Thursday, July 15, 2010

Social Media + Authors= Marketplace Glut?

I Love Facebook and I adore Twitter. I don't do My Space and Linked In and all those other sites ... I just love what I love and that's what I love. On Twitter I follow maybe 100 authors or more. On Facebook I have a friends list of well, mostly the same authors.

I will admit here only, because we're all such good friends, that I don't know who some of these people are. I'm ashamed. Right there on Facebook snuggled up to my favorite coworker is some author whose work I don't know posting about her vacation to sunny somewhere and her word count for the day. She's not as fascinating as my favorite coworker who is going to her great-grandmother's 90th birthday party but still I follow.

And follow and follow and follow..

Some authors I'm hot and heavy for (Victoria Dahl, I be heavy breathing your name!!). But some are writers of esoteric Amish bicentennial erotica with an epress that I'll never read. Yet still I follow.

As a soon to be esoteric author myself I'm told that I need to be on all these social media sites and promoting myself without appearing to promote myself to people who might not be interested in reading my chain-smoking, trangendered alien from the Planet 69. In other words, I should add to the glut of authors trying to get your money via social networking while looking like a fun and interesting person who really doesn't want your sale (soft marketing, I'm softly panting in your ear).

Anyway, are you like me? Do you follow everyone who puts pen to paper despite their stories published only by Invisible Press? Do you follow authors at all? Are you on Facebook or Twitter or My Space or Whatever Else There Is?

1 comment:

  1. Well babe, you know how much I LURVE FB... NOT! And Twitter? I won't comment on why I think it's called that.

    It's just a good thing I know ya from here and the UG and I can still learn of your writing that way. I love you long time but I don't think I'll be increasing my FB time.

    I can see however how it might be a good thing for some. Any way to get yourself out there and noticed can't be all bad. Right?

    Still, as you say, you follow people who you don't know and will probably never read, so why would you be interested in how many words they type or what their cat did behind hte sofa while they were watching tele?

    A conundrum wrapped in a mystery masquerading as an enigma. Let me know what you decide :D

    hugs.

    ReplyDelete