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I've been silent on this blog for a while, which is not a good thing. A writer should blog...always.

Yes, this mantra is a bastardization of the idea that a "writer should write...always," an idea I first heard when I was in junior high from the film Throw Momma from the Train, and it's true. A writer should always be writing. However, now, in the ice cold light of the 21st century, a writer has to do a hell of a lot more than write his or her book/script/poem, whatever. Now, unless you're huge, like Stephen King or Salman Rushdie, you have to do at least some of your own marketing, and one of the big ways to keep yourself on public view is to blog.

So, here's my new goal: for the rest of the year, I will write one blog every day. My blogs will mostly be about my writing process, and will be an intensely honest look at how I write on a day to day basis (or often how I don't write, how I spend my writing time zoned out staring at some point to the right of the computer screen, thinking "Duh.")

I'll write about the projects I'm working on (four, which is two too many, actually), how the work is going, what kind of stumbling blocks I come upon, be they internal or external, and how daily life and my writing bleed into each other despite seeming to be completely at odds most of the time.

I'm not promising genius in these blogs. After all, I've only got twenty minutes a day scheduled to blog. But I do promise honesty. So come along on this crazy artistic trip with me if you dare; it's bound to be fun!

Putting the "Networking" into Social Networking

Twitter.

LinkedIn.

MySpace.

Authonomy. Digg.com. Luscious.com. Facebook pages galore. Yahoo Alerts... etc, etc, etc.

Here's the deal, folks. In order to sell a book, one must have a platform. This means, basically, that one must go about getting an audience BEFORE the book goes out, not afterward. Agents and publishers like authors that already have interested readers because that means the book will sell. For this reason, college professors who have an interesting subject matter, and politicians running for office, have a great chance of getting published.

This is not the case for someone like me who writes fiction, especially when I'm writing something that isn't a particular genre like Indian Summer. In my case, I need to go about building up reader interest, and the most basic tool for this is social networking. Now, rather than just looking at the social side of things, I need to look at social networking as a business and advertising tool, something that is a huge paradigm shift for me, since I usually just have fun on Facebook catching up with friends.

Here's a few tips for good social networking:

1) Let the base you already have know what you're doing. I'm pretty sure that not everybody on Facebook knows I've got a book coming out in July, but in the next several weeks, particularly after I get a cover, that will change. I'll still do the fun posts, but I'll also be making my book be known.

2) Join several social networking sites.

3) Get your own blog and Webpage and create links/badges to your major social networking sites.

4) Comment on other blogs and forums that seem to have a lot to do with your topic. For example, my novel's got a Bollywood theme but in an American context, so I'm going to make a lot of posts on bollywhat.com, which is run by Meredith McGuire, an American who loves Bollywood, and also has her own book out called Bollywood Becomes Her. (I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't been searching out sites!)

5) Search out the books that are like yours in theme, tone, and genre. Look at the big ones and small ones. Make friends with the authors if you can because you share a base, and if you talk each other up, it's definitely a mutually beneficial arrangement.

6) "Make three intelligent blog comments a day." In other words, read blogs that deal with your subject matter, or writing in general, and make comments on them that are helpful, interesting, and/or move the conversation forward. Don't just blog little meaningless comments. This idea comes from Jason Matthews' excellent book How to Make, Market, and Sell Ebooks, which has been a godsend to me. In fact, many of the ideas I have here come from him, so please buy his book. I'll be blogging more about how awesome he is later.

7) Include a link (or at least paste the URL) to your Website or blog or whatever represents you on the Web when you post a comment anywhere. (Note: People will only click on the link if you've said something that shows you're worthwhile. If your comment is something like "Yeah! Me, too!!!" nobody will take you seriously, and worse, they'll think you're just trying to sell them something.)

8) Always be polite and professional. Not everybody will be. There will be those who are rude to you. There will also be those who are trying to be helpful, but whose advice rankles. Be the rock in the river. Let the water flow around you. Never respond with an angry, rude comment.

There you go. Eight ideas on using social networking. I'm just getting started with all this myself and finding it difficult to balance everything. However, once you've checked everything out, you can choose a few social networking and blog sites that you really like and focus in on them. You don't have to be going to a hundred different networking sites a day, just three or so. My suggestion: Jump fully into the social networking scene and then find out which places are best for you.

Read the Beginning of Indian Summer

Hi all,

This is just a note to say that the first four chapters of my novel Indian Summer are up for preview at authonomy.com. The book will be making its premiere in July, but this is a great chance to look at it early, and to give me some feedback.

So please-- check out Indian Summer on authonomy.com right here. You'll have to register to get started, but after you do, I'd be really grateful if you would click on "Back the Book" for my novel (which puts it on your bookshelf and raises the book in the rankings), and also give a comment and a star rating.

Thanks so much, and I look forward to hearing some early reviews!