Is it pretentious to make a Facebook page for your writing?

Or is it a good way to create an audience and keep people up to speed on your work.

I've been thinking about making a page called "Alex's writing" or something like that because I've been getting a lot of online publications lately and I don't think they're reaching anyone really.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

Facebook generally requires that the reader log in, and there are a few humans who aren't always logged in to Facebook. I'd recommend a nice easy-to-access blog instead--with maybe a companion Facebook page.

 

What do you mean that Facebook requires readers to log in? I can't just keep posting things and articles on the page? I have a page for my online journal and that's still up.

 

To see things on Facebook, a person often/usually needs to have a Facebook account and log in to it. That's a barrier that can keep people from easily seeing your page. Most blogs, on the other hand, don't require the reader to log in, so you don't have that barrier.

 

Yeah I see what you mean but the problem is, I've had a blog since last year and nobody has stumbled upon it or even followed it. I can't afford a domain either so that makes it even harder to do. I thought that if I get more people to like my page, more people would know about it and follow what I do.

 

You could try both--people feed their blog posts through their Facebook page.

 

I found my Facebook page got far more interest than my blog did. The big advantages were a built-in initial audience - even just the 50 or so FB friends I had at the time were enough to start getting the posts I shared some likes and comments, and that helped them get shown further afield - and easy-to-access and cheap advertising. While it's true that not everyone is always logged into Facebook, a lot of people are, and crucially they're already there. It's an easier traffic source to tap into.

The format also helped a lot. I was putting 100-word stories up, which can deliver a complete thing in the space of one Facebook post. If you're sharing longer-form writing, that requires the reader to click through somewhere else to read it, then I'd imagine it wouldn't work quite so well.

 

Hmm, so you're suggesting I post stories in the "what's on your mind?" spot?

Why would clicking one more button be such a hard thing to do? Let's say I share a link to my story and put something like "Readers! My short story is an intriguing tale of a woman's search for her long lost mother. You won't believe how it ends. Read it below!" as the caption?

 

I wouldn't want Facebook types reading my literature.

 

I posted them on the page itself, then sometimes shared them to my own timeline. The page is still live, I just haven't updated it in a while, so you can see the kind of things I posted here.

The more effort you make it for people to read, the less likely they are to do it. That's just how people work. Facebook also prefers not to send people away from Facebook, so posts with links to external places get shown to fewer people than posts without.

 

I see what you mean and I understand how that can work quite well to get readers but what if I only wanted to share published material?

 

You can do that, I just don't expect you to find it as (relatively) easy to build a small following as I did. Like with any other media, you've got to give people a reason to follow you - they're not going to come just because you build it. I found that relatively easy because I was posting flash. It was a very low-effort consumable. They could read the story in a matter of seconds, and like the page if they wanted more stuff like it. With yours, they'll need to click elsewhere and then put more effort into the reading, if only because the stories will be longer.

That's not to say it won't work, or not to do it - if you're trying to build a following, you should be tapping into as many traffic sources as possible, because you don't know which will work well for you, and Facebook's one of the biggest sources of traffic available. You might just find there's a few extra steps between 'start Facebook page' and 'get readers'.

 

Not to me, it doesn't.

 

Despite that, I know no one in person who reads blogs. I'd call that a much larger barrier.

 

I left Facebook in protest (for reasons that I don't want to start a flame war with) so I would not be able to read it.

 

I know no one in person who reads

 

I had most success with a Twitter link to Wordpress, but deleted the account in a fit of loathing for mankind [including self.]

I had aunties 'following,' devastating...

And since, and today I rely on seven or eight pairs of eyes [Wordpress] every two weeks or so which gives me solace on blog - 'haha/hoho you wag, you,' but herein lies the problem, the sickness awaiting approval of social media: ten 'likes,' one hundred, one thousand, I suppose is a pleasure of sorts, drafting toward publishers' eyes [lie].

Likewise competitions [$$$] - the shortlist, the longlist - still nobody has read your story, only the judges, very unsatisfactory.

For me, I'll continue using internet as a tool, an encouragement, gather my diamonds together during some six month recess that shall never happen/give my son the password, hope he sorts it when I'm dead.

As the wise Spanish student said 'Tha thing about short story writer, they only like you when you dead...' issue [repeat, apols]

 

You've been publishing with a lot of online places and you don't think your work is reaching people... Maybe you need to rethink where you're sending your work. I don't really see the point in having an author's Facebook page if you don't already have people looking for something like that. Like if you were getting all these friend requests from your fans or if you've reached your friend limit, then maybe you would want something like that. But if the majority of the people who would follow your author page are already your friends on Facebook, don't make them follow you twice. Yeah, I guess I see it as a little pretentious in most cases.

I see nothing wrong with authors using social media. I think it's great. But do you really need a second Facebook page? I think an author's website would seem more professional if you wanted to add something to the Internet presence you already have. But really rethink where you are publishing. I've never had to worry if people will read my work when it's published because I know people already read these publications. That was a bigger factor for me than publishing a lot and quickly.

 

I don't think it's pretentious, but I also don't think it's worth your time.

The way Facebook is set up, it's very difficult to reach people who aren't your friends--even on Pages rather than personal profiles. And if you have 100 people subscribed to your page, only 3-4% of them see your posts on average. It's set up like that because if you pay, your exposure increases, and Facebook wants you to pay for your marketing.

Social media is general will take up more time than it's worth. You're better off spending the time you'd spend on social media writing another book/story. But if you find social media fun, and it won't cut into your writing time, then IMO Twitter is the best one for authors.

 

To be honest, Twitter is where I find about 99% of books I want to read/purchase these days. I follow a bunch of review blogs as well as writers and publishers in my genre, and I'm never without at least a dozen books on my mental TBR list. It's also a great resource for networking with other authors - I've met some really amazing ones and have learned a lot from them.

And hey, we get 280 characters now!

 

I've bought books off the back of tweets, too. Although you have to be careful because there's a lot of self-published-authors-selling-to-other-self-published authors, much like the Kindle boards. To reach readers as opposed to writers you need to make more effort (not you - general 'you' as this is an advice thread).

 

Eh, different strokes. I found Facebook worked really well for me, but Twitter was a bust.

The best advice I heard on this came from this forum, though I can't for the life of me remember who said it. 'Do the social media you're going to do.' Try the lot, see what platforms you enjoy using. Keep using them. Drop the ones you're making excuses not to touch or never remember to update.

 

When you say 'worked,', what kind of numbers are we talking? Do you know how many copies you sold off the back of Facebook, how many people saw your posts, etc? (Not a challenge - I'm curious!)

 

All advertising is pretentious. You're telling people to pay attention to how awesome your product is while ignoring others' products. But I also don't see why knowing that should preclude anyone from doing it. If you believe in your own work and want people to pay attention to it, then you have to advertise it.