Category: IWSG

Toi’s contributions to the monthly posting for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group on the 1st Wednesday of each month.

Categories
IWSG Videos

#IWSG April 2015: Why are authors on You Tube?

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Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.

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I would like to start today’s adventure by saying…AHH! 😮
I can’t believe I’m co-hosting this month!

Honestly, with so much going on, including the A to Z Challenge, I’m just glad to be able to help out.

Now let’s talk about, “Why are authors on You Tube?”
1. Obviously it’s another opportunity to reach potential readers with:
-Book Trailers
-Sample Readings, and
-Interviews (however rare and elusive they may be)

2. To learn from others and perhaps go viral. – There’s a lot to be said about 15 minutes of fame. It’s more than most of us get. Also, by interacting with this audio/visual search engine and social media platform, your creativity may be increased by seeing what other people are doing around the world.

3. To have fun and share. (This is more of a why authors should try it.) – I get it, not everyone has the time, means, creativity, or motivation to host a You Tube channel, but I do it because I want to share my ideas with others, whether I’m reaching anyone or not; the same reasons I blog. 

Here are a few examples of how I use You Tube.
 

Also, I’ve put together an impromptu book blast featuring one of my video series. It would mean alot if  you could participate. Just click on the image below. Thanks.

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Have you given any thought to building your audience with
You Tube or some other video streaming platform?

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s other co-hosts: Suzanne Furness, Tonja Drecker, Rachna Chhabria, Fundy Bluee, and
 Donna Hole!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #181).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
IWSG

#IWSG March 2015: Interviews & Anticipation #bloggerswanted

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Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.

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I don’t know how encouraging this will be to anyone who happens to be reading it, but I’d like to have a conversation with you. Really, whoever you are, I want to get to know you. It seems that no matter how hard I try I just can’t seem to really connect to those around me and in the blogosphere it’s even harder. I’m not sure if people, or other authors, think I have something up my sleeve, but no one seems to believe me when I say I want to get to know them.

I’m not going to lie and pretend that I’m the perfect pen pal or virtual friend you’re ever going to find, but I do like connecting with people, even if I’m not that good at staying connected. Being an introvert is only a small part of it. What can I say, I have issues, but that doesn’t make me a bad person. I want to get know people, especially other bloggers so I can learn from them, but my problem may be that I don’t have much to offer in return.

While I love to interview people, they may not want to be bothered with the whole process knowing that my post isn’t likely going to garner them a 1000 new followers or fans. I’m small time, but I like it here at The ToiBox of Words and think others would too if they simply gave it a chance.

I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of video interviewing authors and bloggers. I guess I missed the memo that said talking in front of a web cam was a mortal sin. What kind of introvert am I anyway? Why would an introvert have a You Tube channel? I guess deep down, I know it doesn’t bother me because my following is so small and filled with people, to which, I feel pretty confident in calling friends.

In any case, I’m making efforts to reach out and interview some new authors and even some book bloggers just because I’d like to get to know them. We’ll see if any of them say yes.

On a completely different note, I’m trying to walk by faith and believe that I’ll be able to release my sequel, Eternal Curse: Battleground by May of this year, but I feel like I’m battling a giant in the process. We’ll see what happens.

Would any of you like to be interviewed?
Why are people so camera-shy?
Are you working on a book or other release? I’d love to hear about it.

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Chemist Ken,
Suzanne Sapseed,
Shannon Lawrence!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #121).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
IWSG

#IWSG February 2015: Waiting & Celebrating

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Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.

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So this month a have a few things to celebrate and a few thing to try really hard not to worry about.

1) My wonderful new bud The Armchair Squid nominated me for the Inspiring Blogger Award. To say that I’m honored would be an understatement. I’ve been blogging for almost four years now, but sometimes I still feel like a newbie just trying to get a handle on this blogging thing. When I receive recognition like this, it makes my whole week; and to receive it from a blogger I truly admire is even better. Now here comes my insecurity. Tomorrow I’m going to post my response to this nomination and in turn nominate around 15 other bloggers. I will have no trouble at all finding bloggers who inspire me, I just don’t know how they’ll respond to being nominated by me. Some of them I’m very close to, but others I kinda feel like a fangirl suffering from the delusion that I’m friends with these great bloggers I follow. Plus they’ve probably all been nominated already by someone else.

2) Yesterday I posted a new little project I’ve started to help me keep in touch with some of my author buddies and blog guest. I call it “Long Time No Talk”. It’s basically a blog exchange that allows me to post an update for someone else and they post one for me. Yesterday I shared the update of author M.C.V. Egan. You can click here to see it. My plan is to reach out to others who’ve visited my blog to see what they’ve been up to in the same fashion. It was a lot of fun doing the first one and even if the guest aren’t keen on posting my update to their blog, I’ll still post theirs to mine.

3) Now it’s time to wait. I completed the sequel to my Eternal Curse Series and with help of the IWSGCC I was able to find someone to critique it for me. So I sent it off and now I’m waiting. I’m waiting to see just how much more work the manuscript needs or perhaps how much more work I need as a writer. I’m excited and scared all at the same time.

4) I’m glad to announce, for the few of you who know about it, that I’ll be starting back up with my You Tube channel posts in March. Aside from picking back up my regularly scheduled programming, I’ll also be putting together a miniseries to help promote the sequel to Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel. I’m thinking a cute dog in the videos will help keep them interesting. What do you think?

So now it’s off to completing my list of nomination; do you like these kinds of awards: yes or no? Seriously, is a cute dog a good idea or not? strong>

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Gwen Gardner, Dolorah, Sarah Foster, and M. Pax!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #122).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords