Archive for the ‘Social Networking For Writers’ Category
Posted on November 17, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
7 Simple Ways Writers Can Pay It Forward
There has always been a camaraderie in networking with other authors and writers. I’ve been around a long time now, and it’s just common knowledge that we can all learn from each other. We’re all in this together, we’re all aiming for the same goal, and there is plenty of room for all of us. Right? That’s what I’ve always thought.
Until recently. Don’t get me wrong, I still think this way. Every day I look forward to networking and chatting with the other writers I’ve met on Twitter and on Triberr. (and quite occasionally on Facebook but I really, really hate FB now.) Networking with my friendly, fellow writers, is still very much a part of my day.
However, I’ve noticed something more recently. I had the unpleasant experience of congregating with a bunch of authors that don’t see it like I do at all. In fact, they come across as arrogant, self promoting, and with an in it for themselves only attitude. This makes me sad. Aren’t we all focused on the same goals and dreams? Aren’t we all looking for exactly the same outcome? Or at least similar outcomes? This post isn’t about this group of angry/self promoting authors though, this post is about how you can pay it forward, and keep helping others if that is what you really want from this too.
1. Retweet other writers. This is such an easy one. It requires a click of a button. Hit that retweet button and show the love. When you see a post that is helpful or just really good, go ahead, retweet it. It takes a second. I’m always surprised when someone I don’t even know RT’s my stuff, but I have made many a friend this way.
2. Shoutout their accomplishments. Don’t keep it to yourself when you are impressed with something. If you admire a writer or author or you are particularly proud of their accomplishment or maybe you just want to say hi, then for goodness sake, shout out to them. “Hey @irishwords, I am so proud of you, 1000 words on your WIP is simply awesome!” If you remember NOT to put their twitter id first, others will see this go through your stream and perhaps maybe that person will gain a new follower out of it. (Sorry Declan if you don’t get any new followers out of it! ha)
3. Talk about them. I swear, with as often as I talk about some of my great twitter friends, you’d think I meet with them several times a week and have coffee. My children know several of my twitter writer friends by name, because I talk about them so often. But I don’t have coffee with them, I have never even met most of them. But I talk about them anyway. Guess what happens when I do that? Friends and family get curious, want to know more, and often times wind up buying their book. Yes, it has happened several times.
4. Refer others. Yes, I know in some ways this is the same as #3, but it’s not. I’m talking about referring strangers. Example: Recently I was in B&N and there was a lady looking for a new book to read. She had just asked the store clerk if she had any recommendations. The store clerk gave her titles to big name books and went on her merry way. I made my way over to her and gave her several suggestions of some fantastic books, and assuring her I had read them and they were good.
She bought two from one author and one from another – based on MY suggestions. (@joannaslan – it’s easy to sell your books, they take place here and us locals like books that are … local. 
Plus they are just plain good.) (@sarahdessen – she said she’d already read one by you and picked up another, go figure – you’re an amazing author) … So see, I was able to sell three books to a stranger because I took the time to tell her about them. For the record, I talked about several authors, those are just the books she chose to get. I’ve done this on twitter and Facebook too, and definitely in person on many, many occasions. P.S. Results are not typical (I don’t ALWAYS get them to buy the books I suggest, I got super lucky that day)
5. Buy their books. If you are a writer, you have to be a reader. I know I tend to pick up books by my twitter friends, much more frequently than I pick up the newest New York Times Best Seller. I like supporting them. I like reading them. Plus, you can get books for fairly cheap on Amazon a good majority of the time. Support fellow authors, because I bet if you do that, they’ll support you right back.
6. Review them. If you read the book, review it. You can either write a short blurb on Amazon, Goodreads or even write a blog post about it. Or write a blog post about several recent books you read, offering a short review on each of them. But at any rate, write something about them, it gets others curious. Reviews are like gold to an author. Especially one just starting out.
7. Make friends. This seems like such a simple idea. The problem is, there are so many writers out there that are all about self promotion and not interested in making friends and networking. I think that is sad. So make friends, network with them, toss around ideas, learn from them. It’s not difficult. It’s so easy.
What do you do to spread the love and pay it forward?
