Make it poignant. Make it yours.

Putting out L.A. Punk Rocker was not without its headaches, yet book marketing has never been so hilarious. This has been the most fun I have had publishing a book. Of course the thrill of the first one, Shattered Reality (formally titled Home Wrecker), will never be forgotten. Doing something that you enjoy and are passionate about is imperative. For me, if there is no passion, there is no story.

Social media has its glory which, in my experience, has been the joy of reaching out to the people.

When Billy Idol responded to a Tweet I sent out about L.A. Punk Rocker, I went bonkers.

"Pretty wild chapter on me…maybe u should've written my book, good luck with it..BFI.”

My boyfriend had no idea what had just happened. He thought I needed to be rushed to the ER. I wasn’t paying attention to him. I was too busy making sure the tweet was actually from Billy Idol. That feeling was like an ice cream sundae with a cherry on top. Extra fudge. I mean, Mr. "Rebel Yell" himself actually took the time to pick up the book and leave such a cool comment.

He is tops, in my opinion, second only to UK author Mark Barry who wrote two stunning fan fiction pieces speaking from the man himself. He did Billy proud. Definitely worth the read.

This tweet was the best surprise I could have imagined. I mean, hanging around Twitter is not exactly a party. Every now and again there is some interaction and a few chuckles, but it's mostly re-tweets and business. The social part suffers as you deliriously send your message out over and over. If not dull, it can be quite depressing spending all those days, afternoons, and nights plugging away (or whatever they call tapping a keyboard) with little to show for it.

Just another day in the social media sphere.

I haven't laughed so much since I was a young punk. Now I am middle-aged and relishing in acting as juvenile as I did back in the day, some 35 years ago. I'm making new friends on Twitter. Girls involved in the Billy Idol fan club (#biffww) and guys who are still into the music of the eighties. The girls even convinced me to send another tweet out asking Billy Idol to come to our book signing in Hollywood on October 30th at Book Soup. Not sure if the man is sick of me yet but we are both on the Amazon Bestsellers list under Punk. What could be better than that?

Mark Barry convinced me to share some of the experiences I had being a ‘rebel with a cause’. An outcast teenager looking to find acceptance in a very unaccepting place. High school. As I began to write I suddenly remembered the girl I once was. There was something liberating about going back to that time as my adult self. After all, I survived it and that is a pretty big accomplishment considering all of the suicides and overdoses I witnessed. It was also nice to go there without my teenage insecurities and worries. It reminded me just how important the music was. The crushes I had on the rock stars such as Billy Idol and Bono of U2. MTV had just started airing music videos and we sat glued to our TVs watching, captivated, for hours on end.

Most of us are after the same thing when it comes to publishing a book. Sales. Sadly, sales are hard and, at times, we have to practically beg people to read our books. Even when the book is free it's like pulling teeth trying to get people to read.

Where are the readers? Why isn't anyone interested? Maybe it's because we haven't found our target audience. Were we even looking in the first place?

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Tune in to The Official Prose. Blog later today for the full story by author and returning blogger, Brenda Perlin (@BrooklynAndBo), by visiting: blog.theprose.com/blog.