Recently a writer I follow on FB has been doing a series of posts on how being more social online is helping with book sales. According to him, interacting with other human beings is actually gaining him sales.
Yeah, it sounds kind of obvious, but I admit that it's the last thing I think of when I'm thinking about marketing.
You know me. I am not social. I'm a hermit. Oh, I used to be more social online. I commented on blogs and belonged to forums and interacted on FB. Lately? I've been crawling into my hole. My safe, warm, cozy, comfortable hole.
And that ain't good. At least not when it comes to getting my face out there and people buying my books.
When I first published Dying Embers, I was out there - online and in person (to a certain extent). I was schmoozing and stuff like the dickens. Okay, not as much as I could've been even then, but loads more than I am now.
So, I'm trying to be more social. Not in a 'in your face, buy my book' sort of way, but more natural like. Commenting on FB statuses again when I feel like I have something to say about the topic, contributing to the NaNo local forum by being a cheerleader... I need to start going back and commenting on blogs again. I read a lot of them, but I don't comment much. (As I suspect readers here are doing, so I'm not getting after any of you.)
The problem now is how does one restart being social after having been silent for so long? "Oh, hey, remember me? I used to comment here, but I stopped and now I'm back" seems weird. As does "You don't know me, but I'd like to talk, too" in writing forums. It's all very daunting. It's not like you can just jump in anywhere and not have people looking at you like you're the foreign exchange student from Greater Dorkistan.
Anyway, I'm going to try to be more social. And if it fails miserably, I can always crawl back into my hole.
How about you? Are you a social animal?
Not social at all, although I do make rounds (which probably has more to do with my being a creature of habit, ha!) But I always enjoy reading blog posts and seeing what writers are up to and what's challenging them. Sometimes I get folks commenting who haven't been around for a while and it's just very cool...not odd at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you choose to stop and be social here, Elizabeth! I don't comment on your blog as often as I'd like - often because I feel like I don't have anything worthwhile to contribute. That's totally on me.
DeleteI read far more than I comment. I loathe FB and being social there without losing my $h!+ over the stupidity (same with Twitter) is a battle. I do my author page. And I don't always interact there in any sort of consistent matter. It's all such a time suck and between the hole *I* crawled into and now trying to get caught up on life and NaNo/deadline project, I don't want to fall down the rabbit hole. But yeah. I should. At least a little bit. Totally get where you're coming from!
ReplyDeleteYou're doing better than I ever will. I love my deep dark hole! Unfortunately for my hermit blood, I have a book coming out soon. I really ought to hit the costuming sites and post. But the only one that's been marginally active is in a battle royal, and I don't understand what it's about.
ReplyDeleteOh, I suppose I should post on my blog. Like soon. But hey, I managed to update my website! :-)