My Social Networking Tip

April 24, 2015

My Social Networking Tip

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about this sort of thing lately. Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Tumblr, Instagram—all the various forms of social media. Tons of writers want to know how to make it work for them. What’s the real trick to turning tweets into sales? How do I make my blog pay for itself?

Well, it’s pretty easy.

Allow me to explain…

You’ve probably heard people talk about networking. Regular networking. You know, the thing where I know George and he knows Phoebe and she knows that other George and suddenly wham I’m writing a Star Wars movie. Because it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Right?

Lots of gurus push networking. It’s their go-to thing for success, because it’s kind of a fail-safe thing to preach. If you succeed, they were right. If you fail, they were also right (you clearly didn’t network with the right people).

And so a lot of beginning folks go out there and network. And by “network,” I mean they stalk professional writers and agents and editors, both online and in the real world. They bombard them with emails and messages and friend requests. They follow them around at parties and conventions.

The truth is, though, this isn’t how networking works. It isn’t about people I’ve hunted down and cornered. It’s about people who are friends and acquaintances—real friends and acquaintances. You may have heard folks say that networking should be lateral, not upward, because friendship is lateral.
As I’ve mentioned over on my ranty blog, this is why active networking doesn’t work. If I become “friends” with someone just because I want something from them, they’re going to sense that. It’s a forced relationship, and those are never good.

Why do I bring up networking?

Well, the same holds for social networking. If I’m blogging or tweeting or running a fan page just to have a captive audience who’ll buy stuff from me… it’s not going to work. If I try to use social media as a billboard or a series of commercials… it won’t work. I can’t just stick up non-stop “buy my book, read my blog, look at this” because people don’t respond to that. People use social media to interact, and that’s what all these systems are set up around.

Here’s a few other tips…

First, if I have “a platform,” I’m kind of screwed. No one wants to see my platform. No one’s interested in it. It’s a nonsense term made up by another idiot marketing guru, and it means I’m turning people into assets. The simple fact that I think of it as “a platform” means I’m doing it wrong. It makes it very clear how I view the people I interact with online.

Second, social media has to be organic. The whole system is based around this. It can’t be forced or rushed or bought. I see so many folks get frustrated because they don’t have a thousand rabid followers in their first three months. I have a big Facebook following, but my fan page has been up for almost six years. On the flipside I’ve barely been on Twitter for six months and right now one of my cats has twice as many followers as me.

Third, remember how I just said it can’t be bought? I was serious. Paying for ads or exposure on social media is like doing the cheerleader or quarterback’s English homework so I can sit at the popular table during lunch. I’m only there for a day or two, most people are going to tune me out, and then I’m back over in the corner with the drama club and that one kid who just runs in place during gym class, no matter what everyone else is doing. Not only that, but there’ve been several studies by smart people that show paying for social media ads (especially on Facebook) accomplishes nothing and actually hurts me in the long run.

This is only my opinion, but I think the best thing someone can do as an author on social media is to just be themselves. Be honest. Be fun. Like stuff more than hating it. Be positive more than negative. If you look at my fan page or twitter feed, I’d guess 60-70% of the stuff I post has nothing to do with my books or me as an author. It’s mostly about me as a geek who likes a lot of fun stuff and likes sharing it with people.

If that isn’t your thing… don’t do social media. Lots of successful authors don’t. Because if I’m going to be on social media people expect me to be social, not to spend every minute hammering home a publicity/ marketing plan. Really, that’s the kind of presence that hurts more than helps. I’ve seen different authors try different methods (from starvation to… well, risqué), but this is more or less what it boils down to. People are on social media to interact, not to receive advertising or canned updates.

So, how do you turn tweets into sales?

You don’t.

It’s really that simple.

publishing writing

January 2, 2015 / 2 Comments

Syllabus

I decided I was pretty much recovered from last night’s festivities and it was time to get back to work. So I pulled open my current draft, glanced at the time (and date, just to make sure I hadn’t reallyoverslept), and realized it was Thursday. The day I’m supposed to post new things. And I know I just posted the end of the year wrap-up yesterday, and I’d said I probably wasn’t going to post anything today.

