by Anne R. Allen
These days, an author’s online presence is of vital importance to a career, whether we’re published or planning to publish. Whether we’re indie, hybrid, or trad-pubbed, it’s not only essential to be easy to find online, but we need to keep a professional presence and guard our author brand and reputation.
I’m not just talking about how we present ourselves on our websites. Your online presence means your book page bio, blog, and all your social media bios and interactions–anything that comes up in a Google search.
In the past decade, an awful lot of readers have been burned by a badly-edited amateur novel. (And the bad ones aren’t all self-published. Some traditional publishers have put out some pretty half-baked stuff.)
This means the most important thing a new writer needs to convey to potential readers is professionalism. If you come across as an amateur, you’re going to have a tough time getting any traction in sales.
Sometimes a quick glance at an author’s blog or social media can show a bunch of red flags that say “Not Ready for Prime Time.”
1) Failure to Proofread
I’m not talking about the occasional stubborn typo in your book that’s still there in spite of all the expensive editing and proofing it went through. Even traditionally published books in their 5th printing can have a few.
I’m talking about misspellings and bad grammar on your website, social media bios, or author page. If you say your favorite author is “Jane Austin” with an “i” or “Steven King” with a “v,” people are going to wonder if you’ve actually read them.
The most common red flag I see is apostrophe abuse. If you don’t know how to use apostrophes correctly, learn. Or get a grammar-savvy proofreader for all your online postings. A bunch of misplaced apostrophes look sloppy and/or ignorant. Also, it’s really helpful to learn when to use “lie” vs. “lay” and avoid other common grammar blunders. Pay attention to spellcheck and grammar check programs. They’re not always right, but they will give you a clue. Misused words can turn off a savvy reader.
Language is your medium. You need to show it’s a tool you know how to use.
2) Too Much Information
It’s way too common for newbie authors to take the term “bio” literally and write an entire autobiography on an Amazon author page or personal website. Or they write stuff that sounds like their own obituaries.
If the first three paragraphs of your bio don’t even get you out of high school, your bio is way too long. Nobody cares about the name of your elementary school or what part you played in the 4th grade Christmas play. Unless of course your book is set in that elementary school and zombies arrive while the 4th graders are putting on the Christmas play.
Here’s the thing: if you’re not a Kardashian or a member of the British royal family, nobody much cares about the details of your life. Make sure all the information you give is relevant to your books and interesting to your readers.
Other “about me” pages read like Oscar acceptance speeches. The place to thank your high school English teacher or long-suffering family is not in your bio. For more on how to write a bio, check out my post on How to Write an Author Bio.
And don’t say this is your first novel and plead for approval. Do you want to be a new doctor’s first patient, or a mechanic’s first car repair?
If you want people to read your book, pretend you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. 🙂
3) Grandiosity or Elitism
On the other hand, don’t act like a superstar when you’ve written one book which so far has only been read by your family, the members of your mom’s garden club and your stalker ex-girlfriend.
Readers don’t like braggy authors. If they’re checking out your bio or website, they want to find out how they can relate to you, not how superior you think you are.
It can be pretty comical to see a newbie claim to write better than a bestselling professional author, and even sillier to see them acting superior to other authors they think are their intellectual or social inferiors because of genre or audience. Nobody likes a snob.
4) Not Monitoring your Online Reputation
Your online presence is a delicate thing and sometimes your reputation can be damaged by something beyond your control. In some cases you may even have to contact a reputation management expert. In March, we’re going to have a guest post from reputation management expert Steven W. Giovinco of Recover Reputation, so you can find out more about how to do that.
We need to be aware of dodgy sites like “My Life” that display unauthorized bios of private citizens based on sloppy research and howling mistakes. They make people “join” the site and pay up to get anything corrected. One site gave me two adult children and another says my lovely California beach house is worth $21. Then there’s the one that says 14 people live here in my 2-bedroom $21 house. Not stuff to hire a lawyer over, but it shows how inaccurate they can be.
Unfortunately some of their mistakes can be seriously damaging. I know authors who have been assigned the criminal records of strangers. Or the photo shown with their profile is of some random person who’s 30 years older or a different gender.
