As we wait for the Frankfurt Expo, due October 12 to 16th, it’s a time to look around at events in the Publishing, Marketing and Promotional sphere. There are a large number of changes taking place which bring Old School Business Tactics into the hands of the Sole Trader or self-promoting, novelist and author.
We currently use a blog, facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to keep in touch with an expanding field of tools and tactics available to the entrepreneurial individual out there. It’s quite clear, the tactics and functions of each ‘tool’ have to be mastered.
It’s fairly clear that not all players are as adept…nor as committed.
Our own Social Media outlets generally comprise:
Blog: https://www.chrisdcorran.com
The blog serves the purpose of getting large and fixed bites of data out there, about the author and about the book. It’s possible to update the blog in a way that keeps interesting and useful Promo Material before the eyes of the visitor. Those who ‘linger longer’ at the site can find an entire history of the Book, the Author and the Publication Process. There are pictures and examples of marketing art etc., which give a more in-depth understanding of how we are pushing DARK-Millennium 3.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherDCorran
Facebook is becoming a default chat venue where virtually everybody we know has a Page or an Address, some of which are vestigial and some quite ornate. In our case, on the fb parent page, we tend to put general chatter. We also make sure that each event in the life of DARK and its Author are shared there from the associated Author Fan Page.
Facebook Author Fan Page:
The purpose of the Author Fan Page is specific to the Book, the Publisher and the Author. As the Fan Page is linked in with the Strategic Book Group site dealing with all their authors and the promotional efforts of the Publisher on behalf of them, we knew we had to devise the layout and topics within a narrow band of subjects that do not distract from the aim of Promoting the Book and Selling Copies.
That can be a surprisingly narrow goal to consistently keep in mind.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/#!/chrisdcor
Our Twitter account links us in deliberately with the Publishing Industry. All the major publishers and Book Reviewers have Twitter accounts and we have winkled out a few so far that we ‘follow’, with the intention of gathering more. We also try to spread the linking data with other authors so as to form a mutual pool with vested interests in commenting on and promoting our own work to the wider ‘Books’ community.
LinkedIn: Christopher Corran
Linked in is a more professional tool, essentially designed for professionals seeking to advance their own employment prospects and to share insights on technical aspects of writing, in the case of authors. Frankly we are still looking to see how best and also ‘if’ we should use LinkedIn.
One of the main issues in using Social Media is the tendency or temptation to become totally involved in ‘using’ social media, rather than either writing books or doing other useful things with one’s time.
Social Media Explosion
The alarming thing about social media is the aggressive stance taken by those who see promoting Social Media itself as a lucrative trade. There are endless tutorials on how to get the most out of an ever growing plethora of ‘Apps’, Widgets and Plug-ins that are each designed to ‘totally attract’ the wandering eye of digital passers-by.
It is becoming impossible to keep up with all the new developments and therein lies the trap: how alluring is the temptation to delve into the posturing offerings of one guru or another, so as to get only the meat and none of the fat.
Truly it seems that modern western civilization has become a posture. And this in the most negative sense…all posture and no substance. So long as cash can be turned, there is no other concern worthy of merit. That cash can be turned with increasingly asinine and banal tripe is, if anything, all the better.
We accept that for the author, internet exposure is a wonderful tool and to become competent at the basics is essential unless someone else is to be paid to ‘do it’.
We also accept, for best effect it is necessary to identify a short list of Key Hot Words to fix in each online offering, so as to trigger the widest possible Google SEO response etc., and to thus ensure the maximum number of Hits on a given page.
In addition, each offering should ideally be bite sized, attractive and simple. Text based trivia is wasted on a blind surfer. Simplistic click-and-go multiple choice options, such as ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ are essential. Not to have them is anti-social.
So we are looking at these developments with a jaundiced eye but accept, this is the world we live in and Our Publisher Knows It! Strategic Book Group, including Strategic Book Marketing, advise we make use of every relevant aspect of the Social Media boom. In fact, they send us their own imperatives almost on a daily basis and their pet guru even several times a day! It would be an interesting day where we were able to read all the ‘stuff’ we get on how to use Social Media. It might be a wasted day if we tried to use more than we can.
Somewhere in between lies the preferred ground: expeditious use of necessary technology in a timely and informed manner, without wasting time reading more than we need and without asking others to read either.
Except if we can seduce them [you 🙂 ] into reading our Blog!
Book Two in the trilogy is falling together well. So far there are no scantily clad infant girls nor their red dressed elder sisters but relationships, a field not made clearly accessible in DARK-Millennium 3, will feature in a very controversial manner in FORTH-Millennium 3.
Chris
