Authors: Kill These Bad Social Media Habits

Hello YAtopia! So sorry for being a day late on this post but I am in the middle of moving (within the same city) and also my Windows decided to "update" and now my touch pad doesn't work. Yay.

Our topic this month is "Kill Your Darlings" so I'm here to talk about social media practices you should murder and leave in a ditch somewhere!

1) Twitter auto-DMs when someone follows you

I follow someone on Twitter because I think they're fun/nice/entertaining/informative. Within minutes, I have a private message from them. Which seems nice, right? But wait, the message is an impersonal version of "Thank you for following me. Check out my books at [amazon link]."

Me:


via GIPHY

Don't do this.

Since people always argue with me about this when I teach "Social Media for Authors" classes, I'll try to explain why. If you're at a party and you think someone seems like an interesting person to talk to. You go up and introduce yourself. The person says, "Thanks for saying hi. Check out my office supply store on Main Street," then turns and walks away.

At the last conference I went to, we literally had a 15-minute rant session about how much we hate auto-dms. Yes, even if it's not a direct sales pitch.

If you want to interact with your new followers, reply to something they've tweeted with a relevant comment. That's the best way to begin a real relationship.

Treat people like people, not like potential customers.

2) Feeding your Facebook posts into your Twitter posts

We all know Twitter has a 140 character limit, right? A lot of people have it set up so that whatever they post to Facebook automatically posts to twitter. There are more subtle reasons as to why this isn't a good idea, but the big one is that your message is truncated. Most twitter users are on mobile and don't want to click over to Facebook to finish reading your post. This is why doing it the other way around (Twitter posts to Facebook) isn't as bad (but still not ideal).

3) Reposting the same tweet about your book, every day

Believe me, I know how tempting it is to schedule this tweet once so you never have to think about it again. But I see the same tweet from you, every day, and it's just noise at this point.

4) Follow and unfollow and follow and unfollow and follow and unfollow for followers

Dude. I'm not going to follow you back. I follow people I find interesting, not just because they followed me.

Be fun and interesting and nice and way more people will follow you than you can get using any kind of "strategy."

5) Copyright infringement in your advertisements

We all know that stealing someone's writing and posting it without their permission is a no-no, right? Why don't we apply the same knowledge to photos? If you don't have the legal (usually, paid) right to use an image, do NOT use it in your advertisements. This goes double for celebrity photos.

Photos used in discussion/commentary are a different matter, but in promotional materials for your book? You better have the rights to use it.


These days, social media is an important part of author life. You can't make everybody happy, but killing the habits listed above will help you scare off fewer potential readers.

Yes, That's Spam; No, Don't Do It: How to Avoid Alienating Readers

We all hate SPAM. Every author knows that spamming potential readers is a surefire way to alienate them (RIGHT?) - so why do some insist on invading your online space with their advertisements?

It turns out, based on some conversations I had this week, some authors don't believe what they're doing is SPAM. So here's my handy-dandy, not comprehensive guide, called "Yes, that's spam."

1) Direct Messages

Unless you are having an actual conversation (not argument) or the person has asked you to DM her some information, resist the urge to send a private message on any social media site.

The absolute fastest way to get someone who may have been interested in your books to unfollow you is to send one of those gross "thanks for following messages" immediately after they follow you. Bonus points if it's obviously automated.

For ex:

Thanks for following me! Check out my newest release Stupid Book on Amazon! http://amzn.to/1C53u9V (service of @tweetspammerco)

*yes that is a link to my alter-ego's book. Hey, I needed a link for my example. And you're in my space, after all.

This is not limited to sales links! Telling people where to find your website or other social media, or even messages without links are still considered spam. Private messages are a place for conversation, not for promotion of any kind.

It's like: Those obnoxious phone calls just as you're sitting down to dinner

2) Posting on Someone Else's Virtual Space

Posting about your book on someone's Facebook Wall. Promoting your book on a FB group that has not specifically invited you to do so. Using the comments of another person's blog post to link to/talk about your book. Posting about your book in forums not specifically intended for that sort of thing.

