Finally... The NEW FEATURE

Last month I mentioned that there would be a new feature coming to Ups, Downs, Ins & Outs this fall, and so there is. I’m really excited about it, and I hope you will be too. Over the past couple years, I’ve played with running social media and blog features like “Author of the Day” on Facebook, “Daily Featured Books” on the blog and Facebook, and other similar things.

“Author of the Day” started as a 2-week long special event on Facebook and turned into a month-long one. Over the course of that month I met dozens of new and new-to-me authors. Some have become people that I chat with frequently: weekly, even daily. Some of them have become authors whose (new) books I purchase in a heartbeat. Some have become prolific, popular, seasoned authors, while some still have just one book, or are struggling with their writing. The success of this past event plays into the new feature.

The “Daily Featured Books” of old was an interesting way of sharing a wide variety of books with my friends and followers, but the schedule, especially with a new baby in the house, is one that I would (quite frankly) struggle immensely to try and keep up with at this point. DFB may come back eventually but I think the new feature will allow me to share a similar variety of books, without the imposing deadlines.

By now you’re probably saying, “JUST TELL US ALREADY!” So here goes…

Introducing the 'Featured Author of the Month’ on Ups, Downs, Ins & Outs. This new feature will give me the opportunity to spotlight a different author every month providing you with not just a name and book title, but with a profile of the author including things like bios, interviews, inspirations, book lists, and more. With each author, we’ll also spotlight at least one of their books. Over all it should be a fun way to meet and interact with authors both new and “old”, and should be a nice way of discovering some new books to read.

Seriously, I’m really looking forward to it! 

Our first Author of the Month will be coming in November. Authors can sign up any time starting October 1^st, 2017 to be placed on the schedule. Then the fun begins! More information, including the sign up form, can be found by clicking the Features tab at the top of the page.