And there’s my long-time friend who got hacked by Nigerian scammers who took over his Facebook profile. They started sending me suggestive lover-boy Direct Messages. Since my friend is a classy, happily married guy, I knew something was up. I soon figured out his profile was being used by some gang to catfish lonely women.
Since my friend had just published his first book with a small spiritual press, I contacted him and suggested he report it Facebook ASAP. The last thing a new author (or publisher) wants is something that’s going to get them in trouble with the #MeToo crowd.
So Google yourself often and click through a few pages of results. It’s worth the time.
5) Kindergarten Tit-for-Tat Behavior
This drives other authors crazy. Catherine Ryan Hyde mentions it to me often. If somebody follows her blog or social media, she’s not necessarily going to follow them back. She’s an Amazon #1, multimillion-selling author who puts out three full-length novels a year. Yes, she’s friendly and approachable, but don’t invite her to your Facebook launch “party” or demand she “like” your author page.
In fact, don’t demand that anybody like your author page. If they do and they don’t read your YA were-rabbit erotica genre, it’s going to screw up the algorithms and they’ll suddenly get a ton of YA were-rabbit erotica novels in their feed.
And in the name of all that’s holy, DON’T put other authors on the mailing list for your braggy-beggy newsletter. Not Catherine Ryan Hyde, or Anne Rice, or Stephen King, or J.K Rowling, or even Ruth or me. Veteran authors don’t have time to read about the fabulous vacations, podcast interviews, or desperate need for contest votes of all of their readers.
Besides, it’s against the law to put people on your mailing list without their consent. The fines are fierce if you get caught. Here’s Barb Drozdowich’s helpful warning on the subject.
And if a veteran author has done something kind for you—answered a question or given advice—they don’t owe you anything further. Don’t demand they review your book, promote it, or read those *&%# newsletters.
I recently got a flurry of newsletters from one author—with no unsubscribe function. I had to personally ask her to unsubscribe me, so I included a link to Barb’s post. The author wrote back in fury. She had followed this blog, and that gave her the right to make me a follower of her newsletter. That was only fair!
No. It’s not. This isn’t Kindergarten. And that $11,000 fine is not play money.
6) Indulging in Self-Pity Online
Yes, your book took years to complete and you put your heart and soul into it…and nobody’s reading it. Yet. Sigh. We’ve all been there.
But don’t whine about it. Complaining in public is not professional, in spite of how some celebrities misuse social media. If you need to vent, do it in private. (And that’s especially true about bad reviews.)
We all have some pretty bad moments when it seems as if the whole industry is out to get us. And we all get horrible, unfair reviews. But our readers don’t want to hear about it. They mostly just care when the next book is coming out.
Social media is social, yes, but it’s also “in public.” You can talk about your health crisis or the loss of a beloved pet, but don’t put stuff on social media you wouldn’t want in the local newspaper. Especially whiney stuff.
Instead, write another book. And another. That’s what the rest of us did. And it’s not that we didn’t wallow in self-pity once in a while. But that was before social media. So pretend there’s no social media if you feel an “Oh-Poor-Me” mood coming on.
7) Saying that You Self-Published because of Rejection
This is a common indie author mistake. I don’t know how many author bios I’ve read that state right there in black and white: “I was tired of getting rejections, so I decided to self-publish.”
Self-publishing is just as professional as traditional publishing, but when you tell people it was your second choice, you make it sound second class.
Maybe it’s true you tried to get an agent and got a ton of rejections. And maybe you were only rejected because were-rabbit erotica isn’t selling this year, and otherwise your book is tight as a drum and honed to perfection. (And entirely devoid of clichés. 🙂 )
But don’t tell us about the mass rejections! People want to buy books other people like (hence the lure of the bestseller) not ones everybody rejected.
8) Belligerence
We live in an era when anybody’s career can be wrecked by one angry Tweet. “Star Wars” writer Chuck Wendig got dropped by Marvel because of a few Tweets, so this isn’t something that only happens to newbies.
If you have a hair-trigger temper, do some meditating or take a chill pill before you go online. As I said above, online is “in public.”
For debut writers, this is especially true when reading your negative reviews. (And yes, you’ll get them. Everybody does. And a lot of them are idiotic. But you have to suck it up.)
Back before I knew better, I sometimes agreed to review something by one of my blog readers. Once I gave a rather glowing 4-star review to a bleak but well-written story about the toxic effects of a rageaholic father on his children.
