Monday, April 14, 2014

New book!

Hi all!

It's been awhile but I wanted to update you on my WIP. The prequel to my Vampire Queen trilogy, Dawning of the Vampire Queen has been finished and is out to beta readers as we speak! I'm so excited. This one is going to be self-published where the other three are traditionally published and I'm so excited about it. Here's the cover:



Let me know what you think about the cover. I'm hoping to have the book out May 1st but we'll see. Thanks for all you who continue to support me.

Keep Writing!
Jodie Pierce

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Charity Blog Hop!

Hi all!

Today I am hosting my fb's charity blog hop! Here's the information:



Children of the Night is a fantastic book for Elementary School age children. With essential children’s lessons and good old fashioned Supernatural/Paranormal stories, this book gives you something for everyone. The children will enjoy the stories and the parents will enjoy the lessons in some of the stories. With stories about sharing, helping your parents, staying awake in class and never talking to strangers all will give you the opportunity to discuss these lessons with your children. Other stories like a Christmas mouse, Halloween night and a witch also provide enjoyment for the children. 100% of this books proceeds will go to The National Children’s Cancer Center. This book is all about the kids! Here are the participating Authors:



 Ronald Griffin’s Biography:

Ronald Griffin is a 31 year old Author who grew up in Georgia and still lives there today. His current writing style includes paranormal fantasy and horror. He has been writing since he was 9 years old when he wrote a Tiny Toons Adventure skit for his class and it was well received. From there, he was absorbed with writing about Superhero’s but once high school hit, the supernatural started calling him, especially the werewolves. This is where his latest The Blood Lives Saga was born. You can either find him locked away in his writing cave or at his local Cracker Barrel where he supports his fantasy genre reading habit. His Author idol is the husband and wife writing team Ilona Andrews. He has thoroughly enjoyed their magic series novels and feels encouraged that they are from his same state. When not writing, you can find Ronald spending time with his daughters (ages 3 and 9) and his son (age 7). He can be found spending time making precious moments with them and hopefully passing along his writing bug to them.


Tara Fox Hall’s Biography:

Tara Fox Hall is an OSHA-certified safety and health inspector at a metal fabrication shop in upstate New York. She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a double minor in chemistry and biology from Binghamton University. Her writing credits include nonfiction short stories, flash, short and novella-length horror stories, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. Her horror stories have appeared in Deadman’s Tome, Flashes in the Dark, Ghastly Door, The Halloween Alliance, Black Petals, SNM Horror Magazine, Microhorror, Dark Eclipse, Cemetery Moon, and various anthologies, including the recently published charity works Fear (Vol. 1) and Shifters. She also coauthored the essay “The Allure of the Serial Killer,” published in Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). She is the author of the paranormal fantasy Lash series and the paranormal romantic drama Promise Me series. Tara divides her free time unequally between writing novels and short stories, chain sawing firewood, caring for stray animals, sewing cat and dog beds for donation to animal shelters, and target practice.


WHY: I’ve loved vampires since I saw Frank Langella in the first “hot vampire” version of Dracula years ago. That love intensified in my later teens with The Lost Boys, and reading Interview with the Vampire, along with anything vampire I could get my hands on. But I wanted more than the evil monster chasing young virgins; more than the sweet, misunderstood handsome fanged stranger that becomes the perfect mate for the woman who captures his heart after so many lone centuries. I wanted a vampire so well-crafted in detail that I could believe he was real. I wanted something different to happen in the story, other than girl becomes vampire, or vampire becomes dust. I wanted passion, tragedy, romance, suspense, action, and the haunting sweetness of poetry and song floating on a soft night breeze. So I penned my own vampires.


Ann Snizek’s Biography:

Bio: Though her childhood was spent moving frequently, Ann Snizek is originally from Vermont and now lives in Virginia with her family. As a home-schooling family, Ann and her husband have tried to nurture the love of books in their children and now their grandchildren -- always encouraging their imaginations.
Ann actively promotes literacy in her community, organizing and facilitating a creative writing club and then quickly adding volunteer tutoring and English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor at her local adult learning center.
Loving all aspects of writing, Ann started Snow Flower Enterprises (dot) com, and its divisions, to help other independent authors reach their goals.



