Are You Heading For A Social Media Train Wreck?
This photograph was taken in 1895 at Montparnasse railway station in Paris. The train was running late, so the driver accelerated into the station to make up for lost time. Unfortunately, the brakes failed. The train jumped over the buffers and crashed through the rear of the station down onto the street below.
Note: This train crash was recreated in the 2011 movie ‘HUGO’, which was based on the book ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’
I’m using this photograph as a stark visual reminder: Your fledgling author career can rapidly jump off the rails if you attempt to accelerate book sales by trying to be visible everywhere, using the full range of social media channels, without any prior experience, all on day one.
Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Goodreads, Slideshare, Flikr, Klout, Blog Talk Radio and more.
Fact is, if you try this, you’ll be overwhelmed. Even worse, your all-important focus on writing will be derailed. You won’t sell many books either, and you’ll end up a train wreck.
Instead, there’s a right way to ‘take the train’ to author success.
How To Do Successful Social Media Book Promotion
The key, in the early stages of your career, is to focus on becoming an expert in only one or two social media channels, such as Twitter and Facebook, plus an author blog.
Quality, not quantity is the rule here: If you take time to learn how to become highly adept at just a couple of channels to begin with, you’ll be far more effective at attracting attention and growing your readership, than by opening up 15 different channels and trying to use them all at once, without developing any effective user skills.
Furthermore, you may even become so good at using Twitter, Facebook and a blog, with your books listed on Smashwords, Amazon and Goodreads, that other channels may not be necessary in the medium term, and will be something you can add and develop much further down the track.
This ‘one step at a time’ approach allows you to properly develop the skills needed to grow a core community of engaged readers who will spread the word about your books.
The worst thing you can do is to rush around trying to use a whole range of different channels in a very unskilled way, and end up connecting with no-one.
Even the largest companies use a carefully measured, step-by-step approach
Here’s what Rachel Weiss of cosmetics company L’Oreal had to say about Social Media when it was suggested they use all the social channels:
“… we don’t have the social resources from a human perspective to be able to manage such a breadth of channels. I do believe there is a nuance for how you push content out on these different channels, but we’ve been spending a lot of time with Facebook over the last five years. And Twitter for me is still a channel of innovation…”
The point is if a huge company like L’Oreal has trouble using a wide range of social media, a lone author is going to find it even more difficult. So keep it simple to start with.
How much time should you put into social media?
As a rule of thumb, the equation that seems to work for most authors is to allocate 70% of available time into writing, and 30% into book promotion such as social media and blogging.
In fact, I’m a typical example of ‘slow and steady wins the race’ in social media. I started exclusively with Twitter and this blog.
I now also have a Bestseller Labs Facebook page which should gradually bring an increasing number of people to my blog where they can find the information they need, along with the products and services that I’m developing for writers.
Note: If you’re the rare type of person who can handle a broad range of social media from the outset, then great, but remember, the key is meaningful interactions that build reader relationships.
It all comes down to this: Your ‘Author Platform’ is most effective when it grows in sync with your writing career, and reflects your increasing author skills. It requires a steady build, one type of social media at a time, and it cannot be done in a rush.
The real track to success is to produce great book after great book, and steadily grow your social media presence in sync with this. This will enable your audience to find your books, buy them, grow to like your characters and your style, and increasingly want more.
Note: This article includes excerpts from my eBook ‘Ten Simple Strategies for Bestseller Success’ that’s included as a free bonus to my mini-course Twitter For Authors.
What do you think? Which social media channel do you like? Please do leave a comment below.
Article written by Jonathan Gunson
Author / CEO Bestseller Labs
Notice: This article is copyrighted material. Reproduction of brief snippets of this article with a link to this site are permitted, but it may not be reproduced in full anywhere without the written permission of Jonathan Gunson at BestsellerLabs.com
I like the 70/30 rule, not least because it gives a rule of thumb for controlling time usage. However much time you have spent writing in a given day, you can spend a little less than half that on your channels. I think I can use that!
Hi Imelda. You may have hit on an even clearer way of describing how much time to devote to social media as an author. So let me repeat your insight: “However much time you have spent writing in a given day, spend a little less than half that on your channels…”
John,
Great piece. Going to finally self publish this winter and am wondering, is there a percentage for how many times you exhort all your followers to buy the book? Have ‘unfollowed’ a number of writers on twitter because they were posting constant updates on their kindle chart position or glowing reviews.
Hi Tom.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, and it fact this is one of the main points I make in my free book the Bestseller Labs Guide For Authors.
Because of the very reason you outline, saying ‘Buy My Book’ in a Tweet is not a good strategy, because it gives no reason to do so, and is not remotely ‘social’. How would you react if when chatting to someone over coffee all they did was shout “Buy my book” at you? No wonder those authors are constantly unfollowed.
