Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Beyond the “Niceness” Debate–and Five Places to Promote Your Events Online

  1. Ron Charles
    RonCharles But now does every book critic on Earth have to write a response-essay abt reviews that are too mean? (Pls tell us “No,” @silvermanjacob)


Unless you’ve spent the past week or so entirely offline, you’ve likely caught at least some discussion regarding the practice of book-reviewing and the significance of nice–or nasty–reviews. Although I have some thoughts on these matters, they’re not yet processed. I admire those many writers who have (in some cases, nearly instantaneously) responded to various reviews, reactions, and counter-reactions in essay form. But I’m hoping that some of them are either 1) writers-who-teach who have not yet returned to the classroom and therefore have the luxury of ample time at their disposal or 2) people who are employed full-time as writers-critics. If these hopes are ill-founded, I’ll have to accept that I’m simply a lot slower (or lazier) than I thought.

At any rate, I’m going to follow the suggestion implied in Ron Charles’s tweet; I’m going to reserve full-fledged comment. At least, for now.

So what have I been doing with my own time-beyond-the-day-job in recent days? Big chunks have been devoted to solidifying details for and promoting some upcoming events. In brief: If you (or any of your friends/family/colleagues) live in Boston, Philadelphia, or Rochester, do I have news for you! And if you’re a writer looking for tips on how to promote your events, I have news for you, too.

Let’s begin with the first of these two news flashes: As some of you may already know, I’ll be leading a seminar at Grub Street, Inc., (Boston) on September 21, the focus of which will be identifying and applying to writing conferences/residencies/contests. Then, on October 13, I’ll be visiting the Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Philadelphia, where I’ll run a workshop on publishing short stories/poetry/essays in literary magazines. (Even if you can’t make the workshop, you’re invited to stop by the store later for a free reading from Quiet Americans.) And in November, I’ll be heading to Rochester, N.Y., where I’ll be participating in the JCC Lane Dworkin Jewish Book Festival (November 11) and giving a reading at SUNY-Geneseo the next day. (You’ll find all the available details on my website’s Events page; as my gracious hosts post more information, additional links will be added.)

So, what have I been doing to promote these events and appearances? Apart from mentioning them here and working on that aforementioned Events page, I’ve been submitting updates in multiple locations. And somewhere in the middle of that process, it occurred to me that this experience might help those of you who may be wondering where to list your events as well.

Thus, I present five sites where you can list your readings, workshops, and other events–free of charge. In most cases, you’ll need an established profile (your own Facebook account, your own Goodreads author profile, etc.) to make use of this information. And I’m sure that one at least some of these sites, it helps if you have an audience or following that will be most likely to see your posts.

1) The Poets & Writers Literary Events Calendar

2) Amazon Author Central profile

3) Facebook “events”

4) Goodreads author profile

5) The Jewish Book Council’s online calendar (where I’ll submit my Philadelphia and Rochester readings once direct links are available for them)

Now, I’ve done all of this piecemeal. (Remember, I’m time-crunched.) Plus, I suspect that it’s useful to spread the wealth, so to speak. By staggering these promotional tasks, I’m also publicizing these events in different venues at different times. I can’t help believing that that may be a good thing.

What do you all think? And are there other sites you’d recommend to your fellow practicing writers when they want to publicize their readings, workshops, and other events? Please share, in comments.

5 thoughts on “Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Beyond the “Niceness” Debate–and Five Places to Promote Your Events Online

  1. Mihku Paul says:

    I look for regional events listings online (I’m in Maine) and post there, such as Mainetoday.com.
    I also try to stay connected with my regional writers organizations, including Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, which have systems in place for event announcements and promotion.
    If I’m feeling ambitious I will make up flyers and request permission to post them in local bookstores, libraries and universities.
    I keep track of where I’ve presented so that I can request to leave postcards or flyers in the future.

    This takes a bit of time and effort but once you are organized it is easier and well worth the effort.

    I’m new to Good reads and haven’t integrated this social media into my routine yet. I do find lots of people I know are using it. In fact, even those who don’t use facebook generally are set up with Goodreads.

  2. Carol Ekster says:

    Thanks, Erika. This is helpful. I find Twitter very helpful to post events on as well. Kidlit events are often announced on Twitter. I always appreciate authors helping other authors in this overwhelming task of trying to get our books out there. Good luck with your work.

  3. Erika Dreifus says:

    Thank you both for the comments. Yes, Mihku, regional listing opportunities are valuable. Thanks so much for mentioning some in your area.

  4. Amy Morgan says:

    Will keep an eye out for the Geneseo reading details. Only and hour and a half away for me!

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      Amy, that’s so very kind of you!

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