Should authors spend time on social media?

I would like to have your opinion on this question; Should authors spend time on social media or should they spend all their time writing and editing?

I am asking this question because after having been on social media for a few years, I feel way better without them. In the past, I was on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. I have deleted all my accounts the same day.

I took this decision after reading Cal Newport's books "Deep Work" and "Digital Minimalism". I also saw that other authors share almost the same advice, especially James Scott Bell when he is talking about almost a zero ROI (return on investment).

The reasons I did it are;

- I was feeling anxious when I was comparing myself with other friends, receiving insults or feeling bad after a post I made received no comments or likes.
- My real friends are not on social media so why spend time to talk to fake friends and acquaintances or work colleagues?
- I was loosing way too much time when I was on social media. I prefer to spend my time doing something more valuable.

And you, as an author or wannabe author, do you use social media? If yes, how many different social media accounts do you have? Which one? Do you have one social media you prefer to use as an author? How much time do you spend every week on them? Have you ever sold books via social media?

Thanks for your comments!

 

This is not a question specific to writers.

 

Thanks for splitting this off @DarkWoods.

It might be worth distinguishing between using social media as a consumer vs as an author to support branding and marketing.

I think I'm on the same page as you regarding use as a consumer - I am of the opinion that they're a colossal waste of time if not actually psychologically damaging.

BUT

I also think there's an argument that anybody interested in *selling* books might have to build an approach somewhere between tweeting photos of every meal and total abstinence.

I think there's a way to participate in a way that would be restricted to producing new on-brand "I'm a real person just like you" content, rather than reading/replying to friends/followers comments, or reposting somebody else's content.



I referenced Becca Syme in the other thread, and she came up with an estimate that 5-10 minutes per day seems to be a sweet spot where the author maintains branding support but beyond which ROI turns negative, the author is diverting time away from producing product.

That's just one example, others are that I have explored the publishing scene over the last couple of years with the intention of going traditional route. I've experienced 100% consensus so far with agents and publishers saying that they wouldn't take on a client who was not participating in their own branding, and that this means social media at the very least. So, even though I think they're 'wrong' it doesn't matter what I think, they've made their preference clear.

Just as an example of a publisher/agent, I was chatting with Michael Mirolla from Guernica Editions on Tuesday, and he described an author who eschewed social media as - and I'm quoting - "Shooting herself in the foot. She's asking me to send her query to the bottom of the pile." I'm taking this sort of thing seriously because I want my books to find their readers and this seems like a small barrier that can be overcome with a deliberate approach.

 

And I just noticed this is local for you as well. Guernica is based in Toronto. I'm in Vancouver, and encountered Mirolla here when he was doing a talk for Canadian Authors last week. He's just finishing his Writer-in-Residence at Joy Kogawa House. Point is, after three years of picking brains, this guy appears aligned with other publishers I've encountered re social media.

 

I don't. I don't have a personal Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or any other kind of major social media account. I have no interest and I have no time for them. I will use them professionally for promotion and contacting my fans, but that's all I use them for. Lots of people say stupid things on social media and it comes back to haunt them. I make it easy by never saying anything outside of my writing there.

 

I've not yet reached the point where I can advertise my writing through social media. I am going to try the traditional route first, and if it hasn't brought me progress after a few years, I might look into turning to social media. If I succeed through the traditional path, I may only use one page on social media as a platform to speak with those interested in my work.

 

I would really rather they didn't. While there are some exceptions, generally speaking the more I know about an author's personality the harder I find it to enjoy their books.

 

I quit Twitter a couple of days ago b/c I just couldn't stand the toxic environment and I'm a lot happier now b/c of it. Social media in my experience is little more than perpetually ongoing IRL drama, and I personally don't even think it's all that useful even from a marketing and PR perspective either. My advice is if you're a professional writer you should be spending as much time as you can writing, you'll have other avenues of finding ways to procrastinate without social media interfering anyway.

 

I think there's a difference between using social meeting to promote your writing career (which seems to be pretty much recommended these days) and using social media as a diversion from writing.

I only have Facebook, which I've had for many years, and I use it every day. However, I also live overseas from where I was born and bred, and it's a fantastic way to keep in touch with old friends ...both individually, and to interact as a group. I've also joined a couple of Facebook groups (history groups and collectors groups) that coincide with my hobbies and interests. It's also a great alternative place to make a general announcement about life ...such as 'sorry, guys, my email has gone wonky, so if you can't get hold of me that way, that's why.' When my husband was in hospital, I was able to keep family and friends posted on his condition without having to separately contact each person every day ...which was a HUGE help.

And I'm also an active member of a political party in Scotland (SNP) that struggles to get mainstream media coverage (despite having been the government of Scotland since 2007), so we need to exchange useful information via Facebook. That would be hard to do if we didn't have that option.

