Social networking is Time Consuming

My marketing plan includes spending about an hour a day on the various social network sites associated with opportunities to market my book. For me these include LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook and Twitter. Today I have spent three hours just working through a subset of these. Perhaps my plan is going to take more time than I had expected. On top of that I can't figure out how to use Twitter. So far it's useless but I'll keep trying. I do notice that a number of people tweet for awhile and then seem to give it up. So maybe I am not the only one that it doesn't work for.

Finally Published

I received an email yesterday that my book is available for sale on the publisher's web site. A quick check confirmed it. I am told it will be another 30 to 45 days before it's available on Amazon and other book seller's sites. I submitted my manuscript to the publisher on Augusts 1. It took a month of diddling with publisher's representatives before they said they were ready to begin work. That actually gave me the opportunity to submit a slightly updated version on Sept. 1. So it took only 28 days once they started work. Actually, it was less than  that as I don't think they started when they said they would. The cover design came first and was great so no corrections were needed. The galley arrived in about two weeks. There were both author and publisher corrections to make. It took me a couple of days to return the paperwork for corrections and a phone call but then the corrected galley was returned in about two days. This version was ok and I approved it. All the other paper work like pricing agreements was simple and quick.

Publishing Advice

Not having any experience as an author I finished most of my draft and then started looking for a publisher. I googled agents and found the agents professional society that listed their profiles and interests. I started sending letters. Then I met an author on an airplane. He was young but published and he advised that I send out at least two or three  dozen agent queries. After spending some weeks doing this I found a site by an agent that explained the business. It became clear that agents have more opportunities than they can handle so they focus on proven authors, new authors with an existing platform (i.e. they are on TV or the lecture circuit), or promising young authors that have a future of many books. It then became crystal clear that no agent would take on me as I am fit none of those categories. Therefore I decided to go the self publishing route. It's unfortunate that I didn't find advice on this reality earlier; it would have saved much useless effort.

Social networking

As stated in previous blog the common advice is to use links to social networks as well as blogs, web sites and twitter accounts to market books. After seting up my web site and blog I joined facebook and started a twittter account. Facebook is interesting because I found that many of my high school classmates are on it. I was surprised to find so many older people on a social network site. I suspect it's an influence of grandkids. Anyway it was neat to find them and now I can suggest that they buy my book as a gift for their kids and grandkids. Twitter was also a fun surprise. Via some unknown to me process it linked me to one of my granddaughters who is in college. I figured she wouldn't want grandpa following her so sent a note asking. Surprisingly she said she didn't mind. I can't imagine that I would have wanted my grandma to follow me if I had had Twitter when I was in college. Maybe she is just being polite.
Getting off track. I am finding that it takes quite some time to set up these social network sites. I think I let it go too long. I would advise an author to set up all sites at the time the draft is finished. That way you can expand them and get used to tending them before your book comes out. In my case I intend, since I have a business related self help book, to use LinkedIn as my primary social network site. Facebook will augment it but at this point I think I can reach many more people on LinkedIn that would be interested in my book. Will let you know if I change my mind as I get more familiar with facebook.

Starting Point

I didn't learn until I had completed a draft of my book that experienced authors say writing the book is 10% of the effort, finding a publisher is 30% and marketing it is 60%. I wonder if I would have written it if I had known that. Probably. Why we write is a strange question that perhaps we don't know the answer to. At this point I have written my book. Selected an epublisher and am setting up my marketing plan as I await the printing. The general advice I have found on the web is to have a web site that markets the book, a blog that points people to the book and a twitter account that points people to the blog. I have had blogs before using standard sites like blogger and enjoyed blogging until I run out of ideas on the particular topic I am blogging on. Having a web site is another kettle of fish. I tried one of the free ones once and I am sure no one ever found it. This time I purchased a package from a local company that offers a site and hosting for a very modest annual fee as long as you don't mind having their ad on your site. It's an unobtrusive ad so I don't think it makes much difference.The site package included five pages, a blog and a forum. I only used three pages: a home page explaining the site, a book page describing the book and an author page giving my background and experience. My book is non fiction so readers will presumably want to know if I am qualified in the subject before they buy. I chose to add the forum because my book is a self study book and I think some readers may like the opportunity to ask questions, share experiences and participate in group learning. More on my experiences in setting up the site later.