Winners of Fabulous Follower Contest!

Winners of the 1000 Follower Giveaway
Thank you all so much for following and visiting!

Winners, please email me at sjohannes@bilaninc.com with your address. It must be a US address.

Grand Prize + query critique - Sherri Peterson
Firelight (ARC 9/10)
Red Moon Rising (ARC 11/10)
Revolution (ARC 10/10)
Body Finder (HB)
The Enemy (ARC 5/10)

Faithful Follower#1 - Deb Salisbury
Wings (ARC)
Wake (PB)
13th Reality HB
Meanicures (ARC/10/10)

Faithful Follower #2 - Tere Kirkland
Revolution (ARC 10/10)
Candymakers (ARC 10/10)
Dangerous Neighbors (ARC 8/10)
Daughters Break The Rules (ARC 11/10)

Blogger Buddy - Jamie Burch
Candymakers (ARC 10/10)
Songs for Teenage Nomad (ARC 9/10)
Death of Silas Winterbottom (ARC 9/10)
Who Killed Wesley Payne (ARC/2/11)

Lovable Lurkers - Anna
The Replacements (ARC 9/10)
Virals (ARC 11/10)
Girl Parts (ARC 8/10)
Jane (ARC 10/10)

Lovable Lurker #2 - Okapi
The INvisible Order (ARC 9/10)
The Exciled Queen (ARC 9/10)
Adios Nirvanos (ARC 10/10)
The Witch's Kitchen (ARC 10/10)

1000 Follower surprise giveaway!

Wow - 1000 followers! seriously. Do I really say something interesting?

I must say, since Ive taken some time off, I miss you guys commenting so much.

Is that sad? Yeah, kinda is huh?

So to all my wonderful peeps - tell me "What book are you most looking forward to in the fall?"

Comment and I'll giveaway a ARCs/books :) I might just have it in my stack of free goods.

Especially you lurkers out there. If you are a lurker - comment and Ill do a drawing for one Arc just for you! (You have to admit you are a lurker though!) I dont get 1000 comments a day. Under 100 a day so where are the other 950 of you?

Come out come out wherever you are.

Don't forget to include your email so I can respond you each of you personally :)

Fabulous Follower Fiesta Wrap Up/Friday Roundup

Final Day!

This has been such a fun week giving out gifts to my followers in appreciation of you tagging along with me on this journey.

Here are my final winners for the week!

Winner #1 - Tricia O Brien (Talespinning)
The Forest of Hand and Teeth (HB) by Carrie Ryan and Get Known Before the Book Deal

Winner #2 - Gail (Write from the Visual Soul)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (PB) and The Power to Write (7 keys to discover the writer within)

Congrads!!!! Please email me your address.

All prizes will be mailed out next week so be sure I have your address. If I do not have your address by next Friday, I will draw another name. My email is sjohannes@bilaninc.com

Don't fret though - I'm having a Marketing Scavenger Hunt the week of Feb 15th with tons more prizes. Two grand prizes being a Marketing Package (for agented/published authors) that includes books and marketing surprises as well a Writer Package (for unagented authors) that includes a craft books, fun books, and a read/critique of query/3 chapters from my awesome agent, Alyssa. (this rocks right?)

There will also be one surprise - I'll give you a hint - create your book pitch in 4 sentences.


Marketing Round Up

Here are my favs for the week:

Seven Types of Outreach To Cement The Publisher-Author Bond & Boost the Sales of Every Single Book - Christina Katz offers offers advice that she hopes will unite publishers, editors, agents, authors, sales people, and book sellers and remind us that we’re all on the same team when selling books.

The Real Deal About Viral Marketing and Promotion. Jen Bailey offers tips at the SCBWI NY Conference on what Paul Revere can teach us about viral marketing.

21 tips to driving traffic to your website or blog - Want more traffic? Do these simple steps.

14 mistakes many bloggers make - Study the list and then take a look at your blog. Are you making these mistakes?

