The anti social media spin on self publishing

[lovecraft68]

This was posted back in April, but a friend sent it to me a few days ago and on a personal level as well as what I have done selling wise without any social media I couldn't agree with more.

http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/13/please-shut-up-why-self-promotion-as-an-author-doesnt-work

There are great points here, mostly surrounding the pebble in the ocean theory of posting anything on the net.

Now if you go all the way to the bottom(and read some of the comments, they are very good as well) you will see the person linked their own rebuttal saying some social media is good. So they do give the other side of the coin.

I feel however, her second link is a ...uh-oh I upset people and is a make up piece with no where near the feeling or depth of her first piece which is obviously her true feelings so for me points off for damage control, especially considering the people who blasted her are the exact people she talks about in article one. But there are some decent pointers in it if you are on social media.

I'm sure this link will cause a lot of "oh, she's full of shit" talk here though.

 

[lovecraft68]

For me personally, I concur with the above link as its a waste of time unless you simply enjoy social media.

Why? Because to me you know who is following self published authors on their FB, blogs and twitter? Other self published authors.

Its, like me, I will like you, retweet me I will do the same and pimp me on your blog I will pimp you. The problem? Its all people trying to sell and maybe a few buy others books, but most won't and fact is, its not readers following your blog, its other writers, in other words, you are talking to yourselves, your own little inbred community.

I had never had any form of social media and a few months ago my wife created a twitter account for me because she does believe in social media for her writing.

Now for the record? I sell about 15 times more books a month than she does and that's every month. Could be genre, as sin sells and her self help spiritual stuff is more niche market, but point is her social media does squat for her.

I have 10 followers on twitter, two 'auto follows' that as soon as you follow them they follow you and both are sports websites. The other eight? You guessed it, indy authors that I faved, pretty much proving the theory that no one else really cares.

The best part of the article I linked above was why are you blogging, tweeting, liking etc when you can be WRITING? While people are chasing each other around FB I'm getting my next e-book ready.

Self publishing in erotica for the vast majority will not only never be a full time income, but for many its a few bucks a month on a handful of sales. From what I have gathered over the years-providing everyone I have dealt with is being honest-if you are pulling a couple hundred dollars a month, you're not doing badly in the realm of indy erotica. If you're hitting a grand a month? You're pretty near upper tier.

I sell an average of 650+ e-books a month and back in 2012/2013 before amazon's last witch hunt which affected pseudo incest titles I was selling 900-1000 books a month there alone.

The only method I have is to just keep writing. In four years of selling I have averaged 20+ new e-books a year and that, not pimping myself is what builds the sales. When you have an extensive library people who buy and like a book will come back and buy more and if your pricing is reasonable you can see a lot of multiple sales.

So my experience so far has been just write and write and write. Talking to the net is time away from that.

Its so simple it should speak for itself, but doesn't.

Why? Ego.

Some people write book post it move on. Some people need to tell the world "I just published a book! Look at me! Listen to me!" Blogging, tweeting, is as much about ego as marketing and the above article points that out, too much look at me time and not enough production time.

All of the above is my opinion, but mixed with results so if you want to disagree that's fine, but simply dismissing the article above and the results of someone selling for closing on on five years now is a potential mistake as well.

Want to build a platform of readers who may buy from you? This right here is the platform, a site where hundreds of thousands of people come to read what you're selling everyday and if they like you enough they will buy your books. Its a better shot than screaming into the void of the web.

 

[R. Richard]

So my experience so far has been just write and write and write. Talking to the net is time away from that.

plus publish, publish, publish!

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Shhh . . . don't state the obvious.

Want to build a platform of readers who may buy from you? This right here is the platform, a site where hundreds of thousands of people come to read what you're selling everyday and if they like you enough they will buy your books. Its a better shot than screaming into the void of the web.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

I thought that was an interesting article.

I have a friend who has some kind of publishing deal for a self-help book. It's linked up to Amazon somehow, but it's not self-published. He's got a virtual lecture tour planned.

The things he has to do for the "launch" are insane! He has seven (unpaid) interns cranking out the social media 24/7 practically. It is a FT job getting his "platform" running. He's had massive success in several areas, the self-help book is meant to be his bug huge splash into fame. Which in his case is not that far fetched, I don't think. He's young, been doing this sh*t forever. I get an inside look into all the work you have to do.

