Social Media for the Pre-Published Writer

By Annette Dashofy

Some of the questions I’m most asked when I talk to a group of writers trying to break into publishing deal with social networking. Most of us have a love/hate relationship with it. On the downside, it eats up chunks of time when we should be writing. On the upside, it can serve as a much needed escape if you’re going stir crazy, as a source of research (haven’t you ever posted a question about your WIP to Facebook or Twitter?), and it can expand your marketing reach.

I’ll get back to that last part in a minute.

Did you just say, “I don’t have anything to sell now, so I’ll wait to get on (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc) until after I sign a contract.”

WRONG. Do not wait.

Several years ago, I took a marketing workshop. At the time, we were talking about Yahoo groups. The thing I remember above all else was the advice to join groups you enjoy and MAKE FRIENDS. Don’t mention you have a book, but add it to your signature line. When someone notices and asks, you can say, “Oh, yes, I’ve published a book.” BECAUSE YOU ARE THEIR FRIEND, they will want to buy their friend’s book!

It’s the same with Facebook and Twitter. Join NOW. Participate in the mindless chatter. Post cute cat pictures. Make friends. Sure you can mention in passing that you’re writing a book, but don’t make it your entire social media life.

Besides, do we really need more people asking, “Have you got that book published yet?” Seriously. We get enough of that from our families.

I was on Facebook for several years before getting published. By the time I made the announcement, I had “friends” from all over the country and beyond who were thrilled by my news.

If I’d waited until I had a contract to start, I’d have been way behind. Plus I’d have come across as a spammer, which no one likes.

That bit about expanding your marketing reach I mentioned earlier? Many of those Facebook friends I’ve made over the years bought my books. Thankfully, they liked them. They told their friends, both in person and online. Those friends also bought my books.

Facebook is word of mouth on steroids.

If you cringe at the thought of all those social media outlets, my advice is try them, find the one (or two) that you honestly enjoy, and focus on those. I love Facebook. Too much, perhaps. But I’m on Twitter a little. Pinterest a little less. I have friends who prefer Twitter to Facebook, and that’s cool.

If you hate a social media site, don’t bother with it. Your discomfort will show through your posts, which makes it impossible to build real friendships with others. You’ll come across as one of those dreaded spammers I mentioned.

Remember, it’s called social networking for a reason. Be social. Network. Have fun with it. Make friends. We can always use a few more friends. Right?


Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE was published in March, followed by LOST LEGACY, which was released in September. Her short fiction includes a 2007 Derringer Award nominee featuring the same characters as her novels. Watch for BRIDGES BURNED, the third mystery of the series, coming early April 2015.


CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Zoe Chambers, paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township, has been privy to a number of local secrets over the years, some of them her own. But secrets become explosive when a dead body is found in the Township Board President’s abandoned car. As a January blizzard rages, Zoe and Police Chief Pete Adams launch a desperate search for the killer, even if it means uncovering secrets that could not only destroy Zoe and Pete, but also those closest to them.

LOST LEGACY: On a sultry summer afternoon, Paramedic Zoe Chambers responds to a call and finds a farmer’s body hanging from the rafters of his hay barn. What first appears to be a suicide quickly becomes something sinister when Zoe links the victim to a pair of deaths forty-five years earlier. Her attempts to wheedle information from her mother and stepfather hit a brick wall of deception, one that brings into question everything Zoe knows about her late father, who died in a car crash when she was eight. Or did he?

Do I need Social Networking?

by Bonnie Calhoun

The $64,000 question is…do I have to spend time on social media to market my books effectively?
The exact and emphatic answer to that is an unfortunate YES. For those of you who just aren’t technologically savvy, I’d say it’s time to learn. There are a million children out there who would love to show you that they know something that you do not. So grab a neighborhood kid to get you started, if you need to!

Seriously though, no one form of marketing is the end-all be all. There are multiple parts to the whole, and the further we move into cyberspace, the more the parts multiply exponentially. If you are looking for a negative response so that you don't have to do any one part of the marketing game...like book signings, speaking, interviews, teaching at conferences, social media, blogging...etc...then just don't do it. It sort of sucks all the fun out of writing if you don’t enjoy what you are doing.