Posted on June 10, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Favorite Tweets for Writers – Week Ending 6/10/2011
Every week I scour Twitter for the best articles and posts that are shared. These are just a few of the best tweets for writers I have seen this week.
Some of these links I may have re-tweeted throughout the week, but I will tell you that most I have not (yet).
On Agents/Editors:
- Before You Hit Send
- Dream Agents
- How to Read a Book Contract
- Please Don’t Serial Query
- Rejection is Not Personal
- Slush Pile Triage
- Queries Beware
- What Are the Odds of Getting an Agent
- What to Look for in an Agent
- 5 Articles on Knowing When To Submit
- 7 Questions To Ask a Prospective Agent
On Character Development & Dialog:
- Adding Character Depth With the Zodiac
- Bare Bones of Dialog
- Character Clinic Day 2
- Character Clinic Day 3
- Character Clinic Day 4
- Introduce Important POVs As Soon as Possible
- Man Up: Writing Male POV
- Places To Find Character Names
- Talking About Heroes
- Villains: Empathy and Motivation
- When Setting is Characters
- Your Character’s Family of Origin
- 25 Things You Should Know About Character
- 5 Fluctuating Forms of Gender-Specific Language
On Genre Specifics:
- Adolescence Sucks, Which is Why YA Rocks
- Bold New Frontiers
- How To Craft a Mystery in a Novel
- Preaching in YA
- Sex in YA (pt. 3) Stereotypes
- Should YA Books Explore Difficult Issues?
- What is Steampunk?
- YA Literature: Realistic or Too Dark?
On Publishing:
- The Completely Backwards Way to Self Publishing Success
- Trading Excerpts With Other Authors in the Back Matter of Your Ebook
- Self-publish first book, seek an agent for the second? Good, bad, risky?
- 2 Ways to Become a Published Author
On Revision/Editing:
- A Bad Book? No, It’s a Good Book You Haven’t Fixed Yet
- Checklist for Editors
- Chip Scanlon Offers Revision Tips
- Edit in an Instant: It Ain’t Gonna Happen
- Is Your First Person Narrator Overpowering Your Story?
- Reading From The end – An Effective Way to Troubleshoot Your Writing
- Revision – The Long View
- The Critique Pact
- Working Within a Critique Group
- 4 Ways to Make the Most of a Critique Group
On Outlining & Plotting:
- A Writing Map to Use For Large Projects
- Actions vs. Choices: Crafting a Better Plot
- Are You a Pantser or a Plotter?
- Conflict Lock: The Fuel of a Story
- Does This Opening Work?
- How to Plot Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps
- How to write a rockin’ sequel.
- How to Write a Scary Scene
- On Story Arcs
- Pinpointing the Points of Your Plot
- PreDrafting Your Novel
- Sharpening Our Narrative
- Subplots – How to Find Them and Where to Use Them
- The First Line
- Time to Write: Stop in the Middle
- Warning Signs of an Idiot Plot
- 11 Resources to Make Editing Your Novel Easier
- 3 Easy Ways to Build Suspense
On Social Networking/Blogging & Other Online Stuffs:
- Get the Best Bang For Your Blog
- How Do You Choose Blog Topics?
- Sexy, Saucy Secrets to Successful Blog Posts
- Why You’re Not Too Shy To Promote
On Writing in General:
- A Book That Speaks For Itself
- A Musical Secret – great post about music and writing
- Branding 101: To Pen Name or Not To Pen Name
- Chasing Trends
- Creating Writing Structure
- Do Writers Need to Read?
- How To Write Short Stories
- Is Your Motor Running?
- Journal Prompts For Bookworms
- Six Signs It’s High Time To Give Up Writing
- Summer Writing Routines
- The Cliche: Unloved and Underappreciated
- The Intersection of Faith and Fiction
- What Makes a Book a Success
- Why Writers Blogging About Writing is Bad
- Write Your Query FIRST For a Better Book
- Writer’s Conferences – Are They Relevant in the Internet Age?
- Writing. It’s Hard.
- 3 Ways to Avoid the Waffle in Writing
On Everything Else (including cool things, free things and funny stuff):
- I Would Hate to Live With a Writer
- If You Love a Writer
- Six Reasons You Should Stick With Legacy Publishing
Did I miss anything? I’m sure I did. Please leave a comment with a link so others can find it!
If you missed last weeks Favorite Tweets for Writers, find it here.
Added this week: If you are interested in getting your own posts included, the best way to get me to notice you is to follow my blog. I visit those sites daily looking for new articles to post on twitter. I primarily use Google Friend Connect but I’m looking for new methods, added soon. (send ideas my way, LOL)
Posted on June 3, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Favorite Tweets for Writers – Week Ending 6/3/2011
Every week I scour Twitter for the best articles and posts that are shared. These are just a few of the best tweets for writers I have seen this week.
Some of these links I may have re-tweeted throughout the week, but I will tell you that most I have not (yet).
On Agents/Editors:
- A Literary Superagent’s Thoughts on Publishing
- Defeat the Sting of Rejection By Focusing on the Right Things
- How To Nix the Fear and Pitch That Post
- How to Read a Book Contract: For Avoidance of Doubt
- Response, No Response, Auto Response
- Showing Not Telling – How to Pitch
- Querying a Collaboration
- What to Expect When You’re Submitting
- Who To Query First?
- Why Personalize a Query?
- Writers: What the Heck is a Pitch Anyway?
- You Just Signed With a Big Agent. Oh, I’m So Sorry
- 7 Tough Questions for Useful Proposals
On Character Development and Dialogue:
- Archetype vs. Stereotype
- Characters That Last
- Developing Supporting Characters
- How Screenplays Help You Write Better Dialogue
- What Our Characters Do When No One is Looking
- 15 Figures of Speech to Color Your Characters
- 3 Reasons Dialogue is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not
On Genre Specifics:
- All Romance Novels are Written To a Formula
- Top 10 Cliches About Romance Novels (and Romance Readers)
- Writing Middle Grade vs. Other Genres
- Writing YA vs. Adult Fiction: What’s the Difference?
On Publishing:
- Forget About Being Published
- Publishing on the Kindle
- Should Your Ebook Have an Afterword?
- The Future of Publishing
- The Pricing of Ebooks and Perceived Value
On Revision/Editing:
- Breaking Up With Your Crit Partner
- Getting that Sagging Middle Into Shape
- 3 Signs You’re Renovating a Condemned Novel
On Outlining & Plotting:
- Are Happy Endings a Must?
- Constructing Your First Chapter
- Creating Plot Twists
- Five Proofreading Techniques Every Writer Should Know
- How to rise above cliche.
- How to Write Description
- Linear Vs. Patterned – A Brief Discussion Of Structure
- Melissa Foster: Weaving a Theme Throughout Your Book
- One More Look at Openings
- The Mighty Outline
- The Opening Chapter
- The Outline Dilemma - Plotting vs. Pantsing
- What’s the Story on Backstory
- Why Pants & Plots are the Same Thing
- 25 Things You Should Know About Storytelling
On Social Networking/Blogging & Other Online Stuffs:
On Writing in General:
- Coming Out of the Closet as a Writer
- How to Tell If You’re a Writer
- How to Tell If You’re Really a Writer * a different blog post
- How to Use Comedy & Tragedy for a One-Two Punch
- Nature of Conflict
- Physical Cliches
- Single-Task Your Way to More Writing
- Writer’s Block and Depression: Why You Shouldn’t Bully Your Muse
- Writing Contests: Should You Take a Shot?
- Writing Lessons Learned from Water For Elephants
- 12 Blogs That Every Writer Must Read
- 15 Quick and Dirty Writing Tips
- 5 Ways to Develop a Unique Voice
- 7 Summer Writing Goals for the Neurotic
On Everything Else (including cool things, free things and funny stuff):
Did I miss anything? I’m sure I did. Please leave a comment with a link so others can find it!
If you missed last weeks Favorite Tweets for Writers, find it here.
Added this week: If you are interested in getting your own posts included, the best way to get me to notice you is to follow my blog. I visit those sites daily looking for new articles to post on twitter. I primarily use Google Friend Connect but I’m looking for new methods, added soon. (send ideas my way. LOL)
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