I’ve written about this before–the difference between being an author and being published is vast. By published, I mean being engaged in the business part of writing. While it is, and remains, a thrill to hold a book I wrote in my hand, the business is fraught. Publishing trends, consolidation of publishing companies, e-books, making a living. I firmly believe that remaining grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given is the best path forward. However, I need some help navigating that path.
Help comes from many places, including Jane Friedman. She teaches, blogs, speaks at conferences, and offers a variety of services. Her blog posts are terrific. A recent post was called “4 Lessons for Authors on the Current State of Publishing“. It is definitely worth reading the entire post, but today I want to focus on one piece of advice she offered.
“An author’s online presence is more critical than ever to long-term marketing strategy.” She has a good deal of advice in this area, but supported one of the decisions I made early on. I don’t separate my online lives. J.A. Hennrikus short story writer and Julianne Holmes author of the Clock Shop Mysteries–you may take different roads to get there, but you will end up in the same place.
I am on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I have a url for J.A. Hennrikus and one for Julianne Holmes, but they both end up the same place. I blog here and at Wicked Cozy Authors, and both places I use both names. Am I doing this all perfectly, or even well? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am trying, and in this publishing climate, trying counts for something.
**************************
J.A. Hennrikus writes short stories. Julianne Holmes writes the Clock Shop Mystery series. Just Killing Time, the first in the series, has been nominated for a Best First Agatha award.
Live to Write - Write to Live 
Pingback: Putting It Together — Live to Write – Write to Live | Nathalie M.L. Römer - Author of The Wolf Riders of Keldarra
It can feel overwhelming, trying to be on all these social media sites just because we feel we “should” for the sake of platform. It’s not something I naturally wanted to do, in fact, I loathed the idea. But I discovered I loved blogging, and Pinterest is a lot of fun. I could probably do more with FB and Twitter, but I’m getting there. The point is, as you said, to keep trying.
I certainly love blogging and pinterest and am desperately trying to organise my stories and poetry for children. I am determined to enter as many competitions as I can this year and maybe even self-publish if I an afford it!
I am completely new to having an online “presence.” I love blogging and have decided I may need to bite the bullet and finally sign up for Facebook. Thanks for the links. I will check out Jane’s post.
Working on my online presence now. It’s quite the journey!
Er…Resisting this as much as anyone! FB’s a no-brainer for socializing with friends around the world. But only a handful of them are writers, and we met through a love of Star Trek. But who knows; perhaps soon I’ll have real enough friends met through the new-to-me community of writers online. That would be the beginnings of networking, I guess. . .
Trying definitely counts. I am an Author and my book has been sitting in legal for 2 months. Running out of patience. The publishing house is cool about it, I am merely trying to satisfy my husband who by nature is a conspiracy theorist after being a Doctor so long! Any help you could offer would be great. I love your blog.
Pingback: Writing Links Round Up 8/15-8/20 – B. Shaun Smith