Mark Mackey’s Biography:

Mark Mackey, living in Chicago, started writing during the late 1990’s when he submitted a simple poem to a contest which was later published in an anthology. In addition he has won two screenplay awards, one for the short screenplay Horror in the Woods, and one for the feature Length screenplay A Tale of Two Girls, both in the book Four Screenplays volume I. Also he has written several books in the process of being edited and three short stories published in three different anthologies.



Christina Mercer’s Biography:

Christina Mercer, author of Tween/Teen Fantasy Arrow of the Mist, writes fiction for children and young adults. She was a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, she took Writer’s Best of Show at the SCBWI California North/Central Regional Conference, and she won an Honorable Mention in the 21st Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Christina enjoys life in the foothills of Northern California with her husband and sons, a pack of large dogs, and about 100,000 honeybees.


Jodie Pierce’s Biography:

Jodie Pierce is married to her hubby, John who gave her a storybook happily-ever-after. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio but traveled to Brasil when she was 16 years old as an exchange student and she continues to travel the US with her hubby. Jodie started writing as a teenager and even wrote for her schools’ newspaper and yearbook.
She has had a fascination with vampires since they were introduced to her as a child so she’s had a long history with them. It wasn't until she started reading the Anne Rice vampire books in college that she was truly inspired to stop writing sappy teen romance stories and focus on the vampires she loved. You will find some of her experiences from Brasil in her stories. Many of her stories have historical or researched facts as she also enjoys research and learning about new places.
She has published four short novels (Eternal Press), a short story in "Midnight Thirst 2", an anthology (Melange Books), has five self-published books (with 3 more charity anthologies by the end of 2013). She’s published her first charity vampire anthology book with various Authors named In Vein, where all the proceeds of the book went to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. She loves helping out other new Authors, runs blog hops and Facebook events for them to help market them. She has her own small publishing company named Vampirical Lyrical Publishing where she takes on new Authors and helps them see their creations come to life. She's always busy with the next great vampire story as her mind is non-stop and even plagues her dreams. She’s co-manager of the Facebook Supernatural Writer’s Group where they put together 2 charity books a year where all proceeds will be donated to a special charity.

Buy Link:



Check out this special book, you’re bound to find something fun. Recommended reading ages 5-10 so read with your kids, nieces, nephews, grandkids and loved ones!

Here's the second book:



Wild Cards is a book dedicated to Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers with a Supernatural/Paranormal flare. You will find a variety of stories so it won’t be hard to find something you and your children will like. From stories about the Grim Reaper, a dragon rider, three wishes, a witch, a man without a face, a house on a haunted street, the making of a villain and much more there is plenty for everyone. 100% of this books proceeds will go to The National Children’s Cancer Center. This book is all about the kids! Here are the awesome Authors and we couldn’t have had such a great cover with the art work by Don Semora.



Ronald Griffin’s Biography:

Ronald Griffin is a 31 year old Author who grew up in Georgia and still lives there today. His current writing style includes paranormal fantasy and horror. He has been writing since he was 9 years old when he wrote a Tiny Toons Adventure skit for his class and it was well received. From there, he was absorbed with writing about Superhero’s but once high school hit, the supernatural started calling him, especially the werewolves. This is where his latest The Blood Lives Saga was born. You can either find him locked away in his writing cave or at his local Cracker Barrel where he supports his fantasy genre reading habit. His Author idol is the husband and wife writing team Ilona Andrews. He has thoroughly enjoyed their magic series novels and feels encouraged that they are from his same state. When not writing, you can find Ronald spending time with his daughters (ages 3 and 9) and his son (age 7). He can be found spending time making precious moments with them and hopefully passing along his writing bug to them.



Gabrielle Lee Hughes’s Biography:

Gabrielle Lee Hughes is an inspiring new author. For fifteen years, Gabrielle has been writing short stories, poetry, and just finish her first novel, The New World: The Last Resistance. She is currently looking for a publishing company to fit her first novel’s needs. She is also currently working on her second novel, The New World: Dawn of a New Age.  Gabrielle currently lives in Georgia.


Mark Mackey’s Biography:

Mark Mackey, living in Chicago, started writing during the late 1990’s when he submitted a simple poem to a contest which was later published in an anthology. In addition he has won two screenplay awards, one for the short screenplay Horror in the Woods, and one for the feature Length screenplay A Tale of Two Girls, both in the book Four Screenplays volume I. Also he has written several books in the process of being edited and three short stories published in three different anthologies.



