5 Tips On Social Media For Today’s Author—Guest Blog by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Please welcome Bryan Thomas Schmidt as a guest today. Bryan is a writer, a musician, and a professional at social media, so he's going to give us  some valuable information on how to handle social media and book promotion while still writing our books.

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

If you’re an author today, chances are, social media has become a big part of the way you communicate with people. Modern authors often use it for communicating not just with fans but fellow authors, their editors, publishers and other professional contacts as well as family. In fact, many publishers and agents expect a commitment to social media from authors before they’ll offer a contract or as part of one. With the publishing industry in flux due to ebooks, downsizing of bookstores, the explosion of online sales, etc., more and more the marketing of books has come to fall upon the shoulders of the author.

For many, this can be very daunting. Artists by nature are often introverts. Authors, in particular, spend lots of time alone in a room with their computer, working. Social interaction is a distraction and drain they don’t seek. And certainly to do social media well, you have to learn how to come out of that shell. I’ve been building my online platform since 2009 and grown my author blog from 30 hits a month to over 3000 in that time. I’ve had success nationally marketing my novels and work through social media, and it has opened doors I never imagined. So Linda graciously asked me to share some tips with you.

First, social media is social. It’s not about you, it’s about the community. If you’re going to get involved, you must remember that above all else. The surest way to ruin your efforts is to be all about yourself. If your tweet stream is nothing but ads and links to your work, then you are going to chase people away. Your goal should be to build relationships, first, buyers second. People who like you and enjoy your conversations will, eventually, become interested in your work. That will lead to sales. While in the past, readers found a book, liked it, and then started contacting the author to get to know them, this is not how social media works. So you must approach it that way from the start or you’re very likely to fail before you begin.

Second, go with what’s comfortable. There are so many options it can be daunting. Experiment and find the ones you can get into and stick with those. You don’t have to be everywhere. It’d be impossible to keep up. For me, outside of my blog, I use Facebook and Twitter primarily. Google+ is there for me to distribute links from my Twitter and blog and that’s about it. With Twitter and Facebook, I get into comments and discussions a lot. I promote other people’s stuff as much as my own. I started a Twitter chat, in fact, called Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat (hashtag #sffwrtcht) to promote others and regularly interview authors, editors and others live on Twitter, every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET. This has opened up a huge name recognition and network of relationships which have definitely helped my career. Many people in the business know my name now who otherwise never would have, including some legendary authors I’ve admired for years.

Yes, it’s hard to talk about yourself for most of us, despite our egos. I get that. But once you get into the flow of a conversation, you can get over that. For example, there are ways to support each other without saying much.

RT @rodriguez_linda: #FF these tweeps! @beatsbooknook @laurabenedict @lilithsaintcrow @richyanez @BryanThomasS @thebookmaven @BenoitLelievre @thrillerchick

This is Linda’s Follow Friday (#FF) recommendations. When I RT (ReTweet) them to my followers, I help her and I don’t have to add a thing. Of course, I’m mentioned which is rather kind of her. But you get the idea.

Someone may post blog links, book links, or links to interesting other posts from blogs, news, etc. Perhaps it’s something you have thoughts on which you’d want to discuss. Pretty much anything is fair game but I’ll make two warnings: politics, religion and language are dangerous. Social Media is not private, no matter how low your follower count or what your security settings say. Twitter and Facebook both save copies of everything posted and reserve the right to post it how they wish. Past Twitter conversations can be found via Google Search, for example, so you never know who’s going to see it. I’d say avoid foul language to keep from alienating potential readers. Avoid religion and politics for the same. This is hard. We are passionate artistic people. We have strong opinions. We have strong emotions. But stories are legendary about people who have lost publishing contracts, sales, relationships, etc. over this stuff. Yes, freedom of speech is a constitutional right. But discretion and common sense are personal virtues, so use them.

