Archive for July 20, 2018

Publicity

Follow Me!

I’m not all that good at social media because I’m not particularly social. Still, I thought it might be a good idea to update all the places you can follow me and what you might find there.

So, there’s this blog, which is crossposted to Goodreads in addition to being on my web site. It’s where you’ll get more in-depth discussions about writing, life, and other things I’m interested in.

Crossposting the blog and responding to comments is about all I do on Goodreads. I might post the occasional review, if I remember. I’ve decided not to accept friends requests on Goodreads, since they’re now owned by Amazon, and Amazon sometimes gets wacky ideas like deleting reviews from people they think are authors’ friends because they’re “friends” on various social media sites. They don’t seem to understand the difference between being a fan who follows the author by becoming a “friend” on social media and who, as a fan, tends to post positive reviews, and a real-life friend who’ll post a five-star review just as a favor. So, it’s not personal if you’ve sent a friends request that I’ve ignored. I’m not active enough on Goodreads for being my “friend” to make any difference.

I’m on Twitter, @ShannaSwendson. I’m not super chatty there, but I might throw out the occasional thought.

I’m also on Instagram, shannaswendson. I’ve really slacked off there, mostly because I’ve been in writing mode, so there’s been nothing to take pictures of. I’d probably be more active if it worked on a computer instead of just mobile devices.

I have a Facebook page for my books, Shanna Swendson Books. I mostly post news announcements there. People are welcome to follow my personal Facebook page, but I’m limiting “friends” to people I’ve actually interacted with. That can include commenting on posts. But if I get a friends request and I don’t know who you are and haven’t seen you commenting (almost all my posts are public), I’ll probably ignore it, especially if your profile is locked down so people who aren’t friends can’t see anything other than your cover photo. I get way too many requests from scammers, and since I mostly use that for staying in touch with friends and family and it’s more personal than business, I had to institute that policy.

Did you know that you can also “follow” authors on Amazon? You’ll get announcements about new releases. To follow me, go to my author page and click the “follow” button. And on Book Bub you can follow authors to get news about new books. Plus, Book Bub allows you to recommend and review books and see books that authors have reviewed and recommended. To follow me on Book Bub, go to my page and click “follow.”

I don’t currently have my own mailing list because I kind of hate newsletters, and it seems like everyone is being bombarded with newsletters. For now, there are enough ways to keep track of what I’m doing. I may reconsider that later, but right now I can’t see that it would be worth the effort.

I do have a YouTube channel, but it’s not very active at the moment. I hope to start doing more with that when I get a couple of more urgent items done and can regroup on the PR side of things.

So, come find me in all these places! My follower count everywhere is rather pathetic right now. I seem to be the Invisible Author.

And while you’re in these places, you can leave your own reviews and recommendations for books you love (mine included, I hope!). Reviews and recommendations are probably the biggest way people learn about books and help keep books from being invisible.