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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: arianne on March 03, 2013, 10:34:40 AM
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I'm in the process of self-publishing my first novel, and I'm just wondering, when should I start up my author website/Twitter/Facebook? Should I start it up now or should I wait until the book has actually come out? Should I buy my domain now and just not put anything on it yet?
And what sort of thing should I put on my Twitter feeds/blog posts? I've heard some people say that I should go for personal everyday stuff, but others have said that it should only be author-related, writing-related stuff. Does anyone have any personal experience or advice? Thanks in advance!
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I can only speak for myself, but I got the domain name and started building my website a couple months before I was ready to bring the book out. That gave me ample time to figure the software out and design the site; thus I was able to launch it within a few days of the book's release.
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I got a free blog over at google before completing book 1. I got a grand total of about 20 visitors of six months.
After Book 1 lit up and Book two was just about ready to come out, I transfered to a real blog. My current website. So you don't 'have' to have anything up to make a winning move.
That said there are some authors out there with killer websites. Updates on their books, pictures, exclusive content, e-mailing lists. I think its like the 80/20 principle. 80% of your money will come from just plain writing the book. The other 20% is from value added stuff like the website and such.
But I can't claim to be an expert yet. Still just getting started since april last year.
The Deposed King
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The first thing I did was make a twitter account and immediately started talking about writing my book. I've heard from a couple different self published authors that Twitter is the place to promote. I commented on other author's tweets and made some general tweets of my own about writing and what genre I was looking towards.
Then I started a blog. I personally used wordpress and I like it well enough. I began by posting book's from other author's I knew on twitter, did a book review, but also generalized it by talking about movies and games as well. I've been slowly revealing more about my novel in the hopes of building anticipation. (The book cover should be done this week!)
The last items on my list before the book's release is to get active on facebook (I just created my author page yesterday), make an account on goodreads, and dive into Google +. From there I will start promoting my novel and trying to drive people towards my blog. I've actually had a couple people compliment me on it.
As to a main website, I have been tempted to buy the domain name I want just so I have it, but I probably will not worry about putting one up until after the book is released. I don't expect my book to fly off the shelf, but I want to build a base of reader's first before I put up a full blown site. Until then, my blog is my main site.
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I have no experience from the Author's side of it, but as a member of the Audience, Id recommend having it up and running before the book comes out, so that when new readers are become interested in the book and you as an author, they have some place to get information that is established and looks professional. Id say focus it on your author/writing news and activites, rather than flooding it with general/personal information, for the aforementioned Professional feel of it; it's not just for fans, it can also be a good tool if and when interested publishers come looking.
What Liz said about making it a good ways ahead of time to work out the bugs is probably prudent advise as well.
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And what sort of thing should I put on my Twitter feeds/blog posts? I've heard some people say that I should go for personal everyday stuff, but others have said that it should only be author-related, writing-related stuff. Does anyone have any personal experience or advice? Thanks in advance!
I meant to give my two cents on this question - This is from a reader point of view. There is an author on my twitter feed that has released 4 books on amazon, and she promotes heavily. Here's the problem with the way she does it - I think she uses some sort of automated service that tweets for her, because everyday I see the exact same posts, once every couple of hours. When I see this, it really turns me off as a reader and I get tempted to ignore her posts or stop following altogether. There's nothing wrong with having a main "template" tweet to promote with, but you should really focus on being versitile in your posting.
As to what to put on your blog posts and tweets, I took the middle ground between only writing related stuff and personal. I don't make posts about my family or specific events that took place in my life, but at the same time I take my interests (writing, movies, games, etc.) and make posts about them, so without divulging to the reader my personal life, they at least get to know me through what I like to do and see.
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As to what to put on your blog posts and tweets, I took the middle ground between only writing related stuff and personal. I don't make posts about my family or specific events that took place in my life, but at the same time I take my interests (writing, movies, games, etc.) and make posts about them, so without divulging to the reader my personal life, they at least get to know me through what I like to do and see.
That strikes me as a good balance.
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If you're thinking in terms of traditional publishing, the advice I've had is; don't do anything until you've sold something, or you look indistinguishable from any other wannabe. And even then, don't do anything that treads on the toes of your publisher's marketing people; this being what they do for a living, odds are they are better at it than you.
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If you're thinking in terms of traditional publishing, the advice I've had is; don't do anything until you've sold something, or you look indistinguishable from any other wannabe. And even then, don't do anything that treads on the toes of your publisher's marketing people; this being what they do for a living, odds are they are better at it than you.
