For all your blogging needds!!

[Jen]

This thread is just jentastic!!

[Jenn]

how i love you alll....let me count the Jenns....

[Jen]

Hahaha

[J.A.]

Does that make you all Jenneration X?

[Jenn]

Noooo jeneration j!

[J.A.]

heheheh

Jenneration X for when you're in disguise?
JAC

[Jenn]

We are so awesome there is no need to disguise it, probably couldn't if we tried! (jk I'm not a narcissist)

[C.S. Splitter]

So...jenerally speaking they are now jeneration J?

Splitter

[Elizabeth]

I have a new blog post up today. Come by and check it out.

Thanks!

Of Publishing and Cabbages and Kings

[Leslie]

I just finished reading The Finkler Question, a hilariously funny and erudite book which won the Man Booker prize last year. Drop by my blog to read my review at www.the-reading-list.com

[Jenn]

Ok, so next month I'm planning on doing author interviews. My question is, how do you actually do a giveaway on a blog? Never done it before. Thanks!

[Jennifer]

I've done quite a few giveaways. The easiest way is to ask people to leave a comment on the post to enter, including their email address. You can also ask them to answer a question or follow your blog (or friend you on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, etc) or tweet about the giveaway in order to enter. If you want to be fancier, you can create a form for the giveaway on Google docs. I learned how to create a form by watching a tutorial on Parajunkee's blog. (She's a great book blogger). Here's an example of an expired giveaway on my blog: http://jenniferlanebooks.blogspot.com...

[Jen]

You can really do it however you want. You can have readers comment with their email for an entry and you can have them spread the word (twitter etc) for extra entries if you want. I haven't true it yet but I know you can make forms thy readers can fill out inborder to enter.

I have only had a few on my blog but you're welcome to check it out for ideas

http://lratrandom.blogspot.com/search...

[Jen]

I forgot to mention that random.org is a great tool for picking winners!

[Jennifer]

Good point, JenLR. You can generate a random winner through using a site like that. Yeah Jens! ;)

[Jen]

Haha. You beat me to it Jen :)

[Jenn]

Thanks Jenns'!!!!!!

[Cambria]

Jenn wrote: "Ok, so next month I'm planning on doing author interviews. My question is, how do you actually do a giveaway on a blog? Never done it before. Thanks!"

I just announce what the giveaway is and then tell when the giveaway ends and what day you will announce the winner. The giveaway running on my blog right now (Hurry and enter all, it ends today!!) you just leave your email and name and tell me who your fav werewolf is. :)
i will be announcing the winner tomorrow.

[Jenn]

Jenn wrote: "Ok, so next month I'm planning on doing author interviews. My question is, how do you actually do a giveaway on a blog? Never done it before. Thanks!"

I like randompicker.com because also free, but you can add a little seal of approval where entrants can look up their name to verify they were included in the drawing.

Also I use Google Forms for entries, totally free, email is then not made public also it compiles entries in a spreadsheet for quick adding to the draw. If you're going to do extra entries I recommend adding a question to total up your entries, it saves a tremendous amount of time. I like to give extra entries for following the blog, following the author donating the prize's blog, twitter follows and sharing information about the contest.

Also if you're using Twitter to promote said contest you can schedule tweets in advance on Tweet Deck so you can sit down on one afternoon type in and schedule two posts a day and have an announcement about your contest going out every 12 hours to your twitter, facebook and other social networking accounts from the day the contest starts to the day it ends. You can do this all in one sitting and not have to worry about promoting on social networks again for the duration of the contest. Using hash tags like #contest or #giveaway make the post open to people not following you right now as well so can draw more people to your blog. There are also multiple sites where you can list contests including a Book Giveaways Group on Facebook and Library Thing, Multiple Groups on Goodreads and Bookbloggers, and all sorts of different contest link ups on blogs.

[Jenn]

Angela wrote: "Jenn wrote: "I think networking is hard for everyone, more so the authors than the bloggers because yeah we want followers but blogging is not our livelihood. Maybe some sort of compromise between..."

