Gettin' down 'n' dirty: promoting your work & yourself.

Promoting your work online—author websites, social media strategies, and the presence of book promotion through these mediums.

Use social media, just do it.

Not just Facebook. Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest are excellent outlets for your writing, honest.

From experience, it's important to have your social media presence be known for something. When you think Tiger Woods, you think golf. Okay, you may think an assortment of things, but he is a public figure because he's darn good at golf. Whatever and however you promote yourself online make sure that you're making it very clear what it is you ARE. You're a writer and you want people to know it. Shout it from the rooftop.

 Facebook pages are great and an easy to spread the word around with your friends and family. It's also a window of opportunity to link non-friends your killer author website....(foreshadowing)

Get Twitter. It's not lame, it's not stupid, and it's certainly not pointless. If you are a real writer you will know that summing something important up in 140 characters (or less) is a skill, not a joke. It is, like Facebook, an important method of getting your website promoted sharing what interests you as a writer and really pushes your name and who you are. Getting followers is also easy as pie if you're on the ball. Follow those who interest you and post, post, post. Your time will come.

Instagram isn't simply for photos of food, bikes, and sunsets. You can totally market yourself and your writing through photos. Like Twitter, follow the hell out of people! Hashtag like crazy (only if relevant) and see where that takes you. Post photos of you at a book launch, or you and  your friends at a story meeting. Look involved and interested and people will also be interested. 

Pinterest. Ah, Pinterest. It's the most misunderstood of all platforms- but it's so dang easy! It has photos that link you directly to where you want to go, to a point of interest. Pin about books, authors, plays, movies, events and that will create a flock of followers who are also interested in the same things.  You have a book/essay/poem/story you want people to read? Pin it and people will read it. Make your image intriguing and those who matter will follow suit.

Social media strategies are really about finding who you are as a writer. Meeting real live humans who share your interest and who will most definitely become helpful to you and your writing in the future. There are so many ways to reach out to the creative community, don't be shy.

Here's some info graphics, because who doesn't like info graphics, on what you're doing right (and wrong.) 

• http://socialmarketingwriting.com/

What IS an author website?

An author website is an online presence. A necessary tool for any writer. It not only showcases what work you have done (published or not,) but it may give an author bio, a what-to-look-forward-to for readers, and it's an all around great place to interact and express yourself and your talents.

It's important to keep these sites up to date if not people will become uninterested. Your website should and does reflect how much you care about your work. If you don't have anything published try posting  your unpublished work, drafts, and even book related events which you attend. Just keep posting. 

Two author websites worth checking out: One is much more complex, well funded, and detailed, but both do a good job at keeping readers interested & in the loop. Voila. 

• http://www.jkrowling.co.uk/en_GB/

• http://will-self.com/category/books/

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