Promo-Ho.com

Shelfari, Unbound and You

2008-06-24T23:05:00.000-04:00

Image via WikipediaProbably all of you have heard of Shelfari, based on their early spamming of all your friends' address books. Yeah, ok, that was kind of bad, but Shelfari has managed to come into its own, and I think the most exciting feature about Shelfari is its Unbound section. It's basically a huge author wiki (a web page that can be edited by anyone and everyone) where you can find out all about your favorite authors. TechCrunch described it as possibly becoming the IMDB of authors.

So what does this mean for you, the eBook author? Possibly nothing. For now, it looks like anything that's not on Amazon pretty much doesn't get on Shelfari. I tried submitting my own short story titles and cover art to Shelfari but never heard back from them. Perhaps this is something that will change in the future, so keep an eye out.

However, if you do have a Kindle or print version of your book at Amazon, you are likely already in Shelfari's Unbound section.

Your options:

1. Edit your own Unbound page. You'll have to sign up for a Shelfari account, but you never have to use it except to edit your Unbound page, if you don't feel like it. Just add all the info you want to add and you're done!

2. Link your Shelfari profile to your Unbound page. If you like the idea of Shelfari and think you'll be able to connect with your readers based on what you're reading, go ahead and create an actual in-use Shelfari profile and link it to your Unbound page. Look for the small, "Are you the author?" link at the bottom of your Unbound page.

Have fun!

Making Loops Less Loopy

2008-06-19T14:09:00.002-04:00

If you're struggling to figure out when to post your promotion to the various email loops, join KyAnn Waters' Yahoo Group, Promotion Loop Schedule.

According to KyAnn:

I don't use Outlook and my yahoo loops are on an account that I only visit when I'm promoting so I needed a way to keep track of when/where/what to promote. So I started a loop to send me reminders to my personal email. here is the loop addy: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Promotion_Loop_Schedule This loop won't generate any email except yahoo reminders that today you can post on which loops. The loops that you can post on any day are all in one listing that will go out daily. I'm sure there will be kinks in the process, but I needed something to come to my inbox that said drop a promo here.

I thought since I'm doing this for myself I might as well make the calendar available for anyone else who is going crazy with promotions and all the loops and rules.

And feel free to share the link with anyone who could use the info.

Thanks KyAnn!

SEO Guide for the Rest of Us

2008-06-13T13:30:00.000-04:00

Image via WikipediaSEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the webmaster world. Basically, SEO is a process by which you make your website more easily searchable by the big searchy types (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and get a better rank on those search results pages. SEO experts will have you believe that you need said experts to optimize your site for you or you are DOOMED to a crappy page rank and no search engine hits ever, so help them God.

That is not necessarily true. I know I'm going to have angry SEO experts sending me nasty emails for this, but I think Search Engine Optimization is largely a racket. You do not need an entire company to make your site searchable. You just don't.

There are many things you can do on your own to make your site searchable, and, at the same time, make it a better site for your visitors.

So here's Sonja's SEO Guide for the Rest of Us:

Get someone to link to your homepage. A lot of times, that's your publisher. If you have a profile on your publisher's site, make sure it links back to your site. Once you are linked from another site, the search engines can automatically find you. This goes for all your other places on the web too. Have a MySpace page? Make sure you link back to your homepage. A blog? Same thing. A word of caution though: beware of big sites whose main purpose is a "link exchange." If you are linked from a page a search engine has classified as a bad apple, it may actually hurt your page rank.

Put titles on your pages. Look at the top of your browser window right now and you will see a title in the bar at the very top that says Promo-Ho.com or Promo-Ho.com: SEO Guide for the Rest of Us. That is your title and it is very important. If you are using a blog platform, this is likely the blog title you submitted when you set yourself up for the first time. If you are designing a website, your editing program should have a title input space. Never leave that space blank! Be sure your title is concise and appropriate. For example, the title on my author page is Sonja Foust, Romance Author. If you have a particular genre you write in, you might use that instead: Jane Doe, Historical Romance Author, for example. Why are titles so important? This is the first thing people will see when they search for your site as the big, bold, linked piece of text. In addition, search engines look at titles first to judge the contents of your site.

Use as much text as you can. Some web designers love Flash (fancy animations) and graphics and lots of other fancy stuff, and that's fine to an extent, but search engine "crawlers" (the little robots who circulate around the internet and read every website ever created) can't read Flash and graphics. If you can make it work, your navigation menu should be text rather than graphics, or at least have an "alt" tag that matches the text of your graphic. (Your web designer will know what that means.) Use as much text as you can in the content of your pages too, rather than pictures, and when you do have pictures, don't forget to descriptively "alt" tag them.

Have a clear navigation design. This will involve a menu running across the top or along the side of your page, most likely. Every page should be reachable from at least one static (unchanging) text link. Usually, that means the menu on each page should look exactly like the menus on all the other pages. If you have graphics in use for your menu bar, you may choose to do a duplication of your menu bar along the bottom as text, as I've done on my site.

Make your content good. Google says, "Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it" (Webmaster Guidelines). Your bio is a good place to do this. "My name is Jane Doe and I write historical romances with mysterious twists," will do better than, "My name is Jane Doe and I'm a mother of three," when someone searches for a historical mystery, for example.

Use meta tags. If you're not a web designer and you have no idea what meta tags are, don't run screaming yet. They're pretty easy. Meta tags go in the head section of your document. You'll have to look at the HTML code of your site, and then insert appropriate tags as explained at Google Help. Don't fret, though. If this is something you don't feel like tackling, it's not the most important thing in the world, despite what some SEO experts will tell you.

If you can follow some or most of those simple guidelines, you're well on your way to being searchable on the web. Good luck! As always, leave suggestions or other comments in the comments.

Chapbooks

2008-05-06T13:55:00.002-04:00

Maggie Toussaint at Sweeter Romantic Notions has written up an article on her experience making a Chapbook. A chapbook is basically a little booklet with an excerpt in it that you use for promotional purposes.

Check out Maggie's post if you want to create your own chapbook!

Managing Your Life on the Interwebs

2008-03-31T14:42:00.001-04:00

If you're like me, sometimes you get a leeeeetle carried away with promoting yourself, especially when it's so easy to do. I mean, really, it takes 20 seconds to create a profile on the newest social networking site and BAM! that's more promotion for you (and your Emeril for the day).

