Category Archives: Social Media

Social Media, Social platform for writers

Do you have a social platform?

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Do you consider your writing a business? If so do you have a social platform to go with it? Is it important to you to start one?

I feel it is. Why this topic for the week? I have quite a few writer friends who don’t have one, feel they should but haven’t started or feel it is not needed. For years I would harp to them about social media and why I felt it was important for us as writers. It fell on deaf ears. I even offered to show them for free what I had learned and that also fell on deaf ears.

When I first started my platform I had just finished the first draft of my first book. I had read an article in Writer’s Digest where the author stated the importance of a platform. She left her Twitter handle for us to follow. I did. That was the bread crumb that got me on my way.

Since then I have given a couple of workshops on creating an author’s platform and I am due to give another one in a couple of months. Thanks to my platform I met my two current publishers, editor and graphic artist. Through my platform I have had submission editors helped me with my query letter to submit to publishers. When you have a sea of people in these groups it can be scary to reach out or know where to reach out.

All of these came through due to my platform I started. By the way it was all free. My brand is what I work on and what better way then social media? Use what works for you, there are enough different outlets to choose from just toss what doesn’t.

It took you a long time to write your book, edit and revise it and get it in tip-top shape. Don’t you want to help it move alone or would you rather it just sit on your computer?

Author's Platform, Sharon C. Williams, Social Media

Speech: Author platform and social media

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imagesThis past Saturday I gave a small speech to one of my writers group. There were three of us sharing information to the members. One discussed the process of being a self published author. The second filled in the gaps we left behind thank goodness. I talked about the traditional side with query letters, the dos and don’t of the process, gave a nice list of links and then moved on to social media via author platform and why it is so important.

This is something I been working on for a few years now, my author’s platform to where now it is almost second nature to me so doing a small gathering on this was easy on my part. They were so interested I been asked, maybe coerce is a better word, to do another one at my convenience which will be next Wednesday. It is nice a/ to be able to talk about something I am very familiar with to where it is little work to where I just need to prepare for a few run through and b​/ helping other people out especially writers who are more green then I am.

There is enough room for all us to have our books up there. We all write in different genres, different age groups and different target audiences and there will never, hopefully, be a shortage of readers. As an avid reader myself it is a great time for the choices keep expanding on what is out there to read.

Amazon Parrot, Marketing, Social Media

Marketing My Book

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2013-08-04 12.08.00

 

Even though my book got picked up by a traditional publisher, it doesn’t mean I don’t have to spread the word and do some marketing of my own. This is tough for I am by all accounts a shy person. Times are tough for books. They are competing with ebooks, tablets and people giving away their books for free for reviews. So a year before I started actively submitting “Jasper, Amazon Parrot:A Rainforest Adventure” I hit the social media scene.

You can find me here:

-Facebook

-Google +

-Twitter

-Linkedin

-Pinterest

-Goodreads

-Shelfari

I am on a few others but these are the big ones. I started to network, meeting various people in various stages of their book. Along the way I met some awesome friends. I came across people who helped me in so many different ways. Ami who worked on my query letter that got my book into a few editor’s hands. I met my editor, Nancy, who is just amazing with her talents. I have met writers who have helped me with questions and problems when it came to social media. This is a market every author, whether self published or traditional, needs to tap into. It is pure gold for the taking, you just have to reach for it. And by the way it’s how I met my publisher.

It is time-consuming when you first start. This was the main reason a year prior to submitting I became pro active with my book and the means to promote it. It has been a few years since then and now my social media format just need checking on for maintenance. Being shy won’t cut it in this market. You have to take a deep breath and step forward. Your book needs you to be there for it. It can’t do it alone. And why should it? It has been with you for so long why abandon it now?