Remember, Social Media is about Being Social

Twitter. Facebook. MySpace. Forums. Messengers. There are a ton of tools out there that fall within the purview of “social media,” and a glut of articles telling you how to use them and what the “rules” are. In one article you might read that you’re supposed to use Twitter this way; in another, you might learn that you should only use MySpace if you’re a musician or under twenty-five.

The one thing that all of these social media tools and platforms have in common is the ability to have good conversation. What is “good conversation”? Well, that’s really up to you to decide, but I can tell you what it isn’t. Conversation does not occur when you talk “at” someone, it occurs when you talk “with” someone. It’s not just about one person’s profile, it’s about sociology and how people interact with one another, which can be challenging to remember because you don’t “see” the person you’re conversing with. You just “see” their comments or their replies.

I know a lot of writers, business owners and other folk out there engage in social media because you have something to sell. That special “something” could be your expertise, your product or your services. I absolutely agree that promoting yourself using these free channels is a great idea, but I also think that the “selling” is a bit overused and the pitch is getting lost and ignored. Why? Because social media is getting over-saturated with promotions that don’t offer anything of value to the reader. Coupons, free trials and such are one thing, but asking people to “buy your book” or “friend me” without doing anything for that person in return gets to be a bit annoying after a while. (Cue *sound effect* thanks to @strangeshe.)

Think this might be you? Take a minute and look at the content you’ve provided in your tool of choice. Are you only promoting yourself? Are you asking people to promote you without asking anything in return? Or are you getting to know the people in your network by following the social “rules of engagement” on that platform?

Oh, no. You just realized that you’re one of those people? Don’t worry! If you feel like you’re stuck in a rut, try engaging people in discussions about topics that have nothing to do with your work or what you’re selling. By establishing common ground with someone, your “followers” and “friends” will get to know you as you and will help you out when you least expect it on-or-offline.

So why not get started today and become your own social media expert. Get to know the people in your network. You never know what kind of conversation might turn up!

March 9, 2009
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The Importance of Chasing Rainbows

rainbow“Chasing Rainbows” is a phrase that describes someone who’s going after a dream that’s impractical and foolish. The phrase has often been used to describe writers who have unrealistic expectations of how well they can write and what they are worth. “He thinks he’s Hemingway, but he’s never published anything before. He’s just chasing rainbows.” “Can’t believe she thinks she’s going to make $100,000 off of her first book, she’s just chasing rainbows.”

No one can catch a rainbow, right?

We’ve all known writers who had unrealistic expectations. By “unrealistic” I mean that they expect to make millions of dollars on an uncompleted project or believe that they’re famous and everyone knows who they are — even though they’ve only written one short story for a free magazine. We’ve laughed at them, we’ve made snarky comments privately, and we’ve all rolled our eyes at them — up until one of them does “make” it. Then we wonder how the heck that happened. Was it luck? Fate? What?

The reason why I believe any writer finds that proverbial pot of gold at the end of their rainbow is not because they were lucky or because fate deemed that they were successful. It’s because they were persistent. Not only did they chase the rainbow, but they did everything they could to find that pot of gold by persistently improving their craft, submitting fiction and non-fiction, networking, etc.

We all know that being a writer isn’t easy, which is why our rainbows are so vital to us. Sometimes, when we talk about what could happen we allow ourselves to believe that it might. It’s up to us then to doggedly pursue those rainbows in the best way that we know how.

So the next time you think a writer is chasing rainbows, I encourage you to take a step back and find out if they’re really wearing rose-colored glasses. All writers need a rainbow, and as long as we’re actually writing? I’m okay with that. How about you?

March 6, 2009
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On Writing a Serial Novel

Violet WarLast Spring, I had announced that I was working on a free urban fantasy website called Violet War. The goal of the website was to promote a series of books I’ve been working on and offer the first draft of the series’ first book (Argentum) for free.

Since starting this project, I’ve found that writing a serial novel comes with its own set of challenges related to the fact that this is a novel of discovery.

In this book, the main character (Sophie Miller) is an exile (think convict) from her magical world. Sophie committed a terrible crime and was later experimented on by the Alchemists then imprisoned by them in a House of Illusion. Those experiments ripped apart her memories, so much so that when the illusion “breaks” she is forced her to deal with the world around her in unusual ways. At first, she doesn’t trust herself but later questions everything she sees.

These questions have turned into information dumps at times, so much so that some chapters rely on discussion rather than action to drive the plot. Fortunately, I’ve been able to catch those moments by sketching out the entire novel from beginning to end. Pacing is really important to me, because as a reader I get very bored when the story doesn’t move, so my chapters are relatively short. They range from one thousand to twenty-five hundred words for that reason.

Another way I’m circumventing those information dumps is by adding chapter breaks which are memories and pieces of info that Sophie knows. Once the “House of Illusion” is broken, she begins to remember bits and pieces of her former life. The things she remembers may seem innocuous at first, but might have a larger impact on the overall story in the end. (*hint*)

Technology has also played a big part in my presentation of this novel. If you look at the physical structure of how Argentum is laid out, you’ll see that there are section breaks in the book. This structure is intentional because of the way this template handles numeric chapters. If I didn’t have a section, then Chapter 10 would have shown up after Chapter 1, which would have made things really confusing for my readers.

