"Connect and Collect to Broaden Your Social Media Base" - A Blogshop with Robert Lee Brewer

Nothing excites this former literary agent more than seeing new, confident and enterprising authors capture their audience by being savvy about how to use social media. Not only are they attracting readers, they're connecting with other writers and publishing industry professionals who inevitably bring more awareness and opportunity their way.

Yet there are those writers who are reluctant to dip their toe into the vast social media waters. The idea of spending time online, twittering and updating status (stati?) bars, connecting with others, pimping their novel/blog/website/services seems self-centered, conceited or disingenuous.

Writers, to sell books, to make a living with this writing thing you've got going on, you MUST connect by any means necessary. The good news is, using the most basic social media is free and totally effective, depending how you use it. If the act of writing is about self-expression, let the act of telling the world about it (and making lots of friends along the way) be an extension of your expression and passion behind what you do! All you have to do is create a profile and start connecting.

I asked Robert Lee Brewer, blogger, poet and Senior Content Editor for The Writer's Digest Writing Community, to share his thoughts on the importance of social media in a writer's life. Here's what he submitted.

"Writing is the most important thing a writer can be doing. After all, writing is what makes a writer a writer, right? But let’s forget about the whole writing side of things for a moment, because many writers also long to share their writing and/or make some form of income from their writing eventually.

One of the most cost effective ways to find an audience now is through the use of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, etc. After giving my own social media strategy some thought, I’ve realized that it can best be summed up as a “connect and collect” strategy.

Connect

Social media sites make connecting with other people online easier than ever. In literally seconds, I can “friend” other writers on Facebook and “follow” other people on Twitter. This is a connection, but it’s not a strong one, which is why I advise communicating with people on these sites.

There are many ways to communicate. Update your status on Facebook, tweet on Twitter, make a new post on your blog. However, the more personal your communication the more meaningful it is to your audience.

Of course, there may come a point when you have to balance your quantity of connections with your quality of connections. This post by Jane Friedman helps illustrate the price of popularity.

(http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2011/01/11/TheEvolutionOfHowIUseTwitter.aspx)

Collect

Of course, popularity is the name of the game when you’re trying to develop a readership. If your writing is great, then popularity should follow, right? Well, yes, if you have advocates pushing others to read your work. The smart use of social media strategies can help you find these “grassroots” readers who will spread the word when you do something great—like publish a book or speak at an event.

In a way, you’ll be collecting these people as friends and followers on sites like Facebook and Twitter. At the same time, you should be collecting valuable information from these followers and those who you follow. In other words, social media isn’t a one-way street and shouldn’t be approached as if it is.

I doubt many think of it as collecting—even I didn’t before I sat down to write this guest post, and it still kind of sounds icky—but that’s exactly what we’re doing. At the same time, we are being collected by others. If our tweets and blog posts are interesting and insightful, our information will also be collected by our readership and distributed to their friends and followers.

If you’re able to collect information such as e-mail addresses and/or physical addresses, you’ll have an even stronger platform for reaching these potential readers when you have really big news to report.

So which comes first?

Do you collect friends and followers first, and then connect? Or do you connect first? Actually, you should be doing both at the same time—always.

If you’re collecting friends and followers, many will not be advocates for your work if you don’t make meaningful connections with them—either personally or through the information you provide (and no, an automated message when they first follow you on Twitter does not count as a meaningful connection). If you’re connecting with people but not collecting them as friends or followers, how are you going to let them know that you just released your novel?

By collecting and connecting, you should be able to build a solid foundation for your social media platform that also gives you time to do what’s most important. Ahem, the actual writing!"

Robert touches on a feeling I know many of you have - feeling "icky" about marketing your work, essentially. Let's finally put an end to this brand of thinking. Consider collecting data in these terms: when you submit your novel or nonfiction proposal to an agent or editor, especially in these times, where the volume of your pre-pub audience plays a major role in their decision making, they want to see numbers. Sure, an agent or editor wants the work to be GREAT, but they want to be assured you have the platform, the audience to support the sale of your book and the stamina to keep it up after the book pubs. Even if you were to self-publish, you'll still need to connect and collect to sell your book. I cannot underscore this message enough, writers.

That said, connecting and collecting should come into balance with your writing life. If your writing isn't there, the chances of you getting published are pretty close to zero. If you decide to self-pub, the chances of you selling your book are just as slim.

So, keep it in balance, folks.

Your Action: Check out the sites Robert suggests and consider which are best suited for you. Write, connect, collect, repeat. Embrace it!

For those of you already connecting and collecting, is your writing life in balance or do you need to spend a little time on the craft?

Here's to a productive week!

TLC

About the Contributor:

Robert Lee Brewer is a Senior Content Editor for the Writer’s Digest Writing Community, focusing mainly on Writer’s Market, Poet’s Market, and WritersMarket.com. He also maintains the Poetic Asides (http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides) and My Name Is Not Bob (http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/) blogs. He is married to the poet Tammy Foster Brewer, who helps him keep track of their four boys. Robert welcomes contacts via e-mail at robertleebrewer@gmail.com or via Twitter @robertleebrewer (http://twitter.com/robertleebrewer).

Connecting With Your Audience: A Blogshop with Lit Agent Laurie Abkemeier

This month we're focusing on Connecting in The Writer's Life. How an author connects with their audience plays a major role in their book's success and their overall success as an author. If you've been following any brand of publishing trade news you already know that the author with the biggest mouth enjoys better sales of their book (in this context, being loud about your book is a good thing). And while I don't feel it's necessary for every author to be a big mouth, to be constantly present and available on Twitter, Facebook, etc., the fact remains that once your book hits the (e)shelves, you have a responsibility to sell it. To a lot of people other than your family and friends.

Nonfiction authors must indicate in their book proposal just how they're going to do this - reach their target audience to sell books. But now fiction authors also must consider how they're going to reach out and connect with their audience as well.

A large part of the effort that goes into to selling your book actually happens before your book launches - it's called building pre-pub buzz. You want people talking about your book before it comes out. You want them anticipating it's arrival. You want pre-orders!

So how do you find your PR voice and connect with your audience before your book launch? Literary Agent, Laurie Abkemeier of Brian DeFiore & Co. shows you:

"During my years as an editor, and now as a literary agent, I’ve seen countless nonfiction books rise out of relative obscurity and become bestsellers. Some rode a trend, while others created their own categories, but in every case, the key ingredient to success was the author’s commitment to promoting the work. Too often, I see authors who are committed to writing the work, but when it comes time to promote, they lose steam or they have better things to do. They are too busy to contact bloggers or put together a mailing list of organizations. They don’t want to get on Twitter or Facebook or build a website or start a blog. They think that writing the book will be enough, and that people will, perhaps by telepathy, sense that the book is available. Or worse, they think that it’s the publisher’s sole job to get the word out to the largest possible audience. While expending time and energy can’t guarantee a successful publication, it is rare that an author can achieve success while also being a recluse. Even publishers know this. When editors get on the phone with authors, they often ask point-blank, “How are you going to sell this book?”

That’s why, when I work with an author to develop a proposal, a lot of work goes into the publicity and promotion sections. My authors detail their social media and online connections, their contacts at magazines and newspapers, and previous experience with radio and television. They list every friend who might endorse their work. They research the membership numbers of relevant organizations and associations. They build new websites, start a blog, and get on Twitter—long before the proposal goes out the door. Part of this is for the benefit of the editor reading the proposal; it’s important that the editor understands an author’s reach and ability to get the word out. But I also require my authors to go into this level of detail so that they can see what is expected of them, that their role in promotion is going to be critical, and that their responsibility to the publication goes far beyond the last word on the page.

Assuming most of you visiting this blog are anticipating the publication of your first book, here are a few tips to get you started:


1. Plan to earmark a certain percentage of your advance for promotion—whether it’s a new website, business cards, a freelance publicist, or ads in specialty publications.

2. Schedule a meeting with your agent, editor, publicist, and the marketing staff to discuss the publisher’s promotion plans. A good time for a meeting is six months before publication, when the publisher has a clear idea of what it will do, and it’s not too later for you to fill in the gaps.


3. Once your manuscript has been sent off to a copy editor, turn your former writing time into promotion time. Reach out to people about endorsing your work, keep lists of bloggers and their contact information, pitch original articles to long-lead magazines, continue to build your social media presence, and revamp your website to launch within four months of publication. (And it goes without saying, discuss your plans with your agent and editor.)

Writing a book is a big commitment, but the bigger challenge for most authors is to do the work to promote the book. Commit yourself to the long haul. Your book needs you more than anyone."

While Laurie's focus is more geared toward nonfiction authors, I would urge fiction authors to take heed and begin considering how they might begin building their author platforms and pre-pub buzz just as a nonfiction author would.

Your action: Yet-to-be-published authors - get organized. Create a budget devoted to your pre-pub buzz efforts, NOW. You'll be glad you did! Then, connect with your audience. Make friends. Collect emails and subscribers to your newsletter, blog posts. Gain followers to your social media accounts. Most of all, understand this takes a lot of time and focus. You're building your foundation a block at a time.

Published authors: Get creative. Get together with other published authors in your area and create an event. Maybe the event has nothing to do about selling a book - maybe it's a charitable effort, a major donation of your time for a good cause. Make sure you send out a press release...then consider holding a book signing/reading event to celebrate with your community. Have fun with it!


You've got a full plate, writers! Have a fruitful week.

TLC


About the Contributor:

Originally from California, Laurie Abkemeier began her publishing career in 1992 as an editorial assistant in the Touchstone/Fireside division at Simon & Schuster. In 1994, she moved to Hyperion where she was responsible for five New York Times bestsellers and many other national bestsellers. Since 2003, Laurie has worked as a literary agent, exclusively representing nonfiction. Her talented roster of authors includes journalists, bloggers, poets, academics, and artists. You can find Laurie on Twitter (@LaurieAbkemeier) where she posts her AGENT OBVIOUS TIP OF THE DAY—the inspiration for her app, available as a free download for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.