You'll know, I hope, that I recently put all my books on a free offer from Kindle for three days. I'm happy to say that hundreds were taken in that time, of all three novels, so it went quite well. Of course I get no money for any of them, but with any luck it will raise awareness, bring in more reviews and so on, so in time it should work out. Big thanks to everyone who picked up a copy, then, and one more request; please, if you can, leave a review on my Amazon author page!
Social media work is taking up as much time as writing itself does, now. I've always tried to write for a minimum of an hour a day, at the least, though on some days that's mostly spent staring out of the window and thinking. Sometimes even about whatever it is I'm writing. But that's working too, so it's OK. Now though, it's harder to find that time because I have to check my blog, and review a piece or two on the Google+ author pages, and check my Facebook page, and the Kindle store, and CreateSpace and Book Blogs and Feed-A-Read and....
I'm not really au fait with social media. For all I know I might be going about this all wrong. Writers are sometimes quite introverted people, you might catch a glimpse of one on a moonlit night if you're very, very quiet, but you likely won't spot us chuntering away on social media sites, or playing MMORPG's ten hours a day. So we don't know how to use the online system properly - or I don't, anyway: I might be over-generalising here. For me, it means I spend two hours doing what might take someone else thirty minutes, and with the best will in the world, it cuts into my writing time.
I'm starting to think that mastery of social media might be as unlikely as mastery of writing. Hemingway once said that every writer is an apprentice in a craft in which no one ever becomes a master, and with the way internet sites change and evolve, the web is probably the same. That's why computer wizards are always young; by the time they hit thirty, everything's changed and they're old news. But writers start later (usually) and have a longer career arc, so we're inevitably going to spend time goggling at the screen while spluttering, "What the hell is that?"
Well, nothing worth having ever comes easy, or so I'm told. Still, if anyone has any advice, I'm listening.
I'm trying the giveaway route too, Ben. I have to confess that I don't like social media much - at least not for marketing.
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to read and review books for other people, but it's a slow process. Reading what you said, isn't the writing the most important thing? I say this because I have the same problem with social media eating time. Either that or I don't do it at all, which seems rather unsatisfactory!
I agree, Jessica. I'm trying to get the balance right, but I think I must be making the social media side harder than it needs to be. Other people seem to publicise their books better than I do. In time, hopefully I'll learn more, make more contacts, and things will get better.
ReplyDelete"...that's mostly spent staring out of the window and thinking. Sometimes even about whatever it is I'm writing" <---Yep. Same here.
ReplyDeleteI sadly don't have any advice for you. I am quite clueless when it comes to social media. If I can get all my stuff taken care of in two hours, I think I'm doing well.
Oh well, thanks anyway, MJ.
ReplyDeletePick one or two sites and stick with them, is my advice. T. A. Miles keeps her time to G+ and her blog, that's it. I will sometimes tweet and FB stuff on the Raventide Books sites, but it's not the same. Reading and reviewing books isn't really 'social media' for us, but she does that better than I do.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds good advice - or maybe I just want to reduce my workload, hehe. I use Google+ so that and this blog might be enough, then. Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteNo problem. Nothing sells books better than getting more written.
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