Spreading our writer's marketing wings with Twitter

Last Tuesday, and still full of revivalist fervor following a pep talk from Fred Campos, who could sell sand in the Sahara, I posted about doing more with social media. Specifically, with Twitter.

Right. Because, obviously I already blog. (Although blogging may or may not be a bit dated, but it’s gotten me free passage into literary events I otherwise might have been outclassed at. Plus, it’s actually kind of fun.) I’m also on Facebook and even Pinterest, because I LOVE pictures! 

So why have I resisted Twitter so long? I remember attending a sci-fi convention years ago at which a speaker said sniffily that Twitter was doomed because the average age of its users was 40. Vultures were practically circling our corpses – an excuse for the cute v-birds image on this post. 

Although to misquote the ever-quotable Mark Twain, reports of death by Twitter were obviously exaggerated, my qualms were not assuaged by news reports about how fast lies travel on the T. Or by the disdain of my younger family members, whose classmates break up with each other (and possibly even date each other) on Snapchat.

image: pixabay

Still, and with trembling, I dipped my toe – or pen -- into the Twitter waters. It wasn’t bad. It even seemed like a good way to connect with people (#1 on Campos’s list of reasons to commit to social media). Maybe even a way to learn from other people (the second of Campos’s reasons to commit). But ultimately (to quote both Campos and my family members) was it a way to market? 

Remember, dear readers and writers, social media is only a tool, not an end in itself. (Except perhaps for the terminally sociable.) It’s a way to get your message across. Like the beer guy at a football game, whose message of cold beer for sale is ignored by sports fans until – they down the last drop of their cup of cold beverage.

And readers won’t know we’ve got something to assuage their thirst until they have a thirst that needs quenching. So, here’s Campos’s plan: first, pre-market to let people know you’re a person they can trust to provide that quencher. Then, let ‘em know you’ve got the goods they thirst for.

Still not convinced Twitter is the medium for your message?

That’s OK. “Just pick one piece of social media and do it regularly,” Campos assured his audience at the local Mystery Writers of America meeting.

Treat each medium as a search engine. Even sometimes-despised Facebook is now a search engine, Campos noted. “Stephen King promotes his books only on his writing fan page.” (Full disclosure: I have not verified that statement. But hey, it sounds cool, right?)

Do the pre-marketing stuff first, allowing if possible up to a year before gearing up to a full marketing campaign. Humans have such limited attention spans we don’t want to ask people to commit to something until we actually have the goods, i.e., books, to offer. It’s no use telling people we’ll have a book for them to read in two years. Who will remember that?

Who to market to? “The demographics are your potential buyers,” Campos said. “Not your fellow writers.”

His suggestion was, if using Twitter, to search for the genre we write in. Since I write thrillers, I obligingly typed “Thrillers” in my Twitter search, only to get a list of people who write thrillers. And who wanted me to buy their books. Not that I’m immune to buying other writers’ books, but then there were things like the poor writer tweeted that she was only allowed to pitch her book every three days. It was depressing. (A word that makes serious inroads on my 270-character tweeting allowance.)

The search term “who reads thrillers” turned up scads of book bloggers and reviewers. Better. These people actually read. I followed several. (Campos’s rule: “About 20-30 percent of these will follow you back. . . but do it in little bitty pieces.” If you’re not getting significant return following, back off until your percentage of followers picks up.)

I’ll also add, follow the social media etiquette rules of commenting, liking, and sharing (in Twitter parlance, “retweeting”) If somebody isn’t posting stuff you’re proud to retweet, consider whether you really want to follow that person.

So say, you’re hooked. Ready to get serious? Next up, I’ll post the nitty-gritty specifics about Campos’s pre-marketing as well as his grab-‘em by the throat marking campaigns. What to post. How often to do it. And how to do it. In the meantime, keep writing! Because nobody can market a book that hasn’t been written.

Social media: so much fun an introvert can do it

I tend to shudder slightly when somebody says, really, you need to be on social media more. It’s a time suck, I’ll say, excusing myself. But deep down in my heart of hearts, the reason I’m not out there more on social media is because I’m – afraid. As in scared witless. What if I’m attacked by goons? Tied up by Twitter werewolves and forced to post videos of cats? Worst of all, what if I (gulp) misspell a word? (Hey, we introverted writerly types worry about stuff like that.)

That was before I heard Fred Campos speak at this month’s meeting of the Dallas chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Formerly of Fun City Social Media, and now DFW Website Designers, winner of Toastmasters “Humorous Public Speaking” contests, Campos could rock the audience at a mortuary science convention. (Get him to tell you the one about the client who died shortly after his Twitter campaign was launched – but whose tweets lived on. Oops!)

In all seriousness, as soon as I finish laughing I’ll pass on some of Campos’s tips to you, dear readers. This post will be short and sweet, because I hope to hook you first and follow up with the heavier how-to stuff by the end of this week. And being serious, there’s the “why do it at all?” issue to overcome. If we just want fun, why not go to a monster truck rally instead?

