Good friend and excellent writer, Gabi Coatsworth a British-born American is posting today about something we as authors have experienced or need to know. Take it away, Gabi!
Twenty years ago, when I started writing in earnest, there was no social media to speak of. MySpace had launched to help musicians promote their music and then spread it to other members. Facebook was hot on its heels, though, and soon displaced it. Twitter came along a couple of years later. I was more or less oblivious to all of this. But when my submissions began to be published by small journals and online magazines, I realized that unless I had what people were calling a platform, no one would ever know of my incredible work.
So around 2010, I joined Twitter and Facebook and discovered truly social media. People used the sites to connect with other people, sometimes to find long-lost friends or relatives. They recommended books to each other, announced their latest blog posts and generally interacted in a positive way. For writers, Twitter held pitch events, where they could post information about their unpublished novels (in 140 characters) over five days, and agents would check them out and express interest. All of this was free, and writers took these opportunities to build their platforms.
But social media has changed. There are fewer places where I want to belong now, not just because of the time it takes to monitor everything, but because the tone has become more divisive.
I was hesitant to try newsletters, though. I had edited a paper newsletter that was snail-mailed to its readership once a month. It was all about traveling to Britain, British history, and so on. People paid to subscribe, but trying to make them renew their subscriptions was a never-ending task. In the end, its owner pulled the plug and left me with a less-than-positive feeling about contacting people by mail.
By the time I had some interest in publishing my memoir, I’d been told by many agents, publishers, and marketing experts that an author platform was essential for a book to succeed. A publisher wasn’t going to do much for me, so I’d have to figure things out and pony up to do my own.
No one mentioned that having a platform was the perfect description. No matter how many followers I might accrue, I was perched on a soapbox in a tiny corner of the world while the rest of the potential audience streamed by, oblivious to my amazing oratory (or writing).
I began to realize that as time went on and Twitter grew, the chances of someone seeing my tweets (even with 8000 followers) were vanishingly slim, never mind how much time I spent tweeting. The same was becoming true on Facebook. And Instagram never made it easy for readers to click on a link you might want to include in your post unless you paid for an ad. The audience had to click the link on your profile but I rarely did that for other people’s posts. It was one step too many.
And then social media’s feet of clay began to show. I don’t need to go into the meanness and viciousness that started spreading through it. The sales to people who wanted these platforms for the power they could bring. The likelihood of one’s account being hacked, or sabotaged, or lost overnight? The October 2021 and March 2024 Facebook blackouts are a perfect example.
The answer, it seemed to me, was to have a list I could connect with regularly to keep them updated about my books. I began with the addresses I already had from running writing groups in Connecticut, which netted me about 1200 people, largely other writers. I’d post a monthly blog or two about writing, and others with excerpts from my work, and I found readers responded well.
Yet even if each of them bought my book, they still wouldn’t turn it into a bestseller. So, I started building up my list another way, focusing more on readers than writers.
One successful method involved joint promotions with other authors in the same genre. I discovered a company that did this for a small fee. They put together an advertising campaign that asked entrants to provide their email addresses for a chance to win one copy of each book in the promo. Here’s an example of the most recent one, where I solicited other authors with novels containing some supernatural element.
The promotion has been running for almost a month, and so far, has netted each participant upwards of 600 new email addresses of readers who enjoy this genre. All this in exchange for providing one of my books. (I send the winner a personalized and signed paperback edition—I think it’s better marketing.) The latest addresses have brought my list to 3000+ readers. It ends on February 2, but if you’d like to enter, feel free to sign up here.
When I plan a newsletter, I consider what makes me get to the end of an email and keep my communications brief (200 words max). I include links to places where recipients can download a short story, read the first chapter of an upcoming book, or preorder the next one. I post these calls to action on my Substack account, where I occasionally find subscribers willing to pay for my information, and also a new audience, recommended by Substack itself, or other bloggers on the site.
The connection I have with my peeps feels genuine. I always receive email replies from my readers—so I’m about to ask them to help me pick a title for the next book.
All in a fraction of the time I need to interact on FB and IG. Setting it up takes less time and money than one might think—and the rewards are tangible.
Thanks, Gabi. I know writers who've been at this business for a while can relate to all that you've mentioned here today. I certainly can. I hope IWSG readers will weigh in and tell us what they think or what their experience has been with social media. I'd love to have more conversations about this topic.
4 comments:
For a while, newsletters seemed ineffective since everyone had one. Now that social media has become less effective, the newsletter is taking off again. Need to do some revamping of the IWSG newsletter and gain some more subscribers.
It's great that your promotion effort got you so many new contacts. I've never had much time for Twitter or Facebook because my blog takes so much of my time and is the way I connect with readers, writers, and authors.
You did a great job laying out what's happened with social media over the years. Being in the publishing business is all about keeping up with the changes in how to read readers. Thanks for this post.
Joint promotions are always a good idea. That's more authors drawing in even more potential readers.
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