Sort of but not really. This is my third cycle through the alphabet, I’ve had issues with various letters but have managed to sort something out at some point, today it’s just not happening. I’ve found one ‘writer’ for Q who has won several awards for best unpublished manuscript but I can’t actually find her book. I did consider stretching things a little just for the sake of continuity but when I googled her further I decided this was exactly time for the rant I’ve been brewing for some time.

Authors need a web presence

I’m not the only one saying this, it’s been a topic of conversation on So You Want To Be A Writer, the podcasts put out by The Australian Writer’s Centre. I’ve spent quite a bit of time listening to these podcasts, their vocal affectations drive me bananas but their content is very good and I told them so when I rated them on iTunes. I didn’t actually mention their vocal affectations but I did mention typewriters!

You need a web presence in order to be able to be found. If you want people to scribble a few words about you then you need to provide some information. But you need a web presence. Readers need to be able to find something about you. I’m not saying you have to disclose your life story but just something for people to find. It may help sell books.

Social Media options

There are many social media options you can use for creating your web presence. The least I suggest is a website and one other option. You can choose from Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and several more. It’s very possible to go overboard so just choose one of those and start from there. The website is important as it can showcase your books and you can include a bio to give us some information. With your other choice you again get to choose how much information to give us, enough so we’re satisfied but not too much that you feel your privacy has been violated.

Giving your family privacy

When you’re online like this you’ll need to be thinking about the privacy of your family. How much do you want to give them? How much is appropriate to give them? Have a look around at some of the ‘celebrities’ and see how much they’re sharing, then have a look at other authors for the same information. You’ll find some vast differences. Some people share absolutely everything, they vomit their data onto the web for all to see for all time, others are much more discrete but do endeavour to give us something. Even if you only give us snippets of your writing life and some thoughts about a hobby or two.

Guest Posts

If you have a website it helps with marketing when you release your next book. It means you can supply guest posts to various bloggers who will then link back to your website. Good links mean it’s easier to find you, finding you often means more sales, sales should mean more money but I didn’t need to make that last link. Just because you have lots of followers on social media doesn’t automatically equal more sales but it may and the payoff may be bigger than without.

Rant over, at least for today. If you want me I’m at uni.

Edit: I completely forgot GoodReads! It’s exactly what every author needs, a profile on GoodReads.