How to Get Your Book Published in 7000 Easy Steps – A Practical Guide STEP 8: SOCIAL MEDIA 101

The first thing the publicist will do upon being hired is to begin an uncomfortable conversation regarding your social media platform, or lack thereof, which is more than likely the situation or you wouldn’t be reading this Guide in the first place.

In my case, this was absolutely the truth; I came to the table armed only with a sketchy FB page.  Well, actually, to be perfectly honest, I also had a rather empty author FB page and a relatively static website, both of which I had constructed as homework assignments for an online class I had recently signed up for entitled “Social Media 101,” which provided, among other things, no end of mirth for my kids.

As requested, I submitted the links and all the passwords to my online life to my new publicist and waited for them to call me back with their assessment, which took all of about five minutes.  From the heavy sigh on the other end of the phone, it was clear that they were fully cognizant of the work ahead of them.

The conversation went something like this:

Them:  “Your author Facebook page has no likes.”

Me:  “I know, but I haven’t told anyone about it yet.”

Them:  “Why?  You know that’s the point, right?”

Me:  “Well . . . because there’s nothing on it, really.”

Them:  “We noticed.”  Pause.  “What’s the cover photo of?”  (It was a shot of an English manor house I had taken on a vacation a few years back.)  “Is this supposed to be the setting?  How does it relate to the book?”

Me:  “Well . . . it doesn’t, really.  I just thought it was . . . well, pretty, I guess . . .”

Silence.

Them:  “Well, we’ll work on that.  We need a banner.”

What’s a banner? I wondered.  And I could almost envision her vaguely snapping her fingers to some underling standing attentively behind her who now scurried to create this thing called a banner while she continued to scroll through my humble online offerings while cradling the phone next to her ear with her shoulder.  (Even my imaginings are sadly dated!  See if you can count the ways, beginning with the fact that this was probably a virtual office . . .)

Them:  “Where’s the blog tab on your website?”

Me:  “Well,” I said, trying to chuckle.  “I deleted it.”

Them:  “Accidentally?”

Me:  “Well, no, it’s because I don’t have a blog.”

Them:  “Not any blog? Are you planning to?”

Me:  “Well, not really . . . I mean . . . not exactly . . .”

Them:  “How are you going to attract readers?”

Me:  “Well, I wouldn’t have a clue what to write about.”

Them:  “Just look up your favorite authors and copy theirs!”

This probably wasn’t a good point to tell her that all my favorite authors are dead.

Them:  “Aren’t you on Twitter or Instagram?  I don’t see any notes here.  Did we miss something?”

Again I could imagine her glancing over at her minions scurrying around and them shrugging back at her.

Me:  “Well, no, I’m not on those, either.  What would I tweet?  Is that the right word – tweet?”

Irritated sigh.

Them:  “Okay.  Let’s start at the beginning.  Do you have the cover?”

Me:  “I . . . no, it’s still in production, I think.”

Them:  “I’ll call the publisher.  Meanwhile you create a dropbox and invite me.”

Again, I didn’t think that now was a good time to ask what a dropbox was.  Later when I asked my thirteen year old, he gave me his first ever look of real pity, as if I were in a nursing home and had just dribbled my food.

Them:  “We’ll start rebuilding the website right away.  What you have is not going to work.”

Me:  “Yes, obviously!  We can all see that!” I laughed, attempting levity.  “It was just a homework…”

Them:  “And I’ll have Ashley contact you about the blog.”

Probably to alleviate the fear that was welling up, I distracted myself with the quick internal aside question of why everyone there had beautiful (dare I say – marketable?) names like Sophia, Krista, Olivia, Lauren?  Were they fake?  Was everyone assigned a fake name upon being hired?  Where were the Pat’s, the Lisa’s, the Sue’s?   Surely not just a coincidence?

Them: “Are you there?”

Me:  “Oh, yes.  I was just thinking . . .”

Them:  “I’ll have Ashley email you.”

And so, dear readers, this is your lesson for the week. As much work as you and/or your publicist have to do to pump up your platform, equally important is for you to begin to change your limited world view.  Save yourself the months of complaining and stalling that I indulged in and set aside your preconceived notions – perhaps terror – regarding social media and just jump in.

Start thinking of yourself as a brand, an entity that people want to know about.  Equally important, as my publisher once wisely advised, is to start thinking of your book “as a product, not a baby.”  If you want your readership to extend beyond your family and friends, you have to find a way to reach people, and the only way to do that, I’m afraid, is through social media.

Remember, if I can do it, surely you can, too.  Believe me, darlings, it’s not so bad.

 

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STEP 8: SOCIAL MEDIA 101 appeared first on Michelle Cox.