Do not get me wrong: You will never hear me say "promotion is bad." That will not pass the lips of the Promo Ho. But you still need to be able to manage your promotion without giving up all your writing time. After all, writing a great book is the best form of promotion.

["Yeah yeah," says the peanut gallery. "Everyone always says that, but we came here for promotion ideas and we don't want to hear, 'write the best book you know how, rainbows and sunshine and kisses.'" So ok, moving on.]

In reality, setting up a profile just about everywhere is easy, and probably won't hurt anything, as long as you're not going to be obsessive about being uber (that was your German for the day) involved in every community. Par example (that was your French for the day), I have a MySpace page which I rarely check. I slapped up the profile years ago and updated it when I started my writing career, and I haven't paid much attention to it since. Every week or so, I log in to delete the comment spam from hot chicks trying to get me to take surveys, accept friend requests, and generally do on-site clean-up. I used to cross-post all my blogs to MySpace too, but I'm lazy and not of infinite time allowances, so I don't do that anymore. The point is, it's free marketing, I have a presence on the site, and it takes next to no time to maintain.

The trick is figuring out where your home base is online and directing people to that. Par example (again), my MySpace page has a link to my main page and my blog. My main page is where you find all my writing info, and my blog is where you find everything you ever wanted to know and more about little old me. All my profiles around the web link to my main page and my blog.

And on my blog, I have links to all my social network sites and various other profiles in my right-hand sidebar, thanks to Profilactic.

Lifestreaming is a new trend in social networking. Basically, the goal of lifestreaming is to get all your social network "feeds" (the pieces of info you update regularly, like your blog) in one centralized place. That's next to impossible, but Profilactic does a really decent job and is my lifestreamer of choice. Others out there are FriendFeed and MyBlogLog and there are a bunch of others I haven't tried.

Think of organizing your online life as creating a treasure map. You can leave little pieces of you all over the internet, but your ultimate goal is for people to return to your home base and find the real good stuff.

Good luck! Leave your tips on social networking and lifestreaming in the comments.

Multiple Email Disorder

2008-02-01T17:13:00.000-05:00

If you're anything like me, you have several domain names, each with their own email address. How do you manage all that stuff, and how do you keep your identities separate?

I would suggest getting yourself a Gmail account. In my opinion, Gmail is the easiest way to manage multiple email addresses in one simple, web-based inbox.

Here's a great post on how to get all of your emails consolidated into one Gmail inbox: Using Gmail as Your Universal Email Account

Done that? Good. Now we move on to the pretty stuff.

Unfortunately (because Gmail is awesome in so many other ways), Gmail's default signature option is boring: plain text or plain text, you decide. So if you want your email signatures to have a little flare and you want a different signature for every address, consider installing Greasemonkey.

Greasemonkey is a Firefox add-on, so unless you're using the Firefox web browser (why wouldn't you be?) it won't work. Luckily, Firefox is free. Download Firefox.

Greasemonkey is really easy to install. Just go to the Greasemonkey website and click Install Now. Told ya.

Now that you have Greasemonkey installed, you have to install the Gmail HTML signature script. That sounds all technical, but it's not. Just go to the Gmail HTML Signatures website and click Download/Install. It does everything for you.

Now you're ready to go. Open Gmail, and compose a new message. The dropdown menu at the top will contain all your email addresses, and you'll notice a new link to the right that says Create Signature. Click it and a blank box will pop up. Now put whatever HTML code you want in there and voila! Pretty signatures!

It does require a little bit of HTML knowledge, but only really basic easy stuff. For a quick and dirty primer, check out the HTML Cheat Sheet.

Here are some of mine, just to get your brain jogging.

--
Sonja Foust

[For the signature above, I used some code that I'd set up for my blog using Feedburner. That's a post for another day, but it's a cool site to check out if you're interested in optimizing your blogging.]

--
Sonja Foust

[Feedburner again.]

--
Sonja Foust
Webmaster, HeartofCarolina.org

--
Sonja Foust

Pretty cool, huh? So go wild with your new efficiently done email. Have fun! Email is internet word-of-mouth and it's one of the best marketing tools you have!

Favicons

2008-01-08T12:47:00.000-05:00

The girls at DandelionBlog.com have written a great article on Favicons (those little icons that show up in your browser's address bar) and how to use them.

What is a Favicon?

Favicon is short for favorites icon. It’s an icon that is associated with a particular website. It shows up in the address bar of the viewer’s browser to the left of the URL. See some examples:

Here is the readily recognized “G” Google favicon

Read the rest of the article!

Favicons are really fun, pretty easy, and impress people. There's really no down side here. Go learn how to use them!

Matchy Matchy

2007-11-28T13:02:00.000-05:00

If you've tackled the project of designing your website, and now are ready to integrate your blog, it's not as challenging as it might sound.

If you have a domain name, you can even make your domain names match. In Blogger, there are instructions for getting your custom domain here: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=55373&topic=12451 It includes setup instructions for a lot of common hosts, like GoDaddy. The advantage of doing this is that your blog address is now http://blog.yourname.com instead of http://yourname.blogspot.com.

After that, all you have to do is get your menu links from your website pointing the right places and then format your blog so that your menu bar matches your webpage menu bar. In Blogger you can customize the heck out of your template, so have fun and experiment. Sometimes it takes a few tries, but if you've already designed your website, the hard part is over.

Blog Listings

2007-11-28T12:44:00.000-05:00

So now you've got your blog all set up, and hopefully integrated with your website. But how do you get visitors? There are a lot of variations on strategies, and the one that seems to work best is to be active in the blog community: comment on your favorite blogs often and contribute to your forums.

However, it never hurts to be listed in a blog directory, so here are some you might consider. Please leave comments to submit other blog directories that we can list here! They are listed with Google page ranks to the left.

