Help Save the Indies!

Today's the day!! Head to your local bookstore and buy a book. Agent Kelly Sonnack of Andrea Brown Literary has created a buzz for the event on Facebook.

Go and add your name to the attending list, and hie thee to an Indie store this morning, June 25. Details are below.

Time	Saturday, June 25 · 10:00am - 1:00pm
Location	Your local brick and mortar bookstore!
Created By	Kelly Sonnack
More Info	Who: You What: Buy a book (or 4) Where: Your local bookstore (or Powell's ships) When: June 25th (the first Saturday of Summer!) Why: Because we need to support our storefronts. No more obituary section in publishing news, please!

Navigating Social Media

After numerous protests to the contrary, I finally put myself out there last week. I joined Facebook. It hasn't disappointed.

In the space of less than a week, I've re-connected with the best man from our wedding, three theatre friends, one of whom is soon to become a Jersey girl, several writer friends, my best friend from high school, a friend from college and a number of other people I'm having a blast talking to.

As a writer who is trying to figure out how to build a platform, find writing time and have fun with social networking without allowing it to take over her life, I got a kick out of Jana Reiss's "Ten Commandments of Social Media for Religion (and Other) Authors." While part of the beauty of online contacts is the breakdown of geographical boundaries, it's nice to know that putting oneself out there doesn't necessarily require the breakdown of all boundaries. While most of what Jana says is common sense, she lays it out in a humorous, helpful way - it's kind of like having my very own networking GPS.

Thanks, Jana. And happy networking!

Do you tweet?

by Cate Masters
As an author, I look for effective ways to connect with others. So far I've made the leap to Facebook and recently launched a web site. I've had a blog for about a year. I also have a page on Ning, though it's woefully outdated.
Because I've been required to join so many email loops that suck away valuable time, I resisted Twitter. Until yesterday. Twitter looks deceptively simple, but can have many functions. All of which I must now acquaint myself.
The tipping factor came when Joanna D'Angelo, who runs the Love Romance Novels group, planned to have a romance author chat day on Twitter. If you read or write romance, you'll want to participate in this #askromancewriter chat. Check out my blog for more info. If you're not tweeting already, you should be! And follow me, and I'll follow you.