As we embrace the Fall season in Canada, many fellow writers migrate indoors to allocate more time to creative writing and/or book marketing. Many of us struggle to find a balance between personal life, solitary writing time, and promotional efforts in a growing world of social media and technology presence. Since social media offers tremendous opportunities for book marketing and networking connections, it is wise to keep abreast of new developments. According to Buffer Marketing Library’s site, there are approximately 21 social media platforms available to us. How do we decide which sites best suit our needs? Presently, I confess, I am somewhat comfortable with only four of the many social media sites. In order to increase my knowledge about this ever-changing media environment, I watched an informative webinar this week with these authors: Lisa Gardner, Alexia Gordon, Adam Hamdy, and Tessa Wegert entitled, “Author Networking Made Easy for Introverts and Technophobes”. Having access to writing and book marketing tips from well-known authors like those on this panel is one of the many benefits I receive as a member of International Thriller Writers’ (ITW) organization. This organization supports many genres of writers and has a membership of 4,500 from 49 countries. The ITW’s mandate and mission statement is quoted below:
“The International Thriller Writers is an honorary society of authors, both fiction and nonfiction, who write books broadly classified as “thrillers.” This would include (but isn’t limited to) such subjects as murder mystery, detective, suspense, horror, supernatural, action, espionage, true crime, war, adventure, and myriad similar subject areas.
ITW’s mission: “To bestow recognition and promote the thriller genre at an innovative and superior level for and through our Active members; to provide opportunities for mentoring, education and collegiality among thriller authors and industry professionals; and to grant awards for excellence in the thriller genre.”
Click on this ITW link for details on how to become a member.
Many suggestions for novice users of social media sites were offered by this group of panelists. Media sites provide the tools to develop author platforms and book marketing opportunities. The importance of using these media tools was emphasized, no matter what stage you are at in your writing career. On a precautionary note, they reminded us that once text is posted on a social media site, it remains accessible even if deleted. Therefore, we should be mindful of the content we share. Both Twitter and Instagram have a “save post” feature to provide us the opportunity to review posts before hitting the publish button. To save a draft post on Twitter, tap the X in the Tweet compose window. To save a draft on Instagram, hit the back arrow at the top left of the screen to make the “Save Draft” or “Discard” screen appear.
* If networking is awkward for you, begin by joining a small group of 4-6 writers to form your social support group.
* Attend virtual and, when possible, in-person writers’ conferences, workshops, and courses to embellish your skills and learn about managing the business of writing and making valuable contacts. Social media contacts and connections are valuable to an author’s career.
* If you post newsletters about your work, be creative with ways to interest people to sign up for email notifications.
* Consider joining a virtual book club since authors are also avid readers. This increases a writer’s exposure and may result in more libraries or retail book stores buying and stocking your books.
* Strive for a balance of content in your media posts. Too much self promotion might discourage prospective readers.
* Be
generous and help other authors by retweeting their media posts, writing book reviews,
and/or featuring their books on your web site or blog.What consideration goes around, comes around.
* Find an author’s media site that impresses you and study what strategies were employed to attract viewers.
* Add fresh content to your media sites regularly.
* Choose quality over quantity for your social postings and have fun creating interesting content that is also visually appealing with photos and/or graphic images.
Stepping out of your comfort zone into the technical world of social media platforms is less disconcerting if you begin by selecting one or two sites; review each site’s user guide, and unleash your creative instincts and have fun.
By Donna J. Warner
2 comments:
Timely and informative. Thanks, Donna!
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