Marketing Mindset: You have a right to be here.

The scary part isn’t the writing. The scary part is putting your writing out into the world.

We writers can hack the long hours at the keyboard, wrestling with the blank page and coaxing our muses forth. We have grown accustomed to the voices in our heads – characters, critics, and editors. We and our personal demons have arrived at a working truce that allows us to get the words down.

But that’s just the first part of the battle, isn’t it?

If you’re hoping to get published, you have to not only create, but also promote. You must market yourself and your work to an audience. You must put everything out there where other people can see it, consume it, and judge it worthy … or not.

THAT is the scary part.

That is the thing – as much as, if not more than, lack of drive or talent or productivity – that keeps wannabe authors from becoming published authors.

I bring this up because this is my last post here at Live to Write – Write to Live until after the New Year and I didn’t want to miss my opportunity to give you a little 2013 pep talk.

I know that December is a time for reflecting back on the year gone by and scrying into the year ahead. This is the time of year many of us make resolutions and intentions. We try to cast off bad habits and establish new, healthier ones. As writers, many of our thoughts orbit closely around our creative work and dreams: What have I accomplished? What do I hope to accomplish? How will I reach me writing goals in 2013? Do I really have what it takes? Should I even bother?

If you’re not careful you can go careening off a cliff of self-doubt and insecurity.

That’s not good for your marketing.

How can you confidently and competently market yourself if you don’t believe you have anything to offer? How can you make the right connections and impressions if you feel like you don’t deserve to be here?

You can’t.

In my day job, I help my clients develop standout brands and craft great content. Though I work mostly with large companies, I do sometimes have the pleasure of working with authors, artists, designers, creative entrepreneurs, etc. In my experience, the first order of business with these folks isn’t establishing a value proposition or unearthing the brand story or developing the voice for the website. The first order of business is getting the client into the “marketing mindset.”

If you’re going to have to go out there and sell yourself and your work (which, you will have to do if you want to be published), you need to get into a marketing mindset, too. You need to believe that you have a right to be here.

I wrote a post about this on my home blog at Suddenly Marketing. I’d love for you to head over there and read Marketing Mindset 101: You have a right to be here. It’s my soapbox pep talk. It’s what I say to friends and clients who seem unsure, tentative, and doubtful when it comes to marketing themselves. It’s my rallying cry to incite people to action.

2013 is a brand new year, people.

Anything is possible.

This might be your year.

Are you ready to make the most of it?

Do you have the right marketing mindset?

Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who also happens to be a marketer. She helps her Suddenly Marketing clients discover their voice, connect with their audience, and find their marketing groove. She is also a mom, a prolific blogger, and a student of voice and trapeze (not at the same time). Introduce yourself on facebook or twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

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Image from A Knight’s Tale © 2001 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved – sourced from IMDB

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The Scientist Writes

Regular Live to Write – Write to Live blogger Deborah Lee Luskin wrote Most Improved Writing Student earlier this month.

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Here’s a guest post by that student, Daniel Chamovitz, author of What A Plant Knows

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I don’t consider myself an author; I am a scientist. I spend my days and nights considering levels of gene expression, pondering the intricacies of protein structure, and guiding my students on their nascent scientific paths. A fair amount of academic administrative duties and a heavy, but immensely satisfying, load of lecturing fill out my schedule. And when all this is finished, I still have endless grant proposals, reports, reviews and articles to write.

But I wasn’t invited to last month’s Brattleboro Literary Festival because of my academic record; I was invited as the author my recent book, What A Plant Knows.

What brings a scientist to lay down the pipette and pickup the pen?

My impetus in writing a trade book was twofold: First, I wanted to educate. I get endlessly annoyed at public ignorance of science in general and of plant biology in particular. While many people I speak to are surprised to discover that plants contain the gene for breast cancer, they have no problem in quoting the scientifically lame book, The Secret Life of Plants, and believing that plants don’t like to be yelled at. But I came to realize that my colleagues and I are partially responsible for this ignorance, as we have done a pitiful job extolling the wonders of plant biology.

