Freaky Friday – Searching for the Weird

Interesting stats from my Facebook Author page www.facebook.com/MitziFlyteAuthor:

The greatest number of people reached were for actual scenes that could be horror writer prompts http://www.viralnova.com/creepy-places/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=aweber.

The next largest reach was the article about a fleet of UFOs flying across the face of the Moon: http://ow.ly/AleSd

And then there was the article about a new hangar at Area 51: http://ow.ly/Aleui

The articles on writing alone got very few hits. This is how it goes every week. I think that social media is flooded with information about writing and people are searching for information about the weird, the paranormal, the unusual.

I use the following hash tags for searches for the unusual: #ghosts #haunting #paranormal #ufos #aliens #cryptozoology #monsters

For writing articles, the hash tags are #amwriting #horror #indieauthor #selfpublish #writingtips #pubtip. Sometimes I use #marketing #socialmedia #bookmarketing.

Two weeks ago I blogged I’d heard through my writers’ loops that agents and editors at the RWA conference were saying that paranormal romance was dead.

I don’t think so.

Entangled Press http://www.entangledpublishing.com/ is actively looking for submissions for their paranormal line, Covet. This came directly from the line’s editor, Candy Havens.

Horror is another genre that the literati (whoever THEY are) try to kill off every few years. “No one’s reading that stuff anymore.” Tell that to Jonathan Maberry. He’ll give you a big old laugh.

For readers: Read what you want to read. Don’t “go with the flow” – if you do and don’t like it, find something that you do like. Try eBooks – all genres, especially the ones that are “dead” (in more ways than one)…they’re very popular. Don’t stop reading.

For writers: Write whatever you damn well want to write. Write your story. The one that’s stewing around in your head. (You know what I mean by that). There is a market for it…and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a New York publisher.

Writing is Magic. Believe.