social networking

Can tender Tweets whip up Facebook fervor?

For this short thesis on the marketing of fiction via social media, I wanted to find out how authors typically incorporate social media into their professional lives. I canvassed opinion via a forum on the Romantic Novelists’ Association…
“I think that my established online presence was attractive to the publicity department of my new publisher” – Julie Cohen
“Twitter only results in a few actual sales, but it builds the brand and the name” – Liz Bailey
“Since going cold turkey (on social media), I’ve finished one book that had taken forever to write and written the first draft of another” – Sarah Duncan. Continue reading →

What can trad-published writers learn from indie authors?

“It’s a bit like saying ‘can unknown runners teach pro runners about running?’. For the most part, no. But if you’re talking about the Tarahumara, then probably yes” – Nick Harkaway. Continue reading →

What has twitter ever done for us?

“Social media has moved to a new venue, that’s all”. The novelist and digital world commentator, Nick Harkaway, says social networking has always been integral to the job of being an author. As both a successful writer himself – and the son of John le Carré – he has witnessed how the role has changed since the emergence of social media.

Once upon a time, he says, it was about “chatting up the reps and book buyers, knowing the lit ed of The Times”. Nowadays, it’s about being ‘discoverable’ online.

Of the ten authors I contacted for this short thesis on the role of social media in marketing fiction, eight are active social networkers. What does all this blogging, tweeting, FBing and Pinning do for them? Continue reading →