chapters.indigo.ca is building a “NEW community online.” Have you seen the ads plastered all over the subway? They recently turned the volume down to a few ads tastefully scattered through the cars, but as an author, they pounced on me as soon as my book hit their virtual shelves. They wanted me — me, ms. unknown — to join their community along with all the big-wig authors. Cool. I joined up.
It’s taken me awhile to acquaint myself with the basics. I settled at first with just filling out some rudimentary profile info. I didn’t upload a photo of myself — all these online places keep asking for your photo! — but chose a nice icon instead. I couldn’t figure out what to populate my shelves with and finally decided to start with a few pre-injury favourites and ended with a post-injury current book. DVDs I have very few of — mysteries, of course, I had to put up there on my shelf. And lastly music. Well, that’s a toughie. What do I like? My tastes have changed, but there were a couple of easy choices to begin with. Listening to the radio this morning, I realised I’d forgotten another obvious choice. Will definitely have to add her!
But filling a few shelves is only the start of building your presence in the chapters.indigo.ca community. There are all sorts of other things they want you to reveal about yourself and contribute as well. What are my top tens (uhhhh…do I have any?); what are my reviews (I like, I don’t like, what more can I say?); what are my recommendations (now here’s something I could probably sink my teeth into, given time); what groups am I in (first Facebook groups, now community groups, I’ll have no time left for anything else!)? Questions, questions, questions. And then there are posts to do. Posts? How is a writer supposed to keep up?! First a personal blog then a community post and then Amazon blogs? Facebook makes it easy. They’ll import your blog automatically. I think I’ll just copy and paste relevant blog posts from here into the community. The groups are like book clubs; they really are designed for readers. And here’s where I fall down because my current reading sucks. How can you be a writer and not a voracious reader? Easy. Get a brain injury! I think I’ll steer clear of groups for the moment.
So if you’re a reader, this new online community looks promising. There are many, many familiar names on there. And of course, there’s me! If you have already bought books from chapters.indigo.ca, then it’s pretty easy to join the community. Actually it’s easy to join even if you’re not a current customer. So click over to the community and look me up!
