3 Things You Can’t Do Without Internet Service

1. You can’t look up telephone numbers to call the cable service that your internet is bundled with. Now of course if you had a phone book to look numbers up in you’d be be sitting pretty. The key word being “IF”. I throw them out as fast as they are left in the driveway or on the doorstep, but don’t tell H because he is old school and still uses the phone book- or he would if he looked up his numbers himself instead of asking me for the info. That’s a whole other blog post.
2. You can’t check your e~mail. And my mailboxes are filling up as I type, even if I can’t see it. They will all come on to shore at once as if riding a wave in the ocean. If I don’t stay on top of my mail situation and delete unwanted solicitations and reminders two or three times a day, my inbox gets cluttered with offers from Sexy_Asian_Singles (who knows where that even came from!) to  Groupon ads to Navient Department of Education reminders for Andrew. 
3. Social Media is a thing of the past with no internet connection. Facebook will only pull up a limited number of posts – most of which I read last night before going to bed. I can’t connect to WordPress from my laptop, but I can connect to the app on my iPhone. I can write this essay, but I can’t post it – not until the Internet is up and running again. 

The trash pick-up truck pulled the cable line down early this morning and since our internet is bundled with cable and using that line, we are now off the grid. 

Finally, after carefully going in and out of my driveway under a hanging cable line all day a representative showed up from the cable company about 3pm. He figures there are about six to eight customers in the area affected by the downed line. He came. He observed. He left. It’s 9pm and we we are still without Internet. WTH?!

It could be worse. The electric line could have been involved and we would be without electricity. I’m already living out of an ice chest for a week though. What next? And that is yet another blog post!  

Hope your day is better. I’ll post as soon as my Internet is connected…

Thirty-eight hours after the initial call to the cable company, workmen finally arrived to repair the downed line. Sheesh! You’d think we were in the middle of a hurricane…

Elle~

A WRITER’S WORLD – You can’t have one without the other!

 

So you want to write.

And so you do.

You publish one book…

and then you publish another…

The professionals said to start a Blog. It will be good for your image and will brand your name. Others will follow. So you do, and all is good, because if nothing else, you at least get some writing time in with a blog. Now answer your comments and follow and comment on other blogs. Consistency is the key here.

Somewhere you read about Author Central. You need an Author page on Amazon. Every author has one. People will follow. Now you have one too. Add your bio with a picture. Link to your Blog. Add your books and there you have it. Keep it updated.

But don’t forget that Author Facebook page.  It’s the tops in social media. Everyone loves Facebook. People will like, they say. They will follow. So you start a page, add pictures, publish posts, and become a presence. And all those people did LIKE and follow.  Link to your Blog. Don’t let this site get stale. Tune in often with the times of your life.

LinkedIn looks interesting. Of course being a writer and publishing books is a business. Treat it as one. Link to your Blog. Add your presence to LinkedIn. Another bio, another profile picture, and another way to promote those books.

Don’t stop now. There is tweeting in the air. Get on top of that Twitter account you opened because it’s all the rage, and a perfect way to advertise your books. Another bio with another picture. Link to your Blog. You tweet. They tweet. Everyone follows everyone. Twitter is one big happy family.

Goodreads keeps popping up all over the place. Have you joined Goodreads? Now’s the time. Open an account. Don’t forget that bio and profile pic. Add what you are currently reading and some books you want to read, some books you have read, and some you haven’t. Join some communities, and make yourself known. Review some of your favorites books. Add your published books and apply to become a Goodreads Author. Yet another presence to put out there to folks! Keep that site updated  and current… and don’t forget to link your Blog.

If you look closely at all those social media networking sites up there they all have one thing in common.

THEY ALL LINK TO YOUR BLOG!

It takes time to read, comment, write a few posts, do some networking, market your books, and leave your brand out there for all to see. It takes more time to keep all those sites updated. So what do you do? Which social media network do you push more? Since they are all linked to the blog, you can read a post from the blog from any of your social media sites. Sure you love to see those numbers rise in the amount of followers on your blog. The comments are great and the likes keep you posting regularly. Are those Blog numbers more important than the numbers on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, etc.? You choose. Time is quickly running out.

Now that all the I’s have been dotted and all the T’s have been crossed, how much time do you actually have left in the day to write on that new book you started? If you are like me, not much. You fit in a couple of pages here and a few pages there and hope it all meshes together.

You can pick up a copy of my new non-fiction book,

‘Coffee-Drunk Or Blind’, here.

And you can find my fiction book, ‘Crossing The Line’, here.

One day soon , I hope to have another book on this list. Time permitting!

~Elle