Navigating the Social Media Maze for Authors
Tamera WIll WissingerLast weekend I was lucky enough to attend Hamline University's Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children's alumni weekend. It was a perfect opportunity to reconnect with classmates, faculty and staff, and to met new writing friends and learn from and connect with each other. On Saturday afternoon I had an opportunity to facilitate a discussion with a group of enthusiastic alums about social media considerations for authors. This post is to share the information and provide the links that we discussed to those participants, and for anyone else interested in a bit more information on the subject.
WHY THE SOCIAL MEDIA DISCUSSION: GETTING UP TO SPEED
One of the reasons I wanted to facilitate this discussion is to share my experience with those who have limited social media exposure and are hoping for a contract, about to receive a contract, or have a contract (or two or three) and books in the pipeline. I hope that this information can help ease your transition. When my first book contract was offered in 2011, I wasn’t at all up to speed on social media. My publisher had sent an author marketing questionnaire and among the questions were my website address and any social media venues I participated in. It was just a few years ago and most of the venues that are available now were available then. As for social media, I had an under-used Facebook account – that’s it. I wasn’t paying attention to any part of the bigger picture – I had my head down, writing, revising, and submitting. That’s mostly what I should have been doing, but if I were given a “do-over,” I would modify a few things related to my social media strategy starting in 2009 and 2010: I would set up a static website that included info about me, my education, and my writing; I'd educate myself on the benefits of Twitter and Facebook and begin to connect with other like-minded people, i.e. authors, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and industry professionals; I'd figure out Google and everything that it offers (something I'm still working on); I would start to follow debut children's authors through these venues and see what they're doing on social media.
That would have been ideal, but life and writing are often messy and so was my entry into social media. I know that some of you are in the same situation, but please don’t despair. Book sales are not made or lost on an author's social media presence and whatever you are able to do for social media before your first book arrives will be enough for now. Social media is one tool of many that publishers have in their marketing arsenals and is one way that we authors can have an active role in promoting our books and our writing expertise. And you are not alone - one of the most important benefits I've found in having a social media presence is that there is a wide array of people willing to help - it's one of the best parts of being connected to the children's writing world whether online or in person - we are all in this together.
THE OTHER REASON WHY: "EVERYBODY IS TALENTED, ORIGINAL AND HAS SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY"
The other reason I wanted to have this discussion is to offer reassurance to reluctant prepublished well published authors: There is a place for you in this social media conversation. Wherever you are in your author journey you belong. I know it’s easy to convince ourselves that without a book contract or several under our belts, that we haven’t earned our place, or that if most of our work was published before social media existed, it will be impossible to come up to speed. That’s simply not true. As Brenda Ueland says “Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say.” I do believe this, but on its own this belief wasn’t enough to get me over my social media aversion. It took a trip back to a Hamline alumni weekend and a brief conversation with Hamline MFAC faculty member Marsha Qualey who mentioned being, “a link in the chain,” regarding social media for me to recognize that I not only had a place in the stream, but I had a responsibility to do my part. And so with this conversation I’m trying to be that link in the chain and also invite those of you who may have put yourselves on the sidelines to jump in. You belong here – you have an expertise: talent, something important and original. I welcome you to start sharing it.
THE SOCIAL MEDIA MAZE
The Conversation Prism: This graphic is from wikipedia.org - I think it's a good illustration of all the many possibilities available online. It can be overwhelming.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Conversationprism.jpeg
WHAT'S IMPORTANT FOR EACH AUTHOR
Of course we can't all do all of these things, so we have to make choices. Below is my current Social Media Strategy and the outlets I use to execute that strategy in descending order of use. What I use is in flux and will change over time. Each of you will have a different strategy and have and will find other things that work for you. I know authors who are effectively using Pinterest, Linkdin, Tumblr, Instagram, big-time blogging, and more to engage with their audiences, but I haven't even tried those (yet). Social Media is definitely not a one size fits all, and there can be a great deal of trial and error to find the model that works best. The only thing I'm fairly certain of is that social media is part of our author role, especially if we publish or intend to publish our work.
TAMERA'S CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Aside from my own website and my Facebook Author page, I would guess that 95% or more of what I share through social media is about someone or something else. Most of that is related to children's authors, writing, books, children and families, teachers, librarians, education, booksellers, or publishing. In small quantity I also share information about things that I like to do or see, including golfing, fishing, nature photos, projects around my house, musings that I think are funny. Least of all, I share my own good news including nice book reviews or honors and any other positive news about my current or forthcoming books. Mostly, I enjoy helping authors celebrate their good news online, meeting new and interesting people who have similar interests to me , and helping spread the word about info that might be of interest to those people. And in return, I receive those things back.
Here are my current social media outlets:
Website
tamerawillwissinger.com - where we are now.