Scientists from other fields have greatly influenced public perception through their books: Hawking has done a great service to astrophysics with A Brief History of Time; Dawkins explains evolution in The Selfish Gene, and mathematics is brought to life in Simon Singh’s Feremat’s Last Theorem. Perhaps arrogantly, I set out to write the plant version of these wonderful books, a book that would open the amazing world of plant science to the general public.

Second, for years I’ve had a secret desire to write something that was popular, and not strictly and professionally scientific. While much of my success as a scientist has been due to my writing ability, that writing – of grant proposals and research articles – is very structured and repetitive, and admittedly reaches a very limited audience. Could I go beyond the secure world of professional scientific writing? Could I take this skill one step forward and write something that would be both interesting and intelligible to a non-scientist?

I quickly learned that the literary world is not so different from my world of academic science. Success in science is not only a function of intelligence, but also of diligence, deferred gratification, risk taking, and an ability to know when to learn from – and when to ignore – rejection.

Success in science is also influenced by serendipity – just as in publishing.

Once I made the commitment to writing a trade book, I knew that I had to find an agent to reach a broad audience. Having no idea how to find an agent, I looked in the “Acknowledgments” of the last two books I read, to identify the agents who had sold them. The rest is an author fairy-tale: One query letter and 22 months later: a published book!

Now four months post-publication, a rush of publicity events, and wonderfully kind words from new friends and readers, and I’m back in my lab. I have a 10,000-word grant proposal due next week, two new scientific manuscripts to write, and a new course to teach. But in the back of my mind I’m working out the general shape of a new book proposal based on an idea inspired by my visit to Vermont. Maybe publishing and science are similar in another way as well – both are addictive.

Daniel Chamovitz, Ph.D., is the Director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University. He studied at both Columbia University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received his Ph.D. in Genetics. He has lectured at major universities around the world. www.danielchamovitz.com

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Writing as a business

We talk a lot about writing, but we haven’t really touch on the topic of formally creating a writing business.

This post lists types of business structure options you have, at least in the U.S., for categorizing your writing or (self-) publishing business.

Since I’m neither an accountant or an attorney, please seek out someone who is one or the other, to help you determine the best structure for your needs. All states should have (at least) similar categories; these are for New Hampshire businesses.

The full definitions (these are paraphrased) can be found via the NH Division of Economic Development site:

• Sole proprietorship –  is a business with the least amount of legal formalities and simplest to form. You assume sole responsibility for the operations and finances of the business, including profit or loss.

• General partnership - is an agreement between 2 or more individuals, or entities/businesses, to jointly own and operate a business. Profit, loss, and managerial duties are shared among the partners, and each partner is personally liable for partnership debts. As entities, partnerships do not pay tax, but must file an informational return, while individual partners report their share of profits or losses on their personal returns.
• Limited partnership – offers some of the partners’ limited liability. It includes a general partner who organizes and manages the business and its operations, and limited partners who contribute capital, but have limited liability and assume no active role in day-to-day business affairs.

• Limited liability partnership (LLP) - is organized to protect individual partners from personal liability for the negligent acts of other partners or employees not under their direct control (i.e. licensed fields like law or medicine). Not every state has this category. Partners report their share of profits and losses on their personal tax returns.
• Limited liability company (LLC) – combines the corporate and partnership entities. Parties in an LLC control shares and their operational liability of the company is determined by their level of investment. However, like partnerships, income tax is not paid at the LLC level, but rather it is “passed through” and taxed at the shareholder level. It’s not an easy entity to explain or understand.

Two others categories are “C” corporation and “S” corporation. Each of these has shareholders and for the purposes of this conversation, aren’t what a writing or (self-) publishing entity would need – at least not immediatly.

But again, each of the above business structures has legal, tax, and other consequences. I’m a writer, not an attorney or accountant, but I think these details can at least give you a start if you’re considering turning your writing into a business, or you’re thinking about creating an entity to self-publish under.

