Happiness -- What does it Mean to You?

It's time for WGT to come out of hibernation! A couple of brain waves kept me awake last night and I'm all excited about two new projects. Here's the first:

I want to explore what makes you guys happy, dear readers from different countries. All you talented scribes from all over the world, give us your views on HAPPINESS! (apart from book sales...:) But I can't do it without you!

How do you define HAPPINESS? Can you decide to be HAPPY?

You surely heard of the World Happiness Report conducted annually by CNN? According to that statistic, in 2017, the happiest countries were:
Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Iceland. 

Do you think your country comes into the equation? Let's hear YOU speak, not statistics.

Fellow-writers, bloggers, philosophers, psychologists...and fellow human beings who are going through this school of life, tell us about your impressions and beliefs on happiness. Tell us what makes you happy.

Why does this topic mesmerize me?  When we first moved to Ireland, Irish people asked us whether we were happy in our new home, the old farmhouse. For a German of my generation, it was absolutely unheard of to ask strangers whether they were happy. It felt intrusive, inconsiderate, prying to say the least. And for me, this question came at a time when I had just been "emigrated" to a country against my will and I found it hard to adjust.

Ever since then, I've been checking back in with my happiness barometer where I am on the scale of 1-10.

Is happiness too personal a matter/question for you too or will people know when you are you bubbling over with joy and happiness?

Let us know!  

The Guilt Factor: Motivation by Fear and the Means to Empathy

For me, the need to write has always had a face.

Whose face that is and what expression it wears varies. Typically, it's been the face of a writing professor that's haunted me during those long middle-of-the-night writing sessions. It doesn't matter how fair or kind the professor is; for some reason (maybe it's the dark and caffeine jitters), my imagination paints them with a steady frown, causing my stomach to knot over every word with the thought that they might be unamused by my metaphors. Other times, the face has been warmer -- that of a close friend, perhaps -- but with eyes sad and disappointed as they strain to find some value in my work. More recently, the face has been the loved one abroad, patient and smiling; it invokes a twinge of pain in me as I remember my promise to write novels in his absence, while his cheerful voice says, "It's okay, don't feel too bad about it."

There has always been a sense of guilt associated with my work, and that guilt has always felt personal because I've associated it with important people in my life. It's not that uncommon of a trait among overachievers, I suppose. How often have we psychoanalyzed the artist driven by a neurotic need to please an ever-dissatisfied parent or mentor, even years after the latter's demise? Whether it is for God or husband or mommy dearest, history is full of creators desperately striving to impress someone.

Why? Isn't love of the art enough?  

For my part, guilt in its worst moments has caused the writing process to be miserable. Mainly because those disappointed faces in my mind are entirely fictitious, not at all founded upon reality. I'm naturally self-critical to begin with, and for some reason or another I often project that criticism onto others. Even if any of the people whose faces I see tell me my work is fine, a small corner of my subconscious doesn't believe them, doesn't want to believe they're being honest in their praise. There's a fine line between constructive encouragement and being too nice, and I'll be damned if I can tell the difference.

But whether those frowns are fabricated or not, my fear of disappointing others says something interesting about the writing process, I think. I would like to believe that love of writing could be its own motivator, but for me it isn't so. Even as one who thrives on solitude, I find myself needing others in my writing -- for validation, for support. Call it insecurity (and I'm sure it is, partly), but I suspect that it has more to do with empathy. While "writing for the self" is a popular trend these days, and valid in its own right, I think it fails to see what makes great literature great: its ability to evoke something in another person, to touch something deep in his roots and make him see a commonality between himself and a stranger on a page. Writing gives the guise of speaking as an individual, when in reality it speaks of humanity.

While I have no grand illusions about inspiring millions, I can't bring myself to pull the "misunderstood writer" card and write without any regard to what others think. It goes against what has impacted me as a reader, and consequently what I can only hope to achieve as a writer: if what I write doesn't inspire, if it doesn't resonate with someone, I have failed.

