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Social Media & Books


With the increasing use and popularity of social mediums such as: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. the world of buying is changing.  Gone are the days when an author could happily live in seclusion and enjoy the wealth of their success.  With self-publishing becoming an increasing popular venue for new authors to get their books out there, the competition is fierce.  You could view it as a great thing, or a not so great thing.  However, I believe that it will be increasingly important for authors and other companies that's success relies upon readership or customer sales to integrate themselves into the fabric of social communities.  This social aspect is a great thing for those less known authors to find a voice amongst the already well known authors.  It will, in my opinion, be those newbies who take the time to interact with fans, engage the blogging community, that will find success.  In a sense, writers definitely have more control than they probably did prior to the explosion of the www.

I, myself, have begun to make purchasing decisions based on social interaction.  Just recently, I picked up a book I probably wouldn't have given a second glance, had it not been for the author having a very active social presence.  It was through her self promotion on Twitter, that I found myself purchasing her book.  Once, I actually read it, I found myself wanting more.  So, with just a little bit of effort put forth to making herself known to the social readers community, it helped to at least add one new customer.  

There are many authors out there who are extremely active on a Twitter, as well as other social media.  It's the authors who take a few minutes of their day to acknowledge their fans, that I find myself rallying and wanting to spend $15 on a new book.  Having a limited amount of income, it prohibits me from being frivolous with my money.  So, for someone like me, who has to watch her pennies; a strong social presence makes a difference.

I'm not going to generalize and say that Anerican authors in general don't seem to take their fans seriously, or seem to appreciate them.  However, sadly, it does seem a majority of them don't value the whole social experience.  I don't know if it's that they are so uber successful that they don't feel
that they need the extra sales that could possibly come from a little social interaction, or if they are
just truly blind to the social aspect of sales.  

Just recently I have started blogging.  I have done most of my reviews on UK authors, and each and every UK author that I have reviewed as well as tagged in a post with the review attached, responded and most times retweeted the review and thanked me.  I recently did a list of the top kindle books under $5 and most retweeted that as well.  Most even thanked me for including them on the list.

I, also included a couple of not so well known American authors and they responded and thanked me as well (As well as RT the post). However, I have done two reviews on two bigger American authors and tagged them both in the tweets for the review.  Neither author so much as acknowledged the tweets.  I had tweeted one author several times praising her work as I read her book.  But all I could hear was a whole bunch of nothing.

 Now, these are two pretty successful authors, they have a very strong fan base that will probably always be there.  One of the authors is among my top five favs, and will likely remain there.  So, they may not ever see a change in their bottom line.  Although, I have purchased two full priced new books from two of the authors that ARE hugely involved in the social community.  While the other two, that are not highly visible, while they both have new books that have recently come out, I haven't had a desire to shell out the big bucks yet on their books.  I honestly didn't make a connection until I was going back over this post after having already posting and finding, of course a TON of clerical errors.  So, it wasn't even a conscious choice on my part, but it may well have been a subconscious decision.

Most authors I have encountered, truly seem to appreciate the world of bloggers. They see how bloggers, in general are beneficial to their business.  However, it seems only those (Americns) who are hungry for success, seem to really appreciate the whole blogging world.  Now, I am super new to the blogger community, only being active now for three weeks.  So, perhaps if I had more than the 1500 hits on my page, maybe it might have been a different story.

No, I don't hold myself to be super important.  I know that I'm just a pion in the world of blogging. I may be the only person who currently feels that social interactions are the future for businesses.  However, it's my opinion that the need to be active with your fans is only going to increase, as the world is becoming more and more socially active on the WWW.  

I, for one, hope that the American authors will soon take notice of this trend and hop on board.  After all, I may not be the most important person, but I still have a voice and it can be quite time consuming when preparing a review.  Not only am I taking the time to read the books, I am researching the authors, linking their social connections and helping to promote them in general.  It can take me all day to prepare a review (amid distractions).  

Am I the only one who makes purchases based on social interaction?  It doesn't even have to be me with whom the author has socialized with.  When I see that an author is very present on the feeds, it makes their presence stick out more and make them more in my thoughts. So, when I go to make purchases on Amazon or Book Depository and am trying to decide which book I should purchase, it's those who are active that are in the forefront of my mind.

Now, I possibly am the only person who feels this way.  Others may think I'm quite insane.  But there are lots of people clamoring for the mighty dollar (or pound), and there are only so many to be spent.  So a lot of different factors go into making buying decisions, but I personally believe social interactions are going to begin playing a bigger role in our decision making. At least for those of is with whom are big into the whole social world.

Ok. That's it. Hope I haven't offended anyone..... 

Much love!!

Sassy Gal 💋



1 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great post! So true, completely agree. Since joining social media I too have bought books by authors that I've interacted with, which I maybe wouldn't have discovered otherwise. xx

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