Have you thought about turning your writing into a business at some point?

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She’s a sole proprietor and solopreneur. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on Facebook or Twitter. 

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Expand your platform with Twylah and Scoop.It

In my innocent travels through, across, and within the Internet over the past week, I discovered 2 new social media outlets. Twylah and Scoop.it.

One is Twitter-related. Twylah looks like a website, and in fact, you’re told to promote it like a website by sharing the URL. It also seems to be a bit like Google+ in that you have to request an invite in order to even start creating a Twylah page. (I do not have, nor do I plan to have, a Twylah page.)

If you’re an author or use Twitter to promote your writing (screen shot is from the top of author AS_King’s Twylah page) , it might be interesting to play with. Twylah is connected to your Twitter feed and it selects the top 20 topics you tweet about the most. The top 8 keywords end up as tabs across the top of your Twylah page, the most recent and most frequently tweeted items show up on the page.

Like any social media platform, it’ll take a while to see results, but you’ll discover what is most attractive and engaging to your audience. It’ll help you narrow in on what matters most to your readers. I think it looks good for those who are Twitter-holics!

If you create a scoop.it page, the home page looks similar to a Twylah main page. Scoop.it helps you ‘curate’ an online magazine based on an interest you have. If you want to use scoop.it for a business, there’s a fee.

Basically, you submit keywords when you create your page and scoop.it will crawl the Web and deliver relevant content to you. Then you decide what you want to accept and have added to your page. You can also create your own content, grab/share content you find while traveling the Internet on your own, or accept content suggested by other users.

The screen shot I’m including here, is my friend and NH ambassador extraordinaire, Judi Window’s scoop.it page. It is focused on Manchester, NH.

It’s a great way to share your interests and expertise – and like other social media platforms, you’re able to ‘share’ your posts on Facebook and Twitter, and so on.

Both of these social media tools can help you build your brand/platform, are each is just another way to get your name out there in the search engines.

What do you think of these?

If you already use Twylah, scoop.it, or both, please share your links so we can visit. Also tell us what you think of the tool(s).

Lisa J. Jackson is an independent editor, writer, New England region journalist, and a year-round chocolate and ice coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. 

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Make Your Blog More Engaging – Part 3

In the first two parts of this series, we covered identifying features and social graces. This installment is all about blogging “side orders” – all those widgets and extras that live, typically, in the sidebar of your blog.

First, in case you have no idea what a “sidebar” is, it’s the area of your blog – usually on the right-hand side of the page – that lives off to the side of your main content area. This is where visitors to your blog will automatically look for certain information about you and your writing. There are dozens of different things you can put in this space; deciding which ones to use can be confusing. There are, however, a core set of tools that can help you boost engagement with your blog and your brand around the web. Here’s my list of faves in order of priority (top to bottom on your blog page) and what they can do for your readers:

Help readers connect with you: Before anything else, give people an easy way to friend/follow you and subscribe to your blog and/or newsletter. You can get all the details in part 2 of this series, but the basic idea is to give readers one-click access to staying in touch with you.

Make readers an offer: If you’ve got something to sell or give away, don’t bury it! Have you published a book? Feature an image of the book with a link to your indie or Amazon page. Do you have a downloadable e-book? Put the image, a brief descriptor, and link front and center. Do you offer coaching, editing, or some other service? Write up a little blurb with a link to an offer-specific page on your site.

Welcome new readers: First-time visitors to your blog will want to know what you’re all about. In addition to the identifying features we talked about in part 1 of this series, you can give newbies a customized list of posts and pages that will act as a virtual tour of your blog and help them get to know you quickly. This is often labeled as the “start here” content and can include links to everything from your about page, a custom welcome message page, to your all-time top posts.

Keep readers up-to-date: Do you participate in real-world or virtual events like readings, classes, webinars, book signings, etc? Dedicate some of your sidebar space to highlight upcoming events with links to more information, registration pages, etc.

