Books are great, and I like hearing about them sure, but the tweet streams I love are the ones about maps. Science. Art. Cats! Dogs too!
A sure fire way to make friends is taking your dog for a walk in the park.
A sure fire way to make friends online is to let your dog be the star.
Or your cat.
Or your cactus.
Hello Cuddles!
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| Isn't Cuddles just super chic?? |
If you're having a hard time dealing with the whole concept of social media, start with the things you love. Someone else will love them too.
I buy books by people I like.
Often we've 'met' cause of something other than our mutual interest in publishing.
This falls under hit to your strengths, particularly when you're starting out.
Any questions?
22 comments:
I've had numerous conversations about these blasted face masks in the supermarket. Yesterday a stranger was talking with someone else, saw me and asked, Does your mask make your glasses fog up, too? I said it did and we discussed our children who happen to be nurses. (Mine cares exclusively for COVID-19 patients.) A couple of minutes later, a frustrated man asked me if my mask was driving me crazy like his was. I said it was, and we commiserated with each other. Almost all of the masks I see are handmade. My husband made a mask from an old handkerchief, and now he really looks like a bandit. If I was really into social media, I'd forget the politics and the economy and all the dire circumstances, and I'd write something lighthearted about The Masks.
INCREDIBLY good advice! I was terrified of social media because in my day job we have Twitter haters who regularly call us the spawn of Satan -- a direct quote. So I tweet under my MC's name, posting vintage images roughly in the world of the book, sometimes with funny or relatable comments. No politics, nothing too harsh. It'll be a while before I know if it works, but I'm getting followers and likes here and there -- and more importantly, I'm getting comfortable with social media, which is essential now. Once again, our august Shark is right on the money!
Could it be clouded leopard from the zoo? I have a zoo card; thought it was like a library card. But when I tried checking out a snow leopard for three weeks, they said it was on reserve. Maybe a Pallas cat, that'd be easier to carry.
I feel this is an important reminder to go tweet about Rincewind the blue floof-menace (he's a rat who's taken social distancing a bit too seriously)
I rarely tweet about books or writing unless I spot a book I'm particularly excited by. Mostly its rats and history.
My scientific alter ego mainly retweets cool wildlife. Go look up baby binturongs. You will not regret it.
1) Comment on Janet's "there're days I think we brought this on ourselves" from yesterday:
I too think that! To me, there are two possibilities: a) Nature is hitting back at what we have done to this planet, if this virus occurred naturally (they do; mutations are very natural too).
b) There was an accident somewhere in a lab, if this virus did not get 'out' naturally (then we also brought it on ourselves...).
I am 'originally' a lab technician (lost my last job due to OCD; never picked one like that up again). My first job was in virology. I worked in an S2-classed lab (there are 4 categories). I have seen viruses with my naked eye, synthesized by humans, in a tiny tube.
Viruses are super small, much smaller than bacteria. The only reason I was able to see the viruses without a microscope was because they were so many.
I was surprised at the sloppiness in the lab I worked. ALL my colleagues working without a lab coat (for a starter). I also remember how 'everything' changed from one day to the other. Because someone had blown the whistle. (It wasn't me, no. I was far too new in the whole thing, and would I have been brave and done it anyway?)
2) Social media... Well I do think they are helpful for building a platform. And yes, you make friends through your pets. I got no pet (YET).
I have been 'studying' this for a long while now. People get likes on their pets! And on emotionally negative(!) tweets. Not many people click on like in the OCD-community if I say how happy I am these days.
I have seen that the girl who runs a big OCD account on Twitter (and gets an awful lot of likes when she shares or struggles and constant ups and downs) now also writes a book. I checked and noticed how few likes her book tweets get.
I have checked out people's Amazon rankings who have 30K+ followers. They do not necessarily sell many books!
It is who you know, not what you know. I posted here once, in tears, about Big-Newspaper-Guy not wanting to spread the word about my book in his big paper, right?
His Big-Newspaper-Colleague (who called me a while ago on something else, not knowing I know her colleague) wrote a book about something and it was published by Hachette on 7th April. She got the space for an excerpt in Big Paper. Big-Paper-Guy retweeted for her.
Last night, I remembered her book and had a look on Goodreads out of curiosity. 20 ratings and 8 reviews. Average rating 3.85. 1 2-star review, 2 1-star reviews. People who got ARCs write things like, "I don't even know what the point of this book is" or "DNF".
But this book sits at about 29,000 in the Amazon ranking on the US market. Which is, for the US market, pretty good. Big-Newspaper-Woman has her connections and ways to offer Hachette a marketing plan. No pets on Twitter, except for Big-Newspaper-Guy who told me MY book's concept was too high.
Yes, talking about the horses here at the sanctuary helps me talk about my books - which are about the horses. But I try not to saturate my followers with "buy my book" posts. It's a balance.
I recently posted a short video on FB of the entire herd hanging out in the woods. It's very cool and has gotten the interaction of several thousand people and garnered a lot of peaceful comments. I will strike while the iron is hot and add a comment to that post, such as, "If you'd like to learn more about the horses in this video..." and then I'll mention the books.
Hi Cuddles!
Aphra Pell, you are absolutely magnificent at naming pets. If you have any others, I would absolutely love to know their names.
I loved the horse video MSB. So green.
I’ve been a bit successful on social media. Kindness goes a long way. Interaction does it. I avoid politics assiduously, but it’s a little more difficult to do these days. Humour helps. Each platform has its own foibles. Twitter is the easiest for me. Instagram is a bit trickier with followers who want romance. FB can be all consuming if you let it be.