8 Technorati
7 Blogcatalog
7 Blogdigger
7 BlogPulse
7 Boing Boing
7 EatonWeb (review fee)
7 IceRocket
7 PressRadar
6 2RSS.com
6 Answers.com
6 Best of the Web
6 Blogexplosion
6 Blogflux
6 Bloggapedia
6 Chordata
6 CRAYON
6 FindingBlog
6 Globe of Blogs
6 LS Blogs
6 PLAZOO
6 RateItAll
6 RedTram
6 Tailrank
6 The Truth Laid Bear
5 BlogBiB
5 Bloggeries
5 BlogHop
5 Diarist
5 Feedage
5 FeedBoy
5 feeds4all
5 FeedsFarm
5 Search4RSS
5 Syndic8
4 Authors Blogs
4 Aviva Directory
4 Bigger Blogger
4 Blog Search Engine
4 Blog Universe
4 blogBunch
4 Bloggernity
4 Bloghub
4 British Blog Directory
4 Bulletize
4 FyberSearch
4 Romancing the Blog
4 Spillbean.com
4 Topix
3 Blog Listing
3 Blog Search
3 BlogCode.com
3 Blogging Fusion
3 BlogIntro
3 Blogio
3 BlogListing
3 BlogMap
3 Blogz
3 GeekPhilosopher
3 Postami
3 Read A Blog
3 StrategicBoard
0 All-Blogs.net
0 Content Smatter
0 Kiosken

Lots On Websites

2007-10-14T12:03:00.000-04:00

Erica Ridley has put together a great series of articles on website design for authors.

Read the articles!

T It Up

2007-09-25T13:10:00.000-04:00

Who doesn't love a good t-shirt? They're fun, they're cute, and people look at them... that is if you can actually get anyone to wear them. And the best part? They cost you little to no money to design and sell, as long as you use free services.

Of what services do I speak? Why, print-on-demand t-shirt services of course. Here are the ones I've found:

Cafe Press
Zazzle
Spreadshirt

I'm sure there are others, but these should get you started. You design the image for the shirt, slap it on a product, and stick it up in a free store. (Example: Here's the Promo-Ho.com store.) Easy as pie.

But what do you put on the t-shirts?

Well, there's always your book cover. Your publisher probably has a clause in the contract about not using your cover image to make money, so you won't be allowed to take in profit from the sales of your t-shirt with your cover, but that doesn't mean you can't make the t-shirt. It's a promotional tool if you're not making a profit, and most publishers are a-ok with that. Still, check the fine print in your contract. The problem with book-cover t-shirts? Well, frankly, they're boring. Pretty much only your biggest fans (like, maybe your mom and your critique parter) will wear a shirt with your cover on it in public, and then they might only do it when you're watching. Ha. The other problem is that covers (unless you're in print and distributed to Big & Nice bookstores) won't give people enough information to find your book easily.

So here's my recommendation for must-haves on promotional t-shirts:

1. A catchy slogan that applies widely, not just to your book. For example, if you have a cowboy romance, maybe your shirt says, "Save a horse, ride a cowboy." Haaa. See how that gains you a wider audience? Lots of people think that's funny, not just your mom and your critique partner.

2. Your website address. I'm saying that this is WAY important. Way more important than your name or even your book title because this is where people will go to find out more. Now, of course, it goes without saying that you have to have an easy and memorable web address. www.freesites.biz/~!/authors/novels/romance/ western/chick-lit/secret-baby/asmith.html is not an easy and memorable web address. It should be yourname.com and nothing else. Cough up the dough for the domain name, people. I don't ask you to spend money on anything else, but you have to spend it for that. Ahem. You should also place your website address where it's easy to see, maybe underneath your slogan in slightly smaller print or, better yet, across the back of the shirt in big print.

3. Your name, the title of the book, and the publisher. This is the third and least important piece. Remember, you want people to be able to find your book, but first they have to look at your shirt. If you don't have a website (shame on you), you could put something like your book title and then, "Available at YourPublisher.com" if you have to. If you do have a website, I think the title of the book would suffice, as long as it's easy to find from the very front page of your website.

Other stuff you might consider for use on a t-shirt:

1. Your cover. I know you think I totally dissed using covers on t-shirts already, but I didn't. I just dissed using your cover and nothing else. So in combination with a cute slogan and your website address, you cover could be an awesome addition.

2. Fun graphic artist-y things like pictures and designs. Check sites like iStockPhoto for free/cheap stock images that you can use. Don't steal stuff from random websites though. Chances are it's copyrighted and you'll be in big trouble if you use it on your t-shirt.

3. Inventive colors and styles. A lot of t-shirt places give you way more options than just a plain white t-shirt. Consider going for a baseball jersey or a black long-sleeved t-shirt instead of the standard.

4. Don't limit yourself to t-shirts! A lot of these websites let you slap your design on anything you can think of: bags, hats, magnets, thong underwear (I kid you not). Go wild. Sometimes the best sellers are the ones you did as an afterthought. My Promo-Ho.com license plate frames are really popular. Whoda thunk?

Have fun! T-shirts are a cool way to get your name out there, and they're fun to make besides.

Sonja Foust
Author of LOVE IN SHADOW (The Wild Rose Press)

SRN On Marketing

2007-08-07T13:31:00.000-04:00

Check out Sweeter Romantic Notions today for a blog on getting started marketing yourself as an author. Maggie Toussaint shares what she's learned since she began:

With my almost a year of marketing experience under my belt, my best advice is to take a deep breath. It doesn’t do any good to run in circles screaming and shouting (been there, done that). If your publisher doesn’t have a welcome packet to initiate you into the world of promotion, or even if it does, it’s a good idea to find a mentor. Someone who knows the ropes in your genre can shave hours off your time spent in promotion...

Read the rest of the article!

Smart Bitches Web Design

2007-07-31T12:53:00.001-04:00

Smart Bitch Sarah, of Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books, has written a really helpful article on web design, with some ideas, tips, and examples I hadn't seen before:

If the site is to promote an author, product product product front and center.

Read the article!

Gather.com Contest

2007-07-31T12:25:00.000-04:00

This email came to me, and thought you all might be interested:

Hi Sonja,

Beginning tomorrow, aspiring romance writers can enter their manuscripts in the Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition, in order to win a guaranteed publishing contract with the Pocket Books imprint of Simon & Schuster!

Detailed information is pasted below, or you can go directly to http://romancenovel.gather.com

I hope you will consider giving this contest a mention on your blog.

Thanks,

Liz

GATHER.COM FIRST CHAPTERS ROMANCE WRITING COMPETITION TIMELINE

Submission period: 08/1/07 - 08/22/07

Full romance manuscripts submitted to romancenovel@gatherinc.com.

