Author Guest Post & Signed Book Giveaway w/ Jennifer Estep!

 

Hey Guys! Let’s Welcome The Awesome Jennifer Estep, author of the Elemental Assassin Series, to The Blog today!

Don’t Forget to Check Out The Awesome Giveaway at the End of The Post!

 

Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to say thanks to Larissa for having me on the blog today. Thanks, Larissa!

Some of you might know me as the author of the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series. The books focus on Gin Blanco, an assassin codenamed the Spider who can control the elements of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing people and righting wrongs, Gin runs a barbecue restaurant called the Pork Pit in the fictional southern metropolis of Ashland. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, vampires, and elementals - Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone.

The first two books in the series are Spider’s Bite and Web of Lies. Venom, the third book, came out on Sept. 28. Tangled Threads, the fourth book, will be published in May 2011, while the fifth book (untitled) will be released in October 2011.

I’ve also sold a young adult urban fantasy series called Mythos Academy. The first book is called Touch of Frost and will be out in August 2011. The books focus on Gwen Frost, a Gypsy girl who has the gift of psychometry, or the ability to know an object’s history just by touching it. After a serious freak-out with her magic, Gwen finds herself shipped off to Mythos Academy, a school for the descendents of ancient warriors like Spartans, Valkyries, and more.

So Larissa asked me to talk about social media today and how it’s impacted me as an author. I’ve had a website and blog ever  since I sold my first book back in 2006, along with a monthly e-newsletter that I send out to subscribers, but I have to admit that I was a little slow to get on board with social media.

I didn’t get on Facebook until earlier this year, when all my friends started talking about it, and I didn’t even know what Goodreads was until I saw other authors and readers posting about it online. I finally broke down and joined Twitter in May, after hearing so many people talk about it during the annual Romantic Times convention.

You know what? I really like social media. It’s a free, easy way for me to promote my books. And believe me when I tell you that I’m all about free and easy. ;-)

But more than that, it’s a way for me to connect with readers, authors, friends, and other folks who love books as much as I do, as well as stay up to date on book news, publishing deals, reviews, and more. I know that I buy more and more books these days because of reviews, blogs, tweets, etc. that I see online.

So how do I use all my social media sites? Well, I try to mix things up a bit. On my blog, I talk about everything from writing, to books I’m working on, to books that I’ve read. Whenever I have a new blog post up, I link to it on my Facebook and Twitter pages.

I talk about what I’m up to on Facebook and Twitter and also try to post fun stuff to those two sites, like a link to a recipe that looks good or a funny video that one of my friends has sent me. For all the books that I read, I post a review over on Goodreads, which I love since it lets me keep track of everything that I have or want to read.

Of course, the downside of all this is that it means more work for me - and maintaining all these sites is a lot of work. As a result, I’ve cut back my blogging to three days a week - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - to try to write more quality posts. I also try to update all my sites at least a few times a week, but that doesn’t always happen.

I don’t have huge numbers of people following me on my sites, and I know that I could probably be more aggressive about reaching out and trying to get more followers. But I get a few more folks every week, and my numbers are slowly growing. That’s good enough for me. World domination takes time, you know. ;-)

What about you guys? How has social media affected your reading habits? Do you look at more reviews online now before you buy a book?

And here are my links, in case you want to follow me or check out my sites:

Facebook fan page | Twitter | Goodreads | Blog

Monthly e-newsletter: Go to http://www.jenniferestep.com and use the signup form on the right.

 

Buy Jennifer’s Books:

 Amazon | Book Depot | Books On Board

 

 

Win a SIGNED Copy of “Venom” by Jennifer Estep!

To Enter:

- Leave a comment about anything on this post.
- Leave an EMAIL for contact! (if you don’t feel comfortable leaving it here, email me at larissa@larissaslife.com)

Extra Entries:

+5 Google Friend Connect Follower

+5 Networked Blogs Follower

+5 Subscribe to The Blog by Email (Form near the top of the Right Sidebar)

+3 Follow me on Twitter (@larissa_sarah)

+3 Follow Jennifer on Twitter (@Jennifer_Estep)

+2 “Like” Larissa's Life on Facebook

+2 Be my friend on Goodreads

+1 Add all your entries! (including this one!)

U.S. & Canada Only!

Ends November 15th!

Good Luck!

 

Don’t Forget to Vote for Next Week’s {Nov. 14th} Theme for

The TOP 5 Sundays Post on the Poll at the left sidebar!

 

Don’t Forget to check out My Giveaways:

You can Win 3 SIGNED Bks {2 ARCs}!

Click HERE to Enter!

International!

Ends November 11th!

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Win 2 SIGNED Books Of YOUR Choice on My NYCC Challenge!

Click HERE to Enter!

International!

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Click HERE or on the image above to enter!

 

Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you soon!
xoxo,