More than any other profession, authors have enthusiastically become Facebook and Twitter experts. I follow Peroozal author M.J. Rose and several other authors on Facebook and Twitter, and it’s clear that these people are building their brand via social networking in a way that only bigwig marketing firms were able to do only a few short years ago. The social media wave is not actually just a wave, it’s a sea change – see the video below – and this includes recommendation sites like our own Peroozal, where sharing opinions is king. No one cares about ads anymore, but they really do care about what other people are doing and what other people are enjoying. The voracious and viral sharing of book trailers, author podcasts, book excerpts, author web pages, tweets about book tour locations, etcetera, is the very blood that the heart of the book industry is pumping these days. If you’re a writer and you’re not using social networks, then it’s very likely your book is not going to be read because no one will have heard of it.
The video below is a book trailer for Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business
(by @equalman)
Click here for Social Networks for writers. More here too.
More soon on how authors we love are using social networks…
Birds Do It, Bees Do It, And Now Authors Do It Too
With the advent of social media, even the most reclusive and shy authors may have been able to keep up with the achingly author-driven new world of book promotion. Many authors have learned the benefits of giveaways and social networking: No intermediary needed to reach the reader, and very little (maybe just a tad) face time needed either.
How Authors Move Their Own Merchandise
By JOANNE KAUFMAN
To gin up sales for her 2009 essay collection “Bad Mother,” Ayelet Waldman rewarded those who preordered the book with such lagniappes as a donation to a scholarship fund or a copy of a novel by her husband, Michael Chabon. “I think all of that got ‘Bad Mother’ on the New York Times best-seller list,” Ms. Waldman said.
Eager for lightning to strike twice, she began working the Facebook rolls before last summer’s publication of her novel “Red Hook Road.” Those who preordered (or sent an email explaining their lack of interest in preordering) were entered into a drawing to win an iPod loaded with music thematic to the book. “Some author—I don’t remember who—had a drawing for iPads, and I was thinking ‘that’s someone with more money than me,’” said Ms. Waldman, acknowledging that, in fact, her publisher, Doubleday, had donated the iPods she used in her reader raffle.
“I find the process of self-promotion excruciating,” said Ms. Waldman, who, frankly, seems approximately as shy as a Kardashian. “I’m sure there are plenty of people who think ‘she’s so tacky.’ And I say: ‘I have four children to feed. I wish I had the luxury of not being tacky.’”
Excruciating it may be. Nonetheless, authors are becoming more and more involved in the nitty-gritty of moving the merch. “It’s no longer a top-down media culture,” said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group….
For the complete article click here to go to The Wall Street Journal.