Round One: 08/27/07 – 09/18/07

Posting of chapter one at romancenovel.gather.com - Gather.com community votes to select 25 semi-finalists

Round Two: 09/24/07 – 10/08/07

Posting of second chapter at romancenovel.gather.com –Gather.com community votes to select five finalists

Round Three: 10/11/07 – 10/30/07

Grand Prize Judging Panel votes to select a Grand Prize winner

Grand Prize Winner announcement: 10/30/07

Members of Grand Prize Judging Panel:

· Lauren McKenna, Editor, Pocket Books

· Maggie Crawford, Editorial Director, Pocket Books

· Tom Gerace, Gather Founder & CEO

· Sue Grimshaw, Romance Buyer, Borders

Submissions may only be made in or from the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, and Submissions originating from any other jurisdiction are not eligible for entry. This Competition is governed exclusively by the laws of Massachusetts and of the United States. You are not authorized to participate in the Competition if you are not located within the 50 United States or the District of Columbia. To be eligible, you must be at least 18 years of age or the age of majority in the jurisdiction of your residence. You are not authorized to participate in the Competition if you are not at least 18 years old or the age of majority in the jurisdiction of your residence as of August 22, 2007.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. The Gather.com First Chapters Romance Writing Competition (the “Competition”) is sponsored by Gather (“Gather”), 85 Devonshire Street, 3rd fl., Boston, MA, 02109.

1. Competition Period: The 2007 Gather.com First Chapters Romance Writing Competition (the “Competition”) manuscript entry period runs from 9:00 AM EST, August 1, 2007 to 11:59 PM EST, August 22, 2007. Sponsor’s computer clock governs time stamp.

2. Eligibility: (a) Unpublished writers are eligible to compete in the Competition. Employees, officers, directors, agents and representatives of Gather (“Sponsor”), American Public Media Group, Minnesota Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio, Simon & Schuster and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, promotion, advertising, design, web design, web hosting, publicity, production and print production agencies and anyone connected with the production, hosting and distribution of this Competition (collectively, “Competition Entities”), their immediate family members (parents, children, siblings, spouse and each of their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) and members of any of their households are not eligible to enter or be awarded a prize.

(b) Entries must be original, previously unpublished (excluding self-published and vanity press), completed book-length manuscripts in the Romance genre from authors who have not previously published a full-length book. Note: for this competition, romance as a genre is defined as follows: “A story, focusing on the relationship between a man and a woman, which captures the joy of falling in love. The setting can be anywhere from the distant past to the present day, or in a paranormal realm. Erotica is not permitted. Erotica as a genre is defined as follows: “Any work of fiction that is sexually explicit in nature. The sexual language is expressed in candid, adult terms, and the graphic love scenes are high in volume per the overall word count.”

All entries must be in English. Submissions must not violate copyright laws; must contain properly cited material, if applicable; and must be previously unpublished (except on Gather.com or as previously noted), original material. You must be 18 or at least the age of majority in your state of residence as of August 22, 2007 and must be a legal resident of the United States or the District of Columbia to be eligible to enter. Entries may not be submitted elsewhere unless and until the entrant has been eliminated from the Competition. By submitting your entry in the Competition, you hereby give Pocket Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) first publication rights to your manuscript until such time as you are eliminated from the Competition. Writers cannot submit more than one entry in the Competition. This Competition is run only on the Internet. Participants in previous First Chapters Writing Competitions are eligible to submit a romance manuscript. By entering this Competition, you agree that if you are selected as the Grand Prize Winner, you will sign Simon & Schuster’s standard publishing agreement within five days of receipt of the agreement.

3. How to Enter: Before 11:59PM (EST) August 22, 2007, you must complete the following in order to enter this Competition:

1) Be a registered member of Gather.com. To register, please visit http://www.gather.com and click on the “Join today – it’s FREE” button. You must create a user profile that contains your full name, your hometown, and a valid e-mail address. You must also join the First Chapters Romance group by going to http://romancenovel.gather.com and clicking “Join This Group.”

2) If any excerpt from your Submission has been previously published on Gather.com, remove it from the site.

3) Click on “Publish” at the top of any page, select “Article” and enter the title of your book in the article title space, in the following format: “Book Title – First Chapter.” You may type your first chapter only directly into the body of the submission page or copy and paste in your entry if you have written it elsewhere. The chapter should be between 2,000 and 5,000 words in length. In the “Tags” field, you must insert the tag “romance” and under "Who can view my article," you must select "Everyone" and the "First Chapters Romance" Group. Note: do not publish your chapter to any other Gather group or you will be disqualified. Click “Publish.” Please note that while your chapter will be “live” on the website, it will not appear in the First Chapters Romance group until the reading and voting period begins on August 27. Any votes cast before 12:00 AM EST will not be considered. Any chapters edited on or after August 27 will be disqualified.

For help posting your chapter, see our publishing FAQs.

4) Email your completed romance manuscript as an MS Word file attachment or equivalent to: romancenovel@gatherinc.com. The length of the completed manuscript must not exceed 100,000 words, and chapters 1 and 2 should each be between 2,000 and 5,000 words. The manuscript must be delivered in complete form, drafted in 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins throughout, paginated and double-spaced and must include numbered chapter breaks. You must also attach the first two (2) chapters, sequentially, in a separate document.The subject of your email should read First Chapters Romance Competition Entry. In the email body you must include:

1. Your full, legal name (first, last)
2. Email address
3. Phone number
4. Manuscript title
5. Manuscript word count
6. Gather.com username
7. A hyperlink to your article URL on the Gather website

We will email all entrants to confirm receipt of their Submissions. If you have entered the Competition and have not received a confirmation notice of your Submission within five business days, please email support@gather.com. Submissions will not be returned.

If you have any trouble registering for the site and the First Chapters Romance group, please email support@gather.com for help.

Note:The 25 semifinalists will be contacted on or before September 24, 2007, and will be required to publish their second chapter to the First Chapters Romance Group on Gather between 11:00 AM and 11:15 AM EST on September 24. If you are unable to post your second chapter at this time, the Sponsor reserves the right to post your second chapter on your behalf.

Note: In the event that less than 200 Submissions meeting the minimum standard criteria of the Competition are timely received by Gather, Simon & Schuster reserves the right to not award the publishing prize.

