Social Media - do writers need one?

[UsedToLoveMorrissey]

I've just finished my 1st book (young adult). So, I'm now doing the research into what to do next, but I am thinking i need a social media presence? I set up a twitter account (but god knows how to even start, It feels like I'm talking to myself right now, so I've only one post), i'm going to do Fb and Instagram today too, but what do you write when there isn't much to say atm??

Also blogs - again, is this needed? I'm trying to decide if it is worth spending time on these things when there are agents to find, deals to be made (in my dreams).

If anyone wants to share their twitter/FB/blog pages etc I'm more than happy to reciprocate. I'm not putting mine here atm incase folks think I'm spamming, I'm honestly not - I have nothing to sell or promote just yet, but it is allowed, I'll pop mine here.

You will need some sort of social media presence, but the more you sell, the less you'll need that. It's not uncommon for the publicity department to run an author's social media pages.

If you want to look at a really good website (in that she has tons of followers who read her newsletters avidly) have a look at Louise Penny's. I was lucky enough to meet her last year and readers were treating her like Mother Theresa. They all referred to her newsletters, which are both personal and writing-related.

I would focus on your book for now - it will take a year from getting an agent to being published anyway, so there's plenty of time to look at social media then.

Yes, you should persevere with Twitter. Concentrate on following -agents, publishers, teachers with book clubs, Golden Egg Academy, Society of authors, patron of reading, other YA writers etc. It's a real community and agents for eg will post if they're looking for submissions, there are lots of courses, networking opportunities. You can retweet stuff to build up a following -books you like, an inspiring illustration etc. If you have a blog relevant to your writing (or even just other types of writing) then link to that on Twitter also.
(And yes, Moz has let me down also!)

@AskAgent on Twitter is great - it's run by Juliet Mushens, who's a brilliant agent.

Have you seen this Richard and Judy competition?

Yes, I'm afraid you do. And you need to keep it separate from any social media you use in your personal life.
Choose a pseudonym before you set anything up. If you really want to publish under your own name, set up your author social media with a slightly different version of your name and, in fact, use this slight variant as your pseudonym (eg JK Rowling instead of Joanne Rowling).
Facebook has lots of book-related groups, some of which are for writers and readers in a genre, some of which are for genre writers to swap tips and make friends, etc. Twitter has groupings as well though my honest advice to any new YA writer who is also new to social media is: stay the fuck out of YA Twitter until you are tooled up WRT social media as it is a terrible snakepit full of tantrum-throwers, bullies, scammers and feuds.

Blogging... it's up to you. To be effective at all, an author blog has to have more to say than 'Hi this is my new book', and you ideally need to be able to put something new on it twice a week or so, every week.

Thanks for your replies. Blogging - looked at that earlier and decided not just now. I have nothing to say so there really isn't any point.

I'm looking through the Writers yearbook at agents right now. Some have their twitter name there, I'll start looking them up and following too, thank you. I didn't think to do this as I thought it might be a bit too presumptious (and my tweets will likely be full of typos).

I've not seen the competition - thank you.

It feels great to have a breather from the actual writing, but the anxiety is lurking about the stress of getting it out there. A year seems like a long way off but actually also quite reassuring that I really don't have to rush things, I'll take it like it took me to write the book - 2 years - so at my own pace.

Reanimated do you really think it's that important for an unsigned author given the terrible odds of us hopefuls ever getting anywhere anyway?

I've joined Twitter for following agents and the publishing world rather than posting myself.

I read an article with Jonny Geller yesterday where he said he'd choose an excellent book from an author with no social media presence over an ok book with half a million followers every time.

Well, if you have a lot of money to spend on advertising, you could probably manage without social media, but otherwise, how are people ever going to learn about the existence of your book?

If you're self publishing then certainly the greater your online presence the better. But if not, then I don't think it makes much difference at this stage. It wouldn't be the deciding factor.
My publisher suggested a pen-name so i was quite glad to start afresh on online with that.

Following this thread with interest - have got an agent and getting ready for 2nd round of submissions to publishers (following much reworking) after initial interest last time culminated in 'it needs more work.' Was tentatively wondering whether I should be joining Twitter (though my agent hasn't suggested it as yet ) and also wonder about what I would say at this stage, joining as an (as yet!) unpublished author - part of me wonders if better to wait until/ if I get a publishing deal - but then do publishers want you to have this presence already?? So confusing !

Dont I would join now. It take a while to get a hang of Twitter, build up relationships with writing folks and a bit of a following. If you already have an established presence, it will be easier for you to promote your successes when they do happen. Your tweets will be morelikely to be seen, retweeted, liked, it all helps build awareness. Using hashtags will also draw attention to you as an author and your work. And, cannot emphasise this enough, I have come across so many resources on twitter that i would never have encountered if i weren't on it. Yes, you have to be vareful what you post and get used to being roundly ignored at the start but it helps to just keep tweeting, interacting with other writers when you can so people become aware of you. Following your fave writer, booksellers and publishers is usually a good starting point

well, that post needs a editor

I agree with CantFeel and others above - it’s good to join twitter at this stage, to build up a few followers and start getting the hang of it while it’s not too important.

(and hi, Dontrock - long time no speak! Good luck with this round of submissions.)

I joined twitter a while before I got an agent, and mainly posted the odd book review and comment about writing, using amreading/ amwriting hashtags. I followed lots of writer types who followed me back - it all felt rather random, but nice and friendly. Agree about lots of interesting advice, articles, blog posts etc. Even now that I have an agent and publisher, I’m still pretty rubbish at tweeting much - mainly retweet, and mess up the occasional self-publicity post by forgetting to tag anyone - but I don’t worry too much and am learning (slowly!). I do see plenty of authors (often with relatively small followings) announce that they’ve just signed with a particular agent - and then lots of people congratulate and follow them - and also, if you already have an agent, you can often connect to the other authors they represent because of having that in common.

In summary, I’m pretty useless at twitter and sometimes don’t go on there for weeks at a time, but I still find it helpful and am glad I’ve made a start with it.

Thanks for advice all, and thanks Mumbles - hope all going well with your book, looking forward to reading it! I'm feeling like the process of revision is endless - and perhaps I am destined to spend the rest of my life writing the same book. Gearing up for submission even more nerve wracking when was rejected last time round!

I think my hesitation about Twitter stems from my sense of not being worthy until I am actually published - and looking stupid if never actually get published. Also, in my profession a lot of people are on Twitter in that capacity so am bit conflicted about what I would be tweeting about and with whom - can you mix up interests or is it best to have separate accounts ?!? My novel does link to what I do in my work life so if it were published would feel more able to link the two bit until then I would just feel like a wannabe!

I think it's important, but you do need to watch it getting in the way of actual writing. SM can be a massive time suck.

I was on a mentor programme run through a publisher with some other writers with the end result being - ideally - a published book with them. One of the girls took the SM advice seriously and ended up setting up a twitter account under her writing name and worked really cleverly at it so was able to get something like 2000 followers after three months and a massive Insta presence too. It was really impressive. She said it required about an hour a day to maintain that following etc.

But - she never actually polished her book so it still hasn't been published. This SM activity got in the way of her actual writing.

OlderBook, that’s such a shame for her - I can see how easily it could happen, too.

Dontrock, if you do join twitter, let me know and I’ll follow you! I found it a bit weird splitting my twitter focus between my former profession and my writing too (although in my case there’s no link between them). I have faith that all your hard work editing is going to pay off soon!

Hi olderbook, I guess that is part of my hesitation ! I have little enough time as it is, and am very susceptible to distractions!

Mumbles, thanks I will do if I get round to joining (also wish I had faith in my revisions!)