Category Archives: Social Media

Amazon Parrot, Author, Social Media

Social Media: An Author’s Best Friend

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IMG_6346Even 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 is 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 now and then.

 

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?

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Platform, Guest Blog, Social Media

Guest Blogging: An Author’s Platform

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2012-11-09 06.10.13

 

The lovely Mcv Egan has asked me to guest blog over at http://4covert2overt.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-authors-platform-by-sharon-c-williams.html

The topic is one’s authors platform.  Here is a small piece of it.

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I started working on my social platform a couple of years ago. I was clueless at first. However I had read an article in Writer’s Digest that discussed it. In that article the author wrote down her Twitter account and encouraged people to follow her.

That was my first introduction. I had an account for a few years but never did anything with it. But now

was the time to branch out with my brand. But I did not wait until my book was complete, revised, edited and then revised yet again. I did not wait until after my writer groups had taken a whack at it.

Instead about a year before I got to that point I tossed my name into ring and made my way to the center. There are so many avenues to get your name out besides Facebook and Twitter. The list goes on to Google +, Linked, Goodreads, Pinterest, and a Facbebook page that is separate from your main page. There is having one’s own blog. There are more out there.

To read the rest check out the link.

Author, Blogs, Book, Creative Writing, Editing, Jasper, Kindness, Manuscript, Social Media

My Online Platform

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Writer’s Digest is a magazine I inhale. About a year and a half ago I was reading this article where the writer in her following credits listed her twitter name. The article was on online platform and how one can use it to further one’s works. That one little name got me started on establishing my presence.

A lot of people have told me well I don’t have a book out we should wait. That is the opposite of what you should do. No matter what magazine you read that is on writing or webinar you have seen the topic of online platform is bound to be talked about.

This is a tool that indie writers use to promote their works. But it is not just for indie writers, traditional houses are now following suit.

When you are a new author you need all the help you can get in promoting your works. This is done in a variety of ways from Twitter, FB, Goodreads and other forms of publicity.

In March of 2011 I made the move to getting my name out there. What I had to my credit was a number of complete books, short stories and my soon to be 2011 NaNo book but nothing in print. But that was okay. You want to start ahead before you release a book. You want people to know who you are and what you are about.

Doing it when you have a book out and then shouting, “ Hey hey look at me! I wrote a book come check it out” will get you some looks but not as much if you had planned ahead and started working on your platform.

By doing this in advance I have gotten a lot of positive feed back. One major woohoo was a small indie publishing company wanting to include two of my short stories in their anthology e-book. Something I am still pretty proud of for now I can say I been published. From that I met my current editor who is a dream and worth her weight in gold. It continues to meeting a publisher who helped me with my query letter that got my MS to being read by a few publishing houses. This all done before I had one single book out in print or in e-book format.

Pretty cool right? By doing all this people are starting to know me and what kind of stuff I write about. When I have up and down days they are there to help me with encouragement, suggestions and tips to help me along the way. I have a circle of publishers, editors, authors and bloggers to turn to in time of need. To say they are incredible is a gross understatement. These are people who are well established but take the time to help me out. Why? Because they know me from the various mediums we belong too. People who are making it in the business that I am attempting to break into. They are there for me because they have come to known me. I am no longer the new kid on the block. That is something that I can not put a price on.

Because of the people I have met my book is getting a second look at by a publisher. Something I can not say would have happened if I had done this alone. It would be a lonely walk if I had waited until my first book came out whether it was self publish or in print.  If the publisher decides to publish my book it would partly due to the people I have met through my online platform. And that would be freaken amazing.  Over the next few weeks I will dedicate one post a week to the various social medias I use in hopes of passing along to others what I have learned over the last year and a half.