However, this is all good stuff. It's also possible to waste a lot of time on Facebook ...and yes, I've been known to do that as well. It's also possible to get sucked into nasty comment exchanges, and to go away from it feeling frustrated, angry, and depressed. So it's important to take charge of how you use social media. Used mindfully, with control, however, it does add a dimension to my life that I would miss, if it were no longer there.

I've never used Twitter, though, or any of the other sites, and probably never will. There is a limit....

 

Twitter is an incredibly toxic environment where even the smallest disagreement on any subject leads to vicious attacks.

I mostly use it now to follow my favourite cricketers and comedians. I don't use it to interact with anyone.

 

I think it really depends on how you use it.

Newer and trendier writers and publishers will love having a social platform because that is how they connect and promote to an already large user base that pretty much spans the globe.

However, there is no actual need or even proven techniques when it comes to writers having social platforms. Yes it helps on certain ways but in no way is it required.

What is really does is give people something to stand out with. You might have a great piece of writing but in a sea of millions it is hard to get noticed and a lot of our commerce relies on marketability and exposure rather than quality or importance.

If you are against social media or have currently no interest other than to use it as a business platform then social media may not be a good option for you.

However if you're into it and want to put in the work or simply want a broadcast to shout your promotions then it may work for you. However the latter is of limited benefit without an already existing audience.

 

Thanks Kevin. I consider social media not only a waste of time but also an anxiety trigger. I don't know if everyone is like me but I am always comparing myself to other people with their "supposed" fabulous life.

Yes I think you have a good point when you say you use social media for networking with other writers. I think it's better to use social media this way than trying to increase visibility of your books. You will gain lots more advantages this way I think.

I agree with you 100%. I don't have any personal or professional social media accounts. The only social media I am in is this forum.

Good idea. I also want to use traditional way of publishing. I don't have anything written yet but I am very careful about what appears on Google under my name. I almost have nothing about me which is a very good thing.

Oh, never thought about this one. Thanks for your point of view.

After reading "Digital Minimalism" by author Cal Newport, I am also not very interested in promoting my future books via social media. I prefer to spend most of my time writing.

Like Kevin McCormack said in an earlier post, I think that maybe the best way that an author can use social media is to use it to connect with other authors.

Thanks for your comment. Really appreciated. I think I will start by focusing on writing exclusively.

I would like to start by writing a few short stories and building a website or a blog in which I could publish my first short stories. I don't plan to use social media at all.

What do you think?

Thanks everyone for your help!

 

I have a twitter account and I enjoy using it, thanks to a "block early, block often" policy. I center my timeline on my colleagues and other creative people and historians. I mute keywords for stuff I don't want on my timeline. I occasionally post threads about writing or the publishing business, share music I like, get into meme games that are fun and don't derive their humor from punching down on people. I did a book club discussion for a Writing 214 level craft book over December and January, and people liked it so much they want to do another.

I don't really talk about my books and do the absolute *minimum* when it comes to trying to sell my books, as I think that over marketing is obnoxious when other people do it.

Twitter's fine. but if you don't block the crap out of assholes, you're gonna have a bad time.

Facebook is awful and I will never go back.

 

How do you block keywords on Twitter? Do you use Tweetdeck?

 

regular old twitter website on my desktop. settings and privacy > content preferences > Muted > muted words

 

This is where I'm gravitating, too. Website with a blog.

Based on research I've done over the last couple of years, I strongly advise exploring email lists as well.

 

I think one of the better social media authors I've ever seen is Neil Gaiman because he uses it to interact with his fans, but he also steps away when he's working on something requiring his full attention. Or he did a few years ago when I was actually using Tumblr and Twitter. My current accounts on those platforms are all but defunct. Like others have said, I use Facebook mostly for connecting with family and friends I don't see regularly. I deactivated mine a while ago, and it was great, but then my niece was born, and well, she's cute, so I maintain Facebook for that.

I think in terms of marketing, there is a little responsibility on the author's side to promote oneself, however, like someone else said, overmarketing is annoying and will make me absolutely uninterested in what you're promoting. I think social media can be effective, but it's more of a thing for an individual to decide how it will be effective for them.

I would probably have an author page on Facebook, but I wouldn't have anything else unless someone in my group of people helping me publish told me I needed a Twitter. But that's probably the only ones I'd focus on. I do use Instagram, but that's mostly for memes...

