”A new kind of promotional strategy is emerging, one where authors are getting online and personal.”
Wendy Elaine Nelles
Great article in The Huffington Post on July 27 by author Joanne Rendell titled “Best Friends Forever? Authors and Their Readers on Twitter and Facebook.” Thanks to agent Janet Grant from Books and Such for Twittering the link.
Rendell makes some excellent points about the growing tyranny of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Authors for royalty publishers are expected to shoulder increasing responsibilities for promoting the sales of their own books. Publishers have slashed budgets for overworked staff publicists, buying ads or subsidizing author tours for all but well-established star authors. They’ve off-loaded promotion onto authors, figuring the author has the most motivation of anybody to try to drum up sales, and knows the most about the book. Simultaneously, improved digital technology, the public’s embrace of the New Media and the growth of social networking has made author self-promotion much more feasible, all from the comfort of his/her own home.
Authors and other professional writers are increasingly expected to keep up a constant flow of pithy, intriguing, entertaining commentary to engage fans and to build buzz for their work — simultaneously using precious time, creativity and energy that should be devoted to their work-in-progress.
Writers feel pressure to share details from their personal lives so their fans feel like they “know” them. Readers who sign on to become a Facebook “friend” or a Twitter “follower” develop a vested interest in the writer. Although it’s a completely virtual relationship, some may even feel they are now real-life friends with the author — one of the hundreds or thousands of friends all publishers want their authors to gather in the quest for building that elusive “branding” and “platform.”
That sense of loyalty and camaraderie among the fans can be a powerful force, as the friends and followers buy books, post reviews, make word-of-mouth recommendations, and celebrate the writer’s successes vicariously. Now arm-chair readers can feel just as much a sense of identity and community as arm-chair athletes, those sports fans who talk about how “we’re the best” or “we won,” and avidly follow news about their favourite players.
Here’s the start of Rendell’s article:
Facebook Status. Jennifer Weiner. July 22nd 2009 5.15 pm. ”Just got the call from my editor: BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is a number one New York Times best seller! I am astonished, and thrilled, and crying, and SO GRATEFUL TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO BOUGHT A COPY. You all feel like my best friends right now!”
One of the first things author Jennifer Weiner did after discovering her new novel had hit the top spot on the New York Times bestsellers list this week: she Twittered and Facebooked about it. Her status update caused a flood of excited replies from Facebook fans and numerous “@Jenniferweiner Congratulations” responses on Twitter. Many of Weiner’s online friends who gathered around (in cyberspace) to celebrate the success of Best Friend’s Forever said they’d bought the book and thus helped her clinch the number one spot.
It’s telling that Weiner is using social networking sites to connect with fans — and ultimately to promote her new book. If an already bestselling author is using these tools then the days when authors tapped in the last word of their manuscript, sent it to their editors, and then sat back and waited for the royalties to roll in are well and truly over.
Read the rest of the article here.