Really, posting about your books on any online space that you do not "own" and you have not been specifically invited to use for that purpose is always a big no-no.

It's like: Walking around a book festival, slapping stickers of your book cover on people without asking.

3) Goodreads "Events" and "Book Suggestions"

I know that someone is telling you to use Goodreads Events to announce your book launch and that someone is telling you to use Goodreads Book Suggestion feature to suggest your own book to anyone who's naive enough to friend you.

Someone wants people to hate you. I want people to like you and I'm saying: don't do this.

Events should be an actual event that someone can attend (virtual events are a thing!), not just an announcement of a book launch. And the Book Suggestion feature's intended use is for people who actually know each other (again, online friendships are a thing!) to suggest books they enjoyed to other people they think might also enjoy them.

It's like: Those pieces of mail that make it look like you're going to get in trouble with the law, but really they're just trying to make you sign up for a loan.

4) Tags

Tagging people in a picture when it's just a promotional image for your book. Mentioning people in a tweet that is promo for your book (or even tweeting a bunch of usernames with something impersonal). Using hashtags meant for communities in promotional posts.

It's like: #2 on this list and also implying that the tagged person endorses your product.

5) Repetitive Promotional Messages

If you tweet the same message about your book every day with a link, rethink that strategy. Also, if you post only about your book and nothing else, mix it up. You may think this is ok because those people have chosen to follow/like you, but you're not building your readership this way. Either your readers are going to unfollow you, or your message becomes background noise.

It's like: a preacher giving the same exact sermon every Sunday.


If you are doing any of these things, you are without-a-doubt alienating potential readers. I know some authors will argue with me, but you're deluding yourself if you think these things are a good use of your promotional time. I promise you the number of books you may sell will never outweigh the books you will never sell because you made someone feel like a customer and not like a person.

Yes, that's spam. No, don't do it.

How to Help Authors You Love!

Dear Authors,

This post isn't for you, not really. You probably already know all of this. It's really for your friends - the ones who would help you if they knew how but it's kinda awkward for you to outright tell them. So, instead, post this in a rather general sense on your Facebook/Twitter/Whatever and let me tell them :-)

Dear awesome readers,

We know that when you love a book, you'd buy a thousand copies and shout from the rooftops if you could. But you can't. So here are some small things you can do that help more than you could ever know.

1. Reviews

I cannot even begin to tell you how huge this is. If this was a list of 100 things you could do, reviews would be about 90 of my bullet points.

Find the book on Amazon and Goodreads (and B&N if you're motivated) and write a quick review. It doesn't have to be anything fanciful, but should be a little more detailed than "This is the best book ever!!" Tell potential readers why you loved it so that they'll want to read it too.

Also, like positive reviews written by other people.

2. Like

Here's the thing about Facebook: they want to make $. So they're now trying to charge authors to show their fans their posts. But the more likes and comments a post has, the more people (who, may I remind you, have already indicated they want to see this author's posts by liking their page) will see the post.

Go nuts. Like every post the author has. Comment, even if it's just to say ":)" or "yay!"

3. Share

Tell your followers/friends about a book you love! Post on twitter/facebook/instagram/tumblr/pinterest/Google+/wherever and provide a link to where they can get more info. RT/share/reblog/repin the author's posts.

Tweet your favorite lines from the book or share why you loved it. Post a picture of yourself reading the book - or your pet posing with it (everybody on the internet loves cats; it's a fact)

4. Like the author's Amazon page.

Nobody really knows how Amazon's complicated algorithms work, but there's some evidence to suggest the more likes an author has, the more Amazon will help the author promote their book.

Here's my alter ego's page, in case you'd like to practice. ;-) The like button is near the top right.

5. Goodreads Lists

Add the book you love to relevant Goodreads lists. This helps increase visibility of the book!

6. Library

If your local library has the book (print or ebook), check it out and encourage local friends to. This shows the library that people want to read this book.

