This past week I connected via Twitter with publishing and social media consultants Jon Reed and Suzanne Ashley. Their Publishing Talk blog is right up my alley and I recommend it for anyone involved in publishing – authors and publishers alike.
A recent post discusses authors using socia applications to promote their books – a great way to build the author platform we publishers often talk so much about.
Our Facebook Group is now approaching 250 members. Many thanks to everyone who has joined, contributed, posted links, images, and discussions. It’s come as no surprise to me that the most active members of this group are authors. This supports a little theory I’ve had for a while:
Authors are doing more with social media than publishers.
Well, that may be true but it’s not for lack of trying. I suppose sheer numbers might indicate there are more authors in social applications than publishers, but that stands to reason. Many of us are pushing into this space and although it is too slow for my taste. For example, our For Dummies brand is experimenting in Facebook, our Wrox imprint has a Facebook Group and a Twitter Stream. But for now these efforts are currently the work of a few ambitious individuals.
When I worked in publishing houses, the main complaint from authors – rightly or wrongly – was usually to do with marketing. Usually an accusation of a lack of marketing when a book didn’t sell. Which may have been for any number of reasons – possibly including poor marketing, but possibly also including unrealistic sales expectations, and simply publishing in a niche with a small readership, or in an area that was already crowded with competing titles.
Given the volume of titles produced, and finite resources, people and time, publishers must also prioritize. But authors have always had a role to play in marketing their own book, and the more successful ones are proactive about it.
Twitter Updates
October 5th, 2007
Books and Writing, Publishing and Business, Social Networks and Media