My Notes from the "Social Media for Creators" Panel from New York Comic Con 2015

One of the most useful panels I attended at NYCC this year was the one on Social Media for Creators.

Buddy Scalera from ComicBookSchool.com moderated, and Jimmy Palmiotti, Matt Hawkins, Tim Washer, and Dennis Calero spoke and answered questions.

Here are my notes:

In the "Kickstarter Generation," you can be successful by excelling in these areas: you can be good, you can be fast, or you can be cheap. Just pick two!

 Of course, there’s a bit more than that.

You also have to be likeable.

 Jimmy suggested starting with your family/friends/coworkers. He also suggested that you be inquisitive about people. Talk to them. “What do you do?” is a good place to start. Find like-minded people on Twitter and engage. Build relationships using connections, contextualizing them, and letting them know what you want to happen.

Self-branding. Using humor. The evolution of journalism.

Tim Washer on the importance of humor. He showed us a pie chart of the percentage of people who like to laugh. It’s everyone!

 So how do you make that work for you? Have can you be funny with your social media? 

Brevity is the soul of wit, so be brief. And funny. Don’t worry about being too ludicrous and absurd. The ludicrous and absurd GETS ATTENTION! Play around, have fun, and just trust that something will happen. 

He mentioned a woman with 23,000 followers on Twitter who got a free trip to Japan because she made short videos using lots and lots of photos (with music) about the stuff she loves. She said she wanted to go to Japan, and she got it! Follow her lead. Be passionate, have fun, be brief and say what you want.

LAUGH! Relax. The big ideas will come to you.

 One way to come up with funny ideas is with Comic Juxtaposition. (I know about this from my political cartooning days. One thing makes you think of another and so on. Suddenly you find two things that are so different and yet weirdly fit together—and that’s funny! That’s the “Oh, I get it” moment in comedy. For example, there are many similarities between school and prison life. They both have cafeterias where people get served food on trays and have to take those trays to a table where they have to eat with others who are in the same position. Taking things that are exclusive to one of those situations and putting it in the other could be funny. For example, you could draw a comic strip with two tough looking school girls sitting at a table in a cafeteria. One asks that others, “So what are you in for?”)

 Tim Washer had us give example of two things that don’t go together. We went with “banana” and “toy store.” We then had to give attributes for each of those. One of the attributes for banana is that people slip on them. Two of the attributes for toy stores are that they sell toys to parents.

Suggestion #1: BANANA
Attributes: Slipping

Suggestions # 2: TOY STORE
Attributes: Toys, Parents
                 
Tim put those two together and came up with the idea of a Slip ‘N Slide at an office. It’s funny, because it’s absurd.

 This association process is also called “webbing.”

Matt gave ThinkTank on Facebook as an example of a good strategy. ThinkTank is about science, and the guy who does it writes observations, personal stuff, and some promotion. (I don’t know if this is the same ThinkTank I found, but these people post a video a day.)

You have to discover your VOICE. In Improv, there’s a game called “The Rant.” The point of the rant is to let you see who you truly are. It helps you discover your honest Voice.

On dealing with trolls: Jimmy and Matt will delete comments and block attacking commentators (on their blogs and/or Facebook pages?). You can argue, but keep it civil. Jimmy will sometimes DM people to get them to stop their angry comments. Usually when they realize there’s a human being on the other side, they stop. Jimmy says that when you’re dealing with an angry person, you should smile, wave, and say, “Have a nice day!” You can delete the thread that’s gotten out of control and post a picture of a sunset. It diffuses the situation. Comedy diffuses bad situations.

Dennis says that people want to get to know you, warts and all. If you have problems, people will support you.

 Someone recommended a book called On Intelligence, which is about the brain and pattern recognition. Humor is about seeing patterns in disparate things (what I call the third “S” of comedy: “Sense.” The other two are “Setup” and “Surprise”).

 Matt says, “Be about something.” You can’t be mysterious if you aren’t famous.

Dennis says you should be a Voice with a distinctive personality. People tend to forget there’s a real person on the other side. Remind them.

 Someone asked which platforms they prefer.

Tim likes Instagram and Facebook, but you have to find the platform that works for you.

Jimmy also likes Instagram. Twitter is great, because you can ask for retweets—AND you can retweet others.

