This has been the month from I-don’t-know-where. I missed my regular blog date of the 16th, due to not having any wi-fi. Long story that culminated with having to return our 7-week-old iPad 4 and pick up a new one. Thankfully, the new one works fine (so far) but it threw me completely off schedule.
The rights to a bunch of my short stories reverted this summer and I’m struggling to get them revised and reissued, not anywhere as quickly as I’d like while also writing new material. I feel like a juggler with two many balls in the air.
I’m also continuing my forays into various social networking sites. I joined Facebook this year, finally, thanks to Debra Holland. So now I have a personal profile and two pages, one for Linda and one for Lyndi. Facebook has been more fun than I anticipated, for the most part, and not as absorbing as I feared.OCC member, Lex Valentine of Winterheart Design, created two really pretty page covers for me. She’s so talented. Lex also created the cover for my upcoming re-release, Marooned, currently on sale at Smashwords, but coming soon to Amazon & other retailers. She said hopefully.
Apparently, I’ve also managed to accidentally activate a Google+ account for Lyndi, by clicking on something in my gmail account that I didn’t intend to click. I feel like such an idiot some time. Maybe I’ll have that one somewhat figured out by next month’s blog. Pretty sure I am going to delete my Pinterest account since I never use it and can’t afford to spare the broadband such a graphics intense site requires.
Still using Buffer app to schedule tweets and now Facebook shares and liking it more and more. You can now custom schedule a message to go out a day or more in advance, which really helps with planning. Using their analytics also clued me in to the fact that adding the hashtag #Author to a tweet really ups the potential for viewing from my app. 790 followers to several thousand possibilities. Potentially useful information.
Feel free to share any useful social media tips in the comments section. I can use all the help I can get!
Linda/Lyndi
Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont
Websites: http://www.lindamclaughlin.com
http://www.lyndilamont.com
Blogs:
Flights of Fancy
Lyndi’s Love Notes
Facebook
Twitter
I see many of you on Twitter and Facebook. I’ve been enjoying meeting even more of you on A Slice of Orange Daily, created by our very own Blog Mistress, Marianne Donley. I even see a few of you on LinkedIn.
Where are my OCC peeps conspicuously absent?
It’s pretty rare for me to see more than a few OCC’ers in my hashtag chats, with the possible exception of #myWANA. Either you’re hanging out somewhere else (that you’ll hopefully mention in the comments section) or you’re not using Twitter as fully as you could be.
Note: If you’re scratching your head over this hashtag business, please read this post on what Twitter hashtags are and why we need them.
OCC authors are very in-the-know about the changes sweeping through the publishing industry. I am so thankful to belong to a chapter with such amazing resources, and so many generous authors. We’re lucky to be on the cutting edge of this upheaval, so I’ll skip over that part since you all are pretty up to date.
If you don’t feel “up to date” and want to read more about the changing state of publishing, it’s hard to find a better resource than Kristine Kathryn Rusch and her publishing industry blogs.
This brave new world of publishing demands that an author build a brand.
What does that mean exactly? Simply put, your brand is the picture that pops into people’s mind when they hear your name.
For established authors, this picture is usually tied to one (or many) of your books. For the new or unpublished author, you need to get started on forming that picture in people’s mind as soon as possible. Participation in social media is one of the easiest ways to do this.
For more detailed information on branding, here are some of the best blogs I’ve found on the subject from people who say it far better than I do.
Particularly now that so many authors are going the Indie route with smaller independent publishers or even venturing into self-publishing for their first book, author branding is no longer a “nice to have.â€
Read the posts above and take a look at these two books: Kristen Lamb’s We Are Not Alone: A Writer’s Guide to Social Media, and Bob Mayer’s Warrior Writer. They will put you light years ahead of where you would have gotten on your own.
My personal observation is that people are seeking authentic connections and that, by branding themselves, an author is opening themselves up for connecting.
In my own experience on Twitter and both of my blogs, your Followers and your Tweeps become your friends. We spend time with these people, whether it’s chatting on Facebook, having a Worldwide Book Launch Party or sharing Sunday morning coffee.
Seemingly disparate people throughout the world are connecting through social media and enjoying the hell out of each other. It’s a beautiful thing.
Perhaps you don’t know where people are gathering on Twitter.
Fret no more…here’s the list of where my Tweeps and I hang out. This is your invitation to hang out with us. If you are hanging out somewhere else online, we want to know where that is!
Note: If I’ve missed any really cool hashtags, please let me know in the comments.
#myWANA – This love revolution started on Kristen Lamb’s blog (WANA stands for We Are Not Alone…I’ve linked to the book above)
#weWRITE – Hashtag started by Anna DeStefano and Jenni Talty based on their How We Write Wednesday Series. Note: There are no links allowed in this group – conversation on writing only…you’ll have to post your links elsewhere.
#PubWrite – these tweeps enjoy writing, sharing ideas and frustrations, and the occasional adult beverage.
#amwriting – writers from everywhere hang out here and encourage each other as they write. If this is your hangout, you might also enjoy http://amwriting.org/.
#amediting – writers from everywhere hang out here and encourage each other as they edit their works-in-progress.
#wordmongering – writers do timed sprints of 30 mins at :00 and/or :30 every hour. This is fun 24/7 and participants say they get so much writing done.
#Row80 – Hashtag started by Kait Nolan that I’m participating in. This is a writing challenge that lasts 80 days and requires that you publicly post your goal. For more details go here.
#nanowrimo – When November rolls around, the agony and the ecstacy of National Novel Writing Month can be found here. (Until then, we have Row80!)
What about you? Where do you commune with people on Twitter or Facebook (and why)? Are there groups of writers that you recommend above all others? Please share your discoveries with the rest of us!
~Jenny
http://jennyhansenauthor.wordpress.com
http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com
Twitter: @jhansenwrites
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