Brenda
Brenda I LOVE your social media. It often makes my day (it's Emilya, btw. I hide behind "Emma"). This post couldn't be more timely. I just received my Author Questionnaire to fill out from my publisher and a link to their marketing guide, which will probably take me a week to read and digest. I'm happy enough with Facebook, but I only yesterday created an author page (hangs head in shame). My twitter never does very well though.
I know one author who built up a really hefty following by posting almost daily art posts, and another one who does the same exact thing and I'm usually the only one who "likes". So I don't know! I'd hate to think that a person's intrinsic nature is what comes out in social media, and therefore if you get a lot of likes it's because you're transparent enough, funny enough, whatever enough, and if you don't, you're a wet noodle.
I'm going to try not to be a wet noodle. (shuffles off to cry quietly in a corner)
Hey Emilya,
Like you, I also love Brenda's posts. Super funny.
Folks, this is Emilya Naymark, a (silent) Reider whose debut novel Target Minor has just been taken on by Crooked Lane Books.
Calling Colin - we have a fresh one here for The List.
I’m glad E. It’s honestly not that hard to build twitter. Consistency is vital. Humour goes a long way. I don’t spend hours on there but I do keep my eye on it to dodge bullets. Extremely political people will occasionally try to lump me in with them on my tweets. So far a polite request to remove their comment has always been enough. A troll recently tried to insinuate that I’d lost my temper with him. I had to nip it in the bud before it got a pile-on.
Twitter chains are currently driving me mad. I get added to three a week (at least) and I cant get my name off. They clutter people’s feeds and followers get tired of it.
Anyway, you’ve got this E. Persevere.
B
Hey, Cecilia! I'm happy to add Emilya to the Carkoon's Most Wanted list if she so desires. If she wants to be added to the List of Published Works in the Treasure Chest, I will need her to email me with some info about her forthcoming book (link to pre-order, pub date, etc.). Got that, Emilya? :)
(My email address is in my Blogger profile.)
Thank you Cecilia and Colin. I'm learning now that publishing either moves with glacial speed or warp speed. As soon as you two posted, I received an email that the new title is Hide In Place :-)
Colin, I'll be happy to send you information about the morphing baby that is this novel.
Thank you all, and especially thank you to Janet, who was probably the most influential person in getting me to this point.
Brenda, you don't have to get the clutter in your notifications on Twitter and CAN get your name off. Well, sort of: just go on the arrow for the drop-down menu of the tweet and click on "mute this conversation".
Then it's PEACE.
It's easy to talk about anything other than books when you don't have a book. Although I don't really have a focus on what I talk about (blog) or post (insta).
Katja,
I know how to mute but that doesn’t take it out of my followers feeds does it? I don’t care about my feed but followers get tired of a steady stream of chains. Is there any way I can get my name off the actual chains? It’s in my profile that I don’t want them, I email politely, no luck. They are retweeted frequently. I honestly think people just pick busy accounts and tag you so that their name is seen a lot. Help!
Brenda
Was it bourbon that brought us together? : )
Noise in space: well...
We currently have:
Boys: Coin, Ponder Stibbons, Spelter, Young Sam (son of Vimes, sadly deceased), Rincewind, Casununda and Gaspode
Girls: Lilly, Lady Sybil, Diamanda, Desiderata (Desi), Petunia, Gytha Ogg, Hilta, and (named by their former owner) Bingles and Baobao
I've nearly exhausted Pratchett (many have already joined the grim squeaker in previous generations, including Miss Esmerelda Weatherwax and the esteemed Mustrum Ridcully), but am still waiting for the perfect Magrat.
Brenda I don't know if this will help muting chains, but you can block certain words in additon to people and conversations.
I had to block #writingcommunity cause people would add my name to some attention lusting thing and ALL the replies showed up with my name. Drove me batshit bonkers nutty. (no comments about 'isn't that your norm, SharkForBrains?")
I muted, and sweet peace it is.
I also mute and block with a sledgehammer.
Thanks. It’s a done deal.
B
When I want increased engagement on social media, I post something about one of the horses, or my dog. Works every time! It doesn't seem to have the same effect on Twitter, though. I haven't got my head around the Twitter algorithm yet.
Because my book isn't published, I don't talk about it at all. Ha. Is that wrong? I'd feel like an imposter if I did. I'll retweet the odd post about writing, but I stick to stuff I actually know about, like my paintings, or things that relate to my story, or my silly ponies, or my silly dog!
I’m a wet noodle (© Emma), I’m afraid; one of those wriggly, floppy, dangly ones. Whether it is, as Emma had mentioned, my “intrinsic nature” coming out—I’m a curmudgeon by trade, although Mrs. Casual assures me, a rather loveable one—or whatever else the problem might be, I have been less than successful (not to say miserably ineffective) in any of my social media related ventures. From what I can gather, it is simply because I’m not particularly interested in that many things (or people). Not out of mean-spiritedness, or in any way maliciously, but simply because I don’t care so much about things others are head over heels about. Even in real life I’m not someone who requires, or desires, plentiful social contact. Were we to take the word “social” in the term “social media” as a hint, we may be able to deduct that it has quite a bit to do with being social. And since everything these days seems to happen on social media, being a loner and a rather private person by nature, is extraordinarily bad for business.
Do I wish it wasn’t so?
Sure
What to do about it?
I don’t know
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