So I guess the question becomes are you looking to stick with the Self-Publishing Model, or are you trying to use it to attract traditional Publishers? If you are looking to attract a Publisher, be prepared to abandon any and all of this once you get a contract.
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So I guess the question becomes are you looking to stick with the Self-Publishing Model, or are you trying to use it to attract traditional Publishers?
Self-publishing attracts traditional publishers maybe a tenth to a hundredth of a per cent as often as it repels them; those are not odds I feel worth playing, myself.
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So I guess the question becomes are you looking to stick with the Self-Publishing Model, or are you trying to use it to attract traditional Publishers? If you are looking to attract a Publisher, be prepared to abandon any and all of this once you get a contract.
Lilona Andrews and Jim Butcher are both published authors, there is also the Hurog site for Patricia Briggs and the Mercy Thompson were-wolf series. I'd say look at what they do on the published author front as it regards websites and content and such.
The Deposed King
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My publisher coached me on how to build my online platform. Get a website up. You can buy a domain if you want. I use a free Blogger site and it's serving me well. The main thing you want that website for is online visibility. Pick topics to blog about (and Tweet about) besides your book. Generally speaking, people are turned off by authors posting constant "buy my book!" messages. Talk about the writing process. Give updates on your progress towards your release. But also pick some personal topics to discuss. Comment on the writing industry. Post book recommendations. Blog about topics related to your book.
In my experience, I've gotten more followers and had more people buy my book because we've connected over something entirely separate to my writing.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you're self-publishing with a view to making a name for yourself and attracting a publisher, the odds are extremely slim that they will take on anything you've already published on your own, unless it's already selling very well. You would still likely have to send queries for new work you've completed that you don't intend to self-publish.
Whatever you do with your website, make sure it's published in your name. What I mean is, name your blog after yourself, or buy your own name as a domain, rather than coming up with a catchy website title or buying the domain of your book's title. You're creating a brand, and that brand is you. You want people to associate your name with your work.
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If you're thinking in terms of traditional publishing, the advice I've had is; don't do anything until you've sold something, or you look indistinguishable from any other wannabe. And even then, don't do anything that treads on the toes of your publisher's marketing people; this being what they do for a living, odds are they are better at it than you.
There's a huge gap between what the publisher does and the author's personal presence. Many readers appear to like at least the appearance of a personal touch, the thought that you could actually "speak" to the author. Personal websites/blogs/social-media presence (or, more to the point, POSTING on them) go very far towards that and are not something a publisher's marketing department could do. Nor should they; it's not their job. Being yourself, putting yourself out there, that's yours.
As a reader, I can say with certainty that there are a number of authors I would never have picked up without that personal presence, no matter the publisher's marketing work. In fact, publisher-initiated marketing is usually on a non-reader-oriented scale, anyway; getting your book to distribution points and suchlike is the way they contribute most.
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Also, in my experience, publishers are usually very open to authors trying out all kinds of promotion methods. The only thing likely to need to be cleared with them is anything that may touch on areas covered by your contract.
For example, my publisher holds all rights to publish Locked Within and has first refusal on any works based on it. So I would have to clear it with them to post an excerpt on my website or release free short stories like Jim has done for Dresden.
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I recently found the blog of a self-published author who had sold maybe a couple hundred copies of her novel. She was posting things about "how to write a bestselling novel" and "how REAL writers write" and it just turned me off. Good advice is always good advice, but selling 200 books does not make anyone a bestselling writer by anyone's standards and they shouldn't say they are.
It's things like that that make me very wary of posting writing related stuff on a blog. I don't want to come off sounding very arrogant (especially as I haven't published anything yet).
I would like to see my stuff published by a traditional publisher, but I think it usually takes about six months to a year to find an agent/publisher (and I'm being optimistic here :)) and then maybe another year to actually see the book in stores after all the paperwork is signed (and still being optimistic here.... :)) I don't know if my work would still be "current" after that long.
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You're right, 200 books does not a best-seller make. I sold nearly that in two months and I'm certainly no best-seller yet.
If I can offer you some very serious advice, time should not be the major deciding factor in your decision to self-publish. Yes, you can get your book out faster, but you risk rushing it and releasing it before it's ready. Self-publish because you want full creative control and can afford to invest money in hiring an editor, cover artist, and layout designer. Don't do it because you don't want to wait. You're just doing yourself a disservice.
Publishing takes time. I wouldn't worry about something being "current." You need more than a couple of years to see good sales and build up a name. If you're worried that your work won't be current anymore, maybe you should work on it to make it more accessible regardless of when you release it? After all, do you really want to release a book that, two years from now, people won't be interested in?
