Remember This

I think I started writing lists and making sure I jotted every appointment down around the time I had my third child. Our family schedules looked like a spreadsheet by then. And how over twenty years later, I need those list and notes to myself. Today I'm going to share some of these with you.

*Dianna Gunn, promotions specialist with the now closed Musa Publishing, is our guest on the IWSG blog. She's talking about how working with a publisher has helped her own writing career. I know she's given me some good suggestions and insights into marketing.

*My post on Monday about blog housekeeping before the A to Z starts received lots of comments and some really great suggestions that I have to share in case you missed them. First off, my fellow A to Z co-host, John Holton, liked my suggestion about making sure any links in your post open in a new tab and don't carry people off of your blog. John is a clever guy and has constructed his posts so they appear on his Wordpress and Blogger sites at the same time. So John put together a 'how-to' post to make sure your links do as I suggested. And he gives concise instructions for both types of blogs. Visit his post if you don't know how to do this already.

*Maria Zannini, one of my blog time blogger friends, commented how she sometimes find interesting bloggers by what they say in the comments. That is so spot on. When you see someone leaving thoughtful and insightful remarks about a post, you just might want to check out that person's blog. Thanks, Maria, for that helpful idea.

Maria's post on Monday was about having friends. It really spoke to me. Since I've become a full time writer, I go days and days where I only leave the house to exercise (or shovel snow). I speak to no one except my husband and whichever of my children are around. And I don't even notice that I've been so isolated and I never feel lonely. Good or bad? I'm going to try and get out more, meet friends for lunch now and then if for no other reason than to wear some of those clothes hanging in my closet.

Don't forget if you're about tomorrow, there's a Twitter chat going on for the A to Z Challenge. Use the hash tags, #azchat or #atozchallenge. We'll meet on Twitter at 1 to 2 pm and again 8-9 pm EDST.

Do you keep lists or scribble notes to yourself? Have you found interesting bloggers through comments? Ever feel lonely when you haven't left the house for a while? What's the longest you ever spent without leaving your home? Did John's post help you?

Dianna Gunn; Promotion Specialist

I've been very fortunate to have found a wonderful publisher to reissue my first epic fantasy series,

The Futhark Chronicles. Musa Publishing is a very professional business and I've had the pleasure of the last few months to work with Dianna Gunn, the promotion specialist assigned to help me. I've already learned so much from her and today she shares why she loves her job.

The Best Job in the World

Last year I was hired by Musa Publishing to work as a Book Promotions Specialist focused primarily on expanding the reach of our speculative fiction. I had done social media marketing for a variety of small businesses, but I always daydreamed about working with books.

I've known I wanted to be an author since I was eight years old, and working in the publishing industry seemed like a natural extension of that. So I jumped at the opportunity and started working with some great authors right away.

Five months later I'm pretty confident that was the best decision I've ever made. Here are some of the reasons why:

The people I work with are fantastic. Everyone I work with is passionate about the same thing I am: books. Some like different genres and authors than I do, but they still love books. This means we have plenty to talk about and that nerdy references can often be expected during our conversations.

Quite a few of the people I work with have also shown interest in my own writing and their support and encouragement has helped me make leaps and bounds towards achieving "published author" status myself.

I feel a deep sense of pride when one of my authors gets a good review. I know the books I work with are fantastic—I've never read a Musa book I didn't like, and I've been reading them since the company opened its doors—but it's even better when I see somebody we don't work with talking about how much they enjoyed one of our novels.

Getting reviews on big book blogs can be difficult, but every time I've managed to get a spot on a big blog, the blogger happened to love the book. Seeing a 4 or 5 star rating tells me all my hard work paid off—and that I'm not just supporting great people, I'm supporting great books.

We all learn from each other. Everybody I work with has a different skill set. Some of my authors have only published their first novel in the last month—and others have their first release date coming up soon. Some of the Promotions Specialists I work with have been working in the publishing industry for years. I've been studying social media marketing actively for the last five years and got my first social media job in 2012.

I've been in a pretty constant state of learning since Musa hired me, and it's incredible. I know so much more about book marketing than I did five months ago, and a huge part of what I do is simply pass that information along to authors as I learn it.

Musa is constantly growing. Individual book sales might show only increase slightly from month to month, but Musa is growing all the time. We are actively looking for new staff and new authors, and book sales are steadily increasing.

Being part of a company that's in a constant state of growth and change means two things: I can clearly see my influence on the company's growth, and there's endless opportunity for me to advance my career. There's room for me to grow with Musa, to build a solid career with a company I've truly come to love.

Book promotion isn't easy, but most of the time it's incredible fun. The week before a release might be insane and sometimes you really feel like you're shouting into the wind, but it's all worth it. I wouldn't trade my job for anything in the world.

Dianna Gunn is a freelance writer and Book Promotions Specialist who's working hard to add published author to that list of titles. She also happens to love cats, photography and Scotland.

You can find her at The Dabbler or on The Darkside Codex blog every Tuesday. Tuesday.

IWSG: February Version

Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, this wonderful groups of supportive writers is still around. Join the blogging challenge to receive encouragement, offer advice and network with other writers. Visit the entire blogging group and add your name to the list on the IWSG website if you haven't already. And you can join in by visiting the IWSG Facebook Page.

There's a lot I don't like about this month besides the cold and snow. It's short. Less days to do all the things I want to do and need to do. Just looking at my Old Farmer's Almanac leaves me a little frazzled, and I'm not a frazzling kind of person. Generally I thrive on multi-tasking, over-scheduling and too many commitments with not enough time. Did I over do this month? Actually, did I over extend myself for the entire year? I worried about it a bit all through January.

Then two days ago, a family friend died unexpectedly. He'd had health issues he'd ignored and not followed his doctor's advice, but he was the same age as my husband. It stunned not only my husband, but my children who appreciated and enjoyed this kind man's jovial presence and support. The world lost a bit of brightness.

And now I'm not worried about all those obligations as much as I was. I know I can handle it all and I'm not going to ruin my time stressing about it. I have more things to worry about like the health and safety of my family and friends. Time with them is time well spent. Writing is my job and all the networking things I do to strive for success are part of it. But it's not the most important thing. My advice this month is that if you're going to stress, make sure it's over the right things.

Beside prioritizing, another way I've taken some of the workload off my shoulders is to host some very interesting guests on my blog. This Friday, Dianna Gunn, Promotions Specialist for Musa Publishing will have a guest post. More wonderful guests will follow during the rest of the month.

I still need some minion helpers for The A to Z Blogging Challenge. I hope you've signed up. If you have and you would like to improve your exposure even more, please think about being my helper. It's pretty easy. I give you a small number of blogs to visit each week and visit them at least once to make sure they're following the rules and participating.

The Warrior and The Governor is doing well since it hit Amazon. Today I should finish up reading through the galley for Keepers of Sulbreth. The book is being reissued later this month by Musa Publishing. My WIP is on the back burner for the last few days.

Do you like February? (This question not directed to my friends in Florida and California. Do not under any circumstances tell me in the comments how it was 80 in your neck of the woods today.) Do you want to be a minion helper? Are you stressing over things you shouldn't? Is there something good you're stressing over?