Oh Fantastic Followers, How I Love Your Smiling Faces

Thanks for sharing your favorites with me this incredible holiday season. I could go on listing, because the truth is there are a lot of things to love about December. But the holiday week is upon us, and I think you get the point.

I wish you joy, happiness, love, and the best of all your favorites this holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Yule, and, well, Festivus. (Yeah, I said Festivus, for all the rest of ya.)

May your days be merry and bright. And may all your holidays be…well, you know the line.

Lots of love, from Me.

PS I'm taking the rest of the week off from blogging, but if you're wondering who won all my recent contests, you can see the winners on the following posts:

Signed copy of Leviathan
Twilight swag
Signed / stamped copy of MOCKING JAY

I'll be back next week!

Mega-Awesome, Totally Fabulous, I *Heart* Followers Contest (Part II)

Here I go again! I bet you thought I’d forgotten about my promise for awesome giveaways this month, didn’t you? (Sorry about taking last week off—couldn’t be helped.) As mentioned before, I have some awesome stuff to give away. So raise your hand if you would like to win some free stuff.

Wait. I can’t see your raised hand through the computer. Hm. What to do?

Got it!

Required:

First, become a follower (see the top portion of my sidebar to the right of your screen). Considering that this contest is a Follower appreciation event, I think it’s fair to require everyone who wants to enter to be one of those followers I’m appreciating, right? Right. Okay. (+1)

Optional:

Next, leave a comment on any of my many random and amazing (or not-so-amazing) posts. I don’t care which one. You don’t even have to read it, per-se. Just click on the comment section and say hi, and I’ll be happy. (+1)

Third, Facebook (+1), tweet (+1), or blog (+1) this contest so all your friends can enter too. It’s not required, but if you do it just to be nice, I’ll give you an extra entry for each thing. (If you tweet, include me @nicholegiles, and I’ll come follow you. Same with FB. We can be friends!)

Required:

After all that, fill out the following form. This is a requirement. Don’t worry, it’s easy. See, the thing is, if you don’t fill it out, your name won’t be on the spreadsheet from which the names will be randomly selected (using a random generator). That is a definite problem when it comes to you wanting to win. But I promise to never use the information for anything other than this contest. Deal? Great.



*Surprise BONUS*

For those followers who entered my LEVIATHAN contest two weeks ago, I’m keeping all entries except the winning one. (Sorry, Stephanie, it’s only fair. Your other entries will count though!) This means that if you enter this one, you have double the chance to win.

In celebration for the release of Eclipse, I’m giving away a Team Edward charm bracelet:

As well as a Team Jacob cell phone charm:

The contest starts right now, and will run until midnight on Saturday, December 4th, and then on Monday the 6th, I’ll post the winner and the next contest. (**US shipping only.)

Okay. Good luck! Ready? Set? Go!

Mega-Awesome, Totally Fabulous, I *Heart* Followers Contest (Part 1)

I’m about to post a contest or two. Or three. Can’t decide. But I have some awesome stuff to give away. So raise your hand if you would like to win some free stuff. (Signed by the authors—or in the case of MOCKING JAY, stamped, but still very cool.)

Wait. I can’t see your raised hand through the computer. Hm. What to do?

Got it! (To see this week's prize, keep reading.)

Required:

First, become a follower (see the top portion of my sidebar to the right of your screen). Considering that this contest is a Follower appreciation event, I think it’s fair to require everyone who wants to enter to be one of those followers I’m appreciating, right? Right. Okay.

Optional:

Next, leave a comment on any of my many random and amazing (or not-so-amazing) posts. I don’t care which one. You don’t even have to read it, per-se. Just click on the comment section and say hi, and I’ll be happy. (+1)

Third, Facebook (+1), tweet (+1), or blog (+1) this contest so all your friends can enter too. It’s not required, but if you do it just to be nice, I’ll give you an extra entry for each thing. (This is on the honor system, but if you tweet, include me @nicholegiles, and I’ll come follow you. Same with FB. We can be friends!)

