Okay, so I'm still not writing - except this. Blogging does not count because it is kind of like writing in a journal, I guess. It's here for me to blather on about what I should be doing rather than actually doing it. I have very little free time these days and I'm spending it trying to get more visibility as a writer. I'm on Facebook every night commenting on other people's threads. I could plop down some opinions of my own but I don't. Mostly I'm there to laugh at stupid stuff and not rant. I do post links to blog posts and links to purchase my books.
Twitter is my new thing. There's this thing called unfollow.com where you can see who is following you and unfollowing you and you can follow back or unfollow. Follow, follow. follow, follow. This is incredibly difficult for a person who lives a leader's life. I have such difficulty with cooperative learning and sharing and all of that helping each other, which is the way of the world. But really, it takes friendship to get anywhere in life and so the lone wolf artist is outta luck.
So here's what has happened since I joined "the system". I followed over a thousand people and I now have over 700 followers. This has happened in the past week, really. I only followed something like 20 people before. I wanted to read what people had to say. Comedians mostly, because they have the best handle on short and concise one-liners that make you lol. Joan Rivers, of course. Close to eighty years old and she has her mouth on the pulse of all that is pop culture and I can only say Bravo! to that bitch as I bow down to her mastery of the media.
I had to say so long to her and Craig Ferguson and the Jimmys Kimmel and Fallon. To Conan and Letterman, so long, and hello to a bunch of writers and randoms that I don't know. Time to re-tweet (known as RT- ha, ha, I had to learn that!) The secret is in the re-tweets. You do it as much as you can. Then you thank all of the people who RTed you and respond to direct tweets and finally you tweet yourself w/ links to whatever - your blog, this blog, your books, etc.
The other thing is the hashtag. (#) Whoever thought of it, really? It looks like this #MiaNatasha. Hashtag something and it ends up on a trending page. You are all probably rolling your eyes at me right now with a big duh! (Do you at least still do that or am I like completely out of the loop?) So I add BDSM and erotica, and Excessica and I don't know what to a hashtag as I'm tweeting now, and that helps me define myself so that other people will re-tweet me.
If this sound new to you, then I'm glad to help. The thing is that ultimately a person with more followers than you will RT you and you'll get a lot of exposure and visibility is the key to success. I have noticed more traffic to my blog, whether they are actually reading it is another matter. Some people don't need to do any of this. They are popular to the masses. I was checking out the reviews for the 50 Shades books- there are over half a million on Goodreads! I have 35 ratings for Cinderella Club, 19 for Cinderella Thyme, 8 for Cinderella Ending. Then 8 for A Ghost's Chance (all five stars!) 6 for Jude's Whore and Dr. Cockburn's Medicine and only 3 for Putting the Madge in Danna. Sadly those three are me and my best friend, and this wonderful woman named Renee who is my cheerleader. Whah-whan!
I put my books on a shitload of lists there and it's kind of sadly funny that on some of them the books have one vote (mine). Loser, party of one.
I'm really not phased, of course. When I do all I can to promote myself, and by the same token to exercise and take care of myself, then all I can has to be good enough and that makes me feel good. I will continue to try to establish myself as a force to be reckoned with, a force of one but so what? I was never a writer to begin with and yet, here I am and there are people who think I'm good at it, people who actually think my shit don't stink so to speak.
So after this I will go back and tweet a little bit more. Tweet, RT and repeat to my heart's content. I hope you will do the same and shout me out too because I want to help you. Help me help you. Help you help me. I am @mia_erotica on Twitter but you can find me by searching Mia Natasha.
The Project Runway runway finale is next Thursday. Michelle is literally the lone wolf, the one who feels like the underdog who decided to actually use the idea of wolves as her inspiration. She was the only one with a clear vision and I will cry tears of joy if she wins the competition just as I do almost every season because the culmination of hard work is always emotional for me. Good luck, Michelle. You'll be my hero (heroine) if you win it all and I will have the incentive to keep at this crazy erotica endeavor - like the leader that I really am.
Twitter is my new thing. There's this thing called unfollow.com where you can see who is following you and unfollowing you and you can follow back or unfollow. Follow, follow. follow, follow. This is incredibly difficult for a person who lives a leader's life. I have such difficulty with cooperative learning and sharing and all of that helping each other, which is the way of the world. But really, it takes friendship to get anywhere in life and so the lone wolf artist is outta luck.