Auto repsonders don't touch the email itself it just automatically replies when an email comes into your inbox with a preset message. A lot of people use them when they're on vacation. Actually Rachel Hawkins has one set up right now telling people she won't be able to get to emails until September or something like that because she's trying to get the next book in her series written.

[Jenn]

Also I should note that I don't recommend using the auto-responder as the only form of reply. Using an auto responder to tell people they aren't going to get a response overnight because you don't sit in front of your email 24/7 just to respond to fans is courteous so they realize you haven't forgotten them. But it's only courteous if you eventually go back and reply with a personal email. The point of using it is to make sure they realize you do answer your email you just don't get to them instantly.

I personally agree that just plain form replies with no later responses are a little rude to fans. People get that you're a busy person, but when they send a question they don't want a reply listing where to buy your books with no future response answering their question. Piers Anthony still takes the time to respond to email. If he has time, considering he's like legend, then every writer should be able to make a few minutes a day to respond to email. Nora Roberts on the other hand sends a form letter telling where to buy her books and completely ignoring any questions the reader might ask. I've emailed them both back when I used to run a writing group on yahoo which featured advice interviews from writers. It became to time consuming so I gave it up, but Piers Anthony responded right away, Nora Roberts didn't even take the time to personally tell me no, she didn't have the time to do something like that.

[Jenn]

Final thing, I don't know if I mentioned, but I switched my blog to a .com for easier finding. So instead of the really long address it's now http://www.frequentreaderblog.com/

[Angela]

Jenn wrote: "Final thing, I don't know if I mentioned, but I switched my blog to a .com for easier finding. So instead of the really long address it's now http://www.frequentreaderblog.com/"

I think the .com helps so much and puts a pro touch to what you're doing... and it's so cheap and easy. I have 3 .coms pointing to different areas of my blog. I think each one was around $6 thru godaddy.

[Jenn]

Jenn wrote: "Jenn wrote: "Ok, so next month I'm planning on doing author interviews. My question is, how do you actually do a giveaway on a blog? Never done it before. Thanks!"

I like randompicker.com because ..."
Thanks for the info, as far as twitter goes i am even more clueless, maybe after I figure out all that goes with bloggin.....

[Jenn]

Jenn wrote: "Also I should note that I don't recommend using the auto-responder as the only form of reply. Using an auto responder to tell people they aren't going to get a response overnight because you don't ..."

Well, this Indie author has a little over a 1000 followers on GR and so far, I am the only one that has been responding to her blog posts and yet she still can not reply?
Hell, even an auto reply would be better than asking you what you think then friggin ignoring you!!!
Talk about mixed signals.
But because I love this authors work so much, I am going to give it one more try, email her personally and see if she would be up to letting me interview her for my blog. I guess we will see......

[Jenn]

Angela wrote: "Jenn wrote: "Final thing, I don't know if I mentioned, but I switched my blog to a .com for easier finding. So instead of the really long address it's now http://www.frequentreaderblog.com/"

I ..."
Ummm, what and how?

[J.A.]

Jenn, this might be really obvious so forgive me if you already thought of this, but there are some authors who aren't on Goodreads but they've hooked up the blog to the author's main website. It may be that the author hasn't made it across here apart from once to hook it all up - are they active in other groups or anything?

You probably already thought of it, but it took me a while to notice that one.
JAC

[Jenn]

Jenn wrote: "Angela wrote: "Jenn wrote: "Final thing, I don't know if I mentioned, but I switched my blog to a .com for easier finding. So instead of the really long address it's now http://www.frequentreaderb..."

If you're on blogger you should be able to find the options to get a domain address in your dashboard I can't remember the exact tab, but check in settings. That's probably the one I found it on. It costs $10 so if you want a .com it won't break you. It takes up to 72 hours for the address to totally readjust but it also means going back and editing some navigation with the site since addresses to those links won't exist anymore.

[Cambria]

thanks for the advice Jenn!!