One of the things I’ve been working on the last couple of weeks is a marketing plan.  I’m still in the earliest days of that, but beyond setting up this blog (which if you go back to my Cranium Outpost days I’ve been blogging on since 2006), and Twittering, there’s not a lot an author can do to attract interest without actually publishing something.

But one of the things I did want to do was to make sure I had control over key things like my domain name (check), and my Twitter name (@JoeBeernink) (check) and now my Facebook Fan Page, which you can now see here.

There’s nothing spectacular going on presently on any one of those places, but each step establishes my base, and, as I find new tools to gain legitimate followers, allows me to present a greater audience to perspective publishers.  Publishers want to know that you already have a network of people who want to read what you write, and that you have a professional plan on how to grow that base.  Writing is artistic.  Publishing is a business.  Anything I can do that helps to increase my visibility in a good way and to improve my chances of not only getting published, but increasing the demand for what I do, I’m going to try to do it.  Being aware of social media is not optional in this day and age.  It’s required.  So even though it seems a little weird to set up a fan page before I have any fans, it’s something I think is necessary so as to present a consistent, professional image going forward.

We’ll see how it turns out.