3 Degree's Of Separation - RIP Pike River Miners.

It has been a tragic week here in New Zealand. 

Last Friday news came of a huge explosion in the Pike River Mine with 29 miners trapped. Yesterday, another huge explosion ripped through the mine just before a rescue attempt was about to start. There are no survivors.

People around the world talk about ‘6 degrees of separation,’ the layers of connectivity between you and the rest of the world. In New Zealand, (small Island nation of 4 million) it is about 3 degrees. Everybody knows someone, who knows someone, on the West Coast of the South Island. Everyone on the Coast will know someone connected to that mine.

Through twitter and facebook we were able to keep up to date with latest news from the mine and while I was scanning the boards I came across this article about using social network for writers.

I abandoned my attempts at writing because I couldn’t concentrate and instead found some good articles on plot, 6 signs of a healthy plot and a great collection of helpful articles on editing.

A friend has been looking at the brainstorming process while beginning to plot a new book and so I have been reading up on structure and came across this great article on how do you know your idea is strong enough for a book...and is it Mid Grade or Young Adult and while you are writing should you post any of it on your blog?

Over On Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have articles on

Exoplanet found in another Galaxy...(geeking, no apologies)

The Publishing Borg Are Here, Lead, Follow Or Get The Hell Out Of The Way. (Great Article By the 

Brilliant Bob Mayer)

4 Agent Pet Peeves...(read and don’t make the same mistakes...)

You Are Not Like MIlli Vanilli (shaking off the imposter syndrome)

How Do Authors Make Money-Thinking Beyond The Book.

Canceling A Project- Reality Check...(it’s a tough world out there, don’t think you’re home until the book is printed...)

After feeling completely depressed by events here in New Zealand, it was nice to read an article in Publishers Weekly about mid list authors who are having success after moving to a smaller press...and making the smaller press successful. Win Win.

My Thoughts and Prayers are with the people on ‘The Coast.’

RIP Pike River Miners (29 dead, aged between 17 and 62)

maureen

Socially Speaking....

Social Media...say what? You don’t waste time on that stuff do you?

Sometimes there is a fine line between wasting time and working on growing your brand, marketing in other words.

There have been lots of posts by respected industry professionals recently that highlight the fact that authors need to be google searchable. They must have a web presence and be active in the web community even before you have a book out. This shows potential editors and agents that the author understands that the web is a vital part of the marketing arsenal. If you are an established author it is a given that you will have a web presence for you and the book.Social Media sites makes you web searchable, this can help with branding and contribute to making you a better bet to publish. 

If you are going to be active in Social Media you need to set goals and limits for yourself. (What is best for you? How much time should you put into it...)

What is your core business, networking or writing? If you are networking all the time, chances are you aren’t writing. And if you are always intending to get around to Social Media or are unsure whether it is even relevant for you, chances are you are not networking or growing your brand.

So what is Social Media and where do you start?

Social Media is Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ping, Digg....Yup it is seemingly endless.

T K Richardson has an interesting series on her blog looking at marketing, social media and time. She has a quick roundup of ways authors can use Social Media.

Nathan Bransford asked the question, Social Networking- Does it really work in selling books? His forum community waded in on the topic and there is a great for and against debate going on. In the end as one commentator said ‘It is the strength of the story which sells the book.’ Using Social Media with only the intention to sell books and not participate in the community is just spamming.

Jody Hedlund has the most comprehensive round up of pros and cons on using Social Media. Jody’s blog is always worth the read and her debut book is racing up the charts. She has a loyal and savvy group of followers so that hasn’t hurt either.

Jane Friedman has been picked up by Cincinnati University to teach Digital Media. She was interviewed this week by Dan Blank about How Digital Media Can Empower Writers. This is a thirty minute skype interview so grab a coffee and sit back. Jane does know of what she speaks being an extremely popular blogger and editor with Writers Digest.

Justine Musk this week talked about technology and how it is changing the way people will see books in the future and the writers brand.

Bob Mayer has taken his Who Dares Wins philosophy a bit further and established his own publishing company. Go and have a look at his rules for engagement and why he decided to take his brand of writing and popular workshops into another sphere. (Hint Digital Media played a huge part in all the possibilities.)

Rachel Gardner has given everyone a wakeup call about what happens around the acquisitions table. Are You Brave Enough To Find Out? Some of her regular readers were not....

On Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

Victoria Moxon - Interview. (This is a fabulous article. All Victoria’s advice is worth its weight in gold!)

John Steinbeck’s Advice For Beginning Writers.

The Fifty Best Author Vs Author Put Downs Of All Time. (ouch)

What Star Trek Can Teach Us About Writing...(very very good grasshopper...yes I know I mixed my genres.)

Marketing Tips For Author-Niche Marketing...(echo’s of a recent blog)

As you can tell I use Social Media. You are already reading this blog. I use Twitter primarily as a resource tool to get great links for you to read. I retweet some and Amplify others. My Amplify links get directed to Facebook and Twitter. Each of these Social Media groups have their own followers. I try not to spend more than four hours a week on research, networking and being social...The benefits tho are The FaBo Project put together with Facebook writers. Up to date knowledge of cutting edge news (UK Penguin and open submissions) some fine reading and great friends met over the blogosphere (waves to friends...my there are a lot of you...)

Questions and comments about using Social Media are welcomed...dip your toe in and comment....

enjoy

maureen

why blog?

Amid the rain and the gales that have been lashing our fair shores...(goodness what have I been reading) I have been thinking about blogging.
Why blog? What is the point?
Do you have something to say and are there people who want to hear it?

Why do I blog?
Answer...to have a net presence, (and coz Fifi told me to...)

The current view in the international writing community is that if you are an author you must have a net presence. But what sort of net presence do you need?

The viewpoint of Jane Friedman( see no rules blog in sidebar) is that you must have a net presence where your audience hangs out so if you are going to write young adult you should have a my space page flickr bebo etc etc

If your audience is not net savvy, (and who is that these days?) then it is not so important.

The concept of having to maintain pages in various social networking sites is daunting.
If an author has a huge net presence you have to wonder when they find time to write anything at all, see cynsations(sidebar) to get an idea of what I mean.
That’s when you find little ads where people offer their services (for a fee) to do the blogging/ social networking stuff for you....

Chris Brogan(chrisbrogan.com) social networker extraordinaire has some ideas on what a social network should be doing for you. Here are a few of Chris’ ideas...

• social networking Blogs allow chronological organization of thoughts, status, ideas. This means more permanence than emails.
• Podcasts (video and audio) encourage different types of learning, and in portable formats.
• Social networks encourage collaboration, can replace intranets and corporate directories, and can promote non-email conversation channels.
• Social networks can amass like-minded people around shared interests with little external force, no organizational center, and a group sense of what is important and what comes next.
• Social bookmarking means that entire groups can learn of new articles, tools, and other Web properties, instead of leaving them all on one machine, one browser, for one human.
• Blogs and wikis encourage conversations, sharing, creation.

To see the rest of the list http://www.chrisbrogan.com/what-social-media-does-best/

In the meantime I will try to follow some of Chris Brogans maxims...like always post regularly and keep a supply of interesting things up your sleeve for when you have space and time to fill. I won’t be getting any myspace or bebo pages yet, I’ll leave that to the teenager in the house... and work on my launch speech. I was reminded by Pippa (Pippa Werry a fabulous NZ Children’s Writer-she should have a web presence...) to write one today.

maureen