One Year Later

Tia Nevitt was kind enough to invite me to participate to her One Year Later post series at Fantasy Debut. The piece is part interview and part update. In brief, how becoming a published author has changed my life.

At the same time, check out her post on publicizing your blog. It is extremely interesting and chock-full of good advice.
Here’s a section I found particularly useful:

Comment on other blogs. People know you exist this way. I still check out every new commenter.
Answer your comments. You want to appear accessible. Plus, when you answer comments, you encourage conversation.
Thank reviewers. Even thank reviewers for bad reviews. We feel all special when authors thank us. We may not be special at all, but it is in your best interest to encourage such feelings anyway. Don't kiss our ass; we can see right through that. Just thank us. We're more likely to remember you and to blog about you when we have warm and fuzzy feelings about you.
Consider blogging about bad reviews as well as good ones. This makes you look uber-cool, like nothing can touch you. You may be crying your eyes red, but we don't know that. We're just marveling at how awesome you are. Of course, if you're only getting bad reviews, this will simply make you look pathetic, so use some balance here.
Shout-out other blogs that you admire, and include a link to that blog, or the particular post that caught your eye. We'll most likely notice (see below for how) and we'll appreciate it.
Consider using Twitter. I have not taken the plunge yet. Try it and see if it's for you. If you like it, include your Twitter feed on your sidebar. Twitter should have instructions on how to do this.
Join science fiction and fantasy forums and participate. Yeah, I know. I need to take this advice, myself.
Ask! Email the blogger/site owner and make a request. Offer to trade links, or to do an article or guest post, or to send a review copy. The worst they can do is say no, but most of the time, bloggers are happy (read: giddy) to help authors out.
Did I miss something? Leave a comment and share the knowledge, please!

But don’t stop there! Go ahead and read the entire article. Here