Support for Indie Authors discussion
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Do I need a Facebook page?
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Yes. Both. ALL. FB, Twitter, Blog. Just for starters.
These are critical tools for indie authors.
I published less than a year ago. I have Twitter, Facebook and a blog in two places. Those automatic bot thingies read my blog-I'm convinced the only human reading the one outside of GR is me. Most of the sales I have had were down to telling people who already knew me on Facebook that I'd published a book. Twitter has not made any difference, there have been no sales due to tweeting and retweeting my book, but if I hadn't done any of those things I feel I would have had even less chance. So set them all up, use them to the best of your ability and be patient. I think I hate promo about as much as I hate writing blurb. UGH.
Ditto to everything Amy said. I actually really enjoy blogging when I have something to say, but I get quite overwhelmed with it all sometimes especially when I am out of action :(
You really, truly need a website. I didn't have or want one months after I published but eventually caved and began building it. I can say now that I can't imagine being an author now without my own page! I love it so much - the freedom, the autonomy, the ability to craft my own narrative with care and creativity. Basically, all the reasons I love being an indie! Not to mention I now have 40 awesome people on my mailing list. I suck at fb but that's okay. I have no hard and fast goals. I visit lots of pages to see how authors optimize fb and when I'm ready I'll dig in.
I suck at Twitter but guess what? If you're hoping to do anything other than connect you're going about it all wrong. I've met some amazing people on Twitter, some of whom have had me on their blogs and some of whom are scheduled for features on my own blog. Those may not be sales but since when are those guaranteed?
It can be overwhelming but take one step at a time. Most importantly, focus on the fun stuff. I loved designing my site but hated trying to solve a stubborn issue with my header.php file. Finally I said, screw this, I'm a writer. So $5 and one visit to fiverr.com and my problem was solved! I was back to eating popcorn and picking out cool fonts!
I have a blog, use Twitter, lnstagram, LinkedIn and two FB Pages - one for me as a writer (novels, screenwriting, writing related stuff) and a page for my book, A Cry Among Men (tweets, reviews, articles around my book's subject, videos, photos of book discussions, etc.)
You only *need* what you feel comfortable with. Period.
Ash I think I understand a bit. I don't like Twitter. I do prefer Facebook mainly because I've used it for longer. At it's very worst social media can be full of bullies. I've dealt with enough of them in my life. Twitter can be 140 characters of what someone had to eat. Facebook includes the picture of the meal. A lot of it can be seen as mindless showboating on the personal side of it. (I've barely had any interaction on the professional side to comment on that.) Social media contains trolls and people who only want to undermine the person posting. I've experienced all of this. I'm not a very social person either. People intimidate me. I've almost closed my personal Facebook account twice in the last year because of bullying. The only reason I get away with social media is to tell myself I'm only posting to myself because there's no other person on the planet interested in what I've got to say. So in doing that I carry on. But Twitter though-I know it's hugely popular, try as I might I just don't get the point.
And what's more I'm afraid I just don't have the time to do everything. I haven't got Instathingy or Tumblewidget or a web page (would you have a web page for one book?) I do have five separate online things for author me and my one book and everything else that we have to do like a job and a family.
Ugh just venting...
Ash wrote: "Well, I don't feel comfortable getting hacked. So I guess there's that."My daughter's FB was hacked when she was about 14. Nightmare, took ages to close it down because there was not a way to take back control. There are more safeguards in place since that happened though. Not that I've put them to the test.
Ash wrote: "Well, I don't feel comfortable getting hacked. So I guess there's that."It's all about your password. Don't use words you can find in the dictionary, use a mixture of upper case, lower case, numbers, and symbols. The most common password is "pa55word" and people still.... don't understand why that won't work.
Oh Ash, I do get it. I've left web sites and Facebook groups and forums and all kinds of things. I think I'm just not a team player. I try, I really do, however I have never really felt like one of those at the top of anything or truly belonging to anything. Doesn't matter how welcoming people are, it's me. I'm an outsider and an also ran and probably always will be. It doesn't matter what I've done in life, someone else has done the same thing to the same standard, but is more important than me on the hierarchy, any hierarchy. Time and time again.If I was a dragon I'd burn towns not massage people-sorry (really not sorry :-)
Ash wrote: "People can't hack my account or troll me, etc. Well, they could but it's harder."Goodreads has been the downfall of many an author due to troll attacks. The main thing to keep in mind when posting anything anywhere on the internet is that it is not private. This includes Goodreads group discussions. And whatever happens, never engage. Regardless of who is wrong and who is right, the author is the only one who has something to lose and ten times out of ten, they do.
My advice? Do what you feel you can do. Trying to do too much will burn you out. You don't feel like having a website? Use the blog on GR. FB and Twitter? I have both but Twitter is still a big puzzle for me. I'm trying, but I'm not losing any sleep over it. FB is different. It's easier for me to understand, probably because I was on the site long before I published my first book. The down fall with FB, is that if people don't click like on your posts (page, or wall), they might slowly stop seeing your posts (unless they set it to see you first, but usually people don't do that). But in the end you'll still be seen by others.
So really, if you don't feel like you are able to do both, choose the one you are more at ease with. There'll be time to try the other if you liked the first.
Ash wrote: "I'm not new to the internet, just very tired of it. . . ."Yep.
And-I often cannot answer the phone. I won't drive because I'm scared of getting lost. And I can't be the first to open the door of a building I have never been into. The anxiety invades everything. I wish sometimes I could deploy a baseball bat to its head.
You can only do what you can do Alex. I learnt that the hard way. (I'm not a fan of posting using the app-just sayin')
Amy wrote: "And-I often cannot answer the phone...."THE PHONE!!! it drives me crazy every time it rings. I have that thing with the phone. If I am not careful after it rings, i'll be in the cookie jar, or something. More than once I caught myself grabbing something to snack on after the darn phone rang, whether I had to answer it or not. No need to say that I DO NOT own a cell phone.
If someone asks to meet I want to hide in the ground and never come out. I have a few fans whom I also know from gaming who have asked to meet. One drove from another state already, the other offered to take the plane.
Heck, too often I wished I'd die to avoid these situations that I am now wondering if I got cancer because of my wishes (so yeah, be careful what you wish for). :P
Just writing about my fears and discomfort made me all jittery so if you find a way to deploy a baseball bat on anxiety, can I have a shot at it too, pretty please? :)
I am an author, as well, but I am going to answer from a reader/reviewer's prospective...You need as much social media presence as you can get. NOT to sell books, but to give your readers a way to find you, connect with you, and contact you if they wish to.
It takes a long time to build a following but you cannot even do that if you have no place for your followers to "follow" you. People want a way to find out about new releases and projects you might be working on that they can look forward to. They can't do this if you aren't available to them.
Yes, blogs are great. However, unless your followers receive updates every time you post, the chances that they'll be visiting your site very often are slim. They will, however, be on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. So if you want them to see your blog, sharing the blog post on social media is a must. It gives people a reason to visit your site and be "reminded" of your existence.
Twitter gives your readers a way to tag you when they share their reviews of your work. I get frustrated when an author doesn't have a Twitter and I want to share my review, especially if it is a positive review and I want the author to see it. And yes, I've called out authors in my reviews for not having a Twitter account so I can tag them in my frickin' amazing review! *teeheehee*
Facebook gives an even broader avenue. You can host giveaways, start a private group or "street team" to really connect with your readers. Or you can just post stuff, occasionally. However, not having a Facebook page makes it difficult for your readers to share your books with their friends. And readers who like you are always your *best* advertising. Give them a way to work for you.
If you're afraid to take all of this on, there is always an option of getting a virtual assistant to handle it for you. I know even indie authors who use them. Where there is a will, there is a way...
Lots of comments!I have it all. Some under another pen name, but I have it.
My FB page seems to go dormant and I have to restart it... not sure why that happens. I try to keep the page only for announcements, while my FB account is more for socialness.
I have a 2 blogs (one for each pen name), and I'm trying to think of ways to keep it lively, but for the most part, It's mainly just announcements. The two author websites are mainly there to offer information about books/writing/events, etc.
It's too much work and I tend to feel overwhelmed and let something slide.
G.G I don't believe you can wish cancer on yourself so I'd officially give you a break from that one. And yeah if I get the baseball bat figured out I'll send it to you. I'm not hand delivering it or anything because I'd have to go out and travel somewhere and we know that isn't happening any lifetime soon.Thinking about Facebook. Fine people can search once they know you exist, well that's it really. I post stuff every day that I know even my closest friends don't get on their newsfeed because of the sheer volume of everything else.
Did the social media course I went on say you should post three times a day or week-anyone know? I imagine it's standard advice (Please let it be 3 a week!)
G.G. wrote: "Amy wrote: "And-I often cannot answer the phone...."THE PHONE!!! it drives me crazy every time it rings. I have that thing with the phone. If I am not careful after it rings, i'll be in the cooki..."
Breathe my lovelies. I didn't intend this thread to be upsetting.
Sending waves of love and positivity p...
Just my $.02 US:For beginning site builders, Wordpress is really quite good. It's free and lets you do quite a bit without having to code at all. Not only that, but it also can send your blog posts to your Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and other social media followers automatically.
Not only that, but there's a little bit of promotion that Wordpress does for you as well. I have to be honest, my blog following on Wordpress is far larger than my blog following on my self hosted site where I bought my domain. That's because the Wordpress.com blog posts show up in the reader for other people to discover, so there's some natural promotion.
Also, agreed with some of the others. Genuine social engagement and offering value to other people is really important. Making friends is not only fun, but helps you in the long run. So comment on other people's blogs, talk about random stuff that interests you, give advice when asked for it, etc. It all helps.
If you have other questions I'd be more than happy to answer them here or in PM, I don't claim to be an expert but have some experience in this area and love helping.
None of it is silly. I agonise about things I post in case anything can be misunderstood. (Has been in the past and I was only trying to be funny)I've looked at Twitter again. I have absolutely nothing to say on Twitter. Anything I try to say on Twitter is as dull as ditch water. The best I can hope for is sharing vines and memes, which being rubbish at Twitter I can't find. I am truly amazing!
Ash wrote: "Sure, maybe once I burned some villages. I ate some tasty people. I flew in the light of the moon. But now I've got holes in my wings. So I hide in my cave, and my words are my fire.*"
By the way, that was beautiful. And I hear you.
I've followed this stream with great interest, as I, too, find all the social media marketing things wearing. I do facebook, twitter, instagram, and linked-in, but none of them well. I agree with Dawn that the social media connections don't sell books but build relationships. That's an important piece, but the best way for me to build relationships is for people to read my MEMOIR!I used to keep a weekly blog on Turkey while I lived in Istanbul, and that had a strong following, but my newer writing blog has been paltry at best. I know we should all do our best to keep marketing, and I try to give it at least a few hours each week, but life seems to get in the way.
I did a quick review of sales on my memoir about living in Istanbul, released in May. I discovered that the great majority of my online sales were during two promotion pushes. I sent out e-mails, posted on facebook, wrote guest blogs, and paid (small sums) for promotions (Library Thing, Pump up your Book, Story Cartel and Book Tweeters). My book was also featured on eReader IQ during a discount promotion for three days. My profit for the year wasn't impressive, but I sold over 500 books. I'm just starting yet another push for a discount promotion in April. It's overwhelming at times, but baby steps.
I've sold about 110 hard copies of my book on my own locally and to friends, and I made more money on those than on any of my online sales.
I have two other books published, and each has sold about 4,000 copies, but both times I had publishers to help me out. I think the support of a publisher is great, though you get much less of the take. Like 10-15%. Not much.
Another note--learn how to attach meta-data to your posts and photos. I spent an exciting hour talking with a marketer who said that pinterest posts drew the most traffic to her travel sites. Food for thought! One more thing to do, but maybe it will pay off.
Good luck to ALL of us in this marketing melange!
None. You need to have books available. And I think you need to have fun. That about sums up the "needs".
Okay. I put my big girl pants on. I now have FB. Eeep
This thread has magical powers. I have avoided having a FB page or any social media forever. I had an edition of my ebook dropped by a publisher back in the day because of my aversion to it, but I have just created a FB page for myself. So what's everyone's thoughts on twitter?
Michael wrote: "So what's everyone's thoughts on twitter?"OMG Twitter. Or Twatter as I call it. I don't like it, but I do it because I have to. I don't do it well because I have nothing to say that takes 140 characters. I retweet rude stuff and possibly funny animal photos. (shrugs and raises eyebrows)
Michael wrote: "This thread has magical powers. I have avoided having a FB page or any social media forever. I had an edition of my ebook dropped by a publisher back in the day because of my aversion to it, but I ..."There are several threads about Twitter. Just do a search using the box in the upper right corner of this page.
First off, what is the goal? If it is to sell books then one course of action is to have one main social media site. Facebook wins that hands down as 70% of the world's population is on FB. An Author page is critical and it will be your main social media platform. You should have two outposts, GoodReads is automatic and chose another.
To add to the FB as key. You should have a private group to have a place where your ARC team can gather.
Side note, media analysis, not mine indicates Twitter is a waste of time, so is Instagram. Pinterest is now second for a place to build a brand.
Web page of some sort is needed. (I have avoided this but now working on one)
Finally, the holy grail in book marketing is a newsletter and a robust mailing list. I am late on this marketing tool but regardless what anyone thinks or says, this is where the pot of gold is.
For me personally, I wasted so much time chasing all these social media platforms and flitting around. Decided to KISS (keep it simple stupid) and follow the advice of a successful marketer, less is more.
It has been suggested that as I am a fairly prolific reader and reviewer I should base most of it around that.
But then other people say. No. You need a website. But that sounds like even more work.
So I'm asking for opinion, advice, help.
Which. Both. Neither