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I meant current in terms of reader trend, not in terms of content. For example, a few years back there was that big Dan Brown Da Vinci Code phase where everyone was buying thriller type books, and now the trend has moved on to things like paranormal romance and urban fantasy. I'm just worried that something paranormal romance I write right now will be buried among the future, say, high fantasy trend.
I certainly wasn't the biggest fan of self-publishing a few years ago, because I'd seen too many vanity writers (you've all met them. They're the people who write something terrible and think it's great because their mom and grandma and auntie have told them it's great, and then they go and self-publish it and try to sell you the stuff...) who used self-publishing as a sort of "woe is me, no one understands my art" shield. I think however that self-publishing is garnering more respect and attracting a much better class of writer these days, so I've been looking into it as an option.
The main thing is to really just write something that's worth reading, I guess :)
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Absolutely. Just as I would never advise anyone to try and write to fit current trends, I would say not to worry that your book won't be as popular 2-3 years down the line. People will read good books, regardless of trends. Just make sure your book is the best it can be, and don't sweat it when it comes to the latest craze.
Looking at the trends, paranormal romance has already passed from being the "in" thing. The next big thing was dystopian following The Hunger Games taking off, but even within a year, people were saying the genre was on the way out. The fact is, people who guess what the next trend will be really are just guessing. They have no way to know what will and will not sell, and publishers understand that.
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I would think, though, that someone writing something "in vogue" would find it easier to find a publisher/agent, whereas someone writing a thriller might be told "no one reads these secret society things anymore".
My current work is very urban fantasy, and while there are some original elements it's not the sort of thing that people would think is super duper original (nothing new under the sun and all that) although I like my characters and the plot seems to be going as it should. But, as you've mentioned, the urban fantasy trend has now given way to Hunger Games type books and I'm slightly worried by that as it probably means that agents aren't actively looking for something UF :(
Some people have told me it helps if you have some sort of "fan base" before you publish, as this will interest publishers/agents marketing-wise, which was why I was thinking about author websites, and whether or not I should start one (even though as an unpublished writer I really don't have that much to say, either on the writing front, or on the publishing front. I could speak for hours about my characters, but as the book isn't published yet, details about my characters are unlikely to interest anyone)
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You'd be surprised. A lot of agents are reluctant to take on more books in the trending genres because there's so much in the market it becomes a hard sell. Just try finding an agent for a book where your main character is, or is in love with, a vampire, for example. There's just so much out there since the Twilight craze started that lots of agents and publishers aren't interested unless the book brings something really new to the table.
That's one of the reasons why Locked Within focuses so much less on vampires. They're present in the setting, but the primary characters are not vampires. And even with that, some people said I was pushing it to try and get any book published that had even the barest mention of a vampire.
The problem is that so many people think that writing an "in vogue" book is the way to go that the market becomes saturated and readers become jaded.
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Oh, and regards having a fan-base beforehand, yeah, it would be a help. But again, don't sweat it. It would be very hard to build a fanbase on your own, from the ground up, and you might find your efforts are better put towards your writing. Build your site, blog about things that interest you, and just be yourself. If you get a lot of followers, great. If not, there's plenty of time to get them.
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If you're having trouble deciding whether to go the traditional publishing route or self-publishing, take a look at this blog post by author Michael Hicks. He is a very successful self-published author, currently with ten books out(I think)
http://authormichaelhicks.com/some-advice-to-new-or-aspiring-authors/
I'm going to self-publish my novel, but I'm making sure it's for all the right reasons. Like Paul said, don't rush to release your book just to get it out there. Whether it's now or two years from now, there will always be a dedicated group of readers who enjoy all genre's, even if their out of "style"
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Here's a good post (http://bestsellerlabs.com/7-ways-youre-sabotaging-your-book-sales/#.UTB84xmbVY8.twitter) with some advice that you might find useful as regards making sure you have good impact as an author.
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Here's a good post (http://bestsellerlabs.com/7-ways-youre-sabotaging-your-book-sales/#.UTB84xmbVY8.twitter) with some advice that you might find useful as regards making sure you have good impact as an author.
Those are some great tips! Very enjoyable post to read.
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Thanks for the links! All very informative.
The problem with me is that I can worry about anything. I worry about my writing, my characters, my plot, my setting, the publishing industry, book trends, whether or not Elvis is still alive...
However, I DO enjoy writing the book, and as an indicator of whether I'm writing for me or just chasing a trend that's not to be sneezed at, and hopefully other people can tell the difference.
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Worry less, write more ;)
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There's a huge gap between what the publisher does and the author's personal presence.
