I opened my email inbox and found an update from a publishing blog I recently subscribed to: Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer. His post in turn referred me to several other writing/publishing blogs, notably Kristen Lamb’s post on Social Media, Book Signings & Why Neither Directly Impact Overall Sales and Anne R. Allen’s The 10 Commandments of Social Media Etiquette for Writers. Naturally, the advice I read there overturned all of the promotional advice I’d researched for my previous book launch. So it goes on the ever-evolving Internet – oh sorry, Interwebz.
A few hours of fascinating reading later, I took a break – a few steps back from my grandiose schemes to blanket the Int – uh, cyberspace – with my finely crafted new book blurbz. No surprise, really. Just another episode of my 20-year odyssey through the promise and pitfalls of publishing in the digital age. Just when you think you’ve researched all the latest tips and tricks – whammo! Everyone else has already done it to death, so you have to get up to speed on the latest greatest anti-strategy strategy. And quick, before it too tumbles under the next wave coming … already.
In short, I decide to ride with it, posting instead to share these no-longer-secrets for a day. Naturally I’m breaking – willfully, now – a lot of the rules touted by these pros. But what self-respecting artist doesn’t break rules? (I’m thinking, for starters, of Anne Allen’s, “Don’t try to maintain more than one blog.”)
Digression alert:
Back in 1996, I thought I could wear all my various hats under one banner, Cougar WebWorks – Alternative Culture Magazine. Seven sections, going by chakra, with periodic posts from my Renaissance-man life interests. Fast forward to Internet 2.0 (or is it 3.x by now, AKA Interwebz?) and I find myself in need of seven separate venues to carry forward those lifelong content areas:
- Personal – Facebook
- Travel – Words in Motion
- Career – HyperLife Editing Services / Facebook
- Books – Goodreads
- Music – African Drumming Blog
- Writing – [this blog] / Facebook
- Spirituality – The Seeker’s Manual
(Ack, what about “the real work” – I mean W-w-writing!?)
Okay, I’ll get back to the rules now: Enough about me. Here are some of the links I can share with the latest greatest advice I know of for writers and self-publishers, useful for others too in the realm of social media promotion and etiquette.
How to get your book published: Links to free info for new writers – Anne R. Allen’s Blog
Social media advice for writers: Kristen Lamb’s Blog
Where to find beta readers and critique partners: CritiqueCircle.com, SheWrites or networking through My WANA, QueryTracker.net, AgentQuery.com, or Nathan Bransford’s forums.
Oh yeah, and once more for good measure, the guy who started this whole day’s journey: Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer, for all kinds of tips on writing, formatting and publishing.
The above list is just a sample. But, you know how it goes: “Once you begin the journey, you won’t want to stop. You will come out the other side …. changed.”
– By Nowick Gray