The only exception I can think of is that you can place a very rare Tweet directly pitching a book only AFTER you have posted a large number of interesting Tweets that don’t do this. Even then it would have to be for a good reason such as you are offering a discount for 24 hours. In all other instances it is 100% about persuasion, and growing the interest of followers.
Overall, the best way to get followers to buy a book via Twitter is always indirectly, by sending them (for example) to a blog post about the ‘story of your story’ (also covered in the free guide) or to a book blogger’s genuinely funny or entertaining post that ALSO happens to mention your book. And you do this only by saying something intriguing about the post in a Tweet, never ‘Read this great review of my book.’
Note: Indie Author Lorna Suzuki does pitch her book occasionally but only after first tweeting many interesting things. Even more interestingly she never Tweets ‘Buy My Book’. Instead she strongly suggests in these tweets that people don’t buy her books! She says to ‘try before they buy’ her books because they are very ‘niche’ fantasy and may not suit everyone, and to download a free chapter before buying because they are so specialized.
This understated approach works very well for her.
Jonathan, I couldn’t agree more with your response to Tom Gold… boy did I cringe when I came across the word “exhort.”
I think, and always have, as social media as a party full of incredibly interesting people (except you don’t have dress up, eat hors d’ouevres, and can wander in and out at will without giving offense to anyone). lt’s not a marketplace. It’s not a venue for free advertising. It’s just people talking to people, getting to know one another, telling jokes, catching up, sharing news, bonding.
As at a party, the best conversationalists are those who are genuinely interested — in life as a whole, in the other person, in being transparent about what they’re up to (as opposed to presenting a facade… which comes across as pretentious because it’s based on pretense), who shares living, both talking and listening instead of hustling (buymybookbuymybook).
I garden. I’m a good cook. Things amuse and outrage me. I take care of my 97 year old mother. I have a partner. I live on 35 acres on a farm in Vermont. I work out and am continually talking myself into staying with it. And, I write professionally (came up in traditional publishing; 50 books out, 5 genres). And, I lead workshops and teach in various venues. I have friends I love. I was widowed, and I deal intermittently with grief and loss. I used to run an inn. The process of writing — so difficult, so thrilling — has fascinated and challenged me my entire life. And on and on. I talk about all of it occasionally, as it comes up in life. I talk about whatever’s happening and what I’m thinking or feeling about it.
Writing and publishing is PART of that but it is not the whole enchilada. No one could be more astonished than I am that this pleasant social discourse has turned into authentic personal connection, and that through that, inadvertently, I have filled workshops and sold books and so on. I don’t know if SM could have worked so well for me had I tried consciously to insinuate myself as an expert with the objective of selling books.
Be friendly. Be authentic. Be interestED, and interestING.
Be someone it’s fun to hang out with at the party.
Your perspective is utterly refreshing Crescent.
E.g. “Social media is not a marketplace.” Agree. Instead, as you indicate, viewing books as part of the conversation of one’s life is a great way to frame what you do.
Although I’ll add that in the end an author DOES need to lead people to a place where they can find the books, such as a blog with books in the side-bar for example, or where ever they may be found, such as by attending a seminar that includes the books.
Overall agree it is the ‘growing a community’ aspect that does the work of building readership, not direct advertising.
Wow. Much appreciated for all your advice and guidelines. Twitter and face book is my only social sites at present and will soon look into blogging once my book is released as it Is a three part series of self help and motivation. I am so indebted to have you as a friend in need. You know so much and willing to share others as myself. Thanking you most kindly. Stay blessed.
With Twitter and Facebook, you’re off to a champion start Sheena. It’s best to become expert at using those two before trying other channels. But do investigate Goodreads and list your book there – it has millions of readers looking for books.
You’re welcome Sheena. More to come…
It was such a relief to read this article. As a newly published author part of me is constantly thinking ‘what can I do next? What can I do next?’ but rome wasn’t built in a day. It is all too easy to become bogged down in social media, even twitter on its own can be overwhelming with the amount of information on there. And some people seem to tweet all the time and it makes me wonder if I should be doing that too, but then I’d never get any writing done.
So, I check twitter maybe 2-3 times a day (although as tweets can be sent from phones, I can tweet without being distracted by what’s going on) and I have a blog. I have a Pinterest account that I use purely for personal things (inspirational photos, wish lists etc) and I have kept Facebook to myself too. I am on Goodreads but activity on there is limited at the moment.
It is also excellent advice about not constantly tweeting about your book/books. I follow some authors who do this and it is boring and repetitive. I would rather hear about the hilarious stunt your dog has just done.
You’re taking one step at a time Kirtsen – which is the right way, although it pays to study how to grow your readership over time. So do get my Free Guide For Authors if you haven’t yet – it will help you decide next steps.