Third, use variety. I post about my novels, short stories, etc. The kinds of things I tweet are: daily writing goals and what I accomplish, upcoming events, key news, links to blog entries, reviews and books, humor, general thoughts about various things. Blog and buy links are limited to one or two a day. I post at 8-9 a.m. and 5-6 p.m. Those are the busiest times. That way I hit the night crowd. I try and let other people speak for my book rather than myself. For example:

@BryanThomasS: Hours left to win a signed ARC of my 2nd novel. @Paulskemp: "A page-turning story that takes off like a rocket" http://t.co/p2DiQd56 #scifi

Paul Kemp is a bestselling author. People know him. His recommendation goes a lot further than me saying something like this:

@BryanThomasS: Hey, my awesome new novel, THE RETURNING’s out for preorder, so you should buy a copy now here http://t.co/p2DiQd56

Of course I think my novel’s great. But I’m not exactly unbiased. Let others recommend it for you. Write a tweet that’s good enough, and people will retweet it to spread the word:

RT @talekyn: RT @BryanThomasS: Hours left to win a signed ARC of my 2nd novel. @Paulskemp: "A page-turning story that takes off like a rocket" http://t.co/p2DiQd56 #scifi

Hearing it from other Tweeps (Twitter users) is much more influential than from you, at least until you’re a big name. So that’s why relationships and networking are so important.

For blog entries, interviews, and book links, my rule is twice a day. Other stuff can vary. I also try not to send more than three of these at a time so as not to drown people who follow.

Fourth, use hashtags. Hashtags are important. People follow @myname, yes, but they also follow hashtags. #scifi #fantasy #mystery #writing #mywana #amwriting #science #publishing #marketing are just a few. You can click any hashtag in a tweet and pull up a list of all tweets with that hashtag to follow along. It’s incredibly helpful. #sffwrtcht (my chat) wouldn’t work without it. By selecting appropriate hashtags, you are reaching out to interest groups which hopefully represent your audience of potential readers. So take the time to learn hashtags and use them.

Fifth, use shrinkers. Shrinkers are helpful because tweets have a 140 character limit. Shrinkers will take a tweet that’s too long, especially hyperlinks to websites, and shorten them so they’ll fit with everything you’re trying to say. I know it’s not proper grammar. Get over it. The fact that younger text-addicted generations haven’t learned that they have to talk differently in correspondence than texting doesn’t mean you’ll be the same. There are common shortcuts people use and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s about conciseness as well as clarity. Syntax and etiquette for Twitter are a bit different than other mediums.

For example, say I want to tweet this:

@BryanThomasS: My schedule for @conquestkc is going to be much fun. Check out the panels and other stuff http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2012/05/17/my-schedule-for-conquest-43-may-25-27-2012-kansas-city-hilton/ and join us if you can. #scifi #fantasy #mywana

It’s too long by 78 characters. But with a tweet shrinker, it might work like this:

@BryanThomasS: My schdl 4 @conquestkc is gng 2 B mch fun. Chck out the panels & other stuff http://bit.ly/JlYhcN & jn us if U cn. #scifi #fantasy #mywana

Looks like nonsense? Not really, because as with copyedits and typos, your brain will fill in the gaps with the most logical missing letters to make sense of it. Once you’re used to it, it’s automatic and you can fit a lot more into 140 characters.

Well, this post is getting lengthy, and, as Linda will tell you, this is a subject about which I can go on and on. Perhaps she’ll have me on later for a discussion. I do post Write Tips every Monday, a popular series which you can find on my blog here: http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/category/write-tips-2/ And I’d love to respond to comments and continue the discussion. I hope these tips are helpful. I’ll end with a brief bit about my latest novel and myself.

In Bryan’s second novel, The Returning, new challenges arise as Davi Rhii’s rival Bordox and his uncle, Xalivar, seek revenge for his actions in The Worker Prince, putting his life and those of his friends and family in constant danger. Meanwhile, politics as usual has the Borali Alliance split apart over questions of citizenship and freedom for the former slaves. Someone’s even killing them off. Davi’s involvement in the investigation turns his life upside down, including his relationship with his fiancée, Tela. The answers are not easy with his whole world at stake.