I was shocked when the author wrote a furious reply. I couldn’t figure out why he was so angry at a 4-star review.
So I went back and reread the story. Slowly it dawned on me that the story wasn’t as well-written as I thought. The author expected the reader to sympathize with the raging father and not the cowering children.
Then I Googled around and saw his social media was full of signs of anger management issues. If you have them, get help. Or install a punching bag in your office. Otherwise, hire somebody to do your social media for you.
9) Expecting the Publishing Industry to be like Middle School
You wrote and published a whole book. No small feat.
But you don’t get a gold star for effort or a participation trophy. “They” don’t owe you anything. It’s not going to be fair. You don’t automatically get more sales because it took you 12 years to write your book.
If you’re not selling, it’s because your product isn’t reaching the right customers, or because it isn’t pleasing those customers. Maybe the market is saturated with that product, or nobody’s buying that product anymore.
Publishing is a business, as I said last year in one of our more popular posts.
The pizza place that has to deal with a cheaper pizza place moving in next door may go out of business. The failing restaurant isn’t going to get a gold star for participation no matter how unfair the situation is.
Business isn’t always fair.
10) Paranoia
All newbies are terrified of “idea theft.” But as I have said before, that’s not usually much of a problem for pros. They know it’s not about the idea—it’s how you write it.
So if you put stuff all over your website that screams in a big font that your blog is copyrighted and if anybody steals it you have a lawyer who’s going to rip them a new one, you’re waving a big red flag that says “amateur.”
Look at Stephen King’s website. The copyright notice is at the very bottom in a tiny font. That’s where it belongs.
And for goodness sake don’t keep your name a secret because you’re afraid of the Internet. If you don’t have your name on your blog or website, you might as well be typing on an old Royal in your basement and distributing your work via the sanitation department.
If you don’t want your real life peeps to know you’re a writer, use a pen name. But use a name that can be put on a book cover. Having a blog called Writings from my Soul or The Angry Keyboard–without your name front and center–is a waste of time. Ditto presenting yourself as Soulwriter or AngryKey on social media .
Your name (or pen name) is your brand. Use it.
It’s true that Internet provides fertile ground for pirates and crooks, but if you treat your potential readers like criminals, they’re not going to stick around.
***
The sad truth is that most non-superstar authors have seen a major drop-off in sales in the last two years. Amazon has become increasingly a pay-to-play retailer, where you have to buy ads (or be published by an Amazon imprint) to get noticed. So we’re all branching out to new retailers, trying to find new readers.
We also have to work harder because of the sheer number of books being published—most of which will never go out of print because of digital technology.
So you need to make sure everything you put out there is going to bring sales, not block them. Do keep your online presence positive and professional.
What about you, scriveners? Do you monitor your online presence? Have you ever found ridiculous mistakes in your online profiles? Does your bio reflect your professional self?
Last week I was so sick with bronchitis I didn’t get my book blog post up. But it’s there now, and I’m on the mend. It’s another poison post and I’m talking about the pretty but deadly Bloodroot plant. Click here for Poisoning People for Fun and Profit #39.
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Anne—Writers should heed Anne’s excellent advice and behave accordingly. Will they? 😉
Ruth–Probably only the people who don’t need it will heed it. Alas! 🙂
Ain’t it the truth? Face-to-face, it’s good to be kind & think of others. In writing, it’s good to be kind & think of others. On social media, it’s good to be kind & think of others. Amazing how hard this practice is for a lot of people. Thanks for the reminder, Anne. It’s clear there is fertile ground for this advice.
CS–I never cease to be amazed by the bad behavior of people online. The Next Door app seems to be the most vivid illustration. People who will wave and be friendly when they meet you on the street will say the most vicious, cruel, sociopathic things to their neighbors online. I have to say I don’t get it. Sigh.
Yeah, don’t get me started on Next Door. A good example of not saying something online that you wouldn’t say to someone’s face.
Jeanne–Isn’t it bizarre how awful people can be on Next Door? Stuff they’d never say face to face. Often using their own names. And we know where they live! Using a screen seems to make some people lose their civilized veneer and devolve into poop-throwing primates.
