Cat Rambo lives and writes primarily in the state of Washington, with occasional peregrinations elsewhere. A prolific short story writer, she has had work published in such places as Asimov's, Clarkesworld Magazine, Weird Tales, and Tor.com. Her first novel, Beasts of Tabat, appeared in early 2015 from Wordfire Press and will be followed by its sequel, Hearts of Tabat, in late 2015. Also appearing this fall is Neither Here Nor There, Rambo's fourth story collection.

Award nominations have included the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, the latter for Rambo's editorial work with Fantasy Magazine. She is a frequent volunteer with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and is currently its President. She teaches a series of online writing classes, details of which can be found at her website. Her most recent nonfiction work is Ad Astra: the SFWA 50th Anniversary Cookbook, co-edited with Fran Wilde.

Creating an Online Presence for Writers by Cat Rambo

Creating an Online Presence for Writers shows writers how to decide what sort of online presence they want as well as how to plan in order to achieve it without cutting into precious writing time. Writers who want simply a web presence will find it lays out the basics for creating one, while writers who want to take advantage of the many opportunities an effective online presence offers are offered plenty of tips, tricks, and tools to play with.

The book demystifies concepts like search engine optimization, structured data, and website analytics while providing pointers to free online resources available for maximizing one's effort, along with essays on topics including one's online persona, data privacy, and how to recover from social media disasters. An analysis of a basic book campaign shows steps and missteps in action and showcases many of the concepts.

CURATOR'S NOTE

I've recommended Cat Rambo's Creating An Online Presence for years now. Writers hear all the time that they need to promote, promote, promote, and they need to do so online. Cat makes online promotion not only understandable, but easy—something a writer can do while writing, instead of giving up writing time to be a social media butterfly. Updated just in time for this bundle, Creating An Online Presence contains the latest in everything online that writers need to know. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 

REVIEWS

  • Cat's book is a must have for all authors (or indeed anybody) interested in wading into the world of online media.

    v – Amazon review

  • "...there are LOTS of tips regarding social media I wasn't aware of. (And I'm a social media fiend!!) If you are a writer, you must read this book. "

    – Fabio Fernandez

  • Cat Rambo gives us a whirlwind tour of various social media, and suggests ways that writers might use each of them to connect with readers and other writers, and even use them to organize research and story ideas.

    – Amazon review

  • "This book is an excellent tool for writers at any level of their career. Cat Rambo, as always, has smart things to say! "

    – Django Wexler

  • "Cat Rambo's excellent survey course helps writers find their footing in the disorienting but valuable world of social media."

    – Rachel Swirsky
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt from Networking with Sincerity and Purpose

It's natural for writers to want to spread word of our work. We all realize that, short of hiring a publicist, we're our own best champions. But if we go too far, or are too single-minded in that pursuit, we can come off as boorish and arrogant.

To do it successfully, keep some things in mind.

Push the good stuff.
In an ideal world, everything you have appearing is amazing and wonderful, but if your experience is closer to mine, some stories are stronger than others. Pick the best, and when you're mentioning that you're eligible for something, point to those and not to an exhaustive list of everything published that year. Presumably you've got a bibliography available somewhere on your website (here's mine, for example), and if anyone wants to see everything you produced, they can check that out.

Pay it back, in spades.

Want other people to feel inclined to spread word of your stuff? Then make sure you're doing it for them. If you read a story you like online, point other people to it in a blog post or on whatever social network you use. Drop the author a note and say why you liked it. Don't sit back and expect glory to come your way, whether or not it's well-deserved. Make nominations and recommendations, and vote.

Go to other people's readings. If you've got to pass up an opportunity, try to steer it towards someone that needs it. You don't need to be insincere about any of this. Praise the stuff you like, and if you're having trouble finding it, you should be looking harder.

Monitor and maintain connections.

Pay attention to other people's events and celebrate their victories. Just be a decent human being, and life will be better overall (at least, in my experience. If you're a personality type damaged by human interaction, take all of this with a suitably-sized grain of salt.) This is part of paying it back, really, but it's more than that. It's being aware of the people around you. I stress it because I'm bad about it and it's something I've been trying to be extra mindful in recent years.

Listen more than you talk.

This helps with maintaining connections. Remember that sometimes communication isn't about what's being said, but about the act of performing it. Time is one of our most valuable commodities – to say to someone that you want to share yours is a valuable thing. (But at the same time, remember that other people's time is just as valuable to them. What you view as quality time spent with them, they may think of as time they could be spending on something else.)

Eyes on the prize.

As with so many other things in life, time spent doing this is time spent not writing. If you're thinking of networking as a career-building activity, make sure you've got an actual career to build on.