Dennis draws every day and posts on Instagram. (This is probably a habit I should get into, posting something visual or a video EVERY DAY.)

Matt gives freebies and writes a week of promotional tweets and Facebook posts one day a week and then schedules them. (This is probably a habit I should get into, too.) He loves Facebook advertising and spends $50 a day, money he considers well spent.

Dennis says build a following and put out a pure vision.

THE TAKEAWAY FOR ME: Post something funny, short, and visual that helps show who you are at least daily. You can create this content once a week and schedule it to release through the week. Use Facebook and Twitter--and start using Instagram.  Post your observations and personal stuff, and just a little promotional stuff. Use the ludicrous and the absurd to get attention. Laugh, relax, be passionate, have fun, and be brief. Be inquisitive about others, find connections to contextualize your relationships online, and let them know what you want to happen.

Yesterday's Geek Quotient

Shevi’s Geek Q for today: 122 (good)

Activities: Won two games of Rummikub. Read The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, which is very good, and Class Act: Sell More Books Through School and Library Author Appearances, which is necessary, but disappointing (maybe I'll write a review to explain why). Watched my favorite show on TV nowadays, The Big Bang Theory. Also watched Grimm, which was great as always, and Saturday Night Live with guest host quirky girl Zooey Deschanel.



Ate: Lentil soup


Wore: My robot necklace

Fun level: Very high. Laughed a lot.

Creativity level: Daydreamed a lot about Gilbert and friends as well as a design for what I imagine the ideal Amazon store would look like

Brain activity: Active from playing games and daydreaming

To Tweet or Not to Tweet, That Is the Question

I have a Facebook friend who wanted to try Twitter but found it too confusing. 

I completely understand. It can be confusing at first, particularly in the area of "Why do I need this?"

For him and anyone like him who would like to start Tweeting but finds it overwhelming, here's the easy guide that should get you tweeting like @NeilHimself in no time.

First, the Twitter website is one of the worst ways to use Twitter. It just throws you in and doesn't explain anything.

The welcome page for Twitter.com

However, I would recommend you start there to set up your avatar and the basic info about yourself.

These two things are important, because they let people know you're a real person (it's best if it's a picture or drawing of your face), not some sort of spam bot, and because they give people a reason to follow you back.

I usually follow writers or funny people (particularly funny writers) back. I also follow back people who love books. I don't follow back people who want to show me how to lose weight or make $10,000 a month, and I really don't follow back girls with avatars showing them crawling on all fours and making eyes at the camera. I also don't follow back twitter birds or eggs, which are the generic avatars that Twitter comes with. Spammers usually use these, because they want to create and abandon Twitter profiles quickly. As Doctor Seuss almost said, "I do not like green eggs and spam." The two often come together, so you should try to avoid them.

You can also upload a nice Twitter background, so that people visiting your Twitter page can see you've put a little effort into it. If you have a digital camera, a nice panorama or a picture of flowers or leaves will do. For a while, I just had a photo I took of one of my bookshelves. I think that's a good way to show my interest in books. Right now, I have a bunch of my illustrations from Toren the Teller's Tale.

My current Twitter background with my illustrations for Toren the Teller's Tale

This might also be a good time to start following some people.

You can ask your friends on Facebook (if you're already on Facebook) for their Twitter names and the names of people they recommend following. You can also look up interesting people in your industry.

Give yourself a Twitter name, avatar, and bio that make it clear who you are
and why someone might want to follow your tweets.

Feel free to follow me, @SheviStories: http://twitter.com/shevistories.

You can also click on the list of people I'm following to see if there are people there you'd like to follow: http://twitter.com/#!/SheviStories/following Feel free to follow whoever you like. While most of the people I follow are writers, illustrators, or people in publishing, you'll find all sorts. For example, I'm a big geek, and I love Mythbusters, so you'll find I'm following AppyGeek and Adam Savage.

Pretty soon people will start following you. Just know that it's good manners to follow people back, although you should, obviously, never follow back a spammer. Also, don't expect a celebrity to follow you back. And if you're a writer, don't expect agents to follow you back. They might, but they probably won't. Still, you should follow them if you want to see what they're tweeting about.