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the space opera novels The Worker Prince, a Barnes & Noble Book Clubs Year’s Best SF Releases of 2011 Honorable Mention, and The Returning, the collection The North Star Serial, Part 1, and has several short stories featured  in anthologies and magazines.  He edited the new anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 for Flying Pen Press, headlined by Mike Resnick. His children’s book 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids from Delabarre Publishing. As a freelance editor, he’s edited a novels and nonfiction.  He’s also the host of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter, where he interviews people like Mike Resnick, AC Crispin, Kevin J. Anderson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. A frequent contributor to Adventures In SF Publishing, Grasping For The Wind and SFSignal, he can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Bryan is an affiliate member of the SFWA.

Literary Mystery Novelists—A List Part 2

As I’ve said before, I believe that we’re living in the second Golden Age of the crime novel. After mentioning this at literary parties recently and having writers ask me for crime fiction writers who write really well—in other words, being asked to prove my claim that many crime writers today are writing works of high quality that can hold their own against most literary novels published currently—I’ve posted the first half of a list of such gifted mystery writers. I’ve been running a series of interviews or profiles on these mystery writers whose work ranks with that of literary novelists, and I’ll continue it in the future. But now, I’ll post the second half of that list.

Because I’m a faulty human and haven’t read everyone and may not even remember everyone I have read, this will be nowhere near a complete list, but rather a starting place for people who want to explore the riches of the current crime novel scene. (And for writers I missed in the first half of the list, see the comments for that last post. I suspect there will be more who will show up in the comments on this post, as well.)

William Kent Krueger—his Cork O’Connor series is written with skill and depth

John Le Carré—ALL of his work—the death of the Cold War didn’t phase him, see The Constant Gardener for proof of that

Dennis Lehane—his Kenzie and Gennaro books are underappreciated in my opinion, but his standalones, such as Mystic River and The Given Day, deserve the attention they receive

John Lescroart—his Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitsky series is wonderful and any of his standalone books make a fine read

Laura Lippman—her Tess Monaghan series and her standalone novels are complex and riveting

Margaret Maron—her Judge Deborah Knott series is one of the best things around, start with The Bootlegger’s Daughter—she’s also reissued her Sigrid Harald series as e-books, as well as writing Three Day Town, which brings Sigrid and Deborah together in New York

Ngaio Marsh—she died in 1982, but her Roderick Alleyn series is still full of beautifully wrought books

Sharyn McCrumb—though she prefers not to be called a mystery writer any longer, her Elizabeth MacPherson series and her Ballad series are fine mysteries

Val McDermid—her Tony Hill series, on which the TV series Wire in the Blood was based, is a chilling exploration of the minds of psychopaths and those who try to outguess them

Walter Mosley—he’s one of our finest writers, and whether you read his Easy Rawlins series, his Leonid McGill series, or any of his many standalone novels, you will find excellent writing and consideration of serious issues in modern America

Marcia Muller—her Sharon McCone series was groundbreaking at its start in 1977 and continues to be critically acclaimed today

Katherine Hall Page—her Faith Fairchild series is written with great skill and warmth

Sara Paretsky—one of the great icons of the mystery community, her V.I. Warshawski series takes on all the important social and political issues of our time with impeccable writing and fascinating characters

George Pelecanos—his published work includes lots of A-list journals, as well as his eighteen crime novels—Stephen King once called him “perhaps the greatest living American crime writer"

Louise Penny—this Canadian author’s Gamache series set in the tiny town of Three Pines outside of Montreal is a feast for the lover of fine writing

Ann Perry—she has two Victorian mystery series that have both won critical acclaim, but her Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series is her finest, the longest sustained crime series by a living writer

Thomas Perry—a fine writer whose Jane Whitefield series is superb

Elizabeth Peters—ever since Crocodile on a Sandbank, Amelia Peabody has become one of those character who live on forever for generations of readers, a classic