4. Article Rights: By entering this Competition, you explicitly (i) certify that you meet the eligibility requirements as set forth in these Official Rules; (ii) grant to the Sponsor the right to use and publish excerpts from the original manuscript and biographical information you provide (except street address, telephone number, and email address) during the Competition; iii) represent and warrant that you own or have exclusive rights to the entirety of the entry and have the right to grant to Sponsor temporary rights to post excerpts of submitted entry; (iv) represent and warrant that you have not used licensed material or any material owned by someone other than you [unless you have obtained written permission to do so and have properly credited the source]; and (v) represent and warrant that your entry is original and you have not copied or plagiarized the content or portions of text for your entry from other material. You further agree that you will not submit your entry with any other publisher or in any other Competition until you have been notified by Gather that your entry has been eliminated from the Competition. By entering this Competition you agree that if you are selected as the Grand Prize Winner, you will sign Simon & Schuster’s standard publishing agreement within five days of receipt of the agreement. If for any reason the Grand Prize Winner fails to execute the publishing agreement, the grand prize will be forfeited and may be awarded to the author of the next highest scoring manuscript.

Gather reserves the temporary publication rights to publish excerpts of all entries. Sponsor reserves the right to request that twenty-five (25) semifinalists and five (5) finalists engage in additional Competition-related activities including, but not limited to, author interviews, blog posts, recorded author readings, live chats with members, and video posts.

5. Judging and Winner Selection: The Competition will run in three (3) stages:

ROUND 1:

August 1, 2007:Launch of Competition: 22-day submission period for entrants to submit their original, completed, book-length manuscripts in the romance genre via email to romancenovel@gatherinc.com, and post their first chapter to the First Chapters Romance group.

August 22, 2007, 11:59 PM EST: Submission period ends.

August 27, 2007: 23-day reading and voting period begins. All eligible Submissions will be released into the First Chapters Romance group for reviewing and rating at this time. Ratings and comments made before 12:00 AM EST August 27 will not be considered.

September 18, 2007, 11:59 PM EST: Round One voting period ends.

September 24, 2007: 25 Round One Semifinalists are announced. 15 semifinalists will be determined by the highest number of “10” votes by Gather members, and 10 will be determined by Gather’s Editorial Committee. Note: In the event of a tie in the number of “10” ratings, the entrant with the most comments from unique members on his/her chapter will proceed to the next round.

ROUND 2:

September 24, 2007: Voting period begins on the second chapters submitted by the 25 semifinalists.

October 8, 2007, 11:59 PM EST: Round Two voting period ends.

October 11, 2007: 5 Finalists are announced. 3 finalists will be determined by the highest number of “10” votes by Gather members, and 2 finalists will be determined by Gather’s Editorial Committee.

ROUND 3:

October 10, 2007:The submissions of the 5 finalists will be sent to the Grand Prize Judging Panel for review. The members of the panel include: Maggie Crawford, Editorial Director, Pocket Books, Lauren McKenna, Editor, Pocket Books, Sue Grimshaw, Romance Buyer, Borders Group, Inc. and Tom Gerace, Founder & CEO, Gather.com. The Grand Prize Judging Panel will select one (1) Grand Prize Winner to receive a $5000 cash advance for the publication of his/her Submission by Pocket Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster).

October 30, 2007:Grand Prize Winner announced.

Simon & Schuster reserves the right to review all Submissions from Round Two (i.e. the 25 semifinalists) to determine the Grand Prize Winner.

Notes on Judging: Gather will monitor the Competition for irregular voting patterns and fraud, and will disqualify votes and entrants if, in Sponsor’s sole judgment, they determine that the integrity or fairness of the Competition has been, or could be, compromised. Entrants are eligible to vote in the Competition but are expected to do so fairly and in the spirit of the Competition. Entrants are not allowed to vote on their own Submissions. In addition, Gather will work with an independent party to certify the results of the community voting.

The editorial committee winners throughout the Competition will be selected at the Gather.com editorial committee’s discretion, and will be selected independent of member ratings and number of votes. The editorial committee will judge entries on the criteria listed below.

The Sponsor encourages all members who vote in the Competition to consider the following criteria: 1) Quality of writing (including grammar and spelling); 2) Author’s ability to engage the reader; 3) Originality of the author's voice; 4) Potential of the finished book in the marketplace.

Any author who removes a comment associated with his/her Submission will be disqualified. However, authors may post comments on their chapters if they wish.

6. Quantity, Prize, Approximate Retail Value (ARV):

(1) Grand Prize:

Publishing contract with Pocket Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster). Pocket Books will have the exclusive right to and commits to publication of the winning manuscript, provided that the Grand Prize winning author executes Simon & Schuster’s standard publishing agreement. The acquisition editor from Pocket Books will contact the Grand Prize Winner to handle all contractual agreements associated with the publication of the book once the winner is announced and notified. In order to be published, the Grand Prize Winner must sign Simon & Schuster’s standard publishing agreement within five days of receipt of the agreement. Upon execution of the standard publishing agreement, Simon & Schuster will pay the Grand Prize Winner $5,000. The $5,000 payment is an advance against the royalties to be earned by the Grand Prize winning author under the Simon & Schuster publishing agreement. Pocket Books will determine the royalty rates to be paid under the publishing agreement; such rates will depend on the format in which the book will be published. All taxes are the sole responsibility of the winners; the value of the prize will be treated as ordinary income to prize recipient.

PUBLISHING CONTRACT ARV: — $5,000 advance against royalties

The winning Submission will be published no later than July 31, 2008. The book will be published in Mass Market size.

(4) Runners Up:

(4) $500 cash prize from Gather

All taxes are the sole responsibility of each winner; the value of the prize will be treated as ordinary income to prize recipient.

CASH PRIZE ARV: — $500.

