Update: The Reinvented Heart

I’m putting together many of my notes from the Building an Online Presence for Writers class as well as the various blog posts I have done about online promotion and notes from the Near + Far book launch campaign in an e-book by the same name that I hope to release at the end of September or October, along with another e-book, Podcasting for Speculative Fiction Writers, written with Folly Blaine.

So far, it looks as though the Building an Online Presence book will be between 50 and 60 thousand words altogether, and include a number of screenshots. It’s aimed at both writers just beginning their careers and wanting to build their online presence as well as mid and later career writers who want to refine their online presence. Right now it’s a little under half-drafted, with about 27k laid out in the Scrivener project (which is GREAT for nonfiction works like this).

One of the things that I think will make it useful to writers is that I try to give you examples for the various concepts I talk about. I include all of the blog posts from the Near + Far book launch as well as screenshots showing the book’s presence on various social networking sites, and in each case provides some notes about SEO strategies, tags, images, All and other promotional considerations that affected the construction of the post. Getting a chance to see the campaign in action will be a valuable chance to see the concepts in action.

Topics that are covered include: building a fan base, the minimum web presence you should have as a writer, what to blog about, how to use social networks such as Facebook, G+, Pinterest, and Twitter to publicize your books, free tools that will help you maximize your online presence, maintaining your privacy, podcasting and videocasting, maintaining multiple identities on the Internet, how to write a press release for your book, how to take mobile devices into consideration when shaping your online presence, and how to measure your success at all of these in a way that will help you shape your Future strategy.

If you’re interested in signing up to be notified when the book comes out, please sign up here.

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In recent news, I’ve got some stuff in recent bundles. The VanderMeer Winter Mix Tape Bundle includes The Bestiary, which holds my piece, Tongues-of-Moon Toad, and The Other Half of Sky, edited by Athena Andreadis, and containing space opera piece “Dagger and Mask.” The Holiday Fantasy Bundle includes my Christmas R-rated story, “He Knows When You’re Awake” in Naughty or Nice, edited by Jennifer Brozek

At the same time the current HumbleBundle holds one of the things that I’m happiest about from this year, Ad Astra: The SFWA 50th Anniversary Cookbook, along with a lot of other great stuff.

I talked about reading the classics in an Another Word piece for Clarkesworld Magazine. What prompted me to write it? Because there’s been a lot of discussion of the classics as though pointing out problems with a piece is the same as crossing it off the list of stuff to be read. I talked about the decision to change the World Fantasy Award bust back in January for Clarkesworld and emphasized that yeah, you can read H.P. Lovecraft and yet not want to accept an award bearing his face, and moreover, your objections could be pretty complicated and nuanced.

Today I’m finishing up the draft of the third in my series on teaching for the SFWA Bulletin. Part one was about prepping to teach and Part two about teaching, while this last part talks about what to do afterward and how to keep doing it if you find you enjoy teaching. Freelancers, the SFWA Bulletin pays ten cents a word and is actively looking for material, as is the SFWA Blog, which pays six cents a word.

Just turned in my edits for “Red in Tooth and Cog,” which appears early next year in a market that’s been a longtime goal of mine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Writing wise, I continue assembling Hearts of Tabat into coherent shape. I’m also finishing up a bespoke story, tentatively titled “She Eats My Heart Entire,” for an anthology and I’ve got a couple of others I want to finish up this month, including a Christmas piece that I should get drafted today and at least a couple for the Patreon campaign.