This is my first rafflecopter giveaway, so it's kind of experimental. Since the prize is a single book, I'm not giving extra tickets for retweeting or blogging the raffle. Just visit rafflecopter, add Absorption to the wish list on your Amazon profile, then drop by and say a quick hello here. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beginning of a long road

Although publishing my book is the end of a long road, it is also just the beginning. Now I have to market it, and the book above is the best, most specific, and most up to date book for selling e-books for the Kindle on Amazon's site. I'll bet most of the people reading this have better instincts for it than me, because I'm a ferocious introvert, but I love my book as if it were my baby and I have no other children. Right now it seems to be outgrowing it's baby clothing, so I'm getting a new cover. That's the first thing 8 Hours advised me to look at.

The End of the Road!

It's been a long journey, but my book is now live on Amazon! I want to thank everyone who has given me great reviews already, and hope that more of you will join them. If you review books for the Kindle on Amazon, please ask me for a review copy!

A Writer's 2011: Some Highlights

Happy New Year, writers and would-be writers! As you prepare to get a fresh batch of literary masterpieces on paper for the new year, these are some of writer/editor/book reviewer Erin O'Riordan's articles from the year past to provide inspiration.

January: My Favorite Weird Fiction of 2010

February: Attracting More Reviews For Your Books

March: Great Books For Women's History Month

April: Review of The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

May: Review: The Strangest Book I've Ever Read

June: The Art of the Anagram

November: Two Articles for Aspiring Writers

Two New Articles For Aspiring Writers

My guest blogger at Pagan Spirits today is Harry Bingham, the UK writer behind the website The Writers' Workshop. Harry's guest post addresses:

-Obsessive editing
-Writing a good book
-The query letter, synopsis and manuscript presentation
-Professional feedback

You can read Harry's post here.

Earlier this week, I featured a post titled "So You Want to Be a Writer We've All Heard Of," focusing on post-publication marketing. This time, my guest blogger was Jane Wenham-Jones. Jane gives advice on crafting the perfect author biography.

Hope to see you there - and keep working on those masterpieces!

The Kindle Author blog presents promotion tips for self-published authors

The kindle-author.blogspot.com blog put forth a set of promotion suggestions for self-published authors in November 2010. These tips, which come from ten different self-published authors in various genres, are worth repeating again this year.

Although there is no "magic bullet" tip that will make your book sell thousands of copies overnight, every book campaign can benefit from strategic promotion and careful social networking.

The list can be found at http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-10-tips-for-promoting-your-book.html

Another good source of marketing tips for newly published authors is Social Media Examiner. Aimed at small businesses of any type, the site allows patrons to sign up for a free e-mail newsletter, which comes Monday-Saturday.

Social Media Examiner's tips address everything from the best ways to set up a LinkedIn profile to monetized Facebook applications. The site occasionally offers free e-books with additional promotion tips, too.

In September, Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Expert (another free e-mail newsletter) published a post called "Twenty Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Website and Blog." It appeared in the Huffington Post.

Not too sure about things like Google Page Rank? Don't worry. Penny puts things in terms even non-technically oriented writers can understand.

Good luck, and happy promoting!

Flood Zone!

It turns out I live in a flood zone. My wife and I went to visit my mother.