Kelli Russell Agodon's Blog, page 44

Autumn Typewriter #potd

From my writing residency in Port Townsend, Washington.



~ Kells



 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite readerKelli Russell Agodon
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Um, if one of these is your password-- change it now! 25 WORST Passwords 2012

Here's the full list:

1. password

2, 123456

3. 12345678

4. abc123

5. qwerty

6. monkey

7. letmein

8. dragon

9. 111111

10. baseball

11. iloveyou

12. trustno1

13. 1234567

14. sunshine

15. master

16. 123123

17. welcome

18. shadow

19. ashley

20. football

21. jesus

22. michael

23. ninja

24. mustang

25. password1






****I kind of love the guy who came up with password1 after realizing last year's password wasn't good enough...



~ Kells

 



 ~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite readerKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon

Today's Writing Prompt:

Write a poem with this as the epigraph, the last line, or just inspired by what it means...













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~ Kells



 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite readerKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon

Thankful Thursday: Favorite Things

Favorite Things:





Tig Notaro Live ($5 on the Louis CK website)



Tig is an amazing comedian who I love.  One of my favorite stories she tells is on This American Life, where she keeps running into Taylor Dayne.



This summer, her mother died unexpectedly from a fall, her girlfriend broke up with her, she got a rare infection, and then was diagnosed with breast cancer.



The LIVE (pronounced "Liv" not "Live") show is from her set at Largo in August, 2012.



~







One of the poets, Paul David Adkins, I've worked with has had a ton of success recently.  Every time I hear from him, there's a new publication, new excitement and he mailed me this-- The Upside Down House chapbook.



He not only included me in the acknowledgments, but sent me the nicest note.



Thank you, Paul, and continued success to you!



~



Sandy Longhorn started Heron Tree, a new online journal with a couple friends.



And you can submit to it-->  Submission guidelines here.



~



Letters in the Mail $5



The Rumpus does this very cool thing where they have writers send you letters.  They come snail mail and they have some amazing writing.  One of my favorites included a sea turtle the author had drawn.



I've found myself writing back to these writers.







~ Kells



 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite readerKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon

Confession Tuesday

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Dear Reader,





I confess I am writing.





Amen.









~ Kells



 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite readerKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon

Quote of the Week - Kurt Cobain

Wish he would have stayed around a little longer---






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~ Kells



 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite reader




Kelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon

Moving Forward - You are not your mistakes.

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~ Kells



 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite readerKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon

Marketing For Introverts: Make it Fun - Lesson 3

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I love Tim Gunn.  He's smart, classy, and kind.



Tim Gunn's signature line on Project Runway is "make it work."  Basically telling designers they have the skills, now make it work out.



As writers, poets, artists, and authors, we also have the skills.



There are certain things we are really good at and certain things that are harder for us.

We also have a certain comfort level with things.



We may like reading Facebook to see what others are doing, but not like posting too much there.



We may have a great sense of humor, but also a lot of anxiety.



We may have no problem sending someone a tweet, but not be comfortable with talking to that person in person.





The first thing you need to ask yourself is -- What do I like? What am I good at?



Remember, you don't have to be on EVERY social network site, in fact, I don't recommend being a part of everything at once.  Check out all the different ways to share your work, choose your favorite ways and showcase your work through that.







If you like Facebook, great!  Go onto Facebook, make an author page and add interesting content to it.



I love wordplay.  I like humor that surprises me and has something to do with the English language.

I have found I love to post things on Facebook that have to do with this.  (You do not always have to be talking about your book to make connections.)



For example I posted this on my Facebook author page because I thought it was hilarious:




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Use your author page to post things that interesting to you and that people who like your work (um, usually readers and other writers) would find interesting.



If you're posting about your book every time you post, you'll annoy people.



However, with that said, most people do not promote their books or readings enough.  They think they're being annoying, but they're not.  The people who are being annoying actually have no idea.



So maybe don't worry about whether you're being annoying because no matter what you think, you'll be wrong. (My mum always said, "Never worry about what others think of you because you'll never figure it out... maybe this is what I'm saying.)



~

Here are a few things to think about--



Do you like sharing info with people?



Start a blog.  Write about all the things that interest you.  Write about what's happening in the poetry world or in your writing life.



A blog is a nice thing because when someone comes to your webpage, they can see you're alive and talking.



~



Not a lot of time, but you love reading the news in the morning?



Try Twitter!  Read a news story you like, you can immediately TWEET it with your own comments and thoughts.



You can connect with other writers, have online chats with hashtags (#poetparty is one - and the next #poetparty is Sunday, Nov 4th at 6 pm PST).



~



You really love graphic design, photoshop, and art.



Great!  Go to Vistaprint.com, create some postcards about your book, your work, and send them out to your favorite people, your mailing list, journals, reviewers, etc.





I love writing letters, so creating postcards is one of my favorite ways to connect with folks.



~



Marketing is not about shameless self-promotion, it's about sharing your art with the world. --I know, that sounds a little cheesy and I don't mean that to sound too precious or sugar-sweet, but letting people know about your work, about your art and passion should not be a bad thing.



If you look at marketing as connecting and not all the weird, creepy, author-nametaggy stuff that makes you (me)  uncomfortable, you'll be okay.



I also recommend having two role models-- a poet/writer you'd like to be compared to or like and one that will be your anti-role model, one who does things that make you feel uncomfortable.



Learn what to do from your role model, and learn not what to do from your anti-role model.  Each can help you find your place in the writing world.



Hope this helps you all as you share your work with a larger audience.











~ Kells

 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite reader


Kelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon

Since We're Talking About Marketing, Here's a Great Link for Bloggers! @AndreeaAyers #blogs

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We've talked how there aren't as many of us blogging anymore, but for those that do, here's an excellent resource from Andreea Ayers at Launch. Grow. Joy. blog.





It's a fantastic visual sign with  30 Ways to Promote Your Blog.



There were quite a few things I hadn't heard of on her life, especially in blog syndication, so great info here for bloggers!



I also love her blog success tips such as -- be yourself and authentic, your own voice.  And to be consistent (whether that's once a week or more.)











~ Kells



 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite readerKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon

Book Marketing for Introverts: The Benefits of Friends - Lesson Two

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Friends help friends.





So we discussed the basics of marketing online here, and today we're going to discuss the benefits of friends (this is much different than FWB - Friends with Benefits, btw.)



The benefits of friends is that while it may be hard to promote your own work, it's never hard to promote a friend's work.



For example, watch this---







I am so excited, my friend (and co-editor of Crab Creek Review and co-founder of Two Sylvias Press) Annette Spaulding-Convy has her very first book of poems out-- In Broken Latin (University of Arkansas Press)!



I have been reading (and loving!) these poems for years and they are finally available!



You can buy In Broken Latin here.



And learn more about Annette Spaulding-Convy here!



____________________



Now, that was so much easier and fun than saying:



Oh my gawd, my book of poems, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room has been out for TWO years and I'm still so excited! I have been writing (and loving!) these poems for years and they've been published for two years and I'm telling you about it again!  I'm using lots of exclamation points because I'm trying to make it seems I'm still kooky about my book, but I think you can read into this post to realize my book has been out for two years and there's not much more to say about it!!



It is so much easier to talk about the good work of others than to talk about myself.





My friends dressed as poets

Back: Ronda Broach, Annette Spaulding-Convy, Ann Hursey, Lana Ayers, Holly Hughes, my mum!

Front: Nancy Canyon, Jennifer Culkin, me, Martha Silano, Susan Rich, Kathleen Flenniken





My writer friends are so organized we've actually connected a group of us who have recently published books. We are connected by email as well as in person so when we need something like--



1) we're giving a reading and we want to get the word out

2) we need help promoting our book

3) we have news we want to share



we email each other and say, This is what I need.



All the writers have different ways they do things. One hates the internet and is never on it, but has an email newsletter that goes out several times a year.  A couple have blogs.  Some are on twitter.  All are on Facebook.



This week I asked them about recommending a literary agent to me as well as any low-res MFA jobs.  They immediately came through.



(Note:  As I typed the above request, I realized this may sound as if we're highly successful and out in the world authors and writers, when I first met my writing group, none of us had books published.  There is an energy in groups and friendships.  And as The Artist Way says, Success happens in clusters.)





Anyway, back to your friends.  Whether they are real friends or online friends, friends can (and want) to help you.



I know when a friend of mine asks if I can help them with their books, I'm happy to.  Especially when it's one of my good friends, I am thrilled to help them because then I get to take the attention off of me and onto what they're doing.



I'm also someone who is more "service" oriented, which in the language of love, means I like doing things for people.





Here's a list of things friends can do for you--



1)   Mention your book on Facebook with a link to your website

2)   Mention your book on Twitter with link to your website

3)   Announce your reading on Facebook

4)   Include info about your book in their newsletter

5)   Announce your reading on Twitter

6)   Do a blog post about your book

7)   Do a book review about your book (on their blog or for a journal)

8)   Give you an Amazon review

9)   Mention your book on Goodreads and rate it

10)  Do an interview with you on your blog

11)  Give away a copy of your book on Facebook, Twitter or their blog

12)  Like your book on Amazon (and it will show up in their newsfeed)





Friends can help you out in promoting your book and you can help them out in promoting theirs.

It's so much easier to brag about someone else than yourself.



So ask a friend for help and tell them you'll do the same when their book/poem/novel/memoir comes out.  It's so much easier to promote others' work than your own.  And actually, very satisfying to do so.







~ Kells



 

~ Click here to subscribe to Book of Kells by email or in your favorite readerKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon