Here's something new, I'm now a Marty Tsu.

There are many ways for an author to connect with their fans on social media. Most platforms are the traditional outlets: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. Others go for blogs, like WordPress, or the one you're reading right now. However, there has been a bit of an outcry from writers who reach out via social media, and there is a movement to change that.

Allow me to try to explain this to the best of my understanding. Most of the outcry has centered around Facebook and it's apparent knack for limiting the audience of posts by independent authors. The posts are meant to advertise and promote the author's work. Unfortunately, Facebook has decided to pray to the typical American God of "The Almighty Dollar", and is suggesting these independent authors, who are "strug-a-ling" to find and keep a fan base, pony up so their posts are seen by a wider audience. As someone who is is in this same position as most indie authors, I find it to be an unscrupulous tactic on Facebook's part to suck people out of their profits. So, what's there to do for the indie author? They go to another platform.

Fortunately, such a platform exists and is growing by leaps and bounds in the past few weeks, and that platform is known as "Tsu" (pronounced "Sue"). Tsu is like Facebook and Twitter, but it allows posters to own their own content (with certain posting limitations, of course), and keep their financial interests within themselves. Also, and this part I'm still trying to figure out, if there is advertising revenue to be had from the posts, then it is "profit shared" between Tsu, the original poster, and anyone else who shares the post. So, there is a little extra income stream to be had from the service.

So, after seeing a few indie authors signing on, I decided to wade into the fray myself. However, I wasn't ready to set up 3 separate accounts for all three of my writing personas. Therefore, I decided to create an account that encompasses all three personas under one umbrella: a makeshift publishing company of my own creation -- Toronto Nanook Publishing. My Twitter handle now reflects the new direction, and any posts from my "3 Faces of Dief" authors will originate from my new Tsu account with it being filtered towards Facebook and Twitter (although, it'll be tough to pare down the Twitter posts to 140 characters or less).

Currently, Tsu is invite only for starters; however, if you're interested in seeing what's coming up (including my first ever online Boxing Day Weekend sale for a Kindle version of a book or two), feel free to check it out, and sign-up. Just tell them https://www.tsu.co/TONanookPublishing sent you.