Social Media Tricks from A to Z from C.Lee McKenzie: An Post A-to-Z Road Trip Special

       C. Lee McKenzie can usually be found at her blog The Write Game, but today she's here visiting us at Blogging from A to Z.   She's also celebrating the release of her latest book Alligators Overhead, which you can find out more about by clicking on the links at the bottom of this post.  

If you're a writer, you want others to know who you are and what you're writing. You want to find other writers to connect with and readers who will buy your books. Today the publisher's budgets allow for very little support unless you're a bestselling author, so getting the word out is pretty much your job. Of course, if you're self-published it's 100% your job. 

 Social Media to the rescue. 

      And, in my opinion,  one of the quickest and most painless of these media is Twitter. 

     I thought it might be helpful for those A to Zers on this  Road Trip to have a few Twitter Do's and Don'ts--kind of road signs to read along the way--so here's my A to Z Twitter  Tips.

A. Ask for help. Do you need feedback on your WIP or do you want to know what readers think of your published work? Ask. Tweeters are eager to jump in with comments.

B. Be nice. Be kind. Snarky works for some, but like my grandmother always said, "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."

C. Converse with your readers and other writers. Get to know them. Let them know you. That generates interest in your work.

D. Discover stuff: quotes, facts, other writers with the same or similar issues.

E. Events are out there on Twitter. Find out about them. Post some of your own. Maybe you're doing a giveaway or hosting a launch on facebook. Make sure your Twitter followers know about those.

F. Find a job. Writing doesn't always pay the electric bill, right? Here's a link that takes you to JOBSEARCH

G. Grammar check. There's always a prescriptive grammarian hanging out on Twitter. You just have to nudge them and they'll give you the "correct" answer. *Raises hand and admits to a touch of the prescriptive grammarian in her.*

H. Help others. When you're in a Twitter conversation you often find that a writer could use a "hug" or encouragement. Maybe just a, "I've been there and understand" will be enough.

I. Issue book updates or where you are in your current WIP. That creates a bit of buzz and interest.

J. Joke a bit and have fun. This is a great way to take that break from the scene that's not working. It's a great way to connect with others in the same situation. Who knows, you might pick up just the prompt you need to return to that scene and finish it. 

K. Keep in touch. I might be away from home and on my iphone, but I can pop into Twitter, say hi, share where I am and what I'm doing. My main blog might be quiet, but my "microblog" isn't.

L. Look for agents or new publishing houses, accepting submission. Link up with an agent and start a dialog. Who knows, they might like your style enough to check your blog out. It's happened. And I personally know of one contract signed because the agent loved the writer's blog style so much.

M. Motivate others and you'll motivate yourself. In 140 characters it's easy to say something encouraging.

N. Never be all about "ME."  Care about the people you follow and who follow you.

O. Open longer exchanges. I often DM a friend and say, "Check email" or "Call me" when I want to discuss something in more depth.

P. Practice writing short, specific and effective sentences. Be clever. It's good practice for writing anything.

Q. Quotes--share them. I love to find a great quote while I'm Tweeting. 

R. Report problems. When you see a blog post that's gone weird because of a code issue, alert the blogger on Twitter. I had someone do that for me, and I really appreciated it. I hate it when something's not right with my blog posts.

S. Search, using the search tool to find someone you'd like to follow. 

T. Tweet about conferences before you go to a conference. Establish a rapport with the presenters and those attending. This year I tweeted with an agent and knew she'd been out walking on the beach. When I met her at dinner, I had a way to introduce myself by asking her how she'd enjoyed her walk. Nice ice breaker.

W. Writing. Writing . Writing. Get help. Give help about this amazing talent you and the others on Twitter have. You never know what exchange might trigger an idea.

X. X-out people who don't follow back or interact with you. You want your Tweeter followers list current. Here's where you can find out who's following you and who's interacting with you .http://t.co/B1wMdPmg

Y. YOU. Be who you are. 

Z. Zippy Tweets pay off, so don't be mopey, just honest. "2day I'm not writing anything my dog couldn't chew up." 

Happy Tweeting. And  . . . ahem . . . RT if you found this helpful.

C. Lee McKenzie

http://writegame.blogspot.com

http://cleemckenziebooks.com

https://www.facebook.com/AlligatorsOverhead

Alligators Overhead AMAZON http://tinyurl.com/895whec

                         B&N http://tinyurl.com/8y4d4el








-

Challenge Participant Special - Marta Szemik

Today’s special Challenge participant feature is Marta Szemik! She’s the author of several books and just a really cool person. Her theme for the Challenge was “Changes Throughout History.”

