As an author your most valuable resource is time. Time to write, time to feed the creative process, time to spend with family and community. Social media offers you a number of tools to best utilize the limited about of time you have for book promotion.
Web 2.0, aka social media or new media, is the next evolution of the web. By evolution I mean that in the time of web 1.0 the Internet was simply there with lots of great information you could access. The change was the creation of social media tools you can use to create and share (blogs, podcasts, social network sites) – and communicate one to one. It has changed how we market on the web.
The best book recommendation is peer to peer. Web 2.0 means we can talk one to one. Authors can talk directly to readers.
I’m so excited by social media because communication is an author’s forte. Bands may have figured out how to use Myspace, but the web 2.0 space is wide open for those who are good at writing.
You’ve seen other authors hire publicists, create video book trailers, bookmarks and various chachkas for conferences along with managing their website, blog, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and wondered how much this all costs and is it worth the investment. Measuring results on many of these initiatives can be challenging.
Social media costs little, can be measured, and if done smartly does not have to take up too much time. In fact, you should limit the amount you spend on it every week.
Why? Because it is about telling stories, building relationships and making connections.
Before I tell you how to start, I suggest this exercise. Search your name on Google and other search engines (Yahoo, MSN). If your name is the top search result then you are already doing an excellent job. If not, note where you are now and start applying some of my suggestions and watch your rank increase.
How do you start? First, manage your brand online. Do you have a website? (If the answer is no, you need one). Are your online bios up to date (whether at your website, your publishers, at an online retailer like Amazon). At Harlequin you can have two author profiles. Emily Ohanjanians (Emily_Ohanjani ans@harlequin.ca) will update your bio in the author section of the Harlequin website . I recommend you update it at least twice a year. We also have a vibrant community at which you can and probably should create a profile. Like other social networking profiles it is one you can manage yourself (once again the difference between web 1.0 and 2.0). Here is an example of community manager Jayne Hoogenberk’s profile. If you have any problems she has created a video on how to sign up for community. Email Jayne_Hoogenberk@harlequin.ca
Are you on Wikipedia?
Do you own your name at Facebook, Myspace, Shelfari, Twitter? You don’t necessarily have to do anything with it, but you should own your name rather than let someone else capture it.
Once you have reviewed your presence online you should evaluate your website. Consider hiring a professional to help you with the look and feel of the site, but most websites are manageable once you have it set up. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to manage the monthly updates search for a young relative or neighbor who might be willing to take on these necessary updates.
Yup, monthly updates. More frequent updates are better but that is where your blog comes in. Your website needs to be current: new book covers, foreign editions, signings, etc.
Your brand name should be your url. If you started your website years ago with a cute monikor make sure you also have a redirect with your name/author brand and that search engines are connecting you with your website. If your brand is “Jane Smith” but your website is Busy Mommy Writer, you need to make sure a google search for Jane Smith will find Busy Mommy Writer.
You should have your books – all of them – the covers, isbns, release dates, other editions, upcoming release dates, a complete booklist, and show connections between stories.
You can offer extra content: excerpts, reviews, background information. Use your imagination.
Add links to where to buy your books whether at your publisher or Amazon, B&N, etc.
Remember to link to eBooks (they don’t go out of print)
Link your properties. Make an easy connection between your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter. Look at the Obama Everywhere module at the bottom of the page I linked to. It’s a great example.
If your publisher is creating widgets, use them! At Harlequin we create widgets for every single title and our passion series. You can check out our widget for Debbie Macomber’s Summer on Blossom Street.
Gather email addresses (you have to ask permission) and develop a newsletter program.
Work with your publisher. At Harlequin we have a very powerful community with lots of events, an online bookstore, newsletters, the Harlequin Insider and an affiliate program.
I’ll repeat again: keep your online presence updated.
Last, set up a google alert so you know what is being said about you! It’s free. http://www.google.com/alerts It’s one of the easiest ways to know if someone has written about you on a blog. You can visit and comment. Forge genuine new relationships.