But I know I don't have to please everyone, nor do I want to. In his part-memoir, part-advice book On Writing, Stephen King explains that "you can't let the whole world into your story," but you can -- and should -- let in those who matter most. According to King, every good writer must have an Ideal Reader (I.R., for short); someone for whom you write, someone who, in flesh or in spirit, is always "going to be in your writing room." As King points out, sometimes a writer's Ideal Reader (like the neurotic patient's mommy dearest) is miles away or many years dead. It doesn't matter. An I.R. gives the writer a tangible audience, a direction for the writing process; someone who the writer wants to make think, laugh, cry, and feel deeply. "And you know what?" King adds. "You'll find yourself bending the story [for them] even before the Ideal Reader glimpses so much as the first sentence."[sic!]
It takes a certain empathy to write with another person in mind, and to know that person well enough (at least, to think one does) to impact them. And that's marvelous, because empathy -- seeing and valuing each other's common humanity -- is what writing's all about, isn't it?

As for myself, I've found that guilt is not such a terrible thing to live with after all. That fear of disappointing my reader is what forces me to analyze my own work critically; it makes me take a second, third, and fourth look at everything, asking myself, "Is there anything else I can do to improve this part?" Having someone else in mind, moreover, often gives me a reason to write on my darkest days. As a naturally self-deprecating self-critic, I find it easy to conclude on a bad day that I'm not worth the time or effort to write. But, because I'm a compassion-driven person, someone else is always worth the work.

So, in spite of its bad rap, I don't mind living with guilt. If a visitation from a frowning face is what produces the work, so be it. Maybe, someday, I'll finally make that face smile. 

Emma Moser 

Website: antiquedwriter.blogspot.com

Twitter @em_mo_write ♦

Facebook.com/antiquedwriter

Little Pink Notebook: Habits Inspired by Mary Olive

"For at least thirty years, and at almost all times, I have carried a notebook with me, in my back pocket. It has always been the same kind of notebook -- small, three inches by five inches, and hand-sewn. By no means do I write poems in these notebooks. And yet over the years, the notebooks have been laced with phrases that eventually appear in poems. So, they are the pages upon which I begin."

                                        ~ Mary Oliver, "Pen and Paper and a Breath of Air"


As an antiquarian at heart, there are few writers in the contemporary world with whom I can relate. A notable exception -- one who I've come to appreciate as a great heroine of the literary world -- is Mary Oliver. Though she is best known as a poet, I confess that I have actually not yet been acquainted with her poetry. But her nonfiction is brilliant. If I could make my writing look like any author's in the world, it would be hers. Last summer, I encountered a little book of essays by her in a small bookstore. (Actually, it was a whole shelf, and with a skimpy wallet I had to struggle to settle for one selection.) The collection I bought was called Blue Pastures, and within days I had devoured all its words and wisdom. Oliver is an absolute sage in presenting the writer's day-to-day existence. Her essays in Blue Pastures are very much about the process and journey of being a writer. What I loved most about them was their eloquent manner of portraying the writer's life as something intimate, something contemplative. We see her at her desk frowning at interruptions, or outside wandering the wilderness, or as a young girl absorbing Whitman -- and always as a reflective, almost prayerful kind of scholar. It as though her whole daily universe was writing: the observation, the inspiration, the creation of it. In this sense, she has shown the habitualness of writing, how much it must saturate the writer's every moment. One essay in particular stood out to me: "Pen and Paper and a Breath of Air," which provides excerpts of a small pocket notebook she keeps for moments of inspiration. For about a year now, I've kept a similar notebook -- mine pink and tattered from being stuffed haphazardly in purses and backpacks of all capacities. Whenever a phrase haunts me, or a certain sight I pass strikes me, I whip it out to jot down whatever words I can to record the idea. (This usually occurs while driving; I can't tell you how many times I've had to pull over to write even two words down.) In reading "Pen and Paper," I was glad to see this tradition validated by another, established writer. But more importantly, it struck me how much Oliver and I share -- if I dare presume so much -- in regards to the dailiness of our writing. There is no moment, to my knowledge, when the writing process stops for me; it is always happening. True, the times I physically sit down to write are relatively sparse. My perfectionist nature is such that the actual practice of putting words into a word document is one to which I must devote an entire day -- hence, it is not a frequent ritual. But for me, writing is more than simply that one step of physical production. It's a habit, an addiction, a constant mode of mind. I see sunlight -- I appreciate. I read a book -- I contemplate. I hear a phrase in my mind -- I am inspired. These are the necessary steps in writing, which take about 80% of the entire procedure. What is finally written, what finally goes on paper (or, on the computer) is something I've
accumulated throughout the day. The process never stops. To be an artist -- and I truly mean be, in terms of identity and existence -- one's artmaking must never end. It must be the lens through which one sees and feels everything, even if only on the subconscious level. It ought to permeate every aspect of our life. It is very much like being in love: even when we are not physically embracing our beloved, love never clocks out, it is always there. Oliver's habits as a notebook-carrying writer – her constancy in artmaking, her series of endless daily rituals – comprise a way of life I have yet to perfect. Yet it’s one I am striving for always. Or rather, better to say that my environment is demanding it always.