7. General: Competition administration and verification will be supervised by Gather, whose decisions are final. By participating in this Competition, you agree to have your Submission judged as described in these Official Rules and to be bound by these Official Rules, Gather's privacy policy and the decisions of the judges and Sponsor. The submission of entries will be conducted on the Internet at www.gather.com only. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, illegible, misdirected, incomplete or garbled entries; for those who cannot access the Internet or cannot click-through for any period of time; for messages that are garbled; if entry is not captured correctly, or for any technical, hardware, software, telephone, Internet, virus contamination, network, human error, electronic malfunctions, Force Majeure or any other problems; and for delay, failure or malfunction for any reason. Sponsor assumes no liability for damage caused to entrant’s or any other person’s/entity’s computer hardware, software or communications network, regardless of cause. Sponsor reserves the right to terminate/cancel or modify the online entering process or disqualify any entrant if, in Sponsor’s sole judgment, they determine that the integrity or fairness of the Competition has been, or could be, compromised or that the Competition is not capable of running as planned or fairly, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention (hacking), fraud, technical failures, Force Majeure or any other cause. Should this Competition be terminated/cancelled during the Competition Entry Period, judging will take place in the manner detailed above from all entries received up to the point of termination/cancellation. In the case of a dispute regarding the identity of the person submitting an online entry, the entry will be deemed submitted by name on the registration form. By entering this Competition, an entrant explicitly releases, discharges and holds harmless the Competition Entities and their respective parent and affiliate companies’ shareholders, successors and assigns, one and all, from any and all liability, actions, causes of action, damages, actual, incidental or consequential, claims and demands whatsoever in law or equity, including all “costs,” which he/she now has or may acquire, by reason of any personal injury, death, loss of or damage to property, or any reason, occurring during or arising out of his/her participation in the Competition. The Competition Entities and their respective officers, directors, employees, affiliates, parent companies, related entities, partners, partnerships, principals, representatives, agents, licensees, successors and assigns (i) make no warranty, guarantee or representation of any kind concerning the prizes; and (ii) disclaim any implied warranty. The right to receive any prize is non-assignable and non-transferable and no prize substitution, extension, transfer, exchange or cash equivalent will be allowed. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. Winners may be required to complete an IRS W-9 form (if applicable) and sign Affidavits of Eligibility and publicity, and liability release forms prior to being awarded their prizes.

As used herein the term “Competition Entities” shall mean: Sponsor, Simon & Schuster Inc., and Borders Group Inc.

8. If any provision of this Competition shall be deemed to violate any federal, state or municipal law, it shall be amended to conform to such law and all other provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

9. Sponsor and all production and hosting agencies shall not be responsible for technical, pictorial, typographical or editorial errors or omissions in any marketing materials or these Official Rules. This Competition is conducted in American English.

10. By entering this Competition, each entrant agrees that any and all disputes, claims, actions and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Competition or the prize awarded and all issues and questions concerning the validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively in a court of competent jurisdiction sitting in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred and never shall include consequential, incidental or punitive damages, and in no event attorneys’ fees or “costs.” Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above may not apply to you.

11. Dispute Resolution / Choice of Law. Except where prohibited by law, by participating in this Competition, entrant agrees that: All issues and questions concerning the Competition and these Official Rules shall be governed by Massachusetts law without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law of any jurisdiction. Entrant agrees that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to this Competition shall be filed only in the state or federal courts located in Massachusetts and entrant hereby consents and submits to the personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purposes of litigating any such action. Except where prohibited by law, by participating in this Competition, entrant agrees that: (a) any and all disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Competition shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action; and (b) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with participating in this Competition but in no event attorneys’ fees; and (c) under no circumstances will any entrant be permitted to obtain awards for and hereby waives all rights to claim punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages, other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased.

12. Use of Data. Gather will be collecting personal data about participants online, in accordance with Gather’s privacy policy. Please review Gather Inc.’s privacy policy at http://www.gather.com/privacy.jsp. By participating in the Competition, participants hereby agree to Gather's collection and use of their personal information as set out in its Privacy Policy and in these Official Rules and acknowledge that they have read and accepted Gather's Privacy Policy.

13. Entrants acknowledge that Simon & Schuster and its parent, affiliate and subsidiary companies (collectively the “Designated Entities”) have extensive respective histories in creating, acquiring and developing literary, artistic, musical and other material, including stories, ideas, themes, plots, titles, screenplays, manuscripts, formats and other developments and other materials (collectively, the “Materials”). Moreover, the Materials which the Designated Entities may hereafter use may have originated with or may have been acquired from the Designated Entities’ employees or others and may duplicate, parallel or resemble an entrant’s manuscript.

By submitting a manuscript, entrants acknowledge that they understand and agree that the Designated Entities’ use of Material containing features and elements similar to or identical with those contained in their manuscript do not entitle entrant to any compensation. By entering, entrant waives any right of action against the Designated Entities or their successors and assigns in connection with the Designated Entities’ use of the Material (or any part thereof) whether or not the Material contains features or elements similar or identical to those contained in entrant’s Submission.

14. For a Winners list, check the website monthly starting September 24, 2007 at http://romancenovel.gather.com.

15. Sponsor: Gather, 85 Devonshire Street, 3rd floor, Boston, MA 02109.

16. Competition Entities: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020; Borders Group Inc., 100 Phoenix Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, 48108

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The use of certain products and services as prizes does not imply participation in, or approval of, this Competitionby their respective companies.

For More Information, Read Our:
Competition Announcement
Eligibility & Submission Guidelines
Voting Guidelines
Competition Frequently Asked Questions

Contact Member Support at support@gather.com

Liz Bradley

Director of Public Relations

69 Milk Street, Suite 308

Westborough, MA 01581

T 508.366.2099, ext. 119

F 508.366.8099

C 857.891.5531

www.kelandpartners.com

Book Trailers with Power Point

2007-07-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

My friend and fellow author Leigh Barbour has written a great article on how she made her book trailer using Power Point:

Now, when you're satisfied with the way your trailer looks and sounds in PowerPoint slide show, most of the work is done. At this point you need to convert the .ppt format (PowerPoint) to video format.

I use a tool called PowerVideoMaker.... It has a free version that you can use or you can purchase it.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Leigh Barbour
Author of ZEBULON (The Wild Rose Press)

Book Trailers for the Faint of Heart

2007-07-18T11:47:00.001-04:00

I must admit that I've been putting off doing a book trailer. Why? Looking at all those darn instructions makes my head spin. So here are a few samples I've made from web-based software programs (all free, of course, because I'm totally cheap) and my comments on their usability:

One True Media
The website sure is pretty, but the quality of the final product kind of sucks. Check it out:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Slideroll
If you've never used a clip editing program before, there's a bit of a learning curve. The help files are a little cryptic too, but the end product is worth the hassle:

View Photo Slideshow

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

More to come as I play around with slideshow editors...

If you're completely at a loss, don't forget to check out paid book trailer makers. Here's a partial list:

Allie Boniface - $75 for the complete book trailer package, email Allie for details
BooKEy Book Trailers
Preview The Book
Taryn Simpson

And here are some places where you can show your book trailer:

Preview The Book
The Romance Theatre
Watch The Book

As always, please leave suggestions for other book trailer stuff in the comments.

