Regarding Facebook and "outreach" promotion
I was planning on posting on this, then saw JanOda's post on similar ideas, but will go ahead with this because it's important.
And hope that I don't step on anybody's toes with anything I say here.
I get a strong impression that a lot of people in the weblit community, if in fact it's really a community yet, aren't as adept at self-promotion as book writers. I see so many people who have put their project on WFG and muses and maybe have project wonderful ads, and think that's promotion.
One of the cool things about this site is the idea of going beyond the "other weblit writers ghetto" and reach out to readers who aren't familiar with it. Such as the flyers at conventions thing.
But there is SO much that can be done for free on the internet. You drop into book marketing sites, or netwoks of sites like Published Authors and you see it. These people are EVERYWHERE. You google them and POW, there they are. You don't have to be a web promo guru to get what all of them agree on: be EVERYWHERE.
And the more connected and "viral" or whatever those places are, the better.
I see people doing a lot of twittering, but that's really just messages among a group, isn't it? Whereas if you have a Facebook page and start hooking up with other writers, then with fan pages, then with the friends of friends and other fans, get on pages of major weblit writers... get on pages and groups of writers and publishers that are NOT weblit people... then you are starting to bring new eyeballs to your fold.
The ning networks I have mentioned are the same deal. And have a LOT of groups for science fiction and fantasy and zombies and wizard books... where you could be sitting and sending announcements to everybody in that group. And having your RSS feed right there.
But few are doing that, which is why I have the effronty to write this suggestion.
Another aspect of this:
There is another huge area of promotion that I see being ignored by weblit people in general. Videos.
It's like if you have a book out anymore you HAVE to have a video. Or so many say.
It opens up whole new channels of promo beyond the inner circles of weblit. You're on YouTube and all those video networks. You can reply with your video to other similar videos...instantly available to view of anybody watching that other video.
You can add it to sites. It's an announcement. You can enter it in contests and awards...more promo, possibly even some brag swag.
But almost nobody is doing it for weblit. I have a video for Flesh Wounds, Mayan Calendar Girls has a whole bunch of them... and you can see the comments and links they draw.
So why are the book people doing that and the weblit people not? Because weblitters can't figure out how to make a video? I kind of doubt that. I think it's because it's all been inside and is just starting to move out.
You can make a video for free if you have any artwork at all.
In fact, I have a manual on how to make book trailer videos.
(See, this whole post has been another ploy in my evil attempts to suck you into my fiendish self-glorification) It costs six lousy bucks and has been highly praised.
However, anybody from this group who wants to email me at linrobinson at mexipost.com I will send them the manual for free. (It's a pdf document)
I'd urge weblit people to cast an eye towards this way of promoting their project and having some fun.
Hey guys? Now that he's gone, if you ever need to make videos, I'm sure Janoda can give tips, and I know my way around video editors enough to give you some advice as well. (Thank you 3D animation school! At least you were useful for something.)
Hahahaha. Irk. Please, that video was one of the most amateurish video's ever made. Really, I just used some cool features on my purdy new Mac (I named him Macbaby, and I'm in love), and really messed around. It took me 2 days to get it like that. Really. It was a very messy thing.
Book trailers and video's are a strange thing. They tend to be boring, because most people just use images and an eery song, and some text thrown in.
However, if anyone wants some tips after this confession, I'm always ready to help.
I do believe Lin made a valuable point. It's not a bad thing to be everywhere as an author (though maybe using multiple acounts isn't a very good idea). I do want to make a stand for being only there where you have actual time to be. Don't make a myspace, facebook account, twitter page, goodreads account and librarything if you only have the time to update on your own website.
There is nothing as frustrating as an author who doesn't log on or reply to any comments you make.
Another small tip, use your own strenghts. If you're not good at video making, or your equipment sucks, don't try it, because it will probably hunt you forever. Which isn't bad if you aim to be a crazy fan like me, but can decrease your believability as an author.
Video blogs are cool.It's just talking to the screen. I've done a few, but they take a lot of time. I would recommend people doing this if they are already have a fanbase because people can ask questions before hand and you can answer them on the video blog. Book trailers are pretty cool,but they are usually too long. I think 1 minute is the optimal time limit.
Since the topic has come up, can anyone point me to any book trailers? Good ones worth emulating are preferred, of course, but bad or okay ones are fine too--I've just never seen a book trailer.
I have one here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3RghvynR3w
It's nothing serious and was great fun to make 
Is subtler, the cyber effects of your widening web presence.
Most people are aware to some extent or another of SEO, trying to optimize your site to appear high on search engine search pages.
And might have written it off because whereas it's helpful to have your Chicgo restaurant come up high on a search for "Chicago Restaurants", it doesn't really work that way with novels.
But it's good to be aware of it, and one thing engines like is LINKS inbound links to your site. Links constructed to be noticed, with good ALT tags and such.
And things like links from the same server being useless. So if everybody on MeiLin's server links to each other, it doesn't impress Google.
And there is something other than SEO involved. I call it "Google Bait" for lack of a better word. Let's say they aren't searching AltaVista or Yahoo for "gay wizard high school web novels". Let's say they're looking you up. Or the name of your work.
Are you all over that page?
Are yon on authors den? All the book writers are. Are you on BookMarketing on ning? Why not be, it's 4000 people who could see you. You could start a weblit group there.
If you're doing a web serial, you are a self-published writer. That opens up vast doors for promotion.
I hope I'm not patronizing people here who are hip to this sort of thing, and those who know more about it than I do.
But if you aren't in the places I'm mentioning here, couldn't you be doing a lot more to promote your book, and weblit in general?
The very nature of promotion entails looking outward and reachign outward, not inward. I hope this has been helpful towards that concept.
LINTON ROBINSON .COM