#10. Get your name out!
Now this can be done in so many ways it’s nearly ridiculous. There are so many possibilities that it actually overwhelms the normal (hmmm….normal…I used to know what that was, but have since lost the meaning) person.
“Why do I need to do the Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, etc. thing?”
The honest answer? You don’t. You are the master of your own destiny (Unlike the Queen song states!) and you choose what you have time for and what you don’t. This is a GREAT thing. You have options, many of them, and they are all under your control.
You can create a:
- Facebook page (www.facebook.com), though I haven’t found that very helpful. I find that I am more apt to have family that know me there and want to share pictures and talk about real life and not my writing world. Though I have heard great things from other authors that use the same reasons why I don’t find it helpful as reasons why they find it helpful. Though be on guard if you write under your real name. There may be people in your life that don’t know that you write in a certain genre, and it may be a bit awkward for them to find out in this manner.
- MySpace page (www.myspace.com), several authors say that their page has gotten them pretty good traffic while some older (or should I say “more sophisticated”) authors have found MySpace to be a little “young” for their taste. I guess being hit on by young rap gods, and being proposed marriage by a Nigerian prince isn’t a popular promotional tool.
- Blogger or WordPress blog (www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com), these can become rather time consuming and some authors do decide to pool their resources and create one blog. This creates the need to only blog once or twice per week. You can kill your blog and the interest in you if you are inconsistent in your blogging. If you start blogging every week and get your readers hooked on you and STOP! Your readers will become confused. They will not know when to come by to visit and will make little or no effort to search you out. This would be especially true if you were giving them samples of your work and were providing them tidbits of a free story to get them hooked on you and your writing. Starving readers will read elsewhere. So if you go this route, be prepared to be consistent, OR be prepared to work ahead and pre-post your posts.
- Twitter page (www.twitter.com), OK, obviously you can tell that I can’t get anything said in 140 characters or less, but with Twitter, if you are able to do it, then the world is at your fingertips. There are Twitter novelists that have a great following, and authors who mention all of their contests, and some authors who honestly mention some rather “unique” things on their Twitter pages. It’s definitely a way to get your readers to know who you are and what is happening in your world. They have even gone as far as creating Twitter groups (http://twittgroups.com/index.php) which have every single type of group you could possibly want from Barfly to Book Marketing Online.
- Create your very own website! Of course your readers want to get to learn who you are as a person and a writer, so show them! Showcase your talents and let them know exactly who you are. But keep in mind the things that niggle at your nerves when you visit other websites, and keep things to a minimum. No reader likes to have to dig through a jungle to find your latest release or your contact information. Keep everything within reach and ENJOY!
I am sure that there are thousands of other sites that you can join and network on, but I wanted to touch on some of the more popular ones and give you a few ideas as to what you could be aiming for. Shoot for the skies, this is your journey. Take it with your eyes wide open, open your wings and FLY!
Make sure you come back next week when I will be shouting like an old newspaper hawker, Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
Well written and very true. With all of the free things that one can do on the internet there is no reason that someone cannot have a name out there in the world easy and inexpensively.
Thanks MistyLynn – You’ll have time to use all the expensive stuff when you get bigger and are selling a million coppies in one day. For now, we’ll have to stick to free. But when you do that, will you come back here and leave me a note and say you knew me when?
AJ
There is some great information here. Marketing is an integral part of writing and promoting.
Kissa Starling
Thank you so much Kissa for stopping by. Without marketing there would be no reason for the books. Let’s all keep writing and promoting and we wont have to worry about a thing.
couldn’t agree more! if done right, all of these can be very effective to get your name all over the cyber world, but i will have to say that i like doing it via facebook or myspace… aside from letting people get to know you better, it’s insanely fun to use!
Andrea yes, a lot of people love to use Facebook and MySpace! They are fun. Make sure to read today’s post Extra! Extra! Read All About It! It makes sure to let you know that all the opinions you see on the net (even mine) aren’t the end all do all! If it works for you, USE IT! Thanks for stopping by!
Hey AJ! Holla! lol I totally agree that authors should do all they can to get their names out there but in a way they are comfortable with. I read somewhere that readers have to read your name repeatedly before it sinks into their minds. With the internet, this brings the author all sorts of advantages to get their names out there! Loved the post
I am using just two websites myspace and wordpress and I am seeing that the response and result are really amazing. Thanks for this valuable information.
Val – Yes, it’s correct, you have to hear just about anything repeatedly to get it to sink in. (Just look at my children!) So getting your name out there over and over is a great way to get your name out to be a “household name”! Thanks for commenting.
Smith – I hope that you come back to let me know what you did on MySpace and Wordpress to get the amazing results. Even those of us who think we know everything can learn a thing or two sometimes. Please feel free to leave me a comment or two, or three in here to help out an old soul.
AJ
These are great tips. Another way to get out there is to write a few articles and submit them to large article directories. A great one is ezinearticles. Sometimes if your article is well written other websites will pick it up and use it on your website. Of course it’s important to have a website or blog so that the reader can click on it to find out even more about you.
I am a fairly new website, and have only managed to write one article about writing, well it’s been picked up by a few sites and I am getting a small trickle of traffic from it.
Thanks again for the tips.
Tracey –
Thank you very much for leaving such a great comment. I appreciate the additional tips that will assist other writers in getting ahead.
Congrats –
AJ
Thanks AJ for the compliment. And great post again. I just re-read it and it gave me more ideas.
Tracey –
You should leave your website so others can stop by to look! I’m glad re-reading could help you. It’s amazing how reading something can give you a different message each time it is read.
AJ
Hi AJ
The website I mentioned is http://www.creative-writing-help.com. It’s a slow steady progress. I’m trying hard not to get distracted by the millions of other ideas that I have…that and life.
I think focus is extremely important too. It’s very easy to get distracted by something else on the web.
Very appropriate!
Thank you Mickey!
AJ
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Warm greetings from Europe
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Thanks for stopping by Shaniqua! It’s nice to know that there is some information here that you could use!
Thanks for the additional insight about Twitter tweetadder!
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