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

Conference Connections....

It is conference season for Children’s Writers and Illustrators. 

WriteOnCon starts next week. It’s Free and Online and close to 500 people have signed up for it. (Click on forums to sign up.)

SCBWI LA Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators  L A summer conference has just finished and they had a record breaking crowd of over 1100 attendees this year.

Alice Pope and her team blogged their way through it again this year. You need a team to blog a conference of this magnitude. Last year was the first time that they did it and it was a stupendous undertaking. This year they surpassed themselves. For us who can only dream about one day making it over there to just experience it, or in our case having to put on our own conference so we could get the opportunity to learn, upskill, and network  in our craft, the SCBWI Team Blog is the way to go.

Just a warning there is so much information about what’s new, what editors are looking for, trends, multimedia, master class information, tips, learning,....Set aside time to really study what has been posted. And it is a lot! I clicked older posts 8 times before I got to the start of the four day conference. Along the way the information coming at me was incredible.

If you are in this business you would be a fool not to check out the blog.   

Michelle from The Y A Highway blog posted her impressions as an attendee and soundbites  of what she took away from the conference. It is a great little roundup of highpoints.

A couple or three  sites caught my eye this week to share with you before I got snowed by the conference blog.

The Book Doctor has an article up on organising your days on a weekly basis. It is timely as life gets pretty busy around here and fitting in time to write and not feel guilty is very tricky. So check out the advice from The Book Doctor Team.

Pimp My Novel has reposted an article from last year about 12 easy steps to help market your new novel. This is a good wake up call from the sales director of a publishing firm. Especially lead in times...websites etc...and Book Trailers.

As an aside Christopher Cheng from Australia/New Zealand SCBWI got an award In L A last week for most helpful  Regional Advisor and he did a session on creating book trailers...yes the authors HAVE TO DO IT and his session showed how you could do it in 30 minutes. You have to read SCBWI TEAM BLOG!

Alan Rinzler has a great article on Niche Marketing your book.

As I have said in earlier posts, the futurists are predicting that publishers will only survive if they become more niche so it is useful for authors to look at this form of marketing as well. This week I have been delving into marketing books again and the new buzz word coming out is fusion marketing. Teaming up with other industries and marketing together.

Alan looks at some of these ideas and shows examples of book campaigns that are doing this.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page)

What Writers Wish They Had Known Before Pitching

7 Things I’ve Learned So Far (a satire...very funny but thought provoking too)

Open Sky Website lets Authors Sell Directly To Consumers  (On Fusion Marketing )

Writing Vs Storytelling (Nathan Bransford writes a brilliant article on looking closely at why we love or don’t 

love best sellers and what we can learn from them)

How A Sticky Note Can Change Your Life

Some Tips For Writing A Series.

And in other news

The FABO Story project is off with a hiss and a roar and we are getting some great stories from the kids. Go and check out Chapter Two and the winning kids chapter two version. Kids can join in at any time as a new chapter is posted each week. New Zealand Illustrators have joined in with a team of their own getting together to illustrate each chapter for us...

If you are dreaming of book trailers....and going global....check out how you can run a TV Ad in the States  for very little money. Is this where FABO will end up?...heheheheh If you read the SCBWI TEAM BLOG you will find out that it’s not  such a silly idea....

enjoy, 

maureen

pic is from Christopher Cheng...his view of the 1100 attendees at SCBWI LA.