Look up people you're interested in. I like Neil Gaiman, so I follow @NeilHimself. Editor Elizabeth Law is a lot of fun, so I follow @EgmontGal. And Ellen Hopkins is great, so I follow @EllenHopkinsYA. Type in the names of any people you're interested in, and, with any luck, you'll find them on Twitter.

Okay, once you're done with that, you can forget about the Twitter.com website, because you won't need to look at it until the next time you want to change your avatar, your information, or your background. That's because what you will be using--what almost everyone on Twitter uses--is TweetDeck.

Go to http://www.TweetDeck.com and click the button marked "Download."

When it comes to Twitter, TweetDeck is your new best friend.

Open the TweetDeck app, and everything after that should be clear.

TweetDeck starts with a page that looks like this:

The TweetDeck welcome page

See how all the information is there for  you to click on? You can find out how to compose a message, add multiple Twitter accounts, manage Twitter lists, sort information into columns, and so on. If you'd rather figure things out yourself, you can just click "Get Started" at the bottom of the window.

Here's what my TweetDeck window looks like:

I've created columns for the various topics I'm interested in.

In Twitter, a topic is usually, but not always, a word or group of words with a pound sign in front of it. That's why they're called hashtags, because of that hash mark, #, in front of them.

I created columns with the following hashtags, which let me follow conversations of interest to writers: #litchat #amwriting #writegoal #WritersRoad #askagent #YALitChat #KidLitChat.

Play around with hashtags to see what people are talking about. For example, do a search for "poet" if you're a poet, and find out if there are hashtags that contain the word "poet" or hashtags poets use. Create columns with the hashtags as the search terms, and read past conversations in those groups. If you'd like to join the next conversation, ask someone from the group if there's a scheduled chat and when the next one will be. Not all groups have scheduled chats, but they are one of the best uses for Twitter. To participate in a chat, make sure to incorporate the group's hashtag in your tweets.

Hover your cursor over someone's avatar, and you'll see several options. You can follow the person, reply to the tweet, or forward it. Start a conversation with someone. Don't be shy. A good way to start is by forwarding great tweets and saying how great you think they are. The original tweeter usually appreciates that.

Take it slow, have fun, and you should get the hang of it in a week.

Oh, and in answer to the "Why do I need this?" question, you don't. It's fun, though, and it's a good way to connect with people, make friends, and stay in the loop when it comes to developments and opportunities in the industry.

Have questions for agents, for example? The quickest way to get an answer is by using the #askagent hashtag. Feel good about writing 1,000 words in a day and you want to tell the world? The #amwriting and #writegoal hashtags are good for that. Have questions about writing YA? Try #WritersRoad, #YALitChat or #KidLitChat. You can even include multiple tags on the same tweet, provided you keep it under 140 characters.

Twitter is just another way to connect with people who share your interests--all of your interests. I even have columns in TweetDeck for #Eureka, #DoctorWho, #Grimm, and #OnceUponATime because I love these shows, and it's fun to talk to other people who love them too.

I hope this helps.

Oh, and there's one more thing. Blog posts like this often have buttons you can click below them in order to share them with your Facebook friends or Twitter followers. As a blogger, this makes it easier to share information that wouldn't fit into a 140-character tweet on Twitter. As a reader, this gives you an easy way to share helpful posts with other people. It's also a nice way to show your appreciation to whoever wrote that blog post, and most bloggers appreciate the recognition for their work.

I know I haven't included everything, not by a long shot, but I do hope it's enough to get you started without seeming too scary.

To tweet or not to tweet? I say give it a try! I look forward to reading your tweets.

Looking for ideas for Marketing Month

This is the last stop on my Bewitching book tour: http://www.readergirlsblog.com/

It's been fun. I received a couple of glowing reviews, made some fans, and enjoyed being interviewed. I also discovered some interesting book blogs I wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

Meanwhile, I've been hard at work getting the paperback version of Toren the Teller's Tale  ready for publication. I can't believe that I just need to receive and approve the proof, and then the book will be available through all outlets. This is so exciting!

January will be Marketing Month for Toren and me. I'm interested in swapping blog posts, doing author interviews, and so on. If you would like a blog post or an interview from me, let me know. We could do an exchange.

Any other ideas? Should I do YouTube videos? Contests? What do you like to see on an author's blog?