To quote another recent favorite female author, Virginia Woolf -- that frustrating but magnificently deep writer of the unconscious -- "Passing, glimpsing, everything seems accidentally but miraculously sprinkled with beauty" ("Street Haunting"). Everything I encounter calls for attention. Every image on the street is a detail -- who's to say how vital a detail -- in a story I don't know. Every stranger or even friend I pass by, as I catch snippets of their conversation or notice an expression on their face, is carrying a life-story, one that I will probably never know to the full -- yet, "into each of these lives one could penetrate a little way." These observations are fragments, fragments of stories everywhere. Pieces that the writer gathers and ties together to make something whole out of it all. At the end of the day, every fragment of my life is a piece of the story I am longing to write.


Emma Moser
Meet her on Facebook

and Twitter

Ready to Publish-- Which Steps to Take?

It's the most exciting time for a writer when she/he gets ready to publish a book. Given that most of us  belong to the self-pub'd variety, the fun and glory besides the work is loaded on our own shoulders.
How many years do we spend on writing it on average? How many years do we go through numerous if not countless revisions? Whether you are a fast writer and keep writing to get the story out of your mind onto paper (computer) or whether you belong to the meticulous type, like me, who corrects every sentence as soon as you see it written down: n'importe quoi! It always seems to take forever until we can launch our baby into the big old world.Ask a big, traditional author how long it took him! Also years, sometimes. Unless you are so well established that their publisher makes them write a book a year.
And a launch is not merely a publication date anymore. While having the book revised and formatted so that it is ready for print, some of us play around with title covers, asking fellow writers and beta readers which cover image they prefer, which font, which sub-title etc. After all, we want to get it just right. At least for our own critical eye if not ideally for all the potential readers. So hours are spent scouting through the allegedly free websites that advertise free pictures ...and always get their hands in your purse and charge. Find a talented cover designer who puts your ideas into print. And I must say, I'm very happy with mine, Tayyaba Bano. Not just creative but also reliable and affordable!
With a little tweaking here and there you soon make it to the launch pad and announce the title cover reveal with much aplomb, send press releases out and maybe organize a launch party; a virtual fest on Facebook. Lucky you if you have a publisher of your choice. For first timers calculate in some days of comparing self-publishing houses to each other. I have my experience with 2 of the big names and could now decide quickly which one to go for. The publisher of my choice at least gives you the illusion that he can get you into bookstore by nature of being on the Ingram distribution list. But buyer beware-- it doesn't often happen, definitely not automatically. So another difficult choice has to be made: Do I spend the extra $60 for my high hopes of making it this time for my paperback version?
First title around I learned how to buy a cheap ISBN and how to register it. Formatting an e-Book is child's play.Well, Amazon converts your manuscript almost automatically. Uploading is simple and it will go live within 24 hours. The learning curve for me this time round is figuring out how to offer the option of pre-publication orders. I wish...!
Still waiting for endorsements and reviews here which should go on the back cover or inside. I guess that could be added later.
Since there is practically no holiday between now that St. Patrick's Day is over and Bloomsday (16 June), I could really go public any day. (Bank holidays don't count!) Who knows about Mr. Blooms Day anyway? Nobody I know ever really read Ulysses. And what has that got to do with an organic Irish farm and its farming life anyway?
So without further ado I now give you my latest baby.

