Five Pillars Of Authorpreneurship (Part 1)

Neera

We are living in the best time ever to become an authorpreneur.

Computers have made it easier to write, and the internet has made it possible to research, publish and sell to a global audience.

If you love to create as I do, and if you are ready to learn different skills and adapt to the changing environment as I do, then we can build a business around our writing.

But first, a disclaimer — I am not a millionairess from writing, nor am I in the publishing business. I am a new writer who is learning from those who have already made it.

I developed a passion for writing in my forties. For twenty years, I was scribbling in journals and doing occasional courses. It is only two years ago that I quit my job to devote all my energies to writing.

I was encouraged by many writers who have successfully build businesses with their writing. I made it my mission to learn from them and to share my learning with others.

The Millennials and Gen Z are born with technology on their finger-tips. They are also entrepreneurs by nature, while we, the Baby Boomers and Gen-X, have to follow a steep learning curve.

But we are a determined generation, having achieved so much in our lives. I am certain we can achieve whatever we set our hearts upon.

I have started my authorpreneur journey with this belief that with my tenacity, passion, and consistency I will be able to achieve what I have out to regardless of my age.

Besides age is just a number, isn’t it?

Let’s get on with it.

In the past few years, I have been studying the trajectory of many writers. Writers such as J.A. Konrath, Adam Croft, David Gaughran, Joanna Penn, Mark Dawson, Michael L Ronn, Jeff Goings, James Clear, Orna Ross, Austin Kleon, just to name a few. They all have proved that it is possible to build a business out of your passion.

But you need to be ready to put in the work and stick it out.

But as a new writer, it was an enigma to me where to start and where to put my effort. There is a lot of guidance, but other writers as well were ‘so-called’ academies but none of them were clear.

When you start in any profession, usually there is a clear pathway. Even entrepreneurship has certain steps that need to be taken to ensure your venture is going to succeed. Then why authorpreneurship should be any different?

I set upon finding the path.

I discovered there are five areas you need to work on to strengthen the foundation of your author’s business.

I call them pillars.

Whether you are a fiction writer, a non-fiction writer, or a content writer, the pillars are still the same.

And they are:

  1. Mindset
  2. Time
  3. Skills
  4. Stamina
  5. Strategy

Mindset

You cannot build any business without the mindset of an entrepreneur.

What is an entrepreneur? According to the Oxford Dictionary, “An entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of a profit.”

This definition has two keywords— risk and profit.

In any business, you need to take risks.

Without risks, there are no gains.

And you need to prepare yourself to accept the gains. That is a profit mindset.

Many writers are not prepared to see their work as worthy of compensation.

They are happy to write for free or accept meager advance for several years of work they have put in a single book.

They dream of being a bestselling author and money to appear on their doorstep, but they are reluctant to conduct their business in such a way the profits are inevitable.

The core of any business is marketing.

We are responsible for our own success.

If we are building a business, we will not leave the most crucial part of our business to our employees.

Would we?

Marketing is the most crucial part of the author’s business. Yet most writers hate marketing and would love someone else to handle it.

But it is like letting the supermarkets make a profit from your produce. No wonder farmers are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet while supermarkets are becoming giants by buying cheap and charging more.

Marketing is a lot easier and more fun if we start by changing our mindset.

Marketing is sharing what you love with people who will appreciate hearing about it. It is not telling people to “buy my book” or accosting innocent readers in bookstores. It is about connecting with people around the topic we’re passionate about and providing useful information while being entertaining and inspirational along the way.

Marketing is a form of creativity. If you consider marketing an inherent part of the process rather than something separate, you’ll enjoy it more. For example, write about the journey of the book you are writing. The places you have visited while researching, issues you have faced while plotting, the challenges you overcame while editing. All of this gives the readers an insight into your world and gets them excited about your book.

Marketing is a learnable skill. We don’t need a degree in marketing to sell books, but we do need to learn new things, try them out and practice over time. True, we can hire other people to help us, but if we upskill ourselves, it is much cheaper, more effective, and more authentic since no one knows our book, as well as we do. And who knows, we might even enjoy the process.

Marketing is more than a book launch. Especially if we want to make a consistent living with our writing, we can continue to sell books, products, and services for years to come if we integrate marketing within our creative and production process.

You can choose marketing based on your personality type. If you are an introvert you might prefer content marketing compared to an extrovert who would prefer book signing, speaking engagements, and networking events.

Strengthen your mindset pillar by thinking like a business owner. Open yourself to market your book much before you even write it.

Still, having doubts?

Tim Ferris wrote a 100-page marketing plan even before putting pen to paper to write his first book For Hour Work Week.

Tomorrow, the second pillar — Time.

Photo by Trish H-C on Unsplash

Create Before You Consume

Neera

I was almost asleep when I woke up with a jolt.

I often sleep listening to YouTube videos. The practice has two folds advantage. One, I can listen to the videos that I can’t somehow fit in my day. Second, I fall asleep without any problem.

Side Note: When you get to my age, insomnia can be a real issue. Although I have no problem sleeping most nights, listening to soothing music, spiritual talks, or long boring interviews help.

This particular night I was listening to Paul Jarvis interviewing Marie Forleo in his usual excited self. Marie Forleo, named by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation, a perfect match to Paul Jarvis in exuberance, said something which brought me out of slumber, into the real world.

She said, “Create before you consume.”

Her advice made sense. As soon as they wake up, most people check their mobile phones even before they head to the bathroom. Particularly the younger generation.

Not me, though.

I didn’t care much for social media. My mobile phone hardly had any apps. It was there for one single purpose — to make phone calls if needed.

But it was a good piece of advice nonetheless, and I stored it in some corner of my mind and went back to sleep.

I am from Julia Carmen’s era, where writing morning pages first thing in the morning was drilled into us. For years, I have trained to plonk myself in the bed and write even before I have a cup of tea because making a cup of tea means seeing the clutter in the kitchen and forgetting the train of fresh thoughts that appear from somewhere deep inside you.

I love my morning writing time. After years I have been able to train my family not to disturb me in the mornings. It is my creative hour.

There was not much for me to check on social media anyway. Until lately, when I set myself a challenge to post a small piece of writing and a sketch on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn at the start of this year. Now each morning, I wake up and wonder has anyone said anything about last night’s post.

I have fallen into the same trap of checking social media in the morning.

It had a subtle effect on my productivity.

I barely noticed it first.

But it became evident that I was writing less and reading more.

The more I read other people’s material, the less confident I felt writing my own thoughts.

Then this morning, my brain, in its usual mysterious way, brought forth Marie Forleo’s words — Create before you consume.

It will be my mantra now.

Create before you consume.

Until I have built it into a habit.

Create before you consume.

A habit so strong, that I don’t fall into the trap of consuming before I create.

Create before you consume.

We can’t shun social media from our lives, but we can control it.

Create before you consume.

And that is what I am going to do.

Create before you consume.

Photo by Laura Highgrace on Unsplash

How Pacing Trumps Every Other Productivity Strategy

Neera

I did it again. After my near burnout experience, I worked way beyond my capacity and fell in the bed exhausted and devastated. I still hadn’t finished my work. I kept on going back to the computer to keep editing the article, but it wasn’t making any sense. 

I admire the writers who write an article a day. Some even manage two to three articles a day. I want to become like them. But it will take me years to get there. If I try, I might be able to do that for a few weeks, but I won’t sustain it. 

A lot of accomplished writers on Medium advise writing an article a day. It is great advice if you are a seasoned writer. It is not hard to churn out an article a day if you have been writing for a couple of years or more. 

And it is true that the more you write, the easier it becomes. 

How?

  • You have more to say. Your thinking becomes clear, and you build on your previous advice.
  • Your sentence structure improves. Writing every day gives you fluency with sentence construction, which inturns make it say to express your thoughts.
  • The narrator in you is always on. It takes a while for my narrative voice to turn on when I write articles on alternate days. But if I write every day, the narrator in me stays on. It starts seeing a story in everything.

But what if you can’t write every day? What if you are still struggling with coming up with valuable content to write every day? What if you are close to burning out? 

The pacing could be a solution then.

What is Pacing?

Let me explain pacing with a story:

In 1911, two teams arrived in Antarctica with the same goal — become the first to reach the South Pole. Roald Amundsen from Norway and Robert Scott from the UK led two different teams to win the south pole’s race.

Both managed to reach the pole. But Amundsen won the race and reached 34 days earlier than Scott. 

The worst bit? Scott and 4 of his teammates died on the return journey — just 18km away from their food depot.

A lot of comparisons have been made on both teams’ approaches. Books have been written on it in great detail. The spots they choose as their base camps. Dogs vs. ponies. Amundsen used dogs while Scott used ponies. Since dogs can bear cold weather better than ponies, Amundsen could leave 11 days earlier for the expedition, while Scott had to wait for the weather to become warmer. 

Sleds vs. skis. Scott took 3 motor sleds on the expedition, but all 3 broke down very soon. Amundsen focused on making sure everyone on his team knew how to ski well.

Scott’s team was malnourished, and many faced scurvy because of a lack of vitamin C in their diet. Amundsen’s team actually gained weight during their expedition.

But the most significant difference in both their approaches was the pacing of their expedition.

Amundsen made sure his team kept a constant pace of covering between 24–32 km per day. Even if the weather were good, he would not go further. 

On the other hand, Scott pushed and trekked as far as 73 km in a single day when the weather and terrain were perfect. The ponies got extremely tired, and they couldn’t cover the average distance the next day.

While on individual good days, Scott could push and cover a lot more ground than Amundsen, overall, his pace was much slower!

It turned out that Amundsen was not only a much better planner than Scott, but he understood that the pacing was the key to coming back alive. 

The slow tortoise beat the faster hare because the hare was inconsistent in its pacing. Steady wins.

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

The American Navy Seal has the saying — slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. 

If you see how elite infantry moves through a battlefield, you’ll notice that they never run. Compare them with not so well trained militia who sprints into the battle.

When things go wrong, the faster moving militia has to scamper to take cover. Their supply lines break up. And they fail to hold on to their land. 

The sure-footed elite infantry, while moving slowly, achieves their win a lot quicker.

Jim Collins tells a tale of a similar competition in his book Great by Choice. In the 1980s, computer chip maker AMD set an audacious goal to grow by 60%. To achieve their goal, they borrowed heavily. And when things didn’t go as per plan, they had to scamper to pay their debt. They almost went bankrupt, while the more sure-footed Intel took the lead!

How do you pace yourself?

Long-distance marathon runners are taught that they will lose two minutes in the second half for every minute they run faster than their average speed in the first half of their race. They need to learn to pace themselves. They need to learn to keep a constant speed even when they are not as tired early on in the race. Because for the latter part of the race, they will have the added advantage of the endorphin rush.

The way they learn to pace themselves is by understanding their bodies during the training period. They are taught to focus on their heart rate while running — to gauge their perceived exertion while running. And to slow down appropriately. They need to be able to run without huffing and puffing!

They are given the guideline always to perform less than their best capacity. 

During training, new runners are told to run a mile as fast as they can. That is their magic mile. And then, over a long distance, they are taught to run two to three minutes slower than their magic mile.

You have to understand that pacing means undershooting your best performance. 

It means doing things without exertion.

How to apply that to article writing?

Find out your peak performance by measuring how many articles you can write in a week. Then and slowing down from there. 

If you can write two articles a week comfortably, then write one article a week. This is the exact opposite of pushing yourself to do your best. It never works in the long run. And you reach your exhaustion point very soon. Once you are tired or burnt out, it takes a long time to recover. 

Besides, your mind stores the unpleasant memory, and resistance develops, which is again very hard to overcome.

Pacing is all about understanding your capabilities and managing your energy.

Tom Kuegler, a well-established Medium writer, wrote an article last week saying he will quit online writing one day because he is tired. I don’t blame him; he has been writing five articles a week for many years. 

So what is the antidote?

Pace yourself. 

Whenever you feel like sprinting, think of Hare and Tortise’s story. 

Whenever you feel like racing to achieve your goal, think of Amundsen and pace yourself.

Understand that pacing about managing your energy—it about knowing your best performance and doing less than that. Only then will you be able to do it consistently.

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Stories courtesy of Ankesh Kothari of Zenstrategies. 

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Want to take your writing to another level? Subscribe to my newsletter, A Whimsical Writer.

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Are You An Author Or An Authorpreneur

Neera

Let me start by asking you this quesion.

Are you a writer or an author?

The common understanding is that if you have published a book you are an author.

Not exactly.

A writer is someone who enjoys the act of writing, often in solitude.

An author is someone who enjoys everything that comes along with being published. The marketing, the networking, the speaking engagements, being in the public eye, self-promotion.

You can be published, but if you don’t like the marketing and self-promotional side of the business, then you are more of a writer than an author.

Now lets come to the question of whether you are an author or an authorpreneur.

Who is an authorpreneur. It depends upon who you ask. Some say:

An authorpreneur is someone who builds a business around writing books.

But it is not all-encompassing.

Yes, you can build a decent income by writing books alone. Many successful authors are making a good monthly income publishing ebooks alone.

But according to Shanda Trofe the author of Aurthorpreneur, How to Build an Empire and Build the Authority in Your Business:

A real Authorpreneur is someone who builds a lucrative empire using a variety of products that strategically funnel into one another and progressively build upon each other. An Authorpreneur will have published a book as a product for his business, yes, but he won’t stop there. An Authorpereneur will think outside the box and see the bigger picture. An Authorpreneur, simply stated, is someone who creates a business based on the core concepts of a book, repurposing the information into companion products and programs, resulting in a suitable business while creating wealth.

Some authorpreneurs travel extensively, speak at conferences to spread their message, do book signing tours and workshops where they sell their books and other products. They are well-known on social media and YouTube and have a huge mailing list for their email marketing.

Others use writing to promote their work. They manage to find a happy medium by promoting their work through writing. They reach out to the masses by building their list, networking on social media, blogging, crafting newsletters, and writing emails. They run webinars, online courses, do group coaching on Facebook, and run their own forums. They might start with one-on-one clients, doing face-to-face training and personal and group retreats.

To create your author empire you have to take three steps:

  • Begin — You must start somewhere. Whether it is content writing or books or fiction. Begin. To quote Wolfgang von Goethe, Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. 
  • Build — There are many roads to success. Choose one. The others will meet you on the way.
  • Believe — When you have a message within you can build a roadmap to get there. Without a message, no road will take you there. Believe in yourself and implement. So many before you have done it and left clues making your task much easier.

My aim with Autorpreneurs publication is to bring forth the stories of other so that you can learn them.

Here is one right now.

An Authorpreneur case study

Sunny Dawn Johnston wanted to find a niche for herself. Aside from being President and CEO of Transcendent Publishing, her passion was (and still is) working with writers, specifically aspiring authors. She found that she was starting to build a nice reputation for herself by coaching aspiring authors through the book writing process. But there were many coaches out there doing the same. She had to find a way to set herself apart from the rest.

As the founder of Spiritual Writers Network, she was attracting spiritual writers into her circle. Many of her clients had an important message to share, yet most didn’t know how to find the courage to open old wounds and delve deep within to let their story unfold.

She was working with clients who were experiencing fear about the writing process and who needed a little extra coaching in order to write their book and tell their story authentically.

One encouragement she found myself repeating over and over to her clients was to write from the heart. She truly believed if they could get out of ego-based thinking and allowed their creativity to emerge, that’s when their most Heartfelt writing comes forward.

She taught structure and writing systems that must be set in place, but she was also using a variety of spiritual-based techniques to urge them to unlock their creativity.

Before long, she had found a niche in the writing industry. She no longer was just a writing coach, she was a heart-based writing coach who worked primarily, at the time, with aspiring spiritual authors.

In August of 2013 she attended a networking conference for women in business. She came from there with a clear message and plan of action.

She needed to brand herself as the Write from the Heart Writing Coach.

That was just the beginning.

Image for post
Photo by Mr TT on Unsplash

She wrote and published a bookWrite from the Heart: A Step-by-Step Writing Guide to Get Your Message from Idea to Publication to act as a product for her business and an extension of her brand.

She strategically launched Write from the Heart and the book went on to sell thousands of copies.

Book was just the tip of the iceberg. From there she saw the potential to turn the concepts she wrote about in her book into an online course. From there Write from the Heart: 8-Week Book Writing Intensive was born. This became her most popular product and service. It was easy to create since she already had much of the content from my book.

But she didn’t stop there. She started her own radio show where she interviewed a different author each week and discussed topics such as writing and publishing.

She created a companion journal to publish as a second product based upon her book and created a CD of affirmations for writers with a mediation to unlock creativity and expand productivity.

She also created an affirmation card deck to sell at events alongside her book, CD, and Journal. She hosted writing retreats and various workshops — all based on theories of her book.

Her business went from working with writers (a generic niche) to narrowing down her area of expertise, finding her ideal clients, and then creating products to reach them specifically.

She repurposed the content and created a autor empire around her brand.

When people heard Write from Heart, they thought of Sunny Dawn Johnston, and she had her book, products, and brand to thank for that.

[ Case Study Source: Sunny Dawn Johnston’s Foreword in Aurthorpreneur, How to Build an Empire and Build the Authority in Your Business]

Photo by Dan Farrell on Unsplash

Do The Talented People Have Different Wiring

Neera 1 Comment

Are Olympic level swimmers naturally good at swimming? 

Are some people born with an eye for drawing, or throat for singing, or feet for dancing? Is there a gene for writing which bestselling writers have and we missed out on?

Some people seem to be way smarter than us. We all happen to know someone at school who was a genius in maths or wrote beautiful stories, or sang like an angel.

What makes people so good at something that others can’t seem to touch their heights. 

We all want to be good at a few things, but it doesn’t matter how much we desire it or how hard we try; it eludes us.

Did the talented people have different wiring?

Let’s take the case of three well-known talented people and figure out if they had something special going for them.

Was Tiger Woods born with a golf club in hand?

Tiger Woods is often considered a child prodigy. He was introduced to golf before the age of two by his athletic father. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy course. Before turning seven, he won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition, held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, California. 

At the age of eight, he won the 9–10 boys’ event, the youngest age group at the Junior World Golf Championships. He first broke 80 at age eight. He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991.

In 1996, Woods turned professional at the age of 20. By the end of April 1997, he had won three PGA Tour events and 1997 Masters, which he won by 12 strokes in a record-breaking performance. He reached the number one golfer in the world in less than a year after turning pro.

Was he really born with a golf club in hand, or was there something else going on? 

His father started training him when you and I couldn’t take a spoon to our mouth without spilling food on our bibs.

All through his life, his training regime matched that of a navy SEAL.

According to his former trainer, Hank Haney, Tiger Woods used to have 13-hour marathon training days even when he was young.

“13-hour training days were not uncommon for Woods. He would have one of his two workouts at 6 a.m., then hit the range with Haney for a two-hour session on swings and short game. Afterward, they would play nine holes, have lunch, then play another nine holes. Afterward, they would continue working on other facets of his game until 6 p.m., when Tiger would do his second workout and then have dinner.”  — Hank Haney.

Often Woods would introduce variations to his training routine. He would start the day with a four-mile run, followed by a lift, hours of working on his game, and another four-mile run. If that’s wasn’t enough, he would play basketball or tennis when he was done.

Such laborious training gave Woods a mental edge as he knew nobody would outwork him.

Did Mozart has an inborn talent for composition?

