Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Can I just say that among my top ten least favorite words, the word “blog” is waaaay up near the top of the list? I don’t know if there is a more unattractive word in the English language. It’s just ... yuck.

But there’s no way that another term will supplant what is already a cemented part of the English language, so I will attempt to make my peace with the unappealing nomenclature, and move on to discussing What Blogs And That Wild Wooly Internet Can Do by Way Of Helping You Promote Yourself. Don’t crap yourself at this one, but Jane, Candy and I submitted a proposal to RWA National about that topic, and alas we are not on the docket. I promise we had a much nicer title than that one, but either way, our discussion about how to use the internet and blogs as self-promotional tools of the wunderkind variety will not be part of the national program. Feel free to accost me in the hall and ask my opinion, though. I’m more than happy to talk. But you knew that.

And, hey, let’s talk now. There’s all kinds of innovative promotion going on right now, from the viral marketing prize giveaway to the altruistic publicity launch for an author who can’t take care of that aspect of her career right now.

First: Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace Juggernaut wherein you answer a quiz, get yourself a badge for your own blog, and win a chance to get a slew of prizes, from a big honking gift card to Barnes & Noble to a free copy of her new novel, Grimspace. Now, that’s pretty clever - there’s a huge audience for quizzes and memes and whatnot - and a huge audience of people who love them some free stuff, and free books. Pretty basic tools, as well - something immediate (the quiz) fuels follow up (the giveaway) and participants get something and the potential for something more, while the source, the author, gets a bit more buzz about her book. Smart smart smart and also, given the quiz questions, really freaking fun.

Then, there’s the hugely altruistic and fantastically awesome aspect of blog publicity: blogs are easy and active, and most often linked together into small knots of common interests. That makes for a perfect opportunity for generosity, such as doing someone else’s publicity to help them out when they can’t manage that part themselves.

Thanks to Jackie Kessler for the heads up - today is ”The Liar’s Diary Blog Day.” Patry Francis, the author of The Liar’s Diary, has been diagnosed with a horribly aggressive form of cancer, and she’s doing the utterly exhausting appointment-followed-by-appointment thing, and can’t promote the softcover release of her novel as much as she’d like.

So a bunch of bloggers, publicists, agents, and publishing masterminds are banding together to mention the book today - among them Jackie Kessler, Jennifer Weiner, and Neil Gaiman.

All participants are asked to merely mention the book and link to the purchase page on Amazon.com.

That’s pretty freaking fabulous, and I hope it works.

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