It’s hard to get through a week without seeing at least one article on platform. Well, here’s yours for the week!
We agents ask authors for a platform, but I have found that unpublished authors wonder how or why they should show a professional presence on social media. That question is understandable. Without a book, what is the author promoting?
Promoting Yourself?
Yes, you are promoting yourself. You are using social media to establish a rapport with potential readers who will be looking for your book when it is published. Think about it – you may read a memoir written by a Christian celebrity, but a memoir written by a private person you have made no connection with? Not so much.
Are We Friends?
As you work toward publication, you are making genuine connections with people who may or may not read your book. Social media for authors shouldn’t be about pretending to be friends with people for no other reason than they’ll buy your book. It’s about making a connection with people because you have similar interests, world view, and, in the case of Christian authors, shared faith. Your social media friends will be happy to buy your book because they feel they have come to know you. You have made a hearts and minds connection. Your shared interest is real. They’ll want to read your book because they are interested in what you have to say.
What Do I Post?
The main thing is to be genuine. What do you want your potential readers to know about you? What do you find fun, entertaining, and informative? Chances are that through social media, you’ll find many people who enjoy the same things you do.
Fiction?
Novelists can talk about the time period they’re writing about in history, or staying up to date yet not too dated when writing a contemporary novel. Perhaps one of your characters has an interesting hobby. Asking social media pals to name characters is fun, as is posting pictures of hairstyles and fashions. Have fun!
Nonfiction?
Nonfiction authors should be writing about a topic interesting and important enough to generate a natural audience. For example, if you’re writing about parenting toddlers, let it be known that your book hopes to help and you should find an audience.
What about Privacy?
Some authors feel more inclined to share their lives than others, but it’s always a good idea to be cautious. One way to do this is to keep certain accounts open to family, where you might share more than you do on accounts that are meant to be seen by everyone. My rule of thumb is that I never post anything anywhere on social media that I would object to a stranger seeing.
Promotion?
Once your book is published, it’s okay to promote. However, don’t forget your first reason for being on social media – connection. No one wants to see a constant stream of promotion for any product, even great products. Promote sparingly, and keep being the genuine person you are.
Your turn
What tips can you offer authors on social media?
What author do you believe does an exceptional job on social media?
What do you enjoy most about social media?
Zip It Mr. Galilei
What tips can you offer authors on social media?
I think authors who are too popular and celebratory run the risk of turning off their audience when they don’t engage, or put strict parameters on where to respond to their posts (i.e.: they post on LinkedIn but excuse themselves from conversation there).
What author do you believe does an exceptional job on social media?
Hands down, Jane Friedman. She is exceptional in engaging her readers and responding in such a short amount of time. I’ve reached out to her on numerous occasions and she’ll return an answer in less than two days. Two days! Now that my family is starting a home based business, we follow that rule. When an email arrives, a query or concern from anyone, we respond immediately. We don’t let anything pass away.
What do you enjoy most about social media?
I enjoy seeing the trends and the engagement. I look forward to taking note on how people I admire, follow, or want to connect with behave. When there is no engagement, there is no purpose to even stay.
Every week I do interviews with other authors and ask about their use of social media. Most, like myself, wonder how to take the time to post relevant content or haven’t a clue about creating a blog or a a tweet. Right now I link my blog and my Facebook account which I preschedule and add new posts on the fly. And I need a refresher course on tweets!
My Linkedin account is pretty stagnant. After you requested to be added to my list this week, I polled my local RWA group about their use of Linkedin and could not find a single positive response for using it. The closest “positive” feedback was from one person who thought it might be helpful for non-fiction authors.
I’m curious to know which social media sites you rank highest in building a platform.
Christine, my personal preferences are Twitter and Facebook, but some authors make excellent use of Pinterest and Instagram. I would rather see an author really engage on one or two of the major platforms than to try to force it on all of them. What do you find the most enjoyable and fulfilling? Social media should have an element of fun, even if it is a part of your workday.
So appreciate everyone’s thoughts and ideas, but the myriad of opportunities have yet again pointed me to my knees reminding me that He directs our paths. Marketing, writing, blogging will look different for each one of us because our heavenly Father leads us in unique ways for His glory. Linda Riggs Mayfield, it saddened me to think that a sister in Christ could be so pointed as to reprimand your decision, but humbled me as well. How many times have I offered my unsolicited advice? Ouch. Too many. I love the verses in I Cor. 12:14-27, “…the body is not made up of one part but of many…” May we each serve Him with our gifts.
Wow. Humbling wisdom!
Tamela I am an Australian indie publisher who has just finished a historical romance trilogy. I am tickled pink that people are connecting with my Facebook page and because I blog weekly about interesting tidbits, and post them on F/book, I have found new readers. This has generated a platform for me.
And I also have a live Victorian Etiquette presentation where I dress as a governess of that era with a ‘plummy’ English accent. This has generated in really nice sales of my books. Now I am receiving many bookings via word of mouth.
BTW I received an invitation from Linked In from you and I apologize because I had to decline. I was spreading myself too thinly.
Dear Tamela, Thank-you for your insights the topic of social media.
I attended the Colorado Christian Writers Conference a couple years back. All the agents said the same thing: Get a readers platform. So, I immediately started a weekly devotional blog and have gained a significant amount of readers.
I initially wrote my manuscript for the cliche reason that God told me to. It was excruciating to start, as it dug up a well-hidden past of homosexual tendencies. Yet at the same time it was extremely cathartic as the Lord brought me deeper healing than I would have known otherwise.
This is a very sensitive topic, but for that reason I’m sure Christians who struggle with Same Sex Attraction would prefer to connect initially with a writer who’ve ‘made it’ out from the shroud of shame and secrecy. Same for Christians with loved ones with SSA, when considering how to approach this touchy conviction.
It would seem that each agent I have contacted doesn’t want to step into social issues. Even when there is no temptation that has overcome anyone except that which is common to others. And I’ve watched some pretty popular books about this, role out through Lifeway since starting this journey.
My testimony is up on the website. Yet this topic is not the direct theme of my blog. My focus is living for Christ in all areas. I feel sexual orientation is such a limited topic, yet it just happens to be part of my story. God has reconciled my life in an amazing way, and I really would love for Him to use it to help and encourage others.
Would you know anyone who would be interested? Or which direction I should take from here?
~Blessings, from a busy blogger/Wife/Mom of 4