Social Books

  Image Source: cindiann

I am meeting with some authors on how to utilize social networking tools for an interesting venture they are launching.  I was pulling together a bit of a primer for them and thought I would share it here for anyone else that might find it of value.  It is meant for those just beginning to take their first steps.

Background

It didn't take very long to realize that authors are generally frustrated by the marketing efforts of their publishers.  Except for a few big names, authors do not appear to get a significant amount of attention, effort or spend when it comes to marketing them or their books.  Even when there is significant effort, it does not always result in book sales.

Opportunity

There is a significant opportunity for authors to build their personal brands, market their works and even generate deeper insight and collaboration on existing and new works.  This can be done in tandem with a publisher's efforts and need not be an either/or scenario.  There is just one catch.  It takes significant effort and time on behalf of the author. 

So it all comes down to one thing.  How do we position it as something of value for the artist/author?  The rewards have to be tangible and more immediate than some 1 year plan.

The social networking space has a lot to offer.  In this article, I am going to focus on blogging.

Some Authors Using blogs

I was so happy to have Patry Francis brought to my attention.  Her site has all the signs of healthy community engagement.  Her posts have dozens of comments (often in the 40's or 50's) and the comments are more than just readers saying "great post".  They are conversations in which Patry directly participates.  She is also active on many of the blogs of her visitors. In essence, Patry has a community to support her and she supports them as well.

Susan Hendersen is another author with strong online community participation.  The previous author, Patry Francis, was in hospital during the release of her first book and was unable to bring any marketing or publicity effort to bear, so Susan brought the community together and organized a "PR bumrush" for Patry's book.

On a slightly less fictional front, The Freakonomics guys are continuing the conversation from their book with their NY Times blog.  They post with a crazy regularity (multiple posts a day) and seem to generate significant (but varying) levels of response from their readers.  I was a bit dismayed to see that while they allow comments, they don't appear to respond to these comments, keeping the line between them and their readers distinctly drawn.

On March 2nd, Dwight Garner of the The New York Times Sunday Book Review wrote "These days, thanks to the magic of blogging, it’s possible to watch a novelist respond to his or her reviews in something like real time. Take Lauren Groff, the author of the winsomely dark first novel “The Monsters of Templeton,” which enters the fiction list this week at No. 14."  Sadly, Laruen Groff's blog offers no community engagement.  It's nothing but an online diary where she can post her thoughts (or response to bad reviews) with no response from readers or engagement of the community. 

The Platform

Blogs are a tool, nothing more. They display the most current entry at the top of the page and generally support RSS feeds. Blogs should allow visitors to comment on the content and what blog wouldn't be complete without a dizzing array of widgets on the page. 

Blog platforms have come a long way in a short period of time.  They allow the blog owner to create pages, manage multiple contributors and even tag and categorize the site's content.  They are a simple but effective way to create a website presence that actively supports community engagement features.

From the author examples in the previous section, I hope it is clear that what matters is how we use the tool, not just the features it offers.  That said, you are going to have to select a blogging tool to use.  How to choose?

It is useful for this article to break blogs into two camps:  hosted and installed.  Hosted blogs are those where a third party takes care of the configuration, hosting, etc.  Installed blogs require someone to install the blog, configure it and then manage all aspects of the blog directly.

Hosted blogs are far less work and perfect for anyone just starting out.  Many expert bloggers use them as well.

Hosted Blogging Platforms:

• Typepad: Averages around $15 a month and one of the easiest to use blogging platforms I have been exposed to.  It is a hosted solution.  I run my blog (craphammer.ca) on typepad. 
• Blogger: Probably the leading free blog platform.  Relatively straight forward and easy to use.  Not as full featured as Typepad. 

Great.  Time to create an account, right?  Nope.  Anything but.

Getting Started

I recommend that a person takes an active interest in the tools and conversations happening online before just launching blindly forward.  Find other authors already blogging and begin to follow their sites, becoming more familiar over time with this whole online publishing phenomenon.

As Bill Murray would say, "Baby steps."

Most people quickly hit the wall of "commitment." What to say, how much time it is going to eat up and confusion over what step to take next. 

Take a few deep breaths and clear these things from your mind.  Purge them.  Keep breathing. The Internet has a secret and I am about to share it with you.  Yup.  Right here.  Right now.

After porn, the Internet is about research.

It's that simple and I would hope that most authors already do this (No, not porn. Research.)  And if that's the case, you are well on your way to engaging with a community of potential contributors and readers.

Sure, the secret is a bit of a gargantuan oversimplification.  The truth is always more complex than desired, however for the purposes of getting started, research is the perfect place to start.

Want to get to know wheelchair dancers? the voices of people on the ground in Iraq?  Artsy Fartsy Christians?  Portuguese-American activists in Amsterdam?

How to Find Them

The world is changing and anyone can publish.  Our audience suddenly has a voice.  I remember when I first stumbled across people inside Iraq blogging about the conflict.  Suddenly the stories and news footage I saw every night took on a new tone.  I had been touched by those struggling to hold their lives together amidst the turmoil.

But how to find these bloggers in the first place?

One of the best methods is Google's blog search.  http://blogsearch.google.ca/

I generally start with google blog search when searching for blogs related to a specific topic.  Once I start to close in on what I am looking for, I switch to looking on the blogs I'm finding for more links.  I am looking for links that these bloggers feel are worth placing on their blogs.

Here are some other sources:

• technorati.com (tracks 3 months of posts from millions and millions of blogs)
• blogdigger.com (I find it's not as ubiquitous as Google)

How to Keep Up

Finding a blog that you enjoy or is of value quickly leads to a number of other people writing blogs.  Most bloggers offer links to other blogs/people they feel are of interest or value.  This is called a "blogroll".  It can get pretty crazy pretty fast.  Bookmarks in your browser can quickly become ungainly and ineffective.  Not to mention it is impossible to tell when someone has updated their site with new content.

The answer?  RSS.

Below is an embedded video that explains RSS and how to use an RSS Reader.

So to recap: Find, read and follow.

Welcome to a world of research with a depth and reach never before possible in the history of humankind.

The Conversation

An important skill to develop is how to have a conversation online.  It's a new social space with its own rules and nuances.

From conversation comes engagement.  From engagement comes ideas and innovation, not to mention readership and even community.

So when you feel comfortable, start to comment on the posts of the bloggers you are most interested in.  Most blogs will allow you to leave a comment. 

Fill out your name, email address and webpage.   Type in your comment and then hit the Post or Submit button.

Welcome to the conversation.

You are now ready to begin launching your blog.  A topic for another article, no doubt.

For Publishers

Just in case any publishers are following this (though doubtful), here's an interesting presentation worth reviewing: Community of Readers

Many Thanks

A big shout out to all the people who responded to my twitter plea for authors who blog successfully.

Tamera Kremer for pointing me to Nancy Pickard.
Colin McKay for his redirect over to the freakonomics dudes.
Kristin Gorski for her amazing email with no less than 5 author case studies and an amazing writer/author in her own right.  I recommend her blog "Write Now is Good" very highly.