A Starting Snapshot

Social Channel Marketing
Now that I've had a month to think about everything I learned from the Write On The Sound writers' conference in Edmonds, I've been slowly formulating the approach that I'm wanting to take as a writer.  The market is undergoing significant changes.  Traditional print media is rapidly being supplemented by eBooks and online content.  Along with that, the use of social media marketing is having a huge impact.  So, I've been examining the approach that I want to take.

Thus far, I've been able to stay away from Facebook.  While I know a lot of people have used FB for their promotions and marketing, I still hesitate to go there.  Instead, I'm going to continue with the blogging and use Twitter & Google Plus as my channels for marketing my writing.  Since I'm still in the infancy of my transition to fiction, I felt this would be a good time to do a snapshot of impact.  Thus far, here are my current statistics:

Klout Score : 37  (A bit better than my initial starting score of 20)
TT.com Page Loads for Oct. : 640  (Mostly from searches for ERD. Guess a lot of folks need that.)
Twitter Followers : 67 (Just starting to focus on this.)
G+ Peeps that have me in their circles : 82

Almost embarrassing!  Well, it has been 6 years since my last book was published and I'm focusing on fiction as a new market.  I guess these types of stats are to be expected when I'm just starting in a new market.  Since all of my published work has been in the non-fiction technical field, I'm sure there's confusion about my intended audience as well.  I don't know if this will ever change.  I'm a geek in the computer industry who also happens to write science fiction.  I figure if Wil Wheaton can find success as a techno geek/writer/actor then maybe there's some hope for me as a writer. ;)

Goal Setting
Another thing that WOTS impressed upon me was the need to set some goals.  Being a writer is not just about writing.  People have to be able to read what is being written.  That means finding a channel for my writing, getting the word out, and making sure that my writing is of high quality.  With these in mind, I've set my current goals as:

1. Expand my audience via social media marketing (Twitter, Google Plus, Blogger, Word of Mouth).
2. Write more!
3. Find an editor to work with.
4. Write more!
5. Find a graphics artist for quality cover art.
6. Write some more! 
7. Track my ideas.
8. Sample/publish some writing.
9. Publish

Now these are not necessarily in any specific order.  Some do have to occur before others.  But, I can work on many of these at the same time.

Ideas?
Do I have ideas?  Tons!  I'm always amazed by the writers who say that they can't think of any new stories.  I don't have that problem.  I have the opposite problem - too many ideas and not enough time to write.  I've already built a small catalog of short stories and I have a novel in the works.  Plus a bunch of ideas that I've not fleshed out yet.

Stuff that I'll be promoting soon:

Zegin's Infection - Short story in the Zegin series
Zegin's Kidnapping - Short story in the Zegin series
Invis - Short story
The Wings of Leonardo - Short story
Jezi's Delima - Short story
Trans Op - Novel, in process

Ideas on the drawing board:

Markers - Novel
Flyer - Short story
No Home On Earth - Novel

Yes, I have a lot on the plate.  I guess this would be a good snapshot of how I'm starting.  It'll be interesting to come back and look at this in a year to see where I'm at.