// November 24th, 2010 // No Comments » // Books
A year ago, I was happy as a robin in springtime to be parked in front of my laptop writing short stories, books, articles, blog posts… Whatever! As long as I could sit contentedly at my desk, alone and surrounded by silence, working on whatever piece that drove my passion to write, I wanted nothing else. The last thing I wanted to do was go out and meet people, “brand” myself, or pick up the phone to talk to someone. Writers, like me, have come to understand that the publishing industry doesn’t want to “hear” from us. Just email or mail us, they say. Don’t call us, we’ll call you. (Although their part of the deal is optional.) I was okay with that. I got used to waiting. And waiting.
However, that bubble of serenity popped the minute I decided to forge ahead with publishing Danny in a Newfangled World. In the past few months, I’ve been spending as much time talking, marketing, and selling as I used to spend typing in solitude. There’s nothing like being pushed outside of one’s comfort zone!
Now, thanks to the innovative advice provided by some serious experts in social media, I’m finding myself back on my butt in front my laptop. Part of the reason I’m back is that I have begun to write the second instalment of Danny in a Newfangled World, but I’ve also bought into the power of Twitter. Marketing, it turns out, can be done without getting off your rear end (literally.) I still need to make those face-to-face meetings with book sellers, distributors, and customers, but thanks to social networking, I can help build my book’s market through the relationships I build online.
My social media strategy now includes tweeting. A lot. Over the next 30 days, I plan to tweet 1000 times. As with just about everything I’ve done with this book, it’s an experiment. I look forward to seeing how it all transpires, not so keen on turning into a tweetaholic but I’ll worry about that on January 1st – when it’s time to make resolutions. So if you’re not following me yet, now is as good a time as any! And if you’re not on Twitter, well what are you waiting for?
