How much time should an author spend tweeting, Facebook-ing and MySpace-ing?

Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of Whale Song, The River and Divine Intervention and book marketing coach is my guest blogger today. Tardif responds:

The quick answer: Not so much time that your manuscript is piling up around you–unedited or unfinished.

All writers need to find ways to use social networks; it doesn’t have to be time consuming. Only you can determine how much time you spend on your social networks. I recommend an average of 15-30 minutes each for MySpace and Facebook, 2-5 times a week, depending on your schedule. This would include reading and responding to emails, contacting friends with requests (especially reviewers), leaving comments on your friends’ pages (socializing), sending invites to events or a bulletin (MySpace) announcing your new article, book, event etc. It all boils down to time management. 3-5 hours a week is a good goal.

Twitter requires less time. 5-10 minutes a day is all that’s needed to make an impact on sales, word of mouth, and opportunities. One book marketing expert, John Kremer, likes to send out about 10 tweets (messages) a day. Mine will vary, but on average, I probably send out 5-10 messages every other day. More lately because I’m promoting a contest that is bringing new followers in by the hour. 🙂 I suggest people set small goals. Use a timer if you have to so you won’t go over — or stick to one thing a day. Start small, working up to your goals.

As I mentioned in my presentation at the recent Get Publishing conference, all authors will have various needs. The first thing you need to do is determine WHO you need to connect to and WHY. Who can help you move forward in your career? Publishers? An agent? Bookstores? Magazine editors? Readers? Book Clubs? Book reviewers? Newspaper reporters? TV talk show hosts? Radio hosts? etc. This is the first step–target your network.

In the past I have been reviewed by a New York Times bestselling author because of my friendship with her on MySpace. It happened very quickly after connecting with her. I also have 5 other known authors who will be blurbing my new novel once my agent finds a publisher.

I have found numerous book reviewers through all social networks, and through them found other marketing opportunities, like guest blogging on their blog and using them as hosts for a VBT.

I have had film producers and directors contact me through these networks. Some have read my novels and my screenplay for Whale Song.

I have been interviewed as a result of online networking. I’ve had book clubs pick up my books; schools have too–which means I’m selling books.

The main thing is by being on these networks it becomes a “viral” form of marketing. Like a virus, word spreads and we all know how vital word-of-mouth advertising is. Twitter is perfect for this. Just add “RT” to your tweet and others will re-tweet your message to all their friends. And so on…and so on…

The bottom line is this: if you want to be a successful writer who is able to continuously bring forth new works and get paid for them, you will want to spend time marketing your books EVERY DAY.

I always try to do at least 3 things a day that will move me forward in some way–even if it’s giving someone a bookmark at Starbucks. As with any kind of marketing, it has to be balanced with your writing and other life. If you’re spending more than an hour a day maintaining the top 3 social networks (MySpace, Facebook and Twitter), then you might want to look at how you’re spending that time. It’s totally up to you though.

Visit Cheryl at The Write-Type — Multi-Author Musings

Think Outside the Book

Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of Whale Song, The River and Divine Intervention is my guest blogger today. She says:

I am a “Shameless Promoter”. In fact, I enjoy promoting my novels and helping others learn to do so, and I speak at writers’ conferences on this topic. I am even known as “Shameless Promoter” amongst my peers and many in the book industry, and it’s a name I wear proudly. As an author, promoting my books is my #1 responsibility after writing them. I partner with my publishers and distributors, and that’s the way authors need to see this-as a partnership. Now, enough of me. 

Most authors, when faced with the daunting task of promoting their books, think of the most obvious ways–book signings and via their website. I’ve discovered that it’s crucial to the basic survival of an author to “think outside the book!” We’ve all heard the phrase “think outside the box.” This simply means: “Be creative!” Don’t get stuck in a small rut of small activities that lead to small results. 

Dreaming big has led me to much success. And it can for you too! 

My motto for years has been “Dare to Dream…and Dream Big!” And I tell people, “If that doesn’t work, Dream BIGGER!” I’ve been a published novelist since 2003, and all of my novels have gone on to be bestsellers on Amazon in the US and Canada . They’ve also attracted a lot of film success. Why? Because I thought “outside of the book”. 