T.G. Reaper’s Biography:

T.G. Reaper, aka Thom Futrell is the award winning, bestselling author of EMPTY GRAVES, MEAT PUPPET, NIGHT SONGS, DRIPPINGS along with over twenty anthologies and magazine articles. He lives near Jackson, Michigan with his wife, two daughters and two cats.


David R. Bennett’s Biography:
I am an author from Houston, Texas. I am what I would call a freaky fiction writer. I write strange tales in all realms of fiction. I am a bonafied Star Wars geek who cannot wait to see the range of movies put out by Disney starting in 2015.


Jeremy Rodden’s Biography:
Jeremy Rodden considers himself a dad first and an author second. He is the author of the middle grade/young adult Toonopolis series of books that takes place in his cartoon universe. He also edited, contributed to, and published The Myth of Mr. Mom, a non-fiction series of essays by stay-at-home dads.


Laurie Treacy’s Biography:
I’m a wife, mom of three really good kids and various pets, an active reader and book blogger. Movie and music fan. I love frogs, frozen Goobers, anime and haunted places. I’m also a Whovian. I love paranormal, fantasy, urban fantasy, dystopian and contemporary romance. I initially started out writing YA, but I’ve also started writing for adults. My NaNoWriMo book this year is a New Adult paranormal. I find this genre exciting.



Jodie Pierce’s Biography:

Jodie Pierce is married to her hubby, John who gave her a storybook happily-ever-after. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio but traveled to Brasil when she was 16 years old as an exchange student and she continues to travel the US with her hubby. Jodie started writing as a teenager and even wrote for her schools’ newspaper and yearbook.
She has had a fascination with vampires since they were introduced to her as a child so she’s had a long history with them. It wasn't until she started reading the Anne Rice vampire books in college that she was truly inspired to stop writing sappy teen romance stories and focus on the vampires she loved. You will find some of her experiences from Brasil in her stories. Many of her stories have historical or researched facts as she also enjoys research and learning about new places.
She has published four short novels (Eternal Press), a short story in "Midnight Thirst 2", an anthology (Melange Books), has five self-published books (with 3 more charity anthologies by the end of 2013). She’s published her first charity vampire anthology book with various Authors named In Vein, where all the proceeds of the book went to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. She loves helping out other new Authors, runs blog hops and Facebook events for them to help market them. She has her own small publishing company named Vampirical Lyrical Publishing where she takes on new Authors and helps them see their creations come to life. She's always busy with the next great vampire story as her mind is non-stop and even plagues her dreams. She’s co-manager of the Facebook Supernatural Writer’s Group where they put together 2 charity books a year where all proceeds will be donated to a special charity.

Buy Link:



This is a great book you’re sure to love. Recommended reading ages are young adult but adults alike are bound to find some great stories by these great Authors. Pick up your copy today!

Thanks to all the Authors that participated and graciously donated their hard work to this wonderful cause!

Keep Writing!

Jodie Pierce

Friday, November 1, 2013

Ronald Griffin & Blood Stained Lives

Hi all!

Just wanted to make you aware of a great friend of mine's upcoming event tomorrow.



Bio:
Ronald Griffin is a 31 year old Author who grew up in Georgia and still lives there today. His current writing style includes paranormal fantasy and horror. He has been writing since he was 9 years old when he wrote a Tiny Toons Adventure skit for his class and it was well received. From there, he was absorbed with writing about Superheros but once high school hit, the supernatural started calling him, especially the werewolves. This is where his latest The Blood Lives Saga was born. You can either find him locked away in his writing cave or at his local Cracker Barrel where he supports his fantasy genre reading habit. His Author idol is the husband and wife writing team Ilona Andrews. He has thoroughly enjoyed their magic series novels and feels encouraged that they are from his same state. When not writing, you can find Ronald spending time with his daughters (ages 3 and 9) and his son (age 7). He can be found spending time making precious moments with them and hopefully passing along his writing bug to them.


Author Interview Questions (You can use some or all-up to you):

What is your name? Do you use a pen name (if so, why?)? Ronald Edward Griffin. No I do not

Tell me a bit about yourself: 

What type of genre do you write? Paranormal Fantasy

What genre to you personally read? Paranormal Fantasy, Fiction, and Horror

Tell me about your latest? Well it is a paranormal fantasy about this one mans journey to become the hero he was born to be. He has many trials along his way that he must make his way through.

