Hi, Roberta. Twitter may well be a good tool for you. The good stuff doesn't happen overnight, though, and you can't start out simply promoting yourself. You have to build up a following, which you do by being interesting, helpful, funny, etc--and that takes a while. Once you've got some relationships, you can throw the occasional promo tweet into the mix.

In addition to the webcast I did for SheWrites and The Twitter Book I co-wrote (both of which are paid resources), you can do some Googling to find free articles on using Twitter to build your personal brand. Best of luck.

Maybe! Please send more info to correspondence@laurencerand.com.

I'm definitely interested in working with you -- right now I'm on the west coast with my grandparents who aren't well so I'm not sure when I'll be back or available to focus on my work, but I will be in touch!

--Kirsten

Roberta--

Dear Roberta:

You may not know me or my work, but I am the national bestselling, award winning novelist of six critically acclaimed novels who has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

On Jan 9th, 2010 my debut novel, SUGAR will celebrate its 10th anniversary and in order to commemorate this milestone I am campaigning to sell 10,000 copies between now and that date.

“Bernice L. McFadden's first novel begins with the brief, poetic description of a crime so startling that the reader is helplessly drawn in, as if a bright red door stood ajar on a bleak and forbidding house. Pearl Taylor's daughter, Jude, has been found murdered and mutilated near a field at the edge of town. "The murder had white man written all over it," writes McFadden. "But no one would say it above a whisper. It was 1940. It was Bigelow, Arkansas. It was a black child. Need any more be said?" In the years that follow, Pearl catches sight of Jude in so many strangers that when Sugar Lacey comes to town and sets up her unwholesome "business" in the house next door, she doesn't know whether to believe what she sees in Sugar's face: a striking similarity to Jude, dead 15 years. In her sedate but supple prose--rising at times to a light, unforced lyricism in the description of landscape or character--the author perfectly renders the closed and protective society of a small Southern town, the superstitions, gossip, and prying.”


I’m asking that you purchase a copy of SUGAR for yourself, a friend or family member. And yes, KINDLE purchases count.

If you could help spread the word by blogging, twittering and Face-booking my campaign, it would mean the world to me.


Peace & Light,

Bernice L. McFadden
www.amazon.com
www.B&N.com

Roberta,

Answer to your query 'how am I learning to use Twitter?:

With difficulty! Also by trial and error.

I have just finished (in the last few minutes) an author interview with GARY EBY. Gary has been very helpful in his teaching process. I can recommend him if you want help/interview.

I look forward to knowing more about you. In the meantime have a great day.

Eliza
www.elizaearsman.com

I'm glad you told me about the long lines. I had no idea, either, and I'm planning on going first chance I get.

Roberta,

I will be in town on Thursday, and so I may actually find my way to your reading. Looking forward to it.

Rebecca Coffey
http://www.rebeccacoffey.com