Pro Web Design

2007-07-17T10:38:00.000-04:00

My friend and fellow author Leigh Barbour has written a great article on website design:

Being a web designer and webeditor by trade, I am amazed at how many writers have websites that are so hard to read and navigate.

To read the articles in the series, click here.

Leigh Barbour
Author of ZEBULON (The Wild Rose Press)

Rites of Romance Promo Opportunity

2007-07-09T13:29:00.000-04:00

Here's a free promo opportunity from the Rites of Romance Reviews! See the post here. (If you're not already registered for the Romance Divas forum, you'll have to do that first.) I'm also reposting here, with permission:

Stella and I spent a few hours hashing the final details of this out. Right now, we're in e-zine form, but we're going about it a little differently than most e-zines (well, any that I've ever read).

Rather than being one hundred percent web based, we're going to offer a PDF download, with a print-style layout and all the features of a magazine you can hold in your hand. That's articles, short stories, poetry, most importantly BOOK REVIEWS, ads, and other industry and entertainment related stuff. This is our first step towards print, which we hope to achieve in the next couple of years.

Right now, we're offering free ad space. We have six publisher half-page ads and 15 quarter-page ads. Those are free, as are any reviews requested and printed, and we TRY our damndest to get every book reviewed that comes through my submission line. So far, so good, on that level. The ads are free for this issue. If you need one created, it's $15 or $10, size respective.

Right now, we need articles and we need short fiction. Our articles must relate to SMALL PRESS AND E-PUB only. It's what ROR is all about. If you have an article you think might work for us, PM me here and I'll get back to you with submission info.**check below for guidelines**

As for the short fiction: We're going to run a contest. The only requirements is you must be published by a small press or e-publisher (this is becuase we are showcasing e-authors, and we want this to be sort of a mini-promo for you. If a reader likes your short, chances are they'll look for your books).

We also need authors to interview. Again, e-pub and small press authors specifically. We're aiming for two interviews a month.

Now, in the future, ad rates run like this:

$50 for a full page, color ad ($40 for black and white). Add $15 if we're creating it. Both Stella and I are cover artists/digital artists with references.

$25 for a half page, color ad ($15 for black and white), add $10 if we're creating this.

$15 for a 1/4 page ($10 for b&w), add $10 if we create it.

Submissions for short stories, after this month, will be open. PM me here for info. Guidelines are simple. Stories need to be 5k or less, and rated about a PG-13.

Articles, same length or less, and pertaining to the SP/EB industry.

Any questions, ect, let me know!

ash (ritesofromance @ gmail.com)

Web Resources For Authors

2007-07-09T10:53:00.000-04:00

Author Alexandra Sokoloff has put up a great article on web resources for authors. She includes links for writing communities, professional organizations, email loops, blogs, and links on how to set up your own website and blog.

Read the article!

Promoting At Conferences

2007-07-07T21:31:00.000-04:00

Erica Ridley has put together an article on self-promotion at conferences. With RWA National Conference coming up in a few short days, this is timely and helpful!

Read the article!

Trailers With XP

2007-06-21T11:22:00.001-04:00

Kevin Lucia has written up a detailed article on how to do a book trailer using free software you already have if you're running Windows XP.

He's managed to simplify, even for those of us who don't really "do" multimedia. Check out the article.

More On Online Book Tours

2007-06-14T08:54:00.000-04:00

Author Sandy Lender has some great tips on getting your online book tour set up:

I put together a professional-looking group page on Yahoo where potential hosts of the Online Book Tour could download images, my bio, a short and long synopsis of the book, some FAQs (read: an already-prepared interview), two guest blog articles, a press release announcing what we were doing that they could send to their local newspapers if they wanted to get themselves local publicity (read: pump up their own promotion), and a blog announcement to post on their site to get folks aware that they were having an author stop by.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Sandy Lender
Author of CHOICES MEANT FOR GODS (ArcheBooks Publishing)

6 Free Marketing Techniques

2007-06-10T15:50:00.000-04:00

Author Regina Paul shares 6 free marketing techniques that work. We like free stuff that works. My favorite tip from her article is to offer free reads on your website or your Yahoo group.

To read the article, click here.

Regina Paul
Author of DESTINY'S CHOICES (Amira Press)

Working the Social Net

2007-05-31T18:00:00.001-04:00

Social networking sounds like a hard concept, but I promise, it's not. In fact, you're probably already doing it. Have any profiles anywhere on the web? MySpace? Friendster? LinkedIn? Then you're already networking. Following, I'll provide a list of social networking sites and my general impressions of them. I know this is a little more opinion-driven than I usually get on Promo Ho (and for good reason-- YOU should be making your marketing decisions, not me!), but I feel like I have something of value to add. So take it or leave it, but I'll put it out there just in case.

MySpace - It's a safe bet that most of you have heard of MySpace, probably on the news in the context of some criminal-minded teenager putting his plans for world domination on his MySpace and then getting caught. Admittedly, MySpace seems to attract a younger crowd. On the other hand, it's a big, biiiig crowd, and they're not all teenagers. My friend KyAnn Waters puts it this way: Another way to see MySpace... it doesn't take much more than checking it once a week. Spend thirty minutes a week requesting friends. Think of MySpace as a bulletin board. One of the best things it does is increase your presence in a Google or Yahoo search. It isn't that you'll necessarily be looking for 'real' friends, (although I have made a few, and sold books I wouldn't have) but if your cover, reviews, where your book is sold, where you'll be signing is there, anyone who Googles your name will see your MySpace profile. Easy exposure. I want 10 pages of my name in a Google search so I saturate the net with my name any way I can. Another thing to think about: use as many key words about your writing in your heading and in your content as you can. For example, if you write suspense, when someone does a MySpace search for an author who writers suspense, you want your name to pop up. Suspense, auther, writer, and any other word that helps distinguish you as an author-- these are key words that need to be in your profile. If MySpace is your marketing tool, make sure it is working for you.
Pros: Big pool of people
Cons: Tough learning curve, lots of annoying sparkly pictures
Sonja's MySpace

