Online Etiquette for Authors

While social media and online marketing isn’t such a new concept anymore, it does help to sometimes refresh the ole writerly brain on how best to interact over the intertubes. Below are my quick tips to get it right:

Double check what you’ve written before pressing the send/publish button. Those typos can make you look unprofessional and the grammar errors can make you want to go hide in the closet for a few days—and we all know a closet is not the most inspirational place to write.  

Don’t do online what you wouldn’t do in person. Heck, don’t do some things you would do in person too! Use commonsense and courtesy, and avoid those flame wars by avoiding inflammatory language.

Don’t say anything online while you’re angry, drunk or on pain medication. Come to think of it, maybe at times like those, the closet isn’t such a bad place after all.

Be the real thing. If you try to be someone you’re not, then it will show and you’ll come across as disingenuous. No one wants to be accused of being fake, not even this closet-dwelling recluse on a chocolate binge.

Use your author name. As much as ‘AngelsRock’ sounds cool for an online name, even if your stories are about angels, it’s yourself you want to promote. People will connect to a real name over a gamer tag, or even no name at all.

Be available. The whole point of social media is the social aspect. You want people to find you, even contact you. So that means, along with your author name, you’ll need to provide an email address or some other way to connect with you. You'll need to be present on those sites too, rather than relying heavily on automated or prescheduled posts.

Avoid the hard sell. It doesn’t work and it turns people away. Go go double jeopardy.

Talk about other things than your books. Yes, there are a gazillion other things to talk about than the awesomeness of your book.

Cross promote, but don’t only cross promote. If all you post is promotional stuff, whether it’s for your book or someone else’s, people will grow tired of it.

Be generous. Listen to what others have to say and look for opportunities to help.

Thank the people who have helped you. This might sound obvious, but you'd be surprised by how many authors forget to do this. So I’ll say again, if someone has gone out of their way to help you, even if it’s a little thing, then don’t forget to thank them … or into the closet for you!

Can you think of other etiquette do's and don'ts for writers? What's been your standout experience of writers who get it right or wrong?

Photo: A pic I took at IKEA. Think closets. Okay, so it's a thin connection, but I amused myself.

10 Tips to Get Blog Tours and Guest Posts Right

Before the Make Believe Tour, I hadn’t experienced the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes of blog tours. There's a lot of juggling behind the fanfare. As a consequence, I learnt many important tips I thought I'd share here:

1. Always, always write down the dates you have scheduled for the tour and/or guest post. If you think you’ll remember them, you’re wrong. If you wait until the date is confirmed, you’ll forget. Just write them down. Use a pencil if you must.

2. Blog tours are often organised months in advance. It’s important to send out reminders of your visit a week before you’re due to be featured.

3. Try to have all interview questions in a week before the tour begins because once the tour has started you’ll be too busy to chase up questions, let alone answer them as well. The less panic you can cause yourself, the better.

4. In all your correspondence with your hosts, include the date you’ve agreed to feature on their blogs. This doesn’t guarantee no mistakes, but it sure will help to avoid them.

5. Always double check your posts and make sure they have no errors, and the content is good.

6. Read your emails regularly and make yourself available in case of any last minute changes.

7. Agree to a time of post. This is especially helpful when you live in a different timezone to your host. It’s a mistake to link to a host who doesn’t have anything there yet. It’s also a mistake not to link at all, which brings me to my next point:

8. Always link back to your host’s blog. Share the link on your blog and on other network sites, such as Twitter and Facebook.

9. Respond to comments on your host’s blog. And keep returning to respond to comments even when you’ve moved on in the tour.

10. Always thank the person who has generously given you their time and their blog space.

Carol Kilgore said it perfectly in an email: The best guest bloggers are those who will bring new people, interact with everyone, and have something interesting to say.

And that brings me to the final stop on the Make Believe Tour. The Secret Writer is hosting an ebook giveaway.

What do you think of Blog Tours? As a writer, do you think they are an effective promotional tool? As a reader, what’s your reaction to them?

