I haven’t been around much recently. Because my first book in the Tales of Butternut Creek came out April 3, I’ve spent a lot of time on promo. Friends were lovely enough to invite me to their blogs to promote the book. The publicist at FaithWords set up a blog tours for me and I’ve been tweeting and facebooking.
One of my firsts blogs was about my fear of using social media. During the last few weeks, I’ve learned a lot and am much braver about using it.
TWITTER; Can be fun. Can also be a waste of time. While I’m working on a particularly difficult scene or I have a bunch of line edits to do, my brain says, “Hey, let’s run over to Twitter and see if anyone retweeted you,” Takes great discipline not to take a break. PROS: Twitter is a great way to do promo; I’ve meet interesting people; people post articles I enjoy; it’s a good break when the brain is overloaded. CONS: Because lots of other people use Twitter for promo, many tweets are boring and the sheer numbers is overwhelming. No one can read them all because they just keep coming. The worst part is that there are a great number of retweets. At one time, a man I’m following retweeted SEVENTY messages in a row–I counted. Fortunately, there is a button that blocks retweets from individuals and I used it! LESSON: Write content people will enjoy instead of constant self promotion.
FACEBOOK: Can also be fun. I’ve found this to be less overwhelming than Twitter. I love keeping up with friends and seeing photos, but it can take up a great deal of time. LESSON: Don’t save every cute animal 
picture that’s posted.
BLOGGING: There are many wonderful blogs out there. The publicist had me blog at http://dimplesandtangles.blogspot.com/ and http://www.delightingintoday.com/ Both were gorgeous and had links to other sites I didn’t know existed.
I survived. I’m back home, a grizzled veteran of social media. I’d love to know how you feel about Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Do you have any blogs you’d recommend?
I have not been a good blogger. Last week I was sick and didn’t even realize what day it was. This week I didn’t get much productive done. I DID write a few pages on the fourth Butternut Creek book which has the exciting title of The Construction Crew of Butternut Creek, in the hope I’ll just in case I get another contract. I also worked on promo and cleaned house and . . . well, other stuff that wans’t a lot of fun. 