Social media

It’s tough being a writer. We are constantly putting our work out there and peeking from behind laced fingers as the reviews roll in, fearing that stray comment that might cut us to the quick. Writers need the hide of a rhinoceros and if you don’t have one yet, you’d better develop one because the life of a writer is not an easy one.

It’s human nature to want to compare yourself to others. It’s also a less attractive part of human nature to want to do better than others. I’m all for having a plan of what you would like to achieve but plans should be adaptable to life’s twists and turns and if you have the basics heat, food, love is the rest really so important?

That said we all chase the figures – numbers of sales, amount of money earned, the number of likes on a page, the number of followers etc., and if we are not too careful this obsession can get out of hand. I’m not saying these things aren’t important but we need to be careful not to obsess over them. I know writers who are constantly logging on to track their sales. The trouble with this is that their mood then tends to be dictated by whether the figures are good or bad. If the figures are good they are at least temporarily happy but if the figures are bad they then start obsessing over why the figures are bad, why don’t people like their books, are they a bad writer and so it goes on.

Sales go up and down. That’s market forces for you. It doesn’t mean you are a bad writer and your books suck it just means someone else is doing better than you. It’s not you, it’s them. They are having their time in their sun. They have worked hard. They deserve it so don’t begrudge them and don’t catastrophise the situation and dramatically declare you are quitting like one of my friends did recently. Just get back to the keyboard and write. One day, with a bit of luck, it’ll be your turn.

I have always taken quite a sanguine view of the peaks and troughs of my writing career. I find a good sense of humour goes a long way. Here’s a great example, recently I have been trying to build my Twitter followers. I’m doing this organically, no bought in follows or automated this and that. I don’t bombard people with direct messages and I play nice. I’m really pleased at how well it’s been going. I’m not setting the Twittersphere alight but that was never my aim. As I ticked past another milestone I allowed myself a few moments of satisfaction. Then I spotted a basset hound with their own Twitter handle. Every part of my being told me not to look but of course I could not resist. The basset hound had at least 1,000 followers on me (probably double that by now). It was one of those laugh or cry moments. I chose to laugh loudly at the absurdity of it all. And so should you.

Happy writing!

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white lies — White Lies by Ellie Holmes http://Author.to/EllieHolmes

Being Social

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Writers today, whether trad, indie or both, need to have a social media presence. It’s another thing on the stuff to do list but hopefully more enjoyable than doing your filing or your tax return.

Before I launched my writing career I had no social media and it was a sharp learning curve. I opted for the main players – Twitter and Facebook and chose to add Pinterest into the mix as well.

I had thought Pinterest would be my favourite because it allowed you to be creative, producing Pinterest boards for various subjects, people or themes. I had thought Twitter would be my least favourite. I’m a 100k kind of girl. I don’t do short. I thought Facebook would fall somewhere in between.

What did I know?

I do love Pinterest but I find it time consuming so tend to create boards in spurts and then have a break from it. I daresay I’m doing it all wrong but hey that’s part of the fun right? I don’t take my social media too seriously as you may have guessed. Life’s too short and there are too many other important things to be getting on with like writing.

Pinterest is great for creating boards as companion pieces for my books, however. That is a piece of escapism I enjoy after the hard graft of a book is done and it makes you see your book in a purely visual way which adds an interesting dimension.

Facebook has been a bit of a drag for me. I have lots of friends. I have a page that many people like so that’s nice. I don’t engage with it anywhere near as much as I should because I find it boring (oops! Did I actually write that?). It is not my social media of choice. I try to energise myself to get on there and take part but I never seem to be able to sustain it in a meaningful way.

And that leaves Twitter. Ah, Twitter. Remember I said I thought Twitter would be my least favourite? Ha! Turns out, I love it. I am on it most days and find it the easiest platform to use, the most engaging and interesting to be a part of and most importantly, for me at least, it’s fun.

I put up links to my blog on Twitter – some of you may have found your way here from there. I put up articles that I find entertaining and so am keen to share. They don’t always relate to writing in fact I would say it’s a pretty even split between writing and non writing subjects. I tweet about the things I enjoy and which interest me and yes I do put up tweets about my books but they do not make up the majority of what I share with my followers, they probably account for less than a third of my content.

There will be lots of writers out there who, with very serious faces, will tell you how you should sell, sell, sell on all these platforms. They will probably tell you that you should be on at least another three I haven’t mentioned and possibly double that. Yeah, well. As I said above life’s too short etc.,

Don’t go on social media expecting to sell books. Go on social media to engage with other people, get caught up in debates, have a laugh and a joke, ‘meet’ interesting people, reach out to someone who is having a hard time, share the joy of someone who is celebrating an achievement and most of all have FUN. Enjoy the human interaction and you never know you may just sell a few books along the way, too.