This strikes me as good advice. There’s nothing worse than being bombarded with sales promo and, unfortunately, there’s a lot of it on Twitter. Yes, it’s important to get the news out there but, as you rightly say, there are more subtle ways of doing it. To be honest I probably spend less than 30% of my time on promotion and more on the actual writing. Ultimately, I’m only as good as my next book, not my next tweet. By the way, I just sold my tenth novel yesterday. It’s called…
“… Ultimately, I’m only as good as my next book, not my next tweet…” Could not have put it better Joanna.
Nice post, Jonathan, and a balm to all new authors who are feeling the pressure. It’s a great temptation to just shotgun blast every single potential marketing channel and the result is usually a hollow feeling of inadequacy on the sales and writing production fronts.
I try to mix my twitter content by sharing ‘posts of interest to readers and writers’ via Triberr but the end impact on sales is proving difficult to quantify. I’m not totally convinced that many readers are sourcing their next read via twitter, but it is producing increased blog traffic for me.
Hi Ruby
Correct re ‘Shotgun blasts’. They’re certainly an outlandish way to use social media. (It’s called ‘social’ for a reason.) Seems it’s going to be a while before authors learn that Twitter, Facebook and the other channels are not old style billboards, or one way radio and TV adverts. It’s not surprising that authors want to collect up a list of readers and shout their book at them. But of course it’s almost completely ineffective – who wants to be asked to buy something at the opening of a conversation?
And directly relating numbers of tweets with sales is also not the way it works at all as you’ve clearly discovered. Again, that would be to see Twitter and other social channels as billboards or megaphones. Better to grow blog readership with Twitter, be seen socially on Goodreads and send Twitter folks over to blogs that talk about your books independently.
At the end of the day it’s about drawing attention socially to an excellent growing series of books in indirect ways, and using them to capture readers one by one until you have a core support readership. They will then do a lot of the work for you. The way this works is covered in the post ‘Why Your Amazon Kindle Book Could Be Far Bigger Than You Imagine’
Great post! I just self published my first eBook, and am working on a new fiction story. As a new writer, I too am fighting the urge to ‘blast’ my book out there every 5 minutes. Thanks for the insight.
Michael
Keep resisting Michael.
Hi Jonathan,
The 70/30 split is really useful, but where do you fit in research? I often find myself stopping to check a detail or two, and then resume writing, but it’s so easy to get distracted.
Andy, research is a key component of writing – and is part of your 70%. (70% is just a rough guide – it can vary from author to author.)
Sure thing, Jonathan I was thinking the same myself, and it goes to show how complex the writing process is, so I reckon I;m going to aim for 75/25.
The other thing I think worth mentioning is that you should do what you enjoy. I dip in and out of Facebook a bit, and I play around with twitter most days, but my default setting, and the thing I enjoy the most, is blogging, because I find it exercises my writing muscles more than the others, and gives me an opportunity to be critical about my own output, and so develop my writing whilst building a part of my author platform.
In which case, Twitter and Facebook are excellent conversational starter tools to get people across to your first love – your blog.
Yes, I think you’re right, and it can take a while for the conversation to warm up, but a slow-cooked stew always tastes better, so I’m applying the heat steadily.
Yet more excellent advice, Jonathan. I find LinkedIn vg for discussion threads, especially the ‘writer’ groups eg Crime Fiction, (my genre with thrillers). You can link your posts back to your own website for people to read the full blog and get more detail. A good landing page helps where visitors can easily follow your ‘call to action’ and sample or ‘Look inside’ your book before committing to buy. I’m working to improve mine – any advice welcome!
Your 70/30 rule is good although personally I’m aiming for 80/20 (remember Pareto?). What do you think?
Best wishes,
Tom
Thank you my friend for your precious advice.
Make it 80/20 by all means Tom. If you can be effective at that ratio, then charge ahead.
The point is that far more time should be spent writing than promoting. This might seem to fly in the face of the perceived wisdom of the advertising industry. I spent 20 years in that world, and it claims the opposite. But the quality of the books in the end is what does the selling – once enough readers get their hands on them and start to spread the word.
As always, a great post. I tried to spread myself far and wide initially and learned the hard way. I’ve now cut it back to Twitter, FB and my blog. I’m planning on starting up a website next year. I agree – slow and steady is the way to go. I’d rather do a few things well then many things badly
Thanks, Jonathan.
A ‘story around my story’ website is perfect for an author Melissa. Make it a WordPress blog – so easy to use. Even has free designs to choose from. And like everything else, can be updated at your own pace.
Awesome article and comments. Keep it real, keep it fun (that’s why we write, right?), keep it grounded. Your article came at a perfect time, Thank You!
Sarah
John, as always thanks for your wise words mate. Very much liked Lorna Suzuki’s suggestion that potential readers download a free chapter first.