I ONCE HAD A FARM IN IRELAND: LIVING THE ORGANIC LIFESTYLE

If you'd like to review it, contact me and I'll send you a free copy!
Siggy Buckley, the Ex Farmer's Wife
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I just noticed I forgot to mention the media kit.I'd be grateful if some other authors could enlighten us on that!

Must Do Marketing: Phase Two

There are three primary reasons you must market your writing. Promotions are free, offers name recognition, and helps to sell your books. After the basics of having a blurb, email, web page, and business cards, comes Phase Two of marketing your work.

1.  Start a portfolio. This can simply be a binder with page protectors. Whenever your name or your book appears in print, date it and the source and put it in the binder. You can display this binder at your writer events and presentations.

2.  Take photos. Always have a camera with you to capture you in action. Photos of you with other authors is also a good idea. Take the photo showing the signage of the event or your table display. You want to remember that book fair, book launch, or the meet-and-greet at a writers' conference. How about when someone wins that gift basket you donated?

3.  Write book reviews.  Ask other writers to trade books and both of you agree to read and do a book review on line. If someone mentions they have read and enjoyed your book, ask them if  they would write a review. There are also online author sites where you can request a review and repost reviews.

4.  Make presentations. Offer to speak at libraries, school career day, church groups, book clubs, senior centers, or community organizations.  This is especially worthwhile if your book fits into a season, social need, or community concern or event.

5.  Teach a class.  This can be done informally at a life-long learning organization or a parks/recreation community program. If you have the educational credentials and experience, you can teach a college course or create a short seminar or discussion group.

6.  Offer to speak at local book clubs. You can generate interest in your book by talking about your experiences writing or publishing your work. You can compare your work to similar books. You can discuss what makes your book the same or different from other writing styles.

7.  Make book baskets. Give these as prizes and gifts for all occasions. Put your book, business card, and related items in a basket and keep it on hand for birthdays, house warmings, teacher gifts, hospital visits, charitable events, and so on.

8.  Display your books at out-of-town events. Many conferences and book fairs offer a Display Book Only option for a small fee. This is a great way to reach bigger markets and gain exposure beyond your family, friends, and local community. Some will return your book if you enclose a SASE.

9.  Write a media release. Send this out each time you launch a new book, speak at a library or conference, participate in a book fair, or win a prize. If you win an award, or have a promotional opportunity, unrelated to your writing, be sure to include the fact that you are an author and mention the title of your book(s).

10..Participate in book fairs. These tend to be more intimate learning and selling opportunities. You may begin to meet some of the same writers and form friendships. This can lead to an exchange of editing and critiques of each other's work. Typically authors sell books and related items to attendees and give out and exchange business cards for future contact.

 ~ ~ ~

~ Valerie Allen ~

VAllenWriter@cs.com                                          ValerieAllenWriter.com

Facebook.com/Valerie.Allen.520

Amazon.com/Author/ValerieAllen

Psychologist, author, and speaker writes, fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and children's books. She is a popular presenter at writer conferences and the author of, “Write, Publish, Sell! 2^nd Editon.”

 Beyond the Inkblots: Confusion to Harmony

Write Publish Sell!

Summer School for Smarties

Bad Hair, Good Hat, New Friends

Amazing Grace

Sins of the Father

Suffer the Little Children

'Tis Herself: Short Story Collection, Vol 1

We're alive...let's get kicking!

