Speaking of Appropriate Ways To Use Social Media

[Nicole Wilson]

This article might be of interest in this thread, as it's about an author's social media presence.

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/stop-grading-authors-social-media-presence/

Clicking on the link to the study by McKinsey Consulting shows a graph that charts how effective different channels are in acquiring customers. Twitter and Facebook do poorly.

I'm curious if there are any updated charts. Looks like that data was from 2012 and, while social media was big, it has significantly grown over the last 2-3 years. I have heard the same thing on email, though, repeatedly - it attracts more customers than social media does. Unfortunate. That means yet another thing for me to do. *sigh*

 

[Carol Rose]

Oh God. I read the other day about minor and major 'platforms,' saying that for a writer to have a weekly local newspaper column is minor. A few k twitter followers won't cut it.

Gag me. Seriously??? This is getting totally ridiculous.

 

[Marc Joan]

This article might be of interest in this thread, as it's about an author's social media presence.

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/stop-grading-authors-social-media-presence/

Clicking on the link to the study by McKinsey Consulting shows a graph that charts how effective different channels are in acquiring customers. Twitter and Facebook do poorly.

The article you link to is very interesting. It's also a bit discouraging, because it seems to take as a given that authors won't be offered a contract unless they have a good and proven ability to self-market -- regardless, apparently, of the quality of their writing. For someone like me, who just doesn't have the charisma for effective self-marketing, this is a real hurdle. I suspect that there are many like me. So how long before it becomes common to engage 'real life avatars' - actors who pretend to be the author in order to provide an acceptable market-friendly persona to the outside world? No more dishonest, surely, than pretending to be something you are not in order to promote your books for publishers who don't want to do all the marketing themselves.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

The article you link to is very interesting. It's also a bit discouraging, because it seems to take as a given that authors won't be offered a contract unless they have a good and proven ability to self-market -- regardless, apparently, of the quality of their writing. For someone like me, who just doesn't have the charisma for effective self-marketing, this is a real hurdle. I suspect that there are many like me. So how long before it becomes common to engage 'real life avatars' - actors who pretend to be the author in order to provide an acceptable market-friendly persona to the outside world? No more dishonest, surely, than pretending to be something you are not in order to promote your books for publishers who don't want to do all the marketing themselves.

I can only agree with you, Marc. I came across one literary agent, in my search for representation, who demanded of anyone making a submission to her a detailed listing of what the author had done to establish a social media presence, all of the interviews they'd already had in the press and on local radio, their marketing strategy, including how to make themselves a recognisable brand through book covers, consistent titling and fonts + several recent headshots. While I could see that an author's awareness of these factors would help the agent to sell their books, it looked like the agent herself was doing precious little - just taking her commission. I didn't make a query to her.

 

[Marc Joan]

I can only agree with you, Marc. I came across one literary agent, in my search for representation, who demanded of anyone making a submission to her a detailed listing of what the author had done to establish a social media presence, all of the interviews they'd already had in the press and on local radio, their marketing strategy, including how to make themselves a recognisable brand through book covers, consistent titling and fonts + several recent headshots. While I could see that an author's awareness of these factors would help the agent to sell their books, it looked like the agent herself was doing precious little - just taking her commission. I didn't make a query to her.

Well done for taking a stand. I find the situation increasingly absurd. In the age of the e-book, I get the impression that publishing companies have only one differentiating strength - their market reach [brand, profile, publicity nous, route to market, etc]. Yet they are off-loading the marketing side of things onto the author. To me, this suggests an industry that is really struggling, and that is seeking to remove as much risk and cost as possible from every new title. There's a place for a new, lean publishing company that can take on the marketing role that big publishers are currently abdicating, and work with authors accordingly. But I won't hold my breath.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I'm taking it all with a pinch of salt. So long as we're willing to help sales along, do talks and readings and all the rest of it, does the agent/publisher think he or she can make enough sales from our book or not. This man won the Costa prize for his first novel. I didn't care for it myself but look here, this is the twitter engagement after all the hoo ha about The Shock Of The Fall

https://twitter.com/nathanfiler

Someone's asked me via a twitter message if I'd like to write a series for a digital platform called Chanillio. I've taken a look and could place some short stories there. It pays, but there is no editorial control, so what is the quality guarantee to paying subscribers? The stories may be excellent but the subscribers are buying a pig in a poke so how many subscribers are they going to get? I could serialize the novel and see how it goes, you retain first rights, but that lack of editorial overview does bother me. Anyway, they are new and clearly looking for writers. Wonder what @AgentPete thinks about that as a way to go, in general.

 

[Jason Byrne]

This article might be of interest in this thread, as it's about an author's social media presence.

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/stop-grading-authors-social-media-presence/

Clicking on the link to the study by McKinsey Consulting shows a graph that charts how effective different channels are in acquiring customers. Twitter and Facebook do poorly.

Why then has the industry shifted so suddenly and dramatically that I have spent almost a month developing a Twitter account so that I can be a writer, instead of writing so that I can be a writer?

That's just dumb.

 

[Carol Rose]

Why then has the industry shifted so suddenly and dramatically that I have spent almost a month developing a Twitter account so that I can be a writer, instead of writing so that I can be a writer?

That's just dumb.

EXACTLY

 

[Alistair Roberts]

It's hard enough to find time for writing as it is

 

[K.J. Simmill]

Tbh I have 17k followers and I rarely get messaged asking to buy books, then again I retweet a lot of book related posts.
I did stop looking at dms because they generally were automated sales pitches.
Generally I find people good, on occasion people will tweet me and ask if I want a free copy of their book in exchange for a review, but again they have usually taken the time to see if it is a genre I like.
I think I am very lucky having such wonderful followers