Social Media and the Writer - Resources
A collection of links for participants in the Social Media and the Writer seminar at the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, June 13, 2009
Thanks for a great class! I really enjoyed talking with you about social media. Please explore the links below at your leisure — remember, you won’t break anything! Do feel free to contact me with questions, I will try to help as time allows. I will be traveling quite a bit over the next few weeks, so please be patient if I don’t get back to you right away.
What are they saying about you?
Blogs:
Subscribe to blogs using a feed reader. My favorite is Google Reader. It’s free. Use your Google account to sign up.
Blogger (free, easy to use, can use own domain name, uses your Google account)
Wordpress.com (free, relatively easy to use, costs for your own domain)
Wordpress.org (free, self-hosted; you must have your own web hosting company) - this is the platform to use if you want to have a robust “brochure-type” website with a blog integrated right in, as we discussed in the workshop. You may need some help setting this up, but once it is set up, it should be very easy for you to update on your own.
Feedblitz - send your blog updates to an email list, priced by number of subscribers
Feedburner - send your blog updates to an email list, free, but customer service has not been good lately
Flickr Creative Commons search - use to find images to illustrate your blog posts.
Geotagging - view photos taken at a particular place
Set up a Facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com
Set up a Facebook “fan” page - the Advance Guard
Set up your LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com. Fill out your profile as completely as you can. Remember, this is your online resume.
Use the search to find people you want to connect with. Remember that people used LinkedIn differently — some may connect to you even if they don’t know you, others will not. Don’t take it personally.
Some basic instructions:
- Sign up for a twitter account at http://www.twitter.com
- Fill out your profile, and upload a photo
- Post a few messages (called tweets): remember, don’t answer the question “what are you doing,” rather, try answer the question, “what has your attention?”
- Once you have a few messages posted, start following people. You can follow me — use the PeopleSearch at the top of the page, and search for annkingman. When you see me, click “follow.”
- To send a message to someone directly, that others can see, use the @ sign. So to send me a message (feel free!), type
@AnnKingman - hello from the NHWP (or whatever you want to say).
- If you want to send me a private message — that nobody else can see, use the letter “d” (for direct message). So your tweet would look like this:
d AnnKingman - I really liked your shoes today
- To find people to follow, use the People Search, and also search.twitter.com to see who is tweeting about topics that interest you. Once you are following 10-20 people, you may also get good results by posting a message asking for other suggestions of people to follow.
The Truth About Twitter (commercial video but excellent information; I showed this in the workshop)
Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter - Cameron Chapman
How to use Tweetdeck to manage the people you follow on Twitter
Social Bookmarking (we didn’t cover this in the workshop. Social bookmarking allows you to share your bookmarks with others, and see what sites other people have found worthy of sharing.)
Diigo
Book and Writing-Related Blogs and Social Networks
All 3 of the following sites are book-specific social networks, that allow members to catalogue their books. All of the sites also allow groups (discussion boards), messaging between members, seeing who has the same books in their library, etc. They are all a bit different from each other, so check them all out to see which is the best fit for you.
Red Room - allows authors to set up an author page, like a blog
Duotrope Digest - subscribe through RSS to get updates of resource listings for writers
Zoetrope Virtual Studio - post your work for critique and review
The Renegade Writer blog - for freelancers
Authors who are using Social Media in interesting ways:
Neil Gaiman - Video Tour, Twitter feed
Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter - Cameron Chapman
Publishing Industry Blogs of Interest:
The Swivet (blog of literary agent Colleen Lindsay)
Nathan Bransford, literary agent
Bookends, LLC, literary agency
Editorial Ass, undercover editor tells all
Further reading on Social Media for Writers:
Virtual Author Branding: 5 tips - from author Mitali Perkins
How Authors Should Use Social Media - Romacing the Blog (Harlequin)
Connecting with Editors on Social Media - The Renegade Writer
A Writer’s Guide to Social Media - Cameron Chapman
Contact me:
Twitter: @AnnKingman
email: annkingman at gmail dot com
http://www.booksonthenightstand.com
http://www.booksellersblog.com
