The Writer's Sandbox: How to champion your fellow author (and not annoy everyone else...)

One of my big struggles since becoming a published author is marketing.

Not only my own (which definitely is a struggle) but how to best market my fellow authors that I want to support!

My last post I got "real" and talked about the insecurity that comes when you feel like support from other writers is "eh" at best.

So I wanted to spin it to the other side today.

There are a LOT of authors out there. And quite a few of them I count as "friends" even though we may only be acquainted on Facebook.

But there is NO way I can champion them all. I just can't. None of us can. There isn't enough time in the day. And if I shared EVERYONE'S Facebook memes, my followers would be beating a path to the unfriend/unlike/unfollow button.

I am not perfect at this. In fact, sometimes I'm BAD at this. But wanted to share a few tips, not based on what I DO, but what I STRIVE to do. There is a difference. LOL. (Kinda like when I tell my kids they don't need dessert but sneak a little ice cream when they're in bed! Shhhhh.... don't tell....)

So, my confession aside, here are my tips --

BE HONEST. Sharing a post and saying, "BEST BOOK I'VE READ ALL YEAR" when you struggled to finish it might help the author in the short term, but it will damage your credibility when your readers pick it up and see the less-than-stellar writing. Personally, I'm a fan of the "if you can't say something nice, say nothing at all" rule.

DON'T OVER PROMISE. One of the lessons I learned in the corporate world, I believe said by our CEO at the time, was "Under promise, over deliver." Better to beat our promises than not to deliver on them! When agreeing to influence/review a friend's work, don't set unrealistic expectations. "I'll have it reviewed next week" and then get to it a month later. Or worse yet, "I'll leave you a glowing review" but then actually READ the book and not be able to review it at all because nothing you could say would be positive.

SHARE SMART. Don't let your page or your timeline become a walking advertisement, for your books OR your friend's books. Your shares and "advertisements" should be balanced with engaging content, or find a way to MAKE the share engaging. "I just read this book by Pepper Basham set in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Oh my goodness it was so good and made me want to take another weekend trip to Gatlinburg! Anyone have a favorite spot to visit in the mountains? I'd love some ideas for our next weekend away!" Or something like that!

PERSONAL DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK."My friend wrote this amazing book -- go read it!" will garner a little less enthusiasm than "Oh my goodness, I'm swooning right now! Just finished When Fall Fades by Amy Simpson, SO. STINKIN. GOOD!" The first shows clear bias and may put a question in your friend's mind.... Did she REALLY like it or is she just super biased? The second is much more word-of-mouth friendly!

TIMELINE OR PAGE. A lot of authors, myself included, have both a personal FB timeline and an officially author page. Many promotions, I share both places, because only a small portion of my friends like my page and only a small portion who like my page are my friend. SO, for authors who have pages, always share from their PAGE and not their TIMELINE. This helps them get more likes, and pages are HARD to get views on sometimes due to FB algorithms. Shares help visibility of their page and ups the helpfulness of your share!

VARY IT UP. We have so many social media options. Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, blogging.... There are so many ways to help promote. Mention their book on your blog. Share or post on FB. Retweet on Twitter. Post a pic of you and their book on Instagram. Have a board for covers and links on Pinterest. You don't have to do all of them. But varying it up will help from overloading any one site with advertisements.


But regardless of HOW you do it, supporting each other is important. No, you can't support everyone. And there is no "perfect" way to do so. But word-of-mouth is still the BEST marketing for books, and chances are that when it's your turn to be published, you'll be looking around at your fellow author friends and hoping THEY help you promote too.

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Krista is a follower of Jesus, a wife, a mother, and author of Sandwich, With a Side of Romance, A Side of Faith and A Side of Hope. AND nnow the author of A (kinda) Country Christmas! She blogs about finding JOY in the journey of LIFE at http://www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of Wordserve Literary.

How to Grow Your Social Media Platform

Remember that party when you were a teenager? Yeah, that one. The one that scarred your social relationships for years because of how totally awkward and invisible you felt. Or maybe, like me, you were too much of a nerd in high school to even get invited to any parties.

Maybe you had a huge crush and huge hopes that did not end well.