What sparked your passion for books and the art of a good story? My Mom always had a passion for reading and we would always watch movies together as well. We would watch mostly fantasy movies like Legend, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Krull, and many other movies and I believe growing up with such movies sparked my imagination. I started writing short stories when I was in kindergarten but they were usually based on cartoons. In middle school I started writing my own superhero story. It wasn't until highschool until I started writing supernatural stories. It was then that I started writing some of the elements of this particular novel. Over the years I wrote many short stories and always wanted to write a novel but certain life events caused me to post pone. I have kids now and decided that I want to leave behind something that they could be proud of

Is there a particular book that changed or affected your life in a big way? Not that I recall

Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp? The importance of friends and family. When you have them on your side anything can be done.

What challenges have you faced in your writing career? Getting it started. I didn't realize there was so much work in self promoting. I am just glad I have made some wonderful friends along the way. 

What has been your best moment as a writer? The feeling of love and support from everyone around me along the way.

Who is your author idol? The writing team Ilona Andrews. They are also from Georgia and the stories they write take place in the state as well.

Do you see yourself in any of your characters? I see certain aspects of myself in all of my characters.

Do you feel like your dream has come true or is there much more to do? This is my first novel and although yes my dream is going to come true, but I believe there is much more to do to keep that dream alive.

What does your workspace look like? My work place varies, sometimes I write from my bedroom, the dining room where I can look out the sliding glass doors, or the locations that are mentioned in my novel. Sometimes it is good to write from the actual locations.

Have you ever had a day when you just wanted to quit? There were times I felt that maybe I wasn't cut out for this but I kept pushing through it and well here I am.

What do you do when you’re not writing?working or watching movies. I enjoy a good movie every now and then.

What are the most important attributes to remaining sane as a writer? Take time for yourself every now and then. Do not let the writing consume you all the times because it can cause you lots of unnecessary stress and your story could suffer from it.

Did you have a moment when you realized you were meant to be a writer? Not really it is just something I have always enjoyed doing in my spare time.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors? Don't be afraid to ask friends for help if going at this alone.

After this book, what is next? Writing a series of origin novellas building up to the release of the second novel for this series

Your website? Www.BloodStainedSaga.com



Where can your book be found? Www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.smashwords.com

Please join Ron if he's in your area for his book signing. Otherwise, READ THIS BOOK! It's amazing and captivating!!! Best book I've read in a long time!

Keep Writing!

Jodie Pierce

Like ·  · Share

Friday, August 23, 2013

My newest endeavor!

Hi all!

Check out the comment on my facebook page for my newest endeavor: www.facebook.com/jodie.pierce.779:

Dear Readers, Contributors and all-round Epic Horror Fans,

For the past 12 issues we have been working hard to bring you the best in horror fiction, from new talent to seasoned pros. In this time the team has grown bit by bit and I am happy to announce that we have a new staff member joining us.

Some say she is the reason children in a small French village are tucked up in bed before the sun sets. Some say she is allowed to walk in the daylight because she is that badass and some say she has NEVER sparkled at all whilst doing so….All we know she’s called The Vampire Queen!

VQ will be joining Sanitarium for a monthly article where she will cover all aspects of Vampire fiction. We just know this will add to the depth of the magazine and as such if you have any questions you want to put to her, please email her directly.

thevampirequeen1 at gmail dot com (had to break it up to stop spam)

Alternatively check out VQ website : http://thevampirequeen1.weebly.com/

So we hope you join us in making VQ nice and comfortable over the coming issues.

Photo: Dear Readers, Contributors and all-round Epic Horror Fans, 

For the past 12 issues we have been working hard to bring you the best in horror fiction, from new talent to seasoned pros. In this time the team has grown bit by bit and I am happy to announce that we have a new staff member joining us. 

Some say she is the reason children in a small French village are tucked up in bed before the sun sets. Some say she is allowed to walk in the daylight because she is that badass and some say she has NEVER sparkled at all whilst doing so….All we know she’s called The Vampire Queen! 

VQ will be joining Sanitarium for a monthly article where she will cover all aspects of Vampire fiction. We just know this will add to the depth of the magazine and as such if you have any questions you want to put to her, please email her directly. 

thevampirequeen1 at gmail dot com  (had to break it up to stop spam) 

Alternatively check out VQ website : http://thevampirequeen1.weebly.com/

So we hope you join us in making VQ nice and comfortable over the coming issues.


So, start your vampire/horror questions coming and get published in the magazine with me! I'll be posting articles answering YOUR questions in a sort of 'Dear Vampire Queen' kind of column! Start the questions coming! Post them here!

