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Published by: Harry on 30th Apr 2010 | View all blogs by Harry

It's easy to believe that - as a pro author who runs a large editorial consultancy and is writing the ultimate reference guide on Getting Published - I know it all. Well, goldarn-it and diddly-osh-b'gosh, I truly don't.

One of the sessions at the Festival which really made me think was Robin Harvie's fascinating workshop on PR. In my mind (and remember that Robin used to be my publicist, before becoming my editor at 4th Estate) PR is all about old media. Radio, newspapers, mags. TV if you're lucky.

Yet he spoke almost entirely about new media: blogs, twitter, facebook & all the rest of it. He talked about how those things could directly drive book sales. And I realised that I wasn't doing my new media thing properly. Time to shake things up.

So I've started twittering. I'm returning to the blog - though this time it'll be housed by the good old Word Cloud, rather than in its old home at Toasting Napoleon. We're going to have a tab right at the very top of the page (where "Books" currently stands at the moment) which will link through to all my posts here. We're going to get that twitter feed a-feeding. We're going to go all 21st century, all post-noughties, all web 2.0 on you.

I'm not in all honesty sure what difference any of this will make, or how this new world is meant to work. But it does seem to me that 21st century authors need to be active here - and you need to start all that malarkey right now. If you wait until you get a book deal, you're probably already behind the curve.

So: new responsibilities for authors with no obvious revenue gain from fulfilling them. So what's new? Twas ever thus. But I'll be more tweety and bloggy from now on. I'll see you around, I guess.

Comments

22 Comments

by Spangles 2 years ago

You are absolutely right. Andrew Lownie was saying the same sort of thing at York. I have failed miserably in my tweeting recently but, encouraged by the fine example you've set, I must put that right tout de suite.
by Steve 2 years ago

This "Internet" you speak of. Sounds interesting. Where can I buy one?
by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 2 years ago

Don't we already have that? I mean the links at the bottom of each blog and forum post: the six little coloured boxes for twitter, blogspot, facebook etc? Or is that only showing on my computer, cos of the links I've created?
by Rebecca Holmes 2 years ago

I keep meaning to get around to all this, then put it off, telling myself it probably doesn't make that much difference, but the subject keeps cropping up. Time to give myself a shake, I suppose. The trouble is, with doing all this, we end up with less time for writing!
by SecretSpi 2 years ago

In the industry I work in (advertising, media, communications), we had this last year. Everyone felt a mad urge to twitter, because, if you weren't twittering, you weren't on the pulse. Look - you don't have to. It's like writing direct on the computer or using good old pen and ink. It's your choice - twittering will not make you a better writer. The internet is littered with ex-blogs and other discarded digital diarrhoea. If you want to, and enjoy it, fine. If you just feel you "ought to" because everyone else is or because it'll make you more in tune with the times, don't.
(BTW, when I say "you", I don't mean you personally, Harry - I'm sure you'll be up there with Stephen Fry as one of the UK's favourite tweeters!)
by Debi 2 years ago

Ah yes. I have the T-shirt on this one. Blog, FaceBook etc etc ... can be quite fun splashing in them there shallow waters but they don't half eat into your time ...
by Aonghus Fallon 2 years ago

Is that why all the text is now on a deep red background? I'm finding it a bit hard on the eyes.
by EmmaD 2 years ago

I think the point with Twitter/etc. and all the other things one could be doing to promote oneself, is to pick the ones which suit you. Blogging suits me, but obsessively trawling other blogs doesn't; twittering is quite fun, pitching stuff to mags and things I'd loathe, and so on. FB I keep for actual friends. You can't do everything, so you might as well pick the ones which are congenial, and use them as suits you. FWIW, I use TweetDeck, which makes using the social networks, to choice and no more, much less cumbersome.
by Tony 2 years ago

Never twittered, myself - yet. But Robbin Harvie's point at York was the usefulness of have built up a strong following of twitters (presumably who wait on your every word). When the book deal comes along, as come it must eventually (musn't it?) you alert all your fledglings and keep them posted on how it's progressing towards publication. Maybe even a ling to a sample chapter, certainly to a blurb. By 'D' Day they'll be queuing up outside Tescos to get their copy. That's the theory - and apparantly, if you can offer that sort of scenario to a prospective publisher, the deal's as good as signed. Now excuse me while I take of my rose-tinted spectacles. (Drat. The stupid screen is still practically illegible.)
by EmmaD 2 years ago

Very interesting and even-handed piece about it here:

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2010/04/guest-blog-post-self-promotion-starting.html

including the cons (which aren't only about spending too much writing time) as well as the pros of building your web presence too successfully before you get published...
by Debi 2 years ago

It took me years to build up a serious blog following - visiting other blogs and leaving comments, linking to them and hoping they'd link back, ensuring content is not pure self-promo but gives something back, either by being entertaining or including useful tips etc ...