In the olden days of book shops we all used to do this by slyly reading the first few pages before deciding whether to take a book to the counter and pay for it.
You gotta love Amazon!
You’re onto it Tom.
I’ve just self-published my first novel through Amazon KDP, I’m excited and scared and really excited and really scared in equal measure, I’m not expecting to sell vast amounts of books, one will do! I am however a total Newbie at the whole self marketing/promotion thing.
I have unfollowed writers in the past for doing nothing but tweeting book links for 24 hours straight, the whole hastag and re-tweet thing is annoying as well, I’d like to promote but not go overboard.
Any pointers would be very usefull.
Ninette. Sharing other authors material on Twitter and Facebook is a useful strategy, because they will do the same for you after a while. (RT on Twitter) It’s the power of reciprocation – most people want to repay kindness. You’ll quickly discover who helps you and then you can then form an informal circle with them. It can be very supportive.
Much of your wider question about how to succeed is answered
in my free guide for authors. Do download it.
And if you would like to know more about effective use of Twitter,
do look over my Twitter For Authors Mini Course
Thanks, will do.
Good advice, sometimes I am really in doubt about this ( not any more) I find it hard enough to find time for just facebook and a blog and I am not that great a tweeter. So now I am relieved that I don’t really have to get into five more things that will take too much time to figure out. Spend that time on writing.
Khaula Less is definitely more re social media channels. It takes time to build, but you’ll become remarkably expert and get greater results if you persevere with just a couple.
Yeah Jonathan,
i use twitter every day to advertise my both books on Amazon, The Twilight People and By Land By Sea. I also use a newspaper with a million strong readership every week, as yet the sales aren’t great. I’m also into my third book and am almost finished that, but onwards and upwards, regards, Patrick..
Basically it’s less about advertising and more about ‘growing readership and KEEPING it’ so they read more and more of your books. Social media is a highly effective strategy for this.
Such great advice for authors. The social networking aspect can definitely be overwhelming. Right now I use twitter and have a blog. I only use Facebook for personal connections right now just to become familiar with it. Once my book is published (fingers crossed), I will use that to promote my work as well. It took me a while to figure out each of these networks and I’m still learning. Thanks for another great post. Much appreciated.
Proud of you and your progress Renee.
Thanks Jonathan your advice and guidance has been extremely helpful. I have a long ways to go but I actually have a road map to get there. I am steadily building my twitter account and have met some terrific helpful people.
Wonderful and timely post. I’m getting closer to publishing my first novel, have a second one half way finished, and a non-fiction book peculating.
Thinking strategically, I have upped my interactions on both Facebook and Twitter, and find that I enjoy the ‘interactions’ when I get ‘reactions’ to the articles and other info I post. But my Google+, Goodreads, and LinkedIn accounts are like neglected children.I haven’t found the time or interest to widen my reach. Now I know why and to not feel guilty about it. Thanks for that.
Besides writing, I teach continuing ed writing related courses at the university and community colleges, run a writers group, attend workshops out of the area, and do all the things needed to run and maintain a home and relationships. Having 70% of time for pure writing would be fabulous. But building community right where I live is also important. I will take into account all that I do in my writing life as part of my 70+% and work toward building my social media to 30%, a little at a time.
So Jonathan, thanks for the post. I look forward to reading more.
A wonderful balance Stephanie. So much to manage, and yet you write AND make time to grow community.
Great article, and excellent advice. It can be very overwhelming to think about all the time spent on social media to spread the word about a book or books. I remember being overwhelmed in the beginning, but I mostly stay in touch with readers and potential readers via facebook, Twitter and Goodreads now. My blog hardly ever attracts visitors, but I’m still working on how to gain traffic for it. Thanks again!
@theedgeofwords
Thanks Heather. Do you interact on Goodreads? Very interested in other authors’ experiences there.
Thank you for this article! I am one that spends too much time on social media and it cuts into writing time. I know I need to have a balance and sometimes I am a bit overwhelmed with trying to get everything done. When I first decided to write a review blog for debut authors, I never expected that it would take off like it did. It was a little slow at first, I would download some ebooks from Kindle and write a review on them. Then, I got a Twitter account. I had requests almost every day and my queue of TBR’s is incredibly long..so, it is a case of be careful what you wish for!
I do love it though, I just need to try to balance everything. Thank you for the help!
Rebecca.
A review is pure gold for authors, so it’s likely many of the review recipients will help you succeed by spreading the word when you next publish. What goes around comes around.
Hi Tom,
I totally agree with the slow but steady approach. I’m just focusing on Twitter and Facebook, and update my blog on my website and Squidoo periodically. It’s more than enough to master at this point!