But then, in the immortal words of Doctor Emmet Brown, I figured… what the hell.

(see, clever and relevant pop culture reference…)

Anyway, I’d like to continue my tradition of starting the year by explaining the ideas behind this page and what I’m trying to accomplish here.

A better way to look at it, though, is what are you hoping to accomplish?

This is the time when we all make a lot of promises to ourselves. Resolutions, if you will. We’re going to eat better, drink less, exercise more, quit smoking, visit Europe, and maybe finally get some work done on that manuscript. Get it finished!

Now, we all know the truth behind a lot of these resolutions. Most people don’t follow through on them. In fact, gyms make a ton of money off people who sign up for a one year membership in January and then stop showing up in… February.

And we don’t think less of most of these folks when they don’t follow through. If Wakko says he wants to lose ten pounds this year and then finds out he’s getting a promotion and he’s going to be a dad, well, his priorities are going to shift a bit. We all get that and understand it. Likewise, going to Europe is something Dot always wanted to do, but there’s nothing terribly urgent about it. If it doesn’t happen this year, maybe next year.

The real question, in my mind, is why does someone want to do these things?

Let’s say Yakko also wants to visit Europe, but he’s doing it as part of a career move. Being able to talk knowledgeably about Edinburgh, Paris, and Berlin can make or break his promotion chances, and he wants that promotion. This may just be a vacation for Dot, but for Yakko it’s going to affect the next twenty years of his life. They’re going to approach it in very different ways.

They should, anyway.

I’ve already seen a ton of folks making writing resolutions. To finish a screenplay or a book. Maybe two books. There were even a few daring people who wanted to get three books finished this year.

But why? Do I just want to write a screenplay because I’ve always wanted to try it? Or am I hoping this could lead to a career in the film industry? Am I writing this novel just for myself, or am I maybe looking to…well, make some money off of it? And if so, am I looking at this as a nice hobby that will pay for some LEGO models, or is this something I’m hoping will be a full career? Like a paying-all-the-bills career?

I started this page many years back because I couldn’t find any good, practical writing advice anywhere online. It was all either after-the-fact stuff about what to do with a completed manuscript or kind of vague, not-all-that-useful stuff like “read a book of poetry for inspiration, or try watercolor paints.”

A good chunk of the advice I could find that actually pertained to the act of writing was kind of… questionable. Always follow this structure. Always write at least 1000 words a day. Don’t worry about spelling or editing. Never use common words. Never use said. Name every character. It all just seemed to be either something people were pulling out of the air or repeating after it had gone through a twenty-iterations version of the telephone game.

And, as I mentioned, a lot of my own experience found this to be questionable.

So that’s what I’m trying to do here—to fill a gap for people who’d like to improve their writing and move it toward something they could actually sell to a much larger audience and maybe not just… well, a hundred people they know on Facebook.

That being said, there’ll be some harsh facts now and then. Also some very firm rules. Some folks will argue with these (some folks always do) because some of those harsh facts and ugly truths are going to go against a lot of the “special snowflake” ideas they’ve based their writing around. Others will be upset because some of the things I say might indicate they’re not quite as far along their career path as they thought. Or maybe they’re not on it at all.

I apologize in advance if this ends up being you. It’s nothing personal—it’s just the facts as I see them after about thirty-five years of trying to do this professionally. If it makes you feel better, there are very, very few screw-ups someone can make that I didn’t beat you to ages ago.

I’ll also offer up some much gentler tips and advice (some of which you may have heard before as facts or rules…). Some of these suggestions will work for you. Some won’t. Part of my job as a professional writer is to figure out what does and doesn’t work for me and to sort my tool chest accordingly. If you want to be a professional, that’s part of your job, too.

And, again, if writing’s just something you like to dabble with on weeknights because you enjoy it… cool. Maybe you’ll find some stuff here that makes it more fun for you. Or maybe you’ll just show up to laugh at those of us in the publishing rat race. That’s cool, too.

So…that’s the basic idea behind this page.

Next time, on a semi-related note, I’d like to talk to you about your choice of friends.

Until then, go write.

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