Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Where's the Buzz?

Posted by Pat Stoltey

The Big Buzz is All About Amanda Hocking

This young lady (age 26) self-published in ebooks and then caught the wave. Everyone is talking about her, including Nathan Bransford at his blog with yesterday’s “Amanda Hocking and the 99-Cent Kindle Millionaires.”

Amanda has a blog called (believe it or not) Amanda Hocking’s Blog. Check out her March 3rd post called “Some Things That Need to Be Said.”


The A to Z April Blog Challenge 2011

If you have a blog, and if you want to build your following and make new friends while bringing a little discipline to your blogging schedule, I dare you to participate in the A to Z Challenge during the month of April. This challenge was created in 2010 by Arlee Bird of tossing it out blog. When he decided to do it again this year, he added blogger helpers to spread the word. To read how I feel about last year’s experience, check this post at Alex J. Cavanaugh’s blog.

You can register at any of the helper blogs, including Alex’s, but the original explanation and blog challenge sign-up is at tossing it out.

Double dare you.


More About Twitter and Those Who Resist

Honestly, writers, Twitter is one of the best tools you’ll ever find to get the word out about your website, blog posts, book giveaways, new releases, and to poll your followers about how to cook a rutabaga.

Author, blogger, and social media guru Alexis Grant (The Traveling Writer) posted “How social media helps us make our own luck” on her blog yesterday. She in turn links to a blog post by Miriam Salpeter called “Why You Should Use Twitter.”

After those two articles, you’ll want to go forth and tweet. I just know it. And while you're on the Twitter site, be sure to follow us at @Chiseledinrock


And finally, a Writer’s Favorite Topics of Conversation

On finding the time to write. For this one, see A. Victoria Mixon, Editor’s blog for the post “9 Ways to Find the Time to Write.”

On procrastination. See The Blood-Red Pencil, one of the best writing/editing blogs on the web, post by Heidi M. Thomas: "How do I Procrastinate?"

10 comments:

Alexis Grant said...

Thanks for the shout-out!

Anonymous said...

Pat - You are so right about the value of Twitter! Folks, if you're not on Twitter, I highly recommend it!

Jan Morrison said...

I'm on Twitter but I don't use it properly. I'm still unsure of how to do that - I try and post my posts on Twitter but...
ah well, thanks for the kick in the pants - I needed that.

Luanne G. Smith said...

Hmm, signed up for the A to Z challenge. I have no idea what I've just gotten myself into. But that's how I roll. Heh.

Patricia Stoltey said...

Alexis, you're most welcome. You always have such good information on your blog.

Hi Margot (one of my first and best Twitter friends).

Jan -- I find Twitter a very useful tool for writers, so I'm using it a lot.

Congratulations, L.G. The A to Z Challenge was just that, a challenge, but I made so many new blogging friends and learned so much about the blogging community that it was worth every minute. I think you'll enjoy it.

Cricket McRae said...

Thanks for all the great links, Pat!

Patricia Stoltey said...

Hi Cricket. Thanks for coming by.

Elle said...

Thanks for letting me know about this site. Good stuff. I'm a follower now.

Paula Martin said...

I just joined the A-Z challenge too. Not sure what I'm going to write about every day, but it'll be fun to try it!

Victoria Mixon said...

Thank you for the mention! I actually wrote a humorous guest post for The Renegade Writer recently on procrastination, as well---taking it to its logical conclusion. Natch.