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M.L.Swift has started up a Progressive Book Club.

They post on the third Wednesday of every month.

He describes it as, "A unique blog hop that's an online book club!" So please check it out!

Guest Post: How to Market Without Being Pushy

Please welcome the lovely and talented Aimee Laine to my blog today:

Every writer knows, or should by now, that just writing ‘the end’ to a book is only the first step in publishing and marketing a book. If we want to sell, we have to actually ‘sell’. In today’s world of ‘classes’ among the publishers of the world (the Big 6 to Indie Publishers to self-publishing) one thing is still the same: the use of social media in the sales cycle.

What does that mean for writers? Get out there and say ‘Buy my book!’ a hundred times a day? You may or may not know that 2 decades ago it took 2-3 impressions to reach a potential buyer. Now the average is 17 (or so I heard somewhere). That’s a lot!

But getting on Twitter and Facebook and constantly exclaiming how good one is does nothing but turn people away!

So how do we get around this conundrum that is selling but not being pushy, getting in someone’s face two dozen times but again, not being pushy?

My belief is that we shouldn’t use social media to outright sell out book. We should use it to engage in conversation, the sharing of information and that over time a writer will develop a following that, if they writer is any good, will develop into fans and fans into sales and fans into word of mouth.

The message has to be clear and consistent though. You can’t just push the book or never mention it. Balance sharing who you are with your excited news, with inspirational moments and with quips on who you are and always, always be sure to do the same for others.

In a world of ‘me me me’ people like to buy from those who help ‘others others others’ just so long as they remember you were the one who helped them, too.

Now that I’ve shared that, let me tell you all about my latest release, Surrender! ;)

Surrender

Face the past or look to the future? Both will hurt. One could kill her.

All her life, Lily Crane has suppressed her childhood memories, masking the signs of abuse with a variety of looks. From brunette to blonde, tall to short — as a Mimic, changing shape is her gift. Her right. Her achilles heel.

It’s Lily’s latest likeness, chosen simply by accident, which threatens to repeat a history she’s desperate to forget. Worse, she must do so without the one man who takes all her pain away: Cael Aldridge.

Cael has no intention of leaving Lily on her own. He never has. Now, with the woman he loves in the hands of a predator who wants Lily for her genetics, Cael will do everything he can to bring her home.

Alive.

He can only pray he isn’t too late.


http://www.aimeelaine.com

Aimee is a romantic at heart and a southern transplant with a bit of the accent (but not a whole bunch). She's married to her high school sweetheart, and with him, she's produced three native North Carolinians, two of whom share the same DNA.

With an MBA and a degree in Applied Mathematics, there's absolutely no reason she should be writing romance novels. Then again, she shouldn't need a calculator to add two numbers, either ... but she does.



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Why Authors Need to Do the Marketing

I recently attended a full day writing seminar. The rapid change in the publishing world was the hot topic. One of the signs of the changes is that writers have to do most of the promotional work—even when they are published traditionally by one of the Big Six. The reason for this necessity was best explained at this seminar:

With the advent of social media, the way products and services are promoted has changed. It's not just the publishers who expect us authors to get out there and make ourselves accessible, the readers expect it also.

A publisher could fake a twitter account—and they have been known to this for some authors—but it doesn't work because it comes across as either fake or as spam. No one likes either.

Authors can't afford to be shy anymore. People want to get to know us and have some connection with us. The happy by-product of this is that the authors also get to connect with their readers. How awesome is that?

As a reader, how has social media helped you connect with your favourite authors? As an author, what part of social media do you enjoy best?

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Thank you to Precy Larkins for the Booker Award. Please pop in to her blog and say hi to Precy from me.

I've been meaning to say that the Make Believe anthology is on Goodreads. It would be awesome if you could pop on over and mark it on your to-read list.

Photo: I took this shot of the Sydney Opera House past the Harbour Bridge at sunrise.

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7 Tips for Writing Emails

Writing emails for promotion might seem straightforward, but all too often those emails will be tossed away unread or caught in spam filters. Below I’ve offered some quick tips on how to get the most from emails.

