Tag Archives: Facebook

Road to Publication #15: My Goodreads page

Posted on September 3, 2012 | 28 comments

Yay! Another “Me” page. This is starting to sound a little self-centered, but geeze it’s exciting to see yourself “out there” other than on your own web-site, where you are in complete control.

I’m not going to get into all that “tingly” stuff again. But yes, this is incredibly cool.

Here’s the link to my Goodreads Author page.

Yep, that’s me with my own Goodreads author-page. There’s a link right there to “Make Believe”. The Christmas Anthology will be featrued here as soon as Still Moments Publishing releases to cover. Anything else I am lucky to get published will also get listed under my picture and profile.

So cool. Really.

Oh — Shameless self promotion — while you are there you can slip “Make Believe” into your “To read” list — if ya wanna 🙂

Goodreads for Authors (theindieexchange.com)
Goodreads Strengthens Its Status As ‘Facebook For Book Lovers’ (appadvice.com)
Doubled Barelled Shotgun – Goodreads and Art Criticism (thegreatandthegood.wordpress.com)
Reading Is Alive And Well At Social Reading Site Goodreads, Which Just Hit 10M Members (techcrunch.com)
Goodreads Hits 10 Million Members (inc.com)
My Ode To Goodreads: A Love Story (debsanswers.wordpress.com)
Goodreads reaches 10 million users – latimes.com (drweb.typepad.com)
Calling all Cover Artists! (thomasrydder.wordpress.com)
Goodreads’ Otis Chandler reviews growth (sfgate.com)
Goodreads (taholtorf.wordpress.com)

28 Comments

Posted in Road to Publication

Tagged author, Christmas, E-book, Facebook, getting published, Goodreads, Goodreads Author, Last Winter Red, Literature, Make Believe, Make Believe Anthology, publication, Romance, Short story

Don’t Stay Up Too Late: A Public Service Announcement

Posted on May 6, 2012 | 7 comments

Ugh. I feel like poop.

I had this policy that sleep was optional if there was not enough time in the day to do what was necessary to finish this manuscript on time.

Trust me. Sleep is not optional.

I highly recommend that NO ONE stay up until 2:30 in the morning three days in a row.

It’s just not healthy.

I feel like I am walking around in a bubble, like there is a hum all around me. Is there a force field around the house? ERGH I feel weird. My ears are ringing.

Believe me; I could not get a straight thought out right now even if I wanted to. There’s no way I could write another line or read another word of this manuscript.

My Mom always said to get enough sleep. I always tell my kids to get enough sleep. I didn’t follow my own advice, and here I am.

When writing to a deadline, remember to schedule in time for sleep.

Going to bed now.

7 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips

Tagged author, edit, Facebook, Manuscript, Protagonist, publish, Sleep, sleep depravation, tired, United States, writing

How do you feel about your Facebook page?

Posted on May 5, 2012 | 18 comments

I admit, I am behind the times. Facebook is not my friend.

I cannot use my knowledge of HTML to make it do what I want. I can’t make it be what I want it to be.

Yes, I have a Facebook page. No, I don’t really take care of it, and it shows. As a yet to be published author, I have nothing definitive to promote, other than www.jennifermeaton.com, which I think I do reasonably well. (Proof is in the pudding… you’re reading this, aren’t cha?)

I’m just not really sold on Facebook’s value.

Why do I bring this up?

When I recently submitted my manuscript to a publisher, they asked a lot of questions relating to my “marketing value/expertise”. One of them was the link to my Facebook page. Ugh.

It was required, so of course I gave it to them, but this is the one part of my submission that I am not proud of.

Here is my pitiful Facebook page Author page – interactive page

Does anyone have a Facebook page that I can copy they are proud of? I’d love to see it. Mine is sorely lacking.

18 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips, Marketing Madness

Tagged author, Facebook, Facebook features, HTML, Online Communities, social networking, Twitter

Marketing your novel while querying.

Posted on April 28, 2012 | 8 comments

How do you do this? Should you do this?

Everything I’ve read, and every author I’ve spoken to says: “Yes.”

When I pressed the submit button to the Publisher for my novelette LAST WINTER RED, I mulled for a little while about how important Marketing was to them.

Now, don’t let that surprise you. All publishers are interested in authors who are marketable or able to market themselves.

As I’ve said before, my Facebook page stinks. (From my perspective) My website/blog, however, I spend a lot of time on, and I am very proud of it.

I hoped they would see the value of that. But then, as I thought it over, I took it a step further.

I decided to post my LAST WINTER RED query on my website. I gave it its own tab. But that was boring, and I don’t do boring. I need to spruce it up a bit.

As most of you have noticed, I have an arsenal of artwork, and I am more than capable of manipulating graphics and text to bend to my will. (All of this artwork is copyrighted and paid for, by the way. Don’t copy it—that’s stealing)

A short while of scanning brought me to a model that looked just like my MC Emily. Throw an ashen Victorian dress on her and plop her into the snow in the middle of the woods. Perfect. Now, add the red cloak, laying on the snow. Pout, Emily, you’re sad and confused. Walla! Instant marketing piece.