Your initial clean up of your brand name may take a few hours, but after that it should not be time consuming.
I’ll be back in the middle of June to share more about effective blogging.
What’s the best creative promotion or content that you have developed for your website?
Related posts:
Great post!
I remember agent Nathan Bransford discussing the importance of online communities and how that can facilitate interaction between authors and readers. I think that type of social media is especially important, particularly for niche genres.
Authors can tap into groups of connected bloggers who support the various romance subgenres.
And it’s fun, too!
Whew! This makes me feel a little behind the curve, but it’s all good information. Thanks for posting!
Hi, Malle!
I really like that on e-Harlequin, you can also contribute to the Book Challenge.
Hello Malle,
It’s been a long time since we chatted in person. I read your blog today and really enjoyed it, thank you.
To answer your question, what’s the best content/PR for my website? For my writing website, it’s my e-newsletter that I’ve had for the last 5 years. I use Topica, and readers opt-in themselves.
For my other business, I currently have 3 websites (soon to add a 4th). One’s the “mother ship” and the other 3 are subsidiaries. My favorite current PR “link” is Twitter.
My blog is the one posted before yours (Show Me the Data), btw.
Looking forward to your next blog, best wishes, Colleen
All good advice.
I here over and over how readers have been hooked after reading a book’s first chapter posted on an author’s website.
I always appreciate it when an author has a link page dedicated to her favorite authors and/or authors who write in the same subgenre, especially if it’s not well-known, like Science Fiction Romance. Here’s Linnea Sinclair’s- http://linneasinclair.com/links.html
This is a fantastic tutorial. One thing I’m wondering about, and I’d love to hear anyone’s views…
Do you think it can hurt you to name-stake places like Shelfari or Twitter or Facebook, and then not do anything with the page? What do readers think when they look you up and find an untended page? And what to do about that? Can you just put a blurb directing them to your other spots?
Elle Parker
http://elleparkerbooks.blogspot.com/
I’m glad you are finding these posts useful! I was a little worried that today’s entry was a little too much “do this” but was posting while I was travelling on business!
Elle, great question and you have the perfect solution! Include a paragraph with the links to the place where you are active. That way you have your name registered and anyone looking for you can find you and follow links to where you spend time and can interact.
You should have your books – all of them – the covers, isbns, release dates, other editions, upcoming release dates, a complete booklist, and show connections between stories.
The only thing I would add to that is to offer a printable list along side or in place of a highly graphic one. We readers do like to print lists and go shopping, remember.
Kimber An said: I always appreciate it when an author has a link page dedicated to her favorite authors and/or authors who write in the same subgenre, especially if it’s not well-known, like Science Fiction Romance. Here’s Linnea Sinclair’s- http://linneasinclair.com/links.html
This is also a really good idea and another example of peer to peer recommendations. I can’t tell you the number of new authors I have found to read via some of my favorite blogs or Amazon lists. I am goign to check out Linnea’s list now because she is a fav of mine!
Malle, thank you SO much for putting this all so succinctly. I still have a lot to do!
Will get on with all the eHarlequin promo soonest.
I’m on Twitter but have skipped MySpace and FaceBook…but with this handy guide I s/b able to name stake there. Time’s so limited when the book must come first.
Thanks again!
Bonnie
I speak as a blogging book reviewer and not as an author (yet.) I’ve had the privilage of observing hundreds of authors and publicists at work.
For social networking on-line, here’s what I’ve learned-
1) If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. Your lack of enthusiasm will show and backfire on your career.
2) Don’t spread yourself thin. Better to have one hot blog with tons of traffic than boring, rarely used blogs, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc…
3) Don’t get too fancy. Makes pages slow to load and often irritating for readers who are tired, busy, and trying to wind down from a long, hard day at the office or diaper changing table.
4) Be honest, but be polite. If you can’t keep a lid on your tempor, find a way to connect with readers which isn’t so immediate and uneditable.
5) Know your readership and meet them where they are. If most of them hang out on Facebook, for example, you should too.