1. Respect people’s privacy. When someone gives you their email address, they trust you won’t spam it out to everyone. Privacy is a real issue in today’s world and you could get more than a slap on the hand by inadvertently sharing around the address. Sure, some organisations sell email addresses to other organisations. Don’t be one of them.

So how do you hide email addresses when sending out a mass mailing? By placing all the addresses in the ‘bcc’ field—not the ‘to’ field or the ‘cc’ field. It’s as simple as that.

2. Personalise the email. We all like to feel important enough that someone took the time to write a personalised email to us. If it's personalised then we'll be more open to what the email has to say.

3. Don’t waste the recipient’s time. Keep business emails brief and to the point. Leave the rambling to the personal emails.

4. Include links. If you want the recipient to go to a link or leave a review, then make it easy for them by providing that link rather than making them look it up. This might sound obvious, but I’m amazed how many people don’t do this. If you are worried the links might get caught by spam filters, you don’t have to make the links live. The point is to make it easy.

5. Include a signature. I don’t mean an image of your scrawl. I mean your full name and other links to find you. For example, I sign off my emails with something like this:

Lyn
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Lynda R. Young
http://lyndaryoung.blogspot.com
@LyndaRYoung

It’s a great marketing tool because it’s subtle, but it works. Also, we shouldn’t always assume the recipient will know who we are. However, try to keep your signature short and, if you must add an image banner, then make sure the image file size is tiny.

6. Never send huge files without permission first. I have an older family member who recently discovered the joys of emails. Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm he sends me 2-8 megabyte files. This clogs up my email and slows everything down.

7. Give the recipient the ability to respond. For example, if you are using email to respond to blog comments, make sure you don’t use a no-reply address. The whole point of social media is to make ourselves accessible.


Can you think of other tips for using emails?

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Thanks: A huge and massive thank you to Nate Wilson. He ran a haiku contest recently and I won a $25 Amazon Gift Card. I’d not written Haiku before, so thanks, Nate, for pushing me out of my comfort zone.

Thank you also to Trisha from Word & Stuff for the Great Comments Award.
Please visit these great writers and say hi from me.

Photo: This is another photo I took on the Isle of Pines during my recent cruise. The weather in Sydney is getting colder as we draw near to winter, so I’m yearning to return to somewhere tropical.

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7 Qualities Publishers Look for in an Author

We all know publishers are looking for great stories that have been well written, but did you know they are also looking for certain qualities in the authors as well? Below I’ve listed those much sort after qualities.

Publishers are looking for authors who are:
1. Career authors. Those who are in it for the long haul. They don’t want one-hit-wonders. They want to be able to follow up a successful book with another. So, in answer to Madeline’s question: Does not wanting to write a series hurt my chances of becoming just an ounce as popular as JK? The follow-up doesn’t have to be a part of a series, as long as we have more than one story to offer.

2. Hard working. They want authors who will meet deadlines. Authors they can rely on. And authors who won't settle for mediocre work.

3. Flexible. They want authors who will accept advice. I know of a few publishers who will shy away from authors who have an unmoveable vision for their book including how the cover should look. Publishers are there to help us become successful and they have a whole lot more experience than we do.

4. Easy to market. They want authors who want to help promote their book and who have a bit of marketing savvy. For example, an author who has already worked on their platform and has social networking set up.

5. Professional. Someone who is easy to work with, who won’t burn anyone else and embarrass the publishing house.

6. Passionate. An author’s passion for their stories will shine through. It’s not an easy career so we need that passion to keep us going and to sell our stories.

7. Knowledgeable in their craft. They want authors who don’t need to be taught the basics of writing. Publishers are not there to teach us these things.

What else do you think publishers are looking for? Are there any qualities you feel you are stronger in than others?

The Social Media Advantage

In the post I left open for questions (found here), many of you asked about the importance of social media to an author’s career. Today, I will answer Suze’s question: If an author had zero social media presence, but had all her other ducks in a row, do you believe not having a presence in social networking would be the dealbreaker if she wanted to go the traditional publishing route?