Keep Writing!
Jodie Pierce

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

My new book!

Hi all!

I just wanted to let you know that I have a new book that came out on August 1st.



In this police paranormal thriller, people start turning up dead all over town completely drained of blood. Are the murders random or whom/what is the common link? Does a vampire have civil rights in a human court of law? When the lead Detective is placed under surveillance, how close will she get to the new man and how much does she really know about him? How much does she even know about her own life? The two work together to bring down the murderer, uncover her past and maybe even make a future together for themselves. What twists, turns and surprises will they find along their way?


This book can be found on:



I am exceptionally proud of this book. It's one of my longest so far and the story just developed nicely on it's own as I wrote. After The Vampire Queen (my first traditionally published story), this is probably by favorite book. Check it out!

I will be giving away one ecopy of this book on Smashwords to one random commenter now through Aug. 15th so leave your comments and win this new amazing book!

Keep Writing & Reading!
Jodie Pierce

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Charity Book Sale!

Hi all!

Book sale for charity! We are having a book sale for one of our own in the Author community! Please come by, pick up some books or even make a small cash donation to the fund. Let's help this person out asap! It's only the next 2 days! Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/jess.book.donations?ref=hl

Please let's ban together and make this happen! She needs your help and she's helped out so many of us by buying our books and writing reviews as well as promoting us and helping us out. Now it's our turn to help her out.

Please stop by and pick up a book. Also, for those of you that love Tara Fox Hall's catbeds, she's donated one that we are going to have a charity auction on until tomorrow, Thursday at 2pm and the highest bidder wins the bed. We are on a short timeframe so let's get going. Head on over to the page, help out and get yourself some new books!

Thanks all!

Keep Writing!
Jodie Pierce

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Interesting tips for promo & marketing article!

Hi all!

I just read the most amazing article with tips for promoting and marketing! I found it at:

http://www.lilithcollins.blogspot.com/?zx=62aac8e25ed5ec93


This may be a little hard to read with scrolling side to side but believe me it's worth the read!

Author Tips & Tricks: Attracting New Followers on Twitter and Google+

This is part one in a series of articles called 'Author Tips & Tricks' that I'll be posting in the coming weeks. In an attempt to give back to the amazing online community of romance and erotica authors (and all those who self-publish), I'd like to share the best of what I've learned over the past year. I'll do my best to provide you with beneficial, well-organized information that I consider invaluable. Just my way of saying thanks.

So if you want to learn about attracting tons of new followers on Twitter, Google+ and your blog, read on!

Attracting New Followers
Two of the questions I'm asked most often are how did I gain followers on Google+ and Twitter, and how did I get people to actually like me on Facebook. (Something that continues to be a work in progress.) Why is this important? Well it's important for the obvious reasons, such as increasing potential reach and exposure for your eBooks, but also because it helps you gain legitimacy in both the eyes of your audience and your fellow authors. And as you gain more likes and follows you'll increase the likelihood of your status updates, posts and tweets showing up in timelines, newsfeeds and search engines. Which is exactly what you want.

So, what are the secrets?

