Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click here to learn more or sign up.
Happy Star Wars Day!
May the 4th Be With You.
A good day, I plan to have… Correction.
A good day I will have. There is no plan.
This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Any amount I make goes towards my dream to host a book fair in Hampton Roads, VA. Please see my About page for more details. Thank you for your support.
Optional Monthly Question: It’s the best of times; it’s the worst of times. What are your writer highs (the good times)? And what are your writer lows (the crappy times)?
My writer highs seem few and far between these days, but I’ll take’m when I can get’em. My highs usually involve getting feedback on my writing, good or bad, that means someone actually read something I wrote. It’s also nice when someone actually likes something I’ve written.
My lows usually involve time. I never seem to have enough time to write, develop, edit, promote, etc… But the lowest low I’ve experienced came from someone who made racist comments about my writing. The comments themselves weren’t the “low”, I’m used to that, I’ve been black my whole life. The “low” was the fact that the comments came from someone who was supposed to be a leader, someone who was supposed to provide critical responses- not emotional judgments, someone who was supposed to make me feel welcomed in a group of writers all sharing their work. It’s difficult to learn and or create in an environment where you don’t feel safe being who you are, so I left.
****
IWSG BOOK CLUB ON GOODREADS
Member Spotlights
#iwsgbookclub
The books we’ve chosen to spotlight in the month of May are Up on the Roof and Other Stories: Revised with Bonus Short Story by Judy Ann Davis (Amazon.com & Bookshop.org) and The Or’in of Tane: Book One: The Chronicles of Aden Weaver by Yvette Carol (Amazon.com & Bookshop.org). Please check these out and consider giving one or both of these a read this month. If you’re not up for reading them, no worries, you can still help spread some love for these publications and or participate in the book club activities.
Feel free to share this image on social media to help spread the word.
My co-mods and I have done a lot of research into the books written by IWSG members to help facilitate the current direction the book club is taking. In the process, I’ve learned about how readers find and don’t find books by our members. So, I’ve put together some, hopefully, helpful tips I like to call…
Ways to Make Your Book(s) “Findable”
…and increase their chances to be featured and discovered.
9) I know I just told you, last month, not to spam and overpromote on social media, but that doesn’t mean you have to pretend not to be a writer, especially if you have published work. Just a simple example- if you have a Facebook page, consider creating a simple photo album of your book covers (with or without links). I’ve had several people find my picture books because they landed on my page and went straight to my photos. Don’t try to be everywhere on social media but do try to find where the community of your potential readers will be and connect with them.
Reminder: Here’s our spotlight schedule.
IWSG blog list 1-50 = Feb, Jun, Oct
IWSG blog list 51-100 = Mar, Jul, Nov
IWSG blog list 101+ = Jan, May, Sep (IWSG Anthologies)
IWSG Registry = Apr, Aug, Dec
Remember, if you are not currently on the IWSG blog hop list and don’t plan to join, the registry is the only way for your books to have a chance to be spotlighted by the book club. If you are on the blog hop list, please don’t join the registry. We want to be fair and give everyone an opportunity to be featured, which means some of us will have to wait our turns, including me (the book club admin) and the co-mods.
Please click this hyperlink to fill out the form to be added to the IWSG Book Club Spotlight Registry, and please help us spread the word.
Now, on to the personal updates.
I got a critique of one of my stories and discovered that it wasn’t working as well as I thought it was. I was actually glad to hear this. I had a feeling something was off but I didn’t know what it was. Now I have some suggestions of ways to improve the work.
I’ll be attending my first live book event of the year this weekend and hope to connect with readers and other writers in my local area. I’m not stressed about the event itself, I just always feel anxious about being around crowds. It’s nice to be able to use my table as a security blanket.
I submitted a story to an anthology with no real expectation of my story being selected. I’m looking forward to feedback and like to stay in the practice of submitting from time to time.
Here’s the latest on my YouTube series, The Read Local Show (Hampton Roads, VA, USA) and The Read All Over Show (global). I’ve been having so much fun with this. I had such a good time finally sitting down for a chat with J. H. Moncrieff. I’ve been following her work and career for years and she is one of my favorite authors.
If you’re interested in being featured: check out the Read Local/All Over Sign-up form here.
****
What are your writer highs and or lows?
It may take some time, but I promise, I will eventually stop by your blog. My response time has gotten slower but I’m still making my rounds.
****
After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Kim Elliott,
Melissa Maygrove,
Chemist Ken,
Lee Lowery, and
Nancy Gideon!
****
Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #31).
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 #blacklivesmatter