How did Kate at KT Literary get the word out about her blog? The business of building a website — or any online presence, honestly — is a lot of hard work, but it can still be fun.

Getting the Most out of Twitter - Do you feel like you don't need any more Internet distractions to take you away from your writing? Have you been reluctant to sign up for Twitter because you don't want another time suck?

Nancy Ancowitz on Marketing for Introverts - Part 2 (Part 1 was listed in last week's round up.)

Facebook - Profile or Fan Page - Do you use Facebook profiles? Or fan pages? If you’re a book publicist, how much do you and how much does the author do?

Are blogs more effective than Press releases? If you had to choose one or the other, which would you choose: a blog or press releases?

Have a great weekend!

Fabulous Follower Fiesta Day 4

Here are my winners for today! You can still follow me and be in the drawing for tomorrow's prizes!

Winner #1 - Mim North
Get Known before the book deal by Christina Katz and Line by Line - edit your own writing

Winner #2 - Wendy - All in a Days' Thoughts
Guerrilla Marketing for Writers and Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook

Thanks again to all my followers for getting me to 500!

Fabulous Follower Fiesta/Lessons from the Bachelor

Here are today's winners! Thanks again to all my followers!

Winner #1: Ash Elizabeth (Warning)
You won Hardback of Wicket Lovely by Melissa Marr and The Novel Writers Toolkit. Please email me your address.

Winner #2: Robyn Campbell (Putting Pen To Paper)
You won a Hardback of Devils Kiss by Sarwat Chadda and The Writers Course

Congrads and thank you for following me :)


Lessons from The Bachelor when querying agents/editors

Yes i need to make some excuse for my addiction to reality tv!

1. Stand out - Make sure your premise/query letter has a good hook

2. Don't use gimmicks to get attention - be professional

3. Don't be the "crazy one" - do not keep emailing them. Wait the allotted time they list in their submissions before hounding them

4. Remember that chemistry is not something you can force - sometimes its that untouchable factor. Don't take every rejection personally.

5. Don't be the aggressor - don't appear desperate

6. Expect to cry at least once - Its OK to be upset about rejections. Give yourself 24 hrs and then move on. Especially at rejection.

7. There are at least 25 other good writers in line with you - Keep in mind agents get thousands of queries and editors get hundreds of manuscripts. Don't take the long wait personally.

8 First impressions are critical - watch the mispellings in your letter.

9. Know when to talk - don't blog about your rejections

10. Don't give up on "love" because you haven't found it yet - it only takes one to love your work.

11. Don't settle - if an agent offers you representation, be sure you connect. A bad agent is worse than no agent at all.

12. Make sure they love you as much as you love them - be sure when you get representation that you choose someone who loves your work and voice. Not just the premise or idea.

13. No one likes drama - their is no room for drama in publishing. Keep it in your books.

14. Be true to yourself. Stay true to your writing, no matter what but be willing to revise.

15. There are other fish in the sea - if you get one rejection, move onto the next.

16. Love is a battlefield - This business is not easy. It is so hard. Those who fight through the rejections will prevail.

17. Don't focus on the ring. It is important you enjoy the journey and not stress yourself out to get to published.Try to have fun along the way.

18. Have faith you will find "the one" - there is an agent for you. Have faith you will find them at the right time.

19. You will not ride off into the sunset - after reaching one horizon, there will be another.

20. Learn from your mistakes.

Here's to hoping you all find your "true love"! :)

Fabulous Follower Fiesta/Social Networking in 15 Minutes

Fabulous Follower Fiesta

Here are today's winners! Thanks again to all my followers.

Winner #1: Katie Ganshert
You won Wish by Alexandra Bullen and Get Known Before The Book Deal by Christina Katz. Please email me your address.

Winner #2: V.S.
You won The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint and 30 steps to becoming a writer and getting published. Please email me your address.

