Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Up the Creek

Kim McDougall, of Blazing Trailers, sent out an email with a message from Tribute-Books. Evidently, they are looking for authors in the young adult genre (YA for the terminally hip). Well, that let me out, but I still found something in the note that did apply to me. Here's the quote:


"I am a big believer in the power of social media ... In my opinion, social networking is the bread and butter of any author's promotional efforts. Without it, it's like trying to paddle upstream without a canoe. Readers want to connect with the person who wrote the book. They crave interaction with an author. Nothing beats getting a writer to comment on a blogger's book review post or getting a personalized thank you tweet from your favorite author. The days of authors being isolated from their fans is over. They're now able to build an online following and receive instant feedback for their work. They have the opportunity to take part in creating their own literary community."


And there, gentle readers, is the very essence of my dilemma ... I don't disagree at all with the author of this quote, in fact I'm sure it is the deal ... in spades. Evidently, I just don't have the knowledge, ability, creativity or stamina (am I leaving anything out?) to take advantage of it. You know where that leaves me?

6 comments:

  1. What you need here is an angle my friend! Some way you CAN connect with your readers. You need a theme. A theme song might not be bad either.

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  2. Alex: Good idea. I heard the old Monday Night Football song is up for grabs ... a little tweak and it says, 'Are you ready for some readin'?' I can see it now, beer, potato chips and folks gathering around a computer screen to comment on Chris's Fazebook page!

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  3. I'm in that creek with you. I'm socially awkward - with a twitter account I forget to use, a Facebook author page I sometimes post on, and a blog that suffers from terminal neglect. :)

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  4. Laura: Turns out that the Internet is like a big high school dance ... us wall-flowers sit on the sidelines watching the in-crowd dance.

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  5. Chris honey, tough love time, stop whining and start tweeting. It's like riding a bike, shaky at first, but once you get the hang of it, easy and fun. Push that comfort zone sweetie.

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  6. Pru: Tough love from a Newfie is tough, but, as usual, warranted. I will go into that dark and scary place, but must dig deep into my heritage for Newfie fortitude and courage.

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