Nancy Pickard—her Jenny Cain series and her Truth series used elegant prose to probe serious societal issues, but her most recent standalone novels are her finest with superb writing, characterization, and plotting—The Virgin of Small Plains is my favorite

Sandra Parshall—her Rachel Goddard mysteries are rich mélanges of character, place, and story complexity—Disturbing the Dead is a standout in a series of excellent novels

Ian Rankin—his Inspector Rebus series is the UK’s #1 bestseller and has spawned several TV series

Ruth Rendell—John Mortimer famously said, “If it weren't for a ridiculous literary snobbery about ‘crime writing,’ Ruth Rendell would be acclaimed as one of our most important novelists”

Hank Phillippi Ryan—her Charlotte McNally series showcases her gift for keeping the reader turning the page—I’m eagerly awaiting publication of her new standalone thriller, The Other Woman, in September

John Sandford—his Lucas Davenport series is dark and visceral

Julia Spencer-Fleming—her Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series is one of the finest around—her supple prose, living and breathing characters, and treatment of many important cultural and societal issues make her one of our finest writers of any kind

Charles Todd—this American mother-and-son writing team have taken the British experience of World War II as their focus, and they bring it to life in their Ian Rutledge series and their Bess Crawford series

Jacqueline Winspear—her Maisie Dobbs series is another for the British World War I buff

Daniel Woodrell—his novels capture the misery and violence of the hardscrabble Ozarks backwoods—Winter’s Bone is my favorite among his many wonders

Literary Mystery Novelists—A Requested List

We mystery readers are tremendously fortunate to be living in this time. I believe that we’re living in the second Golden Age of the crime novel, and I’ve been known to mention at literary gatherings that many crime fiction writers today are writing works of high quality that can hold their own against most literary novels published currently. Because of this, I’ve had several requests lately from people I know through the academic literary world for a list of such mystery writers. I’ve been running a series of interviews or profiles on these mystery writers whose work ranks with that of literary novelists, and I’ll continue it in the future. But right now, I’d like to furnish that list that has been requested so often.

As with any list such as this, it can’t be comprehensive. There are crime writers I’ve not read yet and some I’ve simply not even heard of yet. I discover new writers every day. There will inevitably be writers whose work I adore who will be left off because my mind blanked out as I typed this list. Because I am a faulty human, this will be nowhere near a complete list, but rather a starting place for people who want to explore the riches of the current crime novel scene. And the riches are such that I will have to split the list in two with the first half here today and the second half posting on Monday.

Enjoy!

Rudolfo Anaya--godfather of Chicano lit--his Sonny Baca series brings magic realism to the mystery novel

Lawrence Block—his Matthew Scudder novels, especially

Rhys Bowen—her Molly Murphy historical novels set in turn of the century New York—also, her delightful Her Royal Spyness series

Alafair Burke—James Lee’s daughter—the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree

James Lee Burke—anything he’s written—one of the greats

Rebecca Cantrell—her Hannah Vogel series of historical novels set in pre-war Nazi Germany

John Connolly—his Charlie Parker series

Michael Connolly—his Harry Bosch novels

Lucha Corpi—her Gloria Damasco series and her new Brown Angel series

Robert Crais—his Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels offer one of the great hero-pairings out there

Deborah Crombie—her Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series—evokes England successfully despite living in Texas

Paul Doiron—his Mike Bowditch series—brings the forests of Maine to life for the reader

Hallie Ephron—her standalone thrillers, Never Tell a Lie and Come and Find Me—I’ve not read her co-written Dr. Peter Zak series

Tess Gerritsen—her Rizzoli and Isles series

Elizabeth George—her Inspector Thomas Lynley series—start with A Great Deliverance

Kathleen George—her Pittsburgh Homicide Division series

Sue Grafton—her Kinsey Milhone alphabet series

Jane Haddam—her Gregor Demarkian series

Carolyn Haines—her standalone thrillers, such as Penumbra and Touched—also her comic Bones series