You grew up, people got more normal, and you learned valuable skills on how to make a good impression--whether it was a job interview or a date. But that ever-embarassing memory from middle school, high school, college still lingers.

Everyone wants to be liked. And as a writer, having a strong, loyal following can be HUGE when it comes to selling a book to a publisher, and then selling a book to a readership. So, while those nerve-wrecking parties may be a thing of the past, getting along well with other people is definitely not. Even if you're one of the many, many introvert writers, you still need to raise interest in your story through social media. And look at it this way-- at least now, you can interact from behind the security blanket of your own computer. Hey, if you're like me, you can even do it wearing Hello Kitty fuzzy pants. (And really, who doesn't love character-themed fuzzy pants?)

One person I know who is brilliant at establishing an online presence is Colleen Coble. If you don't already follow her on Facebook, go head over there as soon as you're finished reading this post! She has a perfect balance of friendliness, openness, and a normal line of privacy so that you feel like you really get to know her without feeling like you know every detail of her life.

So what do you need to remember in order to have an active, interesting presence online?

• People do not want to read another sad story. It's totally fine to post prayer requests and be honest about your heart. For example, the situation in Iraq and the current threats to Pastor Saeed in Iran have really hit me hard. I've shared some of this stuff on my Facebook with the hopes of raising awareness (especially to the campaigns seeking signatures to free Pastor Saeed) and also ask other people to pray. But you know what? These links and stories are not what get the most comments/likes-- and that's not why I posted them. I get it. Facebook can be a downer sometimes, and if you're constantly posting sad things, people are going to start skimming past whatever you're saying. They've got enough challenges in their own lives and may feel ill-equipped to take on more. If you have a choice between a complaint and a good report, choose the good report (most of the time, at least) and bring a smile to people (and yourself).

• People want to get the vibe of who you really are. I love how Amy posts pictures of sweet little Eisley for us! It's such a fun way for her Facebook friends to feel like we've connected with Amy each day. And I love seeing all those little Eisley outfits! Don't be afraid to post pictures, short videos, etc. that help people get to know you.

• On the other hand, don't give us too much detail. Have you ever been on a date or met a new friend, and everything is going pretty well until they suddenly start giving you way more detail about their life than you're comfortable knowing? You start to feel like they don't have an appropriate boundary in their social relationships, right? Well, the same thing can happen online. While you want your readers/friends to get to know the real you, at the same time, don't share every little detail.

• Do NOT become that person who pretends to be perfect on social media. We all pretend to admire that person, but we all secretly hate that person. Am I right? ;) I believe that one of the pit falls of social media is that it can perpetuate this perfection myth (as can Pinterest) that everyone else has a perfectly clean house, that their skinny jeans fit every day of the year, and that they have zippo problems with time management. The reality is, comparing ourselves to idealistic, unrealistic social media appearances (whether it's on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or something else) is just as bad as looking at a magazine cover and thinking to yourself how you'll never compare. So the flip side of that is, don't perpetuate the perfection myth. Be a real person in person and on social media. I know I said not to harp on the negative aspects of your life, but the flip side of that is, don't try to make people believe you're living in a fairy tale either. You'll come across inauthentic.

• Help other friends and authors. Make a habit out of investing in others on social media, and do it because you really care about them, not because you're trying to get something out of the relationship (otherwise people will resent you and feel cheated). Yesterday, for example, I shared the Amazon sale on Becky Wade's My Stubborn Heart because I LOVED that book, and I think everyone else should read it too.  Casey is wonderful at this-- she's constantly using her blog to promote other authors, and I know for a fact that when she's published, they'll want to return the favor.

So what about you? Do you ever struggle with knowing what to post and what not to post on social media? Can you think of an author who has a great social media presence? Why?

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Ashley Clark writes romance with southern grace. She's dreamed of being a writer ever since the thumbprint-cookie-days of library story hour. Ashley has an M.A. in English and enjoys teaching literature courses at her local university. She's an active member of ACFW and runs their newcomer's loop. When she's not writing, Ashley's usually busy rescuing stray animals and finding charming new towns. You can find Ashley on her personal blog, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. She is represented by Karen Solem.

The Confession of a Blank Canvas to a Toolbox Guru

On Flickr by Zen

 You've set up your file with the grid in place. Your layers are labeled in a long list on the right side  your screen...their order intelligently determined. The Opacity is set at 84% on Layer Back Story, and 20% on Layer Character Motive. Each color is balanced to perfectly portray your image...ahem... your setting. And you've plugged in coordinates after coordinates to get it just right.

You open the Text tool and find your font, and place it in the corner at the top of your "canvas" and title it:

Novel 1: Outline Complete

Then click on the menu, scroll down to "Sharpen", and witness your story shine EXACTLY how you expected it to...with your coordinates and layers cheering you on as you type,

"Complete Manuscript" on page 353, just as you had plugged into your outline.

You are probably chuckling at my exaggeration of a Plotter...or a Toolbox Guru to fit the above Photo editing software illustration...but, oh you Plotter-- is it true?? Does it make you tingly to think about outlining each chapter, every plot twist, and thoroughly knowing your character (after all you've interviewed her, her grandma, sister, mom, and coworker) before she's even entered Chapter One, Scene One? If you do just a little bit...do you know how much you are envied? By me?

Let me give you insight into what I refer to as A Blank Canvas...thanks to my dear Alley Cat, Pepper, who helped me realize this post after an amusing conversation about our "different", non-plotter way of tackling a book.

We take a blank page. A canvas, if you will,

     and...

G    A    S   P...

      we...

  t-y-p-e. 

Oooooh, does that scare all you plotters out there? Sometimes, I feel like I should hang my head in shame. How can I not fill out page upon page with each plot point, each chapter, each twist, each drama, each whatever-you-call-it, and build that foundation before I start on my first bedazzling sentence (well...in this fashion of mine (and Pep's, because I must have a partner in crime in this confession...) our first bedazzling sentence is just that, our first...because we might go through twenty different first sentences before we come up with the one that is just right).

On Flickr by Diamond Farah

Do not fear. Or don't think that us Blank Canvas'rs, (I really don't like the implications of being considered blank or a canvas...but for lack of a better term since I am a procrastinator and it is very late...hm...that may have something to do with being a Blank Canvas'r....) please don't think we will never complete a novel successfully...ha! The thing with the Canvas'r  is, we take each brush stroke and begin to "sketch" what we've daydreamed in our mind, or roughly mapped out on an old Hershey's bar wrapper. And if our paintbrush decides to flick a new splatter over here and deepen a motive over there, then we begin to add a new color and take our story in the direction of the paint. We allow the art of writing to create the story on the page...right then and there.

I firmly believe that it really comes down to the way we are wired. There is no right or wrong in this...actually, for the Canvas'r, we might have to go through a little more touch up before adding our signature in the bottom corner...because, after all, the journey's been long and our paintbrush has a mind, or two, of its own!

"To thine own self be true." -William Shakespeare

God is so great. He allows each of us to do His work in a way unique to our gift and our style. Whether you resonate more with the Toolbox Guru, developing a solid outline, a plotted story that takes you from point A to point B just as you had decided in Phase 1,
or
you breathe a sigh of relief that there are actually nuts like me (ahem, and Pepper...and Amy, so I have heard ;)), just like you, who really don't mind crafting the story like a lump of clay--slowly forming the piece without really knowing what fabulous curve or interesting texture you'll create until you're just at that part....

No matter which of these you are...or if you fall somewhere in the middle... trust that the journey is yours, and if you stay true to who you are, equip yourself with the knowledge of the craft, prepare yourself with either the grid or the paintbrush, and listen to your heart and the story, then your confession as a Blank Canvas OR a Toolbox Guru will become a proud proclamation that you are using your gift exactly the way in which He designed for YOU!

So...which one are you???

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Angie Dicken first began writing fiction as a creative outlet during the monotonous days of diapers and temper tantrums. She is passionate to impress God's love on women regardless of their background or belief. This desire serves as a catalyst for Angie's fiction, which weaves salvation and grace themes across historical cultures and social boundaries. Angie is an ACFW member and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.