Not So Social Media Savvy

Have I mentioned before that I’m not so social media savvy?

I blame it on Facebook. I was in college back when Facebook first started. My senior year, Facebook came to Valpo. I didn’t get the hype. I was trying to be a serious student, writing a novel for a senior creative writing seminar, and every time I went to the library, most computers were taken by people on Facebook. Not only that, but every person on Facebook had at least two or three Facebook buddies standing behind their chair, watching their computer, and ignoring the (I though universal) library quiet rule.

I did join Facebook, eventually, but not until several years later. I still have only 137 friends because I’m pretty picky about who I friend. My page is super private, one of those you have to dig to find, and even then you usually have to know someone I’m friends with. I don’t have a Facebook page for my writing career yet. I’m kind of waiting for that writing career to officially start. And, actually, I hadn’t even considered making such a page until I took that class through Writer’s Digest.

The Writer’s Digest agent one-on-one class was probably the biggest step I’ve ever taken toward getting this whole query thing figured out. It was beyond helpful for making me realize what was specifically wrong with my query that had prevented me from getting any agent attention. One huge flaw, the agents who taught this class pointed out, was that agents like to Google writers who have no publishing history and they expect to find results. Oops.

For starters, I got married four and a half months ago. My name was out there NOWHERE. (I’d decided to use my married name for my writing career since I had–still don’t, really–no writing career.) So I took the class agents’ advice. I designed a website for myself (with the help of Yahoo), joined Twitter, and added my searchable last name to Goodreads. (It’s pronounced go + key, btw.)

The next step in this social media adventure? I realized I needed to get my blog off my website and onto a blog website. I think. Again, I don’t really know what I’m doing. So here it is, the first blog entry for my not-my-website blog. If there are any kind of faults with these first few postings, I’m sorry. Come back soon, after I’ve done this a few times, and things might (hopefully will!) be better.