Tag Archives: twitter

The Post Where I Shamelessly Plug My Twitter Handle

Why should you follow @bookshelfbattle on Twitter?

10)  I can waste 140 characters faster than George RR Martin

9)  I won’t resort to peer pressure to get you to follow me…

8)  …but seriously, all the cool people are doing it.

7)  As soon as April rolls around, it’s pretty much going to be all Game of Thrones, all the time on my twitter feed.

6)  But I’ll still talk about other stuff, so there’s something for people who <gasp> don’t like Game of Thrones, though I can’t imagine why.

5)  You too can dare to be a nerd.

4)  Occasionally, I even talk about books.

3)  I tweet more than a Blue Warbler with Tourette’s Syndrome.

2)  Do you really have anything better to do?

1)  Oh, you do?  Sorry.  But can you squeeze my tweets into your busy schedule anyway?

As always, I’m @bookshelfbattle.com on Twitter.  Thanks for stopping by and keep reading!

 

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Brian Williams Misremembers

Oh Twitter.  We can always count on you to rub the salt in America’s gaping wounds.

Smart asses from all over the Internet have descended onto #brianwilliamsmisremembers to engage in the wisecrackery of placing Williams at the scene of all manner of historical and fictional events.

Even this jerk weasel got in on the action:

And well…it just goes on like that.

If you’re not following @bookshelfbattle then you’re missing out on all the snarky goodness!  And if you act fast, you can be my 3000th follower, which will win you…absolutely nothing!  Well, it will win you my undying gratitude and devotion.

So yeah, in other words, you win nothing.  But follow me anyway!  Surely being my 3000th twitter follower will get you bragging rights…if you’re in a room of people who care about mundane things.

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My First Celebrity Follower

I did a double take today when I noticed that I’m being followed on twitter by @tayediggs

I like to think it’s because it is of my witty and charming personality.  Most likely, he hit the follow button by accident.

Either way I’ll take it.

Thanks for following, Mr. Diggs.  And I’m sorry for all those times I made fun of Idina’s “Let it Go, Let it Go” song.

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365 Days. 365 Posts. 1 Nerd.

If you have the time, you can check and see that every day in the month of January 2015, I made at least one post per day.  I’ve been thinking about challenging myself to making one post per day on this blog in 2015, but wanted to get through one month before committing to the idea.

So, consider me committed.  And frankly, for agreeing to do this, I should be committed.

My theory:  Daily posts = more readers = more site traffic = an overall stronger platform.

Your theory probably = do less posts, idiot, and the posts you do, make them quality.  Quality is better than quantity!

And it is!  I’m not disagreeing.  A great feature of Word Press is that you are allowed to schedule posts in advance.  Many of my short posts are written and scheduled to appear on different days.  I write a bunch in one sitting when I have that most precious of commodities: free time.

MY SELF-IMPOSED RULES

1) 1 post every day now until Jan 1 2016.

2)  These posts do not have to have any level of awesomeness.  In fact, I’m fairly certain there will be busy times where I will simply post something like “I like waffles!”  or “How’s everyone doing today?”

3)  I will try my best not to allow quantity to override quality.  These short posts can be rattle off quickly, so hopefully I’ll make time to post more in-depth material.  This might even lead to more than one post a day, though only one post a day is required.

SUBSIDIARY GOALS

One post per day on this blog for the whole year is all I need to consider myself a success.  However, here are some other goals I’d like to accomplish this year:

1)  Comment on at least one other WordPress blogger’s blog per day.

2)  Tweet one tweet per day.

3)  Said tweets or comments do not have to be Shakespeare but can be short and sweet as time allows.

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS – GOALS BASED ON THE NUMBERS

Based on figures from last year, I have noticed that when I don’t post for long periods of time, the best I can hope for is around 10 visitors (average) a day.

Last year, during my Halloween daily post-a-thon for the last half of October, I noticed a spike in visitors to around 35-40 (average) daily.  This is when it first popped into my mind to do a 2015 year long post-a-thon.

At the time of this writing, I’m averaging 35-40 site visitors per day.  I believe this is due to daily postings.

I’m also seeing an increase in blog followers.  I had 400 at the start of the year, and about 450 now.

