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Monday, March 28, 2016

Reasons to do an #Anthology and a crazy #Giveaway

This past week went much better than the one before. But as I start my new job, things are about to get super busy again. Bring it!

I hope you had a pleasant Easter. Look what I'm sharing from my basket!

So why do an anthology? Here are just a few reasons:
  • Flex your creative muscles
  • Try a new genre
  • Gives you a break from editing or drafting
  • Write a short story that's been nagging you to be written
  • Take a favorite minor character on a tangent into his own story
  • Looks great on the resume
  • Might break your writer's block
  • Validation
  • Many authors = more exposure!
I'm so psyched to be a part of this project! It's very exciting to be working with many of my blogging buddies! Next month I will give you all a glimpse of the wide range of stories by these wonderful, talented writers as we inch our way to the release (May 31). So happy Randi Lee organized this!


You can keep up with the latest developments on Facebook here.


And in other news...

Good luck if you're getting ready for the A to Z challenge! I can't believe it starts Friday!

Make sure to visit the Really Real Housewives for some quick A to Z Around the House tips!
So here's the crazy giveaway - In my self-publishing adventure saga, I did a promotional giveaway on Amazon. I offered 2 Jolissa ebooks. Being a naive noob, I made the odds be 2 random people out of 100 entrants (surely it would take days to reach 100 entrants, right?) Well, the contest was OVER IN 4 HOURS!! That's CrAZy! The best part was I added the caveat that they needed to watch the 1st chapter of Jolissa on Youtube - I went from 50 views to almost 200! SA-WEET! Not to mention, one of my obscure amazon rankings went way up! I will definitely do this again but up my odds for winning to 5 out of 1000. Lesson learned and a pretty cool, inexpensive marketing tool!!

Lastly, since I didn't do a big release party, I'm also going to host a GIVEAWAY for JOLISSA - An Anti-Princess Story here on the blog.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Monday, y'all!

25 comments:

  1. That's awesome you hit a hundred so fast.
    Writing for that anthology was fun.

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  2. Well done, Tara!

    My work was in a few anthologies, and I enjoyed being a part of them.

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  3. How awesome is it that your contest was over in four hours!! Nice!

    I'm looking forward to reading Jolissa this week!

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  4. Awesome! Have a great week at the new job. :) And I'm excited about the anthology too. Those are the reasons I write short stories for them.

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  5. I'm loving the reasons you gave for trying out writing an anthology. Thank you!

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  6. I'm looking forward to the anthology. Have it marked in my handy-dandy planner. Cool how well the contest went.

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  7. Anthologies can be great fun. Congrats on being in this one.

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  8. I've done an anthology, too, and enjoyed it for the reasons you said. It's nice to have a feeling of accomplishment with a short story -- it takes so much longer with a novel!

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  9. You made it sound fun. I like your reasons. Hope you're enjoying your new job.
    Juneta @ Writer's Gambit

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  10. More exposure is a really good reason to do an anthology.

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  11. Great idea!
    I'm doing the same for Murder & Obsession!
    Much success with your book and your new job!

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  13. Thanks for the plug, Tara :D You rock!!! I love your reasons for writing for an anthology, too. Expanding a character's world is definitely one of my favorites, and something some of my anthology team did. It's a great way to flex the creative muscles and to get your name out there in a different and exciting way!

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  14. Congratulations Tara. I have done a few anthologies and enjoyed them.

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  15. Cool! Congrats on the increase in everything, the Youtube views, contest reaching 100 so quickly, adn most of all of being self-published. That's a side-dream I've had for oh my whole life. lol Thanks for the chance.

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  16. I'm looking forward to the giveaway. And that is pretty freaking cool about Jolissa really taking off. How exciting!

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  17. I had never really written a short story before, so that was definitely a new experience for me. I'm so glad I did it.

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  18. Great reasons to take part in anthologies. I try and submit to at least one a year, just to give my creative muscles a different kind of exercise from novel writing. :-)

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  19. Wow, that's the best possible "backfire" you could have in a giveaway. Cheers to that! And that's a killer list of names in that anthology. We're both looking forward to checking it out/feeling great shame that we didn't participate in it.

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  20. The anthology has a line up of amazing writers. I'm honored to be in such great company...

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  21. Great job! Thanks for the giveaway.

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  22. I had fun with my story in the anthology. I tried something new, and I like short stories. You see progress a lot quicker!!!

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  23. Oh that is a pretty awesome give away! I'll have to think about that for the future! Good luck with Jolissa!

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Thanks for stopping by!