In 2006, I partnered with a screenwriter and we wrote the screenplay for my critically acclaimed novel Whale Song. This led to writing a movie treatment. I had never thought I’d be writing either, but as soon as I pursued this, opportunity knocked. A film producer in Canada wanted to see the screenplay. While he eventually turned it down, this experience taught me that I must see further than a book on a store shelf. Frankly, that used to be my dream-seeing my books in bookstores. I’ve now come to realize that the real dream is to see those books MOVE off those shelves and into the hands of avid readers. 

So how do you reach the multitudes and market your books to them? 

Think outside…okay, you should have it by now. Instead of thinking “bookstores” as your main market, think “consumers”. You want to reach your readers, those wonderful people who will become fans of your work and email you every time they read one of your books. So go where the readers are! 

You’ll find booklovers on MySpace, Facebook, Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing, AuthorsDen, AuthorNation, NothingBinding,TextNovel, Chapters Online Community and hundreds of other websites. 

What do you do once you’re a member of these sites? Network, make friends and shamelessly promote your work without being pushy. Being genuine is far better, and if you’re like me you’ll enjoy making new friends. For more information on how authors can use online social networks, please check out my 5-part article on exactly that: 

How Can Authors Use Online Social Networks? 

How else can you “think outside the box”? 

Have you contacted your local book clubs? What about nonprofit organizations? Maybe you could partner with them and help them raise funds by donating a portion of your proceeds. Could you benefit from a corporate sponsor? What about trade shows, special events and library talks? And have you held a virtual book tour (VBT). I have a step-by-step plan on how to organize one at: Authors Tour the World with Virtual Book Tours. 

Have you checked out your local hospital gift shops, specialty gift shops?

You can learn more about me an my novels (Whale Song, The River and Divine Intervention) by visiting my website and official blog:

http://www.cherylktardif.com
http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com

Making the Most of MySpace

Many writers hate marketing, but Jordan Dane, the bestselling and award-winning author of the No One books (No One Heard Her Scream, No One Left to Tell, and No One Lives Forever) finds it almost as much fun as writing. Here she explains how to get the most from MySpace:

I must admit, I was skeptical about blogging in general. It seemed like the most successful people blogged with such regularity and innovation that I only saw it as a potential time drain without any impact on sales. Then, I found the MySpace version of blogging and began to tinker. Here’s what I discovered:

MySpace is FREE and can be used as a business tool for authors. The site claims 170+ million registered users. And most of these users list their book preferences with great enthusiasm. The MySpace community is an electronically linked group of customer leads. It’s not just for twenty-somethings trying to hook up or Dateline’s mechanism to identify future pedophile guests. And did I mention MySpace was FREE?

My brilliant webdesigner created my blog on MySpace for a minimal fee. Building a brand, I believed it was important to carry over a consistent design. I also linked my website to my blog to run contests easily, show excerpts, and allow my blog buddies to navigate between my blog and website with ease. Once I had a MySpace blog, I began to explore.

How does MySpace work? MySpace was initially created for the music community, to expose a young audience to new bands/musicians, but authors can benefit in the same way. Most MySpacers are well-read and clearly state their reading preferences on their interesting blogs. Anyone who reads books in the genre you write can be considered a solid customer lead.

With a simple MySpace search, you can hunt for anyone who appreciates similar authors to your work, comparable genre, or other criteria to establish common ground with your potential readership (ie special interests like Boston Terriers, cities, hobbies, states, colleges, etc). Pull from a vast list of potential ‘friends’. If someone looks like buddy material, REQUEST your new pal and wait for a response.

To set yourself apart from others, post courteous comments on their blog once they add you. Or post a bulletin alerting your friends of a new blog article. (To learn how to code in MySpace, try the template found at www.bulletintalk.com. I use this site to format my broadcast bulletins.) Interesting blog articles keep them coming back. You can generate buzz on your work and develop a devoted group of potential readers because these new friends are genuinely fun to associate with. I’ve found subtlety works best. No hard sell necessary.

With self-control and good judgement, you periodically post a bulletin to your new friends, but these blanket notices get swallowed up in the sheer volume of posts that can be generated in a day. A better way to cultivate the friends you’ve got on MySpace is to give them a reason to sign up on your website mailing list. For example, run a fun contest to steer them there and make it worth their time. Build your reader list using the contacts you make on MySpace. And with steady communication on MySpace and your website newsletters, you’ll develop an online interactive community plus develop an interesting new group of friends. Playing a proactive role in the development of your readership is key. Yes, it takes time, but you may find it’s worth the effort. If you genuinely enjoy people, you will find MySpace addictive and fun. Be disciplined with the time you spend online and you may find a real gem for marketing your work and making new friends.

© Jordan Dane, 2007

Book Marketing: Branding Yourself As an Author

John Marion Francis, Romance Writer and Market Research Analyst, discusses his marketing plan:

For politicians and celebrities, Facebook is a gold mine for public consumption; it’s not so true for authors or up coming authors. Facebook is one of those tools you need to have on your internet radar. It helps more for when people google you aka search the net.

In comparison, I have more readers and fans from Myspace and AuthorsDen per month. Part of my marketing plan that for now all of my romance short stories are free and open to the public. All of them.

I’m a market research analyst specializing in consumer marketing and the first rule of marketing a unknown product is to “give it away first”. When I stepped out onto the public viewing stage of writing I knew going in that:

1 – Nobody knows who I am
2 – Nobody has read my work
3 – I don’t have anything published anywhere
4 – I don’t a following
5 – I don’t have an agent or publisher
6 – I don’t have a brand name

MARKETING

My plan and strategy requires two things:

1 – Branding

I researched how the Big Guns do it. I noticed that their name became their brand and that it is the Main Header on the book cover. Everything that they produced, newsletters, blogs, press releases, websites, web meta tags, etc. is branded. Branding aka Logo; is key to successful marketing of any product. Without it, no one will connect to your product. Seeing this, I created a Brand Name — John Marion Francis (my pen name).

Everything I produce (author website, weblinks, Blog Spots, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) bares my brand John Marion Francis. I always close with my branded signature ~Jonathan~. I also branded Romance Short Story Reading, Romance Short Story Store, Romance Online Reading, all of these domains I own.

My book covers (I create my own) follow the same design concept as the Big Guns (name branded at the top or bottom boldly). The key is to be consistant once you have settled on a brand name. Changing it constantly will put you at the back of the line every time and you’ll have to start all over again. Once people recognize and connect with your brand, then the product content is next.

2 – Product — My main product is Free Romance Short Stories

If you do not specialize then people will not find you among the masses. As in previous discussions in the Suspense/Thriller Writers group on Facebook, “Finding your voice”, “Character building”, “Backstory” to name a few, the message is clear: having a “unique” niche gives you the competitive edge. Mine is 1) – I’m a male romance author. 2) – All of my Romance Short Stories are free. My style is modern contemporary romance. My main characters are 95% woman-based. They deal with everyday romance issues in settings of “today’s modern woman”. I shape my characters and story based on everyday observations of people and the emails from my readers with their reviews and opinions of current stories. I always release Preview Chapters of all WIPs. Based on responses from my readers, I know which one to go with first and how to shape the story.

Another unique marketing approach is to let my readers “ghost write” part of a story aka Reader-to-Writer relationship building. I take story request from my readers and write their story for them. This thrills them to no end, so the marketing rule of one-to-many and many-to-one becomes viral marketing. They email and tell their friends “I’m in a story, come read my story!” and the page hit counter begins to zoom.

SUMMARY

The main thrust of my marketing strategy is based on Free Romance Short Stories. Without giving away the farm, I can continue a direct connection to my readers while developing a customer base. When I complete my first novella and or book for public sale, I’ll already have a fan base to support the release.

Well, I’ve taken up a lot of time on this subject so I’ll stop here. I hope this insight works for you.

Book Marketing on the Internet: Sites for Writers

A. F. Stewart is a writer of fantasy stories and poetry. Stewart has been writing for several years, periodically interrupted by those pesky events called life. Stewart has three published books: one volume of poetry, a short story collection and a non-fiction booklet about action movies. All are currently available at Lulu.com. Stewart graciously shares what she has learned about book marketing sites: 

A comparison of the three social sites I have joined (Squidoo is not included, because we all know it is just wonderful), and list the most useful aspects I’ve found:

1- MySpace:

THE GOOD:
-Lets you categorize both your page and your blog posts under a writing category.
-Comes with a blog that can be used for promotion or posting online writing, or both.
-Fairly easy to post links, banners, widgets and other promotional tools to your page.
-Excellent place to connect with other writers, editors, writing services, etc. Just beware of scams(that is a hazard on any social networking site).
-Easy to find new friends and contacts, and groups; their search is excellent.
-Easy to maintain, without annoyance.
THE BAD:
-Spam mail. My advice just delete it.
-Occasional glitches in the profile editor.
-They have had problems with profile hacking (although I have never had a problem)

2- Gather.com:

THE GOOD:
-Easy set up and has a nice profile page.
-Promotes publishing articles, pictures, videos, and your articles get on Google.
-Excellent network of authors, unpublished writers, and writers who are dabbling. You can give and get useful feedback and advice.
-Great place to establish a list of articles, and get a voice on the internet, or do a little shameless promotion.
-Great writing groups you can join.
THE BAD:
-sporadic glitches in the article editor, and in other features.
-occasional lack of interest in articles. My advice: Use the spotlight feature for your post.
-A limited help section.

3- Facebook:

THE GOOD:
-If you are an author you can (if fact should) create a fan page as well as your profile page. On the fan page you should post links to your books and sites, add widgets, and interact with your fans. You can also send out updates when you add to your fan page.
– Many writing groups to join, or create your own.
THE BAD:
-Annoying applications
-Not easy to find new friends, or preview profiles.
-Glitches galore
-Cannot realistically post articles or stories.

I also recommend joining Twitter, Stumble, and the bookmark site Del.icio.us.

SITES SPECIFICALLY FOR WRITERS: 

A list of websites designed to showcase authors and writers

Here is a list of good sites where writers and authors can publish profiles, samples of their work, and their books.

1- AuthorsDen :
An excellent place to put your author profile and post books; it gets you a link on Google.
Features both a free subscription and a paid upgraded subscription. The free subscription is limited, but not overly and the paid upgrade has three levels; the Bronze being quite reasonable at $40/yr.

2- WritersCafe.org: A wonderful site for writers to post their books, writing samples and their profile. They encourage feedback between their members, and it’s free to join.

3- WritersNet: It’s free to join, and you can post a profile and your books. The site also lists editors, agents, publishers and writing resources.

4- Nothing Binding: It’s free to join, and you get a personal profile page. There are also writer’s groups you can join, and media add-ons you can purchase.

5- Ebooks Cafe: It’s free to join. It allows you to post a short profile and your books to the site.

6- Self Publishers Place: A relatively new site where self published authors can post their book information. Free to use, and there is a writers discussion forum.

Review Sites 

A list of book review sites. Many list independently or small press published books, and some offer promotional or editing services.

Rebecca’s Reads

A book review and publicity service serving the reading audience, authors, publishers, publicists and buyers/sellers.

The Compulsive Reader

Reviews of books by some of the hottest writers working today, exclusive author interviews, literary news and criticism.

The Midwest Book Review

The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. The Midwest Book Review gives priority consideration to small press publishers, self-published authors, and academic presses.

The Muse Book Reviews

The Muse Book Reviews reviews a variety of books and accepts books from self-published authors, traditional or POD published authors.

Armchair Interviews

Features book reviews and author interviews, with helpful articles and links.

Bitten by Books

A site featuring paranormal fiction. Has reviews, interviews, contests, etc.

Welcome to Scribe & Quill ~ The site for all writers!

Writer’s resource that includes articles for writers, writing courses, book reviews and news and information for writers of all genres.

Reader Views

Book reviews of all genres. Also provide editing and publicity services, literary awards, contests and book giveaway.

New Mystery Reader Magazine

Introducing a new mystery magazine featuring information on new mystery releases. Includes mystery book reviews of new mystery releases, mystery short stories, and recommendations.

Road to Romance

Romantic and Women’s Fiction: For Readers and Writers of Romantic and Women’s Fiction Books

BookLoons

Your corner bookstore in the global village with book reviews across genres, columns and contests, and sections for teen books and children’s books. 

Book Promotion: Blogging

The best way to promote a novel is to get on the bestseller lists; people will buy the book simply because it is there. The second best way to promote a novel is word of mouth; the more people recommending it, the better it will sell. The third best way is to have a stable-full of published works. But how do you get there, especially if you have a single published novel to your credit? The problem may seem insurmountable, but there are things you can do.