I purchased my domain name from Go Daddy and I use Squarespace as my web hosting company. They charge a small annual fee and I designed the site myself using the Squarespace structure and style options. This gives me flexibility to tweak my site and add content where, when, and how I choose without using a third party. There are other sites which allow this flexibility and are free, such as Blogger and Wordpress (I’m not sure about the fee structure at Wordpress – some in our discussion said it’s free, but I know there is a fee for one of my debut author groups. I'm not sure why - maybe there are more features for a paid subscription.) If you're not into designing on your own site, you can hire a web designer to help. My best advice for a first step is to look at many websites, choose features and looks that you like, and begin to build a wireframe (basically an outline of what each of your web pages will be, and what those pages will include.) That will give you a starting point to have a discussion with a designer.
My Twitter handle: @TameraWissinger
This is where I spend much of my social media time. Because of the 140 character limit on posts, I can share and receive info quickly and I like that. I’ve participated in twitter chats and book release parties among other events. Here is the link to the Twitterphobe article I wrote in 2013. It goes into detail about how I got over being afraid of Twitter, my Twitter philosophy, and why I think Twitter can be useful to authors at every career stage.
Confessions of a Twitterphobe by Tamera Will Wissinger
(Sometimes I wonder if I should merge these, but for now I’m maintaining both.) Facebook has been harder for me to engage with than Twitter. My favorite feature on Facebook is Groups that allow me to connect with a specific subset of friends.
Google Plus/YouTube/Hangout
I’m just becoming familiar with Google even though it's been around and evolving for years. It’s big and can seem overwhelming, however; I think they offer a ton of opportunities to network and some authors are very good at leveraging this outlet. I use Google Hangout instead of Skype (Thank you Naomi Kinsman for helping me get up to speed with Hangout!) I also think that videos are more than a trend, so I’m trying to learn how to use YouTube and other video-making software to get up to speed on this technology. I’m already using it to create book trailers and short poetry videos. (From my profile page I think you can see the book trailer for THIS OLD BAND, along with a couple other videos I've added to YouTube.) I’m hoping to use videos to connect to teachers and students, but I haven’t figured out the details of how.
My Group Blog: Smack Dab in the Middle
(Thank you, Naomi, for also connecting me to this group of wonderful authors!)
Two debut author marketing groups that have/had a blog element:
(These groups grow less and less active as we move away from 2013. The 2015 groups have already formed and are probably closed, and the 2016 groups are probably forming now.)
Goodreads is an online place for people to talk about and rate books they’re reading. Anyone can be a Goodreads participant. Once you’re a published author you can claim your books and establish an author page. I use Goodreads to track books that I’m reading, books that I’ve read, and books that I’d like to read. (Some months I'm better than others.) I know this may not be for everyone, but I do read reviews of my books. I like the insight to what readers think and I try not to take these comments personally.
Sound Cloud: Audio Making Website.
I use this to record poetry and I recorded a few stanzas of THIS OLD BAND set to music.
I think this site has potential for reading excerpts of my work and it’s quite a bit quicker to produce an audio track than a video with sound.
Animoto: Video Making Website.
This site offers 30 second video making for free. Here’s a link to a short video I created for a Poetry Friday project using Animoto:
Members can have access to creating longer videos for a small fee. I’m thinking about whether or not to do this. (There are several others that I'm sure are also good; this is just one that I've been toying with and like.) I also purchased a video-making software called Video Maker FX. It’s what I used to create the THIS OLD BAND trailer, which I then rendered on my computer and uploaded to YouTube. The Video Maker FX software is a newly released product and there are kinks, so I’d like to use it more and let things shake out before making a recommendation.
Confession: I find video making an interesting way to tell a story and I think it's fun. This is one that could move up in importance/usage, but that's also something that I need to be aware of since I can see it being a time thief.
Flickr: Photo Sharing Website.
I use this sparingly right now to connect with family. I’m interested in finding a photo site where I can legally purchase/use photos in my blog posts/videos, but I haven’t subscribed to anything yet.
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Other things we talked about, and resources for those getting started in social media or thinking about book promotion:
The Gone Fishing tour info is on my press page. Scroll down to the "Interviews & Book Features" section for this blog tour.
Articles:
HOW ONE TOP YOUNG ADULT AUTHOR ‘REALLY’ FEELS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
by Alice Kuipers From Write for Kids Blog presented by Children’s Book Insider
ASK THE EXPERT: Ann Ness on Personal Branding
This article appeared in the spring 2014 issue of Hamline Magazine. You'll need to scroll down to the article. I haven’t read the books that Ann recommends, but I mentioned the idea of thinking of yourself as a small business and Ann’s comments on Personal Branding support that idea.
Book Promotion Expert and Book Recommendation:
Katie Davis is an author who is one of the leaders book promotion. Here’s a link to her webstie’s book page: http://katiedavis.com/books/
Not long ago I purchased Katie Davis’ E-Book: How to Promote Your Children’s Book: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets to Create a Bestseller (Kindle Edition) It’s a good place to begin if you’re just getting started.
There are other books on this subject. The info changes quickly, so I’d recommend finding books that are the most current.
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I think this covers most of what we discussed – please let me know if I missed anything or if you have questions – you know where to find me!
Love,
Tamera
07.19.2014
