If you're a Writer or a Reader then I Want to Follow Your Blog!

It's official people, I just realized it. I don't follow enough blogs. It's the holiday season, stress is rampant and guess what I do when stressed?  I read and comment on blogs! I just went through my Dashboard today and yesterday and have run out of blogs to read and comment on. That just won't do. Yes, it would be nice if I cleaned out closets or mopped the floors or went to the gym when stressed out, but that's just not me.  My stress relief is reading and commenting on blog posts.

So help me out writers! If you are somewhere along the writing journey, and I don't follow you, or show up on your blog, then please leave a comment so I can find your blog, visit and follow. Because I've set a goal to find 50 new blogs to follow before Christmas. I'm getting desperate. The stress is building, and while many of you are cutting back on your posting, I'm needing more and more. And not getting it!

So if you want a new follower, leave a comment and I'll be there. Although here's the thing-- I'm not doing blogfests so if your title says blogfest and I haven't showed up, that's why. I can't take the added pressure of a blogfest right now, maybe later. Freewheelin' no pressure blog following, that's what I'm after. And if you already follow my blog & I don't follow back, please leave a comment to that effect, and I'll be sure to do so.

Learn to Market from the Indies

One of the self-published authors I follow and watch is Stephen Tremp. (And don't you like the word "indie" so much better than "self-published"?) Still, when I first started following his blog, before the "indie" phrase started taking hold, Steve proudly proclaimed himself a self-published author. His book, Breakthrough, was printed by iUniverse, but the marketing and  promotion lay squarely with him.

And now with changes in the market, even traditional publishers are putting more and more of the marketing and promotion on the author's shoulders. If you're with a small press, you can count on it--you're the one. If you want to see some real marketing expertise, watch writers like Stephen Tremp.

Here's some things I've learned about Stephen from following his blog the past six months.

He's a truly nice guy. Never mind that sci fi is not my genre, either to write or to read. I will buy his book because he's a nice guy, and I want to give him a chance. I have a daughter and several sons who love sci fi, so that makes it an ideal choice for Christmas. And the cover is awesome.

His blog, while designed to promote Breakthrough, is not just about him and his book. He posts about a variety of subjects, visits and follows other blogs, comments regularly. He's part of the community, not just posting about himself and his writing.

He does all kinds of things to market and works tirelessly on promotion. I have learned from him. I borrowed his sidebar buttons for ordering my novel as an ebook after noticing them on his sidebar. This is the second release of Breakthrough, newly edited, and now available as an ebook. Buy it here on Kindle.

He goes where the readers and book buyers are. He's done signings in bookstores, talks and presentations, and now he is doing more online while getting Breakthrough out there as an ebook. He has links on his sidebar for all the e publishing formats, and also shopping carts for purchasing print versions. Really, go visit his blog and just see everything he does, then copy it. You can't go wrong.


Summary of Breakthrough:

A scientific breakthrough in Einstein-Rosen Bridges, or wormholes, is stolen by a group of misguided M.I.T. graduate students. They scheme to usher in a global science-based oligarchy. Greed, betrayal, murder, mayhem, spiritual contemplation, and unconditional love define the power-play struggle in this fast-paced suspense thriller. As the death toll mounts, will Chase Manhattan and a multi-faceted cast of characters escape their hit list and destroy the discovery which threatens life as we know it? On sale in bookstores late August, 2010.