Congrads and thank you for following me :)


Today's Guest Post is by the awesome WordServe Literary agent/avid blogger, Rachelle Gardner at Rants and Ramblings.

Social Networking in 15 Minutes a Day

A lot of people wonder how they can do all the online networking they're "supposed" to do without it completely draining all their time and energy. Well, I don't have all the answers, but I've developed a strategy that works for me, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Blog

1. I write my blog posts for the week in one or two sittings, usually on the weekend.

2. I schedule my blog to post automatically each day so I don't have to think about my blog all week unless I want to.

3. I'm flexible so that if a timely idea hits me mid-week, I can go ahead and write a blog post and schedule it for whenever I want.

4. All the blog comments go directly to a separate email box. Whenever I get comments that give me an idea for another blog post, I divert those emails to a separate folder called "Save for Blog."

5. I also keep a Word doc with ongoing ideas for blog posts, which I jot down whenever they strike me. When I need to write a post and get stuck, I have both my Word doc and my email "Save for Blog" file for ideas.

6. Some of my posts require almost no effort on my part. I strategically use guest posts and Q4Us, to maintain consistent postings without having to write so much.


Twitter

1. I use TweetDeck to keep my tweets organized on my desktop, but there are many other Twitter apps you can use. Just don't rely on the Twitter website itself - it's extremely inefficient.

2. I don't keep TweetDeck open while I'm working! I take breaks from working and open TweetDeck, or sometimes I actually keep it open on a different computer so I can check it when I take quick periodic breaks.

3. I generally give myself about a two-minute limit on Twitter during work hours, which includes tweeting, reading, and responding.

4. I use TweetLater and often schedule the day's worth of tweets in the morning before I begin my work day. Then as I'm checking Twitter later in the day, I don't have to think of new tweets, I simply respond to others, and read people's responses to mine.

5. In my "leisure" time (nights and weekends) I typically don't limit myself. I sometimes tweet a lot and get into conversations with people, but I don't look at it as a waste of time. It's fun and it can also be valuable networking.


Facebook

1. I adopted the philosophy that we each use social networking for our own purposes, and we get to choose how we use each platform.

2. Therefore I've decided to use Facebook only for my family members across the country, and people with whom I'm actually acquainted in real life.

3. I update Facebook approximately once a day, sometimes less. My Facebook friends are a different group than my Twitter friends. People were getting annoyed at so many updates, so I've cut it way down.

4. I've noticed that Facebook tends to swallow much more time (if you let it). The conversations are interesting and can really suck you in! For that reason, I typically only open up Facebook once a day, and it's usually not during the hours I'm working.

Visiting Other Blogs

I forgot to mention scheduling time to read and comment on other blogs. If you're actively trying to build your own blog traffic, this is a necessary and valuable use of your time. Try to plan on an extra 15 minutes a day for this, and visit/comment on several blogs each day.

When my blogs were new, I spent a lot of time commenting on other blogs. Now I don't need to as much, since Twitter seems to be the most effective way to drive people back to my blog. However, I read about 20 other blogs regularly, and it's almost always on my Blackberry when I'm away from home: sitting in the kids' carpool line or hanging out at their various activities. In fact, whenever I have brief moments of waiting, even 5 minutes or less, I automatically pull out my Blackberry and read blogs. I keep up very effectively this way.

These are my strategies to make sure social networking works FOR me without taking up all my time. What are your strategies?


Check out Rachelle's informative and very popular blog for more insight. You can also follow her on Twitter for her minute-by-minute agent updates!

Fabulous Follower Fiesta/Marvelous Marketer: Daisy Whitney

Fabulous Follower Fiesta!

So I made 500 followers over the weekend so this week is a celebration of all of you.

Every day this week, I am doing a drawing from "my posse" for two prize packages. This is just to thank my followers for wasting time and reading my blog. You don't have to do anything to win except be a follower (yes you can sign up now and be considered for the next day's drawing) and the person who wins can only win once. If you comment, I'll add your name to the hat an extra time.