I’ll add one more: If someone turns down doing a review, don’t fight back with them. That happened to me. Guy asked me to review his “action adventure thriller.” I checked the book and samples. It was a fantasy detective story. I would have given it a one star for the misrepresentation and the many typos in the sample. So I politely said, “Sorry, no thanks. It’s not for me.” He got nasty. Demanded to know why. I told him it wasn’t an action adventure thriller. He argued back and said it was. This was in public on Twitter.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is be the adult and walk away.
Linda–Ain’t it the truth! The problem is, you don’t know you’re dealing with a nutjob until you’ve interacted with them, and then it’s too late. They’ve already let loose with their attack.
Authors who demand reviews and/or who inundate the Internet with spam have made life must more difficult for the rest of us. Think how many people will never review an indie book again after meeting your trollish amateur. Self-publishing is great for authors overall, but a whole lot of people have published who should never have been let out of their mom’s basements.
What a great place for a signing!
Good point – no negative complaining. All right to be down now and then, but a lot of whining wears on people.
No gold stars? That will disappoint a lot of Millennials…
Alex–Yes! We are so blessed to have two fantastic indie bookstores here in Morro Bay and Los Osos.
It’s one thing to share your health or family woes with your online peeps, but whining incessantly really drives people away. And yeah, no gold stars for whining. 🙂
A note about Chuck Wendig. If you ever have the chance to read his blog, he is very much his blog. His blog is his persona and vice versa. While the language in those tweets leave nothing to the imagination (he says he got fired due to the language and I’m sure Marvel said something else, but it’s probably somewhere in the middle), Marvel and other companies should realize what you see is often what you get. I’m not defending him because I don’t like his political leanings, but he is what he is. He’s also a very good writer.
But I do believe that overall, writers have to be careful what they show the public. There are a few well known writers that I’m friends with on FB (not including you with this particular comment) who I’ve had to unfollow because they suffer from hardcore/embedded T.D.S. While 100% of their friend/followers are varying degrees of sheeple, I believe that staying within that particular vein of T.D,S. will make it incredible hard to attract any new casual readers to their books. For me, it’s going to be a very long time before I even think about reading any of their books, simply because of their extreme left of center political views.
GB–I’m a big fan of Chuck Wendig’s blog and I’ve been reading it for years. But I always post a warning when I link to it because of his raw language. I think the problem was that in this volatile era, using that language on Twitter got him in trouble the way language on his blog did not. And obviously, he was also punished for his politics. He’s very sincere in his beliefs, but in this polarized environment, any author who talks politics is taking a huge risk. I don’t recommend it to newbies.
As usual, a very thoughtful, thorough, and useful blog post, Anne. Great advice for writers who are burdened with the emotionally reactive “gene.” Feel better.
Steve–Thanks! I am finally winning my battle with this nasty virus, and I’m sounding less like an elderly frog. 🙂 I love your phrase “emotionally reactive.” Yes, people who are quick to emotional reactions need to be very careful with online interactions.
Anne, you remind us how to be professional writers! As your list shows, self-awareness and a positive attitude are key to how we project ourselves, grow a following, and promote discoverability. For all those reasons, I’ve taken a step back from Twitter and wonder if others have as well. The atmosphere on Twitter encourages belligerance, rage, and other things that cause ulcers and lead readers to flee in droves.
Carmen–Yes, this is all about professionalism. We need to remember we are professionals in all our transactions. Twitter can certainly trigger emotional reactions. I’ve solved the problem by only reading my @ notifications. If any of those are offensive, I block the user. So now I mostly have very pleasant interactions only with people who are interested in writing and books and publishing. I guess it’s like staying in the kiddie pool. Shallow, but safe. 🙂
You must have written this some time back Anne. Who could be so upbeat and positive when feeling so poorly! Get better soon.
I probably need to back off political commentary online, especially since I lean on FB so hard and don’t use an author page (just a world page). I can never seem to NOT engage, it’s the old academic in me. But by the same token I can’t blame anything happening there for not being a bestseller. I’m reading “The Author Blog” now and my platform has more holes than a pasta strainer. Maybe I can plug a few this year!
Will–As a matter of fact, I did have the bones of this piece all written before the virus from hell hit me. But I’m feeling better now.