Barbara
Great advice. I think many authors (myself included) try so hard to push their brand and get their product out there that they can burn themselves out. An author whose blog I was following recently took an indefinite leave from writing, mainly because he felt he was putting out so much effort at promotion and getting little for his efforts. New writers, and especially indie authors should really take the ‘long haul’ outlook, and not expect immediate ‘bestseller’ status. It takes time to gain a readership, especially when you’re doing all the work yourself. I have a three year plan that I initiated this year, so I’m trying to expand gradually. Even so, I’m guilty of spreading myself too thin, so this article is right on time. Thanks, consider this shared.
Good to hear from you again Bard. A three-year plan may seem a long time to those wanting instant bestseller financial results from writing, but in career terms it’s a mere blink of an eye. Our great grandparents took two generations to get financially free. Grandparents one generation. Parents – 20-30 years if they were lucky. The current generation? 5-10 years if we play our cards right… but not less.
I completely agree. The three years, by the way isn’t even my goal of financial success through writing. It’s simply my goal to develop a solid readership. I’d expect it to take longer to reach my ultimate goal of writing for a living.
[...] here to see the original: The Social Media 'Train Wreck' That All Authors … – Bestseller Labs http://icsbookstore.com/2012/the-social-media-train-wreck-that-all-authors-bestseller-labs/ [...]
John – and everybody else. Talking of Lorna Suzuki and the first 10 percent, take a squizz at jellybooks.com.
Have just discovered it and it strikes me as a useful item in ‘the thinking person’s’ social media toolbox because its the first 10 percent of thousands of current books (for free).
But most interestingly its about to open its doors to writers and their blogs.
Hope you dont think I’m hijacking this discussion to plug a product but its slick ,easy to use and does not scream “BUY ME! I HAVE 3 FIVE STAR REVIEWS ON AMAZON” etc.
Thanks Tom. But Jellybooks appear to sell books (not free) unless I’m missing something. At least, each one I clicked on had to be paid for.
{Obviously} Only the samples are free (always first 10%) and they are free to share, too. When somebody clicks on the buy button (last page), then we link them to Amazon, iBooks or other books hops.
The idea is that first 10% can get a reader hooked on a book and that a recommendation is more powerful, when you can include a sample. We are working on a couple of tools to make it more engaging to include samples in twitter discussions (using Twitter Cards) on Pinterest, etc.
At the moment there are only “conventional” publishers on jellybooks.com, but we are working on a portal for submitting works directly. Sign-up can be found at vip.jellybooks.com
Always keen to find out how we can make the site more helpful to reader, authors and bloggers in their effort to promote, review and recommend books.
Andrew, giving away the first 10% of a book for free is a standard ‘loss leader’ tactic that should work extremely well – as you describe. In fact seems it’s your main point of difference.
So if I were you I would make it strikingly obvious on the site – out front. Otherwise there no immediately obvious reason to choose to download the books from Jelly Books instead of anywhere else. (People make decisions within seconds – they won’t click around to find out.)
have attempted to summarize it here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/53601356/Jellybooks_Publisher_Whitepaper_ver_3.docx
no silver bullet just tools for making it easier to create engagemenet on social media with DRM-free psamples
feedback welcome
Great post! This is something I’ve struggled with. It’s easy to get so lost in the maze of social media that you lose sight of you’re real goal…writing! By default, I narrowed my social media involvement down to two or three major sites, but always worried that I should do more. Your post confirms that more is not necessarily the better approach. Thank you!
Jonathan,
This is great advice for an up and coming Author such as myself! A few months ago I read somewhere, an article giving this same sage advice, only they recommended being a part of ALL the social media sources, which I knew then and now, I simply don’t have the time for yet! I stick to Facebook, Twitter, and my Blog, ‘I’m Just Me…’ but it was great advice then, and better now, with your saying, “the other media outlets will build as you go along.” I like that!
Back when I read that article, I had no Twitter following except for a handful of friends, and now have grown exponentially due to reading that article. Being an Author, I want to focus my time and energy writing fantastic and engaging books, but at the same time, build a slow and steady following so that when my books do hit the market, I’ll already have great people behind me, talking about my books!
Everyone, and, in fact, anyone building a business or a brand can and should follow your advice! And as a plus, I’m so thrilled to be able to say, I’ve met some outstanding people and am taking the time to get to know them as well! They are truly fantastic and talented human beings, and I love the interaction! The Writers’ community is the single most accepting group I’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of, and I couldn’t have hoped for better!
Thank you so much for posting this article,
Pattyann McCarthy
Yes, a steady build wins every time Patty. Standing by for your book release.
[...] Jonathan Gunson advises writers on how to avoid the social media train wreck. [...]
Thanks for the great post! I have been working on a series of blog posts on struggling with time management and one of my demons is social media and how to handle it all. From all sides, those of us just beginning our writing career hear build your platform, work the social media, find your tribe! And we get so caught up there we lose focus on writing time. Thanks for putting things into perspective for me and, I’m sure, lots of others.
