What people do with their reading has changed greatly in a mere 4 years, due to the rise of the smartphone & various social media. Read a book? A twice-a-year luxury, for most. And people admit this blithely in the context of “being swamped.”
Category: Social Media
All about the tools and challenges of social media
“Help,” Quoth the Author
A list of memorable quotes from my author-clients who would really rather not have anything to do with promoting their books, yet have very high expectations…
Did Amazon just make authors’ lives harder?
Most authors have been dutifully tending to their social media duties. But the launch of Amazon’s new Kindle social media feature @author might just be the straw that breaks the successful author’s back.
Social marketing as a creative endeavor
“When it comes to social media, think self-expression not self promotion,” and 6 other ideas from author Susan M. Cain on how to overcome fear and become more creative. (“Coffee is magic” is one of the other 6).
Are you comfortable with social media?
Are you comfortable with putting yourself out there? Revealing your opinions? Asking people to help you by sharing tweets and posts about you and your book? Michael A. Stelzner of the Social Media Examiner blog sure is comfortable.
Authors and social media planning
Sure it’s nice to plan. But who has time? (Hint: This is where I come in.) The information for authors intent on setting up their digital media is out there for the taking. HOWEVER, I can’t help thinking that much of this info, as basic as it is, could fly right by authors. You simply don’t have the time or the interest to get up to speed. Check out this great social media checklist by uberblogger Chris Brogan and let me know what you think.
An old hand’s plug for Twitter
“If you have jumped to a negative opinion about Twitter, you do so at your own peril.”—Bob Sacks. Regular authors who aren’t warlocks like Charlie Sheen will never see the numbers of followers he’s getting (currently approaching 4 million), but according to media pundit Bob Sacks they can find something even better: community and information.
Which sells more books—“search” or “social media”?
Facebook and Twitter are fine, but maybe only in conjunction with Google and Bing? A new report says that 58 percent of people, when looking for info on a product, start with search, while only 18 percent start with social media (but that’s growing). The future is likely a fusion of the two media, something called “social search.” Read my takeaway for authors and their books.