It's your choice. But in this day and information age NOT doing social media is really not an option. We have to do it to stay connected and relevant. Now the question of HOW MUCH to do it depends on you and the balance you are trying to maintain so that you actually have time to create new books.

EVERY marketing survey or study has proven that your name...or product name needs to be seen or heard numerous times to be an effective marketing tool. There are studies that say 3 times are enough for your product to have been seen to be effective; others say 12 to 15 times is necessary for maximum effectiveness.

The magic number depends on the size of your market share, how much other noise there is from competing products, your brand influence, how much money or time you are willing to spend on marketing, and the time frame you are working in.

So in essence…your success depends on how much you want to put into it, to get the maximum out of it. You choose.

Bonnie S. Calhoun is an author with Abingdon Press, with her debut novel Cooking The Books to be released in April 2012. She is also the owner/publisher of Christian Fiction Online Magazine. http://christianfictiononlinemagazine.com/home.html Visit her website at http://bonniescalhoun.com/, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bscalhoun or Twitter at https://twitter.com/BonnieCalhoun

ITW 2011 Debut Authors Pinned

Using Pinterest to both Promote and Write Your Next Novel

Before the year comes to a close I wanted to share a great visual tool I use to write my novels, Pinterest. Pinterest is a digital white board that lets you organize and share with your friends online. As an author you can use it to:

• organize chapter settings
• build a visual character sketch
• catalog your book’s year in pictures
• catalog book bloggers who love your books
• the sky’s the limit (I also use it for my Christmas Cookie project)

Pinterest can also help you connect with your fans. I already have fans anticipating my next novel, Someone Bad and Something Blue (July 2012.)

They can subscribe to the pin board to get a glimpse of what the book could be about.

They can also see me put the third book in the series together by subscribing to all my pins.

I thought it would be fun for the Holiday Season to use Pinterest here at The Thrill Begins. The picture above is the Class of 2011 board. (We already have three followers.) Are we a not fabulous bunch?! As I put the board together I was in awe of the amazing talent we have and I wondered at the possibilities for what we could do to leverage our readership if we continued to be accountable to each other, share author goodies that will help us grow, and be a support system for each other. If we have learned nothing this year, we’ve learned that being a published author can be a lonely road if we let it. I hope you continue to participate and participate even more. This blog, The Thrill Begins, is created to help you on your writing journey. If you would like to contribute to the The Thrill Begins 2012, please contact me at mparkerbooks@gmail.com

Again Happy Holidays!

And for the first two commenters, I will give you an invitation to join Pinterest with me!

Miranda Parker is the author of A Good Excuse to Be Bad (Kensington), the first in the Angel Crawford Bounty Hunter Series. Parker has been featured at NBCC and The Decatur Book Festival, the Atlanta Press Club’s Holiday Author Party, and featured in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, RT Book Reviews Magazine, and Publishers Weekly. She is also the Social Media/Marketing Person for the International Thriller Writers Debut Authors Program and a contributing editor to The Big Thrill Magazine. Her sequel, Someone Bad & Something Blue, will be released July 2012. Visit her at www.mirandaparker.com

A visit with Barbara Vey from Publisher Weekly:: BEYOND HER BOOK

I'm delighted to share a Q&A with Barbara Vey from the wonderful blog over at Publisher Weekly, http://www.beyondherbook.com/ Grab a beverage and join me as we catch up with Barbara between her jet-setting during this conference season.

Nancy:: So, Barbara, how did you first get involved with Publishers Weekly and get your wonderful BEYOND HER BOOK blog?

BV:: My beginning is truly a Cinderella story. I was on an Authors at Sea cruise when I met Karen Holt, deputy editor of Publishers Weekly. I thought she was from a publishing house and told her to sit down so I could tell her everything I thought was wrong with publishing from a reader’s point of view. She ended up putting it in an article in the magazine with my picture. A few months later Karen contacted me about writing a blog about Women’s Fiction. I said no, that I’m a reader, not a writer...send books.

