Guest Blogging--and Why I Love Social Media

Hi, Everyone!  Guess what?  Today I'm a guest blogger at Charissa Weaks, A Day in the Life of An Aspiring Writer.  Sending a big thank you to Charissa for her lovely welcome and for providing us all with a great site to read and follow.  I met Charissa through Twitter and I can't say enough about how happy that makes me.

Although it hasn't even been two years yet, I can't believe there was a time when I wasn't Tweeting, or blogging, or chatting to my friends at JacketFlap.  And I'm always happy to meet more!  Which brings me to the question many of my non-Tweeting, non-blogging writer friends ask me:  How do you manage to find the time?  The answer is that I don't find the time, I make it.  Social media is important to me because:

• I am a writer and I love to share what I've learned or am learning about writing.  My blog and my website valeriestorey.com are all about passing on information--for free.  When I was starting out as a young writer, I was fortunate enough to be mentored by some great and well-known authors, now sadly no longer with us.  I like to think I am helping to keep their legacy alive by passing on what they taught me.  I enjoy talking writing, and I'll gladly talk to whoever wants to listen! 
• Social media is a lot of fun.  It's entertaining.  I enjoy reading other people's blogs, especially the ones that are "mini literary journals."  I try to add to the mix with my own efforts, e.g., things such as the collages that I put at the top of my posts.
• Social media has been very educational for me.  I've learned so much, especially through Twitter.  Every day I come across some amazing treasure trove of information, from tips on marketing and and writing, to collage techniques and the latest theories on Iron Age burial mounds.  I love the buzz coming from creative and thoughtful people and I love being part of that conversation. 
• And, finally, I do, ahem, have books to sell.  I've sold a number of books through my contacts and various sites and I'm very, very grateful to those book buyers.

That said, it's really time for me to finish this post and get back to work on the WIP so I can have a new book to sell!  Have a great day, friends, and be sure to go visit Charissa and see what's happening at her site.

Tip of the Day:  The key to making social media work for you is to schedule the times of day or night you'll sign in.  For instance, you might want to "reward" yourself with 10-15 minutes of Twitter for every five pages you write or revise; or perhaps you could give up watching 30 minutes of television to visit some blogs instead.