Facebook - This started off as a network for college students but has now expanded to include anyone. Since it started off as something for college students, there's a large population of 20-something-and-under people there. Not too many older folks yet. The privacy settings on main profile pages are tough, so I recommend creating a Product Page to advertise yourself. That way people can be your fan on Facebook without you having to let them stalk you. Facebook in general is good for reconnecting with classmates and old friends, especially if you are in the 20-something-and-under demographic. (Old classmates make good book buyers.)
Pros: Clean look, fun to use
Cons: You pretty much have to really know your contacts, unless you're willing to put yourself up on a product page.
Sonja's Facebook
Sonja's Facebook Product Page
Promo-Ho.com's Facebook Product Page

Bebo - I'm pretty sure Bebo is trying to position itself as MySpace For Dummies, which, frankly, insults me a little... But it's kind of true. It's MUCH easier to set up than MySpace, but if you're web savvy at all, you'll find the lack of controlability frustrating. It's also a much smaller network. There's a pretty slick author area where you can pimp your book and give your book its very own Bebo page.
Pros: Easy peasy, author-friendly
Cons: Not very customizable

Ning - Reader Charlene pointed out Ning for me. I dutifully tried it out this weekend. Seems like it has a lot of potential. The thing about Ning that makes it different from, say, MySpace is that you can join a lot of specific networks, or even make your own network. This has potential if you're looking for a place for your fan base to gather. This, of course, assumes you have a fan base. Hee.
Pros: Really customizable especially if you want to make your own network
Cons: I imagine you'd have to have a pretty big fan base already to make your own network.

cr8Buzz - This a newish, smaller community that has just opened up for public use after some Beta testing. It encourages user participation by a ranking system wherein you rank people and they are placed within their communities as well as on the site as a whole. Interesting idea, and pretty addictive.
Pros: Easy to use (unless you want a lot of customization), friendly community
Cons: Time-suck! If you're really obsessed about your rank, you'll have to do a lot of visiting to the other folks in your community at cre8Buzz.

Eons - For the over 50 crowd, Eons is a cool place to try. MySpace gets the teens, Eons gets the Boomers. Heck, it almost makes me wish I was over 50 so I could hang out there. Almost.
Pros: Super easy, really pretty interface
Cons: If you're not over 50, you're out of luck.

Yahoo!360 - The most important reason for setting this up is because this is what people see when they click on your Yahoo! profile link and if you are on any Yahoo! Groups, people will click your profile link. That said, I have to point out that Yahoo!360 is still in Beta, which means they haven't quite got all the kinks worked out yet.
Pros: Lots of visibility if you're on Yahoo! Groups already
Cons: Buggy
Sonja's Yahoo!360

LiveJournal - Yep, most of us just think of LiveJournal as a blogging platform, but if a lot of your friends are already on LiveJournal and using LJ to read their blog feeds, this is a big opportunity for you. You can take your blog RSS feed and turn it into a LJ feed so that your LJ friends can read it. I would recommend doing this if someone hasn't done it for you already. (Ask one of your LJ friends for help-- they know all kinds of cool stuff.)
Pros: More than just a blog platform
Cons: Steep learning curve-- Ask a LJ buddy for help
Sonja's LiveJournal
Sonja's LJ Blog Feed

LinkedIn - This is mostly a professional networking site, so if you're working to keep your day job and your author stuff separate, be careful. But why not create a Linked In profile for your pen name? Your writing is a career too. Again, you have to know people to make connections here, but you'd be surprised how many people you know when you think about it.
Pros: Professional networking opportunities
Cons: Life and writing might merge
Sonja's LinkedIn Profile

43Things/43 Places/43 People/All Consuming - I think these sites are so much fun and I spend way too much time noodling around in here. If you're a sucker for cool, fun stuff like me and you're worried about adding more time sinks to your life, back away quickly. But, god, it's fun. A word of caution: If you're putting up reviews or entries on any of these sites, be sure you're only saying stuff that you want associated with your author persona. That goes for all these sites, but it's easier to forget when you have all these opportunities to post snarky little bits here and there.
Pros: Fun fun fun
Cons: Less networky, more just for fun
Sonja's 43 Things 43 Places 43 People All Consuming

Amazon.com - We usually don't think of this as social networking, but if you're posting reviews and adding friends and being active at all, it's a social network. Again, be careful what you post in your reviews and make sure it fits with how you want to present your author face to the world.
Pros: You're probably doing it anyway.
Cons: Easy to say something you shouldn't in a review
Sonja's Amazon Profile

Flickr.com - Yep, another one of those sites that you don't really think of as a social network site, but you can post blogs and add friends, so it technically is a social networking site. I basically use Flickr to store images for my website, but I can see where it might be a good tool if you wanted to give readers some insight into your life. Be sure to set up those privacy settings for the pictures you don't want them to see though!
Pros: Dual-purpose networking and photo sharing
Cons: Depending on how comfortable you are about your pictures being all over the internet, this could be a bad, bad thing.
Sonja's Flickr

Fame Source - This one's still in beta and doesn't have a specific category for authors and books, but I think it could be made to work for you, with one large stipulation: You'll need to have media to upload, which probably means a book trailer.
Pros: Looks like it'll be the go-to spot in a few months
Cons: No specific author marketing, you have to have some kind of media to upload

Gather - Another social networking site, which looks like it's trying to combine social networking, professional networking, and some kind of online dating service. Whatev.
Pros: I'm not sure how this site is different from any other, but if you've already got friends there, it might be good to have a profile.
Cons: The site is buggy. It's very frustrating.

Whew! Ok, I'm tapped out, but being the Promo Ho that I am, tell me about any social networking sites I've missed and I'll dutifully check them out and report back to you!

Sonja Foust
Author of LOVE IN SHADOW (The Wild Rose Press)

Released Into the Wild

2007-05-24T19:33:00.000-04:00

You've written yourself one kick-butt press release, and now it's time to send it out into the world. You, of course, have targeted your local media outlets and any other specialty places you thought of when you were drawing up your plan.
So now what do you do? Here are some free press release distribution hubs on the web. You can post your press releases here in the hopes someone else will pick them up. These are listed with their Google page rank along side.

7 I-Newswire.com
6 ClickPress
6 pressbox.co.uk
6 PR Leap
5 AddPR.com
5 ArriveNet
5 Free Press Release Distribution Service
4 DIME-Co
4 E-Boom News
4 Press Method
3 Book-Bee
3 Realms of Love
0 PR.com
0 PressBase
0 The Publishing Guild

Sonja Foust
Author of LOVE IN SHADOW (The Wild Rose Press)