Diving in with my Heels On.

I'm in love with this book!

So I bought this book called Writer's Market 2015. ( Robert Lee Brewer, Editor) Brilliant stuff. If you are a writer, you should get one. I bought it because I need to know the best ways to market myself, and how to write an effective query letter. Not to mention, this book is stuffed full of the names and addresses of editors, agents and publishers and what they are looking for. Actually, that was the main reason I bought it, but I got MORE.

I'm at the part where it tells you how to build a Platform. 

Platform? I know what a platform is. You can dive off a platform. Platform shoes make you taller. Right? Not exactly apparently. I've just learned how to dive into a platform to make myself bigger, that's for sure. Am I the only writer who didn't know about this? It's not hard to do...in theory... but I think it will be hard to build. I hate being in-your-face and trying to push a sale.

Essentially, I've learned that one must use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to gain followers. Other things you can do to build a platform include mailing lists, newsletters, and street teams. Hoo-boy.

Turns out I had the right idea, but like the book says, "Think big. Then think bigger." It's not enough to have eight hundred followers on the author page, or seven hundred followers on Twitter. I need THOUSANDS. Tens of thousands. Yeah, I have 90 followers of this blog after 4 years.

So here's the plan: First I'd like to thank the bloggers and fans who've been tweeting their reviews like confetti for me. I've been retweeting them. Thanks for making it easy to make myself look good.

Jennifer R@pearlofagirl30
The Avid Reader@Magicofbooks
Lana&Mel@MelandLanaWrite
Roxanne Kade@RoxyKade
Melissa Simmons@GHBTours
Girls *Heart* Books@2grlsheartbooks
MythicalBooks@MythicalBooks

Thanks ladies <3 I deeply appreciate it. Thanks to Norm R. Peterson too. I saw all those retweets :) I'd like to thank all my Facebook bloggers too. There's a long list of you to thank too.

Image Courtesy of: jscreationzs@FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I've been a bit of a Twitter snob, going about things all wrong. I didn't see the point of following people who didn't seem to have much in common with me. NOW I get it. It's about Networking. It's about building a platform and staying in touch. It's about supporting others as well as yourself. It's my own fault if I find Twitter boring, because I haven't connected.

So you know I'm here...Where are you? Where's your blog? How do I reach you? Share, share, share. If you'd like me to follow, let me know in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you.