Signed Copy of Suicide By Everest
If you want a signed copy of "Suicide By Everest" send me your address, and anything else you want me to write in it! 🙂
$14.99
If you don’t want to deal with me, you can order the paperback or eBook through Amazon here:Â https://www.amazon.com/s?k=suicide+by+everest&ref=nb_sb_noss
Now that I’ve published my book, and I’m in the sales and marketing phase, I find myself constantly having to look up all of the different ways a reader can find my book, or contact me. So I’m creating this page to gather all the places I exist on the Internet.
To be continued….
I have been a Twitter user for years, and have used a number of different handles that have died from disuse. Facebook had always been my go-to social networking platform, and Twitter was an afterthought.
In August of this year, I decided that I needed a separate handle for my writing and to promote my book (Suicide By Everest, being published October 28th on KDP). I established @ScottJThurman as my author account and in a very short period of time surpassed the number of Followers on my business account, and will probably exceed 1000 Followers by the end of this month (October).
I know there are Twitter folk that look down on those of us that shamelessly troll for Followers but for many of us it’s not only a social platform, it’s also a way to promote and sell our books. And although I know that only a small percentage of my Followers will buy my book, 1% of 1000, is greater than 1% 100.
Here are some Twitter guidelines that I’ve started to follow:
1) Follow back. I almost always Follow back. It’s an easy thing to do and it always feels good to get a new follower. Unless the person is espousing values that I strongly oppose or are selling something I won’t ever need, I follow.
2) Answer DMs. If somebody takes the time to write a thoughtful message to me, I hope that I will always write back. If it’s just a form DM that somebody has cut and and pasted, that may be grounds for unfollowing. Also, if you’re trying to sell me something, don’t bother, I ain’t buying.
3) I don’t Follow beautiful young women that Follow me and immediately try to start a conversation. What is up with that? It runs counter to my instincts as a man, but I’m savvy enough to know something ain’t right.
4) Follow Followers. When I’m scanning through the multitudes of Twitter accounts looking for good recruits, I look to see their Following to Follower ratio. If they are following more than they Follow chances are they’ll follow you back.
5) Collate. If I follow someone and they don’t follow me back in 48 hours (give or take) I unfollow them. It’s oddly satisfying. Of course if it’s some important influencer (i.e. a Kardashian), or somebody famous that I want to associate with (i.e. @ ) they can stay.
6) Follow Friday’s #FF are a good way engage with your Followers and grow your own Following. Today my theme was people with No Commas (I.e. Less than 1,000 followers) that have a Following to Follower ratio greater than 1.
… to be continued.
Authors on Twitter seem to be an engaged and loyal group.
I’ve been tweeting for years now, under many different handles, but my tweeting has been very sporadic. Today, I have two Twitter accounts that I am actively using; one for my day job, and one for my writing (@ScottJThurman).  As I’ve started using Twitter more, I’ve noticed that the more engaged you are, the faster your “followers” grow, and you actually start forming friendships, and having interesting conversations! Maybe even a nemesis or two.
I’ve also noticed how eager the author twitter community is to help and support each other. I’ve already bought several books, that I wouldn’t have otherwise, just because the author and I shared a few “likes” on Twitter. Hence, I am proposing a “You Buy My Book and I’ll Buy Yours” program, which is a list of people that will buy your book, on the assumption that you will buy theirs. It’s an honor system, at least until I can figure out how to correlate sales to participation. 🙂
Here are the rules:
If you are interested in joining let me know. If you have a book you want me to buy and review let me know.  If you have any ideas on the program itself, please comment, I am interested in hearing from you.
Thanks! Scott
Should a person Blog? Tweet? Post? Is it in his/her best interest?
If so, then why? What is the objective?
Should you separate your Twitter activity from your Facebook activity, or should you try to meld them all together?
These are the questions that I’m trying to figure out, so if you have any insight, please add your voice, but here is how I’m breaking it down:
Earlier today I tweeted something about SUICIDE and within seconds I regretted it and deleted it. It was fairly mundane, but I could see where somebody who had lost a loved one or struggled with suicidal thoughts, might take offense.  So, to be on the safe side I deleted it. It got me thinking about all the filters I run my social networking posts through, and wondered if I’ve set it too high, or too low? What factors go into a tweeter’s decision to post or not post something.
Here are a few I came up with:
Thoughts? What filters do you use, if any? What high/low is your social networking setting?
As I enter the marketing phase of authorpreneurship, one of the concepts I struggle with is how to communicate that Mormonism is an influence on the book’s protagonist (Brig), but it is not a religious book by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I also worry about the opposite… that friends/family will be displeased by some of the more salacious sections of the book (rape, S&M, prostitution).
Suicide By Everest is fiction, but I draw heavily from my own life and experiences. I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT, baptized in the Mormon Church when I turned eight and served a church mission in Hong Kong. I no longer consider myself a Mormon, but I am not anti. If anything, I’m anti-organized religion.  I hope that readers will be pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns of Brig’s journey.
This picture was painted by my wife, Jackie Chang. It’s a picture of the Angel Moroni. For non-Mormons, Moroni was the last ancient American prophet to write his story in the Book of Mormon and buried the golden plates in a hill where Joseph Smith would find them hundreds of years later.  The image of the angel Moroni blowing a trumpet is commonly used as an unofficial symbol of the LDS Church. Moroni appears on the cover of some editions of the Book of Mormon. Statues of the angel stand atop many LDS temples with most statues facing eastward.
(Reference: Wikipedia – Angel Moroni)
