Not sure about this Amazon-Goodreads things.

Full disclosure: I don’t do much on Goodreads. I had an account some time back (well, I still have the account, but I don’t use it) and quickly realized that spending tons of time on an Internet forum talking about books and other things that interested me was pretty much my kryptonite. Goodreads is like Reddit. Way too easy to get sucked into. So I logged out and haven’t gone back, not because I don’t like it, but because I am way too easily distracted and this is the best I can get to enforced self-discipline.

With that said, I think it’s a valuable tool for authors and readers, and just a fun place to hang out.

And now Amazon has eaten it.

I happen to love Amazon. Not just because the bulk of my sales come from them, but because they’ve just plain been good to me. I ordered books off them when they first came into being. When they opened their music store, it was the only way I could have gotten my hands on Armageddon: The Score by Trevor Rabin, still one of my favorite soundtracks. It came out in 1998 or 1999; don’t remember which, but Amazon carried it, and I played it so often in my Discman (and later, my car) that I am pretty sure I wore out the CD.

From there, it’s been a steady stream of awesomeness for me, the consumer. Print books, ebooks, CDs, MP3s, movies, the occasional poster and beauty product. And now I can make a little money off them through my books. Hey, I heart Amazon.

With that said, I do see them buying up other companies and yes, it makes me nervous.

I also wonder what this is going to do to Goodreads as the supposed Bastion of Book-Reviewing Neutrality. Amazon’s been dealing with the issue of sock puppets and fake reviews for quite some time; how is this going to spill over into Goodreads? Maybe it won’t, but this is certainly something regular users should be wondering about.

It could be an outstanding opportunity for writers (including indies) to get noticed, but I do feel a little sad that yet another independent company has been bought out by a bigger one. Yeah, yeah, capitalism and all, but it gets tiresome.

Anyway, I’ll be watching the AG union with great interest. Here’s hoping it works out for everyone.

I am not a fan of Facebook.

Never have been. I dumped my personal FB page last July and have never missed it; beyond that, I always had trouble with the FB author page vs. the admin account I used for it vs…look, I’m just not Facebook-savvy, okay?

But…it’s recommended for authors, and I do occasionally get messages from readers through it, which I discovered when I logged in today and found some sitting there.

Say it with me now: Oh, shit.

So I’m going to try to get into it. Try being the key word here. I updated my author photo (which came about because I had way too much fun with the Dead Yourself app) and responded to some messages and liked The Walking Dead, and…that’s all I’ve done so far.

I sent my Dead Yourself pic to a pal before putting it up.

“Really?” she asked. “Really?”

“I think I make a cute zombie,” I said. I also made it my Twitter picture.

Speaking of zombies, reached 2,024 words on GNW3 today. Not too shabby. Finished a gigantic, soul-eating freelance project last night (well, early this morning) so that will free me up for more writing time.

At least, that’s the great hope.

In the meantime, a very happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all! Drink some green beer for me.

I am not a good marketer.

I am very shy by nature, so putting myself (and thus my work) out there is something of an alien concept to me. When I first stuck a toe into the self-publishing pond, I knew marketing was part of the deal, yet I avoided it like the plague. I think I posted on two message boards about Echoes and GNW when they were first released; that was it. I tweeted once or twice. I did blog steadily, at least for a while, but that was pretty much the extent of my marketing. I figured, Hey, it’s a minor miracle that I’ve got anything out there at all. Let’s just leave it at that.

As any self-publishd author (hell, any entrepreneur) will tell you…that’s a bad idea. Very, very bad.

In spite of this, GNW sold really, really well, hitting several Amazon bestsellers’ lists and basically saving my apartment when one of my biggest writing jobs went belly-up. I don’t feel like I could ask for a better performance from what I called “my silly little zombie story,” but I do occasionally wonder if I’m doing my writing a disservice by not working the marketing angle a little bit.

This point was driven home when I followed a series of links and inadvertently ended up learning a lot.

I’ve frequented Holly Lisle’s site since I was in high school (at this point we’re talking 15 years ago), and last week she put up an interview she had with Laura Howard. I followed the link to Laura’s site, listened to the interview, and ended up paging through the rest of Laura’s blog. She had interviewed many other women in publishing, including Ashley Barron, who had an entire series on her blog about getting started with marketing on your blog, using Twitter, and all that good stuff. It’s a freaking gold mine of information.

Why am I not doing this? I wondered. How stupid am I?

Pretty stupid, as Vibeke might say.

Inspired, I tinkered with the site layout a little bit and basically reactivated my Twitter, which I had forgotten about since a handful of posts in November. I’ve started following people again. So far, so good.

I can’t exactly tell you why I’ve bombed so badly in the social media aspect. Writing is largely a business for me. I’m a ghostwriter, freelance reporter, and blogger. I’ve done well in those areas…but I’ve completely ignored my own fiction – the stuff under my pseudonym. I haven’t exactly treated it like a hobby, but I think that’s been my approach to marketing it: “It’s not my main income, so I shouldn’t have to put a ton of thought into it.”

That mindset is the more comfortable one to slip into, but it’s not doing my books any favors. Thing is, they’ve done me favors. GNW — tiny brawler that it was — started paying a good chunk of the bills after I’d done pretty much everything short of self-sabotage to stop it. Maybe it’s time to see what my books can do when I work with them, not against them.

I am never going to be a mega-awesome promoter. It’s not in my blood. But I can blog, and I can tweet, and I can meet very cool people through both routes.

I’ll certainly document my findings here. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. Fingers crossed!