Created on Thanksgiving 3 years ago, this blog has been in hibernation for the past year.  My writer friend Anu Lal encouraged me to resume posting. He will join me as an editor and contribute to this site.
We need  Y O U, writers, authors, aspiring authors, bloggers, poets and readers to let this site thrive again. Even if you only dabble in writing, give it a shot. We take submissions about almost every topic under the sun with the exception of porn and religion.

And in the spirit of true Thanksgiving, this is my first post:
"My way of giving thanks this year: Free copies of my short story "There is No Going Back" from: Nov 25th (my birthday till Black Friday!) http://amzn.to/1Fl9Ezc. Thanks for a life I am allowed to live in freedom and without wars in contrast to my ancestors' generations and many millions of people around the world who spend these days as refugees. Happy Thanksgiving!"

Like many of you, I feel privileged to be able and allowed to express my thoughts without prosecution, to let me hopes and dreams run wild and free, to enjoy the right of freedom of expression, to exchange views with like-minded individuals around the globe. Yes, this has been a truly International site and it would be wonderful if we could keep that going. I'll provide the statistics on that shortly.

Send us your submissions: about 500-800 words; include a pic of you or your book; include a link to your books and blogs. Help us make this blog multi-facetted, multi-cultural, exciting, inspiring, informative- fun! And leave comments!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Marketing Tips

We thought we would share some great tips with you on how a writer can market their work for little or no cost. All of the following tips are from “Guerrilla Marketing for Writers”
1) Content: Publishers waste millions of dollars a year buying and promoting books that fail.
No amount of money or marketing can overcome a book that doesn’t deliver. So your first challenge is to write a book that is the best it can be. The content of your books will determine how you sell them to publishers and promote them to book buyers. Content precedes commerce.
2) Commitment: You must make a commitment to your marketing program.
Talent isn’t enough. You need motivation—and persistence, too. —LEON URIS
Once you decide on the best promotion plan for your books, make the commitment to stick with it.
The only time you can safely stop promoting your books is when you’re ready to stop writing them. Before then, commit yourself to the Rule of Five: do five things every day to market your books. Think of it this way: A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job.
3) Investment: You must think of marketing as an investment in your future.
Most best-selling authors don’t strike gold with their first book. Their sales grow with a succession of books until they write the breakout book that catapults them onto the best-seller list, where they stay for the rest of their careers.
Until your promotional efforts pay off and you become a successful author, consider the money you spend on promotion as an investment that will pay for itself many times over.
4) Consistent: Your marketing must be consistent.
You must make your promotion consistent so that, over time, the media and your readers become more receptive to you and your books. One of the weapons in chapter 18 is the marketing calendar that you will create and tweak as needed every year. But once you’re convinced about the most effective way to promote your books, don’t change your approach. Make your promotion, like your books, consistently first rate. Also be consistent about the frequency with which you write your books and when they are published. One book a year is the usual pace.
5) Confident: You must make potential readers confident in you.
Consistency creates familiarity, familiarity builds confidence, and confidence is the most important factor in determining what makes consumers buy. It’s more important than quality, selection, price, and service.
6) Patient: You must be patient with your marketing.
If you’re doing all you can for your books, take two more steps: • Follow up on your efforts. • Have patience with your promotion plan, the sales of your books, and the development of your career.
7) Assortment: You must use an assortment of weapons to ensure the success of your marketing.
Small businesses shouldn’t try to use all the weapons in their arsenals at once, but should unleash them over time with a well-thought-out plan. Unfortunately, this is a luxury writers don’t have. Unless publishers make a commitment to a book, they test-market it with the first printing. To sustain your publisher’s belief in your book’s future, you have to create maximum promotional firepower for it during the crucial four- to six-week launch window when it’s published.
Firing as many weapons as you can integrate effectively into your plan is the best way to accomplish this. If your book doesn’t gain momentum fast enough, your publisher will give up on it and go on to other books. Make it your goal to use at least sixty weapons. The wider the assortment of weapons you use, the wider the grin on your face will be when your royalty check arrives. However, if you can’t use a weapon effectively, don’t use it at all.
A Web site alone will not make your books successful, nor will a media kit. Regard every weapon as 1 percent of your promotion plan. The best way to guarantee the success of your books is to use as many weapons as you can. The more weapons you unleash on publication and the more completely you integrate them, the more powerful each of them becomes. Unity and variety are two of the keys to victory in the publishing wars. The bigger your arsenal, the greater your victories.
A bookseller who was chosen to receive the Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year Award was using seventy-four guerrilla marketing weapons (and he was still trying to figure out how to use the other twenty-six!).
Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 No-Cost, Low-Cost Weapons for Selling Your Work – http://www.bookdaily.com/book/1034711
~~We hope this helps you as an author to get your work out there to the waiting reader! K.R. and I are working diligently, daily, to put into practice all the things we read about and learn. The above are some great encouragements that have helped to keep us motivated to move forward. Another great resource, is MasterKoda on Facebook. This author/editor/illustrator/marketing group is full of people who know the real meaning of putting others first. Join us, you won’t be sorry you did.

