Putting Myself Out There

I'm continuing to network and meet other authors. Most of the meetings are virtual. I joined a facebook group of authors from my publisher, Astraea Press. It looks like I joined at a great time. Someone came up with the idea of posting short excerpts of our writing on a regular basis, and linking our blogs together so that readers can hop from blog to blog, sampling our writing and perhaps finding an author or two that they like. The idea is that readers will purchase some of our publications. And our blogs will get more readers, too.

The discussion resulted in the creation of "Sweet Saturday Samples". Each week we sign up to join, and each Saturday we post our samples. You, as a reader, can go to the "Headquarters" from which you can choose an author (either a familiar one, or one at random) and read the sample from her blog. When you're finished, leave a comment if you like, close that window, and then you'll be back at the main page from which you can choose another author's work. Last week twenty-four authors participated. I know I got more traffic than usual at my blog, because I had nine readers leave comments!

I'm excited about this new adventure. Since my body of written work isn't large, it's going to keep me on my toes. I'm going to have to share excerpts from things that haven't even been submitted, let alone published. But I'm hoping to get a lot of experience form this. It's going to keep me accountable, and it's definitely going to keep me writing! And that's what it's all about.

Give it a try tomorrow! Go to www.sweetsatsamples.wordpress.com and enjoy a great weekend of reading. All the excerpts are supposed to be G-rated, and should contain a warning if the book itself is not. Have fun! Be sure to leave comments if you enjoy what you read.