Good god. Makes me feel old.

For me personally, I concur with the above link as its a waste of time unless you simply enjoy social media.

Why? Because to me you know who is following self published authors on their FB, blogs and twitter? Other self published authors.

Its, like me, I will like you, retweet me I will do the same and pimp me on your blog I will pimp you. The problem? Its all people trying to sell and maybe a few buy others books, but most won't and fact is, its not readers following your blog, its other writers, in other words, you are talking to yourselves, your own little inbred community.

I had never had any form of social media and a few months ago my wife created a twitter account for me because she does believe in social media for her writing.

Now for the record? I sell about 15 times more books a month than she does and that's every month. Could be genre, as sin sells and her self help spiritual stuff is more niche market, but point is her social media does squat for her.

I have 10 followers on twitter, two 'auto follows' that as soon as you follow them they follow you and both are sports websites. The other eight? You guessed it, indy authors that I faved, pretty much proving the theory that no one else really cares.

The best part of the article I linked above was why are you blogging, tweeting, liking etc when you can be WRITING? While people are chasing each other around FB I'm getting my next e-book ready.

Self publishing in erotica for the vast majority will not only never be a full time income, but for many its a few bucks a month on a handful of sales. From what I have gathered over the years-providing everyone I have dealt with is being honest-if you are pulling a couple hundred dollars a month, you're not doing badly in the realm of indy erotica. If you're hitting a grand a month? You're pretty near upper tier.

I sell an average of 650+ e-books a month and back in 2012/2013 before amazon's last witch hunt which affected pseudo incest titles I was selling 900-1000 books a month there alone.

The only method I have is to just keep writing. In four years of selling I have averaged 20+ new e-books a year and that, not pimping myself is what builds the sales. When you have an extensive library people who buy and like a book will come back and buy more and if your pricing is reasonable you can see a lot of multiple sales.

So my experience so far has been just write and write and write. Talking to the net is time away from that.

Its so simple it should speak for itself, but doesn't.

Why? Ego.

Some people write book post it move on. Some people need to tell the world "I just published a book! Look at me! Listen to me!" Blogging, tweeting, is as much about ego as marketing and the above article points that out, too much look at me time and not enough production time.

All of the above is my opinion, but mixed with results so if you want to disagree that's fine, but simply dismissing the article above and the results of someone selling for closing on on five years now is a potential mistake as well.

Want to build a platform of readers who may buy from you? This right here is the platform, a site where hundreds of thousands of people come to read what you're selling everyday and if they like you enough they will buy your books. Its a better shot than screaming into the void of the web.

 

[lovecraft68]

I thought that was an interesting article.

I have a friend who has some kind of publishing deal for a self-help book. It's linked up to Amazon somehow, but it's not self-published. He's got a virtual lecture tour planned.

The things he has to do for the "launch" are insane! He has seven (unpaid) interns cranking out the social media 24/7 practically. It is a FT job getting his "platform" running. He's had massive success in several areas, the self-help book is meant to be his bug huge splash into fame. Which in his case is not that far fetched, I don't think. He's young, been doing this sh*t forever. I get an inside look into all the work you have to do.

Good god. Makes me feel old.

The key to your post is others are doing it, not him and he's had prior success though not through publishing. Plus seeing there is a type of tour planned at least there is a method to media as in it is pushing an actual event, not just a book.

 

[redzinger]

There are several fellow writers I've followed, then unfollowed a very short time later.

I don't want my newsfeeds to be full of RTs.

I also use my 'like' (formerly favourites) function differently to everyone else - as a bookmark, rather than a thumbs up. I wish they were two separate functions though.

I tried a blog tour. Zilch difference in sales.

My publisher has a couple of pages on Fb and there's a writer who's constantly on there. Constantly. So much, that Fb blocked her for a week for promotional activity. I'm fed up of hearing from her, yet everyone else seems to think it's great. And she seems to be quite successful. So it must be me in the wrong, right?

People are welcome to follow me. Just know that I don't post constantly, apart from the odd drunken tweet or selfie when I get accounts mixed up. (Ironically, my personal twitter account has over 400 followers, with whom I interact about all kinds of shit, yet my writing account barely 160, and most of them already follow my personal account.)