I’m so glad to hear you’re reading The Author Blog! I don’t want to discourage people. I think you can build platform without it taking over your life. Or your pasta strainer. 🙂
I noted what you said on politics re: Wendig and I’d add – don’t talk about religion either! It’s difficult because sometimes you want to use your platform (if you have a decent following) to draw attention to particular issues but it can be really divisive. I save stuff like that for my personal ‘friends only’ Facebook, and keep Twitter for sharing hilarious otter videos (is there any other kind?) and folklore goodness. I like to think of my social feeds as performing a public service – putting something in front of someone that might brighten their day, rather than irritate them.
Icy–I agree about religion–for the most part. I’m very wary when somebody’s entire Twitter profile consists of their religious beliefs. On the other hand, I follow a blogger who talks about her ethnic heritage and religious traditions quite often, (And she includes recipes!) I feel I learn from all her posts and the recipes are great.
I think the main thing is not to use your religion as a weapon to judge and disparage other people. And don’t sound like a fanatic. Nobody wants to read the work of a fanatic, because it’s going to be one-sided and ranty and probably stupid.
I did not know you Tweeted about otters. I’m mad for otters. I will have to seek out your Tweets! I love to share otter photos to my FB page. Ditto cats, of course. And I’m 100% with you. I’d rather brighten somebody’s day than add to their stress.
Sound advice, Anne, as always. I had a two Facebook friends who tagged me and 40-60 other people every time they promoted another podcast episode. I asked numerous times to exclude me in the future, but neither listened. Or cared. I’m not one to unfriend someone (I’m selective in who I accept), but these two came dangerously close. Instead, I gave them one last chance to play by the rules. And they unfriended me! Good riddance.
Getting added to newsletters burns me up.It seems to be a growing trend lately. Oy.
Sue–That is the #1 no-no on Twitter! You should NEVER mass-tag people in order to promote your product. What Bozos. I would have blocked and unfriended them. I always do when somebody tags me with something like that.
Unfortunately there are no laws against that kind of bad behavior, but there ARE laws against email spam. (Although you’re right that it’s on the rise at the moment. I’ll be writing about that in two weeks.)
When somebody puts you on their mailing list without permission, they’re spamming. You can report them and they can be fined $11,000 PER EMAIL. I have reported people. It’s quite satisfying. 🙂
So much good, solid advice in this one, Anne. I love your blogs about blogging and author platforms. And, of course, I devoured your how-to Easy Blogging For Busy Authors. As a result, my online presence, my website, my current blog are always the first entries that come up for my name in any search engine.
The MyLife entry for my name is about three pages down, and even though I’m tempted to follow through and see what they have on me, I am reluctant to engage with them.
Joanna–I’m so glad to hear my book helped you build a bigger platform. Music to my ears! (And many, many thanks for writing an Amazon review! )
I wouldn’t engage with the MyLife guy. He’s been in and out of prison and is a known lowlife. Most people I know have found incorrect info there. But the guy won’t change it unless you pay. 🙁 . Why he’s not back behind bars, I’ll never know.
Great list, Anne! I admit that I often “like” political posts/tweets but I rarely share or retweet them unless it’s a a pet issue of mine. People who know me are already aware of my political leanings so why preach to the choir? People who read my books might be able to figure it out, but maybe not. My books tend to be on the “sweet” side but you’d never guess it if you hung around me for long. I often have to bite my tongue when speaking publicly so the, ahem, wrong word doesn’t slip out. Case in point, the other day I exchanged text messages having to do with banking with my adult son, who works for an insurance company. I was using voice-to-text and “SESLOC account” (the name of our credit union) turned up as “sex lack account.” I wasn’t wearing reading glasses and hit send. My son, who also has a wicked sense of humor, texted back that he enjoys a discount on sex workers so long as they are in network. I nearly fell off my chair laughing and was about to share a screenshot on my personal FB page until I realized that I have a number of “friends” who I really don’t know and might be offended. I deleted the post. This makes me a little sad because we should be able to be our authentic, racy, irreverent selves and laughter is what people need most right now, isn’t it?
And now I’m hesitating to post this comment because people doing a search for one of the phrases above are going to be very disappointed by landing on a writing advice blog. On the other hand, you might thank me for driving traffic. LOL Feel free to delete it. I’ve had to develop a thick skin in this authorly world. XOOX
Eldonna–Haha. You seriously had me LOL. The whole idea of a “Sex Lack Account” is hilarious. Because of autocorrect, I don’t think things like that are likely to hurt our online profiles. I think you could have shared it. I see racy autocorrect memes from grandmotherly types all the time.
But yes, I’ve had to learn to write #@&! instead of the word I’d be likely to use in real life. It’s tough to put on an online persona that only reflects one aspect of your real self. And since my heroine is a fashionista and an etiquette expert, it’s been something of a stretch for me. 🙂 But it pays off. I do the same with political posts. I hit “like” but never share to my pages. And I’m in a few private political groups where I can vent. And there’s no politics in either of my blogs.
As always, an excellent post with concrete advice. Thank you.
Thanks, Phyllis!
Great post, Anne! Thanks for the all the tips. I didn’t even know #4 was a thing!!!
Jemi–Those “white pages” sites sound like a clever idea, but they get so much wrong! Kind of scary. It’s worth it to Google yourself on a regular basis.
Ooohh what a list! Thank you! I’m working with a new author and she has much to learn—especially about the newsletter sign up. I told her that just because she does a biz card exchange doesn’t mean that person is an automatic signup. She wasn’t convinced. Smh
Maureen–Your client will be convinced when she gets a bill for $100K. It happens. Send her the link to Barb Drozdowich’s post on the subject. It’s no joke. It has happened to some of her clients. And it’s worse now. If any of those emails go to the EU, your client’s career is over. Maybe she thinks it would be fun to end up homeless and destitute and permanently in debt, but most of us don’t.
Haha thanks for the levity. Already sent.
Another wonderful post that my students will be sent to! I keep telling them: publishers publish what readers want to read, not what writers want to write. It’s the same with blogs. What do readers of blogs want to read? Certainly not whining and insecurity. Not complaints about the unfairness of the industry. They want to be entertained, not lectured or depressed. First rate post.
Melodie–So many people do not get what blogging is about. You can blog about anything…as long as it’s entertaining. If it’s a big whine fest, or a rant against your ex-mother in law, nobody cares. As them how much they like listening to somebody whine and complain. hope this helps to get that through to them!
Ten great suggestions to safeguard our online personas.
You are so right, reputations can be destroyed by a singe tweet. We have to be mindful.
As an author seeking representation, I need to carefully monitor my online presence.
I cannot thank you enough for sharing so much valuable information.
Thanks Anne for another great article.
~Ingmar Albizu
Ingmar–This is especially true for author seeking representation. One whiff of a whine about agents or the publishing industry and you could sabotage your chances of ever getting an agent. And agents sure don’t want to find anything cruel or racist in your past. Then your career is over before it starts.
This is so great, and feels especially timely to me.
I’ve been following and participating some in the #writerscommunity and #writlngcommunity hashtags on Twitter for the past couple months. Lots of newbies on there (many not yet published), and I’ve had a strong desire to put a few of them over my knee and deliver a spanking.
Begging for work.
Getting into Twitter fights.
Lots of whining.
Tweeting whilst drunky-poo.
And more.
Of course, there’s some fun stuff, and lots of nice people. It’s far from all bad. But every single one of ’em ought to read this post and heed the warnings…particularly the idea that you shouldn’t post it if you wouldn’t want it on the front page of the paper!
I will be sharing this one for a while. Thanks, Anne.
Mike–You bring up something I probably should have mentioned. NEVER DRINK AND COMMENT! Better yet, if you’re drinking or toking, stick to Netflix and chilling. One drunken post could tank a career. Look what’s just happened to a guy who had a stupid frat boy joke in his college yearbook over 30 years ago. Think what could happen with a month-old drunk tweet. Thanks for bringing that up!
“If you’re drinking or toking, stick to Netflix and chilling.” Well put! That would fit nicely if you ever want to expand the article. Cheers.
Excellent advice, Anne, and I’m sorry to say I’ve seen many of these rookie mistakes. Made a few too, I’m sure. But what I really want to know is where can I get a beach house for $21? Are there any on the market in your neighborhood? 😉
Annie
Annie–Yeah, those $21 California beach houses. They’ve got them all over. Some people call them “bird houses”, but hey, if you’re a smallish bird, they’re great! It won’t be in the best neighborhood, but if you’re okay hanging from the eaves behind the WalMart, they’re cool. Haha. Too funny. There was a time about 50 years ago when you could buy a people house in this neighborhood for $20,000. But now, you can’t get much more than a shack for half a million. Problem is, nobody’s making any more beaches. Sigh.
LOL! Yeah, birdhouse is about right. 😀
Thank you, Anne. I enjoyed reading this article. Good points, well put.
Frank–Thanks for taking the time to comment!
I still shocked that someone added you to a mailing list–because they read your blog. So weird.
H. R. It’s amazing, but it happens all the time. And they’re furious that I object. These are always people with no “unsubscribe button, of course.
Excellent post, Anne! Very helpful. It was no small feat to clean up my online presence last year as I was launching my debut book – hell, even standardizing my profile pics across all platforms was an ordeal. Re: whining, I find it very helpful to have a private social media page just for friends. In my case, I used Google+ (RIP, old friend, I need a new outlet come April). There, I put all the rants about my publisher and everything else. The public-facing pages (ie. Twitter) are much more demure.
I’m trying to be very cognizant of #7 right now. My debut with an indie publisher last year went tits-up when the publisher “went on hiatus,” and I’m relaunching it next week self-published. I’m packaging it as a “2nd Edition” and leaving all mention of who is or isn’t publishing it out of the conversation. I figure no one will have the patience to listen to my tale of woe about what exactly went down, so let’s leave it at “yay, the book is shiny and new!”
I really need to send #9 to one of my acquaintances; I’ve spent the weekend hanging out with her and am utterly exhausted by her diatribes about the unfairness of the world. She self-pubbed a children’s adventure trilogy. She is livid that (1) bookstores aren’t falling over themselves to promote the book; (2) Amazon isn’t falling over itself to promote the book; (3) conferences like BookExpo aren’t booking her as the keynote speaker; and (4) the film producer she just met with didn’t immediately option her book for lots and lots of money. *sigh*
Irvin–You have a special circumstance when you’re with a small press that goes under. It’s happened to me twice. The major problem with small presses is that they’re operating on such a slim profit margin that any setback can knock them out of the game. I think it’s a good idea to mark it as a “2nd edition,” so people know it’s been vetted by pros, even if it didn’t make it to print with them.
I’m going to miss Google + too! I’ve enjoyed the quiet, drama free atmosphere. You might want to start a private FB page, or join one of the new start ups like WeMe (which I just joined, although I have no idea how I’ll have time to keep it up.)
I hope your friend gets the point if you send her this post. Business isn’t fair. And nobody owes you. You have to make your own gold stars. 🙂
Any further advice on indies going under? I didn’t realize it was that common, but so far it’s happened to me and to the one friend I knew who also indie-published. So if you’ve been through it too, maybe there’s a blog post needed here? Y’know, stuff like how much (or how little) of the dirty laundry to air in public, how to promote the resurrection of something you’ve already promoted the release of, how to make a smooth transition to your self-pubbed version, etc. (I was lucky in that last regard, my publisher just left it up on Amazon until I emailed her to take it down cuz 2nd Edition was going live.)
I’m avoiding FB – never had a profile, never will – but definitely want to find a substitute for good old G+. I’ve looked around, and Pluspora seems to have really good functionality, I just need to actually get some friends on it now.
Irvin–Small presses are notorious for being short-lived. Some industry watchdogs like Victoria Strauss, suggest we stay away from small presses altogether. I think that’s too harsh, but we have to accept that we’re taking a big risk if we sign with one, especially one that’s new and doesn’t have a solid backlist to pay the bills.
I haven’t heard of Pluspora, but I’ve joined something called WeMe that’s trying to be an alternative to FB. There seem to be a bunch of them springing up. If you find one where your demographic hangs out, it might work for you.
I read these examples of what not to do and much of time I can’t believe people are actually doing this stuff and acting this way. My goodness. Everything we say and do and write about can’t be taken back once we’ve posted it. In some ways that’s scary, but if you act like a nice person and are respectful, there’s not a lot to be afraid of in the sense of messing up your profile and reputation. Act like an asshat and what do you expect?
Thanks for the post…as always.
Patricia–It’s hard to believe isn’t it? People seem to have no self-awareness. Somehow they think if nobody can see them through the computer screen, they’re anonymous and nobody will know what they’ve been up to. Ha!
