Posted on by Amanda Brooks

my first anthology

So now I’m a professional blogger, I guess. My blog post about Kushiel’s Dart and how it affected my approach to my work was selected to appear in an anthology on prostitution. They paid me and everything. I have a copy of the book at home, though I haven’t cracked it yet (Gillette got an essay in there too).

I like this because it was pretty painless. All I have to do is blog for several more years and I’ll have a book! (That was a joke.)

UPDATE: Jacqueline Carey mentioned on her November homepage updates. I’m so flattered. I still probably won’t be able to speak should I get to attend another book-signing of hers.

Posted on by Amanda Brooks

an agency offer

An interesting side-effect of winning an Honorable Mention in the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards was that I got an e-mail from a literary agency. More properly, an intern at the agency. Still, a literary agency contacted me. Pretty nice and something I was very secretly wishing for. It was a heady moment.

Since she contacted me about two weeks before the Spitzer scandal broke, I knew it was genuine interest. Anything else I would’ve dismissed. And it was an agency I had considering querying (eons ago when I was querying agencies). So that was very good.

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Posted on by Amanda Brooks

writing diversity

Proof that I’ve been hanging around sex worker activists way too long — I complain about a book’s lack of “diversity” in an Amazon review.

PS: This is said with much love and the most gentle irony. I’m mostly amazed I’m using the word in various contexts. Obviously something from all those listserv debates and conference calls has sunk in.

Posted on by Amanda Brooks

customer relations

Another post in my disjointed look at small publishing.

I have a backlog of writing/business/marketing podcasts I listen to when driving or washing the dishes. Or cleaning. (I’ve found I can’t listen while working on the computer since most of my computer-time involves writing and reading.)

This podcast was an Internet radio show that interviews publishing experts and this guest was an expert in marketing for small publishers or authors (either/or). I haven’t read any of his books, but one of them is on my “buy” list. He was discussing building newsletter lists and how marketing today is all about building relationships with your customers. He has a newsletter list of 10,000 subscribers and feels he has developed a relationship with them.

Not only is he a far more popular guy than I currently am, I wonder how he thinks he has a relationship with 10,000 people he’s never met.

Why does this statement bother me?

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Posted on by Amanda Brooks

sugasm #112

The best of this week’s blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #113? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form.

This Week’s Picks
If She Were Here
“I licked him behind his ear the way I know it drives him crazy.”

Quickie
“Their eyes locked for a full minute, with neither moving, nor speaking, and the lust flowing between almost tangible in its intensity.”

The Devastator
“She walked over to me, and pressed her warm mouth against mine.”

Mr. Sugasm Himself
Orgasmic Childbirth

Editor’s Choice
Cause and Effect

More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm

See also: Fleshbot’s Sex Blog Roundup each Tuesday and Friday.

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