emigrated to New York City where he lived until 1966. He attended New York University where he majored in French and French literature, while also studying Spanish literature and German. As an undergraduate he participated actively in the theater.  After earning a B.A. and an M.A in French literature, he returned, briefly, to his native Puerto Rico where he was named French professor at The University of Puerto Rico. Then he left for Europe to pursue further studies.

In France, he studied French at the Sorbonne, and then he relocated to Spain, where he studied both French and Hispanic Literature. He received a Ph.D. in French Literature from the University of Madrid, and then he returned to Puerto Rico.  Between 1970 and 1984, Martinez Tolentino taught French at the Mayaguez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico, and he also published three books on French. Also during this period, he published a full-length play, and in 1984, he directed its staged version. One of his short stories was adapted for the stage in Puerto Rico in 1979.  In 1980, he published his play La imagen del otro, and three years later, an original collection of short stories of the fantastic.

As he continued publishing in Spanish, his interest in Hispanic literature grew. He began taking graduate courses in Spanish and Puerto Rican literature, and then taught Spanish literature at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, while still also teaching French at the UPR.  In 1984, Martinez Tolentino resigned from his position as a French professor.  In 1990, he became a Spanish professor at the State University of New York’s College of Buffalo, where he continued writing and producing plays. He retired from teaching in 2002, but not from writing and publishing.  For a full history, you can find Jaime on Wikipedia or on his website.

Some of his books can be found on Amazon.  For a complete list of his works, click here.

To purchase or view The Other Island, click here.


Thank you, Olga, for that informative review!

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Back in March, you may have seen my post about social networking and how useful a tool it can be. I still stand by that statement with the exception of a few things. 

Facebook is a good social networking tool. Remember how I said to connect with as many people as possible to expand your presence? You should. And joining discussion groups on Facebook is a good idea too. If you are published, your publisher may have its own authors group. Definitely join. It will save you a lot of unanswered questions. Facebook is a really good tool.

However, Facebook has this funny way of preventing you from adding friends like crazy. I have been blocked before. This is basically like putting a hold on your account for a certain length of time. You can do everything except add new friends and send direct messages to people you aren’t connected with. The only way you can get new friends is if people add you and then you confirm. I know it's not great while you're waiting for the wonderful people at Facebook to take the hold off of your account, but it's something. I think part of it is Facebook’s fault. The other reason you get blocked is because the people you have tried to add have nothing better to do than to report to Facebook that you are a complete stranger or are spamming them. It is simple. They don’t have to confirm you as a friend. They can simply hit “ignore”. Instead, they chose to report you. The only good reason I see for blocking someone is if they are sending you creepy or threatening messages. That is just my take on being blocked. Unfortunately, Facebook has their own rules. So, that is one of the disadvantages of adding friends like crazy on Facebook.

LinkedIn is still a tool I would recommend. Having said that, there is one hiccup you’re bound to come across at some point. LinkedIn lets you join 50 different discussion groups. This is nice if you have joined good ones. It is not so nice if you have not. I mentioned the notifications you’d receive before. Just be sure to change the notification settings on each of your groups so you’re not bombarded with messages in your inbox. 

The one thing I want to cover with LinkedIn today is knowing what those groups are about. Read the rules of each group. The moderators can get really picky with what they allow. I encourage you to join discussions. Make sure your website and any other information is on your profile so others can see it and link to it. Posting discussions can get hairy though. You need to decide if what you post goes with that specific group. One of my discussions was removed recently and I was flagged to be moderated in the future. All I posted was the fact that I was interviewed by a blogger. It’s not like I was doing multi-level marketing and trying to get people to look at and buy a specific product. I was just excited about the interview. So sue me. LOL. For future reference, just keep an eye on what you’re posting and what the group is all about.

Twitter is also a neat tool to use. You can tweet about pretty much anything from your book to interviews to where you went to eat last night to how you took your dog for a walk. I’m not kidding about the last two. People actually do that. Nowadays, it’s becoming the standard to talk about things besides what you really want to post. That is why you see the celebrities you follow tell everyone they just ate a bag of Doritos or painted their toe nails. Really? That’s nice. I know. Not very exciting. And not very hopeful for the burgeoning writer.

So, there are a few things you can do to ramp up your presence on Twitter. Sure, you can post news about your writing. I recommend it. Also, try to gain a following by following other authors or your own interests (i.e. companies or brands you like, people you admire). Chances are they’ll follow you back. And on the left side of the page, Twitter gives you recommendations, kind of like the age old, "if you like this, you'll like this" notion. And always try to follow those who have followed you on Twitter. If someone direct messages you, asking a random question like, “What is your favorite food?” or maybe they want to talk about how they just finished a needlepoint project, go ahead and reply back. This puts out the idea that your efforts are not self-serving and you actually do want to talk to people, which is most likely the case. The downside of Twitter is this: some of the people you follow are not exactly professional, and you may get some pretty nasty comments or propositions. The best way to handle this is to go through your list of followers and unfollow those rude people. They may still follow you, but by unfollowing them, you have just saved yourself a big headache and a ton of embarrassment.

