Change sometimes happens so smoothly you hardly notice it. I have only realized recently that my entire way of finding books has changed, and for the better, I think. I find many more new books now, more new authors, and I read more. That’s always good, right?

In the past, probably the top three ways I found books were looking for authors I already knew, by recommendations from friends/family, and by serendipitous finds when wandering the bookstore or in the grocery store. I’ll admit that changing over to Kindle and e-reading, almost exclusively, probably triggered the biggest changes in my book-buying as well.

I think I have found almost all of my books, in the last year or so, via Twitter, Facebook, and searching publisher websites. Other times, I just do random searches at Amazon to see what comes up, or I follow my Kindle recommendations, or look at various Book Blogs. Kindle has definitely affected what books I buy with their free offerings – I discovered Karen Moning, Richelle Mead and several other authors through their free book offerings.

But the influence of Twitter and Facebook have been huge for me. Not because people promo there (I almost never buy books because someone is pushing one at me), but because I have the chance to just talk with so many new authors whom I may never have crossed paths with before. I usually end up buying their books, normally several in a series. I can name at least a dozen authors I have added to my reading list just from conversations online. I also talk with a lot of other readers online, which is a great resource. There’s a decent chance that I never would have found these new authors at all via my old methods.

I don’t troll the bookstores or shelves often anymore, and I know that’s not entirely a good thing, especially in light of bookstore closings, but, on President’s Day here in the US, I can’t lie — I find books in completely new ways now, and I am buying more, and reading more… so maybe it balances out?

I don’t know. How about you? Do you still find your books the same way, or have you discovered more/different paths to reading? Do you find these new venues lead you to buying more books?

Yep, file another blog entry under ‘All Things Sticky.’ Of course, baklava – more specifically Tony’s Famous Baklava – is usually what I’m referring to when I bring up the topic of sticky stuffs. But in this case I’m talking about Facebook and the naughty goings on during weekly hump day celebrations on our wall.

What am I saying? To some extent, every day is hump day on Tori Carrington’s FB wall. There always seems to be some sort of wicked shenanigans going on, up to and including considerable ‘poking’…and I take great pleasure in making the experience as suggestive as I dare.

But every Wednesday is a free-for-all that includes numbered Hump Day Hotties (photos of male cover models in various states of undress), dirty jokes and raunchy YouTube music videos. Oh, and the aforementioned lollipop? It’s a fun application where you invite people to suck on your lollipop until it’s, um, sucked dry.

Gasp! Too suggestive for you? That was Tony’s concern. And it’s the reason why I scaled back a lot of my bad girl activities…save for Wednesday, that is. Although I enjoy pointing out that friends do not ‘un-friend’ us in droves: rather they eagerly come out to play. In fact, it’s become a version of ‘Girls Gone Wild,’ where we, the girls, reclaim and enthusiastically redefine a term originally established by the guys all in the name of fun.

While at the Romantic Times Convention in Columbus earlier last month I was asked if I thought Facebook and other social media were worth a writer’s time in terms of self-promotion. My response was a shrug and a smile. All too often

it’s easy for writers to get caught up in the professional angle of the business. Analyze how they should act, consider what is appropriate to say, focus too keenly on the brand they’re trying to create, and then respond accordingly. Over the course of our lives – much less our career – one important lesson we’ve learned is that if you’re not having fun…well, what’s the point? Readers don’t ‘like’ or ‘follow’ or ‘friend’ you because they want a dry litany of your available titles and coming appearances. They can get that information from a variety of sources. No, they want to know you; enjoy spending time with you. And what better way to do that than by being yourself? Inviting them to pull up a virtual chair and laugh and applaud and ooh and ahh along with you?

Having said that, I’m thinking I need to designate at least one more day a ‘free-for-all,’ girls day out. Today, maybe. What shall we call it? Funny Friday? Funky? Freaky? Oh, wait! Why not Free-for-All Friday?

What do you think? Comment with your response to my thoughts, as well as with your answer, and automatically qualify to win a copy of one of our backlist titles!

Oh, and while you’re at it, come on over to Facebook and give my lollipop a lick, will you? Or at the very least, poke me! http://www.facebook.com/toricarrington

I cancelled my Facebook account yesterday with no small amount of glee. I never could figure out why people sent me invitations to online Easter egg hunts or asked me to fill out surveys about the ten things I last ate for breakfast.

I lost interest in Myspace years ago, soon as I settled on a wallpaper for my homepage. I’ve tried to do away with that account too, but for reasons I cannot fathom, the mysterious powers in control of the company requested that I send them a photo of myself holding up a sign with my name on it in order to cancel my account. Seriously. I’m not kidding.

I’m a spotty blogger at best, and I’ve dabbled in Twitter, but without any lasting enthusiasm. Friends will tell you I’m not even good at keeping up with email (you might get a reply from me right away, or you might never hear from me until one day a few years from now when I finally clean out my email inbox and realize I’ve failed to answer your message).

It’s not that I don’t see the value of social networking. I do. Sort of. (Okay, not really.)

I like to hear from my friends, but to be honest, I’m a bit of a hermit. ‘Socially gregarious’ is not a phrase that’s ever been used to describe me, and all the possibilities for networking with people online make me want to take a nap.

In spite of the hermit tendencies, I have a bit of a Jeckyll and Hyde relationship with my blog/Twitter account/whatever. I’ll be wildly enthusiastic about posting for a while, and then I’ll start to hate the responsibility and vanish. It usually happens when I’m overwhelmed with a deadline. When the impossible workload has been conquered, I’ll sheepishly come out of my cave and post again.

How about you? Do you have a favorite social networking medium? Do you Facebook or Twitter? What do you love or hate about them? Can you explain to me what the surveys and Easter egg hunts are all about? Here’s your chance to convince me of what I’m missing out on.

You can follow me/friend me/whatever on the following links, but don’t be surprised when I disappear. And if I never hear from you at all–don’t feel bad. I understand completely.

My blog: http://www.jamiesobrato.com
My Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/jamiesobrato