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Tips on Building a Following for Your Book?



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Tue Feb 09, 2016 5:54 pm
EverStorm says...



I have heard a lot that the you NEED to have a following for your book if you want it to do well. What did you do to start and build that following? What social media is best, and what did you put on your blog?

Any help would be appreciated! I honestly don't know what to do or where to start. :shock:
  





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Tue Feb 09, 2016 7:30 pm
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Vervain says...



I will preface this with a disclaimer: I am FAR from a social media genius, haha. I don't have a giant following for anything I do; this is just what's worked for me so far.

Most of what I do is here on YWS, so I'll focus on that first. One of the first things I do is I go out and I review other people's works, and I hang around in chat, and I make friends that way. Friends, I've found, are my greatest allies in braving the weird, wide world, and they're often some of the first people to read things that you've read, whether you ask them to or not. You get people to think about you as a friend, not as a "content creator"; you interact, and you sell yourself as a person before you sell yourself as a writer.

Then comes your job as content creator: You have to write. Here on YWS, that's easier, because we have the publishing and reviewing system, so you don't have to super-polish everything before you make it public. In fact, one of the great things about YWS is getting your friends involved in spinning ideas and helping you polish up your work!

On the other side of being a content creator, such as running a blog or a Twitter account related to your works, I've heard it said that you shouldn't try to sell your work at first. Instead, you should focus on creating content there that people want to read and want to follow, such as answering writing questions or updating on your creative process. People don't want to follow a Twitter account that's doing nothing but saying "buy/read this!" They want interaction, and they want to get something out of the bargain.

As for what social media is best, it depends on who you're trying to reach. In this day and age, I think it's a matter of trial and error; you have to find your niche, and where you fit best in a certain social spectrum.

For me, I fit really well on YWS, and while I definitely don't have a following of hundreds or anything, I have a number of people who enjoy my writing and come back to read more when I post. I have people who hear about my ideas, go "I want to read that!", and I tag them in a wall post when I update my novels. That attracts more people in turn, who attract more people, until I have quite a few who come to read a novel and stay for the other things I create content-wise.

On the other hand, I also write short stories, poetry, and lyrics that draw people in, and through that they explore what other things I write (e.g., novels).

Basically, some of the best marketing for yourself...doesn't feel like marketing. Sell yourself as a person first before you're concerned with selling yourself as a writer. Sell yourself as a writer before you're concerned with selling your novel.
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Tue Feb 09, 2016 7:40 pm
EverStorm says...



This is really helpful! Thank you!! I haven't been on YWS for a terribly long time, but I think I can make a lot of friends here!
  





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Tue Feb 09, 2016 7:54 pm
Zolen says...



Be present. The more active you are on various sites and more tasteful your admittance of creating something is, the more people will stumble into your stuff. Once that starts up, as long as you stay active around your own stuff, people will stay and direct friends. Once it gets a big enough following, your main requirement is frequent and quality updates, which will encourage that growing following to direct others to you.

Also wise to already have a lot of stuff started up before you waste effort drawing attention to yourself. If there is nothing there, nobody will have a reason to hang around for long.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
  





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Tue Feb 09, 2016 8:05 pm
EverStorm says...



@Zolen That's true! You make a great point!
  





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Wed Feb 10, 2016 12:12 am
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birk says...



Aside from YWS, where the key is pretty much 'be awesome to other people, and other people will be awesome to you' (I think there's a version of this in the Bible too), there are so many outlets that will let you connect with your readers and find suitable and interested readers.

I have a great interview I could link you to. It's an interview with Andy Weir, the author of the very sucessful and well received novel 'The Martian', which in turn was adapted into a very sucessful film.

It's a good story of a guy who just wrote for the fun of it, gained readers through social media, and they wanted to read what he wrote easier, so he added it to Amazon, where it rose to the top of the lists, which again garnered attention from publishers who were interested in publishing his writing. BAM!

How Andy Weir Took ‘The Martian’ From Blog to Bestseller to Blockbuster Movie (Starring Matt Damon)

Read through the interview transcript for interesting tidbits regarding the topic. Or better yet, listen to it.
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Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:58 am
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Rosendorn says...



Your best social media networks are places where agents go. Even if you don't feel like that's a good fit for your own interaction, you'll want to be watching the agents in your genre. You'll want to watch publishers, as well, because the better you know agents and publishers, the better you'll query. You'll know the market, and that's priceless.

As for building a following, there's an 80/20 rule. 80% of your posts should be about anything but sales, and 20% should be about what you want to promote. This rule is also nice to remember that about 80% of your interactions come from 20% of your followers.

The biggest irony of social media is people claim it makes you narcissistic, yet if you want to actually effectively gather a loyal following you have to provide value to others. Decide what you want people to get out of your feed: Writing advice? Quirkiness? Humour? Of course, you don't have to pick a super narrow purpose— author blogs I follow cover everything from cars and coloured pencils to brunch photos and eating disorder awareness.

Now, an important thing to note is those author blogs have their topics relate to their books. The former is Maggie Stefvatter, who features art and cars extremely heavily in her writing, while the other is Laurie Halse Anderson, who writes books about extremely heavy topics such as eating disorders and PTSD. The topics the discuss relate to their writing.

Personally, I like their blogs because they talk about related topics so much. It feels like a regular person blogging about topics they want to talk about, making them human.

Other author blogs interact with fans a lot. Now, I follow some fairly large authors, so they get a lot of fan posts and this might not apply to you. But that being said, interacting with people who like your work is important. You might not read every single one, but interacting with a few and making it personal helps grow your following and make existing relations stronger.

Consider offering snippets for free, if possible and/or your agent lets you. Sentences, paragraphs, a page, the opening chapter. These are things readers can read and go "oh that's interesting", and depending on how you frame them, you can get away with them not counting as part of your "promotional posts" I mentioned earlier. Teasers make fans feel like they're getting something they can't get anywhere else. It differentiates you from the million other writing blogs/twitters out there, to give something of yours.

All in all, you have to remember it's personal to you. Don't build a persona that's somebody you're not. Yes, build a persona— you don't want to share your whole personal life with the world in a professional setting— but you can talk about what's important to you. Seanan Mcguire talks about her OCD and depression publicly, as I already said Laurie Halse Anderson talks about eating disorders, PTSD, and other cause-related topics. Neil Gaiman talks about artwork he loves for no intents and purposes other than he loves it. Maggie Stefvatter talks about road trips she takes.

The point of social media is to be human, make friends, and enthusiastically share what you love with like minded people. Remember that and you'll be well on your way to building a following.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  








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