Oh to be near your bookstore for so many reasons! Lovely. Beth
Beth–I know we’re blessed to have Coalesce. I love that place. That’s why I’ve given it to Camilla as her bookstore. (Except she doesn’t have the lovely garden…yet.)
Nice list. Thanks so much for this!
However, some people do well writing in a small place on an old Royal.
https://reasonandreflection.wordpress.com/tag/john-adams/
We all may need to own an old Royal, someday, the way things are going. 🙂
Katharine–I held onto my old Olivetti for years, until I realized there was no way my arthritic fingers could press down those keys anymore. But if you’re going to write like that, you need a staff of assistants like McCullough, who can copytype it all into a computer.
And it’s definitely best not to try to circulate your writing via the circular file and the sanitation department. 🙂
😀
These are all great tips, Anne. I’ve got to say, #1 and #2 really get to me. Proof, people! It’s important. Ooh… And #6. *cringe* Have a lovely week!
Sarah–I’ve observed that the newsletter addicts are most likely to slide into the “too much information” trap. They’ve been told that everybody who’s ever read one of their books is as interested in their personal lives as a tween girl is in the love life of Harry Styles. I wish the “gurus” would stop telling them that!
There is a lot of information out there from “gurus” and, honestly, it mostly confuses because the people giving advice often contradict each other. In a BIG way. Like…bottom line ways. (Just for a little non-TMI fun, I never had any interest in pop stars/movie stars/what-have-you stars as a tween girl. I did, however, have a strange interest in Gene Wilder and his amazing, offbeat humor.) 🙂
Anyway, thanks for your blog, lady. I always enjoy reading it.
Gene Wilder was always cool. Good choice. 🙂
Thanks for the inspiration.
Really like the part on belligerence, inspired me to start a new blog and write this : https://oneangrytweet.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/one-angry-tweet/
Already have the punching bag.
Mr. Nonymous–Ruth and I offer advice to new writers who want professional publishing careers. They’re online in order to establish a brand and make a name for themselves.
But since you’re choosing to remain anonymous, none of this applies to you.
Hi Anne!
“YA were-rabbit erotica genre” ? Please tell me this is not a thing. Please.
I would add that if you blog on your author website (and even if you don’t):
Verify links in your blog articles all work.
This is particularly important for past posts. I have a WordPress plug in that periodically emails me links in old articles I have written that used to work and now don’t. Not surprising, external links can “break” for a variety of reasons (e.g. the article to which you linked has been taken down for whatever reason).
The more you blog, the greater the chance that some of your old links no longer function. Link maintenance is a chore that one must address on a regular basis. It’s not fun, but it is necessary.
My two cents. 🙂
Regards,
Brant
Brant–Were rabbit erotica is a joke. You can rest easy. 🙂 I agree that the WordPress plug-in link checker is a big time-saver.
I’ve just checked every link in this post and they all work fine for me. Maybe it’s something going on with your browser? I use Chrome.
Hi Anne:
Sorry, I wasn’t clear enough. I didn’t mean your links didn’t work. I meant in general people writing blogs should check their links (myself included!).
And yes, the link checker is great, though I must admit that I wince whenever one of its automated emails pops up in my inbox. You know its not emailing you just to say “hi”. 🙂
Best regards,
Brant
Oh, I get it now. Yeah. I dread those broken link detector emails too. Especially when there are a bunch of them. There will probably be a whole lot when Google + dies, because a lot of people use a Google + profile to comment.
Hi Anne, the tips you provide in this are invaluable. They are vitally important and the way you put it is crystal clear. Taking the time to do this blog and to help your fellow authors, both newbies and established is laudable in itself. It is informative and inspirational, but also encouraging. This is a public service to the publishing industry and Thank you for it Anne – you have probably helped many more people than you know – keep up the good work.
Ian–Why, thank you! I do think it’s important to get this information out there. We don’t run ads because we want to stay unbiased. Our way of giving back to the publishing community.
Very informative. Thank you!
Stevie–Thanks for stopping by!
I’m relieved to know that the majority of my online presence is at least spelled correctly. It’s appalling when I see media headlines spelled incorrectly, but even the best literary sagas have typos, right? Thank you for the reminder to check on our online presence from time to time. Something I forget to do.