This was supposed to post on Facebook and Instagram. And hopefully will at some point. But when several attempts at posting today’s episode release failed, I had to wonder if my internet was out (it wasn’t, I checked several times) if my account had somehow been hacked (so far, seems like no) or if one of my hashtags caused me to be shadow banned (really couldn’t think of anything out of the norm that would have caused that.) Fortunately, a quick text to some writing friends (we usually chat on Messenger, but guess what? Couldn’t do that either) confirmed what I suspected: Facebook and Instagram have gone down. Which is aggravating when most of your fan base is there. And also a great reminder to all writers–make sure you are not dependent on your social media to get the word out about important things. Establish your website and a newsletter mailing list as soon as possible. I’ve been working on both of those items, I’m just not quite there yet. But events like today really make me wish I was at that point already. And I think if things get back on-line, I’m going to do a big push for readers to follow me here. Thank goodness I didn’t have a big book release, or that Vella hadn’t launched today. That would have been frustrating. Writing friends, I’d love to hear how you build your website following. If you do fun giveaways, how do you do them? Or like me, do most of your people follow on your social media sites?

Another thing I’m going to start emphasizing is Goodreads. I’ve linked my blog to my author account and so some of my readers that follow me there will see it there if they aren’t already following me here. Again, this is something I’ve known for a while now, but it’s been a slow process getting to that point. But if it isn’t something you’ve considered yet, start planning now. You don’t want to have important information to share and then be unable to share it.