If your local library does not have the book, request it! Most major library systems have a form you can fill out. Ask your librarian how to request the library purchase a copy.

7. Indie Bookstores

If your local indie bookstore doesn't have a copy of the book, ask them to order it!

8. Book Clubs

If you're in a book club, suggest the book you love! 

Hosting a Facebook Party as Multiple Pages

Facebook author parties are a huge deal these days - and with good reason. They can be fun for the reader with giveaways, special content, Q&As as well as great promotion for the author. But if you're an author with a pen name and you actually follow Facebook's policies (which I recommend, btw, because FB is not a kind master), FB makes it difficult to host these without giving away your real identity or confusing readers.

Why does this matter? Let's pretend, for a minute, that we wanted to do a YAtopia Facebook party with all our past and present members. Let's also pretend that Sarah Nicolas is a super-secret pen name that I, for whatever reasons, don't want anyone to know about (it's not). I would need to be able to add both the YAtopia Blog page and the Sarah Nicolas page as hosts of the event so they can post and make changes.


To avoid confusion, let's start with two definitions:

Facebook Profile: Sometimes called a "personal profile." This is the one that has "friends" and is the default for when you sign in. A profile is the Facebook home for a real person. This is my Facebook profile. (Fair warning: I don't friend people I haven't met IRL, though I am pretty open so feel free to follow me, but I won't accept your friend request)

Facebook Page: Sometimes called a "fan page." This is the one that has "likes." A profile can own multiple pages and multiple profiles can be admins for a page. According to Facebook, a page is not a person, it is a business, cause, idea, organization, etc. This is my Facebook Page. This is my other Facebook Page.

To put it simply: Samuel Clemens would have a profile while Mark Twain would have a page.

Remember it this way:

Profile = Friends (seven letters in each word)
Page = Like (four letters in each word)

These distinctions are important. This is why I've bolded page and profile in this write-up. Even if it doesn't make sense to you, trust what I've typed.



So here's how to make multiple Facebook pages hosts of a single event. It starts off pretty simply. Yes, it's a long and convoluted process but ... Facebook, am I right?

Warning: This is going to be a very "nuts and bolts" type of post that you may not be interested in right now. But, trust me, you'll thank me some day. :-)

1) Make sure you are using Facebook as one of the pages you would like to host the event. To do this, click on the arrow at the top right of the site and click on the page name.

Note: Ella Vines is a client, not me :-)

2) Create the event.

Go to where you would normally add a new update, and click on "Offer, Event +" then click on "Event."

Add in all the information about the event. If you only want that page as a host, you're done now. But if the event is hosted my multiple authors, here's where it gets tricky.

Note: In this example, I've created an event from my Aria Kane page.

3) You may notice now that you cannot "invite" anybody or add any hosts. Because, if you'll remember, a page is not a person. To do this, you will have to go back to step one and "use Facebook as" your profile.

4) Now find the event. This is easily done by visiting your page (without changing what you're using Facebook as!!). You can find it in the stream or under the "Events" tab.

You'll notice that you can now RSVP and invite people. After you've RSVPd for your profile, the "Edit" button will appear.

Now you'll want to add hosts.

5) You'll notice that you cannot add a page you don't manage as a host. However, you can add a page that you manage as a host, by typing it in the "Hosts" field. You may want to do this if you have a page for your book or a group that's hosting the event. For example, if I were to throw a YAtopia blog party, I would add "Sarah Nicolas" and "YAtopia" as hosts.

In this example, I've added my page for Sarah Nicolas as an additional host.

If you want to add a page that you do not manage as a host (for example: If I wanted to add Kate's page as a host), proceed to the next step.

6) This is where everyone gets frustrated: at the time of this posting, you CAN NOT add a page you don't manage as a host. End of story. There is no way around this. Don't despair, hope is not lost. Here is what you have to do...

First, you must add a profile that manages that page as a host. (I'm picking on Kate because her profile name is the same as the name on her author page so I know I'm not outing anyone. :-) However, this is frequently not the case.)

