Uuuuuuurrh.com

Want a free book? Signed book giveaways for March!



Back in 2003, Monroe Mann (author of The Theatrical Juggernaut, the only self-help book I know of that advises its readers to max out their credit cards to get famous) told me about a website called Myspace.

He said that it was the next big thing, especially for bands. He said you could post pictures and make connections there, like on Friendster but less terrible.


Friendster in 2012

I forgot all about Myspace for two years, but in 2005 it went supernova. News Corp bought it for $580M. The New York Times asked "Do You Myspace?" If you were online at this time you may remember the sudden flip into inevitability -- Myspace went from being something no one had heard of to something everyone expected you to have, seemingly in an instant.

I joined. I had to. I had a book to promote.



A year later, I faced the same situation with Facebook. What people were calling "the new Myspace" had gone from an Ivy-League status tool to an expected avenue of digital access -- overnight. I was reminded of Jeff Goldbum's iMac ad where he perfectly crystallized the embarassment of admitting, "I don't have an email."



I held off on Facebook as long as I could, telling people I was too successful for it (nice try), but then I had a librarian tell me that her teen clientele was confused by my absence from Facebook. Not curious or surprised: confused. You don't want your potential readers to be confused.

So I joined. I had to. I had a book to promote (even if it was the same book).



I thought I could avoid Twitter. It seemed like a time sink that just aped the funcitonality of Facebook. By not being on it, I could be more productive, more mysterious, less aware of how embarrassingly unpopular I really am... and also get off the treadmill that I recognized by the time of Twitter's rise.


me

As a person who writes books, I know it's vital to connect with my readers. But social networking moves faster than writing. The moment I join a new connection platform, another one takes its place as the one I'm expected to be on. In the next few years, I think it'll be Tumblr, and then maybe Google+ (or maybe not), and then Zibbo.com, and Plinque.com...

And soon enough it will be Uuuuuuurrh.com, where you can post musings direectly from your squip.

Maybe then the treadmill will stop. Until then, I started a Twitter! I'm @ned_vizzini. If you'd like to follow me, I'd be super-grateful. Please don't mistake my compaints about format switching with my humble admiration for the people who let me do what I do.

I had to join, see. I had a book to promote. At least now it's a new book!


Comimg September 25, 2012!




In addition to The Other Normals, I have another book coming out this year:



Beyond the Wall is an essay collection from Smart Pop Books and I'm one of the contributors; I have a piece about the genre wars, the history of fantasy, and George R. R. Martin's place in both. If you're a fan of Game Of Thrones you're going to want to pick this up.

I'm looking for blogs and websites to help spread the word about Beyond the Wall. If you know of any, you can score yourself one of the SIGNED goodies below, FREE of charge (AND I pay shipping).

Signed Prize Books
Triumph of The Walking Dead: Robert Kirkman's Zombie Epic on Page and Screen



Smart Pop Anthology I contributed to in November 2011.

Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia



Smart Pop Anthology I contributed to in 2008. Two copies available.

Cool - Und was ist mit Liebe?



German edition of Be More Chill, published in paperback in 2006. The literal translation of the title is "Cool -- And What About Love?"

Mi Ammazzo, Per Il Resto Tutto Ok



Italian edition of It's Kind of a Funny Story. The literal translation of the title is somewhat striking: "Kill me, for the Rest Everything's OK".

The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy



Smart Pop Anthology I contributed to in April 2011, currently burning up on Amazon.


Okay, so the rules are simple: comment on this blog entry with a suggestion of a website to contact about Beyond the Wall, and I'll send you a free signed book of your choice.

It should be a website that could review the book when it comes out in June 2012 or interview me about it, or just plug it and pass the word on about its existence. So I'm looking for Game of Thrones fan sites, but also fantasy geek sites, RPG sites, and maybe even an M:TG site. (Although I can't visit those. They're worse than Twitter.)

Thanks for your help!