Goodreads, LinkedIn, and all that…
[This article is the second in a series about social media use by authors. Feel free to comment.]
Let’s see: I’ve disparaged Twitter—it’s mostly useless, for authors directly participating at least (your publicist might use it, though); and I’ve given my advice to use Facebook in a limited sense (you could limit it to just an author page—if they start charging, forget about it). What’s left?
Goodreads. This massive website for discussing books and reading used to be a lot better, but it’s gone downhill since Amazon took it over. It’s never been user friendly and allows cliques to develop without any adult supervision. Anyone can form a group, and some of them are huge. Groups are run by a monitor (maybe more than one for large ones), and submonitors often control subsections of groups. Rarely you’ll come across monitors or submonitors who are snarky individuals, little despots who like to flaunt their power.
Authors should promote their books in the sections allocated to them, of course, but the definition of promotion is often distorted by monitors. I was censored in one chat thread about sex and romance in books just for mentioning my opinion as both reader and author—no mention of my books, so not really promotional at all.
Groups can be political too. I was kicked out of a discussion group for expressing an opinion contrary to the monitor’s (I can’t even remember what the thread was about, or what pissed him off—a mountain out of a molehill, to be sure, but the little tyrant booted me out without any explanation). You never know when someone will get their hackles up and go after you. Back away from such people. They’re not worth your time.
These negatives don’t commonly occur. The main positive is that Goodreads has many readers thirsty for new, interesting, and/or entertaining books. Most authors are also avid readers too (or should be), so they can often contribute to many discussions (if the tyrannical monitors let them). Your best bet is to emphasize you’re a reader and participate intelligently. When readers begin to think you’re an interesting gal or guy, they might visit your profile. In any case, you can lurk and see what grabs readers, in case you want to direct your writing to a particular market. And your Goodreads author page isn’t more important than your website or Facebook page or even the Amazon author page, far from it, but it’s a good complement…if you really participate on Goodreads.
LinkedIn. This massive website used to be a lot better too, but it’s gone downhill since Microsoft took it over. (Yeah, Bezos owns Goodreads, Gates owns LinkedIn—the two octopi of the internet world have two websites potentially of use to authors clutched in their greasy tentacles.) Frankly, I never could understand how LinkedIn can help authors. Maybe you can establish contacts with people offering services (there are a lot of PR and marketing people as well as website gurus there ready to take your money).
I only use LinkedIn for book publishing discussion groups. I lurk a lot more than participate, much more so than with Goodreads (because I too am interested in new books). It’s amazing what you’ll find, though. I rarely have anything to say that hasn’t been said before, yet I have so many contacts I’ve lost count. And I screen them! (This is where I focus on other authors.)
Use with caution, if you can find a use for LinkedIn other than the discussion groups, and tread lightly with the latter—snarkiness exists here too, and you can waste a lot of time with it.
All the others…. What about Pinterest, Instagram, and so forth? I’d forget about them. Your business involves words, so Pinterest is out (again, your publicist might use it), and Instagram is like a more graphical version of Facebook, or a mutation between the latter and Twitter. There are other online groups and blogs, chat rooms, forums, and boards where authors or wannabe authors congregate. Avoid all these, because authors won’t buy your books—they want to sell theirs to you.
You should go where the readers are, so if the groups are made up primarily of readers, that’s OK. Be careful, though—there’s a lot of snarkiness out there besides what’s in Goodreads and LinkedIn. I was kicked out of an indie forum for having the audacity to state that there’s so much competition now, having a successful book these days is like winning the lottery. The forum monitor (I guess if someone organizes one, they despotically think they own it) banned me. Others in the forum had complained about my “negativity”, it seems. The forum authors were like so many people these days: they like to bury their heads in the sand and will go after you if you try to make them see the light of day. Let them wallow in their cesspool of ignorance.
What about critique groups? Ignore them too. Their members will try to make you write like them. You can lurk some in the discussion groups about writing, especially if you’re a newbie. I did at the beginning, but not anymore. You’ll see a lot of opinions about elements of storytelling, and those can be useful if you’re selective about them (warning: they’re often contradictory!). But never let anyone destroy your own voice. Groups offering marketing advice are generally useless too; their members will bombard you with ideas without ever reading your book. And they certainly won’t want to hear your opinion, even if you’ve written lots of books.
I used to participate in Joe Konrath’s discussion group–all authors there, of course. The only thing I can say positive about it is that through Joe I met one of my beta-readers who has become a great friend. The main negative with Joe and his buddy Barry Eisler: they think Amazon and self-publishing are the best things since the invention of sliced bread. Myopic opinions abound in this business!
My bottom-line advice? Start out small with social media, participate at a comfortable low level, and spend quality time online without chasing every possibility. If your social media activity creeps up toward 50% of your writing time, it’s time to back off. Frankly, your website and Facebook page are enough, and you should be concentrating on writing your fiction so you can continue to have tickets that mine win you that lottery jackpot!
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The Midas Bomb and Full Medical are now on sale at Smashwords—first books offered in the “Great Spring Thaw Sale.”
In libris libertas!
