Don’t be a peacock showing off your tail feathers on the Web. Be a “good neighbour” and you will make much more progress.
As soon as Michael came into the party, it was obvious he had no interest in anyone but himself. If somebody else was talking, he was clearly waiting for them to stop, so he could speak.
He moved around the room to as many groups as possible, crashing his way in with no real interest in the people there, and leaving abruptly once he’d said what he wanted to say. Acting the peacock, showing off his display, expecting attention and oohs and aahs from all.
Want to spend time with Michael? Didn’t think so. But are you emulating him on social media?
Social media is one big Internet party and if you want to do it well, you need to genuinely connect with your readers, not just see them as a prospective buyer.
But how, is a question members often ask? What should you write? Where should you post? It’s so much easier to just say: Buy My Book, Buy My Book.
The answer is to return to yourself, to your book. To your reasons for writing and your reasons for writing and publishing this book in particular.
What was your Motive in Writing your Book?
“To become a kindle millionaire,” you may say, or some such, but these outer-driven reasons are only part of the story. That energy may have taken you through some of the time and effort it took to get your book written and published.
Underneath, whether acknowledged or not, was the real fire, the creative energy, coming from a deeper place.
Creative motives for writing a book fall into three categories. Wanting to:
- inform or educate;
- inspire or motivate change;
- display or entertain.
Each of these creative intentions has service at its heart.
Underneath the worldly motives, the ego trips and personal wants, we write to assuage a need in ourselves, a need that is shared by those who are attracted to our words.
This is what I call the ‘point of service’, and it is there that you go to reach your readers.
Writing As Service
Question 1: Do I write chiefly to inform, inspire or entertain? (The better the writing, the more it contains all three, but which is your chief motivation?)
Question 2: Whom do I most hope to interest, inspire or entertain? (Again, the better the writing, the more it will move beyond our core cohort. But who is that core cohort? Which sex? What age? Nationality? Income? Interests?
NOW: Go to where those readers are on the internet.
- Find their forums and blogs, the largest ones, where most people hang out.
- Listen in on their conversation. Take your time with this phase, as long as is necessary for you to understand these people. Don’t be Michael: no need to speak until you are sure you have something worthwhile to say. Listen.
- As you listen, think of your book, of its deepest messages, of its raison d’etre. When the time feels right, make comments or have conversations that arise from the same impulse. Not with the intention of flogging your wares, but of serving others in the same way that your book serves.
- That’s the secret: Connect and chat with the same intention that prompted your book — of being interesting, informative or inspiring in your particular way (or all three, which is easier in a short comment than a long book!).
- Have a link to your book or website, so that people who want to know more and to buy your book can. Make it easy for them.
If you follow the advice here and take the trouble to go where your readers are and reach out to them regularly, they will spontaneously want to share with you, learn from you, grow with you.
You will organically develop that indie desirable: a strong author platform.
By Orna Ross, Founder and Director of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)
The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) is a global association of self-publishing writers.
Thank you for this, Orna. I'm compelled to write anyway but I sometimes forget that much of my work over the past six years was inspired by a statement from someone in an internet forum. I looked around online after I read that I should always write with a target market in mind and found a forum with women crying out for a very specific hero. I'm not quite sure how I'll approach the women in that forum when it's published but I will spend a bit of time pondering the words 'inspire, entertain, inform' and be sure to stay away from the words 'Buy My Book!'
I must admit to finding this a bit of a dilemma. My personal motivation for writing falls closer to Orwell's second reason, as listed by Adrian above.
Delight in words themselves, the joy of creating, the wonder as the ideas that float in my mind come together coherently to form a story. That is what keeps me writing.
The dilemma comes from the fact that there is an introversion attached to this process, which does not necessarily go hand in hand with the promotional activities required of an independent writer.
I do participate in forums, but, for me, the interaction is something I value in and of itself. I like to hear what others have to say about writing, I like to read what they write. Of course I benefit from this interaction. Continued engagement with anything will lead you to think more clearly about it and to learn and to grow, but I would certainly hesitate before going so far as to describe such engagement as self-interest. I think it is human nature to collaborate,as that is what tends to benefit us most, collectively.
I think the golden rule is to be generous and to be sincere. It is always very easy, as Orna states, to spot the egotists and the self interested, even online, and I do think, in the long-run, such behaviour is rather self defeating.
Hi. Orna
'What was your Motive in Writing your Book?'
Orwell's quote is interesting. Maybe he is describing himself? I don't agree with the 'Lazy', but I understand his general meaning.
George Orwell:
'All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.'
He gives four mains reasons that inspire want-to-be authors to write. I have taken them from my copy of George Orwell - Why I Write.
(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc.
(ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement.
(iii) Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.
(iv) Political purpose. Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.
I can add more reasons. Economic Necessity, Enjoyment, To Improve as a Writer, and Catharsis.
Writers may write for a particular readership, but all writers write out of self-interest. Humans only act out of self-interest. That is the basis of all our relationships.
Two examples to prove my point. When someone says, 'I am doing you a favour' - They are not, it is their intention to benefit partly or mostly by their action.
Equally, when people offer advice, is it genuinely in your best interest, or are they hoping you will act in a manner that suits them the best?
With regard to connecting with others.
I have found connecting with others on this site mentally stimulating and a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I wish I could say the same for other forums. Maybe I have been unlucky, or been looking in the wrong places. I cancelled my Facebook account as it was more trouble than it was worth. Twitter is much better, but there are people I know who complain about hacked or fake accounts making nasty remarks about them.
I am selfish about when I choose to mix socially. I am not one for teaming up with the masses. I take great pride in my independence and do not suffer fools, or time-wasters gladly.
However, it is good that writers can band together on the internet to form global-villages and share their ideas and experiences, if they find it is a worthwhile experience.