Join Me On Facebook Live Tonight!

Tonight fellow author Debra Eckerling and I will be talking about productivity on Facebook Live. Feel free to join us here. It will be half an hour or so starting at 4pm Pacific Time. That's 1am here in Madrid but it's worth staying up for!

Ramping up my Twitter and Facebook feeds

As I mentioned in an earlier post about Getting More Into Twitter, I've been more active lately on my Twitter account. It's a great way to chitchat with people in my field. I keep in touch with my publishers, talk to other indie writers, and I've even had conversations with the British Museum and Fodors Travel! Being a writer can be a bit lonely, so it's nice to have these interactions, as long as they don't hurt your word count.

It's not without its frustrations, however. A lot of people don't interact on Twitter, they just blare out their advertisements for whatever they're hawking. Indie writers are especially guilty of this. They don't seem to realize that it's social media, not asocial marketing.

I'm also getting more serious about my public Facebook page and trying to post something original there most days. I'm still not sure what's the best way to go forward with FB, though.

Do you use these social media platforms? What works best for you?

Starting a public Facebook page

I've been getting several friend requests on Facebook from readers. While I want to interact with everyone, I also want to keep my profile for people I actually know. To solve this, I've set up a public Facebook page. Feel free to Like me over there so you can keep up to date on all my latest publications and what's happening with A Fine Likeness. I'll also be featuring some giveaways exclusive for FB followers.

Learning from losing

Aw crap.

I just heard from one of the judges at the Fresh Blood Contest that my Civil War novel didn't make the cut this round. I lost by five votes!

The contest has been an interesting ride, and while I'm bummed about losing I did learn a lot and am proud not only to have made the top ten finalists, but to have made it to top five before the public votes favored the other books.

When the voting was up to the judges, what mattered was my writing and I did fine. But the later rounds are by public vote, and it is essentially about how well you market yourself. I started a fanpage on Facebook and hit up people for votes on various newsgroups on Facebook and Yahoo. I also promoted it on my Twitter account.

The problem was, I went on assignment to Ethiopia and Somaliland for two months just when I needed to raise my public profile. With all of Ethiopia still on dialup, I was at a major disadvantage, and learned firsthand about one of the troubles facing writers in developing countries. But of course that was only part of the problem. I'm sure there was more I could have done to promote my book in the early stages when I was in Europe. Should I have been a bit pushier? Joined more newsgroups? Started a MySpace page? There are probably several things I'm not even thinking of here. Feel free to share them in the comments section because they may come in handy one day.

I believe A Fine Likeness will get published, and that it deserves to be published. It's a good story based on detailed historical research, and is now being peddled by an author who is a little wiser about the need for self-marketing.

Thanks to everyone who voted, especially those friends who bugged their own friends to vote, and to those who only know me through the Internet but had faith in my writing. I'm extremely grateful and proud to know you. If you're still interested in the contest even though I'm out of it, I suggest you vote for Heart of the City by Lisa A. Koosis. From a writer's point of view I think it's the finest submission (besides mine, ahem) and the one I was most worried about. I'll be voting for it now that I'm not voting for myself.

The image is by Alexander Gardner of a dead Confederate sniper at Gettysburg, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Yeah, it's probably disrespectful to this poor bastard to be using this, but it's topical and reflects how I feel.

How to be an annoying writer

I just unfriended someone on Facebook for the first time.

I always accept friend requests from fellow writers, published or unpublished, because I've learned a lot from people I've met online. Plus I enjoy the feeling of community with fellow travelers on this crazy path. Right after I accepted his friend request he sent me an invitation to join a FB group for self-published authors. Previously on this blog I've discussed the reasons why I think self-publishing is a bad idea most of the time, and I didn't join the group.

The next day he invited me again. Strike one.

I ignored the invite again, and a few days later he invited me again. Strike two.

Then this guy starts sending me personal emails asking me to join. Strike one million.

What part of "no" didn't he understand? Now all he's getting from me is "go away".

While self-publishing is often harmful to a writer's career, the culture it creates can be pretty damn annoying to us professionals. A large portion (not all, but many) self-publishers are so desperate to sell their books, and thus reduce their loss to the "publishers" they paid to print their work, that they lose all sense of decorum. Did this guy really think that he could badger me into joining a group in which I didn't even belong?

Such actions have "unprofessional" written all over them. I hope this guy wises up. If he does, he might just stand a chance at getting published for real.

I'm On Facebook!

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days but last Friday I got the page proofs for Outlaw Tales of Missouri and I've been busy going through them. It goes to press next month and should be available by March. Page proofs are the last chance to catch any errors before going to press, so I've been reading them carefully.

I've also been slacking off with that great 21st century timewaster--Facebook. You can find me at Sean McLachlan, Network: Spain. There's a tool that you can use to invite everyone on your email account's address list but I'm not going to use it. You have to give them your password! They say they don't sell your name to mailing lists and automatically delete your password. I'm sorry, but I simply don't believe that. If I haven't added you (or don't know you) feel free to send a friend request. This is probably the only way that my Arizona, Missouri, London, and Madrid circles of friends are ever going to meet.