Building a Network

Today I'd like to welcome M. Pax to my blog. She has been a long time blogging buddy whose courage and irrepressibility over the years has been both an inspiration and a joy. Take it away, Mary!

To build a network in any social media, the main key is to get involved. Participate, be generous, and talk to people. I’ve met several mentors on the blogs and Twitter, who have been instrumental in helping me launch my publishing career. I also met an editor I love from the blogs … finally.

The support and encouragement we give and get from each other online is invaluable. It’s fantastic and I really treasure it.

However, we should also develop face-to-face, live and in-person networks. Join local writers groups. Find an activity or volunteer opportunity to become entrenched in your community.

Where I live grows writers like weeds. My dinky town (less than 100,000 people) has a writers association, called Central Oregon Writers Guild. We’ve had as high as 90 members. Average is about 70. And not all writers in my area are members. Through this association, I found my critique group. We meet every three weeks at the local Barnes & Noble.

I became involved early, volunteering to be the blog director. End of April, I was the star presenter for our monthly meeting. I taught about the author’s platform and building a blog. At least 40 people showed up. The event and my name with the titles I’ve published were in the local papers, and more than one person told me they drove a long distance just to see me.

I’d also recommend the RWA (Romance Writers of America). I don’t write romance, but they’re a great group of people. Among the most supportive I’ve found. That’s how I met another group of local writers. We get together once a month for lunch and hang out for hours talking about writing, publishing and what we’re working on. Three of them are contracted and make a living at this writing gig. So, it’s a valuable network and as close as I can get to coworkers.

In the summers, I volunteer at a local observatory. (We’re fortunate to have two in the area). The one I work at is part of the University of Oregon. We get thousands of visitors every summer. I meet professors, physicists, local people, tourists, and people who come back once a year because they enjoy what we do so much. We do put on a pretty good show. I always have business cards in my back pocket just in case. This year I’ll have books in the trunk of my car.

Find a way to get involved in your community and meet people. Get visible. You never know who they’ll end up introducing you to. Same principles apply as on the blogs: be supportive, be enthusiastic, be positive, be warm, and be generous.

How do you network?

The Backworlds After the war with Earth, bioengineered humans scatter across the Backworlds. Competition is fierce and pickings are scant. Scant enough that Craze’s father decides to hoard his fortune by destroying his son. Cut off from family and friends, with little money, and even less knowledge of the worlds beyond his own, Craze heads into an uncertain future. Boarding the transport to Elstwhere, he vows to make his father regret this day.

Available as an ebook from: Available from: Amazon / AmazonUK / Smashwords / Feedbooks

Free on Smashwords & Feedbooks. Will be free on Amazon in a few weeks.

Sign up for M. Pax’s newsletter to be notified the moment The Backworlds goes FREE on Amazon, and when it becomes available from other retailers.

About the author:
M. Pax’s inspiration comes from the wilds of Oregon, especially the high desert where she shares her home with two cats and a husband unit. Creative sparks also come from Pine Mountain Observatory where she spend her summers working as a star guide. She writes mostly science fiction and fantasy, but confesses to an obsession with Jane Austen. She blogs at her website, www.mpaxauthor.com and at Wistful Nebuae. You’ll find links there to connect on Twitter, Goodread, FB and other sites.

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Random Act of Kindness BLITZ!

I'm back from my brief, yet fabulous cruise. I had a brilliant trip and feel wonderfully refreshed. I'll share some of the photos in a future post. In the meantime, let's celebrate the support and kindness so prevalent in the writing community:

To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a titanic Random Act of Kindness BLITZ.

I found it difficult to pick just one person for this Random Act of Kindness (RAOK). There are so many of you who have given so much back to the community, so many who have encouraged me in ways you probably don't realise.

After much deliberation, I picked Charmaine Clancy, a fellow Aussie author. She recently decided to go the indie route with her debut middle grade novel, My Zombie Dog. It's a brilliant read. Thoroughly enjoyable.

I met Charmaine at a Sydney Writers' Festival workshop last year, but before that I got to know her through her blog, Wagging Tales. Please stop in at Charmaine's blog and tell her how awesome she is. For example, she's always been a support and I admire her enthusiasm for her writing and her never-die attitude. She is generous with her time, an inspiration and a remarkable person. Because of this, Charmaine, for my RAOK gift, I'm offering to critique a first chapter.

Come join the celebration! Randomly acknowledge someone special. Send an email, give a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round.

Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.

Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act of Kindness?

#RAOKBlitz

Note: I will post tomorrow with my belated announcement and yummy chocolate cake.
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Third Writers’ Platform Building Campaign

Rachael Harrie has put together another fantastic campaign: Third Writers’ Platform Building Campaign. It’s a great way to make real connections with like-minded people. I took part in one earlier in the year and I met so many more new bloggers, struggling writers, published authors.

The campaign runs from August 22nd until October 31st. The list closes on August 31st, so you have a week to sign up.

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The Write Advice is a fantastic new Facebook community page organised by Laura Barnes. It is designed to bring together a collection of bloggers who offer great writing advice.
“I hope for this to be an excellent source for beginning writers, or beginning writer researchers, a sort-of one-stop-shop.”
It’s worth checking out.

What online initiatives or sites have given you support as a writer?Are you signing up to the campaign?

WriteOnCon

Just a quick note to say I will be spending most of my time at WriteOnCon, a free online writers' conference. It's a huge event, not to be missed. I will be back here on Friday.
Amendment: Make that Monday.

4 Ways to Gain More Comments

We all want hits on our blog. We want people to read our words, we want to know we are doing something right and we want to feel like we are part of this great community. There are three ways we know someone has visited our site: a simple hit counter, the site stats, and comments.

Comments, of course, are the most obvious sign not only to ourselves, but to everyone else who visits. I especially love the long, thoughtful comments, the ones that make it clear someone read a post in full and thought about what I said. They don’t have to agree with me. I also love the amusing comments, insightful comments, even the brief, hi-I-was-here-and-appreciate-your-posts comments. Commenting encourages the writer – and writers need a lot of encouragement.

Lurkers are less obvious. They don’t throw themselves as much into the community, but they still appreciate our words. Writers are good with leaving comments because we love to write, however not everyone is a writer. As our blog grows we start to pick up a broader readership and so we will gain more lurkers. I love my lurkers. I wish there was a way of getting to know my lurkers a little better. The only thing I can do is encourage comments.

Ways to encourage comments:
1. Leave discussion questions at the end of each post.
2. Respond to the comments -- and always respond in encouraging ways even when the commenter doesn’t agree with you.
3. Be active, be seen and be helpful.
4. Leave comments on other blogs.

What kind of comments do you like? What kind of comments don’t you like? What is it that encourages you to comment?

Congrats: A huge congratulations to Amie Kaufman for signing with Tracey Adams of Adams Literary.

Writers Unite

Writing in isolation is something we have to do – because it’s hard work; because of the focus needed; because it’s part of the craft. However, we must return to the world of the living again—

To be inspired

To be encouraged

To be refuelled

To help others

To learn from others

To live fulfilled lives.

Where do we gain our best support, our best source of fulfilment? Who best understands our creative minds? Who gives us the support we need?

Our families

Our friends

Other writers

Although our family and friends are precious, they may not always understand the writer in us, so this post is in honour of the much needed, sometimes neglected, pylons of strength: the writing community.

Writers Unite. Don’t underestimate the value of writing friends, critique partners, writing groups, writerly shoulders to cry on, creative cheer squads.

Here’s to YOU.

Thank you.

What do you love most about the writing community?

Note: This post is part of the A-Z Challenge. To learn more about the challenge click the image on my sidebar.