Social Media: The author/writer impact

I’ve been thinking a lot about social media lately. I recently read “We Are Not Alone-The Writers Guide to Social Media” by best-selling author Kristen Lamb. And I’m currently 44% (thank you Kindle) through her latest book, “Are You There Blog? It’s Me, Writer.” It’s safe to say that my blog will soon undergo a makeover. But, I digress. To the point, why is social media good for the literary world?

Social media makes authors more human. Before the days of Twitter and Facebook and the other ways to connect to people, fans would send snail mail to authors. This would mean a long wait for a response, if any came. Now, when you read a book that you love you can follow the author online and interact with them. This makes authors accessible and well, human.

If you can’t make your favorite authors book tour, don’t worry most participate in blog tour these days. In my opinion, Mundie Moms has one of the best chat forums, where fans can chat and interact with authors during a live chat.

Some authors are very active on Twitter. Cassandra Clare even hosts character questions from time to time, where fans can ask a character a question and they will answer via Clare. Many authors also use social media sites, like Twitter to post teasers to their upcoming books. This serves as great marketing tool to generate buzz and excitement around the release.

Thanks to social media, book trailers have become popular and viral among the young adult and middle grade genres. And book reviews take on a whole new life and they can spread and be posted on multiple avenues, making the age-old-marketing tool of word of mouth more powerful then ever.

Social media connects readers that share a love for a series. There are no boundaries. If you follow my blog, then you probably know that I’m The Mortal Instruments Examiner at Examiner.com. For the release of the fourth book in ‘The Mortal Instruments’ series, ‘City of Fallen Angels’ I hosted an online video chat for fans to discus expectations as we all waited for midnight in our various time zones. It was so interesting because I had people join in on the chat from Saudi Arabia, Spain, Chile and other places outside of the US. I live in Arkansas and one book brought such a diverse group together. It was amazing!

Social media has raised books to an almost movie status. The growing communication tools brings effective marketing tools for authors but also can be a curse by taking away from actual writing time. On Friday I’ll discuss the bad side of social media. Until then, what positive influence has social media had on other industries? In what other ways has social media helped the world of writers and readers?

Announcements:

If you find social media interesting and want to learn how to use it, I recommend following Kristen Lamb’s blog. You must also read her books (see her blog for details.)

My book, “Caring for Your Special Needs Dog” is out. It was because of social media, that I was able to connect with families across the nation, that are living with a special needs dog. It currently is selling for $2.99! A percentage of the profits go to The Texas A&M Foundation to the benefit of the Neurology Section, Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinarian Medicine.