Goodbye, 2011!

Image by TinyTall

Hey, guys! I just wanted to post a quick note to say thank you and wish you all a Happy New Year. :)

2011 has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs for me, and you've all been along for the ride. That includes all of you weirdos who insisted on sitting in the front, flailing your arms and screaming. ;) I love our writing community, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I wish you all... um... ookbay ealday(s)... in 2012! (What? I'm not superstitious or anything...)

Have fun, and be safe! ♥

Merry Christmas!

Hey, guys! I just wanted to hop on and say I'll be taking the week off--meaning there'll be no post over at Getting Personal on Thursday. In case I don't talk to some of you before Sunday, Merry Christmas! (And if that's not your thing, happy whatever-it-is-you-celebrate-whenever-you-celebrate-it!) Be safe! ♥

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And the Winner Is...

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Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Please join me in congratulating:

Rebecca Greene!

Ms. Greene will be receiving a critique of her first chapter from six different writers: Peggy Eddleman, Jessie Humphries, Erin Summerill, Connie Barnett Dowell, Katie Dodge, and me!

  

♥ Thank you to everyone who entered! Rebecca, I'll be contacting you soon. ♥

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Word of Mouth

The holidays are breathing down our necks, so I'll try to keep this brief. (I know, I know. Sometimes I'm considerate. Who knew? *grins*) 

I see so many frantic posts about marketing these days and, since my background is in marketing, I thought I'd help out. Are you ready? Good. I want you to take everything you're stressing over--competing with Twitter-spammers, making handcrafted bookmarks out of recycled toliet paper, whatever--and throw it away.

...Okay, don't throw it away, but put it on the back burner.

The most important tool at your disposal is: Word of mouth. I kid you not. Just look at this example from XKCD:

Marketing Interview by XKCD

Maybe it's not the most pertinent example, but it's true. Word of mouth can make you or break you. Treat your readers kindly. Give them a reason to speak your praises, without having to ask them. Write a book people want to talk about. :)

Have a great week, guys! ♥

P.S. The 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway ends tonight! If you haven't entered, be sure to fill out the form before then. :)

Vision

Image by Jeff Dahl -

CC BY-SA 3.0

I was renewing my driver's license at the BMV the other day, when I realized something irritating: my vision isn't what it used to be. I had to take that stupid eye test four times, and you know what? It was embarrassing. I don't know why. It wasn't like I didn't know my alphabet well enough to read the letters--my eyes were just having a fail moment. We're allowed to have those, right?

(I eventually passed, by the way. Your roads are unsafe again.)

The problem was my pride. 

It's kind of like getting a critique back. It can be embarassing when we can't "see" that typo or plothole until someone points it out to us, but it happens. We just hate to admit that we're flawed. That we're human. Well, guess what? It's time to get over it. ♥

...What? I'm allowed to be blunt today. I have birthday immunity! :) 
Have a great week, guys!

Image by TheCryptiaFiles