6) Respond to email within 24 hours, if at all possible.
Whatever you do, always remember ***when you connect with one reader, you’re also connecting with all their friends.*** If you want that reader AND all her friends to buy your book, you’d better make sure it’s a ‘love connection.’
Great, informative post–and I have to agree with all of Kimber’s comments as well. In some cases I think it’s better to skip some networks entirely rather than slap up a profile and never update or, well, network. If it looks deserted, so might your career.
That said, this is still something I struggle with. When I first went “2.0″ I raced around joining far more nets than I could possibly hope to maintain. It became an overwhelming chore that I dreaded. Now I focus on a few I enjoy and it’s far easier.
I play on facebook, myspace and on my blog because I enjoy interacting with readers and other authors. If it helps get my name out that’s great but I do it because writing can be a lonely job and I like the interaction
Aside from the basics — every author should have an easy-to-navigate website with info on all her books (backlist and upcoming), and excerpts of same — the rest can/should be individually tailored around what works best for that author.
I blogged for a couple of years, but pretty much gave it up as just too much of an energy/time sink. I still post on the Special Edition blog on eHar about twice a month, but coming up with topics even that often can be a challenge. I truly admire writers with a natural gift of gab who always have something to say, and who don’t find blogging a chore. I don’t, and I do, so I don’t anymore.
I probably update my website four times a year — one major update when I get a new contract (and consequently have news of note!), then smaller ones to add new covers, blurbs, excerpts along the way. Since I don’t do booksignings/enter contests, etc., updating once a month would be pointless. I’m just not that active.
I also gave up my MySpace account a few weeks ago — just wasn’t working for me, on many levels. I do Twitter, however, and am on Facebook, both of which I visit several times a day. The “spit out a random thought” updates work perfectly for me, and I get far more interaction on FB — with a captive audience now approaching 2000 “friends” — than I ever did on my own blog. I’m not at all heavy-handed with the promo (since I find blatant, constant promo a turn-off, I won’t inflict it on others
), but I’ve discovered that the random, humorous life-observation is a great conversation starter. Conversely, the way FB’s set up it’s easy to also comment on other people’s statuses (stati?). It’s easy, fast and best of all a two-way street. FB = total WIN for me.
I will admit that, for me, Twitter is more about chatting with my fellow writers. At this point I don’t really use it as a promo tool.
However, there’s also a lot to be said for a writer visiting romance-friendly sites where readers hang out and taking part in the conversations there…as long as she’s genuinely contributing and not worming her way into the convo just to hawk her book. Really bad form, that. Leave your url, and readers who like what you say can look up your books at your website.
Building a relationship with potential readers is about a lot more than simply nagging them that you’ve got a book out. The good news is, the blogosphere is teeming with all sorts of relatively stress-free, enjoyable ways of doing that…as long as the writer doesn’t spread herself too thin, or hang out on sites just because she thinks she needs the exposure.
Think quality, not quantity.
Correction:
E books DO go “out of print.”
Most e-books are contracted for 1-3 years. And afterward, they are no longer available for purchase.
The rest, excellent.
After reading everyone’s opinion and advice, I think I’m doing most of this right. I like being on facebook and twitter. I find so many great links to articles on everything from promotion to markets. I’m not addicted and usually just stop by both of those places for a few minutes a couple of times per day. I have friends, though, who get caught up in that time trap.
Thank you Malle for posting this. You included very helpful information and everyone’s comments are informative as well.
Thanks everyone for your tips. I think the key messages are do what feels right and limit yourself! And yes to Karen that it is about making relationships rather than blatant self promotion.
And I guess different publishers have different contracts.
Very good information! Thanks. I’ll be linking to this on my own blog and setting up a Google Alert for my brand.
“Last, set up a google alert so you know what is being said about you! ”
God no. That way madness lies. So many authors have stuck their noses into discussions where they weren’t expected or wanted because of this. Google reviews, if you must. But ignore everything else unless you want people to loathe you.