If you look long enough, and if you are willing to pay for it (it’s not too costly) you can almost always find exactly what you need.

Now, I plopped this “advertisement” up really quickly, and spent more work on the art than the text since I used the actual query that I submitted to the publisher. I’m not crazy about the tone of the query for the advertising purposes, but I wanted to get it up quickly, in case the publisher stopped by.

In the next few days, I tightened the query to be a little more readable, and make it look better visually in conjunction with the picture.

A little extra effort shows that not only am I marketable, but I will also be willing to, and have already, marketed my novel.

Please take a look and let me know what you think!

Is this a great idea? An awful idea? Whattya think?

Click the LAST WINTER RED tab in my title bar or click HERE to take a peek.

That Damn Query!: An Examination of the Query Letter (jwhitsel.wordpress.com)
Q & A: My Query Letters Get Rejected (storycirclenetwork.wordpress.com)
ARTICLE: Tips for Writing Good Query Letters VIA Irene Watson @bloggingauthors #mwn (motownwriters.wordpress.com)
The Truth in Fiction (allysonmarrs.wordpress.com)
Tell Them What You’ve Got (thereaderwrites.wordpress.com)

8 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips, Marketing Madness, Senseless Ranting

Tagged artwork, Books, Business, Facebook, fonts, literary agent, marketing, Markets, novel, promotion, publish, Publishing and Printing, Query letter

Facebook Trademarks. Relax, guys.

Posted on March 31, 2012 | 7 comments

I’ve seen a lot of articles about “Big Bad Facebook” lately, and their latest (debatably sneaky) ploy to trademark the word “book”.

I think a lot of the hysteria is caused by people who don’t really know what they are talking about. In my opinion, this is overreaction.

Have you logged in to Facebook lately? Did you get a message that you need to agree to their new Terms and Conditions before proceeding? Hmmm. Did you read them before blindly agreeing? Most of us don’t even look at those agreements before clicking “agree”, and Facebook is relying on that.

But if you did blindly agree, is it a big deal?

Not as much as people are saying. If you are chewing your nails, this is what you agreed to: “You will not use our copyrights or trademarks (including Facebook, the Facebook and F Logos, FB, Face, Poke, Book and Wall), or any confusingly similar marks, except as expressly permitted by our Brand Usage Guidelines or with our prior written permission.” **

What is causing all the hysteria, is that people translated this to mean “I cannot use the words Face, Poke, Book and Wall ever again or I will be sued.”

No, this is not the case. Facebook is just protecting its very powerful name. Personally, I understand that.

Yes, you can use the word “Face”. You do not have to delete it out of your novel. However, you cannot call you social network site “MyBook” or “FacePage”. Either one of these is calling attention that your site is similar to Facebook, and you are drawing on Facebook’s popularity to increase your own.

In another example, I cannot change this site’s name to “JenniferBook”, because I would be making an obvious connection to the social network giant.

So, did you blindly agree? If you did, don’t worry about it. Just don’t infringe on their logo or name… which should be common sense anyway… in the same way as you can’t call a store “Shirts R Us” if you are not affiliated with “Toys R Us” (Kids R US was a Toys R Us affiliated company.)

Relax, guys. Facebook isn’t stealing words out of the dictionary.

Note: I am not a lawyer, and I am not in any way qualified to give legal advice. This article articulates my opinions formulated from my understanding of Trademark Law.

**Note2: I could not find this offensive quote in their terms myself, but enough people are freaking out about it that it must be there somewhere

7 Comments

Posted in Senseless Ranting

Tagged Confusing similarity, Facebook, Facebook features, Logos, Poke, Social network, Trademark, Word

The Significance of Social Networking. Blogging, Facebook, and Twitter

Posted on February 22, 2012 | 32 comments

Circuitmart recently ran an article about research that was just done on Social Networking. It focused on Twitter, and Facebook… not so much blogging, but the principles are similar. If you’d like to see the article, you can click on the link below, but I’ll summarize for you.

http://www.circuitmart.com/mart/49609.shtml (There is a 30 second commercial, followed by the 1 minute video presentation, or you can click “read more” to read the full article instead.)

What I found interesting is that they interviewed someone with 200 Facebook friends, and they asked them how many are really friends. The answer was only 30.

I thought about my own personal Facebook account. I actually know everyone I’ve friended. Yeah, to be honest, many of them are people I went to high school with, who I barely even knew back then, but I DO KNOW THEM.

(By the way, don’t try to “friend” Jennifer M Eaton on Facebook… that’s not me. Nope, I’m not a blonde.) You can find me under Jennifer M Eaton – Author. If you see Castillia’s fire in the profile picture, or an eye with the reflection of fire in it… that one’s me. (Wow, that eye looks creepy when it’s not cropped into a square. EEEK!

