MUCH ADO ABOUT MYSPACE: Some of you already know that I have a MySpace site (www.myspace.com/collinkelley) and others will probably be surprised. I've had a profile since January, joining to reconnect with a friend I hadn't spoken to, literally, in a decade. I even found my first girlfriend from when I was in kindergarten! For this kind of thing, MySpace is an incredible tool. MySpace really took off when it became the place for a new band to promote its work, list gigs and reach out for fans. In just about a year's time, it's become known as a pedophile paradise, esp. since kids continue to lose their inhibitions about nudity and sex. You would not believe some of the sites I've stumbled across, with middle schoolers and high schoolers showing their wares and enticing others to do the same. Lawdy me...kids sure do grow up fast these days.If you check out my MySpace site, you'll see I've added quite a number of "friends," mostly fellow artists and poets. I still believe that blogs and MySpace can be an effective marketing tool for writers if done correctly. The more friends who add you (and vice versa), the more people have an opportunity to surf by your site to see what's going on. I've been putting up my "tour" dates for Slow To Burn and links to my website, this blog and MetroMania Press. Whether this has translated into sales or more audience, I'm not sure. I've had hundreds of hits to the MySpace profile since I created it, and over the summer I'm going to upgrade so I can put my spoken word tracks from HalfLife Crisis on there.
Who knows whether or not MySpace will continue to thrive. It might be too good to be true...sorta like Napster in its freebie days. I'm sure some savvy right-wing nutjob will latch onto MySpace as a campaign issue in the next year or so. The first time a kid is abducted, raped or murdered after meeting a predator on MySpace, you can probably kiss the site goodbye or watch it become a restrictive, paying site that no one will bother to visit.
I still firmly believe that the future of literary mags, poetry and promoting writing is rooted in the Internet. It's just learning how to wield it properly and effectively we have to work towards.
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