Big News and a Blog Break

UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE

As if this post wasn't long enough already, right? But thanks to Laura Eno and Helen Ginger, I have directions on how to include a LIVE LINK in the comments! Thanks to all of you who have already left links. Everyone else...what are you waiting for?

So without further ado...here's how:

My blog is Straight From Hel. To create a link after my signature on a comment and have that link be clickable, here's what I do:

I create a small bit of code that looks like this:

<a href="http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com">Straight From Hel</a>

Within the quotation marks is the link to my blog.

Within the >< is the name of the blog.

To change this to fit your blog or whatever page you want to link to, just change those two elements. A link to my website would look like this:

<a href="http://helenginger.com">Helen Ginger's Website</a>

The words between the >< can be whatever you want. I could have written this:

<a href="http://helenginger.com">Helen Ginger</a>

If I wanted to link to a company I'm part of, I could have written:

<a href="http://legendsinourownminds.com">Legends In Our Own Minds</a>

You can see that I've taken the same code and just changed those two elements.

So...just copy the code I've given here and take out my information and put in yours, then copy and paste after your name in your comment.

I recommend you get a copy of the link-code you create in something like this Notepad document. If you keep it in Word, Word will automatically make the link live, then you lose the code and may forget how to create it.

:::

Before anything else...

I want to thank everyone who hosted me on the Official In Name Only Blog Tour. My blog is yours anytime. Just let me know when.

And thank you to everyone who has read In Name Only and for all you've done to help me promote it. Please tell all your friends :)

And,

I am officially on a much needed blog break for all of September.
I will be back here with a new post on Monday, October 1.

:::

While I'm gone...

I'm going to come as close as possible to completing the draft of my WIP. Wish me good luck - I'll need it.

I'm also going to work on the look of this blog. It needs it. I'm going to back it up, but y'all know I'm a techie idiot. Wish me success in not losing everything :)

:::

Now, to the real stuff...

When I return in October, I will only be posting two days a week - Monday and Friday. And I am going to schedule my blog to post one hour earlier, at 6 a.m. Central Time instead of 7.

However, there will be occasional Wednesday posts. I'll let you know about these on the preceding Monday. Because...

I hope to host one or two guest bloggers each month.

I have one guest blogger already for each of these months: November, December, and January. So contact me if you have an interest. I'm open to authors who follow this blog and who participate here at some level, even if it's small. Guest posting days will be Mondays and Wednesdays. Fridays are reserved for the Top Ten list. So if you want to guest on a Friday, you'll need to work your post into a Top Ten list. Ciara Knight proved it can be done!

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But here's the Big News...

Remember a few weeks back I asked er pleaded er bribed you to go over and like my Facebook Author Page? And you were so good!!!

Anyway, right after that, I saw this blog post by Philippa Ballentine titled "Top Five Ways to Keep Your Favorite Authors Writing."

Among the things she suggests are:

Amazon. Click the Like button under the title of the books you love. The Amazon folk use this in their magic algorithm, and it helps the book show up higher on a list.

Amazon. Scroll down and click on the tags that the book has. Or make new ones yourself. This will also help people find your friendly author.

Tell a friend. Honestly, Fifty Shades of Grey didn’t become popular because of marketing, it became popular because all the mums in the world talked about it at the playground. Unlikely anyone will be able to replicate that success, but still word-of-mouth does really help.

I've also heard that liking the Amazon author page also helps.

So here's my idea.

I'm putting links at the end of this post for all of my places that can be liked, followed, friended, or whatever.

I would love for each of you to go to all of them and do the appropriate clicking.

But that's not all.

I'm inviting all of you to leave all your links in the comments. If you have multiple books, like I know many of you do, leave a link for each one. Make this as easy as possible for everyone.

I'm also asking all of you to post, tweet, Facebook, or whatever to help get the word out. Any author is invited to post their links in the comments. I'm calling this the Like Me Project.

If I end up with enough participants, I plan to make a separate page on this blog or perhaps create a separate blog to keep this information current and ongoing.

I will make every effort to visit every link posted in the comments section, and I hope each of you will visit often to find and click on links for your favorite authors.

One note ... I do not know if it's possible to put a live link in the comments. I don't know how. If you do, please leave directions in the comments. I will move them to the bottom of this post so everyone can see. It may be we will need to copy and paste from the comments to the web, at least until I move them to a separate location - if there are enough. I'm not doing this if there are only a few.

Remember, the only cost is a little bit of your time. But maybe it's just me who thinks this could bump up all of us a notch or two. I guess we'll find out together.

Only you can make the Like Me Project grow!

So here are my links, with explanations of where to find the Magic Buttons. Mine are live, just clicks away. And I thank you if you do.

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/ckilgore
The like button is on the right near the top.
Scroll down for In Name Only and click on either the paper or Kindle edition.
On the screen for the book, the like button is in the center of the page beneath the title.
The tags are near the bottom of the page below the reviews.

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6094110.Carol_Kilgore

This is my profile page. You can friend me or be a fan or add In Name Only to your shelves or any combination of that.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carolkilgore.author

Just click the like button :)

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/#!/carol_kilgore

Click Follow

Blog: http://www.underthetikihut.blogspot.com
You are here!

Website: http://www.carolkilgore.net
FYI Only - Nothing for you to do.

We all appreciate anything you choose to do. Thanks!

See you on October 1!

Oh, I won't be responding to comments left here either, except to click on your links, of course.

I'm on a Blog Break. Remember. Duh :)