Watch this absolutely inspiring video about the Social Media Revolution:
The internet is the new town square, and the whole world goes there to find out what's happening. What does this mean for writers? I can't say for sure, but I think in the future it will be less about how much money your publishing company pours into your book's ad campaign, and more about how much your readers love your story--love it enough to facebook, blog, and tweet about it.
I think I'll go sign up for twitter now.
Oh, wow. This was impressive and thought provoking.
ReplyDeleteFriday, my school district had a teacher inservice day in which several sessions focused on the use of social media in teaching.
EVEN THOUGH ALL SOCIAL MEDIA IS BLOCKED BY ON OUR SCHOOL NETWORK.
How long will it take "the establishment" to catch up?
Thanks for the comment, Dianne. Too bad about your school network situation. Revolutions don't always happen overnight.
ReplyDeleteThis is a short version of this video. In the longer version there was a clip about how on-line students are performing better than classroom students. I've told my children that by the time their kids are old enough for school, public school might be on the internet! Having done a bit of home schooling myself, I'm all for it (so long as we can all get together some place for recess).
I think the world is already as you describe it and has always been. Social networking can speed up word of mouth, but it can also provide new advertising venues - I know a lot of people who swear by Facebook ads, for example.
ReplyDeleteBut all the promotion in the world won't move a bad book. Publishers lose that gamble all the time, while word of mouth can take a small print run and turn it into a global sensation, e.g. Harry Potter and Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. The last one was from a tiny publisher and is technically a textbook. And there are older examples too, such as A Civil Action.
Many of the most successful writers I know personally also happen to be the most responsive to their fans by answering emails and appearing at conventions. That alone hasn't ensured their success, but I suspect it's been every bit as beneficial as paid promotion by their publishers.
OK, that Babu Yetu song has been playing in my house forever - the kids discovered it online somewhere, searched the web to find sheet music for the piano and now the 10 year plays it incessantly.
ReplyDeleteThe. World. Has. Changed.
Very true, Emily, which is how I excuse my general internet reclusiveness - I don't have much time for self-marketing, I'm working on product excellence and hoping the product, once excellent, will sell itself.
ReplyDeleteAnd Sue, I think my favorite part about the video clip is the soundtrack. Anything would seem epic and awesome with that song underscoring it.
My older kids will back the video up. So much is done through social networking nowadays. But it's so hard to join up when you've grown up another way. Sigh. I'm oh so slowly toughening up and getting with it, but I have to do it one media at a time. Thanks for the video. It really puts the importance into clear perspective.
ReplyDeleteThat is rather sobering. Sigh, I guess I have to get better at facebook, twitter, and every other social medium out there. Ack!
ReplyDeleteOh, you can link them all up so that everything you tweet goes on FB and Google Buzz or whatever. All of my blogposts go to my FB feed. All of my jewelry design FB posts go on Twitter, and then everything from Twitter goes on Google Buzz. I could have them even more connected so that I only input things in one place. I just do too many types of things for that to make sense for me.
ReplyDeleteBTW, those of you who aren't on Goodreads, get on Goodreads! That's a very good social network for writers, as it's full of readers. And you can have it synched with your blog, twitter, and FB if you want. My author page pulls in my blogposts and sends out tweets automatically.