Tracking Contacts

I maintain a database of contacts from all the organizations, schools, towns, countries, trips, relatives, etc. that I've encountered. I don't always send a notice to my entire database because I don't want them to spam me for letting them know about the small things. I do, however, send a notice to all my regular acquaintances. I actually use MS Access for this task because I like to print out a subset of people for labels, Christmas cards and other purposes.

A geographical chart of where your acquaintances live will help you plan where you can hold readings. You can hold readings every place in the world, but it is a lot more helpful to hold them where you know someone will care enough to come to the reading, help you put up notices, and provide moral support.

Use the following fields in a spreadsheet:

Locale
Number of contacts
Closest bookstore
Local publications

Spread and depth is all about building name familiarity. You want your name published in as many journals of a given type as you can. But it helps if you keep your publications minimized to areas where you have contacts first. It also helps to build audience recognition when you get published in a variety of locations. Try to add one new market every month, but also contribute to the same market repeatedly.

Isolating and Tracking Your Themes

Keep track of the themes involved in your writing. Many organizations and publications cater to special interests. These may provide opportunities for follow on articles, presentations or classes.

Examples of Thematic Topics:

Locale
Age group
Technology
Character Flaws
Genre
Sex
Business group
Political party
Family orientation

Use these themes to organize your links on your web page and to plan your blog topics. In science fiction, it's helpful to demonstrate that you have an understanding of the technology and literature about your premise. I maintain several blogs dedicated to these premises and also put mini-ads to my other writing. It's also good to have Amazon lists that point to your research materials of various sorts. There's also a number of sites that are dedicated to reviews and records of your resource books.

Tracking Your Hits

Because I write several blogs, contribute articles to a variety of websites and magazines and contribute to many forums-reading and discussion groups, I'm always interested in knowing where I'm getting the most exposure for my writing. This spreadsheet actually grew out of the fact that I couldn't remember where I had accounts, so I started keeping them in a spreadsheet. That way, several times a month, I could visit the site and contribute something new. I also started tracking such things as:

Participation site Jan Feb Mar etc.
Number of hits
Number of friends
Number of articles
Number of comments
Number of positive ratings

Then for each column, Jan-Dec, I record the appropriate value. This spreadsheet is good for making sure that your participation is netting you good pay, exposure and contacts. I spend less time where it looks like I have less notice. It's also a good way to regularly walk through all the areas you participate in and catch up with old friends.

If you're selling your writing online for free and it isn't publically available you are wasting your time.

Tracking Your Exposure

I use another spreadsheet to help me track where I've advertised my articles. One way you should think about chat groups and blogs is "this is free advertising space". The best way to advertise your writing is to write a brief commentary about your article with a link to the article. When an article is published, I carefully go to every site I belong to and write this ad. It may make people think you are stuck on yourself, but most of these services show the latest submission in a place that is visible for everyone and you might get a few additional readers if they are interested in your topic. A link hides the fact that you wrote the article until they click on it. By then, you've sold them on the article and you've gained the hit. I don't put the ad at every place at the same time. I don't want crossover readers to get bored. Also, it can be a lot of work that you can spread over time.

Use Bookmark Services

Whenever an article is published, I go through all the book mark services and enter a book mark.

Conclusion

This all may sound like a great deal of work that doesn't involve writing. But slowly, I'm building the reputation and the acquaintances that I'll need to get that book contract.