Tag: attitude

Curating Your Life Reel

I listened to a podcast recently in which the author reflected on applying social media algorithms to her life.

Her basic point was this – When you click/react/comment/share clothing ads or true crime or dog rescue or particular politics or people, Facebook (and the other social media feeds) fills your feed with more of the same.

So, the more you click on one topic/opinion/person, the more you are bombarded with more of the same, and the less you see of opposing viewpoints or other topics or particular ‘friends’.

Which explains how when a person spends a lot of time on social media, our world can become skewed. We might begin to see the world through a different lens—the lens being curated by a bot that feeds back to you more of the same. Just like a Pandora playlist.

Continue reading “Curating Your Life Reel”

Hometown prophets

They say a prophet is never welcome in his hometown.

Okay, I’m not Jesus.

But the book festival I attended last month was in my hometown. That’s the main reason I went.

That, and the fact that I’m a fan of the woman who organized the York Book Expo. For all the times that Demi has lifted up me and my writing, I couldn’t not go the Book Expo.

As an author, promotion is unavoidable. But there is a cost not only to your pocketbook, but to your time and family and happiness. I’m still figuring out which events are a good investment, which are necessary evils, and which waste my resources and time. I do think it’s important to evaluate your promotional efforts and learn from them. Hence, these posts I’m foisting upon you, hoping you’re learning from my experiences.

This was the third time I’ve attended The York Book Expo, which is well-organized and professionally run. The past two years it has felt very worth my while. It’s been fun to talk to other writers, put faces to names from Facebook, and I’ve even sold enough books to ‘make my table’ even if I didn’t make any real profit.

This year was different, though. Continue reading “Hometown prophets”

Book Festivalling

Book festivals are not everyone’s thing. I get that.

Okay, maybe I don’t. What’s not to like? Books? Authors? Festivalling?

This month, I traveled to three different festivals. The first festival I attended was in Williamsburg, Virginia. I traveled there with a dear friend, beta reader, book & wine lover named Gina. I had no expectations for this festival, I told Gina. In doing my research, I’d talked to three authors who attended in years past. One was enthusiastic about the experience, saying it was well organized and the crowd was lovely. She sold many books.

The second author I contacted said it was awful. She was stuck in a side room and no one could find her table. The people who did were just looking for free stuff. Hmmm. Continue reading “Book Festivalling”

The Difference Two Weeks Makes…

“When you woke up this morning were you still a big shot author with a new puppy?”

That was the text I got from my husband who was out of the country on business this week.

And it does feel like a ‘pinch-me’ kind of week. My memoir, Another Good Dog, sold to Pegasus Books for publication summer 2018, and after fostering 95 puppies and dogs, I’ve finally decided to ‘foster fail’ and adopt a puppy from our current litter.

Rewind two weeks. Continue reading “The Difference Two Weeks Makes…”