Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Blog Sluttiness

I think I've become a blog slut. I have a LiveJournal. I have a Blogger page. And now I have a MySpace page. I'm putting essentially the same content in each place. My sluttiness has more to do with taking advantage of the various networking and friend-of-a-friend aspects of each of these sites. It's all about helping build the word of mouth. These sites increase my chances of being discovered by people who haven't yet heard of me and who might discover me through whatever ways people meet people online. And then they might buy my books!

In the interest of full disclosure, I should confess that the main reason I joined MySpace is that's where the cast from The Office hangs out, and in order to see all their fun behind-the-scenes pictures and stuff you have to be a member. And if I was going to the effort to join to see that stuff, I might as well use the membership for promo (in my ongoing effort to find ways to reclassify my goofing off as work-related). To increase the "this is work, really!" factor, Jenna Fischer, who plays Pam on the show, is my current mental casting for Katie. I saw her on the Today show and on Conan O'Brien last week, and as herself, she's exactly what I've been picturing in my head.

The problem with MySpace is that it reminds me of high school all over again. You can see who's popular and who isn't because your "friends" are displayed right there on your page. I guess you can see how many "friends" someone has at LiveJournal, but you have to go looking for it. It's not right there on your main page, telling everyone "Yes, I am a loser, for I have no friends!" So, in the interest of making me feel popular -- or at least not like the troll outcast loser who can't get anyone to sit with her in the cafeteria -- if you have a MySpace account, please add me as a friend! My page is at http://www.myspace.com/shanna_swendson.

Oh, I just checked, and I now have three friends, and one of them is Jenna Fischer!!! I feel so very cool.

I'm feeling a little at loose ends this week because the book is with my very swamped agent and I've taken care of most of my business and promotion to-dos. I got caught up on my goofing off yesterday (some of which now counts as "work" -- look for an announcement soon), and today I have to run errands and may finally get out to see a movie. Then it's back to work. I have to find a good promotional excerpt for Once Upon Stilettos, start re-designing my web site, prepare a workshop speech or two. And, oh yeah, I should probably think about cleaning my house, huh?

No comments: