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Author pages

Hi,

I have a facebook page but hardly ever use it. Occasionally I'll post a cover or some such but that's probably less than once a month. I think it's just a general page not a specific author one.

https://www.facebook.com/greg.curtis.7146?ref=ts

I more often use my blog to post, though even that would only be once or twice a month. And while I initially set it up thinking it would be a good advertising thing, I generally don't use it that way. Instead I blog about things that catch my interest, like most recently Anne Rice's petition to Amazon.

Greg's Books

Mostly I gave up on the whole promotion side of writing and now just concentrate on the writing.

Cheers, Greg.
 

PaulineMRoss

Inkling
the main reason to have an author page before publishing is because when you submit your work to an agent, she will google your name and see what kind of irons you have in the fire. If you have no web site, no blog, no twitter, and no facebook, it's hard for her to make a decision about working with you. If you have a decent following on your various social networking entities, it's easier for the agent to see how many fans you have drawn all on your own and it lets her know you're the kind of person who will be a valuable partner in the marketing process.

I find this a curious train of thought. If the author's already doing all the legwork in building a following, promoting, networking, marketing, why bother with an agent or publisher at all? Why not simply cut out the middle man and self-publish?

This is not to decry the benefits of the traditional route, but it does seem to me that agents and traditional publishers are bringing less and less to the table with every year that passes.
 
Hi Pauline,

"This is not to decry the benefits of the traditional route, but it does seem to me that agents and traditional publishers are bringing less and less to the table with every year that passes."

I agree completely. When I look at the situation it seems to me that for all but a very few elite authors, trade publishing is returning poorer results. Authors have to promote their own work (ok this is not completely new but seems to be getting worse), are getting hit with more and more restrictive contracts, and getting smaller advances to show for it. And to add to the woes for the trade published authors, as the decline of paper and book stores continues, the advantage a good trade publisher can bring by getting books into these stores, also wanes.

Don't get me wrong. There are still advantages, but in my view they are for the most part being eroded away.

And Caged, if an agent is interested and they google your name as a published author, they will find your books and your sales ranks. Those are probably more important to them. And in fact, though this is nothing but my own gut instinct here, they wouldn't be wanting the uber successful social media savy guys anyway. Don't forget a publisher trawling the seas of the self published will be looking for those they can quickly and easily boost to successful. If you're too successful they can't help you or provide a decent enough incentive for you to sign their contracts (as we've seen happen a few times recently with very large contracts). If on the other hand you have a track record of writing good, saleable books and can't market for crud, you're their perfect catch.

Cheers, Greg.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
Bringing this thread back up because I was introduced to something new (to me). Google+ ended up not working out well for us, so I dumped it, and then last week a friend convinced us to try tumblr.

A. E. Lowan

Tumblr is very interesting! It's much easier to use, sort of a casual, bloggy sort of thing. And it's fun. I like it.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
AE Lowan: Tumblr is great! I switched back from Wordpress to Tumblr and am much happier with it. It has a nice setup that's easy to navigate and there's lots of creative blogs to get inspiration from. If you get an account I'll follow you. :)
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
A.E. Lowan...I thought you found your writing partner here at MS?

I met my writing partner in high school - she's now my partner-partner of 23 years. She's very shy so even though she's a Scribes member not many people have met her. My crit/editing/writing buddy and cohort in all things writing trouble is Teacup, who I met here on Scribes. But awesome you remembered! :D

AE Lowan: Tumblr is great! I switched back from Wordpress to Tumblr and am much happier with it. It has a nice setup that's easy to navigate and there's lots of creative blogs to get inspiration from. If you get an account I'll follow you. :)

I got one last week! A. E. Lowan It's great fun. And I see your link in you signature, so I'll be following you, too! Thanks! :D
 

J. S. Elliot

Inkling
Bringing this thread back up because I was introduced to something new (to me). Google+ ended up not working out well for us, so I dumped it, and then last week a friend convinced us to try tumblr.

A. E. Lowan

Tumblr is very interesting! It's much easier to use, sort of a casual, bloggy sort of thing. And it's fun. I like it.

Glad that I've nudged you onto Tumblr, Lowan. (At least we aren't figuring it out by ourselves, right?)

My own Tumblr: J. S. Elliot - Ink Blots
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I'm using wordpress for my blog because I believe it is the platform that will best allow me to cheaply and easily have a professional looking website once I actually start publishing.
 

acapes

Sage
I'm using wordpress & weebly at the moment - both have things I prefer over the other. For instance, I find wordpress much easier to blog, but weebly is easier (for me) to customise the actual site itself.
 
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