  • Consistency and Quality Are King: It used to be that content was king, but times have evolved. When first starting out, one of the biggest mistakes I made was simply sharing too little, and only posting my own content (a mistake new writers always seem to make). While I always made an effort to be witty, funny or a little naughty (for my erotica fans), I never really seemed to gain that much traction. I was rarely retweeted or even favorited, and no one ever responded to me. (Seriously. A good day was one interaction.) I would tweet people and they would ignore me outright, mostly because I had no followers and was obviously trying too hard. (Sound familiar?) I ended up following hundreds and hundreds of people with no one following me back, and I had no reach or influence. But after a few months, I came to two very important realizations.
    • Consistency: You need to post to Facebook, Google+ and Twitter every day. No kidding. This does not mean your life has to revolve around social media. However, you do need to devote at least 15 to 30 minutes a day to maintaining your online presence. This includes answering fans, responding to comments, updating profiles, searching for promotion opportunities (like blog hops, guest posts and author interviews), or simply posting new content. As an example, your Twitter timeline should be (roughly) 30% personal tweets (similar to status updates), 30% tweets about specific content (e.g., pictures, articles, quotes), 30% retweets/favorites of others' content, and the last 10% should be about your titles or promotions you may be running. This ratio, while only an approximation, can be used for both Facebook and Google+ as well. Your willingness to share and promote other users will gain you more followers and influence, and their reciprocal sharing of your content will help you gain fans that you wouldn't have otherwise. Additionally, your increased online presence will start gaining you followers just by virtue of your consistent posts. 
    • Quality: But your consistency comes with the caveat of quality. If you're posting every day in an attempt to improve your reach and gain new followers, you better be posting quality content; not spam. And this can be especially difficult for authors who publish online, because self-promotion seems so important. Yet the truth is most people will find incessant posts about your eBooks to be extremely annoying. Instead, your focus should be on establishing and improving relationships with fellow authors and fans. And the best way to do that (like any relationship), is to be honest and genuine. There's a reason reality shows and TMZ are so popular. People crave real information and gossip. Self-promotion is the opposite: It's an advertisement designed to incite people to purchase a product. You need to be real. But does this mean you need to give away everything about your personal life? No. But it does mean if you find yourself playing a role instead of being yourself, you need to take a step back and reevaluate. Stop trying to be what you think people want you to be, and stop trying to force yourself to be funny or witty if you're not feeling that way. Instead, connect with your audience and let them know what you're feeling on a day-to-day basis. You'll connect with a much broader range of individuals, without question. And from those connections, followers will come.
  • Engaging Your Followers: So once you've started gaining followers from your consistent, quality posting to social media networks, how do you engage them? (Meaning, how do you get them to respond to your promotions, retweet your tweets, and like your posts?) By identifying your audience and seizing opportunities.
    • Identifying your audience: You need to be honest with yourself. Don't assume your audience shares your gender and age demographic. Don't assume that your audience shares the gender and age demographic most common to your genre. Basically, don't assume anything. Sign up for Google Analytics, StatCounter (real-time, free), and use the statistics provided by Blogger, Wordpress, or your hosting provider to make informed decisions. Do the majority of your visitors use Internet Explorer? Then it's likely you're targeting an older, less technically-savvy crowd. Why? Because I.E. is the default web browser for Windows, which means the visitor was not comfortable switching to an alternative browser such as Chrome or Firefox (which would suggest they were comfortable with both technology and accessing material online). Also, find out which websites your visitors are referred from (where they were before they accessed your blog), and from what country. If you write contemporary romance and you see a large influx of visitors originating from a specific site in France, find out why. Is it a forum where people are talking about you and there's a natural buzz? Was one of your stories shared by a popular foreign blogger? Was your blog linked to a popular site that specializes in your genre? All of this is valuable information you can use to further engage your followers and seize opportunities in the limited time they're available. A recent personal example would be when I noticed an extremely large influx of Russian users to my blog, a small number of whom also started following me on Twitter and liking me on Facebook. I had absolutely no idea how they found me, until I discovered the site they were originating from was a blog for taboo erotica. Someone had posted one of my stories with a link, and sure enough I was soon being visited by hundreds of horny Ruskies who liked my style.
    • Seizing opportunities: When I discovered my story had been linked by the foreign erotica blog (which provided me with a new source of traffic), I immediately tried to leverage the opportunity. (Anyone else noticing my college minor in Business showing?) Instead of demanding they take down my story (which was posted without my consent, in full), I realized I had a valuable resource at hand. (Or at least I hoped I did.) So I emailed the webmasters of the blog and asked to provide them with a promotion of two exclusive short stories. What was their response? They offered to post each story one week apart, briefly promote each on the front page of the site, and do an interview with me. Two weeks later and suddenly I had received a few hundred (!) likes on Facebook from foreign individuals I'd never heard of before, and I had captured a new audience I never, ever would have found had I not taken the time to both identify my audience and seize the opportunity that became available. Yet on my part, the only effort required was sending an email and being available for a quick interview on Russian time.

    TL/DR: Attracting new followers on Twitter, Google+ and your blog/website requires consistent posting to social networks with quality content (following the basic ratio outlined above). It also requires identifying your audience through use of stat analytics, as well as identifying and seizing opportunities as they arise in order to engage your followers.

    So that's it for part one of Author Tips and Tricks. Feel free to include it on your blog or website, just please be kind enough to include a link back to me. And if this post helped you (or can help one of your fellow authors or bloggers), please don't hesitate to share.

    Happy networking.
    - See more at: http://www.lilithcollins.blogspot.com/?zx=62aac8e25ed5ec93#sthash.rreuzouV.dpuf


    Keep Writing!
    Jodie Pierce