After a few phone calls and my son explaining what a blog is to me. Well, I offered to try it for 3 months and here I am 4 years later.

Nancy:: You had a rocking 4^th anniversary bash on the Beyond Her Book blog the first week of March. You had an average of 3750 posts per day and a stagger 6,194 posts on the final day. WOW! What lesson can you share with writers as a take away from that awesome event to aid in their own promotions?

BV:: I truly believe that you have to make it all about the readers. After my anniversary blog, several readers got together and formed a Friends of Beyond Her Book Party Facebook page (You can join by searching Friends of Beyond Her Book Party. This way they could all keep in touch after the bash. It has grown from a dozen readers to 122 readers and authors. They are forming a community that, by it's very nature, will continue to grow to bond readers and writers together by having them connect to talk about books. They also feed each other information about contests and new releases and send others to new authors websites. For example, I recently guest blogged at Seekerville and my readers followed me over there. The authors welcomed the readers with lots of giveaways and a real party atmosphere by being available to comment with the readers, answer their questions and talk about books and what readers are looking for. We ended up with over 500 comments which is pretty impressive for a one day guest blog.

Nancy:: You've got a birdseye view of the industry. The publishing world is changing right before our eyes. How do you think this impacts our readers? Do readers even notice?

BV:: I don't think the readers know or care about the changes. The only thing they really care about is the story. If you write a good book, they will read it and tell others about it. Word of mouth is the biggest way to sell a book. While a number of people use eReaders, the majority of readers don't own one. They still rely on traditional books. And, believe it or not, not all readers are on the internet. When I approach people who are reading books and ask them if they go online to find out about books, about 1 in 3 say they don't. They get their books ideas from friends, libraries and bookstores. They have no idea about all the hoopla going on in publishing. Some do notice that they can't find certain authors anymore, but are quick to move on to someone who writes like it.

Nancy: Wow! I'm surprised by the fact that 1:3 don't go online. Being online can definitely skew your perception of the whole population. That's a good thing for us to keep in mind.

You attend lots of conferences. I know they energize you, but just how many are you going to attend this year?

BV:: So far I have about 13 events scheduled for this year, but I'm always looking for more to attend. Although I keep in touch with many online, I find that face to face contact the most satisfying. I can meet new authors I've never heard of before and see old favorites. I love attending the workshops and learning new ideas and processes that have worked for others as well as hearing about new projects in the pipeline. I also travel to writing groups around the country offering workshops in Social Marketing/Networking and Building Reader Loyalty. And I'm already booked for 4 events in 2012. I've also found I have a new calling as a keynote speaker. Who knew? :)

Nancy:: I've had the privilege to hear you talk about social marketing. You've got so much great information to share.

What advice do you have for writers when they attend conferences?

BV:: Park your shyness at the door. You are there for business and to learn. One of the first things to learn is how to network and market yourself because you are selling a book and by extension yourself. You have to brand yourself so when people are looking for that next book to read and they see your name they say, "I've seen that name before...I know her/him from Facebook or Twitter. There's that connection they've made and feel they know you. Just going online when you have a book coming out and saying, "Buy my book," just doesn't cut it anymore.

Be open to meeting new people. You never know who that person is in front of you in the registration line is or at the buffet. Start a conversation. You could be making a valuable connection to someone in publishing, a bookseller or a reader and they are all equally important.

And whatever you do, don't be negative. It turns people off and it gets around...fast.

Nancy:: You are so right. Negativity can be a fast-spreading virus. I'm a glass half full kind of gal, and I tend to like to hang around others that are, too.

Okay....so now on to the big question as we all get ready to head to NYC for ThrillerFest 2011--What’s your best conference packing tip?

BV:: Pack your suitcase and the next day take out 5 things, then repeat the next day. You never need as much as you think you do. Take mix & match clothing and comfortable shoes. Unless you're Linda Howard or Nora Roberts, you don't need 40 pairs of shows when you travel.

Thank you so much for joining us here at THE THRILL BEGINS. We'll see you over at http://www.beyondherbook.com/