Here are today's winners:

My 500th Follower - Michelle Zink gets a small special gift. Since she gets all the free books she wants and wanted to give back her gift for one of you, I got her a 10$ iTunes card because I know from reading her blog she LOVES LOVES LOVES Music. (Michelle - it was always my plan to give my 500th follower something so it was only fair. Please email me your email and I'll send you your iTunes certificate :) Thanks for taking a chance :)

My first follower - To kick off my Fiesta, I decided to reward one of my first 50 followers for believing in me. The winner of a 20$ B&N gift certificate is Casey McCormick (at Literary Rambles). For those of you who have not had the luck of stumbling on her blog, Casey does weekly Agent spotlights that tell you everything about an agent. I'm talking down to their favorite color. So check her out - you will be happy you did. A Special Thanks to Casey and all my early followers for signing up in the very beginning. (Casey, please email me your address)


Marvelous Marketer: Daisy Whitney (Social Media Guru)

Daisy Whitney is not only adorable and funny (seriously I want to be her friend) but she is a reporter, a Tenner/teen author (her book, The Mockingbirds, will be published by Little, Brown in Fall 2010), a social media guru, producer, on-air correspondent, and a serious vlogger. (Is anyone else jealous now? or feeling a tad inadequate? :)

I asked Daisy to stop by and explain to us "novice vloggers"(who are really just afraid of bad hair days, nasally voices, and the camera's added 10 lbs) why authors should use online videos. Here's her response:




I asked Daisy to give us a couple of great examples of when online videos that are done well and really work.

"Hi Shelli, there are a number of ways authors can produce and make online videos. Some like John Green do so on an ongoing basis. Jon, along with his brother Hank, has become quite popular on YouTube as Brotherhood 2.0/Vlogbrothers. In fact, his videos have done so well he's inspired a whole community of self-declared "Nerdfighters" who are working to reduce "world suck" every day. I urge all writers to check out his vlogs because they are informal, but professional, funny, intelligent and pure Jon! A good takeaway from his videos is be sure to do something that fits your own brand.

Then there's YA author Jackson Pearce. She started making YouTube videos before her first novel As You Wish was published last summer. Her second novel, the Sisters Red, comes out this summer. Her videos are fun and whimsical and she does a good job connecting them to writing without making them all about her books! That's key - you want to find a mix. While videos can help promote your books, you don't want them to feel like constant commercials. Jackson also has developed an online following in advance of release via her videos.

Those two are good examples of ongoing work done by authors who video blog. I also liked Libba Bray's ridiculously silly promotional video for Going Bovine. Rather than a traditional book trailer, she donned a cow suit and wandered around New York City singing bizarre songs, interacting with people and basically practicing absurdities -- all fitting the novel itself!"

Thanks Daisy! :)

Be sure to check out Daisy's informative blog, her upcoming book, and her NewMediaMinute series

The Fabulous Follower Fiesta begins....

I made it to 500 Followers!!!!!

OMG right?

And Michelle Zink (author of Prophecy of Sisters!! OMG right!?) was my 500th follower. That magic number gets a special prize that will be announced Monday.

Starting Monday, each day I will conducting a Fabulous Follower Fiesta drawing to celebrate meeting so many wonderful people over this last year.

This contest is for my blogger followers only (listed on left hand side). Unfortunately this probably does not include my FB networked blog followers or my RSS followers. Those are tracked in several different places and are too hard to keep up with :(

On Friday, I will do a drawing for the Grand Puba Prize, which is also a surprise.

So please make sure you are an official follower on the side so I can count you in :)

Also - if you comment on the daily post, I'll throw your name in the hat an extra time. It will be a random drawing that my daughter will choose out of a hat.

Trust me - I have a lot of books to give away: Marketing books, New Hardcovers, Writing craft books, Maybe even an ARC or 2.

All are new! Not used!

Thank you so much for your support!