How to Blog Like a Funny, Children’s Book, YA, Fantasy, Science Fiction Writer

If anyone should have a blog, it’s a writer. Words are our livelihood, and a blog is like free advertising for what we do. Who wouldn’t want to advertise his or her business to possible clients all over the world for free? And, from the point of view of a reader, I'd much rather read a blog written by someone who can write than by someone who can't. Wouldn't you agree?

But it seems that many writers don’t blog, and those that do rarely blog effectively.

I get it. Making up stories about made up people is fun. But blogging can seem kind of scary. What do you write about? How will you make it interesting? Will people read it? And sometimes it feels as if you’ve been blogging for what seems like forever, you’ve spent hours writing dozens of posts, and no one cares.  Isn't blogging a waste of time that you could be spending writing your next book?

Well, no. It’s hard work, and it can take several years to see results, but it does eventually pay off if you do it right. If you're unpublished, blogging can impress agents and editors by showing you have a platform, as in thousands of people who are interested in what you have to say. And if you're published--whether traditionally or as an indie publisher--it can help you connect with readers, which can help you sell books. So how exactly do you do it right?

Here is a list of some questions many writers have about blogging and some answers to these questions:

How do I attract readers to my blog?

Start by writing 10-15 pillar articles. According to ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chriss Garrett, a pillar article is an article that attracts readers to your blog by giving them something they’re looking for. Pillar articles need to be focused on the core topic of your blog. They need to be useful or entertaining. The best pillar articles are 500-1,000-words long, have short paragraphs, headers, sub-headers, and at least one graphic. Lists and step-by-step guides make great pillar articles.

So how does this work for a writer?

 

According to We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Mediaby Kristen Lamb, if you’re writing nonfiction, your pillar articles should be authoritative. Readers will come to you looking for answers, and your blog will give them those answers.

If you’re a fiction writer, though, readers will probably look to you more for entertainment than information. A fiction writer’s best pillar articles should encourage comments and discussion. They should offer readers a way to connect with the writer, because that connection sells books. One of the best ways to encourage feedback is by starting with a title that asks a question. For example, “Who has the last word when it comes to children’s books: writers, publishers, parents or kids?” Of course, a writer should be prepared for some lively debate, because not everyone will agree with what the writer has to say.

How do pillar articles attract readers?

Search engines look for keywords in your tags (or labels), title, and your content. That’s why it’s important to have a list of keywords that fit the topic of your blog and to use them in these areas, particularly in your titles and in the first few words of your articles.

How do I get readers to come back to my blog?

Entertaining or useful content keeps readers coming back, so make sure there’s always fresh, entertaining or useful content. Try to blog between once a day and once a week (three to five times a week is good), but don’t say something just to say something. Good content once a week is better than good content once a week along with bad content three times a week.  Be consistent, and stay on topic, so readers know what to expect. For example, I regularly check out Dave Barry's blog, because I know it's going to be funny.

It usually takes years for a good blog to get up to speed, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away. Stick with it. Stay positive, and be nice to your readers. People usually like to hang around other people who make them feel good. Don’t polarize your readers, unless that’s a part of your brand and your marketing strategy.

How do I choose the general topic for my blog?

That depends on the image you want to create. Fill in the blank, “I want to be the writer readers turn to when they’re looking for________________.”

What would you put at the end of that sentence? Excitement? Something to make them laugh? Romance? Fantasy? Science Fiction? Inspiration? A best friend who understands them? A story they can share with their kids? All of the above?

Use your posts to give visitor a taste of what you have to offer. If you write humor (like I do), your blog posts should have some humor. If you write romance, you might want to spice things up a bit. It couldn’t hurt. Write about your books, but not just your books. Always write in a way that serves your visitor first, not your own ends.

How do I come up with specific topics?

Keywords help search engines find articles on a certain topic, so start by making a list. You want 20 core keywords that you’ll use over and over in your blog posts, words a reader might type into a search engine to look for a writer like you, words that define who you are as a writer. Start by writing down as many as you can think of, and then highlight the top 20. Why 20? This is the maximum number of keywords that Blogger (or Blogspot) allows on a blog post. While you might use a different platform, it’s still a good number to stick to, because it will keep your blog more focused.

Here’s my list of keywords to give you an idea of what yours might look like:

Shevi Arnold, novelist, writer, author, teen, YA fiction, children’s books, funny, humor, comedy, geek, ebooks, fantasy, science fiction, stories, storyteller, magic, dreamer, publisher, imagination.

