Hello again everyone! This post is going to consist of me going into the issues I have had when it comes to social media and how it impacted our book. First off I just want to say that building a social network presence and a following is not as easy as I thought it would be. I have spent countless hours researching and looking up how to do it successfully but it wasn’t until relatively recently that I was able to start getting a few followers on Twitter and here on our blog.
The biggest lesson I learned is that you can’t do it alone. Specifically when it comes to the indie author side of it. There is a fantastic community out there that help support each other and has been one of the biggest helps to my cause. It uses #WritingCommunity and is very active, especially on Twitter which is where I initially discovered them. This community not only helps boost each other up by following one another and engaging with each other but it also a valuable tool when it comes to getting questions answered. The amount of knowledge out there is so immense and having a simple hashtag to connect you with that knowledge is a blessing.
The downside of social media is how much time it can consume and how important it has become. I have heard stories of publishers not even giving authors the time of day unless they already have an established social media following. This can be very disheartening to new authors or people trying to get their work published because it isn’t something that you think is part of being a writer (or at least I didn’t). With all the time that you have to spend on managing your advertisements, checking your social media accounts, responding to emails, and all of the other nuances that come with running a website and promoting a book, it sometimes feels like you don’t have time to write.
I have learned to take a 70/30 approach when it comes to my writing. Meaning I spend no more than 30% of my time that I dedicate to my writing (since I still have a normal job and a family as well) on social media and advertising. This means that 70% of all my time is spent on actual writing, and for me this has been what I found to work best. It gives me ample time to write, and since I have gotten better at running our website and social media accounts it doesn’t take me nearly as long to do everything like it used to.
And finally, social media followers matter because if you don’t have followers then you don’t have people to buy your book. Advertising can only do so much, and unless you have thousands and thousands of dollars to spend on advertising, your social media presence is going to matter when it comes to overall book sales. This is a harsh reality that I learned the hard way. I didn’t get into writing to become rich, me and Parker had a story we wanted to tell and we did just that, but now we want to share more of our ideas. We are learning as we go and social media has been one of the things I stumbled on early, but hopefully now we can start building our following on social media and connecting with other indie authors.
This is just my two cents on the social media side of being an indie author. Let me know what you think and don’t forget to like us on Facebook @BryantAndParker on Twitter @BryantandParke1 and on Instagram @bryant_and_parker and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog!
Cheers,
Bryant