Facebook – Mystery, fantasy and romance at the dangerous ends of the earth

Who Are These Readers of Which You Speak? Blogging as Social Marketing

By Karen Abrahamson | August 21, 2011

Fromages Tree, Ta Phrom, Angkor, Cambodia (2008) Karen L. Abrahamson

I’m going to end this marketing series (well if something else comes up, I’ll add it later, but next week I’m going to start blogging about my writing) talking about blogging. Not that I’m an expert by any means, but blogging seemed like the kind of social marketing I could control and manage, so I’ve done regular posts since January. Those posts were about prepping for my trip to Peru, about my wild and wooly Bengal cats, about my trip to Peru and then about marketing. All of them have been fun to write and hopefully you’ve enjoyed them, too, but I wanted to spend this post talking about how blogging has worked in terms of social marketing and what I’ve learned over the past eight months.

Has blogging lead to an increase in traffic to my site? Resoundingly, yes, when I check the analytics. However whether it was the right kind of traffic, I can’t say. I’ve certainly been spammed more. I’ve also had more comments, especially during the Branding Your Book blog, and during my trip to Peru. But the latter came with pretty pictures, so I’m putting the traffic down to that and the fact that maybe people were interested in my misadventures in Peru.

I suppose any increase in traffic to your website is a good thing as long as your titles are front and centre on your website, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about who am I actually drawing to the website with my blog. I mean who are these people who come and check out what I have to say?

I can’t be sure who was reading my blog when I was prepping for Peru and when I was travelling there. Some, I know, were friends and acquaintances, or friends of friends. All good, because blogging is a social enterprise. But who has been reading my posts about marketing? I’d guess, from who made comments, most likely other writers. Are these my target audience? Well, for a marketing blog, I’d say yes. But this raises three thorny questions I guess I should have thought of way back when:

1. Why am I blogging?

2. Why do I have a website? and

3. Who do I want to read my blogs?

I’ll come clean here: I had never really given thought to having a website or blog or any other marketing matter until it became clear that, before acquiring a manuscript, New York editors were checking out new authors to see if they had an online presence. It was okay if you had a website. It was better if you had a blog and a following on twitter and facebook. With the advent of indie publishing, this presence became even more important as a means to draw people in so that they would consider your books. The website was the most important place to promote your books and writing. So my question is, if my website and blog are to promote my writing, are they attracting my intended audience of potential readers?

The answer? Maybe. Maybe a potential reader might be interested in book marketing, but I think not so much.

What might a draw a potential book reader in?

Here’s my possible list:

1. Topics of personal interest to them. A Y.A. reader of books like Twilight might be interested in blogs about teen romance. They might also be interested in books that take place in a high school, or books about loner characters because, let’s face it, we all feel alone in high school. Interest might also be there for blogs about the challenge of being strong and independent when social pressures push young people to be anything else.

2. Other topics that interest readers – Again, using Y.A. readers as an example, issues of social justice and fairness, possibly environmental issues, issues of social exclusion, dealing with boy/girl-trouble etc. This list may, or may not, be different for Fantasy readers. Blogs on characters who are loners and who have special powers. Blogs on magic systems or magical creatures might have equal appeal.

3. Topics related to your writing – While any of the above topics can be related to your novels, topics related to your writing would focus on matters that relate to how you write. For example, how you built the world you are writing in; writing about the research process and interesting information you come across; writing about your writing process and challenges.

4. Topics relating specifically to your books – this would include writing about the locales where your books take place; ideas that led to the book, or ideas that were considered and discarded; or more information about your characters.

5. Personal information – like my blogs about my cats, readers enjoy knowing more about you and what makes you tick.

So my blogs over the next while are going to focus on what I think readers might enjoy and not totally on my fellow writers. That said, I have to say one of the more inspirational blogs to me is one written by fellow author Matt Buchman who talks (inspirationally) about where he draws his inspiration from. His blogs are great reads for anyone, reader or writer.

So as a reader, what topics would you like to see blogs about? As a writer, what do you like to blog about?

Building a Social Network and Following

By Karen Abrahamson | July 16, 2011

Last blog Joshua Graham discussed how he built his novel’s readership from first self-published manuscript to best selling Thriller. Joshua talked about building his social network and that this was the key to having his book sell.

So how does someone build their network from their few friends to the broader network needed to sell your book widely?

Best selling novelist, John Locke, talked about conducting searches on Twitter and Facebook for people who might be interested in your types of books. These types of searches might be as simple as searching #mystery, or #romance, or #thriller, or they might be as complex as conducting a search of a topic area, such as #postapocalypticfiction, or #Bahamas (the location of your novel).

It may also involve areas you are passionate about. For me travel and culture were two areas I searched and followed people who seemed to have similar interests to me, or to post information that was interesting to me, e.g. National Geographic Traveler.

A next step is to look at these individual’s twitter pages and identify those people who follow that site who might also be interested in following you. This might be based on their profile, but it might also be based on what they post. Are the people avid readers, or reviewers, or are they passionate about the topic you are writing about such as #afghanistan or #animalrights? When you find people who are interesting to you, then follow them. Chances are they will also follow you, if you also look interesting to them. So how do you do this?

First of all, have an interesting profile on your twitter account. This doesn’t mean make things up, it means telling people what you are passionate about that show who you are. This might include your book, or your hobby, or your family, your pet, or your humor, but show them. This makes you human and they can see things that you might have in common.

Second of all, have a website linked to your facebook and twitter page. Make sure your website is interesting. Have a blog that is also interesting. Make sure your website and your blog are constantly changing (new material) to bring people back again and again.

Offer something to people who come to your website. This might mean value-added material about the characters or the world in which your book is set, or it might include offering contests or something free, like a story, to readers.

Be consistent in your postings to your website and on twitter and/or Facebook become a presence with something interesting to say and people will follow you.

Don’t think you have something interesting to say today? Then find the people with the tweets that are interesting to you and retweet them, because if you found them interesting, chances are others will too. If we’re talking about Facebook, make coments about posts that interest you. Facebook also allows pages for your book, so here is another place to show what you are writing about. With regards to blogs, if you have posted your blogs regularly, people will come to expect that you will keep that regularity up. That consistency allows people to follow you.

A note here. Many social media pundits say you should post a new blog at least once a week. Others have postulated that a quality post could be written less frequently to allow people to be guided to it again and again.

It’s my belief that this will depend on the nature of the post and its intended readers. So think about whether your blog’s readers are people with time to check posts regularly, or are they people who may need a month just to find the time to check your blog? Finally, a challenge for a lot of writers is that they target their blog to other writers instead of their readers. So think about what you are doing with your blog and your social media posts, and make sure it is targeted to who you are really writing for—your readers.

Beyond your own blog and website, you can also build your social media connections a couple of other ways:

1. Identify writers or books that you believe attract a similar audience to that your book should attract. Find fan pages and groups for these writers and books and engage with them.

2. Find other blog sites, like review sites, forums or well-trafficked sites and participate regularly. Share what you know. Share yourself and DON”T USE THOSE CONNECTIONS TO ONLY PUSH YOUR WARES.

3. Join Goodreads and become involved with reader groups. Participate in book discussions. When you introduce yourself to a new group, feel free to introduce yourself as a writer, but don’t push your book. There are other ways established on Goodreads to do this.

Most of all, relax and enjoy the people you meet. The open conversations that occur, make you human and are more likely to cause a person to think that given they like you, they might like your book.

Next week we’re going to talk about book reviews and blog tours.

Social Media and Marketing your e-Published Book

By Karen Abrahamson | July 9, 2011

Which social media do you prefer and what success have you experienced with it? Last Post I said that we’d start to explore social media and how to make it work for you. When I consider social media and on-line marketing there are four basic areas to discuss:

Twitter
Facebook/Google+
Websites and blogs
Author opportunities on Amazon.com, Pubit and Goodreads amidst others.

In addition there are other opportunities such as interviews/blog tours and UTube, however I recently saw an amazing graphic that shows the immense possibilities available for social marketing (click here). All of these are built on a key concept we discussed last week, namely the importance of social networking.

Marketing on social networks requires you to first of all to focus on also being social. To help with introducing this subject, successful self-publisher, Joshua Graham, provided these insights about his experience building from a newly published book to a best seller. He provides a good introduction to what social marketing requires.

1. You’ve talked about using social media for promoting yourself and your books. Can you tell me what social media you’ve used and what have you used them for? E.g. do you only use social media for your writing, or are you involved with the various forms for other social purposes?

I have Facebook accounts, fan pages for my pen names and books, as well as twitter accounts. I mostly use them for marketing my work.

Do you have those for each of your pseudonyms and each book?

That is correct. For now, with only 2 novels and 2 pen names, it’s manageable.

2. How have you used each type of social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon book groups, etc.) to promote your writing? E.g. announcing new publications, pushing your books (if so, how?)

Twitter is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I’m learning. I’ve used Facebook to find readers and let them know about my books, reviews, interviews, awards, and honors. All of these help build my internet presence and create a platform. As this platform grows, there will be more of an audience for future releases.

To find readers, I basically went to various special interest pages on Facebook such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., engaged in discussions and “friended” anyone who seemed like they might be interested in my books. Also, based on the reactions (comments, “likes”) to my book posts, I “friended” those people as well.

3. Did you have a social media presence before you began promoting your books?

Not really. I had a personal Facebook page, but I really began marketing under my pen name when my ebooks first became available.

4. How often are you on the various social media sites? What time commitment does social media involve a week? (What did you devote to it?)

Probably a bit more than I should be. I spend several hours each week on Facebook, and often when I’m feeling a bit unfocused in my writing, I hang out there more doing marketing and communicating with my fans.

5. Have you tracked which social media sites have had the greatest impact on your sales? If so, which ones have you found most effective?