Encourage readers to dig deeper: In most cases, a new visitor to your blog will have arrived there because one of your posts attracted her attention. Once you have her on your site, you want to encourage her to explore more of your writing. For your sidebar, you can use “recent posts” and “recent comments” feeds to provide a snapshot of your most current topics and where people are engaging in conversation. “Most popular posts” is another common feed that features posts with the most visits or comments. Many blog themes come with these tools built-in, but there are also various widgets that will perform the function for themes that don’t include the functionality. Another popular tactic for getting readers to engage with you is to import your Twitter feed to your sidebar. This will take readers off your blog, but it has the benefit of engaging them on an additional platform. Finally, though not technically a sidebar tool, the “More posts like this” plug-in is another great way to gently lead people further into your site. Available in a variety of formats, the purpose of this tool is to serve up links (and sometimes image thumbnails) to other posts on your site that might be relevant to the post the reader just read. These links appear at the bottom of your posts and make it easy for readers to “hop” from post to post.

There are many (many!) more widgets, plug-ins, and tools that you can use in your sidebar, but these are some of the most effective for getting readers to engage more actively with your content (and you!). Although they can be interesting, I shy away from lengthy blog rolls, photo streams, badges, and tag clouds. I prefer to focus on side orders that will give my readers a way to actively participate in my community or interact with my content. Give these tools some real estate on your blog and you’ll be all that and a side of fries!

What are your favorite ways to encourage engagement with side orders? Have you had success with any of these tools on your own blog? Have you used these tools as a reader of someone else’s blog? 

If you missed the first two parts of this series, you can find them here:

• Make Your Blog More Engaging: Part 1 – Identifying Features
• Make Your Blog More Engaging: Part 2 – Social Graces

Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who, among other things, works as a marketing strategist and copywriter. She helps creative entrepreneurs (artists, writers, idea people, and creative consultants) discover their “natural” marketing groove so they can build their business with passion, story, and connection. She also blogs. A lot. She is a mom, a singer, and a dreamer who believes in small kindnesses, daily chocolate, and happy endings. Look her up on facebook or follow her on twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

Image Credit: waggaway

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What’s Your Platform?

“Platform” is a key catchphrase in the jargon-laden language of marketing. It’s something a writer is supposed to have and be able to describe, quantify, and contact when pitching a story or book for sale. Publishers want to know not just what you know, but who – and if you can count on that audience to buy your published work.

For a long time, I shied away from the very concept of “platform.” In my mind, I envisioned the ten-meter affair that athletes dive from during the Olympic games. No thank you. I don’t like heights, and I don’t dive. But I do write, and over time, I’ve learned to jump.

I started my adult writing career innocently enough, contributing columns to a local home health agency’s monthly newsletter. Before long, I was asked to write a parenting column for the local paper; a year later, I was writing for the editorial page. I was even getting paid. In time my essays were published in a statewide magazine. I had readers and received fan mail. The year I turned forty, I did something I’d avoided my whole life: I jumped off a three-meter cliff into deep water; I challenged myself to fly off a rope swing. With a solid local and developing regional platform, I felt secure enough to jump. I started a novel.

Those Olympic athletes don’t just fly; they also train for endurance. As I approached fifty, I ran a half marathon. I had drafted two novels. Then I learned to scull. The keys to rowing are balance and efficiency. I start most summer mornings on the Connecticut River at dawn. I’m learning to write faster, with focus.

I now have a whole new concept of “platform.” I no longer think of it as some scary precipice from which to launch myself in a spiraling death-dive. Now I think of my platform as a stone foundation, square and plumb, on which I’m constructing a sound writing career. My platform is more like a launch-pad than a precipice – a safe place from which I can soar.

Deborah Lee Luskin is the author of the award-winning novel, Into The Wilderness, “a fiercely intelligent love story” set in Vermont in 1964. She is a regular Commentator on Vermont Public Radio and teaches for the Vermont Humanities Council. Learn more at her website: www.deborahleeluskin.com

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E’s your way into being an oft-published author

Today’s post is by guest blogger Marlene Caroselli, Ed.D.