Indeed, but irritating the heck out of your publishers or potential publishers is not necessarily a net win. I can think of more than one fairly respected genre author who ended a career that way.
Personal websites/blogs/social-media presence (or, more to the point, POSTING on them) go very far towards that and are not something a publisher's marketing department could do. Nor should they; it's not their job. Being yourself, putting yourself out there, that's yours.
I truly hope nobody ever asks me to make it mine.
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In today's publishing industry, it's incumbent on the author to build and maintain their own online platform. Many publishers these days won't take you on unless you're at least willing to promote yourself online. Some won't take you on unless they can already look you up and see how you're presenting yourself.
It's extremely unlikely that you're irriate potential publishers. Not unless you do something foolish like talk trash about another author or go on a rant if you receive a rejection. Pro-tip: Never talk trash about any author, book, agent or publisher. It will come back to bite you.
Readers want to connect with authors, to know them as people, not just names on their book covers. And really, it doesn't take much work to maintain your platform using a blog and Twitter/Facebook. I manage it with a full-time job and a set of 3-month-old twins.
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Indeed, but irritating the heck out of your publishers or potential publishers is not necessarily a net win. I can think of more than one fairly respected genre author who ended a career that way.
Maintaining a personal online presence is in no way equivalent to "irritating your publisher". Being irritating online by deliberately contravening requests they've made is.
I truly hope nobody ever asks me to make it mine.
These days, it's a given. The writing/reading world has changed fundamentally in the course of our lifetimes. Today's citizen may not actually demand direct contact with the artist, but it's far, far closer to the norm than it used to be, and putting out some sort of contact is rapidly becoming a sine qua non of the profession. Look, for example, at how many current urban fantasy authors are not only on Twitter but active there. Readers are beginning to expect that sort of thing.
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As far as trending goes, speaking from the standpoint of someone that buys an absurd amount of books, I've never much cared about whats popular as far as picking what to take home from the book store. After all I have to like it, and it doesnt matter much to me what others like.
I do agree at lot with what Wordmaker said about say vampires -or any other over used product- because I tend to get annoyed by reading the same ole thing again and again.
A good example, the zombie genre, after World War Z and the Walking Dead took off, the selves where flooded with zombie books, but very few offered anything new, and the authors doing their take on World War Z, well I had already read that, and didnt need to read a knock of version.
I will say some authors manage to take concepts that are way overused and put their own spin on it and make it fresh. A good example would be David Wellignton, I think his vampire novels are nice and different, yes he uses vampires but they are the more 30 Days of Night style vamp, and no one sparkels, so im ok with it.
Also his Monster Island books have a different feel to them than other zombie type books.
Just my two cents, make your stuff have its own feel to it, make it good, and don't worry about whats popular or when it will be published. People are still buying the WOT, LotR, and Dune books after how many years?
Trends come and go, good books are always good books
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Thanks for the links! All very informative.
The problem with me is that I can worry about anything. I worry about my writing, my characters, my plot, my setting, the publishing industry, book trends, whether or not Elvis is still alive...
However, I DO enjoy writing the book, and as an indicator of whether I'm writing for me or just chasing a trend that's not to be sneezed at, and hopefully other people can tell the difference.
Is your book done arianne? If so I would put all this energy into writing a sequel or if the idea of missing a trend is just too much on your brain write a book in a new genre.
You don't want to siphon away your creative time and mental horsepower on whether or not the book you've written will be (flawed, ignored, not liked, missing the wave, etc.) put your love and ingenuity into your book and so long as you love it, there's a good chance your prospective readers will as well.
Don't let yourself get so worried. It'll slow you down and tempt you to quit or switch to writing something else. You can do this. You are writing for your audience, yes, never forget that. But so long as you are also writing for youself and putting out the kind of product you would enjoy and love to read. The readers have a much better chance of seeing that and falling in love with your creation as well.
In short, get advice and tips and everything else, sure, but keep your focus on you writing!
my 0.2c for what its worth.
The Deposed King
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There are days where I think everything is going fantastically and I believe that I am the greatest writer in the world, and then there are days where I am convinced that no one will ever "get" what it is I'm trying to say and then I start worrying about...well, everything... :'(
I realize that this is a problem and I really should be focusing on the writing... (In fact, what am I doing here?? I should be writing!) ;D
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Deposed King is spot on. If you've got one book done, start another. The more you write, the better you'll get, and if you land a deal or push ahead with self-publishing, it always helps to have a follow-up ready to go. Though I'd give some breathing room between them, both to help your first book spread and so you won't look like you're rashly pushing out books too fast.