Here is something I've learned about myself. When I am doing marketing (viral or otherwise) for someone other than myself, I have no problem bringing the topic into conversation and gushing about it. The example of the day: I am less comfortable promoting a class that I teach than a class I enjoyed taking. In the latter case, I'm recommending ( Read more... )

I hate to do a link soup after not having posted in awhile, but I just had an article about Halloween costumes go up today at Flames Rising that I wanted to share! You'll see a couple of my favorite costumes posted there (in all my do-it-yourself splendor). I'll add another one here, from two years ago:


( Read more... )

So, the WGA has organized something brilliant for the fans to do. Some of you may have heard about how fans sent nuts to producers to keep Jericho on television. The folks at United Hollywood developed a similar plan: send pencils to the producers in support of the strike. Joss wrote about it here, and you can get your pencils from United Hollywood ( Read more... )

When I was in middle school, I happened upon the wonderful children's novel Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl, and the related teen novel, The Far Side of Evil. She's written a few more books for teens, but by the time I was working in publishing and had the opportunity to work with her, she'd largely stopped writing new books. Instead, ( Read more... )

shanna_s recently posted about a new contest over on her blog--something she's calling a blog campaign. Here are the basics ( Read more... )

Not long ago, an author on fangs_fur_fey posted asking how people felt about fan fiction. blackholly posted about the contest she'd just sponsored on her live journal with a prompt that asked her readers to create a little bit of fan fiction.

Barry Lyga, author of The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl is also encouraging fan fic with a contest. Fanboy ( Read more... )

I won't print this one in full, as I assume it's a few years old by now. This is an editorial by Sue Corbett, a children's writer and reviewer, on how to do your own book tour to promote your book. She has some fun ideas, but one about marketing struck me particularly ( Read more... )

Speaking of somewhat obscure references, one of the bands I really like, Common Shiner, just put up a video asking area residents what Common Shiner meant to them. The answers range from pretty dumbfounded to another name for black eyes. (Alas, no one actually knew it was a kind of fish used for bait ( Read more... )