Hi Sherrey.
Re Demons & Focus. There’s so much information out there that suggests we should try to saturate the airwaves with our ‘message’. Not so. Yes, it is necessary to communicate, but at a measured pace. Better by far to be meaningful to a small group who love your work and spread the word, than a wandering generality who is ‘everywhere’ but without any supporters.
[...] Media The Social Media Train Wreck That All Authors Must Avoid, by Jonathan Gunson. (Spoiler alert: It’s “Don’t try to do everything all at [...]
I loved Facebook the first day I logged on. That’s where my friends live. I’m not as at home with Twitter, but I find it a great resource for making new connections. I started blogging because someone told me writers had to, but it’s become something I actually enjoy doing. Until I actually have a book to promote, I think that will have to do it for me.
Jane. Twitter is certainly less personal, but has a faster, wider reach. Facebook is much deeper re relationships of course and once your book is out there, you can also add a Facebook ‘author’ page. That way you won’t muddle up family and truly personal connections with your business social connections as your writing career grows. With your blog as well, just as you say, that’s plenty for now. (It’s also the model I use.) But, please do take time over growing your author platfom – no rush, this is your career. The main thing is to get that book finished! And if it’s a series, then so much the better.
Helpful links:
Free author guide
http://bestsellerlabs.com/the-bestseller-labs-guide-for-authors/
The importance of ‘series’
http://bestsellerlabs.com/the-hottest-tip-no-fiction-writer-can-afford-to-ignore/
Maeve Binchy’s secret of writing
http://bestsellerlabs.com/maeve-binchy-her-writing-secrets-interview/
Hi Jonathan –
Thanks, great article. I totally agree with you about finding one or two channels that work, rather than trying to be on all of them. I have chosen Twitter, and I love it. I’ve seen some authors who just cross-post their Facebook posts to their Twitter account – bad idea, doesn’t work (and the message ends up getting cut off anyway!).
I’ve avoided Facebook all along – didn’t like their changing privacy policies, and don’t like the idea of calling people “Friends” when I think Twitter’s idea of a “Follower” is much more genuine. So to me, Facebook is not personal – whereas Twitter can be very personal if you choose to use it that way (and, actually, several of my Twitter “followers” have become genuine real-life “friends”!)
Anyway, thanks for this great discussion.
Thanks Jacqueline. I picked Twitter too originally – it’s my social media focus and mainstay. But the fact is I’m now also opening up on Facebook. The way I’m going about this is to treat my personal profile as a grand central station, with specialty pages as branch lines attached to it. On my personal profile I separate non-family people into a list and post publishing content to that list, so only they see it, not family. I send family content to family and friends by posting only to my ‘family’ list.
(As a side issue, once my personal profile hits 5000 ‘friends’, or ‘followers’ as you correctly identify, people can simply subscribe instead.)
Currently I have just the one ‘branch line’ page off my grand central station. It mirrors this blog and extends the discussion. I also agree that ‘cross posting’ in an automated way is a ghastly idea, and is anything but social. Accordingly, when I post links to my latest blog posts on the Bestseller Labs Facebook page, I also add hand-crafted information there and furthermore, engage with people who comment until they really do become ‘engaged’.
Welcome back anytime.
Wow, Jonathan – I am amazed by how diligent you are at replying to comments! You are taking “social media” to a completely… umm, how do you say it.. umm, SOCIAL level!
So now I am going to go find you on Twitter and follow you. (And put you on my secret list of people whose tweets I actually read). See you over there! (I’m @jwindh)
Addendum:
Ha ha, just went to follow you and turns out I am already following you. So that shows how meaningful THAT is.
But now you are on my secret “read-everything” list. Which IS meaningful.
Thanks Jacquline. See you on Twitter. PS. Here’s my rule for 21st century authors: “It pays to engage.”
This is encouraging=) It’s too tempting to spread my time too thin and accomplish nothing.
Thanks for the article and the wise words. You teach as much through your words as through your actions, which is refreshing.
I’ve been writing fiction in private for years and have recently become interested in the publishing world. Through the effort of seeking information, I’ve found a wonderful community. I’ve met a lot of people who have been friends, mentors and colleagues to me and I’ve made an effort to be helpful to them.
As you’ve stated, it comes down to being helpful or interesting to others. If you have nothing to offer, you have nothing to sell. Again, thanks.
Maggie
[...] everything at once you’re going to fail. Or as Jonathan Gunson says in his article “The Social Media ‘Train Wreck’ That All Authors Must Avoid…“: Your fledgling author career can rapidly jump off the rails if you attempt to accelerate [...]
Thanks so much Jonathan! My stress level just dropped 70%, now I can spend that time on writing. I find the promotion time consuming and at times frustrating. Seems like the more time I spend tweeting and Facebooking, the less it impacts sales which in turn frustrates me–a vicious circle. I’m going to put the 70/30 plan in place. Reading all the comments and your feedback is a productive use of my 30%! Now back to the novel I started.