Thomas Harris—the godfather of the serial killer thriller—Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs

Carl Hiaasen—heartbreakingly comic novels, such as Nature Girl and Flush

Patricia Highsmith—died in 1995, but her books are still some of the best psychological thrillers ever—Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley have been made into films again and again

Tony Hillerman—died in 2008, but still one of the finest mystery novelists out there—begin with The Blessing Way and Dance Hall of the Dead

Declan Hughes—his Ed Loy series starts with The Wrong Kind of Blood

P.D. James—one of the greats—her Adam Dalgliesh series and her Cordelia Gray series both

J.A. Jance—she has three series—my favorites are the two series featuring J.P. Beaumont and Sheriff Joanna Brady

Craig Johnson—his Walt Longmire series about a Montana lawman has become a TV series

How Best to Support Your Favorite Writers and Make Sure the Books You Love Keep Coming

This is a piece I posted to Writers Who Kill a couple of weeks ago. I'm reposting it here because I think it has important information that I didn't know until recently and that others have since told me they also didn't know. I'm also adding to this list "likes" and "tags" on Amazon and retweets about authors' books. Nancy Cohen reminded me about these. I think I'd missed them because I was already doing all those.

 The publishing business still offers a steep learning curve to me. However, some of the things I’ve learned as a published novelist are turning me into a better fan of my own favorite authors. I’ve written on here before about pre-ordering and how I learned of its importance to writers. Instead of waiting for the books of my favorite author to be published, I pre-order now, knowing I’m contributing to their success as well as assuring I’ll have their book as soon as it’s available.

I thought I was already helping with reviews. On my blog, www.LindaRodriguezWrites.blogspot.com, I try to spotlight books by literary writers of color who might be hard for the average reader to find, as well as mystery novelists who are writing high-quality fiction. I do this with profiles, interviews, and sometimes reviews of individual books. However, I’ve learned that reviews on Amazon and Goodreads count more toward sales than those longer ones on my blog or elsewhere. 

I’ve always just given stars to books on Goodreads. I’ve read so many books that I didn’t think I had time for more than that. I was wrong. Those stars don’t do much good. It’s the reviews that make others decide to pick up the book to read. It’s the same with Amazon—reviews lead to sales. Even for authors who seem to have it made! Often even famous writers are just a breath or two away from tumbling down the slopes in the fickle game of publishing, and success is even more volatile for midlist authors. I try not to buy much on Amazon, so I’ve not done much except hit the ‘Like” button for a book/author I enjoy.

I’ve learned about how important these reviews can be to authors, and now I’ve set myself a goal to post a daily review of a novelist whose work I enjoy on either Amazon or Goodreads. I’m also going to learn how to link them so a review on my blog will post to Amazon or Goodreads. This is one thing I can do to make sure the writers I love don’t disappear on me.

I’ve always been a person others ask for book recommendations, primarily because I read so much in so many areas. Now that I’ve learned how important that word-of-mouth advice on books can be, I’ll be doing a lot more book recommendations and not just waiting for folks to ask me. I have occasionally requested my library system buy a book I want that they don’t have. Now, as soon as I know a book is coming out by one of my favorite writers, I will request my library system order that book—and my own pre-orders for those books will be through local bookstores because that helps them decide whether or not to order in that book to have on the shelves.

The publishing business is in deep flux right now, and authors are being required to do more than ever to promote their books. Every novelist I know, famous or unknown, is buried in a mountain of promotion efforts while still trying to write the books we fans love and wait for breathlessly. The influx of millions of ebooks by people who haven’t bothered to learn to be either good writers or good editors—and this is not meant to describe the many self-published writers who have worked hard at both—makes it hard for the potential buyer to find the writers who have worked for many years to hone their craft. Everything we, as fans of good writing in whatever genre, can do to make our favorite authors successful ensures that in the volatile atmosphere of publishing today these favorite novelists will survive and thrive—and continue providing us with our favorite addiction, their good books.