Tamy Burns

A Shiver of Recognition

Isn’t that what all creative writers want … to have crafted a passage so powerful and compelling that the reader physically trembles at the emotional memory or the sudden insight triggered by the words on the page. 

The first time I heard that phrase was last week in a workshop run by one of my fellow trekkers in Nepal. A full-time teacher of creative writing, Yasmina has taken on the daunting task of getting each member of the trekking group to share his or her experience in written form. Many in the group have little experience with creative writing and struggle with how to even start to record their thoughts and feelings.

Yasmina walked us through a series of exercises that were thought-provoking even for an experienced writer. But when she threw out that phrase— “a shiver of recognition”—as the goal of our scribbling, it seemed a moment of synchronicity. 

I was meant to be there.

I was meant to be there because my “job” for the foreseeable future is to complete the final draft of my novel, A FITTING PLACE.  I’ve had great encouragement from beta readers, who connect with my characters and love the plot. But as Yasmina’s phrase echoed in my brain, I knew what is still missing from my story.  My two primary characters are interesting because they are more than a bit out of the ordinary. But if I cannot write their out-of-the-ordinary story in a way that causes my readers to have that shiver of recognition, I should stop now.

I will not stop.  I will write it so that my readers tremble.  The question is how do I do that.

And what about those of you who are writers?  Do you struggle with that “how”?

Mary Gottschalk

http://marycgottschalk.com

www.Sailingdownthemoonbeam.com

http://twitter.com/marycgottschalk

Thoughts

Thoughts

Siggy asked me to write a short topic for her blog. I looked back through what I had and didn’t see anything that really struck my chimes. Basically it was like a timeline of our journey to becoming a writer. It showed our beginning by posting some bits of stories we had written to what we were trying to do to help get our name out there. It seemed the further I tried to talk about us the less people noticed. I tried to follow a writer who made the newspapers and a million in her first year of indie publishing. In other words, I was trying to be someone I was not. I am not Amanda Hocking. Trying to follow in her footsteps is fruitless. I can use some of her ideas but I have to make my own way, just as every other writer has had to do. We can learn from others and improve ourselves but in the end, we have to make our own way to becoming published authors.

We have found that we are good at customer service type jobs. Helping other people helps us. We found a place where that is personified tenfold in a woman named Kim Mutch Emerson. She created a group on MasterKoda where others are drawn in and love to help each other as well as make themselves known. Each and every person there has helped others without asking for anything in return as well as been helped from time to time.

Mellisa Neal is another person like Kim who created Buggie 4 books. She helps too is a kind and giving person who loves to help others even though she has her own troubles that could weigh anyone down to a level where they would only think of themselves. But they don’t they think of others and help others.

“Why do we do it?” I have been asked by those outside of the internet. Why would you help others if there isn’t any money in it for you? Why did I interview all those new and indie authors without asking for anything in return? These are some questions I have been asked. One gentleman was truly perplexed as to why we did it. I just thought to myself. I don’t know if he would understand how I feel when I help others. I like it! It helps them get the word out about their book and their name as well as help get our blog out there too! It was a definite win/win situation. MasterKoda also has the same ideas and the same beliefs. Help each other and not ask for anything in return.