A BIG Thank You to the A-Z Team for hosting me:)

What made you select the theme of changes through history?

I'm fascinated by what humans have accomplished in the past century, but honestly, the idea just dawned on me one day. Sort of like when you're writing a story and something clicks. I think I may also have been listening to one of my favorite songs by Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne "Changes".

What topic was the most fun to research?

Have you seen my post on the letter "O" titled: Oooo Yes, the Big O! Yes, I had to do some research for that one. I also liked my post for "C": Cell Phones. I still find the cases people used to carry as phones funny and yes, I do remember the days (as a kid).

What changes surprised you the most?

I don't know if I can pick one, but almost anything to do with advancing technology blows my mind away. I remember rolling my eyes at my dad in the 90's when he told me he didn't know what email was. His response was to wait 20 years and see if I'm up to speed on technology them. Yes, he was right.
I think because of my fear of flying, I would have to also say that airplanes always surprise me. Physics is a wonderful science to allow gazillions of pounds of metal to fly in the air.

You had fun finding all the pictures that accompanied your posts, didn’t you?

Yes, Google images was my friend for over a month. Ahh, the things I've seen! Internet is a scary place to be if you let it lead you to places you shouldn't be at. I know how cautious I will be when my kids turn to teenagers.

Why was J so challenging?

It still is challenging. Really, the only thing that comes into my mind are Jackets. Also, Jelly beans and J-walking, though it would be difficult to talk about the history of those. I guess Jokes would have been a good one, but I tend to not be funny when I try to joke on the spot. Like, right now... What do you call that? Online fright instead of stage fright? (See what I mean?)

For G you selected games – what are some of your favorite?

Non electronic: Any games with a jump rope like Double Dutch.
If we're talking electronics: Tetris and Pac Man. I still play Tetris on Wii. Recently I compete against my kids on Wii Sports (but I do let them win). I love the obstacle course and try to beat my own score which is really hard. I get addicted to beating my own scores.

Can you tell everyone why you think teleportation would be cool?

Ok, disclaimer first: IF teleportation did not disintegrate my body into goo and mush it would be my first choice for travel because I hate flying. I'm one of those people you don't want to sit beside on a plane.
Also, think about the time saved! You could travel across the world in seconds. But, what if there was a computer glitch or someone hacked into the device (like an ex)? Next thing you know, you're on Mars or sleeping with the lions at the Zoo!

If you do the Challenge again next year, what them will you tackle next?

This was my first year doing the challenge and I'm pretty sure I'll do it again next year. Spring time will be around the time I will be preparing to release a mystery series I started two years ago so I may do flash fiction that combines into a short story as a prequel to the series. I've seen other participants do that and it really intrigued me. I've never done anything like that before and I think it would be fun.

Thank you, Marta!

Co-host Ninja Captain Alex is the author of CassaStar and CassaFire and his blog can be found HERE

To Ebook or Not to Ebook, that is the question...

Last year for the A to Z Challenge, I wrote flash fiction for each of the 26 days, and then edited and compiled them into a book:  A to Z Stories of Life and Death.

Not only have sales continued to trickle in since last year without any marketing on my part, I've found folks reading and reviewing the book in some detail-- like this one, at The Conscientious Reader.

I'm now working on a novel, my first, for the past few months. I have no idea how good or bad it is, since I haven't yet finished the first draft. But prevalent wisdom says it is unlikely to be much good, all first novels are destined to remain in the writer's desk drawer. (Yes, I've had several short stories traditionally published, but a novel is a different beast.)

So, I'm wondering: would it be better to try this novel out as an e-book?

• Conventional wisdom says no. It says I should try finding an agent, who will find me a publisher and so on.  (But printed books are slowly getting wiped out, marketing budgets are shrinking and writers have to do their own marketing, the agency model seems to be floundering a bit, Amazon looks poised to take over a big chunk of the publishing market)
• New e-book wisdom says it may be more profitable and popular to self-publish. (But e-books means doing a lot of publishing and marketing work-- time that I'd rather spend writing. It also means writing a lot of books quickly-- but I'm a slow writer. Genre books tend to do better as e-books, but mine has a literary bent. Besides, I don't mind if the trad-pubbed book doesn't give me much money, I want my book read but don't expect to start rolling in money)

Since at my current stage of the novel I'm more bothered about writing the book well, than deciding on its mode of publication, I have at least an year or more to decide how I want the publishing to happen. In the meanwhile, I'd rather ask for opinions.

Should I stick to traditional publication? (And once I finish and polish the novel, start typing those query letters, and check if I have a shot at getting published.)