The first step, of course, is set up a website, but promoting a website is just as difficult as promoting a book. You need people to come to you so you can establish a name for yourself, but until you have a name for yourself, they won’t come. (The entire publishing industry seems to be riddled with such conundrums, the most maddening one being that you generally can’t get published without an agent, and an agent doesn’t want you unless you are published.) The second step is start a blog if you haven’t already done so. Perhaps blogging is not the best way of promoting your book, but it is a beginning.

The key to blogging, especially on WordPress, is quality information, catchy titles, and lots of relevant tags and categories. And if you comment on other people’s blogs, sometimes they or their readers will return the favor, helping you build a reader base. The main advantage of a blog is that it is not static. Every time you post an article, you give people a reason to stop and look.

A blog can also serve as a website. Post pictures of your novel and you; give biographical information; include links to your website, Facebook and MySpace profiles; post excerpts and reviews of your work; link to interesting blogs.

Now, the big question: what do you write about? You can write about your published work, explaining why you wrote it and how you got the idea. You can tell about the things you learned while researching the book. You can write about your work-in-progress, especially if you are having difficulty with a scene. People love to help, and they will feel they have a stake in you and your work. Write about your daily life or things that make you angry. Write about the books you read. Write about anything and everything. Then add tags that people might Google to get to your article. If you tag add a tag such as “Uncle Bob”, it might end up as the one millionth “Uncle Bob” on Google, and no one will ever find your article. I would have thought tagging an article with “Cheetos” would be the same, but one blogger reported that she got more than a thousand hits because of it.

Besides considering search engines when adding tags, consider yourself. I want to start a separate blog as an online notebook for the articles I posted about my work-in-progress on my other blog, but I never tagged them WIP, so now I have to weed them out by hand.

If anyone has any other suggestions for beginning bloggers, be sure to let me know.

What Blogging Platform Should You Use?

When I decided to start a blog, I researched different blog platforms and chose WordPress, mostly because it was the only one I could understand. The WordPress home page showed me articles that had recently been posted, and the tags showed me others. I liked that people could browse through articles and read the ones they wanted.

Those first weeks when I had only a few views a day, I had fun checking the stats, seeing how people found my blog, and coming up with titles that might entice a casual viewer. I still am not a major blogger, but I do get 1,000 hits a month, which isn’t bad for someone who never advertised and never wrote about popular or controversial subjects. I am still a neophyte, but in a writer’s group I belong to, I have become somewhat of a blogging guru. (Mostly because I’m the only one who blogs on a regular basis.)

I am a bit more knowledgeable about the blogosphere than I was a year ago, so I test marketed other blog sites, to give the writing group an idea of what they are up against. And I still don’t get those other sites. Blogger.com seems to be one of the most popular, but unless I advertise, no will find the blog. Eventually, search engines might send people to the blog, (if I ever submit it to search engines) but as of now, I have zero hits. Or at least I think I do. There’s no hit counter on the blog (except for profile hits), and I don’t want to add one — some are reputable, but others dump spyware on the unwary who stop to read. And if I want to play with stats, I’d have to sign up with another site that will track them for me. With Blogger, I could put ads on the site and get paid to blog, which I can’t do with WordPress, but so far I have not found another benefit. If any Blogger bloggers have a different opinion, I would appreciate your input.

I also signed up for LiveJournal. Don’t get that site either. It seems to be a cross between a social networking site like Gather where you post your blogs to groups, comment on each other’s work, and collect friends. The free version is pared down; many features are available only with a paid subscription. The way I figure it, even if the cost is nominal, why should I pay to post articles? And there are no stats to play with. And there are distracting ads on my home page. If any Livejournal bloggers have a different opinion, I would like to hear it. With the millions on the site, it must have some features people like!

Other blogging platforms I tried:

Microsoft Live Spaces: it’s easy to use and is accessible from the email account, but in the last six months I have not had a single profile hit. (Live Spaces, like Blogger, tracks profile hits but nothing else.)

MySpace: no stats. I did get one comment from a friend, but that’s it.

So what blogging platform should you use? If you don’t want to pay for it, if you don’t want annoying ads on your site when you view it, if you don’t want to spend all your time advertising it, if you like knowing what articles get the most hits and where you’re getting your readers, it seems as if WordPress is the way to go.

Besides, your blog will look great.