Does that mean we work at jobs for free? No. None of us have a direct pipeline to fort Knox. We work; we look for work while we help others. All of us know how it is to be broke and need help or want to achieve a dream. That is why we help each other. We have a desire to help others succeed as well as ourselves.

I am adding this to the blog as another chapter to keep looking forward and learning more each and every day. Things change, times change and so must we. Learn to adapt or be left behind as some have said. At MasterKoda and groups like it, we help each other learn and keep up with new technology and our own writings.

To sum it all up, why we help each other is because we want to see indie authors become better than what has been portrayed. We want to help each other and show that we are not as cut throat as our time has shown time and time again. There is still good in humanity, there are still good people willing to help others without asking for anything in return. We are not lost as the news has us portrayed. So hang in there everyone! We will make it!

 

Sincerely,

Wendy Siefken
Charles Siefken

Twitter: @wendyandcharles
http://siefkenpublications.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Kais-Journey-World-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B0067RJZS8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329688112&sr=8-1

 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kais-journey-charles-siefken/1107727489?ean=2940013524996&itm=2&usri=kai%27s+journey

WHY JOIN GOOGLE +

Google Plus, G+,Google Plus One, Google +, however you want to call it, began as an invitation only social media site and is now open to all. Yes, this means anyone and everyone with a valid email and internet connection can join the site that's grown faster than Facebook and Twitter combined in their first 3 months of business with 20 million sign-ups in just the first month alone (existing social media infrastructure helped of course).

From the Google Plus team; Yes, finally the Google+ Invitations are now out and you can request your invitation immediately. Create Your Free Account.

You might be thinking, Really? Do I need to add yet another social  media thing to my whole routine? The answer is yes, or you really should consider it because if you're serious about building an internet
presence, it's quite possible Google Plus will end up being the one that gives you the most internet visibility over time. The reason is because they're owned by the king of everything online: Google. And even though
Facebook is the current king for social media, Google does so much morethan just social media including being the world's largest search engine by a truly gross margin.

From just a few weeks of regular use on Google Plus, my experience is that this service is my overall favorite social media venue, better than Facebook and Twitter for networking with readers, writers and publishing
people in general (or whatever your field is). Like LinkedIn, it feels more professional while Facebook feels more suited for friends and family. Unlike LinkedIn, Google Plus is much more dynamic, streaming with real time updates-chats-video hangouts and more. Another nice feature is creating individual circles for family, friends, colleagues, the softball gang, whatever you want and streaming (or viewing) those announcements from just the people in that group. Facebook has recently upgraded their own service to copy many of G+'s innovations, but now it means going through lists of hundreds of FB friends and separating them into categories, which is something I don't feel like doing at this point.

I wrote a previous blog post with a bit more detail here but mostly I wanted to remind people who might be feeling reluctant about getting involved with yet another social media site to just do it. This one is really important if you want to continue building an online presence over time.

Other things that are smart to do after joining G+ are to fill out your profile with a good deal of information and some photos of you. Add all of your websites and blog links that point to you
and your books. Also, for bloggers, learn to add the ?rel=author suffix tag just after your G+ user ID and place that on every website or blog that you have listed on your G+ profile page. This way Google will
recognize your profile really belongs to the webmaster of that site. In time it could help you get "verified" as a celebrity or branded person in the eyes of the site, which will help immensely with your following. There's no guarantee they will "verify" you, but it's an easy thing to do in hopes they will.

For any writers, readers and publishing people who might be interesting in connecting with me, please do and I'll add you to my circles. Just click on my photo or this link here – https://profiles.google.com/117850331447734054313?rel=author

(Notice how I used the ?rel=author tag for my G+ link; that's how it should look following your own user ID.) And if you think this is a nifty badge, you can make one easily for your own sites at http://turhan.me/+me/.

You can contact Jason at : jason@thelittleuniverse.com