The 70-30 rule works quite well if you’re an author that only wears the hat of an author. But what if you’re juggling two careers, like me an author and Singer, Songwriter, Recording Artist. I haven’t figured that one out yet, but I’m not a person that can do one at a time, I’m always in this constant juggling act of the two.
Stan, your writing is of pivotal importance. It isn’t just quality for quality’s sake. Great writing is its own ‘built-in marketing function’; when you create a high quality fiction product that people enjoy, they’ll spread the word about it far and wide. So it must always receive the greater investment of time – no matter how much or little time you have overall for your author career. ~ Jonathan
Great article, Jonathan, and I admire the community you have built here!
I agree with Sherrey in that we’re so encouraged to spend time and effort building that highly coveted “author’s platform” that we sometimes get overwhelmed by it all and neglect our writing. That has certainly been the case with me. I’ve really got to step back from my social media efforts and get back to finishing my book. Thanks for the slap, and putting it back in perspective.
Hi Doreen. I’ll repeat the comment I made for another post on this subject:
Your writing is of pivotal importance. It isn’t just quality for quality’s sake. Great writing creates its own ‘built-in marketing function’, because when you create a high quality fiction product that people enjoy, they’ll spread the word about it far and wide. So it must always receive the greater investment of time – no matter how much or little time you have overall for your author career. ~
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan,
I’m a traditionally published novelist in two genres, now making the leap to e-books (Morgan’s Mill) and I’m certainly on board with the case you make: that no matter how good a book is, if no one knows it’s ‘out there’, don’t expect much sales.
So one of my upcoming New Year’s resolutions is to ‘Twitterize’ and your Mini-course for Authors seems like a good place to learn the ropes. I also agree with you that a writer’s time is BEST spent actually writing that next and better book instead of spending countless hours social networking, whatever the venue, and I’m hoping, perhaps unrealistically, that an hour a day for the latter would suffice. Curse the day job!
I’m curious, though: If you’ve sold 350,000 copies of The Merlin Mystery, how come you’ve only got 15 reviews on Amazon?
Bruce. Welcome aboard. Re Social media. An hour a day is plenty, although not necessarily in a single block. You may miss conversations that way.
But the best use of social media is content marketing i.e. Not shouting a book title on Twitter as the well intentioned but uneducated do, but linking to highly interesting content on your blog about genre related stuff, not directly about your book. Semi-related content that your prospective readers will be EXTREMELY interested in. They’ll find your book on your blog soon enough – if it’s mentioned only very briefly at the end of a post. (Your book is of interest only to you not anyone else – they have to read it first.)
~ Jonathan
PS. My Merlin book was all sold almost entirely in book stores across 6 countries, not on Amazon. These days a book cwrtainly should be on Amazon.
After years of doing little more than writing an occasional blog entry on my author’s blog, I recently created a Facebook page and have been more actively using Twitter. Over the previous two months, I focused my efforts on trying to get people to vote for me in an online writing contest, and in the process I found that I’ve made a lot of great contacts. As a result, I was recently invited to a Writers and Artists Holiday Party hosted by the writing program at Rosemont College, and several of the people I spoke to there had heard of my literary magazine, Wild Violet! Even though I spent more time per day doing it than I would have if I hadn’t had such an incentive, the work has paid off. Plus, I learned tips such as utilizing Tweetdeck to schedule tweets in advance.
Now that I’m back into a more normal routine, I’m trying to learn more about using other social networking sites.
Alyce. Re ‘Wild Violet’. It’s all about making a connection. Social media sites are the greatest hidden secret for authors ever.
But a second huge mistake authors make – apart from to trying to cover too many channels – is to use social media as a magaphone to push their book title, (“Buy my book!”) which simply gets them unfollowed. Better by far to have a conversation, and use social media to get readers and supporters across to an interesting blog. And the blog’s posts are about the genre, not about the authors books. Readers will find the books soon enough once their attention has been captured.
It’s taken me a while to realize what you are talking about and made up my mind this year to cut way back and concentrate on no more than two. It takes a lot to keep up! I’m like the other people who have commented and tended to want to “blast” out about my book, but the results were not good. So will take you advice and try to do better. Thanks for the info. Happy New Year!
A perfect strategy Marion. Remember that successful reader engagement is indirect. For example, on Twitter or Facebook link to interesting stuff not directly about your book, but that leads them to it. e.g. a fascinating blog post you’ve written that mentions your book only at the end. Chat about that. (Pitching or ‘shouting’ a book title on Twitter for example is anything but social.) A book title has no appeal, and comes across as self promotional spam causing unfollows. Reader interest needs to be built indirectly and interactively.
