The Time Draws Near

TheWild Rose Press will release Lady of the Stars this Wednesday, January 7, 2009.

Wednesday. Three days from today. I can't wait. I'm scared. What will happen? Will anybody notice? On Wednesday I'll be at The Wild Rose Press yahoo loop from 9-10AM EST, and also all day at Brenda Williamson's Romance Party yahoo loop. I'll have a contest at Brenda's, and I've made a list of discussion topics to encourage participation. If anyone shows, that is. Brenda's loop is sending out reminders every day about my author day. I'll also be blogging at Kaye Manro's blog.

Today I'll send out event invitations on facebook and myspace. Tomorrow I'll promote on the loops I belong to, since most of them have their promos on Monday. Tuesday I'll email people whose addresses I know.

And Wednesday, I'll be here, attached to the computer all day.

All this info is on the blog sidebar. And also on my website, www.lindabanche.com

Thank you all,
Linda

A Good Year

Now, as 2008 ends, it’s time to reflect on the past year.

Looking back:

I entered four RWA contests. I neither won nor finaled. Mainly because my heroine doesn't appear in the first twenty pages. Maybe this book won't sell as it stands, but I'll have to see what an editor or agent says.

The Wild Rose Press gave me my first contract for my novella, Lady of the Stars. Lady started life as an entry in TWRP's Through the Garden Gate time travel contest. I lost. But they saw enough to ask me to resubmit, and I resubmitted twice before they accepted the story. For all the gory details, see my blog post And How Did You Become An Author?

Before and after submitting, I learned a lot from the Wild Rose Press. Their suggestions made my story better and helped me with my next submission. Thank you, Wild Rose Press, for giving me a chance.

I started promotion. Oh, my. Talk about culture shock. I had no idea what promotion involved. Writing is very hard work, but promotion is even harder, maybe because I'm not the outgoing type. Luckily for me, with online promotion, I can still hide to some extent. I now have a blog, a website, accounts on myspace, facebook, goodreads, and I will start a twitter account. And I belong to forty-five yahoo loops.

In between all that time-consuming promotion, I finished NaNoWriMo (52,084 words) and I wrote my second novella, Pumpkinnapper. TWRP gave me a contract for Pumpkinnapper without asking for a resubmission.

Looking forward:

2009 starts with the release of Lady of the Stars on January 7. I hope it fares well.

Happy New Year.

Thank you all,

Linda

Shameless Promotion, Again

And I thought a website and a blog plus a million loops was enough promotion.

No. Now everyone also needs an account on a networking site. Some examples of networking sites are Myspace and Facebook.

Other networking sites I've heard suggested are Twitter, Red Room, and Booktour. I've never heard of the last two, but they are supposed to be ones that authors and readers frequent.

So, OK, I now have a page on myspace--http://www.myspace.com/lindabanche

There isn't much on it yet, but I'll add to it as I go along.

I also have an account on goodreads. goodreads is all about books. I can put up the books I like, and there are other people with the same tastes as mine. It's also hooked up to Facebook, so when I get my Facebook account, I'll have less setup to do.

I will probably also get an account on shelfari.com, another readers' and authors' loop. I've heard that publishers come to shelfari looking for people who read their authors' books. They might send you an ARC (advance reading copy) in hopes of getting a review.

OK, so here's the shameless promotion. Please go to my myspace and goodreads accounts and send me a friend request, or ask me to send you one.

I'm on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/lindabanche

and goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/profile/lindabanche

And when I set up other accounts I'll ask again.

Thank you all,

Linda