Today is the first day we can completely chill and go at whatever pace we please (and, hopefully, I can sneak in a little more work on the laptop besides this post).
It was announced last Wednesday that I won the drawing for the InspireMore Featured Creators giveaway! Can you believe it?! Totally not my typical luck with drawings. It does not matter how many entries I have, my name is not usually pulled – but it was this time!
To thank everyone who helped me get all those entries and who support me in so many ways, I held giveaway on my page. My very first giveaway. I'll admit, it caused anxiety. I am such a rule-follower and even though so many pages host causal, care-free giveaways, there actually are a lot of rules and regulations that are supposed to be followed. So, I followed them. All the extra disclaimers probably turned some away. I actually lost one page follower during the giveaway, but I did gain a few more newsletter subscriptions, for which I am grateful.
I am feeling more and more certain that building my newsletter mailing list is the most important way to capture my audience. Social media is beyond frustrating. For the giveaway, I finally decided to use the "credit" Facebook is always pushing at me to try "boosting" a post. Even though I disagree with the fact that Facebook requires page owners to pay to reach the people who have chosen to follow the page, I felt the need to play the game (with their offered credit, not my actual money) so that my page followers would actually see the post about the giveaway I was hosting. I chose to use the $15 credit solely on reaching my page followers (yes, that is an option) not on trying to reach anyone new (which, btw, I take no issue with being offered as paid advertising). And guess what?!? That post still was not seen by 192 of my page followers! *sigh*
Overall, the giveaway was a success, though, and it was fun to be able to give something away.
I also had another piece syndicated on InspireMore this week.
And, I received a couple rejections: one for a poem submission from earlier this month and the other for that shorter piece I wrote and queried last week. Rejections are undoubtedly disappointing – and feel even moreso when I haven't been working on anything new – but I appreciate the responses, nonetheless.
Thankfully, it wasn't only rejections this week. I did receive an acceptance for syndication but the piece has not yet been scheduled.
I'm looking forward to that since I am not expecting to get much writing done over the next few days, either. Though I do hope to resubmit these pieces that were rejected.
We will all get back to our routines on Monday. For now, I'm going to try to enjoy some chill and fun Spring Break days.