In the example below, I've added Kate's profile as a host.

7) Kate can now add her Kate Brauning page as a host by following steps 4 and 5. If Kate wrote under the name J.K. Bowling and had a page to represent that pen name, she could also add that page as a host. If she also has a page for her (imaginary) pen name Robert Balbraith, she could add that one too.

I know I'm harping on this, but it needs to be understood: I cannot add Kate's pages as a host. She must do this herself.

8) This step is totally optional and depends on what level of secrecy you keep your pen names at. Now that your page is a host, you can remove your profile as a host by clicking the "x" next to it. This removes your real name from being displayed as a host, but you can still have full edit rights to the event.

So, theoretically, if Kate didn't want anyone to see her name alongside her super-secret JK and Robert pen names, she could delete "Kate Brauning" profile as a host and still have access to the event.

9) On the day of the event, if you want to post as your page, you will need to use Step 1 again to "use Facebook as" your page.


Um, so there's my highly detailed, complicated description of how to do this annoying thing on Facebook. Please share and remember this post in a few months when you find yourself screaming at Facebook (been there) because it won't let you do what you want to do.

Hope it helps.

A checklist for your author website

Hey YAtopians! Your resident publicist, here. I've been spending a lot of time lately looking at writers' websites for my day job (Event Coordinator at my county library) and have been repeatedly frustrated by some of the same missing information.

So I though I'd share a checklist of all the things I'm looking for when I go to a writer's (unpublished or published!) website.


1) Contact Me

This should be noticeable somewhere on the screen as soon as the page loads (above the fold, if you will), with no scrolling or clicking on other pages necessary. If you want to be contacted by media and people who want to give you free publicity, this is not optional.

If you do not handle your own publicity or right negotiations, make sure these contact people are also listed clearly on this page - not at the bottom in 2.5 pt font.

On a side note: It's my personal preference to have an email address versus a contact form, because I can track who I've emailed in my "Sent" folder. ESPECIALLY if your pen name is Jane Doe and the name on your email address is Reignbow Moonblood and you don't mention the discrepancy and I'm like, "I've never heard of you, you crazy person?"

2) Social Media Links

Facebook and Twitter, at the least + anywhere else you want people to find you. They either need to be immediately visible or somewhere that makes sense to a four year old, like on your aforementioned "Contact Me" page, not on your "Writing Inspiration" page. (I wish I was joking.)

3) Your Books

For the love of Godiva almighty, if you have published books, don't make me go on a scavenger hunt to find info about them. As I say to clients, make it as easy as possible for people to give you money. This info should not be (only) in your sidebar or in your About Me page. You should either have an overall "Books" page or a page for each book.

On this/these page(s), you need:

• your cover
• your blurb
• external buy links - this means Amazon and B&N at the very least. I know most of you get higher royalties if we buy from your publisher's website, but you don't get any if we don't buy it at all. We are comfortable with the stores we like and don't trust strange online stores in the age of identity theft.
• if the book is not yet released, clearly indicate the release date!
• optional: the name of your publisher (if it's a selling point)
• optional: one or two short review quotes. NOT pages and pages of quotes.
• optional: a link to the book's goodreads page
• optional: ISBN
• optional: if you have magazine/journal articles you'd like to highlight, the bottom of this page is a good place

The following things aren't what I would consider "necessary," but highly recommended:

4) Some Way to Subscribe to News

Whether it's an option to subscribe to your blog via email or a more official newsletter, make sure people who want to receive updates about your books can easily do so.

5) Meet Me / Meet Sarah

Don't do this. I don't know if this means "About Me," or "Contact Me" or "Meet me in person."

On a related note, if you're doing in-person events, make sure to have these somewhere clearly labeled on your site. If you just call it something like "Events" or "Appearances" you can post virtual appearances as well.


That's all I have for now, but I'm sure I'll think of more later today. Probably when I'm in the shower. :-)

If you'd like me to take a look at your author website and provide (very brief, very basic) feedback, feel free to leave your link below!