I had 2000 twitter followers at the start of the year, I’m at around 2500 now.

I’m not sure if there is anyway to guarantee this, in fact I’m certain there isn’t – but here is what I am hoping for:

By the end of 2015 – to have 1000 blog followers (i.e. people who click that little follow button on my wordpress blog) and 5000 twitter followers.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q – Could this all blow up in your face?

A – Yes.  Yes it could.

Q – Are you setting yourself up for disappointment?

A – Yes.  Yes I am.

Q-  I can see it now.  You post 364 out of 365 days then on Dec 31, 2015 you get hit by a bus.

A – That bus better have Wi-Fi.

Q –  Shouldn’t it be about quality over quantity?

A-  Yes.

Q – Then why this quest for quantity?

A – Because as wannabe writers, we are all basically pouring our drops into the same water bucket.  There are so many of us and blog readers and twitter followers only have so much time.  If you don’t catch them at the time they’re checking their feeds, then chances are, you won’t catch them.  More content = more chances to attract readers.

Q – That’s rather Machiavellian.

A – (turns around in my swivel chair, petting a white cat) Muah ha ha!  MUAH HA HA!

Q – Who is asking you these questions?

A-  I am.

Q – You’re interviewing yourself?

A-  Yes.

Q-  Takes a big ego do to that, doesn’t it?

A – It does.

Keep me honest folks!  If you see a day where I don’t post, call me out on the carpet and pelt me with verbal tomatoes!

365 Days.  365 Posts.  1 Nerd.  The Bookshelf Battle 2015 All-Year Post-a-thon is officially announced!

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My Contributions to Star Wars Voicemail

#starwarsvoicemail is blowing up on twitter. Here are my contributions:

And my favorite, though I suppose it is a little dark:

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This Was Cool…

Not that I’d let it go to my head or anything, but this was cool:

https://twitter.com/SeanPlatt/status/557203198621286404

These guys are good to their fans.

I recommend their stuff, just check out Amazon and you’ll find them.  I’ve yet to read The Beam but it looks like something Sci-Fi lovers would be into.  I do love a good robot story so I will have to check out Robot Proletariat.  I enjoyed Daniel Wilson’s Robopacalypse, and the sadly now canceled Almost Human on FOX, so anything with robots, I’m down.

I did read Johnny B. Truant’s Fat Vampire.  I went into it thinking, “Well, he’s probably just going to bust on fat people,” but it was actually a story with some heart that showed the struggles that “Reginald” goes through.

They also have a series called Unicorn Western, which is basically, just as the title says, a Western where cowboys ride Unicorns.  Cool idea.

I refer to them as “they” like they’re interchangeable, so I’m sorry, I don’t always remember which one did which book, or which of them worked together on which books, but in general, the three of them have some good self-published stuff out there, and I can’t say enough about Write Publish Repeat.

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Thank You! (Christmas Call to Action)

Hey Bookshelf Battlers,

Just a quick thank you to fellow book lovers out there for the help provided to me in just 24 hours.  Last night I was around 1900, maybe a little over, twitter followers.  After a push for 2000, I’m at 2035 as of tonight.  That wasn’t meant to be pushy.  It was meant to find more people to spread the joy of the written word to!  So thank you everyone, you’re all very cool.

Folks, I love the technologically advanced time we’re living in – a time where we’ve become the gatekeepers, a time where if you have something to say, your ability to say it does not depend on who you know.  You can just log on, blog on, and say it.  To ruin that sentiment with an Austin Powers quote, this is all “very groovy baby, yeah!”

This hopefully the beginning and the best is yet to come.  I don’t mean to brag, gloat, or show a lack of humility, because honestly, humble is my middle name.  I should just change the blog to “Bookshelf Humble Battle.”  I suppose what I’m trying to say is, if a) you all stick with me and tell your peeps to join the ride and b) I can kick my own butt to get into gear, then I think within a year to a year-and-a-half I’ll have produced some awesome reading material.  Blogging and Self-Publishing=the way of the future.

Well, heck, now that I wrote that, I have to do it, lest egg be on my face in a year to a year and a half. Someone call me out on the carpet if by mid-2016 I haven’t published something awesome please.  Thank you.