Fred Campos

“As writers, we tend to focus on the craft. But unfortunately, we also need to market,” Campos said, his Mickey Mouse tie positively quivering with glee as he clicked through inspirational slides with titles such as “Facebook is the biggest population in the world – followed by China.” 

And, “more people own mobile devices than toothbrushes.” (Do their dentists know? I’m picturing a demographic of toothless people poring over their phone screens here. Probably not one I want to connect with.)

Even Campos claims he once feared to enter such a world until he got his own Twitter account the year his wife asked him to put the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven. Wanting to sleep in, she left him a Post-It note reminder: 375. That was probably the temperature, he figured. But the oven had two settings: bake and broil. Which to use?

Figuring that waking his wife to ask wouldn’t win him any husband of the year awards, Campos posted the dilemma to his Twitter followers. Within seconds, he got 20 responses telling him to bake, not broil. “Well,” he confided, “18 telling me to bake and two with a lot of concern about my cooking ability.” Result – a turkey baked to perfection and a man sold on the potential of social media to change lives (and stave off house fires, not to mention divorces). 

For those who customarily write rather than bake turkeys, Campos offered three reasons to commit to social media:

• To connect with people
• To learn from people (i.e., turkey cookers)
• To market to particular demographics

This last group is the one writers hope will follow our particular feeds, “and one day, buy (our) books.”

In the meantime, there are a number of factors competing with books for people’s attention. It may be as simple as not having a specific product (i.e., book) come to mind when they experience a wish for information or entertainment.

Writers, sensitive creatures that we are, fear that continually broadcasting our message will turn people off, but, Campos said, “social media is like the beer guy at a football game. Everybody tunes out his message until – they get to the bottom of their cup of cold beverage. He’s yelling out the product, and the moment they are interested, they get it.

He’s not offended by the majority of people in the football stadium who aren’t currently in the market for beer. He’s only interested in the comparative few, the thirsty few, who want to buy.

The beer guy’s message is that he has beer to sell. “What,” Campos asked, “is our message?”

But, we ask, still shying away from the prospect, doesn’t using social media for promotion mean we won’t have time to do our real job, which is writing?

Continuing his sports analogies, Campos pointed out the difference between winning and losing can be a fraction of a second. “You don’t have to be 100 percent better. You only have to be a little better,” to receive a payoff in the end.

After hearing him, I began to understand why sales people listen to so many pep talks. And after testing some of Campos's tips, I'll fill you in on the next steps -- the pre-campaign and the full-meal deal social media blitz itself!

Wordcraft -- Writers: prepare for our closeups!

Kat Smith

So we've written the book, or maybe we're still writing the book but looking forward to the next step. What is it?

Dr. Katherine "Kat" Smith brought the answer to the spring workshop of the Writers' Guild of Texas this past weekend. The word was: marketing. As is "selling" our book (or, we hope, our soon-to-be-book). And even if the book exists only in a file on our computers, Smith's words will help prepare for that upcoming pitch to agents at this spring and summer's writing conferences.

Smith is a former radio host as well as an author who's been on both sides of the media game. Today's post will focus on her tips for pre-interview preparation, including putting together a media kit. And if the word "media" gives some of us the willies, think of this preparation as something that will focus our minds on preparing for agent pitches and query letters as well.

Smith lists her must-haves for media contacts (with examples listed on her site. Although some of these echo items discussed in the March 1, 2016, post at this site from Kendel Lynn, managing editor of North Texas' Henery Press, Smith includes other items specific to media interviews or speaking engagements. Her list includes a:

• one-sheet. This includes a brief biography, personal photo, list of books or areas of expertise, 
• credentials (including previous publicity and publications) and contact information.
• media kit. This includes everything in the one-sheet, plus brief reviews and blurbs, with photos or videos included. 
• books (or areas of expertise), with again a photo and contact information.
• pre-event questionnaire
• contract rider 
• biography
• photos

Smith offers all of these in PDF formats readable online. She breaks out items separately, even though every item on the list includes overlapping information, such as bio and contact information to offer interviewers as much or as little as they need.

A common misconception about media interviews, she said, is that they exist to provide free publicity. Scratch that. From where the interviewer sits, the point is to "offer an entertaining or compelling story to my audience," the same experience we would want to provide to our readers.

The author's task in the interview is to make his or her book as newsworthy -- and with probably no more than three minutes of air time -- as time worthy as possible. After all, Smith asks, "who knows your book better than you do?"

With that in mind, media personnel pressed for time will love you for also preparing (and having ready to hand out) a list of FAQs (or a reader's guide). Also helpful for sales aimed at book clubs, these FAQs should list (her recommendation) 20 questions that coincide with the book's content and provide personal information about the author.

The 20 questions should capture moments from the book's story line as well as the author's inspiration for writing. Need more guidance about FAQs? Check out reader's guides in books we've loved. For personal information, include what inspired us to write the book. As always, include a photo of ourselves both on the FAQs and our sites, as well as, always, contact information.

(Next Tuesday, Kat Smith's tips on prepping to take our seat in the newsroom.)