Required:

After all that, fill out this form. This is a requirement. Don’t worry, it’s easy.

See, the thing is, if you don’t fill it out, your name won’t be on the spreadsheet from which the names will be randomly selected (using a random generator). That is a definite problem when it comes to you wanting to win. But I promise to never use the information for anything other than this contest. Deal? Great.

I’m going to start the fun by giving away an autographed copy of LEVIATHAN by Scott Westerfeld. The contest starts right now, and will run until midnight on Friday, November 19th, and then on Monday the 22nd, I’ll post the winner and the next contest. (**US shipping only.)

Okay. Good luck! Ready? Set? Go!

Die-Hard Dedication

I took my kids to a parade last Saturday to celebrate the coming of summer. Unfortunately, Mother Nature felt the need to mock this celebration, and caused the temperature to drop into the fifties, and the rain to pour out of the sky in sheets. This weather went on all day Friday and most of Saturday.

It was so bad that I actually told my kids we weren’t going. (Yeah, there was no way I was sitting through a parade in the rain—talk about suckatular.) Luckily, about an hour before the set parade time, the rain let up and a few weak rays of the sun came out. We decided to go.

Even after all the rain, the freezing wind and cold temps, the place was packed. And the parade was long. To the parade participants, it didn’t seem to matter that their clothing might get soaked or their hair flattened against their faces. The cold wind didn’t keep them away. They marched on anyway.

The parade watchers were a little more wimpy, bundled up in coats and blankets and drinking hot chocolate. But we were there, watching, supporting, and generally giving the marchers a reason to keep going.

It occurs to me that this same thinking can be applied to lots of things in life. Like writers and readers. Sports players and sports fans. Movie stars and movie goers. As long as the first stays true to the course, the second will be there to cheer them on, even under the most miserable circumstances.

First, though, we have to give our fans a reason to sit out in the rain. What will you do to evoke that kind of following? For me it means hard work, dedication, and some seriously fantastic writing. Because when I end up with serious die-hard fans, I want to know that I worked my tail off to earn that kind of trust and admiration.

And if people ever come to see me in a parade, I’ll be the one throwing candy. (A little bribery never hurt anyone either.)

Bloggy Love

Have you ever seen the movie Julie and Julia? If not, you probably should. Because since you’re reading this blog, you’re obviously either a blogger, a blog reader, a stalling author, or all of the above. And the movie is all about a blogger.

Well, okay. A gourmet cook and a blogger. They go hand in hand. Sort of.

Anyway, there’s this scene where Julie’s sitting in her cubical at work, and she sneaks a peek at her blog and then jumps up out of her chair, yelling, “I have a comment!” Then she clicks on it, realizes it’s from her mother, and decides it doesn’t count. With a sigh, she flops back down in her chair, looking dejected.

Dude. That is so truly how bloggers feel about their blogs!

I mean, we’re writers, okay. And writers have this deeply ingrained need to know that someone—anyone—reads our stuff, even if it’s just blog posts. Just because someone clicks on the page doesn’t mean they read what we wrote, you know? Comments are like validation of the best kind.

Well, comments and followers. Some days it’s a toss up. But you get my point, right?

Consider all the tons of free stuff we give away. We do it to be nice, yes, and because we think it’s fun, but mostly, it’s selfish. We want readers, people! And we’re willing to spend all kinds of money we’ll never get back to reel you in. We want to know you’re out there and that you’re reading. We want that validation that tells us we’re not just thinking through our fingers and that someone actually got something out of our work as bloggers and writers.

In other words, we need to be loved.

So if you’re out there, and you’re reading regularly but not following or commenting, we—the bloggers of the world—would like to know why. Don’t you love us enough to tell us hi?

*Sniffs dramatically*

*Fakes a sob*

*peeks through fingers to see if the ploy worked*

Carry on.

*Remembers shameless self promotion plug*

Oh, and by the way, come see my new book review blog. Isn’t it pretty? I need followers there, too.

*Nods*

Okay, now carry on.