The ebook is gaining greater acceptance now that consumers are finding they actually like holding their Kindles and Nooks. If you’re a not-yet-published author, the ebook affords you a great opportunity to transition into the world of multi-book authorship. Some of the “books” can actually be booklets. They can be sold for 99 cents or even given away.

“But I won’t get rich this way!” I can hear you shouting out right now. That’s right. You won’t. But remember, the rationale behind doing a small book is not wealth. It’s credibility. You can direct readers of your blog to the book. Or, you can refer potential clients there. You can use the ebook as a giveaway to your followers. Or, link up with a charity and make the book available for fundraising purposes. And, best of all, you can list your book(s) on your resume.

VERBUM SAT SAPIENTI (A WORD TO THE WISE)

Just because it’s short, you shouldn’t give your ebook short shrift. A hastily-assembled collection of ideas can definitely taint your future if it’s filled with grammatical and typographical errors. In the world of business, they say you are only given one chance to make a lasting impression. Similarly, if your early ebooks do not reflect quality, buyers will remember and will be less likely to purchase books in the future.

HOW TO DO IT

You may wish to start with a list. You can broaden your ideas by asking friends, colleagues, and even strangers to add to your list. Then, simply expand upon each of the items. Voila. Your ebook is done.

To illustrate, you may be interested in writing for other moms. You could make a list of “Why Kids Hate Vegetables.” Brainstorm ideas and ask for input from other mothers. Then offer a love-antidote for each of the hate-reasons.

Of course, there are many other ways beyond list-making to get your book done. Once it is done, upload it to places like Booklocker, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. (If you can’t do the requisite formatting yourself, I recommend Dan Case, the editor of Writing for DOLLARS, who is both reasonable and extremely qualified.)

WADING IN THE INCOME STREAM

You probably won’t be able to do more than get your toes wet in your new income stream–at least not at first. On the other hand, you may be able to replicate the success of Amanda Hocking, a 26-year-old author, whose 99-cent books have turned her stream into a ocean-ful of dollars. In January of this year, she sold more than 400,000 copies of her books!

Dr. Marlene Caroselli is the author of 60 business books and uncountable curricula and articles. She has served as an adjunct professor at UCLA and National University, while conducting training for Fortune 100 companies and numerous federal agencies. Her assignments have taken her all over the country and the globe as well.

Hew newest book, Jesus, Jonas, and Janus: The Leadership Triumvirate explores leadership through the prism of historical figures.

In addition to books, Dr. Caroselli writes frequently for Stephen Covey’s Executive Excellence, for the Employment Times, as well as for numerous other print and electronic publications. She also writes podcasts for Workplace English Training E-Magazine.

It may be time to “dive into” e-waters yourself.

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4 Steps to a More Valuable Writers’ Network

It’s not what you know. It’s who you know.

There, I said it.

Successful writers are more than just great artists, honing their beloved word craft. Successful writers have serious networks and they know how to use them. Their networks are like strong root systems – strong foundations that allow them to tap into and draw from many resources.

Here on NHWN Julie wrote about finding your writers’ clan, Lisa shared tips for making the most of a conference, and I’ve written about how to build your social network from scratch and how to build your writers’ platform. Today’s post focuses on getting the most value out of and bringing the most value to your network.

4 steps that will help you make the most of your networking efforts:

Connect
Obvious? Maybe, but trading business cards isn’t enough. Connect wherever you can – email (a nice follow-up note), Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. If the connection has a blog and/or a newsletter, find it and subscribe. (Google Reader is great for centralizing blog subscriptions.)

Organize
No matter its size, your network will be weak unless you can stay on top what’s happening with your connections. The key to being “plugged in” is filtering your sources of input so you don’t miss the good stuff.