So here's what has happened since I joined "the system". I followed over a thousand people and I now have over 700 followers. This has happened in the past week, really. I only followed something like 20 people before. I wanted to read what people had to say. Comedians mostly, because they have the best handle on short and concise one-liners that make you lol. Joan Rivers, of course. Close to eighty years old and she has her mouth on the pulse of all that is pop culture and I can only say Bravo! to that bitch as I bow down to her mastery of the media.
I had to say so long to her and Craig Ferguson and the Jimmys Kimmel and Fallon. To Conan and Letterman, so long, and hello to a bunch of writers and randoms that I don't know. Time to re-tweet (known as RT- ha, ha, I had to learn that!) The secret is in the re-tweets. You do it as much as you can. Then you thank all of the people who RTed you and respond to direct tweets and finally you tweet yourself w/ links to whatever - your blog, this blog, your books, etc.
The other thing is the hashtag. (#) Whoever thought of it, really? It looks like this #MiaNatasha. Hashtag something and it ends up on a trending page. You are all probably rolling your eyes at me right now with a big duh! (Do you at least still do that or am I like completely out of the loop?) So I add BDSM and erotica, and Excessica and I don't know what to a hashtag as I'm tweeting now, and that helps me define myself so that other people will re-tweet me.
If this sound new to you, then I'm glad to help. The thing is that ultimately a person with more followers than you will RT you and you'll get a lot of exposure and visibility is the key to success. I have noticed more traffic to my blog, whether they are actually reading it is another matter. Some people don't need to do any of this. They are popular to the masses. I was checking out the reviews for the 50 Shades books- there are over half a million on Goodreads! I have 35 ratings for Cinderella Club, 19 for Cinderella Thyme, 8 for Cinderella Ending. Then 8 for A Ghost's Chance (all five stars!) 6 for Jude's Whore and Dr. Cockburn's Medicine and only 3 for Putting the Madge in Danna. Sadly those three are me and my best friend, and this wonderful woman named Renee who is my cheerleader. Whah-whan!
I put my books on a shitload of lists there and it's kind of sadly funny that on some of them the books have one vote (mine). Loser, party of one.
I'm really not phased, of course. When I do all I can to promote myself, and by the same token to exercise and take care of myself, then all I can has to be good enough and that makes me feel good. I will continue to try to establish myself as a force to be reckoned with, a force of one but so what? I was never a writer to begin with and yet, here I am and there are people who think I'm good at it, people who actually think my shit don't stink so to speak.
So after this I will go back and tweet a little bit more. Tweet, RT and repeat to my heart's content. I hope you will do the same and shout me out too because I want to help you. Help me help you. Help you help me. I am @mia_erotica on Twitter but you can find me by searching Mia Natasha.
The Project Runway runway finale is next Thursday. Michelle is literally the lone wolf, the one who feels like the underdog who decided to actually use the idea of wolves as her inspiration. She was the only one with a clear vision and I will cry tears of joy if she wins the competition just as I do almost every season because the culmination of hard work is always emotional for me. Good luck, Michelle. You'll be my hero (heroine) if you win it all and I will have the incentive to keep at this crazy erotica endeavor - like the leader that I really am.
I have to disagree completely here. Twitter, Facebook and all that jazz might have worked for some people but it is already a little late in the game to try to stand out based on your social media presence. On top of that, those areas are constantly changing. No one knows if it all might just be a fad (remember MySpace?). If you enjoy tweeting and blogging and your goal is to get popular for tweeting and blogging then by all means focus on that but if your goal is to be a writer then you might want to try something else. In my opinion, the best way to succeed as a writer is to write a good book, followed by writing another good book.
ReplyDeleteKevin- thanks for reading and commenting.
DeleteYes- I understand your opinion very well as it was mine up until a month ago. I am the independent one that wants to succeed on my own with no help from others - just me and my creativity, talent, smarts, etc. And writing good books.
ReplyDeleteBut the thing is that it takes interdependence to sell your work. People need to know you are out there. People want to connect. Time will tell if Twitter is a long lasting social media outlet or if it fades but as my sister says, you can't worry about what you can't control in the future but you can control what is right in front of you now. And Twitter is my bitch right now.
I understand the need for exposure, and it's not that I want "to succeed on my own with no help from others", I just don't think focusing on social media is the way to achieve it. I have never bought a book (or anything else for that matter) because of social media so I don't expect others to either.
ReplyDeleteI value the blog.Thanks Again. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I haven't been checking this one lately, so this is a late reply. But I appreciate that!
Delete