Anyway, I was thinking about how this relates to blogging. This is my professional area. Here, I have a lot of followers, but I’ve actually never met most of you.

Is that weird? Well, no… it’s not. That’s what social networking is all about.

Finding people who are seriously into writing is hard for most of us. I’m in a local writer’s group, but the people I’ve learned the most from are the people I interact with everyday on the internet. (I do get a lot out of small group writing workshops, though)

Through my connections on the internet, I find out about contests, seminars, training classes, resources, and I can get great advice anytime I need it, just by posting and asking for help. When I didn’t have my own blog, I jumped onto Nathan Brandsford’s… and that site is always there for me to get additional advice from a broader spectrum of writers.

Social networking has helped me tremendously. My novel wouldn’t be what it is today without it. I have “friends” all over the world to help me out. (The guy doing the art for my WEB Site is in Hungary… and he’s read my novel. How weird awesome is that?)

Used to its full potential, networking is a great tool. I don’t care if I haven’t met you. If you are here, you are my friend. Friends help each other out.

Friends cheer each other on.

Now, stop reading this insanely long post.

Get up off your butt and finish your novel.

The world is waiting to read you!

Are Writers Doomed To Be Isolated And Lonely? (nfaa.wordpress.com)

32 Comments

Posted in Marketing Madness, Senseless Ranting

Tagged cyber friends, Facebook, Friend, Hungary, Internet Marketing, Online Communities, platform building, Social network, Social networking service, Twitter, Website

7 x 7 Link Blog Award

Posted on February 5, 2012 | 23 comments

It’s been a very award winning season for me. No more pouting when I see these lovely tags on other’s blogs. Now I have quite a collection of my own!

I was granted the 7×7 award by the lovely and talented Ms. jmmcdowell. Check out her blog. Archaeologist by day, novel diva by night. Thanks so much for the nod!

The Rules — 7 x 7 Link Award

Thank the person who gave you the award. (Check)
Write a post about it. (Ummm. Doing that now. Check)
Answer 7 questions about yourself. (Erghh. See below)
Link to 7 of your own posts: Most Surprisingly Successful, Most Underrated, Most Popular, Most Beautiful, Most Helpful, Most Controversial and Most Pride-Worthy
Pass the award along to 7 bloggers who you think deserve it

10 Questions:

Favorite color: As girly as it is, I’ve recently become extremely fond of pink. In a house with 4 men, it’s the only way to claim something as mine.

Favorite animal: I have a big floppy poodle sleeping on my foot. She’s cool, but it would probably be a tie with my wonderful koi. (You can see a few of my koi swimming behind Eric in yesterday’s video. The rest are in heated ponds outside) Chloe’s going to be tested for Canine Good Citizen some time this week when the AKC confirms. If there was a test for fish, I’d give it to my koi.

Favorite number: If I told you that… I’d have to kill you.

Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Gatorade Has to be green, and cut 50% with water

Facebook or Twitter? I’m not terribly fond of either, but I am addicted to my email.

My passion: Writing and teaching. I love creating new worlds, or maybe just escaping this one.

Getting or giving presents? I love watching the expression on someone’s face when they open a special present. Christmas videos are classic just for this.

Favorite pattern: Swirly swishes. If you don’t know what this is, look for some dividers in my blog.

Favorite day of the week: Thursday. Only one day left before I can sleep.

Favorite flower: I’m rather fond of daylilies… The big exotic (expensive) ones… not the yellow ones you see everywhere. I’m pretty fond of the water lillies in my pond, too.

Okay… that wasn’t all that hard. This will be though.

7 Posts in the following categories:

Most Surprisingly Successful: Sucking out your creativity…Cancer

Most Underrated: Book Review of Throne

Most Popular: I had to look this up, Funny, my most popular all-time post is the Kreativ Blogger award and Honorable mentions. That one is still drawing people in. Maybe because I listed so many great blogs to check out, people keep coming back. Not sure.

Most Beautiful: Art of Conflict. I don’t know, I just love the way that one looks with all the images.

Most Helpful: Any of the Gold Mine Manuscript Series. Everyone seems to get a lot out of those

Most Controversial: Tee Hee. It’s sitting in my queue. It’s called “The dreaded F-Bomb” Some day, I will publish it. I Promise.

Most Pride-Worthy: Pride is a bad thing. I don’t feel prideful about anything. However, I was happy that I could make a friend feel better in “Don’t take it out on your Beta Reader”

This was actually a really cool exercise. I never went back before to see what my popular posts were. I found it funny to see that many of my first posts only had 1-2 views TOTAL. I may have to re-post some of the better ones. It was neat, though, to see my numbers going up over time.

Okay. There seems to be no criteria at all for this award, so since I have been hanging around my stats anyway, I am going to award this to the top commenters on my blog, and a few new cyber-friends who recently joined in the fun. This is my “Thank you” for making my blog a warm and cozy place to hang out.

Okay, so that’s eight… not seven.
I’m a writer not a mathematician gosh dern it!