It’s hard to draw a direct correlation (esp. with Twitter) but I have definitely found Facebook the most effective way for now. Even that is reaching a limit, so I’ll need to explore other venues for marketing too.

6. Are there actions you would recommend for writers venturing into marketing on social media and, conversely, are there actions that you would recommend writers avoid?

There’s no one way that works for everyone. Definitely, write the best book you can. Get some good reviews and use them to talk about your book. I find that if you start giving away a lot of free ebooks (short stories, or even novels) on a regular basis, you’ll develop an appreciative and loyal following.

Then when you release a new book, they as your fans will be very enthusiastic and hopefully talk about it on their social networks as well. I would avoid over-saturating certain fan pages with ads. Be aware of the culture and rules of each fan page or message board. If you fall out of favor, it will harm rather than help your marketing efforts.

7. What would you recommend to the writer who has little to no previous experience with social media?

Get started! Learn your way around and find your own social media voice. Have a personality online that people can identify with. And most of all, be a giver. Give your readers and fan something of value. If they perceive you as a taker–someone who just wants them to buy your book, they will be turned off and you will become noise to them.

A big thanks to Joshua for sharing his insights. And just to reinforce what he has said, as an author he has focused on his marketing, but he has done so through becoming involved with communities within the social media.

A similar story can be found if you look at the process John Locke used to become a best seller, however his preferred social media was Twitter. So it seems that both social media can be successful; you just need to decide which you prefer and determine how to make it work for you. That’s what we’ll talk about next time out.

So I’ll repeat my question here: which social media do you prefer and what success have you experienced with it?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Social Media, Pulling Teeth and Getting Started

By Karen Abrahamson | July 3, 2011

I remember it well—the day my writing mentor said I had to be on Twitter. First came the panic.

‘No’, I said. ‘No way. E-mail eats enough time as it is.”

Another kindly pair of friends took me aside and explained that really, Twitter wasn’t so bad, and you needed it to market you books (no mention of how). So they helped me get an account and TweetDeck, and set me loose in the Twitter world.

And I never used it.

The few times I logged on, it was like going to the dentist and I HATED the fact that my darn computer dinged and disturbed my train of thought every time a new tweet came through. Now I know I could turn my speakers down, but I needed the volume to tell me when business e-mails came through. The trouble was twitter kept dinging and dinging. So this post is about Twitter and Facebook and social media in general and how to make it manageable for you. Next post will be on how to make it WORK for you.

The thing with Twitter and Facebook is that you have to understand that they have tremendous potential, but you also have to understand that there are downsides:

Social media can be frustrating as heck until you understand them and how they work.
Social media can feel like floundering in deep water until you decide the parameters of how you are going to participate.
Twitter and Facebook can become veritable time sinks.
Social media can begin to take over your social life.

DSC_0038 - revised la saucet river — Winter river near La Saucet, France (2005) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Like anything new, understanding Twitter and Facebook requires purposeful learning. Yes, it is possible to simply open an account and begin tweeting or sending messages, but why, and what do you send messages about? One reason may be to simply keep in touch with existing friends. Once you’ve connected with your friends, it’s easy to fulfill this purpose. You can use Facebook and Twitter to send out urls for blogs, which is also useful, and if that is all you want, then the social media is working for you.

So to make social media work for you, this is a first decision point: what do you want from Twitter or Facebook?

If you want to leverage social media to help with marketing your books, this requires you to become more involved in the social media family. It requires you to become more comfortable with working with social media. A good place to pick up pointers is through Lynda.com, which contains video tutorials on the basics, but also sessions on marketing.

Marketing your book requires building your connections to others in the Twitterverse, or Facebook Universe. This involves building connections to friends, which means that you need to do more than marketing. You need to give people something of yourself and your interests, something that both you and other people find of value. This involves reaching out to others to become their friends, either by identifying common interests, or through their connections to people you friend or follow. This is easy enough to do, by simply clicking on a person’s profile and friending or following them. Hopefully they will reciprocate and follow you, too. But the trouble is this can become an obsession. You can spend hours identifying friends and follows, and you have to ask yourself what is most important—this social media work, or time spent writing (and time having a life).

This is a second decision point: Are you a writer first and a social media savant second, or is it the other way around? If you are a writer, then you may need to set parameters around your time spent on social media. For an example, I try to put in thirty minutes to an hour in the morning and the same in the evening.

Street scene, Montmartre, Paris (2005) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

But at the same time you need to understand that social media is social. This means that even if your original intention in joining the Twitterverse and Facebook was to market your book, you need to do more than that. You need to have something to add to the Twitterverse. This was initially where I stalled. I didn’t know what I could add to all the comments out there. Well we all have things to add, whether it be book recommendations, reporting on your latest accomplishments, or links to blogs that you found important, these are the things that will build your followers and your social connections, and when you get your first message from a follower it starts to feel fun that you are building connections to people—people who might eventually become your friends.

And not your dentist.