In my previous article, I did not mention any other tools that could help you network and give you more of a presence. But, I will now. Some of these include blogging and email lists. Blogging is a good tool. Start your own blog. Find a niche market, something to write about. You want to write about writing? Go ahead. You want to tell people how much you love baking pies? You can do that. In most cases, if you say you’re a writer somewhere on your profile and have a link to your website, curiosity alone will cause people to go there. Will they buy your book? I don’t know. But, it’s worth a try. The important thing is you have something to offer people, something that brings them back to the blog again and again. You’ll get subscribers. That’s a good thing. You’re building a web presence. I have two blogs, one that showcases my books and one that is all about writing. Obviously, you’re here so you know which one is which. LOL. Then, you want to look up ways to advertise your blog. There are many sites where you can list your blog and thereby draw attention to it.

Now, I’m going to say something about email lists. Sure, you can take a bunch of your connections and email them like wild about your books, etc. But, I don’t recommend it. You’re mainly going to piss people off. They’ll end up blocking you in some form or other. And you’ll get some replies back, mostly ones like, “Stop emailing me” or “Take me off your mailing list”. The same could happen if you buy email lists. But, if you go that route, mostly what you’ll get is a bunch of non-deliverable emails sent back because those emails were out of date. Probably the best thing to do is to make connections or even friends on LinkedIn, Twitter or in real life and simply ask them if it’s okay to put them on a mailing list for updates or news on your books/writing. 

So, that’s my spiel for the day, folks. Yes, there are a few disadvantages to social networking. I’m sure there are more than I even listed. But, without these tools, we would have no presence as writers. Gone are the days when all books ended up on shelves in libraries or bookstores. This is the digital age. E-books are the thing. If someone can read a book on their Kindle or Nook, then we have to use the tools provided to us in the digital age to try to reach those readers. Though I love traditional books as much as anyone else, even I have to evolve with the times. 

Thanks for reading! Keep an eye out for further posts. I am still hosting author interviews, guest blog articles, and I am beginning to take guest book reviews on my blog. Enjoy, or read back through the archives of Writing in the Modern Age. Have a great day!

Check out our latest Writing in the Modern Age blog article here.

Okay, so we’ve all heard that to make it in the new publishing world, we have to promote, promote, promote! Sigh. Unfortunately, it’s true. It is important to maintain author accounts on significant social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Did I miss any? Probably. I’ve heard Pinterest is up and coming, but that is not what I’m going to talk about here.

LinkedIn was at one time a social networking site for mainly the business world. Now, it still is, but tons of people use it. If you do decide to create an account on LinkedIn, make sure you connect to as many people as possible. As I have tons of accounts (one for each pen name…LOL), this is a hard thing to do. For the benefit of this blog, I’ll only mention my Marie Lavender identity. LOL. To this day, it still gets me that I have so many pen names, but I digress.

On LinkedIn, I have 1126 connections. What? How did that happen? Network, network, network. If someone wants to connect with you, do it. The more connections you have, the more potential readers you’ll have. Or peers. Fellow writers always come in handy because you can ask them questions. And they may recommend you to someone else. Cool, right? Mostly, I do it because I feel an affinity with other writers. We’re all going through the same thing. Also, try to reach out to as many people as you can and connect with them. If LinkedIn is suggesting you connect with five people, take the suggestion. LinkedIn will make suggestions depending on if you happen to be connected to someone else in that person’s network. LinkedIn has a three tier system for networking. The first level is who you’re connected to. The second is who those people are connected to. And the third…well, for the most part you don’t need to be concerned with them. They are so out of your reach, it would be a miracle if you ever connected to people like them. Think Bill Gates. But, if you happen to connect to Bill Gates, good for you. Those “third” connections are persons of influence. 

So, on to my next thing about LinkedIn. The other way to gain more connections is to join groups. Yes, I did say “groups”. Discussion groups are a time-consuming process, but believe me, they foster a lot of learning and networking. Try to join discussion groups that have a lot of members, and are about a subject you’re genuinely interested in. If you like making pottery, don’t join a comic book club. You get the idea. And LinkedIn lets you have about 50 groups, so you have a lot to choose from. Considering there’s about a million discussion groups on LinkedIn (I could be exaggerating...then maybe I'm not), you have your work cut out for you. In some cases, the moderator of the group will have to approve you to let you in. Nowadays, a lot of discussion groups are becoming open groups so it may be easier for you. 

Once you are in a group, you can post discussions. Yes, some people take this to the extreme and use it as an advertising tool. “Please look at my book….please go to my website…buy my pet rocks…” But, this is a sure-proof way to get the moderator to block you or boot you from the group. You can advertise, but please, oh please…do it sparingly. The thing you want to focus on here is the discussions posted asking someone else’s opinion about a topic or advice. If you have something to say, comment on the discussion.  Be mindful of your image, however.  You can choose to follow the discussion, and you will receive email notifications about other comments from group members. And if you’d like to post a question, go ahead. In most cases, you will get a response. You will get a ton of emails once you join a group though. Not only because of these discussions you participated in, but because of the discussions posted in the group overall. You’ll receive updates. Thankfully, you can change your notification settings when you click on each group. You can tell it to only send those once a day, once a week, etc. Take advantage of that, or you’ll end up screaming in frustration at the craziness in your inbox. 

