Part of being a successful writer – like it or loathe it – is being a successful salesperson. In the old days that meant cultivating your contacts with local newspapers, putting out a press release, shaking a lot of hands and heading to every local bookstore you could find with a copy of your book tucked under your arm.

Nowadays, the bookstores are fewer and further between, and long before your book comes out, you need to get yourself established in social media. I’m luckier than a lot of first-time authors in that I already have a platform due to my blogging and activism, but I’m not an instantly-known name by any stretch of the imagination.

I’m also not known at all (yet!) in the YA community.

At this point in time, I’m about 16 months out from the publication of Traveler. That’s sixteen months I intend to use every minute of to build my author platform as LE DeLano from the ground up.

My Twitter account went active the minute Swoon Reads announced my name, as did this blog. I also activated my Instagram, and Tumblr will be up by the end of this week. I’m getting a full-on Hootesuite and Buffer tutorial this weekend (and there are other softwares that do this stuff as well but those are the big two – I’m comparing).  I’m going to need some help managing all this. I also enlisted the help of my daughter because Instagram is new to me, and she’s a pro. Not much going on there, yet, but that’s changing.

All in all, it’s a lot to take in, a lot to manage, and a whole lot to provide content for. All while editing and finishing a book. Or two.

I’ll just be over here babbling in a corner if you need me.