You've all met them: That person on Twitter who emails you or comments on your blog (or vlog!) saying how much they love your work (they never specify what work) for maybe two short sentences and then spend the next five promoting their work.
2) EVERYTHING YOU DO IS TIME LOGGED. DON'T MASS 'LIKE' AND THINK WE WON'T NOTICE. That means that when you 'like' something, we can see what time and what day you liked it. We'll be able to tell you're not into us if you mass like everything within a five minute span (and then after that five minutes you e-mail us about your book). Yeah. We're big brother/sister and we SEE YOU.
3) DON'T MAKE YOUR TWEETS AND YOUR FACEBOOK UPDATES ALL ABOUT PROMOTION: If all you do is make tweets about how/where to buy your book and never actually tweet about your life or writing or heck, even a blog post, you'll never be followed. You're boring. You're spamming your own wall. No one wants to talk to an advertisement. In real life it'd look like this:
Me: Oh hi, how are you?
You: OMG I WROTE THIS BOOK AND ITS FOR SALE FOR 1.99 ON KINDLE
Me: Oh that's cool! Was it hard to write?
You: OMG I WROTE THIS BOOK AND ITS FOR SALE FOR 1.99 ON KINDLE.
Me:.............*slowly backs away*
Being a writer is hard enough, finding people who write and who you feel you can make a connection to online is even harder! And we're always half leery. Is this person really wanting to be my friend, or are they going to promote themselves in the next email? My advice to you, if you're new to the Online Writing World is this:
Don't contact people via e-mail (whether through twitter, tumblr, blogs, etc) unless its to tell them how much you admire their stuff, or that you want to genuinely make friends. Because we can see through that crap. We've had to learn how thanks to so many people doing it. Which isn't fair.
So how do you promote your book? Hard work , connections, luck, luck, luck, and friends. Not necessarily in that order. Actually, I'd put luck first then connections if we were being organized. But I'm not organized, so there you go! Mostly you need to love your work. Yes, you need to make connections. But make REAL connections. The internet can be a lonely, scary, big place that will swallow you whole and also sell you things on Ebay until you have no money left. So here are some ways to promote yourself without blacklisting your self:
1) MAKE REAL FRIENDS: Go online. Go to twitter. Make friends in communities like Twitter, Booktube, Goodreads and Reddit. Seriously. Email some one who you think would understand your tortured writers soul. They're easy to find. Reach out! Plus, with two of you working together you could promote each other without any guilt because danggit, you just want to see your friend succeed!
Yeah. Here's the thing: I LOVE PEOPLE. Like, seriously. I think almost everyone in the world is pretty interesting and I just want to know you all! When I contact you on twitter via an e-mail its because I think, hey, I think we might make good friends! I don't do it because I want to promote myself to you.
But that's what a lot of people on twitter and other social medias do. It's like they haven't read the Golden Internet Rules of what not to do. Or never had someone spam them with promotions. So if you're a new writer on Twitter (or really, any media site) let me give you a couple of the Golden Internet Rules, it even comes with pictures!
1) DO NOT PROMOTE YOURSELF VIA TWITTER EMAIL. Seriously. That's what your actual Twitter account is for. Promote there. And the worst thing you can do is pretend to care about the person you're e-mailing. Don't send them a sentence about how you 'like their book' and then launch into a paragraph about your own soon to be block-buster selling book. Please.
But that's what a lot of people on twitter and other social medias do. It's like they haven't read the Golden Internet Rules of what not to do. Or never had someone spam them with promotions. So if you're a new writer on Twitter (or really, any media site) let me give you a couple of the Golden Internet Rules, it even comes with pictures!
1) DO NOT PROMOTE YOURSELF VIA TWITTER EMAIL. Seriously. That's what your actual Twitter account is for. Promote there. And the worst thing you can do is pretend to care about the person you're e-mailing. Don't send them a sentence about how you 'like their book' and then launch into a paragraph about your own soon to be block-buster selling book. Please.
 |
| Receiving emails like this makes us want to do THIS. |
Me: Oh hi, how are you?
You: OMG I WROTE THIS BOOK AND ITS FOR SALE FOR 1.99 ON KINDLE
Me: Oh that's cool! Was it hard to write?
You: OMG I WROTE THIS BOOK AND ITS FOR SALE FOR 1.99 ON KINDLE.
Me:.............*slowly backs away*
That's literally what it's like when you do that on twitter and post promotions. Don't do that. Please.
Being a writer is hard enough, finding people who write and who you feel you can make a connection to online is even harder! And we're always half leery. Is this person really wanting to be my friend, or are they going to promote themselves in the next email? My advice to you, if you're new to the Online Writing World is this:
Don't contact people via e-mail (whether through twitter, tumblr, blogs, etc) unless its to tell them how much you admire their stuff, or that you want to genuinely make friends. Because we can see through that crap. We've had to learn how thanks to so many people doing it. Which isn't fair.
So how do you promote your book? Hard work , connections, luck, luck, luck, and friends. Not necessarily in that order. Actually, I'd put luck first then connections if we were being organized. But I'm not organized, so there you go! Mostly you need to love your work. Yes, you need to make connections. But make REAL connections. The internet can be a lonely, scary, big place that will swallow you whole and also sell you things on Ebay until you have no money left. So here are some ways to promote yourself without blacklisting your self:
1) MAKE REAL FRIENDS: Go online. Go to twitter. Make friends in communities like Twitter, Booktube, Goodreads and Reddit. Seriously. Email some one who you think would understand your tortured writers soul. They're easy to find. Reach out! Plus, with two of you working together you could promote each other without any guilt because danggit, you just want to see your friend succeed!
2) JOIN MEDIA SITES AND ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE: That's right. Don't just silently stalk people you like. talk to them! Comment on the stuff they say! I promise, eventually you get noticed and you don't just get noticed by the actual person. People in the comments section notice you too. They might think what you said was funny or smart and reply back and be more likely to follow or subscribe to you because of that. And just like that: FRIENDS FIND YOU! (also, they'll hopefully go to your page that you've linked and find your books or whatever it is your selling. If they think you're cool enough, they might buy it. If they REALLY think you're cool, they might even promote you to THEIR friends and you never have to say a thing!)
3) PROMOTE YOUR BOOK ON YOUR TWITTER ONCE OR TWICE A DAY. MAX. You know, just in case some one didn't see it yesterday. But you don't need to repost your book every other hour. That's crazy. You could be doing something better with your time. Like writing funnier tweets. Or making friends with people. Or talking to people. Or writing your next book. Just saying.
So there you have it! I hope this helped you in anyway shape or form! And if you want to be friends with me, please do! I love friends! I love hearing about life stories! I bet you're all extremely interesting and I want to know about you!
And how about you writers out there? ever experienced these problems or broken these rules? Do you have any rules or advice to add? SHARE YOUR SUPER SMART BRAIN KNOWLEDGE IN A COMMENT!
Have a great weekend everyone!
And how about you writers out there? ever experienced these problems or broken these rules? Do you have any rules or advice to add? SHARE YOUR SUPER SMART BRAIN KNOWLEDGE IN A COMMENT!
Have a great weekend everyone!
This is really good advise. Even if you are trying to sell a book, it is better to use social media to make connections than try to buy something.
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