Should I e-publish? (And get ready for an exhausting binge of marketing-- hence push my social media presence an extra notch, starting now?)

Will all the advice you give me become invalid an year from now? (given the pace at which the publishing scenario is changing)


(Now that I've sufficiently spent my writing break on mulling over publishing a book that is 1 year or more from the finish line, I'm off to do some #amwriting. )


But I'd still appreciate your opinion: Querying or self-publishing-- what's your advice for me?
------------------


This post is brought to you by Damyanti, from Amlokiblogs.

Letter Play, Literally!

The following tutorial is brought to you by Nicole from The Madlab Post...

It’s time for Letter Play - Where DIY activities, cinema and life offline collide!

Letters come in handy when you don’t have the time, money or interest in shopping for greeting cards for birthdays and other special occasions. For today’s Letter Play tutorial, I set out to create a birthday letter that resembled a colorful ransom note. Time got the best of me, so I put something together that sorta illustrates the idea but didn’t turn out exactly the way I hoped.

I used markers, glue and cardstock to create a colorful birthday letter to a fictitious person whose name starts with the Letter L. So instead of offering a tutorial for one activity, here are three ideas that you can use as alternatives to birthday (or other occasion) greeting cards.

The Birthday Ransom Letter
Cut out letters from newspapers, magazines or your own written alphabet on paper and then assemble them into a funny joke, sentimental message or inspirational quote. Glue the message onto a colorful piece of 8.5x11 inch cardstock paper and fold it into three parts after the glue dries. Sign the bottom of the letter, put it in an envelope and mail away!

The Birthday Postcard Letter
Write a short form letter on a postcard that represents a place where the birthday boy or girl has either been or expressed interest in visiting. This can either incite fond memories of vacations that passed or ignite enthusiasm for future trips to explore. Double the fun by adding some travel vouchers, tickets or gear to this postcard, which will help the birthday recipient get a head start on their route.

The Birthday Photo Story Letter
Photos are some of the easiest items that you can use to send someone warm wishes for his or her birthday, when you don’t have a greeting card. Gather several photos featuring you with the recipient or old images of him/her at different stages in life. Flip the photos over and write a letter to this person, making sure to number the backside if necessary so that he or she will know where to pick-up reading from the previous image.

Until next week...have fun playing with letters!

Do you like group blogging activities? Sign up for the Monday Movie Meme, a weekly blog series that inspires discussion about entertainment, in a whole new light and provides recommendations for your DVD, on-demand or theater fix. 


New topics are posted every Monday at The Madlab Post!
.
NICOLE is @MadlabPost on Twitter

Partcle Accelerators - Just How The Heck do They Work?

Particle Accelerators. They're big. They're sexy. And they may change our view of the universe and our place in it. A particle accelerator is device used to accelerate sub-atomic particles (like a proton) to very high speeds. Particle accelerators have also been known as cyclotrons and atom smashers. Physicists design them in hopes of inquiring into the dynamics and structure of matter, space, and time. There are scores of particle accelerators and accelerator laboratories in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

These awe-inspiring and magnificent machines come in all different shapes and sizes. There are ring and linear accelerators and they perform various functions. Most people are excited about the colliders, like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

How an accelerator Works

The principle behind the LHC is pretty simple. First, you fire two beams of particles along two pathways, one going clockwise and the other going counterclockwise. You accelerate both beams to near the speed of light. Then, you direct both beams toward each other and watch what happens.

According to Dr. Brian Cox, “In that moment of collision — less than a billionth of a second — you get extreme conditions, like the very early universe. You get a massive amount of energy, and loads of things flying out — like the debris of the collision. It can also form new particles that have never been seen before. And that’s what we’re really after.”

Just What the Heck are They Looking For

Today, physicists are looking for evidence to support their proposed model of the universe such as other dimensions we can't perceive. This could help support theories such as string theory and M-theory which need additional dimensions in order to make sense. Along with the Higgs Boson, they’re also looking for evidence of dark matter, dark energy, anti-matter, and whatever other surprises may appear.



We have to retain our sense of humor!



Scientists from CERN and around the globe will try to compute, analyze, and interpret massive amounts of data that could take many, many months. Will the LHC help us in advance our knowledge about our universe? It is almost certain it will raise more questions than it answers. Yet if past experiments at labs around the world are any indication, we can assume the answer is yes. Of course, there are those who claim these giant academic egghead toys are a complete and total waste of time and resources. Time will tell. Stay tuned!

Check out this computer animated YouTube Video on just how the Large Hadron Collider works!

If you feel this blog is worthy, go ahead and make my day. Retweet it