Tools like email rules (sorting incoming mail into pre-set folders) and social “lists” (sites like Facebook and Twitter let you segment your friends and followers into lists) can help you cut through the “noise” so you can focus on the content that matters.

There are a number of ways to segment your network, and it’s perfectly sane to apply several of them at once:

• By interest – Writing, crafting, non-fiction vs. fiction, blogging, parenting, social media, gardening, reading, indie films, horseback riding, cooking … each of those represents a particular area of interest. Grouping your contacts by interest helps you know who to reach out to when you want to share topic-specific content.
• By association – Is the contact associated with a former employer, school, or business organization? Did you meet through a mutual friend? Some of my Facebook and Twitter groups include local friends, former work colleagues, and association members.
• By role – Is the contact a resource (agent, legal expert, reviewer, techie, editor, etc), a prospect (or a client), a peer, or a mentor?  Organizing this way can help you see if your network includes a balanced mix of contact “types.”

Relate
Your network doesn’t operate on the set-it-and-forget-it principle. You have to nurture and feed your network. Here are 3 key tactics for keeping your network thriving:

1. Content – Whether you are producing or curating, sharing relevant content is one of the best ways to stay in touch with your network. You can tweet a link, post something to your Facebook wall, update your LinkedIn status, or even go old school and drop a personal email. The bottom line is to keep yourself on the radar of the people in your network.
2. Conversation – If all you do is push content out, your network will lose interest. What will set you apart is the conversation you create around the content. Invite people to share their opinions, respond to their comments, and extend the conversation from platform to platform.
3. Help – Ask not what your network can do for you, but what you can do for your network. If you look at your network only as a group of people who might do something for you, you’re totally missing the boat. Think about how you can help others in your network. The simplest way is to share and promote their content. You might also send them a relevant resource, make an introduction to someone else in your network, or pass along a job lead. Try to do at least one good turn each day. It will make you feel good immediately, and the long-term benefits can be astounding.

Connect
… the dots

The most important networking skill you need to learn is the ability to perceive the opportunities to connect people, projects, and ideas. Learn to see the invisible threads that make up the fabric of your network. See where you can make a difference and then take action.

A network is a group of people you happen to know. A valuable network is one that is primed for action. If you can connect with and organize your contacts in a way that helps you discover and deliver value, you will be well on your way to creating the kinds of relationships that make it easy to take things to the next level.

What are your best networking tips?

Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who, among other things, works as a marketing strategist and copywriter. She helps creative entrepreneurs (artists, writers, idea people, and creative consultants) discover their “natural” marketing groove so they can build their business with passion, story, and connection. She also blogs. A lot. She is a mom, a singer, and a dreamer who believes in small kindnesses, daily chocolate, and happy endings. Look her up on facebook or follow her on twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

Image Credit: Jason Conlon

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Networking – to make your dreams come true

Networking is an important part of reaching your goals, dreams, and career success. No one can do it alone.

You draw to you what you focus on, and if you want to build your writing platform, get published, and have a successful writing career, you’ll find yourself attending events that offer networking opportunities. When you find yourself at an event where you can meet other writers or people who can help you achieve your goals, you have to take advantage of the treasure laid before you. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your networking experience.

• Sit with people you don’t know.

I know how easy it is to sit with your friends, but you already know them and they already know you. So, find a table with people you don’t know and take a seat. You already have something in common – you’re at the same event. So an ice breaker could be asking what brought the others to that particular venue.

• Know who is running the show, talk with others

It’s good to introduce yourself to the hostess of the event, if you can, but don’t be a groupie. Hostesses are like magnets – you want to get in their orbit and do a Vulcan mindmeld (I’m not a Trekkie, but this analogy came to mind) to download their knowledge and experience into you. You already know they know a lot, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to connect privately, so take this networking opportunity to meet people who aren’t in the spotlight. You never know who will be able to help you get to the next level, so play the field.