To Blog or Not To Blog

 

When you first start out as an author or a writer who wants to be an author, you are told some things about what you need to do to reach out to readers, agents and publishers.

Number ONE on the list is to have a BLOG. When I started my blog, I felt really weird about it. What the hell do I have to say that people want to know about? I guess that's a weird thought since I'm an author, so I must think I have something people want to know about. But what do people want to know about me PERSONALLY? Beyond that, why would they care?

Will people even read my posts? And worst of all- WHAT do I write about?

So far I've gotten away with talking about writing, talking about my books and hosting other authors for cover reveals and interviews. It doesn't feel very inspired to me. Not the way my writing does and it makes me wonder if BLOGGING even makes a difference to readers and or people who just want to know more about you.

Of course, there is also some other advice about blogging. They say that if you can, you should also participate in a Group Blog, which is why you see my posts here and at YA Outside the Lines. Both of which I am honored to be a part of.

I view these Group Blogs as places where I really need to shine. Where I try at least to give valuable tidbits and thoughtful information and again I wonder: Is anyone reading this? Does anyone care? Am I helping people with what I say?

Seeing as I've been doing the blogging thing for over a year now on my personal blog and for six months on group blogs, I thought it might be fun to ask you what you think of authors or aspiring authors who blog.

Does it makes you like them more?

Do you read what they write?

Do their posts help you or inspire you and if so which type of posts?

Please share any thoughts you have on blogging with me in the comments.

Because, I'll be honest, I'm running out of ideas and motivation ;)...

You didn’t “trend” … and other subtle Twitter confusions

If you google “Twitter mistakes,” you’ll find a whole slew of big-picture twitter snafus to avoid. While those are (usually) good, that’s not what this post is about. This is just an FYI on some of the smaller Twitter misunderstandings that tend to confuse people (and me when I try to explain them – so please ask questions in the comments if I didn’t explain something well enough).

1. You didn’t really “trend”

Have you lately noticed a lot more tweets like “Yay! We got #randomhashtag to trend!” than you used to see? There’s a reason for that.

 Twitter recently quietly changed the default trends you see on twitter.com to “tailored” trends that are specific to both your geographical area and the people you follow. How can you tell if you’re seeing tailored trends or not? Click on the word “Change” at the top of your “Trends” list.

If you are seeing tailored trends, you’ll see something like this:

If you want to, you can click on “Change” to choose to see trends that are worldwide or for a specific country, including the US – or even to a specific city.

I prefer tailored trends because I have not seen the word “Bieber” in my side bar since they made the switch – but I do occasionally look at them just to see what the world is talking about. Note: If you follow a wide range of people (i.e., not just publishing industry people), your tailored and national trends are going to be similar.

There is good news, though! Assuming you follow people who are similar to (or influence) your target audience, you’re still reaching who you want to reach!

2. Limiting your tweet’s audience 

Here’s another thing a lot of twitter users don’t realize: If you start a tweet with the “@” character, only the people following both you and the user belonging to the “@” will see it in their stream. Meaning, people who follow you, but don’t follow the other user will not see your tweet. For example:

@mtgreviews is my favorite book blogger! Check out her review & giveaway of PIVOT POINT! mtgreviews.com/book-review-pi…
— Sarah Nicolas (@Sarah_Nicolas) February 21, 2013

(Yes, we currently have the same avatar, sorry for any confusion this may cause!)

In this tweet, I’m probably trying to tell all my followers about Jenna’s awesome giveaway, right? (Seriously, go enter. And follow her. *ahem* back to the post…) But only those who follow both me and Jenna will see it in their stream. This means I am not reaching anybody she hasn’t already reached with her own tweets.

“But I can still see it.” When I try to explain this to Person 1, they sometimes go to Person 2’s page and point out they can see Person 2’s tweets to users Person 1 doesn’t follow. Yes, you can see it on their page, but not in your own stream.

