I'm Finally on Facebook!

I finally have a Facebook page that works!

I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but I'm really excited. I've had a really hard time gaining traction on Facebook. I couldn't use my family account because it's all in Spanish and my first attempts at an author page were total failures. All the author guides recommended an author page but it didn't really work for me. No one knew who I was and I couldn't friend anyone. I loved Twitter, but I just couldn't get the hang of Facebook

I finally switched from a page to a profile and started to friend other authors. I joined a couple of writing groups and friended even more people. It's been great. I have a great circle of author friends who keep me informed and motivated. I even found a couple of paranormal phenomena groups which are great for research.*

I still didn't have a page though. It didn't seem necessary because I'm nowhere near the Facebook friend limit and my profile still has room to grow. I was using my profile for personal stuff (chatting with other authors, fingerling with other readers, discussing ghost stories) and not for marketing so I didn't see the need for a promo vehicle. I'm getting closer to my book launch now, though, and I probably should have a page in case readers don't feel comfortable friending me.

I'm not going to duplicate my Facebook feeds though. I'm planning to keep my page (mostly) professional with book news and writing updates and only a few (very few) ghost memes.

So now you can follow me on Facebook in two different ways. You can friend or follow my profile if you're interested in my writing process (including lots of writer's angst and whatnot) and funny gifs and memes about haunted houses and ghost hunting, or you can like my page if you just want book news (or you can do both if you want to waste a lot of time).

Happy Facebooking!

* Here are a couple of my favorite Facebook groups: Haunted Nation, Dorset Ghost Investigators Forum, Night Vale Community Radio, No Nonsense Paranormal World, and Paranormal Romance Lovers. Do you have any favorite Facebook groups (particularly paranormal investigations groups)? If so, leave a comment so I can check them out. Thanks!

Link Fiesta

An owl steals hats in Oregon. This is hilarious and I need to add it to my book. Banshee Creek owls go rogue!

Another fabulous Zoe York podcast. This time there's juicy Facebook info. Facebook is such a frustrating experience for me. I made an author business page (which is what everyone recommends) but couldn't get any "likes" for it (cause, duh, I have no books out so no one knows me). I now have a personal author profile (separate from my personal-personal profile, which is all in Spanish and is mostly Puerto Rico gossip) and have managed to collect some interesting author friends. For the first time in YEARS author Facebook is actually fun. Here's my profile in case you want a whole bunch of writing links and Zac Bagans pics littering up your feed. I still have to do that page thingie for the Banshee Creek series, but I think I'll procrastinate that for a while.

Amazon squeezes small presses. Interesting article. There's a lot of small romance presses and I wonder if this is affecting them. Food for thought.