• Collect business cards

Sure it’s important to get your business card into the hand of someone who could potentially help your career, but more beneficial is to collect cards from people you talk with. Make notes on the back of the cards so you can remember what you spoke about. That card is a great start to a newsletter distribution list.

• Follow up and say thank you

Within a day or two of the event, connect with the people you met at the event. Whether it’s through e-mail or any of the social media sites, send a note thanking the person for chatting with you, remind them who you are, and whatever else comes to mind. Keep it friendly and professional. Make sure to include your contact information, so they can find you again. Even if the person can’t assist you at the moment, that doesn’t mean she can’t help you later on. And vice versa.

You can also look at networking as building friendships. The goal isn’t to have the most contacts, per se, but to have the best ones for you.

Lisa Jackson is an editor, author, book coach, and chocolate lover. She’s addicted to Sudoku, cafés, and words. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has a blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom where she gets to network with writing professionals on a weekly basis — and you can too!©Lisa J. Jackson, 2010

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A Reasonable Approach to Internet Marketing

This post comes from NHWN guest writer, Deborah Lee Luskin.

When White River Press offered to bring out my novel, Into The Wilderness, I was too thrilled and too naïve to understand fully what the offer involved: White River would produce the book; marketing would be up to me. My publisher provided me with a template of the cover art with which to make postcards and suggested I read Guerilla Marketing. After that, I was on my own.

My first move was to launch a website, which would be my calling card to the world. Because I hope that Into The Wilderness is the first of many novels, and because I’m also a public speaker, a commentator on Vermont Public Radio, a teacher and a pen-for-hire, I used the opportunity to make the site as all-encompassing as I could. In the freelance world of self-employment, I wanted the site to pull in any interesting jobs that floated through its orbit.
The website took about five months to develop. I was lucky to be able to work with a friend who was just expanding her graphic design business to include web design, so she gave me a bargain price in return for honing her skills on my site. We had a lot of fun working together, and we’re both immensely pleased with the results.

The website is the keystone of my marketing plan. To develop it, I researched other writers’ sites to learn what I liked; then I wrote and rewrote my content until it was spare and informative.

The site has served me well: It offers readers a place to buy my book, learn more about Into The Wilderness, my other published work, my teaching experience, and me. I send people to the site to find reviews, information, and templates for press releases, photos and posters. Many of the people who have sponsored author events for me have thanked me for these tools, and many of my readers have used the Contact page to email me heart-warming notes, telling me how much they have loved the book and my characters, Percy and Rose.

The website is linked to my Facebook Fan Page for Into The Wilderness. Some readers have clicked through to my main Facebook page as well. At this point, I don’t have a blog and I don’t use Twitter, but I do use Facebook a great deal. Through Facebook, I’ve discovered reviewers and reading groups, and I’ve kept news about Into The Wilderness front and center among my Facebook Friends. To my amazement, I’ve discovered that there are people who “follow” me, which is flattering and alarming and at the end of the day helps keep Into The Wilderness on their minds, so that these friends and readers keep mentioning the book to their friends, who are potential readers and fans.

Because I have limited capacity for sitting in front of my computer, I try to write first and market second. During the first six months following my book launch, this was impossible, and I lived and breathed marketing, using the internet to find venues that would review the book and venues that would host author events. In the process, I’ve stumbled upon sites where I’ve been invited to write guest blogs (like this one), which suits both my personality and my goals for connecting with readers and writers.

There may come a time when I regularly blog, tweet and text. For now, I’m pleased to have learned how to use a few of the internet’s many tools well and still remain centered and sane, with energy to spare for my prose.

About the Author: Deborah Lee Luskin is the author of Into The Wilderness, “a fiercely intelligent love story” between two 64-year-olds, set in Vermont in 1964. Luskin is a regular Commentator on Vermont Public Radio, an editorial columnist, and a free-lance writer. In addition, Luskin teachers literature and writing in prisons, hospitals and libraries; she holds a PhD in English Literature from Columbia University. Learn more at her website: www.deborahleeluskin.com

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