I'm a recent FBer. but unlike Emma decided to use it for promo rather than just for staying in touch with family and friends. As a direct result of the blog, I was able to establish a presence there much quicker and have well over 1000 'friends' in a very short space of time.

I'm resisting Twitter, but know that if (when?) I have a new book to promote I'll no doubt have to go there too.

Thing is, with all this stuff I don't think you can really expect people to come to you if you're not prepared to reciprocate. It's rewarding making new friends (some of them genuinely worthy of the word) but that's when it does become hard to maintain a balance.
by EmmaD 2 years ago

Yes, I think that's how you have to see it - building a community, and that can't be a one-way thing but reciprocal, and takes time. Just as you have to ask yourself, 'Why should anyone exept me want to read my book? What am I offereing THEM?' you have to ask yourself 'Why should anyone follow me? What should I do to mean they want to?'

I know my blog stats droop when I'm too busy to get out there and join in on others' blogs, and perk up again when I can. And people respond to your tweets because they feel they know you, which they won't if you don't get to know them. I have thought about having a not-friends-only FB, perhaps if I have a new book out.
by Skylark 2 years ago

Harry, maybe this could be a WW sideline - workshops on how to twitter, facebook, blog, set up a website etc. I have a purely social facebook page and wouldn't know where to begin using any of the above as promotional tools.
by Harry 2 years ago

Skylark, m'dear, you speak in jest, but I'm giving it real thought, as it happens. What if the WW offered publishers the chance to train authors in these things. Wouldn't that be rather a good way to add value? But there are a few other things in the HB pipeline which probably take priority for now ...
by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 2 years ago

My previous post seems to be invisible to everyone but me (this happens to me a lot, maybe it's something to do with being dead?) so I'll ask again: can anyone else see the six coloured boxes at the bottom of each post/blog? I clicked on a thing called LinkSys or something like that, and they appeared. Could that be useful in this context? Or am I just imagining it all? Do I even exist? I may have suffered what Douglas Adams called a 'TEF' ( Total Existence Failure).
by Tony 2 years ago

Yes, Wrath, I've got the boxes. Links to Digg.com, myspace, google, sharethis and two to FB. Don't aske me what they're for.
by Inktrailer 2 years ago

I have the boxes too, I think you can use them to 're-post' the blog - i.e. click on the Facebook icon and I could link to this blog from my Facebook page so all my FB friends can see it too. Basically a way of spreading things you like further around the internet:-)
by Inktrailer 2 years ago

Oh and I agree with SecretSpi - do one or all of these things if you want to and enjoy doing it. If you actually have something to promote, i.e. a published novel that people have been buying, it's another good way to promote yourself, and people like being 'friends' to someone 'famous'. Personally I use Twitter to stalk tennis players and I enjoy it immensely.
by Skylark 2 years ago

Actually Harry, I was being deadly serious! I really do feel a bit overwhelmed by the thought of self-promotion and if I ever do manage to get published and I'm suddenly expected to use twitter, write blogs etc., I will be in dire need of help! So let me know if WW ever does branch out in that direction as I will be the first to sign up for it! :-)
by Weens 2 years ago

and I'll be the second.
by EmmaD 2 years ago

"What if the WW offered publishers the chance to train authors in these things. Wouldn't that be rather a good way to add value?" Go for it. There's a lot to learn: everything from blogging and tweeting, to giving a reading, to how to give good interview on an early morning TV programme, remotely, with jetlag, in New Zealand, when the interviewer's only read half the press release, in the ad break, before they welcome you... would be very welcome.
by John Taylor 2 years ago

I would certainly go for some training on the complexities out there.
I was dragged onto FB by my student offspring, but have found it a very useful linking site to blogs that I want to read. It does absorb far too much of my time, though, and I find visits to the Cloud fulfil a different and more productive role in my development as a writer.
The networking aspect is something I find quite daunting. I like to talk to real live 'human beans'.