"The change will do you good"

 

Whenever I picked up the Irish Times at my local news agent’s, the owner would smirk, handing me some pennies back. “Here’s your change…The change will do you good!”
How about you? Are you afraid of change or do you welcome it?
Change affects all parts of life: political change, climate change, job changes; fashion & lifestyle are all subject to change; women know this because they go “through the change.” Some changes we humans have no control over—only our attitude towards it.
Some people hate change because of the uncertainty involved. Some find it easier to deal with the devil they know. The opposite isn’t desirable to me: being stuck in a rut, a predictable outcome, no change for the better? No thanks!
However this is not meant to be a philosophical treatise.  You may have noticed some changes to this website. Due to a two-month sabbatical that is taking me on another home swapping trip to Europe to see my family and hopefully finish my book, Scott Bury will mind the shop. He is a very experienced editor, published author and return contributor who kindly agreed to keep this website afloat in my absence. Now you can follow us on @WritersGT. Submissions will go to his email address for the time being. There have been some changes in layout.
What will not change is our mission statement to publish excellent content by bloggers and writers from around the world while providing a platform to highlight your work. The goal of WGT has been to offer exposure to readers through a growing network of dedicated authors who promote each other’s work. The more…the merrier: So tweet and network away to your heart’s content!
We all love comments! Don't hesitate to give us some feedback. Everybody needs encouragement!
Thanks to everybody contributing here and making this site a success. Wishing you a productive and safe summer,  I’m only an email away on the other side of the pond. Cheers!
Siggy Buckley 

Is Marketing Work, Play, or Both?

Dave Heumann gave me a solid compliment on Google+, pertaining to what I post and how it effects marketing. It was something I had scratched the surface of, but had not verbalized as well as he did.Dave wrote: “I think you strike a good balance between posts that are more conversational/social and ones that are geared more towards getting your ideas and writing out there.”
I've seen this—I don't want to say “often”—but enough to make it stick in my mind. Writers, photographers, musicians, artists. Some of them have a tendency to use social networks entirely socially, talking about their lives, their day, their family; or to use social networks entirely for their work, only  for self promotion.      
This post is a warning to anyone who falls exclusively into one or the other category.
Are you a social poster?
Are you a work poster?
It's a trick question. The right answer is “I am both!”
There's an advantage to each. Both have their own purpose. Both are forms of marketing, but each in very different ways.
A social poster has the advantage of getting to know people. A social poster can make friends by sharing interesting posts pertaining to their lives, or life in general. By commenting on other peoples' posts, social posters can further the bond created through interaction.
A work poster has the advantage of getting his work out there, letting people know he's A) a writer and B) has a book for sale. A work poster makes his work visible. “I'm here, come and get me!” Readers can only buy what they know is there, and a work poster puts the work in their hands via links.
A work poster, who isn't already famous, yet relies only on word of mouth and name recognition to carry him, and so ignores social interaction, isn't going very far. He links to his novel and says “read this”. He's got a great engine, but no gas in the tank, and the spark plugs are in backwards.
There's nothing personal or interactive about plugging your latest book or blog, and so there's no reason for anyone to click your links. Many potential readers will ignore a passive work poster, hiding them from their feeds.
Then there's the writer who interacts socially all day long, but never mentions their book or blog. Their friends would likely buy their book, or read their blog, if only they knew about it.
People are busy, it's not enough to tell someone once about your book or blog and be done with it. Marketing through a social network requires a bit of both social interaction and link dropping.
Interaction is vital to internet marketing. If you're not already famous and have your own inertia, and don't have gobs of money to pay someone else to market your work for you, there's really only one thing you can do. You've got to meet people.
You can sell a book more easily to someone who recognizes your name than to someone who has never heard of you before. Call it building name recognition, call it buliding brand, it all boils down to the same thing.
Marketing this way is slow exposure. It's a recognition of peoples' lives. We're all busy, even if what we're doing isn't important in the grand scheme of things, so understand that people may not see your post every day, or they may see it but not have the time to click on it, or not be ready to buy it—yet.
Keep it coming. Just like you need a long exposure to capture the stars at night, you need a long exposure to capture a reader's attention. It takes consistency, but not force.
We writers have to marry the two approaches. We have to show interest in something other than ourselves, and still give others an opportunity to be interested in us.
So....
Only posting socially, your writing gets buried and goes unheard of and unnoticed.
But....
Only posting work, no one relates to what you're doing. No one cares.
Do 'em both. 
Author J.R. NOva

Facebook