A Bit of Randomness

I got into several interesting conversations yesterday regarding my post on Twitter. Shelli was good to point out the benefits of TweetDeck, that might make Twitter more useful, to which I say AMEN! Point taken! And yet, I admit this slightly sobbing over my letterless keyboard, my operating system is too old to handle TweetDeck. This could account for my overwhelming overwhelmedness when faced with 2,000 tweets since noon.

After my little rant yesterday about Twitter (by which I actually didn't mean it was useless so much as I just hadn't figured out how to use it to any real benefit other than finding writers and stealing away to their blogs to meet them), I read author Nicole O'Dell's blog where, coincidentally, she posted a tip on finding publishing tips on Twitter.

Agent Chip MacGregor had a great and uplifting post on the future of book publishing, and some really great tips on marketing your book, which is becoming my new full-time job (well, researching it anyway).

Speaking of marketing, I've been contemplating cover blurbs lately. As in, how do I get one? I would be lying if I said I wasn't constantly writing lists of people I might ask to read my book and blurb me. New blog reader Christy Pinheiro, in a recent blog post, pointed me towards this post over at Murderati on how to obtain a blurb from an established author. Great information!

So if all that positivity is just way too much, feel free to wander over to Pimp My Novel's post on literary fiction. Downright depressing. Seriously. Hold on a sec while I go get something strong to drink. In summation: Literary fiction is not selling well. 4,000 books sold is considered a good, solid number. And if you aren't Michael Chabon, you might want to reconsider writing literary fiction.

Crud. I wish a few less agents had told me my book was literary fiction and a few more had agreed that it was commercial fiction.

BUT never to leave the blog on a negative note, I do have some good news.

I spent an incredibly enjoyable hour last week chatting with Dave Cullen, author of Columbine, and tomorrow that interview will appear here, on this very blog. You won't want to miss that. :)