Shortly before Haunters was published, I wrote a post about the creaky nature of my on-line ‘platform’. Embarrassment was mingled with frustration; cynicism was in evidence; I wanted to do something about it. Now that several months have passed and I have done something (sort of) about it, I thought I’d update the post here, just to see what’s changed.
— I still have a blog, but I’ve managed to drag it over to WordPress from Blogger — and park it under my own name — which is surely an improvement. The issue of whether or not talking about myself and my work is bragging or simply broadcasting is still unresolved, but at least I got to create some fancy buttons for my sidebar.
— I’m on facebook and feel at home there. I do now have a page for myself as an author, and it hasn’t turned out to be quite as lonely as I feared. True, it isn’t growing as fast as my ‘private’ account, but I’ve pretty much abandoned the idea that I have a private account now. Privacy and facebook don’t belong together in the same sentence anyway, so I don’t really mind. But I do still have to keep an eye on my brother…
— Twitter. I’m sort of getting it. I see now that I was following too many people, so I recently went through and liberated anyone I felt would be better off without me. Some of them were so grateful that they liberated me in return. I feel lighter. However, if you are dull as slippers or monstrously racist or a warrior for Jesus and I’m still following you, please let me know in the comments so I can set you free too.
— Google+, LinkedIn, Shoutski, Boast-button and the rest – nope. I keep an eye on Wiki, and sometimes log in to Goodreads, but the things I’m already on are enough for me, thanks.
— Finally, what do I think about the possibilities for selling books through social media? Still not a lot. At least, not unless you have a dirt-cheap (free?) e-book to download. I really can’t see how authors shouting about their books to an audience of mostly authors is going to shift many units, especially when the key characteristic of social media is that they are social and not commercial. Okay, I do sometimes shout myself, but only in a half-hearted, for-the-look-of-the-thing sort of way, and with low expectations. No doubt I’m old-fashioned in this. Please let me know.
Do you sometimes think you’d like to go back to the days before social media?
I’ve discovered that I’m afflicted with the compulsion to read everything that comes up in twitter. So I can only follow people who don’t tweet much otherwise it drives me crazy.
Sometimes, Mike, sometimes. But then whenever I drop out completely, I’m left wondering what’s going on in my absence and can’t resist just having a little peek…
I drop in on social media sites when the mood takes me but it’s basically impossible to keep up with everything that’s posted. No mention of Pinterest by the way?
I’ve never used pinterest, Simon. I was slightly put off by the recent scare over copyright infringement that flared up over the site. It seems especially prone to the attentions of angry and ilitiginous photographers.
I think you raise a good point about which platforms are good for what: keeping in touch with friends/peers or getting in touch with potential readers.