I’m pretty excited to have made so much progress on my project this past weekend. This is definitely new territory for me as an author, and I hope you get the chance to read my work.

March 2, 2009
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Why am I Developing a Brand?

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. In this series on personal branding lessons, I covered twenty tips. (Links at the bottom of this post). On the last day of this series, I’d like to talk about my own thoughts on branding so you can help yourself decide what you want to do. (I’d like to mention that this post is dedicated to one of my Twitter followers @strangeshe.)

Developing a personal brand isn’t something that really came to my mind until fairly recently. The reason for this is because my focus has been on getting contracts and building my portfolio. My publications have included: corporate blogging, articles, short stories, games, novellas, business plans, technical documentation, etc. Although I enjoy different writing styles, I am in love with writing fiction.

As a very goal-oriented person, I’ve always known what I wanted to be when I grew up — I just didn’t know how I was going to get there. When you’re a professional writer, it’s very easy to over-commit to assignments. Getting paid to write is a wonderful feeling, sure… but building a strong portfolio has been equally important to me and that has been my focus for a number of years.

In today’s market, it’s even more challenging to make a living as a novelist or a fiction writer than when I first started to write. (First-time novelists typically make $5K on their debut book.) Fortunately, I have a “day job”TM that I love and a great team of people to work with, some of whom are writers like myself. Now that I have the experiences and portfolio that I’ve personally needed to move forward, I felt that I could take the lessons that I’ve learned and apply them to my “brand” as an author. No, I’m not as well known as Steven King. No, I’m not a top-of-mind name like Ann Rice or Neil Gaiman or any popular author that you might know — but one day I could be. So could you.

Developing a personal brand for me simply means I’m helping establish guidelines and a professional reputation for myself as a writer.

Whatever you decide your path is as a writer (freelancer, copywriter, etc.), I feel that branding is a long-term strategy that involves both personal and business-related decisions.

February 28, 2009
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Lessons in Personal Branding: Day Four

In today’s tips about nurturing your personal brand, I’d like to share with you some more tips that I hope you’ll find useful to your career as a writer.

16. Try Not to Hold a Grudge

Have you ever been in a situation where another writer said something nasty about you? What about a project that you’ve worked on for years but never got paid? It is extremely easy to get into situations where two people engage in grudge matches, especially when one (or the other) party ceases communication.

There is no magic bullet to avoiding a grudge with someone because sometimes, there is a legitimate reason why someone would feel the way they do. I try very hard to keep open lines of communication as much as possible and (while some people don’t) I do believe in resolving serious issues face-to-face or on the phone whenever possible. My philosophy is that life is way too short to be miserable. Grudges, unfortunately, affect more than just the two parties involved. Resolve your differences, even if you “agree to disagree” so you can remain a professional.

17. Engage in Friendly Competition

Writing can be very competitive, so why not turn that into a fun activity? Have a writing “word count” contest with your peers or generate some friendly “plot seed” competitions to spark your creativity. If you’re a very competitive person, sometimes the answer to satisfying your natural tendency is to look for healthy ways to compete with your peers in a friendly way rather than alienate them.

Unhealthy competition can be pretty dangerous because you can open yourself up to a lot of criticism — especially if you target other writers in your field. The thing to keep in mind about competition is that it’s natural to wonder if you’re “better” than another writer. That thought used to hit me when I was a lot younger, but I’ve since learned it’s pretty silly to think that way. There are PLENTY of writing opportunities to go around. Even if you wrote four books a year, think about how many are released through publishers every month!

18. Keep in Mind Editing is a Separate Skill

Did you know that there are as many forms of editing as there are writing styles? If you ask ten different people what editing is, they’ll probably tell you ten, different things. From content editing to proofreading, editing encompasses a broad range of skills that require a sharp eye.

I like to think about editing in this fashion: If a writer creates content, it’s an editor’s job to polish the content so it shines. It’s often very hard for a writer to edit his (or her) own work for that reason. Sometimes, you’re just too much in love with the words you’ve written to be able to see errors.

For more about editing, you can read these previous posts I had written:

19. Write What You Enjoy Writing

Have you ever gotten a gift that you absolutely hated? Were you enthusiastic about what you received? As any writer will tell you, sometimes it’s really hard to focus on assignments that are an absolute chore to complete. When you’re happy writing what you want to write, you’ll not only end up writing more than what you had originally intended, the quality will often be better as a result. That’s a product any writer can be proud of!

20. Read Blogs, Books by Other Writers

One of the ways that you can keep in touch with other writers is to support what they’re working on. From blogs to novels, I can’t stress enough how invaluable it is to read other publications. Staying on top of book trends or blogs can help foster discussion, provide you with a basis for better decision-making, help you brainstorm and more!

I find that reading books and blogs by other writers helps ensure that I have multiple perspectives on topics, which is essential to intelligent decision-making for anything I do in business. These multiple perspectives ensure that I’m optimistic and realistic about my writing and how I approach myself as a “brand.”

First Three Days in this Personal Branding Series for Writers

February 26, 2009
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