This doesn’t mean that all my blog posts will have all these tags or they won’t sometimes have very different tags, but these are the tags I want to use most often to help search engines (and potential readers) find my blog. Combine these keywords, and you’ll get an idea of who I am (writer, author, storyteller), what I write (children’s books, YA fiction, humor, fantasy and science fiction), and my general style and attitude (funny, geek, dreamer).

How do I turn my keywords into 10-15 pillar articles?

The purpose of your pillar articles is to give your visitors something that will make them happy they came to your blog—and a reason to come back again. Pillar articles also help visitors create an image of you, something they think of when they see your name. Look at your keywords, and ask yourself what you can give visitors. Is there something you know that visitors might not know but would love to? Are there questions you used to have that you’ve since discovered the answers to? What matters to you, and how does that relate to your readers? Do your readers feel deeply about the same things, and could that shared feeling connect you and your readers? These are the kinds of things that would make great pillar topics for your blog.

As an example, here’s a list of some of the ideas I’ve had for pillar articles, ones that fit my expertise and the image I’m trying to create:

1.       Where do you get your ideas? How you, too, can have more stories concepts than you know what to do with

2.       Me Write Funny Someday—how to add humor to your writing

3.       Let ‘em read comics! If you want to turn kids into readers, let them read what they want to read.

4.       Who let the grownups in here? Why adults are falling in love with YA and books for kids.

5.       Let the meek inherit the earth. The geeks will inherit the stars! How geeks are taking over the world (and why that’s a good thing)

6.       Ten great fantasy novels for girls

7.       If you can’t beat ‘em, study ‘em! What writers can learn from movies and other forms of storytelling

8.       The ten biggest mistakes aspiring YA novelists make (and how to avoid them)

9.       The five best books to read if you want to write fiction

10.   The one most important thing every aspiring children’s book or YA writer should know…

11.   Why fantasy is the most honest genre of all

12.   Why are there so few funny books for teens?

13.   Stories within stories: from Scheherazade to Toren

14.   Is the magic in Harry Potter real after all?

15.   The power of belief, and what this means to fiction writers

 

Is there anything else I can do to attract readers to my blog?

Lots! You can include your blog’s URL in the signature of your emails, post on other blogs or in forums and use your avatar link back to your blog, give your blog an easy to remember name and a great description, guest blog for others, link to other blogs, and so much more. We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media has a great list of ways writers can make social media work for them.

I haven't always done this blogging thing right, but I'm learning, and I'm trying to put what I've learned into practice.  It's never too late to change.

So will your blog give your readers?

Writers, how to make social media work for you

So after reading Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents, I came to the conclusion I needed to work on my blog if I wanted to sell my books. Easier said than done.

Not knowing how to go about it, I picked up Zoe Winter's wonderfully informative Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author. While the book deals mostly with indie publishing--including publishing to Kindle, working with Smashwords, creating both a production and marketing schedule, and much more--it did include a brief overview of social media for writers, including the importance of having a blog to connect with readers. Zoe Winters also recommends starting a newsletter, because someone might subscribe to your blog and never look at it again, but people who subscribe to your newsletter genuinely want to read what you have to say (particularly if it involves freebies and contests, like her newsletter does).

So that led me to another wonderful book, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, which has a ton of helpful information about successful blogging in general.

But I still didn't know how to apply what I had learned to my blog. I mean, I'm a fiction writer. I write books for kids and teens. Wasn't there a book that could tell me step-by-step how a fiction writer could use social media to increase his or her platform? Fortunately, there is.


The Best Social Media Guide Specifically for Writers

We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb is like having a smart, funny friend who will take you by the hand and show you exactly what you need to succeed and how to do it.

For example, about halfway through, the book has a recap with a list of the first things you will need:

• A brand name (the name that will appear on your book)
• A list of your goals divided into three categories:

1. Strategic Career Goals (where you want to be in five years) 
2. Strategic Marketing Goals (to create the image you want associated with your brand)
3. Ten Tactical Goals (the things you plan to do to achieve your publishing goals, like creating a blog and following the blogs of potential readers.)

