I totally agree with what Booklover1335 said. I believe everyone is ‘taken in’ and forced to comply with Facebook to keep up. As I previously mentioned, most of my friends are authors, but I NEVER hear 99% of them nor do I check their pages to see what’s happening in their world. So what’s the point in ‘liking’ them if they just sit there like a lump? When they post, if they do, is there must be some way for them to broadcast to their friends that they have posted something. I get messages from Beverley that something has been posted to FB. Why can’t others do this? Do they join just to say they’re there but let it die on the vine? Why bother? Any media an author takes part in must be developed and nurtured if it is going to do them any good. Why should I waste my time visiting if she is not going to offer me a reason to visit?

IMO, websites are, and should always be, the first line of exposure for an author and it should be maintained better than any other social media including blogs. If an author only has time for one or two notification type activities, I think a newsletter to her subscribers and a blog hop for exposure are probably the best ways to go.

I do pay attention to the blogs and blog hops, hearing about them from several of my yahoo groups (I belong to about 75-80 groups), authors news blips, emails, etc. When I discover a new-to-me or debut author, the first thing I do is check out their website. If I like what I see, I’ll bookmark their website & their blogs, if any. I’ll mention here that I also visit FreshFiction, NovelTalk, Writerspace and AccessRomance on a regular basis and have bookmarked those sites. I try to make a monthly circuit of all my bookmarked authors just to see what I can see. Sort of like the bear going over the mountain…LOL Anyway, I get fed up when I run across a website that hasn’t been updated for months or even years. Those authors are scratched off my visitation list and probably my TBB list as well. If they don’t care enough about their website, newlisters, etc to maintain current info, then they just don’t care about their faithful readers. A rule in sales is it costs more to attract new customers than it does to keep old ones. So many authors are fixated on trying to obtain new readers, and that’s ok, but they should keep in mind to do what they can to keep the old ones happy. I’m the one buying your books and probably have all of your backlist too!

Thanks for listening to my rants. This is tender subject with me. I’ve even been considering cancelling my FB account…but like Scarlett says, “I’ll think about that tomorrow”! LOL Have a great day everyone.

Like you, I couldn’t understand the point of Twitter before I started using it. I had to have a friend at work explain it to me, and I only got on because a writer friend kept telling me, “Agents say they hate X” or “Editors keep saying they love Y” and all those conversations were happening on Twitter.

Now that I’m on Twitter, I think I’d die without it. I’ve made fantastic friends and have a lovely network of supportive, funny people. Some of them are published, and I think that’s the most surprising thing – that authors I really respect would take the time to encourage me and chat with me.

I use Facebook, but since I live in a different country than most of my family, my rule is that I only use it for real friends/family. I don’t accept friend requests from anyone I don’t know, or from my colleagues (as much as I love most of them, I see them all the time). I never ‘like’ authors or companies because I don’t want professional updates clogging up my stream and keeping me from seeing what my real friends are doing, since I only get to see them once every few years.

So for me, Facebook is where I connect with people I already know, and Twitter is where I make new friends.

@KatrinaLatham

I have a Twitter and a Facebook account as well as a blog, but the only reason I ended up with a Twitter account and a Facebook account was because I knew some readers prefer that type of communication. I have feeds that update both automatically so they are always current to my most recent blog post. But that’s it. There’s just not enough time in the day.

My preferred method of interacting with an author is through their own website or blog. I subscribe to their feeds and read them whenever I see there is something new. I KNOW that Facebook is seen as the end all and be all and many authors are practically abadoning their personal blogs and focusing on Facebook and/or Twitter, but I think this is a HUGE mistake. I think it’s shortsided. Facebook and Twitter are all the rage now, but so was Myspace not so long ago and I think you can see by the comments by many others here that they are closing Myspace accounts left and right. Will that happen to Facebook? probably not, but one thing I know for sure. When I find an author that I want to learn more about, look at their backlist, or contact….I don’t go to Facebook or Twitter first. I go to their website. That should in my opinion ALWAYS be where there most current info is because it is DEDICATED solely to them with no other ads, or distractions. Authors who are spending their limited time focusing on Facebook will find themselves always chasing their tale.

I’m not saying these social media tools don’t have a purpose, because getting your name out there is important. I’d be more interested in knowing how many books are being sold via Facebook, or whether it’s just more social interaction. When I go to Facebook it’s to win something or read a comment, not to buy. But when I’m on an author site and I can see the cover, read the blurb, read the excerpt and any other extras that entice me to spend my money….and there’s a handy buy link right there….I’m gonna use it. I think a better use of Facebook is to entice potential readers to visit your actual website where you can really wow them with your books, not have their interaction with you begin and end on Facebook (but I’m sure Facebook is happy about that).

As a reader it kind of makes me upset when authors do this. I’ve seen this happening more and more and I really don’t like it. Mainly because you never know which author is choosing to do what at what point in time. At what point will an author decide to focus their efforts more on Facebook than anything else and how will I know when that happens? If I happened to only follow Myspace and an author hadn’t updated it in a while, should I just assume that there’s nothing new to tell? What happens when the next social media frenzy starts? All those people that followed you on those social sites will be left behind…maybe to find you somewhere else….maybe not. Which is why I will always say your website as an author should always be the most important AND consistent marketing tool they should have. It should be the most comprehensive and interactive way for an author to interact to their readers. The others should be supporting tools that get them to your website and if they are fun while doing it, then all the better.

Sorry for the rant, but it’s been on my mind.