Social Media Marketing and eBook Publishing

This is a guest post by Coral Russell, author, marketer and pretty cool all around gal!


I know I should consider myself a self-publisher because Indie is usually associated with Small Presses, but I think the new wave of authors taking the reins and publishing their own books via the Internet and specifically eBooks are Independents in the true sense of the word.

As a life-long reader, I was a die-hard paperback fan and thought I'd never switch to reading eBooks. All that changed last year and I haven't looked back. I love my Kindle and a survey revealed that once readers switch to using eReaders, they don't go back to pBooks. I fall in that category.

So when the fiction-writing bug bit after winning a contest (I've been writing non-fiction for a long time), it was natural for me to look into publishing eBooks instead of pBooks. That look lasted seven months and is still ongoing. Here's what I've learned so far:

Write a darn good story or at least a story that you would want to read or at least a story that you are extremely happy with.

Write a short story that compliments the genre you're writing your novel in, then give it away – feedbooks, wattpad, BookRix, and others sites are great for this. Include it in an anthology-you have writing friends don't you? Collaborate. Include it in an anthology for charity-everyone likes contributing to a good cause and there are a ton out there (i.e. No Trees Harmed for First Book).

It's good to be a control freak. If you enjoy every aspect of the process of creating an eBook, then the only thing you may have to pay for is a book cover and for sure, editing. Editing is a must. Editing separates the writer from the hobbyist. Also if you enjoy the process, then you will be happy no matter what the outcome.

Adopt the motto – I don't know any strangers. That is fairly easy and painless with the Internet and social media. Don't know the first thing about building a blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Technorati, Blogcritics, etc.? The Indie Book Collective has great seminars to get you on your feet. My daughter announced one day she wanted to build a homework robot. I told her, that's called the Internet, honey. If you have any problem or are unsure of how to do something, Google it. Someone, somewhere in the world has had the same problem and probably offered a solution for free.

Get to know your reviewers. You need good, honest, objective reviews and you can get them on shelfari, goodreads (eBook Giveaways group), LibraryThing (Member Giveaways), and more. Cozy up with blog tours – Novel Publicity, Nurture Your Books, Author Blog Tours, Indie Book Collective, BLB Book Tours – some are higher priced than others, so pick what you can afford. OR, you can go it alone. I add book review sites to my blog roll all the time and these three sites make it easy to find blogs that may be interested in reviewing your masterpiece – BookConnector, Step-by-Step Self Publishing, The Indie Book Blog Database.

Want to pay for reviews? If it's good enough for the first self-published million eBook seller, John Locke, it's good enough for you. He used 15 Dollar Reviews and BookRooster (I already went undercover at these two sites and blogged about it).

Support your fellow Indie authors. Tons of ways to do this through networking, collaboration, book reviews, exchanging forewords, linking to your books, sharing, retweeting, guest posts, etc.

And this is just the tip of the ice burg.

Sound like a full-time job? It is. I have a calendar set up with the times to do the different activities I need to do so I won't spend too much time on any one activity. But it is working, I sell every month and those sales are increasing every month. Good luck and feel free to connect with me, I'm always interested in meeting new Indie authors!

Coral Russell reads/reviews Indie authors on alchemyofscrawl.wordpress.com Check out her Stalker Package to connect. She has written The DIY Guide to Social Media Marketing and eBook Publishing, Playing with Fire , Twelve Worlds, Peace on the Peninsula, and Amador Lockdown.

Social Media, Here I come!

Getting onto all the social media sites in preparation for the day that my books are published is like treading some very deep water when I've only just learned how to swim.

But slowly, I'm figuring it out. Facebook, Twitter and Blogger came fairly easily. And now I can be found in Goodreads and LinkedIn as well. But the one I am really learning the most with is Digg. This is supposed to help with traffic to your blog and is also the newest social media to me. I'll let you know how that goes! So wish me luck swimming in the deep end, but more than that, come join me. It's much more fun to drown laughing with a friend than crying by yourself. :)

And if you like, post a comment about the social media tool you've found most effective.

The Dangers of Social Media by Brenda Sedore

Guest post by Brenda Sedore


Social media can be your best friend or your worst enemy. It depends on how much you control it or how much it controls you. Let me explain.


As my husband, Daryl Sedore, and I prepared to launch our debut novels around the same time, we began exploring social media as a marketing tool. We discovered that it is imperative to the modern author.


What is social media? The main players in this new game are Twitter and Facebook. Twitter allows you to connect with others in the publishing industry as well as the readers of your books. You can both cross-promote other authors and reach your readers in a personal way.
I recently read The Tale of Halcyon Crane and did a review on it on Goodreads, another great social media tool. I gave it 4 stars and did a quick review on the high points of the novel. My review was posted to Twitter. Within a few hours, the author, Wendy Webb, sent me a tweet thanking me for my review and expressing her pleasure that I'd enjoyed her book.


I thought to myself how things have changed for the better. In the past, I wouldn't have had a personal note from the author. I might have taken the trouble to write a fan letter, which may or may not have been replied to, but not always by the author herself. How nice to connect with an author of whom I'm a fan. That's one of the beauties of social media.


The other big player in the social media game is Facebook. Facebook was started as a way of connecting to people you know or have known in the past. It is rapidly becoming a way of promoting books and other endeavors. My son, Dan Oig, is a musician. Social media sites such as Facebook have given him a much wider audience than he might otherwise have gotten in a small Canadian city.


Now, back to why I called this post The Dangers of Social Media. Everything sounds perfect, doesn't it? For everything positive, there is always a negative side. Just like anything with the Internet, it needs to be handled with self-control. If your reasons for using social media are to promote yourself, you need to have something to promote, yes? If you're promoting your writing, you need to take time to write. It's easy to keep Twitter open while writing, or stop in the middle of a scene to check Facebook and see how many new friend requests you have.

***DANGER AHEAD***

It is important to keep your social media to within a framework of time. When it's time to write, shut off Twitter and Facebook. If you need to, use a writing program that has a fullscreen feature. I use Scrivener. It's perfect for the job. The only way to do your best writing is to shut off all distractions.

You have to be careful to keep the writing as the most important part of what you do. If you don't, spending time on social media may very well take up most of your writing time.
There is another danger. It's easy to forget that the people you chat with every day are people you don't know. This is still a business and you need to act in a business-like manner. If you want to Tweet and Facebook personal things, you should have a separate account.

Too many people have Twitter accounts to promote their work and they end up talking about their personal life. I'm not saying to keep it all impersonal, but there is a point. One literary agent was tweeting about how her baby took off her dirty diaper and threw it against the wall. TMI (too much information) people.

So, if you have a lot of friends that you want to be personal with, have a separate account. I have an account for my cooking interest. I follow chefs and farmer's markets, etc, but with this separate profile. You want to present a certain image that will resonate with your readers. You need to be real, just not TOO real.

Social media is a tool like any other. A tool is only as good as the craftsman using it. Use social media wisely and it can be your best friend. Just remember, even a friend becomes annoying if you spend too much time with them. Taking breaks will only heighten the enjoyment.
I'd love to hear how social media has worked for you as an author, musician, or whatever your passion is. Do you see it as an important tool, or something you don't have time for? Please leave a comment with your thoughts. Social media and blogging is about connections and conversations. Thanks for reading.

Links to some great social media sites:

Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads
LibraryThing
Tumblr
Foursquare
Linkedin
Wordpress

Photo credit: Chris Wallace

Twitterpated!

That's right, I've taken one more step into the social media and twittered today for the first time. A new learning curve and for those who are in the know, they know that all of this social media stuff is very important for the burgeoning writer.

So tweet me.

If you dare!