• A collection of content material--like pictures and videos--to help support your brand
• 10-15 posts (500-1,000 words each) related to your topic to serve as strategic content
• Three bios of different lengths
• A detailed profile of your reader and consumer demographic

What each of these things are, why you need them, and how to make them work for you are covered in great detail, as is so much more.

For example, when it comes to your brand name, the author explains how important it is for it to be the same name as the one that will appear on your books--because even if you do all the right things when it comes to social media, no one will be able to find your book when they're looking for one written by @LemurLady27.

She also explains that your readers aren't your fellow writers (although you should still network with them) or people who read books like they're chewing gum. "Yup, that one's finished, now I think I'll try fruit flavored." Your readers are the people who generally don't read that much, but will read your book because you wrote it just for them. It's like the way Harry Potter made readers out of non-readers. That's your ultimate goal.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg, so if you're a writer who's been frustrated by social media because you don't know where to start or why it's not going as you hoped, this is the book for you.

And now it's time for me to start working on those 10-15 articles for my strategic content. I have so many ideas I can't wait. Thanks, Kristen Lamb!

A writer's step-by-step plan for using social media

Social media is so confusing. Writers know it's important, but where do you start? Twitter? A blog? Facebook? What do you post? How often? And how does it help you sell your book?

I've read several wonderful books on the topic. Here's a rundown of their top tips:

Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents by Rick Frishman and Robyn Freedman Spizman

The main thing I learned from Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents is that a writer needs a platform. It doesn't matter if you write nonfiction or fiction, it's all about your platform. So what's a platform? There are actually two kinds (three if you consider that Facebook or Twitter are also platforms, but this refers to a writer's platform).

The first kind of platform is how readers think of you when they think of you. For example, Isaac Asimov will always be known as a science fiction writer, even though he wrote many books that weren't science fiction. J.K. Rowling will forever be identified with Harry Potter. J.R.R. Tolkien will always be remembered for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Maybe in the future, I'll be known as the writer of Toren the Teller or Gilbert the Fixer. But for now, my platform is that I'm a funny writer, a Geek Goddess, and the author of humorous fiction, fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens. I also have a reputation for helping other writers out.

The second kind of platform is made up of the number of Twitter followers, Facebook fans, blog subscribers, and so on that you have. If you want an agent in today's publishing environment, you're going to need this kind of platform--but how do you get it? That part wasn't so clear, so I kept looking.

Smart Self--Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author by Zoe Winters

Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author is chock full of information and useful advice, both for self-publishers and traditionally published authors. While the author writes about the things that worked for her, she does acknowledge that other authors have succeeded with things that didn't, and you may succeed with them too. This sets this book apart from almost every other book I've read on self-publishing, which have gone on and on about why you should e-publish and how much success the author had as an indie publisher.

You'll learn why you need a newsletter, where you can create one, and what you should and shouldn't put in yours; working out a marketing schedule and a marketing plat; why you need to set both short-term and long-term goals, and what those goals can be; self-editing, critique groups, and hiring a freelance editor; what kind of prizes lead to more sales (and what kind don't); and all aspects of marketing, from social networking, blogs and blog hopping to marketing with video and paid advertising when you've earned enough to afford it.

This is one of the most helpful books I've read on self-publishing, and I highly recommend it.

Still, even though it talked a lot about the importance of blogging for writers, I still didn't feel I had enough of a grasp on the details. Yes, it mentioned that it's a good idea to post several times a week, but what good is that if no one is checking out your blog? How do you get people to give your blog a glance? And then a second glance? And then maybe subscribe? So I went looking for another book on the details, and I found a great one.

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garret

Although it's not writer specific, I found ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income invaluable for the depth of information it contains about successful blogging.

There are two ways to make money blogging: either by selling advertising space, or by using your blog to promote your work, for example, as a freelance writer or editor. I went through the book with a highlighter, and I ended up highlighting something on every other page.

I even put stars near some things I found particular helpful. For example, there's a list of question to ask yourself to help you better understand your target audience. There's also a section on useful blog properties, and another wish suggestions for how you can create useful blog content. It was great.

We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb

 Of course, at this point, I had learned so much I felt like my head might explode. I needed one book to help me tie it all together, and luckily I found it in We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media.

This book is awesome! And in my next blog post, I'll tell you why.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions about social media for writers, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below. I'll do my best to answer them if I can.