 

This is a good example of where my head's at on this topic:

I'm sure this is true in the sense that:
a) product doesn't sell itself, so *somebody* has to market the author's brand, and individual products (books, merchandise &c) (note 1)
b) nobody else is going to do it

My question is: why is there nobody else offering to do it?
* if I can't spell, have bad grammar, I can go to websites swimming with spag level editors who charge a reasonable fee for service
* if I am bad at storytelling, I can hire a literary editor, same as above
* if I don't want to do a book cover, I can find sites where people are tripping over each other offering the service for affordable rates
* if I am not very technical, I can hire somebody to do my website, ebook conversions, layouts
* if I don't speak a language I want to publish international editions into, I can hire somebody to translate
* if I am not great at speaking, I can hire somebody to narrate the audiobook
* I don't have a printing press - no problem, I can engage publishers, printers, there's hundreds of options
* "I'm not a money person" - well, sure, that's pretty common in sole proprietorships. Accountants abound, they're in the yellow pages.

Meanwhile:
* I'm garbage at marketing, and everybody tells me *how vitally important this is* so to make sure I'm doing it right, I reach out to... (sound of crickets)

This supports my thought that marketing is sensitive to knowledge and experience, all the more reason I'm baffled the standard suggestion is, "Meh, the writer - who has no actual competence in it - should just figure out how to do it through trial and error instead of spending that time... y'know, getting better at writing."



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Note 1: I spent the better part of a decade as a product manager at a telco, which is a role within marketing. Product life cycle: product development, positioning to the marketplace, pricing, promotion, sales channel, launch, warranty support, post warranty support, retirement. It's my actual understanding of the process that leads me to think that I'm missing something obvious in the way the publishing industry works... businesses generally have experts doing this, why not authors who are supposed to act like businesses?

 

In regards to sanity, I would consider using it sparingly. At least on a personal level. As far as getting your ideas out there, I think it can be a great way to establish yourself with a following.

 

This is a subject that's been intimidating me for a long time. As someone who has recently been reading articles on traditional publishing versus self-publishing, a lot of the articles state that traditional publishers want their authors to market their books and sometimes the easiest way to do that is via social media, which is fair. People can re-tweet or reblog a short promotion of your book with a click of the button and all their followers see your book too. If you have a website with a mailing list, then it's not so widespread. I'm very bad at marketing at any scale so this pretty much kills any chance of me going the traditional route.

I'm so surprised a job for this hasn't cropped up yet.

Also re: twitter. I don't use it much and certainly haven't really interacted with any of the writer culture there but I do know they have quarterly (??) or yearly (??) pitch contents where you use a hashtag and pitch your unagented/unpublished manuscript and agents/publishers will contact the more interesting pitches. Again, never participated it or saw it in action but I know it's a thing.

 

Not true at all. There are plenty of marketing agencies you can pay to do your marketing for you.

But they won't come cheap and you'll lose money.

 

Hey, I'm very willing to be educated on this and research the options, but up to now, you're the first to suggest this is an option. Can you recommend something like a website where they advertise, like we see for literary editors?

Just as an example, I was at a publisher lecture last night, and when I asked about it, the room erupted with laughter and it was the dumbest question of the evening, apparently.

 

And this is what is getting confusing for me as well... I'm seeing mixed advice. Some websites state that the advantage of going with a publisher is that they consider marketing to be part of their responsibilities, versus the writer'd have to do it her with self publishing. I'm not sure if that's because *some* publishers take on marketing while others don't, or whether the advice is dated and they used to, but the industry has changed.

If so, the number one benefit (for my situation) of seeking a publisher may have evaporated. Not *all* benefits, mind... they still have superior distribution power.

I'm willing to be wrong about this... my main goal in participating in forums like this is to learn as much as possible before pivoting my career to writing in 2023. Hoping Naomasa298 can throw out a suggestion.

Yes, some publishers will announce an open-to-authors (ie no agent required) pitch window via twitter. Some have used Facebook, too. I've also been to conventions where they do this for attendees, in a speed-dating setup, it's pretty cool IMO. But I don't consider this the same as managing a twitter account as part of a marketing strategy. Once my first book is sold, I may never need to do it again; whereas, marketing the author's brand never ends.

 

Is there a website where books within self-pubbed genres or particular subject content could be reliably advertised? Someplace where people who are looking for the kinds of new books they like to read, could go to find the newest titles, blurbs, etc?

Facebook has potential for that, BUT it's so hard to search Facebook status pages. Each new entry supercedes the previous one, and information can quickly get buried.

It feels as if the present scattergun approach—every single author trying to reach readers by the hey let's try everything on social media and online blogs, is just too random to be very helpful. It would be great if self-pubbed authors could take their novel to a place where readers have already gathered, looking for the kind of novel that author has just written.

Personally, I love historical novels ...not historical Romance, but actual historical novels. And I have particular areas of historical interest, although I am open to other ones as well. It would be great if there was a place I could go to find the latest self-pubbed releases in my favourite categories: Historical Novels of the American West, Historical Novels of Ancient Rome, Historical Novels of Medieval Britain and Ireland, or Historical Novels of Seaboard Canada, etc. I would love it if a site existed where I could easily find these things.