One of the panel sessions I attended at a writers’ festival, Zoe Walton, publisher of children’s and YA books at Random House Australia, said that it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker. One of her authors isn’t comfortable with social media but he is great with answering the emails of his readers. The publishing house has also set up an author page for him. The point of social media is to have some kind of connection with your readers.

There is another point to throwing yourself into social media before you get published – it shows agents and publishers that you are active and willing to do a lot of the hard work. It shows them that you would be easier to market than an author with nothing. As my hubby says, ‘It’s like an ogre with many layers.’ An author has the choice to do a little and hope their stories speak for themselves, or do a lot and gain an advantage.

So, in short, while avoiding social networking will unlikely be a dealbreaker if you have an exceptional concept and story, it can only help.

I expect some may disagree with me on this one. Times are changing rapidly where it’s becoming almost essential to use social media to get anywhere. What is your opinion?

Note: I will tackle some of the more specific questions regarding social networking in another post.

What Publishers are Looking for Today and Tomorrow

On the weekend I attended the 6th Children’s and Young Adult Literature Festival run by the NSW Writers’ Centre. I had a fantastic time and met so many people. One panel discussed what publishers are looking for today and tomorrow. On the panel were Lisa Berryman of Harper Collins, agent Brian Cook, Zoe Walton of Random House, Sue Whiting of Walker Books and Angie Schiavone, a YA literary reviewer. Below are some of the points I’d like to share with you:

A good story: It was universally agreed that it comes down to a great story. There’s little point looking for trends because once you’ve identified one it’s too late. For example, one publisher said no more vampire stories. If you have a vampire story then it would have to be exceptional with a strong voice, fantastic characters and freshness to the story. In other words, if you have something special you’ll make your own market.

A career author: Publishers aren’t looking for one story writers. They spend a lot of time and effort on an author and their work so they want to know they are investing into a career. Initially they may commit to only one book but they want to know if that book could be used as a series. You don’t have to have written that series, but it would be advantageous to include a brief synopsis of future books along with the completed first book. Even if the book you’ve written isn’t a series, they would like to know you have other stories in the works.

Marketability: Show you’ve researched the market, that your book has a place in the market. Network. Get involved in social media, writers’ events and writers’ groups. Writers should come out of their cocoons and show they can make a connection with their readers.

What are some things you’ve done to become more marketable? What else do you think publishers are looking for?

#YAWF

The Pros and Cons of Writing to Sell

As we all know, in terms of novel writing, there is a wide variety of markets we can choose: Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade. And then there is a wide variety of genres within those markets: Adventure, Romance, Mystery, SciFi, Fantasy, Thriller and the list goes on. There are even subcategories. Some markets are bigger than others and so some are easier to sell to than others. So, my big question for today is, do you choose a market and then write? Or, do you write and hope your piece fits into a market and genre? There are benefits and drawbacks for both methods.


The benefits of writing to a specific market/genre:
• You have a place ready for your piece when it is done.
• You don’t need to go back and make major changes to force a fit.
• To write to a specific market you need to have first done the research about that market. Therefore your piece will have a greater chance of a good fit.

The drawbacks of writing to a specific market/genre:
• The perceived market could be too narrow and your writing could lack originality.
• The market of choice could be the rage now, but will die by the time you’re ready to query.

The benefits of not writing to a specific market/genre:
• You have the freedom to write what you want.
• Passion can drive your writing.
• Originality may be easier to achieve.

The drawbacks of not writing to a specific market/genre:
• Lack of knowledge of a genre and how it fits into a market.
• You discover after you’ve finished writing that your piece has no real place within any market.

I’d love to hear how you approach writing and the market. Are you willing to change or adjust for the hope of a sale? Or do you feel like you are giving up integrity if you write to sell? Do you just write and hope to deal with the selling later on? Have you found the middle ground? If so, where do you think that middle ground might be?