The other thing you can do on LinkedIn is create a discussion group. If you really feel there aren’t many groups that interest you and you think there’s a niche for it, then make one. Be sure to make the rules for the group clear, and the description as accurate as possible. You can invite your connections to the group. You can sit and wait for people to join. In some cases, it totally works. In others, not so much. Really consider what you’re doing when you start a discussion group. For one of my accounts, I created a romance writing discussion group, and it has gone very well. People are posting discussions all of the time. For another account, that didn’t go so well. I had plenty of members, but no one wanted to say anything. You will have to post the occasional discussion in your group to actually foster discussion. And moderation is very important. You will have to approve members quite often and approve discussions. Occasionally, you’ll get someone that posts the same topic/advertising tool like crazy, and you have to delete those posts or it will make the group look bad. In some cases, you may have to tell that person the group is not a forum to advertise, but a “discussion” group. Again, I digress. But, forming a group can be a powerful tool, if that’s what you want to do and you have the time to moderate it.

There are ways of advertising on LinkedIn. Yes, you can send a blitz of messages to your connections, but you may get some pretty hateful replies in return. LinkedIn has paid advertising just like Google, if you want to do that. LinkedIn offers free accounts as well, but there are paid accounts that will give you more power. Do that if your budget allows it. For most of us writers, at least at the start of our careers, our budgets are pretty meager so we have to evaluate things like this.

On to the next tool. Facebook. Facebook can be a pretty useful medium. Once you have an account, you can “friend” people. At first, it might seem like you don’t know anybody. You want to look up your friends from high school? You can do that. You want to connect with other writers? You can do that. Facebook will suggest friends for you like LinkedIn does. Take the suggestion. The more friends you have, the better. Right now, I have 870 friends. Also, if you are an author, you will want to find fellow author’s pages and “like” them. They will likely connect with you and “like” your page if you have one. Like other people’s pages if you want too. 

Yes, you can create a page. It’s free, and it’s a very useful tool. You can create an author page and a page for each of your books. For some writers, this is very nice because once they reach the maximum amount of friends that Facebook allows, they can refer people to this page. If you are connecting with other authors, you’ll understand exactly what I mean very shortly. Then, you want to try to get people to “like” your page (or pages, if you have more than one). Sure, you can message people like crazy, but this can also get a pretty unsavory response. Believe me. LOL. You don’t want that can of worms. 

The best thing to do next is to join some discussion groups. “Oh, no!” you say. Not more discussion groups. Yes, my minions. LOL. Just kidding.  You should join more groups. On Facebook, you really don’t need to join that many. Between five or ten is a good number. Sometimes people will automatically add you to their groups, which can be good and bad. You can choose to leave at anytime, of course, just liked you can on LinkedIn.  Within these groups, you can post questions and present topics. 

The other thing is “events”. You may get invited to join “events.” Sometimes it’s a book signing or release. You can choose to join or decline. Or click “maybe” if you don’t know yet. In my case on two of my accounts, it was a “Liking” event. This was very, very cool because a bunch of authors joined it. And all of us started “liking” each other’s pages. And yes, you need as many likes as possible on your pages. In some cases, you can even encourage people to “like” your Amazon book page, if Amazon still allows that.   Never forget to return the favor of liking. If someone likes you or your book page, do the same. It’s only fair.

If you want to get the word out, Facebook has advertising too, and it’s cool if it’s within your budget. But, I don’t even have that kind of budget right now so I can’t give you advice in that regard.

The next tool is Twitter. Ah, Twitter. The wonderful Twitter where you can “tweet” like crazy. You can create your author account here. Yes, it is an advertising tool for the most part. Or it seems like that. It doesn’t have to be. If you are a new member, you will need to “follow” your interests. Most likely, Twitter will offer a tutorial. Once you have established what interests you, Twitter will make suggestions based on that. You can also search for what you want to follow. If you like healthcare, follow the CDC.  If you like Taylor Swift (*shudder), follow her.  If you like writing, follow other authors and their books. In most cases, people will “follow” you back.

You want to get as many followers as possible. This may seem hard. It will look as if you follow more than you’re followed. Keep pushing forward. You will also receive notifications about Tweets the people you’ve followed have posted. Yes, it does make your inbox crazy. I believe you can change the notification settings here too.   Another tip. With Twitter, you can customize your profile with your book cover, author pic or other background to make it look nice. Other people will see this when they follow you. Because you do want a lot of followers, I will give you this.  

Recently, I heard of a way to actually buy followers. I haven’t tried it yet, but it might be a decent way to get potential readers. As of right now, I have 181 followers. I’m getting there! LOL. 
As always, I’m still learning. We all try to pick stuff up every day to keep promoting ourselves as authors. Do you have any tips for writers in the modern age? Want to write an article for my blog here or maybe you’d like me to interview you? Please email me at marieannlavender@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you promptly.

 

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