You thought I forgot about you...

I didn't. I have spent the last three days working on my interview for Writer's Manual. I know, sounds crazy, but here's what I did and am doing to get this thing done right.

1. I wrote three distinct responses to the questions: sincere, funny, and glib.
2. I had Holly read them and tell me which responses she liked.
3. I compiled the responses that she liked for a final review.

You can read the compiled responses she liked here. I went one step further and tried to make one finished interview for her to approve as well. I think it helps to narrow down what works and what doesn't. The suggested final responses are here.

I am finding out very quickly that to be funny, you have to bounce it off someone first, to see if what you think is funny as you write is actually funny when someone reads it. This is very helpful: when I go to write a funny story, it will be very important to bounce it off people.

META tags for Foolishness, Wallow and Displaced...

A site called SubmitExpress will submit your listing to a bunch of the big search engines for free. The site also features a META tag generator which reminded me that I hadn't included META tags in any of my pages, meaning that search engines are going to have a hard time finding my books, which means the general public is going to have a hard time finding my books. We wouldn't want that now would we? I have already included the META tags in the index pages for both Foolishness and Wallow. I have yet to do it for Displaced.

I need to remember to make the META tags for Displaced.

Both books to be listed on Published.com

My listings for both books are pending. I will of course let you know when I know. It should take about a week. So far I am pretty impressed with Published.com, they seem to be a more established WordThunder...

If you look a little more closely at each of these sites, they were all started by self-publishers just looking to sell books online. Now, I don't think I'll go so far as to build a whole site where other people can list their books, but maybe that's what it takes. Seems to be a formula that more than one person is trying out.

Tough decision...

Okay. Speaking of selling out. Right now, my web sites are free from all the muck that some websites get bogged down in. But in order to be a part of Publsihed.com, they ask that I put a link back to their website on my web pages. I'm just not sure I want to do that... We'll see. If I get tons of response from them, yeah, then surely I'll list them. But if not, I don't know.

Here's the code, anyway:

For light backgrounds:


For dark backgrounds:

How to Find More Directories...

Remember how I found BooksXYZ in the first place? I went to the site of Angela Henry, an author whose interview I found on the Writer's Manual site. Well, I've done it again. This time I found the Published.com site from reading the interview with Lorie Ham. I am currently registering with them and will list both of my books there.

WALLOW now listed on BooksXYZ...

I just went back there to make sure that my listing made it. It did. They didn't bother to send me an email or anything. I also just completed the listing for DISPLACED. If you want to see the WALLOW listing go here and search for the title or for the keyword "Prague". To see the DISPLACED listing, go to the same place and search on the title or "divorce".

Here's the thing about BooksXYZ - they will list your book, but they only make money if you sign up for their affinity program. So you get a more prominent listing with the affinity thing. I could do that and just bump the price up a little bit... No, not yet. Not selling out just yet. Even though calling an afinity prgram "selling out" is a little harsh...

Have I lost my mind?

I don't have enough time to work on my own crap, and I suddenly decided to list myself on WordThunder as a Web Site Designer for publishers and authors. You can see my ad here.

I have been thinking about getting back into the freelance web design game, and now, I guess I've done it. We'll just have to see how it goes. If I get some interest, then sure, I'll have to think about doing it.

DISPLACED is now on WordThunder...

You can see it here. Once again, I took the liberty of reviewing it in Holly's name. You can see the review here.

You know, I never linked the reviews of Wallow on Word Thunder to this page. Well, now I did: here is it.

DISPLACED entered into AllReaders.com

I had Jack do the review thing for this book. Now on to the next follow up...

eBooks is only free for a month...

Let me be very clear here: There are a million ways to market on the web, some of them are free, some of them are not. I will choose the free ones over the pay-for ones 9 times out of ten because usually if you have to pay for it, it ain't worth it. Whereas, sure, I mean not all of the free ones work, BUT SOME OF THEM DO.

That said, I think I found a good opportunity here to advertize to 350,000 people who read eZines. Check it out here. Now it's going to cost me 21USD, so I better get something out of it. How about this? If I haven't at least reached one person in the next 2 weeks (that would be August 4, 2003) I will take a chance and spend the money.

If nothing else it gives me the impetus to get out there and try to get a response from at least one person.

Today, I am trying to follow up on all the stuff I said I was going to follow up on in here.