I initially started this blog because > insert shameless self promotion here < I've written a book. Well, a few. I started a blog in high school when I was going through my I HATE THE WORLD AND EVERYONE IN IT phase, but never kept up with it. And then, I started one in college when I was going through my HIPSTER/EMO phase, neither of which I ever really grew out of even now at 27 years young . Anyway, I constantly read how authors need a platform and need to get the word out about their books and need to promote and need to basically make themselves as known as possible to readers and bloggers and so on, especially self published like myself, as we have no "team", no "publicists", and no real way to advertise unless we pay for it, literally. And if one is like me, you try to save every single dime you can for most things often taken advantage of like gas and food and clean clothes. I've tossed out a few coins here and there for ads in the hopes t...