The Writer and Social Media

by Alethea Williams

The release of an author’s new book means it’s promotion time. Since most new authors can’t afford much paid advertising, we are always looking for free ways to bring our work to the public’s attention. In these days of proliferating social media, there are some outlets that are crucial. Before the book is released a writer should have a Twitter account and start following and gathering followers. I started by using the search box and looking for writers, tweeting general writing items, and slowly gained a following.

A writer should have a Facebook account, another place to gather friends and join groups where one can promote. In addition to a writer’s personal account, an author page and/or book page is mandatory. I’ve found Facebook useful for connecting with other writers, keeping up with what others are publishing and how they are promoting, and even as a place to learn how to use Web-based tools that I wouldn’t have discovered on my own.

A writer these days must have a blog. A writer must have a Web presence, a place to expound and expand, a place to showplace publications and link to one’s Facebook page as well as to places to buy the book.

Amazon, Shelfari, and Amazon’s newest acquisition, Goodreads, are all places the writer can build an author page, list published works, describe characters and settings, and link to Twitter, as well as one’s blog and one’s Facebook page.

There’s Google+, which kind of resembles Facebook as a place to connect and see what other writers are doing. I’ve been unable to fine tune the settings on Google+, though, and a very few writers have hijacked my notifications to tell me every single thing they’ve seen, read, or thought about during the day, all day, every day. Google+ overwhelms me with useless information although I do like the new design of showing three columns at a time and the fact that a writer can now post a separate page for each work.

English: Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There’s Pinterest, to show in pictures what one is interested in, to pin pictures from one’s blog or the Web, or to tell a story in pictures which is mainly how I use it.

Image via CrunchBase

The newest writer/book sites that I’ve joined are LibraryThing and AUTHORSdB. Since I’m already friends with hundreds of people on Goodreads and haven’t found a way to import my books to LibraryThing, that new site holds scant information. I haven’t had much time to explore AUTHORSdB beyond uploading my book’s cover and some personal information.

Yahoo! Groups used to be big, but I think more and more writers are migrating to Facebook to disseminate their news.

LinkedIn, again, connects a writer with a lot of people. But I don’t know that a listing there sells any books.

It is getting harder and harder, with all the writers, the books, and the book-related Web activity,  to attract the attention of readers. The ways that I have been trying lately, outside of promoted posts on Facebook which I think is way too expensive for the scanty returns, are guest posting on the blogs of other writers, and blog hops.

Guesting on another writer’s blog is usually a book spotlight consisting of blurb, excerpt, cover and links, or else an author interview or character interview. The hope here is that a writer gets wider exposure by being introduced to another writer’s audience.

I have just begun participating in blog hops, where writers of the same genre get together in big groups of 50-100 to host giveaways and link to each other’s blogs. It is getting extremely difficult to build up an audience and attract comments to one’s own blog, even to give something away. Blog hops offer the chance to contribute to a big grand prize, so I’m hoping for a better response but I’m not holding my breath!

As readers become more jaded and more surfeited with free books and swag giveaways, there will inevitably be more sites that authors are expected to join to advertise and promote. The only question then is when and what to let go of in the time crunch: sacrifice more writing time or just ignore some of the social media sites.

**This will be my last post for Writing Wranglers and Warriors. In addition to Willow Vale, I have a new contemporary romance out plus another newly accepted, and have signed a contract for a second historical. It’s been fun contributing to this blog, but writing under two names means I have two blogs of my own. Thanks for reading! It’s been fun.**

The author of historical novel Willow Vale, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Jargon Media, Alethea Williams blogs on ActuallyAlethea about writing, writers, and Wyoming history.  Follow on Twitter @actuallyalethea, or like Alethea Williams, author on Facebook.  Friend her on Facebook, Goodreads, LibraryThing and Google+.  Connect with her on LinkedIn and AUTHORSdB. Comments and honest feedback always welcome!