Finally, I try not to get too political on this blog because, well, come on, whoever we are, however we vote, can’t we all hold hands and come together in the spirit of promoting fantastic books?  But I have to say the whole debacle with The Interview irked me.  The idea that some tin pot dictator thinks he can tell our Hollywood Executives that they are not allowed to air their crappy movie is outrageous!  This is America!  Land of the Free and Home of the Brave Baby, where our Hollywood Executives have a god given right to produce their own crappy movies and distribute them on their own terms!

So that being said, if you have nothing better to do (and who are you kidding, you know you don’t because you’re reading this ) then do your patriotic duty and log on to You Tube to watch The Interview!  

ROGEN/FRANCO 2016!!!

In conclusion, apologies for all this philosophical babbling folks.  Bottomline:  You keep reading.  I’ll keep writing.

Merry Christmas.  Happy Holidays.  Happy Hanukah.  Happy Kwanza.  Happy Whatever Holidays I Missed, and If You’re an Atheist, Have a Top Notch Thursday!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve racked my brains and I can’t think of a good example of a work of Thanksgiving literature – not a book, a short story, a poem, nothing.  Someone mention one in the comment section and tell me I’m wrong.  I love Thanksgiving, but while Christmas has inspired a slew of tales about people either saving, learning the meaning of, or trying to get home in time for Christmas, there just aren’t as many tales about Thanksgiving.

After all, what would be the characters’ motivation?

CHARACTER 1:  We have to get home in time for Thanksgiving!

CHARACTER 2:  Why?  Will the world come to an end?

CHARACTER 1:  No!  But we’ll eat late!

So rather than wow you with Thanksgiving literature, I’ve decided to share some of the things I’m thankful this year.  I began this blog in March and started blogging semi-regularly in August.  Since then:

  • Several fellow WordPressers have subscribed.  (You should too if you haven’t already.
  • Over 1700 Twits have followed me on Twitter.  (And why haven’t you yet?  @bookshelfbattle
  • I’ve been inspired by NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to jot down twenty-thousand words.  I won’t make the 50,000 goal, but that’s 20,000 more words than I had.
  • I haven’t done as many book reviews as I’d hoped (yes, I know, THIS IS A BOOK REVIEW BLOG)  but I’ve inspired to read more books than I usually did pre-blog.
  • I’ve almost written 100 posts.  Anyone with ideas for the 100th post feel free to share.

So ultimately, Bookshelf Battlers, I’m thankful for all of you.  Keep following, re-tweeting, and giving me those sweet, sweet web hits.  Click on this site, then don’t be stingy with those clicks, click a few more times.  I’m looking forward to a 2015 full of booktastic good cheer and many more literary discussions of a booktacular nature.

And I promise – I’ll do an actual book review.  (Fingers crossed behind back).

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Frozen NaNoWriMo

I edited my work last night.  Stop judging me.  I realized I had made an error that if left unfixed it would have been pointless to press forward.

“That’s what everybody does!  Just write anyway!”

I know.  But the error was such that anything written beyond said error would have become meaningless jibber jabber.

“It all starts out as meaningless jibber jabber!”

I know.

Anyway, here are my tweets of the NanoWriMo Edition of “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?”

And here is “Let it Go” – NanoWriMo Edition:

I know.  I know.  I’ve spent the past year wishing these songs would go away and now I’ve made a small contribution towards keeping them going.  I am a hypocrite.

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Les Miserables – #NanoWriMo Edition

Here’s my series of tweets in which I took two songs from the play/movie, Les Miserables and geared them toward #NanoWriMo

Look Down – NanoWriMo Edition

So embarrassing!  One of those tweets has a “You’re” that should be a “Your.”  I wish there was an “edit tweet” function.  Oh well.  Here’s my other twitter-tastic creation:

The Confrontation:  NanoWriMo Edition

Especially creative?  Too much time on my hands?  A little from Column A and Column B?  You be the judge!

Are you participating in NanoWriMo?  Are you at least taking part in the #NanoWriMo discussions?  Follow @bookshelfbattle for more booktabulous fun.

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