~ Jonathan
I feel as if you’ve just handed me the keys to a spa hotel.
I started my Facebook page in March 2012 and published my first erotic fiction novel in May. Since then, I’ve gathered 19K followers and have branched out via my official website/blog, Goodreads, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and on and on and on. I have 9 erotic fiction stories on Amazon and 2 non-fiction. I write TONS of content connecting (and honestly loving) my followers and I do so many giveaways, promotions, and posts that I can no longer keep up.
I was laid off in December 2010 and over the following 18 months, I wrote approximately 3 million words…and started a web content/marketing business that I continue to run full-time.
I sleep 2 hours every night and juggle daily personal writing/edits with research/writing of my non-fiction health content. I have 2-3 new stories going up each month since September when I learned Kindle conversion.
I am EXHAUSTED and realized this morning that I’m beginning to get overly emotional about reviews (I received a bad one at 5 am since I check them obsessively). THIS ARTICLE comes one hour after I formatted my new schedule called “SIMPLIFY THIS CRAP” and could not be more appreciated by anyone more than me.
Thank you. You have a new dedicated fan – as I breathe a sigh of relief.
Shayne
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for sharing your words of wisdom. This is my first year on Twitter and I have to admit I’ve been using it mostly to advertise my reading engagements, and have just started using it for social commentary. With your advice on how to mine Twitter for readers, I will get on to that!
I have a Goodreads account and am determined to become more active with it. Hopefully, with your advice, I should be able to build up my readership this year!
Cheers!
May. Re Twitter: Social commentary by all means … interaction even better. And yes, Goodreads is increasingly important for authors it’s growing at a crazy pace. See http://bestsellerlabs.com/why-every-author-must-be-on-goodreads/
~Jonathan
Hi Jonathan – I DID read that post, and immediately listed all the books I’d read in 2012. This year, I will write a short review of each book as I complete them in my 50 book challenge!
Hallelujah. Amen. Excellent post.
I’ve been experimenting with Facebook for the past year, and I’m now recommending it in lieu of blogging to the authors with whom I work.
The reason: it’s SO much easier to keep your voice in the conversation by posting on Facebook than by composing a blogpost. We all should be reserving our creative energies for the books we write.
Holly. A caring warning:
It’s true that Facebook is uber-powerful, and furthermore, almost everyone is there, and it’s extremely tempting to see it as a place to blog. In the short term that may work, but I would not advise building an empire on it. It may turn out to be founded on sand. (Look what happened to MySpace.) It’s more secure to have your own blog with mailing list, and bring people across to it while Facebook still reigns supreme. I know it’s a lot more work to do this, but then YOU own your own tribe, not Facebook.
I view Facebook and Twitter as large noisy cafés where I can meet, chat, interact and invite, but I’d never put either of them on my card as my PERMANENT place of business, because they could disappear at any time.
~ Jonathan
Wow, 70-30 is a lot different from what marketers have you believe. I am most comfortable using twitter because facebook takes too much time. I am also on google+ but find that takes a lot of time with constant posts. As far as Goodreads, I am on it but find the site difficult to navigate and input so it has left me frustrated! I have only been doing this for a month. I guess I will find my way as time goes on!
Barbara
The key is to ‘hasten slowly’, and pick things to become expert at. One at a time.
~Jonathan
[...] The Social Media ‘Train Wreck’ That All Authors Must Avoid | Bestseller Labs. [...]
As a late-blooming new writer, I am still trying to figure it all out – and that’s just to get started, let alone be published. I know I’m not in a race with anyone but myself. At the same time, I’m not getting any younger, so I’ve got to keep on making progress every day. Your article is very clear and sensible. (Many of the previous comments are also very good too.) Thanks.
Jonathan,
Thank you for this article and also for the mini-course link (in one of your comment responses). Though I’ve been on Facebook for a while, I’m new to Twitter. Sometimes I find myself wishing I’d pursued my writing straight out of college, in the good old days of traditional publishing and marketing departments. Then I remind myself that back then, I was a self-centered twit who knew everything but had nothing to say.
The 70/30 (80/20) split matches what I’ve figured out on my own over the past year, and it’s refreshing to know I’m on target. I appreciate your mention in a comment above that 1 hour, in multiple chunks, is a reasonable amount of time to devote to social media; it can be intimidating and for noobs. About ten days ago, I decided to finally embrace Twitter by posting one original tweet every day, plus a few retweets or replies. That was such a manageable goal, I often exceeded it and am feeling much calmer about the whole thing, now. Slow and steady.
Wendy
The Twitter light dawns yes? Great progress on social media for you.
~Jonathan
[...] Jonathan Gunson says it better than I can, so I’ll let him explain social media mistakes when promoting your book. Since your e-book or physical book WILL be a big part of your information marketing, that’s why his comments are so important to you: [...]