Mozart could master a minuet and trio on the piano in half an hour when he was just four years old. He wrote his first opera at the age of 12.

Certainly, the composer’s extraordinary talents have never been in doubt. But according to Nicholas Kenyon, the author of A Pocket Guide to Mozart, agrees that the composer’s reputation as a genius was created only after his death.

“Mozart saw himself as a practical worker.” wrote Nicholas Kenyon.

“This myth tells us a lot about the difference between the Classical and Romantic ages. The Romantic composers who succeeded him perpetuated this idea that he composed thoughtlessly when all the evidence is that he wrote and rewrote his work.” — Nicholas Kenyon

‘Many people have the misleading impression, principally from Oscar-winning 1984 feature film Amadeus, that Mozart was a bawdy, undisciplined philanderer who occasionally had flashes of genius,’ said Grabsky.

“In fact, he was going to concerts every night, meeting musicians, listening to other people’s work, writing and rewriting his own. He was very practical about his work and entrepreneurial. ‘Of course, Amadeus was a creative reworking of Mozart’s story. But it had a lasting effect on people.”

Even Albert Einstein thought of him out of this world. 

“As an artist, or a musician, Mozart was not a man of this world.” — Albert Einstein

But, let’s have a look at Albert Einstein, someone who was indisputably a genius.

Was Einstein really a genius?

There’s no doubt that Einstein was whip-smart. 

In 1905, in just under four months, Einstein wrote four papers that gave the scientific field a whiplash. 

The first paper explained how to measure molecules’ size in a liquid; the second drooled over packets of light move around in packets called “photons.” The third was related to the first, namely determining molecules’ movement in the liquid—the fourth unwrapped special relativity. 

As sort of P.S., Einstein came up with a fifth paper that showed the matter and energy could be interchangeable at the atomic level. And that equation, E=MC2, is often associated with the genius of Einstein.

Now let’s have a peek into Einstein’s classroom. There were certainly others in his year that were better at maths—others who were exceedingly good at drawing. And we’re guessing here, but, likely, Einstein wasn’t the top student at physics in school. 

If you want to focus on Einstein as a genius, be my guest. But even Einstein was never considered anything more than average by the outside world. It was only in 1905 when his ideas caught up and saw the light. 

Einstein was one of those that needed more time.

Granted, his brain was wired differently, but all brains are wired differently. 

In fact, very efficiently. 

While we may not write papers in physics, we’re exceedingly good and can reach an extremely high standard in one or many disciplines.

We may not write five astounding scientific papers in a year. But we certainly can reach incredibly high levels of skill in many fields. 

A person who loses his sight becomes incredibly adept at the language of braille in about nine months.

A person who’s “hopeless at drawing” becomes pretty astounding in under a year. 

A person who hasn’t ever written an article can write two articles a day. 

We look around us and think people are better than us, and we give up.

When faced with such thoughts, remember, even Einstein fell off the bicycle, like the rest of us.

We make the mistake of looking at people’s results and not the effort they have put into getting there.

We see that Tim Denning writes 6 articles a day and thinks he must be a genius to come up with so much output without realizing how much effort he must put into crafting those articles and consistently coming up with insightful content.

Yet some people never wanted to do some and became excellent at it. 

Michael Phelps, for instance, is recognized as one of the greatest Olympians of all time. He’s won 28 medals. Born swimmer? Sure, except that Phelps hated swimming with a passion.

Many people who seemingly are good at some skills to the extent that we think they had an inborn talent for them have no interest in the field.

Let me wrap it up.

Today all of us can use computers.

Yet less than three decades ago, no one had seen a computer. 

Why did almost everyone believe they were not skilled at computers, only to become proficient at it within a few years.

Writing emails is such a simple activity that we can do it while sitting in a car waiting for a red light to turn green. 

Do you think Einstein would have been intimidated by emails?

Why was boring, everyday e-mail was so intimidating to entire generations that preceded the 90s?

Did the talent fairy douse us with e-mail skills in the late 1990s?

We were all bad at eating with a spoon, bad at walking without falling, bad at forming the most basic sentences. Yet, it’s easy to brush all of that ineptitude under the carpet. It’s easy to say that some people are naturally good at doing certain things.

And as we go across the spectrum of extremely talented people on the planet, we will find that they had put in an insane amount of work in becoming good at something we thought was their inborn talent.

They were not even smart at school. If they were child prodigies, they started early and practiced a lot, even as tiny kids in nappies. 

On the other hand, some brilliant kids didn’t do anything special as they grew up. 

And tens of thousands of ordinary kids became geniuses at making coffee, juggling umbrellas, fixing computers, or figuring out equations in their heads. 

It is up to you whether you want to use the excuse that you have no talent in whatever you ‘so much want to do’ or put in the hours and become a genius at it.

Photo by Ugur Peker on Unsplash

Are There Any Social Media Etiquettes

Neera

Unlike most people, I have been avoiding social media. This year I realized I can’t keep ignoring the power of social media.

In the first week of January, I started a 100-day project — to write a social media post every day on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

As soon as I started posting regularly, I began getting messages from people who wanted to either sell me something or to read their stuff. Some sent me links to their article, others wanted me to review their website. But this one guy sent me a page-long email asking me to spread the word about his novel. He even wrote the synopsis and included the links where I could buy it.

That tipped the scale for me.

I am new to social media but even I could sense that he had gone too far.

You can’t expect someone who hardly knows you to start recommending your books to others.

He didn’t even try to ascertain whether I read historical fiction or not (His was a historical novel).

That got me thinking, there should be some social media etiquette.

When I started looking for them I couldn’t find any. So I built a list of mine.

  1. Don’t bombard people with your products. If someone knocks on your door and straightway starts selling you a product, would you buy it? How do you feel when someone cold calls you to sell something? I feel exactly that. Cold. No one warms up to a cold caller. The same is true on social media. Social media enable us to reach targeted readers and attract those who might enjoy what we write. But they need to get to know you first. Build the trust. Let your audience warm up to you. Give them some snippets from your life. Once they get to know you, they might get interested in reading your work and later on down the track might want to buy your book.
  2. Be Genuine. People can discern whether you are being honest or not. They can detect whether you are being authentic or putting on a persona. One would think social media is a place for conmen, but surprising people need to be more authentic and congruent with their values on social media than they are even in their real life. Why? Because you get caught out pretty soon. The best way to use any of the social media sites is to be authentic and real. You have a better chance of attracting people and build a long-term relationship that way. Don’t broadcast spammy sales messages. Just be yourself and interact.
  3. Be useful, interesting, or entertaining. Social means social. Social media means a place to interact with other like-minded people. Just as we were taught not to go to anyone’s home with bearing a gift, you shouldn’t appear on social media without bearing a gift. Remember the phrase ‘what’s in it for me.’ Everyone wants to know things that will help them, or interest them, or make them laugh. If you are not offering something that they want you won’t get their attention. You don’t need to do weird things, be nasty or abusive to get attention, you just need to bear a gift whenever you appear on social media.
  4. Develop the relationship first. Building relationships takes time. You will need to invest time and effort. If you are not willing to do that, and just want to flaunt your product at every new contact, people will be put off quickly. People can discern whether you are in it for the long term or are just after a promotional opportunity. People are not stupid. Social media is a long term strategy that you should only follow if you consider someone to be a contact worth pursuing.
  5. Pitch them, but only when it is appropriate. Once they have noticed you in some way, you can ask to share your work. You can make them your beta readers or you can send them announcements whenever you launch a product. Don’t do it all the time and certainly don’t do it before they get to know you.
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Photo by Marina Vitale on Unsplash

Toxicity on Social Media

So many people come off social media because of the toxicity that goes on there.

Recently Tim Denning wrote about the dark side of LinkedIn where he told the story of a woman who had experienced bullying (called womanizing) on LinkedIn. Predators would develop a community around their content, using a group chat like WhatsApp, and then use it to exploit unsuspecting women.

They would pretend to make women feel good and leave nice comments on their LinkedIn posts to get their attention. Then they would try and do anything to meet up with them in person so they could, hopefully, get them in bed.

Many other women reported witnessing the same kind of experience. I too have been contacted by men wanting to talk because they were feeling lonely and asking me personal questions.

Bullying is universal by womanizing is new to the cyberworld. As a woman, we need to be more vigilant on the internet.

Can we ignore social media altogether?

Social media is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it provides community and friends who might never have met in real life, people who ‘get you’ even if they live on the other side of the world.

On the other hand, it makes us the target for bullies, womanizers, and vendors who want to push their products to us.

You can ignore social media and many people do.

But if you need to build a platform it can be a very effective way to reach your audience.

As an author, it has several benefits.

  • You can build your community. Particularly if you are a self-published author who is selling directly to your readers. Authors need to stay in contact with their readers to sell their books
  • Talk to other authors. Writing is a lonely profession. But if you know other writers, the process of writing becomes more bearable plus you discover opportunities to collaborate and to learn from each other. Social Media is a great place to connect with other writers.
  • Advertise to potential readers. You need the means to announce your books. There is no better way than social media.

It is also a brilliant form of marking for introverts and most writers are introverts. You can choose when you interact and you can also be at home in silence and yet still be ‘out there’ connecting with people.

In many ways, social media is still about hand-selling to individuals but on a global scale.

But the real power of social media is about making connections and building relationships.

It is a brilliant way to market organically. This is how the marketing principle AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Actions) works for social media.

Attention

Attention is hard to get in this speedy online world. There are books, TV, podcasts, and streaming. Yet people spend a lot of time on social media and the best thing about it is that it is the only medium where there can be two-way interaction. Pieces of content are breadcrumbs leading to your door. You can share bits of your story, your hobbies, your successes, and even your failure as long as it is interesting, entertaining, or inspirational and you are bound to build a following.

Interest

Social networking is pointless on its own as a marketing mechanism. The aim is to get people to notice you and be interested enough to follow you or click through to your website.

Make sure you have all your social networking links on every page or the sidebar of your site so that you are easy to contact.

Also, make sure to capture people’s interest with a sign-up so that you can develop this fledging relationship further. Social network rise and fall. You don’t own that real estate, you only borrow it for a little while.

Desire

Sometimes people will buy your book, as soon as they hear about you but generally, it takes time for people to make a buying decision.

Once people have found you and are interested in what you’re doing, they might follow your blog, may listen to your interview, or simply continue to follow you on social networks. They may also receive your email newsletters, by producing other pieces of content you will expand the impact you can have over time.

Social Networking is about people knowing you, liking you, and trusting you enough to let you have a slice of their time and attention.

Authenticity over the long term is therefore important so that you can sustain this. Marketing like writing is a long term activity. You might share snippets, and pictures from your writing life while you’re writing your books on social media. And in this way, those who follow you will be ready to buy when you launch.

Action.

Once people know you like you and trust you, they are far more likely to try your books or recommend you to others.

There is no hard sell necessary.

This method is about attracting people who might be interested in what you have to say.

Once you have their attention you have built up a desire to see what you are doing. As you can now ask to take action and buy your book.

Socialising is about having fun.

Social networking doesn’t work if you don’t enjoy it, or if you are unrelentingly negative. Networks are collective energy expressed in one place. If you exude negativity or hype or spam, then that’s what you will experience in return.

Joining a conversation, learning from people, sharing something interesting, and making connections could be fun.

Just like socializing is fun.

So how can you be social on social media?

Social media is about being social. You got to follow all the rules you would follow when you are socializing with people in person. Keep these simple rules in mind.

  • Make friends rather than push products. Friendship will bring you much more rewards than the little financial gain you will have from selling a book or a course.
  • Build trust. Share bits about your life, your interests, and your work so that people get to know you before they decide to buy something from you.
  • Be honest and be yourself.
  • Think long term.

Photo by Elevate on Unsplash