Being Social In The Media

This week I have been thinking about the Author and Social Media.

Publishers are seeing Social Media as a tool for marketing their Authors and Authors are being told that they have to be on Social Media. But which Social Media is best for you?

Should you Blog, Tweet or Facebook and if you do what sort of platform should you have?

Platform? I hear you squeak! 

If writing is a business (which it is) what does your business stand for? Are you a purveyor of finely crafted gentle bedtime stories for the under fives or a rip roaring paranormal farce for the fifteen plus age group. Do you write edge of your seat thrillers or explorations of the teenage psyce? Is your writing home in Non Fiction for kids or Fantasy Fair? Or are you all of these?

If you can define your platform for your readers then you have an easier time using Social Media to promote your brand of writing.

Three different ways that some Authors are using Social Media.

Sean McManus has an interesting article about using Twitter-Can you tweet your way to a bestseller?

Mary L Tabor blogged her second book as a way of coming to terms with a significant event in her life and this turned into a book deal.

Hire some actresses to read your book in prominent places. Ok it isn’t social media but it is social...

One of the key things about using social media is that to use it effectively you must add value.

Writing about your cat obsessively unless your writing platform is tied up to your cat in some way is not enough. However if you are a cat whisperer....and you have written a series of tween novels about the adventures of a spy who whispers to cats...then maybe you have a valid social media platform.

Jody Hedlund has an excellent post on social media for those people who think they have no platform.

If you are using Social Media already and are looking for another challenge Indie reader has a great article on podcasting your book, Books for your ears. More people are turning to podcasting as a way of getting the word out there about their work.

Seth Godin and Tom Peters were interviewed recently about blogging. Should we do it?

Two links on writing to think about.

Publetariat has a great list of links to help you critique better. This is good news for me as I start to pull apart my own work before sending it to a new critique partner.

Bob Mayer has an excellent article on pitching based on your goals. Bob has written some great thrillers and teaches a popular writing course based on Special Forces goal setting. As a former Special Forces Agent he knows of what he speaks.

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez was interviewed recently by bookviewcafe about where he thought digital publishing was headed. Guy is one of the founders of the Digital Book World conference and he sees the future of publishing as looking extremely bright.

So Authors...You  may as well get digital savvy because to take advantage of publishing in the future you have to be Social In The Media.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify page) there are articles on

For the closet geeks out there....How To Write Silly Science Fiction

Plot to Puctuation has a great article on What Star Wars Teaches On Character Introductions

Digital Book Covers...lets make them interactive...

What To Ask The Agent When You Get The Call...(pinup on your wall)

Adventures in Publishing are doing a great conference roundup over on their site (see my blog roll in the 

sidebar) There is a must read article on middle grade writing there with Linda Sue Park.

And now you have finally come to the end of this long post...to celebrate here is a joke for you.

 Guysread.com put together this great video to promote their children’s author collective.

Enjoy

maureen