So when you’re posting a tweet that you want all of your followers to see, you can either reword it so it doesn’t start with “@” or start your tweet with “.@”



I definitely didn’t intend for this to turn into “This is how you’re doing twitter wrong,” so how about we go in the positive direction with some little-known features of twitter.

3. Turn a user’s RT’s off

Do you know someone who you love to follow because you love their original content, but hate that they RT every single thing Justin Bieber (or whoever) tweets? I think we all know someone like that. It’s a tough decision: keep following them and put up with the ridiculous RTs or unfollow them and miss out on their awesome original content.

 You don’t have to make that decision.

Twitter allows you to turn off RTs from an individual user. Yes, a lot of clients allow you to do this too, but twitter.com itself has a way. Go to that person’s page (I’m going to use Jenna again as an example but I know she won’t take offense… right?) and click on the little button to the left of the Follow/Following button:

Easy, peasy!

 4. Twitter’s Advanced Search 

Twitter has incredible search functionality – but so few people know about it! To use this, start by using the usual search function – however you access it. You will see results like those below for “#sunshinetour.” In the top right corner of the search results there is a gear symbol, click on that and then click on “advanced search.”

You can then use any of the options shown below to narrow your search. Again, I’ll use Jenna as an example:

You can also use this to narrow your search when you are searching for something that is part of a common phrase. For example you can enter “lady” in the “any of these words” field and put “gaga” in the “none of these words” field.

(Seriously, play with this one. It's fun!)


That’s all I have today – but please leave any questions you may have in the comments! Anyone who’s been following this blog for a while knows how much I adore social media so I’m always happy to answer general questions. I hope I’ve helped!

Why Social Media is Important, or Not...

 

At the beginning of this month my twitter account was hacked. Not just hacked, but royally f'd by some Portuguese jerk that changed the profile, name, picture and LANGUAGE. It was horrible. Beyond horrible. He changed the handle to @vaginatron horrible.
I felt like my identity had been stolen and as far as my twitter identity went, I guess it had been. I couldn't tweet, people couldn't tweet to me and I could see anyone's tweets.
Twitter took a week to fix it and by then my account felt dirty and disgusting and I started over.
Here's the thing about starting over. I had 5,000 followers. I was following 3,000 and all of that was gone. Poof.
A YEAR of building that account- GONE, with a stolen password. Gone by some jerk who just felt like ruining my day because he could. Gone by some ass that couldn't be more creative than to come up with the handle @vaginatron.
I was upset, but not for the reasons you might think. Over the last year, I have become friends with a lot of awesome tweeps and all of them were out of my life- like that. Gone. It was sad, I felt like I had lost my life-line. The way I dealt with the loneliness and stress of being a writer. (If you are a writer you know there is a lot of loneliness and stress). I had no way to contact them, except to look them all back up and well, that was insane to even think about.
I was NOT upset that I lost my "platform". See that's how twitter started for me and I think most writers- we're told we need a platform- a way to let people know about our books. In an instant I had lost 5,000 possible people who could buy my books, but that wasn't upset me, what upset me was I missed my friends. I missed the bloggers and readers and writers and authors, who over the past year became my friends.
Being a debut author has been a definite learning curve and there is a lot of information about what you SHOULD do.
You need: A Facebook, A blog, a twitter, a pinterest, a Tumblr. You need to post to all of these a lot, but not too much. You need to get followers, a lot, but not too much. You need to talk about your book, a lot, but not too much.
I was doing all of this. I was following the rules, but none of that matters when there are people out there who feel like they can take that stuff away from you for fun.
None of that matters when a password can take your whole cyber-life away.
So, I started over. It was scary as hell, but also amazing. AMAZING- almost 1,000 tweeps followed me again within a week. People are still re-finding me and I have faith that people will continue to.
When I first started on twitter I was so focused on the AMOUNT of my followers, but what I've learned through this is that numbers don't matter. People do. Friends I've made and readers I've touched have found me again. They are who matters.
So when people tell you to get a social media platform, they are right. About the "social" part.

If you want to follow me on twitter, I'm @LisaBurstein