Amy Denim - The Coffee Break Guide to Social Media for Writers: How to Succeed on Social Media and Still Have Time to Write

The Coffee Break Guide to SocialMedia for Writers

How to succeed on Social Media AndStill Have Time to Write

Amy Denim

Copyright Amy Denim 2013

Published by Coffee BreakPublishing
at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 by AmyDenim.

All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted inany form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, orother electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior writtenpermission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotationsembodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial usespermitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to thepublisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at theaddress below.

Coffee Break Publishing

www.coffeebreaksocialmedia.com

Book Layout 2013BookDesignTemplates.com

The Coffee Break Guide to SocialMedia for Writers: How to Succeed on Social Media and Still HaveTime to Write/ Amy Denim.2nd ed.

ISBN - 978-0-9904060-3-7

While the author has used her bestefforts in preparing this book, she makes no representations orwarranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of thecontents of this book and specifically disclaims any impliedwarranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable foryour situation. You should consult with a professional whereappropriate. The author shall not be liable for any loss of profitor any other commercial damages, including but not limited tospecial, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

This book would not have beenpossible without some amazing people in my life who believed in meand the ideas floating around in my head and my laptop.

Special thanks to my Beta readers,Larie Brannick, and Jennifer Maitlen. So glad we all get to tweetnow (even when were sitting right next to each other).

I cant thank Diane Whiddon atNovel Website Design enough for designing CoffeeBreakSocialMedia.com , helping withthe cover, and especially for her encouragement to put my socialmedia knowledge to good use.

Pictures are worth a thousandwords, so heres a thousand thanks to Mike Sands at 3M&H Designfor all his graphics help with covers and Facebook and websites, ohmy!

A great big thank you to my editorsShannnon Janeczek and Ahuva Rogers. They are grammar andpunctuation royalty, so any mistakes remaining in this book soooooobelong to me.

For the members of ColoradoRomance Writers without whom I never would have thought to writenon-fiction books for authors.

And for my dad who alwaysbelieved in every word I ever wrote.

Chapter 1

The Social MediaMonster

When I first got serious aboutwriting, I joined a local writing group. Best idea I ever had.Theyve given me so much support from day one. I highly recommendthis step for anyone who wants to make a go at writing and sellinghis or her work.

One of the first events my groupput on after I joined was a writers retreat. We went up to themountains, got all inspired by the wildlife, the scenery, and thehot tub. There may also have been some wine involved. Goodtimes.

We spent a chunk of the weekendputting words on the page. But, we also had a few guest speakers toboost our morale and inspire our writing. One of our presenters wasan editor from a small, but growing, press. Her topic was queryletters, but as writers and editors tend to do, we moved off like arocket on a tangent.

Social media.

And it scared the living nightlifeout of me.

She threw around words likeplatform, followers, tweet, and discoverability. This big bad scaryeditor said I should have my platform established two years beforeI submitted anything. Ahhhh!

I didnt even know what a platformwas, much less how to create one online. I wasnt on Twitter, Idnever heard of Goodreads, Pinterest was just a funny word, and theonly time I spent on Facebook was to take weird surveys, playfarming games, and tag pictures of my drunken friends.

But, if I wanted to be a publishedauthor, it seemed I needed to do more than just write. Whoknew?

This relaxing weekend in themountains left me in need of some meditation and a massage. But Iskipped the yoga and went out and bought a smartphoneinstead.

I spent the next year becoming asocial media fiend. And I barely finished one manuscript. I hadcreated an online presence, but I had diddly-squat to pitch.Oops.

The purpose of writing this bookis, A. To help all those authors out there whove been scared bysocial media create their own online platform, and 2. Give themtime to actually write.

Novel concept. I know.

Social media doesnt have to bescary. You can use social media effectively (its really not asscary as some people I know make it out to be) and still have timeto write. Social media can be your friend. Ill get you anintroduction.

Author, this is Social Media. No,wait come back here. I promise its not the big, scary, mean,time-sucking monster it looks like. Breathe. Okay, good. Lets tryagain. Author, this is Social Media. Yes, you can shake hands, itwont bite.

Good job.

Social Media, this is Author.Youre going to become good friends.

Any time this all becomes too much,come back to this page, breathe, and read the tipsagain.

Social media is your friend. Itdoesnt have to take away from the time you spend doing what youlove. Five quality minutes a day is all you really need. Thirtyquality minutes spread throughout the day will dowonders.

• Be present. Dont post and run. Dotake on social media when you will be available to interact shouldsomeone respond to youon any of your platforms. The key is to besocial and interactive. Not a robot.

• Use a ten-to-one ratio formarketing yourself or your books. For every ten social interactionsyou can have one, just one self-promo. People dont like, or buyspam.

• As you get into your platforms andyour breaks, youll learn what you do and dont like to do. DO whatyou like.

• Dont let social media overwhelmyou. If youre jumping between platforms and spending more time onsocial media than on what you love to do, scale it back. Start backat the beginning and just concentrate on your primary platform.Ease yourself into other platforms when you are good andready.

You can spend all day, every daybuilding your platform on social media, but if you dont actuallywrite a book, it wont do you a bit of good. Establishing yourplatform and using social media is always time spent not writingyour book. Without a book, theres nothing for you to establish aplatform for. So, get your butt in the chair and write that book.And when you finish that one, write the next one, and the next one.A good quality story will sell you, your brand, and your booksbetter than any website, Facebook post, or tweet.

In the next chapter, Ill introduceyou to the Coffee Break Mentality. Its the key. Social media isthere to give you a boost, but it shouldnt take away from yourwriting time. The coffee break strategies in this book should helpyou figure out how to be on social media and still have time towrite.

You dont have to read everychapter. After you get those key concepts, you can flip through thenext few chapters to check out the writers best social mediasites. Theres a chapter on your website and blogging, Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads. For each, there are details onwhat you need to do once, every once in a while, what to do onceyouve got your groove on, and what to do on your social mediabreaks.