Karmic Circles
A couple of posts back, I wrote about setting up my author page on Facebook. I set it up, sent invitations to my small number of friends, gathered eleven “likes” in the first few days. Then nothing. The page sat there, not going anywhere but not attracting attention either. I didn’t have enough friends even to meet Facebook’s threshold of twenty-five likes, the minimum necessary to define an easy-to-remember user name to replace the long string of letters and numbers originally assigned to me. I needed more Facebook connections—especially since sales of my book, after chugging along at a slow but steady pace, had stalled. But where to find them?
I sent out requests to writer friends of friends. My tiny network grew, but my author page remained stuck at eleven likes.
Then I discovered Novel Publicity’s Author Karma group (on Facebook and Goodreads). This wonderful idea draws on a simple truth: most writers hate self-promotion. Why would they? Writers, fiction and nonfiction, spend hours every day in front of their computers, more or less in isolation. They express themselves through the written word. Fiction writers go farther, creating their own communities, their own worlds, living through the emotions of their characters. And these are the folks expected to button-hole family, friends, and strangers and yell, “Buy my book”? Not likely.
The lucky writer has a beloved extrovert to handle the publicity and the marketing (or a publicist, but that requires the writer to first make it big, in which case the writer probably has other things to do besides read this blog). And to be honest, I am lucky in just that way. Even so, the beloved extrovert can’t do everything.
Which is why I appreciate Author Karma—a group of writers on Facebook who like one another’s pages, follow one another on Twitter and Pinterest, like and tag books on Amazon.com, and in general support one another. As I write this post, the group has about 450 members, each of whom participates to the extent that s/he feels appropriate. Paying forward, helping others—and no direct self-promotion. This idea is inspired. I love it. Thank you, Novel Publicity!
As a newcomer to the group, I have a lot of clicking to do before I get through the various lists. It may take me a few weeks to catch up, especially since the group expands daily. But the carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrist will be worth it. Already I have found several books (by Karma authors) that I want to read, and my network of connections has doubled in size. And, yes, my author page now has more than sixty likes. You can find it at http://www.facebook.com/cplesley.authorpage. I corrected the link in earlier posts to reflect the new name. Stop by and visit sometime. And if you’re a writer, consider joining the group. It’s a great way to connect with other authors.
Meanwhile, I will be wending my way through the Karmic lists, paying forward. I will be watching to see if the greater exposure translates to higher sales or even higher rankings according to the all-important algorithms that drive modern marketing. But compared to lassoing neighbors at the grocery store (okay, I do that, too), Author Karma seems well worth a shot. If nothing else, I’m happy to have discovered such a great group of people.
I sent out requests to writer friends of friends. My tiny network grew, but my author page remained stuck at eleven likes.
Then I discovered Novel Publicity’s Author Karma group (on Facebook and Goodreads). This wonderful idea draws on a simple truth: most writers hate self-promotion. Why would they? Writers, fiction and nonfiction, spend hours every day in front of their computers, more or less in isolation. They express themselves through the written word. Fiction writers go farther, creating their own communities, their own worlds, living through the emotions of their characters. And these are the folks expected to button-hole family, friends, and strangers and yell, “Buy my book”? Not likely.
The lucky writer has a beloved extrovert to handle the publicity and the marketing (or a publicist, but that requires the writer to first make it big, in which case the writer probably has other things to do besides read this blog). And to be honest, I am lucky in just that way. Even so, the beloved extrovert can’t do everything.
Which is why I appreciate Author Karma—a group of writers on Facebook who like one another’s pages, follow one another on Twitter and Pinterest, like and tag books on Amazon.com, and in general support one another. As I write this post, the group has about 450 members, each of whom participates to the extent that s/he feels appropriate. Paying forward, helping others—and no direct self-promotion. This idea is inspired. I love it. Thank you, Novel Publicity!
As a newcomer to the group, I have a lot of clicking to do before I get through the various lists. It may take me a few weeks to catch up, especially since the group expands daily. But the carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrist will be worth it. Already I have found several books (by Karma authors) that I want to read, and my network of connections has doubled in size. And, yes, my author page now has more than sixty likes. You can find it at http://www.facebook.com/cplesley.authorpage. I corrected the link in earlier posts to reflect the new name. Stop by and visit sometime. And if you’re a writer, consider joining the group. It’s a great way to connect with other authors.
Meanwhile, I will be wending my way through the Karmic lists, paying forward. I will be watching to see if the greater exposure translates to higher sales or even higher rankings according to the all-important algorithms that drive modern marketing. But compared to lassoing neighbors at the grocery store (okay, I do that, too), Author Karma seems well worth a shot. If nothing else, I’m happy to have discovered such a great group of people.
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