Do you know of other strategies we fans can do to help ensure the success of the book and authors we love?

What Does Your Success Look LIke?

I'm posting today on Writers Who Kill about visualizing your life as a successful writer, based on Carolyn See's excellent book, Making a Literary Life. Stop by and join the discussion. What would your successful writing life look like in specific detail?

In the Beginning--Starting to Write a Book

Photo by Clarence Simmons

Although I am still in the midst of the book tour for my first novel, Every Last Secret, I’m also beginning my third novel. (My second novel, Every Broken Trust, is with my editor at St. Martin’s/Minotaur Books and will come out in spring 2013.) I made notes on characters, back story, and plot for the third novel as I rode the train to and from Malice Domestic 2012 in Bethesda right after Every Last Secret’s launch in Kansas City. I made more notes while traveling to events in Mission, KS, Kansas City, KS, Lee’s Summit, MO, Blue Springs, MO, a Latina Week event in Kansas City, MO, and in between other promotional efforts and freelance jobs (which are still ongoing, book tour or no book tour).

As I make notes about characters and possible plot points and freewrite my major characters’ diaries to find their distinct voices, I grow more and more excited about the new book. It hangs around the edges of my mind while I screen manuscripts, give writing workshops, drive to events and book signings for Every Last Secret. I wake in the night with a character’s voice in my head or suddenly knowing about some key, hidden element in another character’s past that will drive some of his behavior.

At this point, it’s time to start writing the first draft. Is there more prep work to do? Yes, and each day’s writing session will be divided between planning work and writing the first draft. The first day will be hours of planning with a page or two of first draft. It will be hesitant, just finding its voice and its way into the book. The second day will also include more planning but the writing section of that time will be longer and more confident. This pattern will continue for a week or two until writing the first draft has completely taken over the entire time.

This is where I am on my new novel. I am developing confidence in this book and its particular needs. I am writing a few pages a day right now, but more each day than the day before. It’s slower and clumsier than usual because I’m working it around the book tour, book promotion, and freelance activities, but it’s building that necessary momentum, nonetheless. I know that, soon enough, the book will take off, and I will spend each day’s time scribbling away to keep up with it. And then, soon enough, I will hit the sloggy middle and realize that I can never write this book and I should have started another book altogether—and that probably I’m just fooling myself thinking that I’m really a writer anyway.

Lots of people think that writing novels gets easier with each novel—or, at least, each novel that’s published. They’re wrong, though. I know this not only from my own experience but from the experience of novelist friends who have written and published multiple—often award-winning and/or bestselling—novels. Each book has its own set of problems that the writer must solve. The only way to avoid that is to write exactly the same book over and over again—something my friends and I have no wish to do.

The one advantage of having published a novel (especially if you get to know others who have done the same) is that you know you will feel helpless and hopeless at a certain point in the book, and you know that you will make it past that if you just keep writing and don’t give up. You also know that, when you go back to find the days when your writing was flowing versus the days when you squeezed out each dreadful word, letter by letter, you can’t tell them apart at the end. None of this helps you to avoid the hopelessness and dread, but it helps you to keep writing through them.

Right now, however, I face none of that. I’m excited about the book’s premise. I’m learning more and more about the characters and what drives them. This book sits before me, seductive in all its potential and possibility. Rationally, I know that nasty middle awaits me in all its depressing hopelessness, but emotions are driving me now, and emotionally I’m in love with my new book. Like anyone in the early throes of love, my vision glosses over any and all imperfections or potential problems. All I see is exciting perfection. All I want is to be able to spend all my time with my beloved. Since I know the time will come soon enough when I growl at my husband, “Why did I ever start this @#$$%^&^&* book? Why did I ever think I could be a novelist?,” I’m going to enjoy these early stages of infatuation as long as I can.

What’s your favorite time when writing—the beginning or the end? (I assume no one is masochistic enough to prefer the middle!) How do you make it through the tough times you encounter when writing?